Acts 13:1–15:33

Notice, before we set out with the apostles on their journey, how changed everything is. They start, note, not from the old centre, Jerusalem, but from Antioch, a city of the Gentiles. This matters. Jerusalem and the twelve apostles have lost their place in outward authority and power. The Holy Spirit calls Barnabas and Saul to the work, fits them for it, and sends them out, without the twelve having any authority over it.

Antioch, instead of Jerusalem, now became a centre for spreading the gospel. It was independent of apostolic authority, yet it did not break the unity of the Spirit by forming a separate church.

No one can deny that there were many gifted men here, five of high standing in full service of Christ, and this plainly in "the church at Antioch." "Churches" in the same place, each with its own minister, are ignored here as everywhere. This does not mean the believers may not have met regularly to break bread in many houses here and there, as we know they did in Jerusalem. Even so, in that city as in every other, they made up "the assembly" there.

From Acts 13:1, I see that at Antioch there were only five whom the Holy Spirit recognised as teachers: Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul. No doubt at every meeting it was only these five, one or more of them, whom the believers expected to speak. This was a settled ministry. But it was not an exclusive one. When Judas and Silas came (Acts 15:32), they were glad to take their place among the others, and then there were more recognised teachers.

Notice too that these five prophets and teachers are not listed by worldly rank or by church office. If they were, Barnabas would not have been first, and Saul would certainly not have been last. They seem instead to be arranged in the order of their spiritual birth… But the gracious power of the Lord, in keeping with His word in Matthew 20:16, was soon to make first in the testimony of His truth the man who here stands last.

Here the writer draws a distinction, we think, between a prophet and a teacher, since he mentions both… A prophet is someone who has the mind of God and can pass it on, whether he foretells the future or not. So Abraham is the first person in the Old Testament called a prophet, though he never, as far as we read, predicted any event (Gen. 20:7).

A teacher unfolds the mind of God to the assembly… The prophet is one whose ministry brings the conscience into the immediate presence of God. "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet," said the woman of Sychar, when her conscience was reached. In general, the teacher is for the understanding, the pastor for the heart, the prophet for the conscience.

This large church, made up mostly of Gentiles, had no fewer than five prophets and teachers among its members. Their names are given, and they teach us much. One had a surname that probably shows he was a black man (Niger means Black). One was notable enough to have been a foster-brother of Herod. Barnabas was a Greek-speaking Jew. Saul had been a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Lucius may have been a Gentile. So it was clear very early that race and breeding are not what count most in the church, but the gift given from on high.

How different the paths of the two foster-brothers! Herod had ruled his own region for years, but had lately been sent into exile… The other, through grace, became an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ, called to reign with Him — and before His judgment seat Herod Antipas must one day stand to receive his sentence as the murderer of John the Baptist.

Do not confuse this ministering to the Lord with serving Him in preaching or teaching. It was no doubt mainly prayer and intercession. The idea that the Lord's Supper was involved is crude and unfounded... The fasting that went with their spiritual action toward the Lord confirms this. Fasting humbles the outward nature, so that the inner man may be before Him with an undivided heart.

We may well ask whether our service for God today is often taken up too easily. Would it not help spiritual power and effectiveness if we were more often found in this attitude before we began anything for God?... Our question is about waiting on God together, with fasting, before we start work in which all the saints have a common interest. The early Church understood this.

Many have thought of the Holy Spirit as only an influence, and not as a Person, equal with the Father and the Son in the unity of the Godhead. But Scripture shows plainly that He speaks and acts only as a Divine Person can speak and act. The present occasion bears this out. An influence cannot say, "Separate ME Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." This is the language of a Divine Person. It is the speech of sovereignty, and only a Divine Person is qualified to use it, out of a will that is all-powerful and wholly wise.

Whatever the channel, the word was not spoken to the church but to the fellow workers, to separate those two for the special work in front of them. It is the Spirit Who says, "I have called them." This was not the first time either Barnabas or Saul had been called with authority to the service of Christ. Even the younger of the two had worked openly and well for years, both in the gospel and in the church. Men in a hurry to find the rite of ordination in this passage end up with ordination carried out by brothers of lower rank than the two men themselves.

The Holy Spirit commands them to separate to Him Barnabas and Saul for the work to which He had called them... The definite and obvious source of their mission was the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who called them to the work. He sent them out — an all-important principle in the Lord's ways on earth. We come out from Jerusalem, from Judaism, and from the authority of the apostles the Lord chose while He was on earth.

The occasion was momentous. It was the first regular going out from the assembly of messengers who would carry the gospel to Gentiles as well as Jews. Some features here belong to the apostles alone. Yet in the main it is a simple picture of the spirit of prayer, self-denial, dependence and fellowship that should mark the Church of God at all times. There may be no "prophets" now who can put the infallible "thus says the Lord" in front of their own words. But we have the "thus says the Lord" in His all-sufficient and infallible word, and we have the same sovereign Spirit, who can certainly make His will known.

Twice fasting is mentioned, and it must be specially significant. I do not speak of the mere going without food. I mean that spirit of earnest longing, of self-denial, of absorption, which lies behind the actual neglect of food. Fasting is not an end, and hardly a means to an end. It is a sign of the purpose of a soul that has lost its natural inclinations in one mastering desire. It is to such souls, emptied of self, that the Spirit makes known His will.

The assembly identified themselves fully with their mission by fasting, prayer, and laying on of hands. I think when Scripture says a fast, it means a fast. Often one hears it said, "That means a moral state." Do you think it was only a moral state at Antioch? The moral state existed, and it showed itself by an actual, physical fast, which was not commanded, so far as we read.

This was not to confer authority... The end of Acts 14 explains what this action was, and why hands were laid on them. It says there that they sailed to Antioch, the starting-point, from where "they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled." That was the object and meaning of the hands laid on Barnabas and Saul. It was not the presumptuous thought that men who were spiritually below the apostles could give them what they themselves did not have to the same degree. It was simply a brotherly commendation to the grace of God.

Note this, no hypocrisy. If I pray, and put my hands upon a man, I am identified with him. If I put my hand on my brother in prayer, I ought next to put my hand into my pocket, to help him, because "the laborer deserves his wages." They identified themselves with these two men, and no doubt supported them.

Here prophets are together, and the Holy Spirit says, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul to the work to which I have called them." There was no popular choice of office-bearers, at any rate. And these prophets (not the presbytery, of which there is not a word) laid their hands on them. It was not to ordain them, but to commend them to the grace of God for the work which they then fulfilled. ... If this is ordination, it is ordination of apostles by laymen.

They were all waiting on the Lord in complete seriousness of spirit when the word came. Afterwards, when they laid their hands on them, prayer and fasting went with the action. But those who acted with this true and earnest interest took no authority in it. They "let them go" — not "sent them away." The text says next, in plain words, that the "sending forth" was of the Spirit.

They were sent forth by Him — an all-important principle as to the Lord's ways on earth. We come out from Jerusalem, from Judaism, from the jurisdiction of the apostles named by the Lord while He was on earth. ... A glorious Christ in heaven acknowledges the disciples as members of His body, as Himself on high. The mission comes from the Holy Spirit on earth, and it knows only His energy as the source of action and authority. This is the work which now opens.

The Holy Spirit commands them to set apart for Him Barnabas and Saul for the work He had called them to do. Such was the source of the ministry of these two. It certainly bore witness to the One they had believed in, whom Saul at least had seen. They acted under His authority. But the clear and obvious source of their mission was the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who called them to the work. He sent them out (v. 4). This is an all-important principle about the Lord's ways on earth.

"Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." "Set apart for Me," "I have called them." These words show sovereign action… But they went on their mission, Luke adds, "being sent out by the Holy Spirit." Both their call to this new work and their mission as apostles came from the Holy Spirit. The disciples let them go to their work; the Holy Spirit sent them out. The words used here in the inspired record are worth noticing. They support the translation "let go" instead of "sent away" in verse 3.

Apart from his share in the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15), Peter disappears from the history in front of us. Another figure comes not just into prominence, but into the centre — and he does so from this very chapter, the first chapter of what we may fairly call the second volume of the Book of Acts. We hear of a mission by the Holy Spirit — not from Jerusalem, but from Antioch. That city was already known for a Christian zeal that made a strong impression on outsiders, and for the first united stand made or mentioned among the Gentiles.

It is as outrageous to imagine two directors at the same time as to think of two heads giving orders to one body. It was not the assembly of saints that called and sent these men out on their mission, and it was not a body of officials either. The Holy Spirit chose them (v. 2), and the Holy Spirit sent them out (v. 4).

Next, notice this. The Holy Spirit sent them out with authority (Acts 13:4), and that put them under direct responsibility to the Lord, whose servants they were. Even so, they were quick to share all He had done with the saints. They call together the assembly they had gone out from, so that all might rejoice in His grace — above all in His grace to the Gentiles. The church is not the source of the mission. It is the place of fellowship with the grace of God — grace that used the truth to bless the Gentiles through Paul (not Peter), starting on earth from Antioch (not Jerusalem, and not Rome).

Without delay they went out. They took ship at Seleucia, the port of Antioch. It was a thriving place then, with a good harbour; now it is a ruin, its two basins choked with sand… They went first to Cyprus, the home country of Barnabas. Many Jews lived on that island: at Salamis, the city where they landed, there were several synagogues.

"They sent them forth" is a poor rendering here. It might be taken — and has been taken — to mean the mission which they had authorised Barnabas and Saul to undertake. But the word chosen rules out any such thought. It means only "let them go," without a shadow of commission in it. The idea of being sent comes out strongly at the start of verse 5: "They then, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and from there sailed away to Cyprus."

At Salamis he began by preaching in their synagogues. He did not give up the Jews until the Jews rejected the gospel.

When at Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. It was indeed the only religious place where any such liberty existed. And such was God's order too, until Jerusalem was destroyed... But until then the door was open, and those who had a Jewish title were free there to read or explain the Scriptures.

ὑπηρέτης, literally "under-rower," and so an "attendant" on, or "assistant" to, a superior authority. It is also translated "officer" and "servant."

We must not turn this into a church institution... Plainly the idea would be absurd, because it would not be a ministry to others, but to Paul and Barnabas. So Mark's service here, I suppose, lay in finding suitable lodgings, in getting people to come and hear the apostles preach, and in the care a young man would give to those he was privileged to accompany and attend in the Lord's work.

Among the Jews the fact of the preaching is not followed by any statement about its effect; there may have been an effect... but it is certain that only the fact is given us here, not its consequences. The Jew is still sought by divine grace, and sought in a special way as well. Giving up the nation as such does not mean any turning away of the offer of salvation from them... The breach is on their side, not on His.

We shall soon hear more of John Mark... But we may note even here that there is no real reason to doubt he was the future writer of the second Gospel. That Gospel traces by divine inspiration the blessed and only perfect service of our Lord Jesus. Mark was now for a while the companion of His servants... We shall soon see how Mark fared. If he failed, love did not fail. And recovery by grace is precious in its way, as is still more the grace that enables the weak to stand by faith.

The true reading is "through the whole island": they went from east to west. The land journey from Salamis to Paphos was about one hundred miles — the same distance they had already covered by sea from Seleucia to Salamis. No doubt they visited towns and places along the way, and preached the gospel as they went.

A renegade Jew called Bar-Jesus, also named Elymas (an Arabic name meaning "the wise," or "the occult"), a false prophet, was the tool Satan used. This sorcerer would feel that his own trade was in danger, so he tried to turn the governor away from the faith.

But a Jewish false prophet and sorcerer named Bar-Jesus ("son of Jesus" — a name built to mislead!) was there, opposing God's word. He tried to turn Sergius Paulus against the truth that Barnabas and Saul were presenting.

In the New Testament, besides the girl with a spirit of Python already mentioned, we read of others. Simon used sorcery and held the people of Samaria under his spell for a long time, Acts 8:9-11. Elymas the sorcerer, a Jew whom they met in Cyprus, twisted the right ways of the Lord... Sorcery ranks with the worst of sins, and the same word describes the professing church in mystical Babylon.

But it was at its capital, Nea Paphos (not quite the spot famous as the immoral centre of Aphrodite worship), that the gospel met more than Jewish prejudice. Religious fraud and sorcery had sharpened that prejudice and made it bitter... The Roman governor's interest stirred the jealous opposition of the corrupt Jew. He had held influence over a mind sickened by degrading idolatry, yet open to displays of power that carried some appearance of revelation. What could break the Jewish impostor's hold more completely than the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ?

Such evil people, special instruments of Satan, appear again and again in this book, usually when the Gospel reached new regions. In Samaria it was Simon Magus. In Macedonia it was the girl with the familiar spirit. Here it is this demon-possessed Jew.

When they arrived at Paphos, they were encouraged to find the chief ruler of the island ready for the Word of God. But at the same time they ran into Satanic opposition. Opposition from the powers of darkness is an encouraging sign, not a discouraging one.

Bar-Jesus becomes the striking picture of the Jews. They were blind themselves, and they tried to turn the blind Gentiles away from the light of life. Yet this is not for ever, but "for a season". In due time God will give them to look on Him Whom they once rejected to death — and meanwhile the loss and ruin are their own.

Sergius Paulus was the proconsul of Cyprus. Cyprus had been under imperial authority, but later passed to the senate, and so became proconsular.

We have seen how accurate Luke was in describing Sergius Paulus as the proconsul of Cyprus. He is equally accurate in calling the magistrates at Philippi praetors and their officers lictors (16:20, 35). When writing of the authorities at Thessalonica, he calls them politarchs (17:6)... By giving each city's rulers their correct title, Luke shows that he knew well what he was about. This mark of accuracy should increase confidence in him as a faithful historian.

We read that he was a prudent man, "intelligent." We may be sure, then, that he got his post because he had all the qualifications it needed.

The Roman governor's interest stirred up the jealous opposition of the corrupt Jew. That man had held influence over a mind shocked by degrading idolatry, yet open to displays of power... But the proconsul (not "deputy" or legate, as the King James Version has it) had a conscience at work and, by grace, an ear for the truth. It soon turned toward what was of God when the testimony reached his soul.

There the proconsul, a prudent and thoughtful man, asks to hear the gospel. A false prophet was already around him. That man took advantage of the felt need of a soul which, while ignorant, was longing for something to fill the void it felt in the emptiness of pagan ceremonies and in its disgusting immorality. Even so, the proconsul sends for Barnabas and Saul.

Faith founded on miracles is worth so little that the Saviour refused to commit Himself to believers of this sort when they surrounded Him (John 2:23-25). True faith rests on the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Miracles attracted Simon Magus, and he proved a fraud. Sergius Paulus wanted to hear the Word of God, and so became a true disciple (Acts 8:13; Acts 13:7, 12).

The proconsul had called for Barnabas and Saul to hear the word of God from them. When the magician found that out, he not only withstood them, but tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith... One man presented the gospel; the other tried to stop it being received... God in His grace seeks our blessing — the devil our curse. Here, then, we find a man wanting to hear the word of God, and Satan using one of his children — a magician — to turn him away.

For a man of the Deputy's position to turn to God was too good an advertisement for the Christian faith to pass without a challenge.

Sometimes the order is "Barnabas and Paul"; elsewhere it is "Paul and Barnabas"... The reader of the Old Testament may find a similar principle in Exodus 6:13, 20, 26 and 27. In the order of nature it is "Aaron and Moses"; in sovereign grace it becomes "Moses and Aaron."

At its capital, Nea Paphos, the gospel collided with more than Jewish prejudice. Religious fraud and sorcery had sharpened that prejudice and made it bitter. … The interest of the Roman governor stirred up the jealous opposition of the corrupt Jew. This man had held influence over a mind shocked by degrading idolatry but open to displays of power, with some show of revelation about them. What could damage the Jewish impostor's influence more than the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ? But the proconsul had a conscience at work, and by grace an ear for the truth. It soon turned toward what was of God, when the testimony reached his soul. Bar-Jesus (meaning son of Jesus, or Joshua) called himself "Elymas", the wise man, or magician.

A renegade Jew, Bar-jesus, surnamed Elymas (an Arabic name, meaning "the wise," or "the occult"), a false prophet, was the tool Satan used. This sorcerer would feel that his own craft was in danger, and so he tried to turn the governor away from the faith.

Elymas withstands them. This was natural. He would lose his influence with the governor if the governor received the truth that Paul preached. Now Elymas was a Jew.

Bar-Jesus was also a Jew. The proconsul had called for Barnabas and Saul to hear the word of God from them. When he saw this, he not only withstood them; he tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. His object was plain. Sergius Paulus was now in real difficulty. He had to decide between rival claims and find, if he could, where the truth lay. Both speakers were Jewish, and both could appeal to the Scriptures. While the one presented the gospel, the other tried to hinder its reception. The one acted positively, giving out good. The other acted negatively, working to stop anyone accepting it. This last, in some form, is always Satan's way. God in His grace seeks our blessing — the devil our curse.

All the more, then, he is the true picture of the Jew. Judaism fell through opposition to Christ into the power of the enemy, and then became the most bitter of foes. Such is this Bar Jesus, with his fair name and his practice of occult arts, a false prophet through and through. He is the worst hindrance to the Gentile inquirer, and a stubborn refuser of salvation on his own account.

He was an enemy of all righteousness. He tried to keep the Word from the Roman, Sergius Paulus. In this way the Jews tried to keep the gospel from reaching the Gentiles. The judgment that fell on this wicked Jew pictures the judicial blindness that has come on the Jews. This sorcerer who opposed the gospel was not to see the sun for a season. In the same way, the blindness of the Jews is not permanent.

Elymas was a Jew who had turned from his faith and sold himself to the service of the devil. He became the chief opponent of the gospel at Paphos. Satan's power came out in him. In the same way the power of the Holy Spirit energised Saul. Here was a striking and drastic proof that "he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

When Elymas opposed Barnabas and Saul, Luke names him "Saul, who was also called Paul." The Spirit of God takes this opportunity to bring forward his Gentile name. The mission was to be mainly among the Gentiles, although it began with the Jew according to the ways of God. Then, filled with the Holy Spirit, he sets his eyes on the evil worker, gives him his true character, and searches him through and through.

Some have suggested that he took the name in honour of Sergius Paulus, but that is incorrect. Paul is a Roman name, and it means "little." Later he writes of himself as "less than the least of all saints." He took the lowest place, and the name that means this now comes to the front. Barnabas takes second place. It is no longer Barnabas and Saul, but Paul and Barnabas.

The historian in no way suggests that the name Paul was now given for the first time. His way of introducing it would confirm that impression. "Saul, who was also called Paul," are his words. The ordinary reader would conclude that Saul already bore the name of Paul. Now he was working among Greeks and Gentiles. To Greek ears his Hebrew name would suggest anything but honour, since Saul in Greek means conceited or affected. So he was content to bear his Roman name. It might suggest he was small in height, but it carried nothing that would stir prejudice against him.

From this point in the story Luke gives Saul his new name of Paul, which means Little. At the same time we see the Spirit thrusting him into the leading position in service and ministry. So in verse 13 the phrase used is "Paul and his company." There is a designed connection, we think, between the change of name and the change of position. He who is Little becomes the Leader.

"Full of the Holy Spirit" tells us, it seems, of what usually marked the person. Scripture describes Stephen and Barnabas this way. "Filled with the Spirit" is different. Scripture uses that phrase for vessels taken up for God's service, whether for a longer or a shorter time.

He was filled with the Spirit as he stood against Satan's power. What boldness! What faith it involved! And yet the power was not his own.

In answer to the cunning opposition of Elymas the sorcerer, Paul did an unusually solemn thing. His words were startling. They exposed the man as full of all deceit and mischief, a child of the devil and an enemy of all righteousness. Normally we ought never to go this far in speaking to a man, but Paul was clearly led by the Spirit of God in doing so.

Satan's power was expressed in Elymas. In the same way the power of the Holy Spirit energised Saul. Here was striking and drastic proof that "he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). After three days the scales had fallen from the eyes of Saul. On Elymas there came a mist and darkness, which fitly matched the misty darkness of his mind.

A renegade Jew, Bar-jesus, surnamed Elymas (an Arabic name, meaning "the wise," or "the occult"), a false prophet, was the tool Satan used. This sorcerer would feel that his own craft was in danger, and he therefore sought to turn the Deputy from the faith.

A Jewish false prophet and sorcerer named Bar-Jesus ("son of Jesus" — a deceitfully misleading name!) was there. He opposed God's word and tried to turn Sergius Paulus against the truth that Barnabas and Saul preached.

This word is often translated "guile" in the New Testament. It means cunning, craftiness, and plotting to deceive. It usually has to do with what a person says. There was no guile found in the mouth of Christ (1 Peter 2:22)… Elymas the sorcerer was full of it, for it was part of his wicked stock-in-trade (Acts 13:10).

Besides using this term for natural birth, Scripture also uses it as a picture. The name 'son' implies 'likeness.' It marks moral likeness, as of a son to a father — so 'a son of Belial,' 1 Samuel 25:17; 'you son of the devil,' Acts 13:10; 'sons of disobedience,' Ephesians 5:6; also 'sons of light' and 'sons of day,' 1 Thessalonians 5:5.

Many perhaps stood in awe of him, afraid of the power he held. Now he met one who was not afraid to face him, and to unmask him before everyone. "You son of the devil!" Scripture calls no one a child or a son of the devil until he has shown determined and persistent opposition.

It is with these tricks that we have to wrestle. It is armour fitted to meet the corrupter of the truth, the one who never stops perverting the right ways of the Lord (Acts 13:10). It is the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.

I have no doubt that in this wretched Bar-jesus we see a picture of the Jews at the present time. They are struck with blindness for a season, because they are jealous of the influence of the gospel. To fill up the measure of their sin, they opposed the preaching of it to the Gentiles. They are opposed to grace and seek to destroy its effect on the Gentiles, so they have been struck with blindness — still only for a season.

In answer to the cunning opposition of Elymas the Sorcerer, Paul did a very solemn thing. His words were startling. They exposed the man as full of all deceit and mischief, a child of the devil and an enemy of all righteousness. Normally we ought never to go this far in speaking to a man, but Paul was clearly led by the Spirit of God in doing so. He also appeals to the man's conscience about his perverting the right ways of the Lord.

Spiritually minded people can spot some children of the devil quickly. But remember: many a rebel child of disobedience, who might have been taken for a child of the devil, has been broken down under conviction of sin and brought to repentance through the goodness of God.

The proconsul believed, and it was the teaching of the Lord that impressed him, not the miracle.

It was not the wonder which struck him most, but the truth he was taught. The miracle caught his attention, no doubt, and well it might. But how many people like Simon Magus may have been amazed as they watched signs and great works of power! Faith grounded on such evidence is only natural, and has no divine root. The senses are struck, the reason is convinced, the mind receives the testimony, and the mouth confesses it. But there is no life until the conscience is awakened to one's own evil before God. And there is no life until Christ becomes the object of the soul, given as the gift of God's love to a guilty sinner in pure grace. Sergius was amazed at the teaching, which brought God before his soul and brought him into God's presence. This alone is effectual. It is eternal life.

Simon Magus was attracted by miracles, and proved a fraud; Sergius Paulus desired to hear the Word of God, and so became a true disciple.

What strikes one in Sergius Paulus is his evident desire to hear. His mind was open. A clash of different teachings did not stop him from listening to both sides, but grace enabled him to believe the truth.

Two men were left behind as illustrations: one of divine grace, the other of God's government. Sergius Paulus received blessing for eternity. Elymas was to be blind for a season. Mercy tempered the judgment.

In the eyes of faith, no display of power, however wonderful, is as amazing as the grace of God in saving the lost through His own Son. God enabled the governor to receive this, and we never hear another word about the great man. The gospel gives to the greatest on earth; but it receives no glory from man.

From Paphos they sailed to Perga, the chief city of Pamphylia, on the river Cestus, about seven miles from the sea. Luke records nothing worth noting about Perga, except that Mark left them there and returned to Jerusalem. "He did not go with them to the work," Luke said some time afterwards (Acts 15:38). So they pushed on north to Antioch in Pisidia. The time to preach the gospel in Perga had clearly not yet come. They reached that city, the capital of the province, and there was a synagogue of the Jews there.

The apostle covered hundreds and thousands of miles by sea, on foot, on an animal or by carriage. Mountain passes were impossible to cross for weeks at a time. The roads at best were poor, often only narrow tracks, or missing altogether. The country was full of robbers and bandits, who thought nothing of taking a life.

From this point in the story Luke gives Saul his new name of Paul, which means Little. At the same time we see the Spirit pushing him into the leading position in service and ministry. So in verse 13 the phrase used is "Paul and his company." There is a designed connection, we think, between the change of name and the change of position. He who is Little becomes the Leader.

We may notice the practice of the apostle. It matched the principle so familiar in his inspired words, "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." At Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. It was indeed the only place of a religious sort where any such liberty existed. This was also God's order until Jerusalem was destroyed… Until then the door stood open. Those with a Jewish standing were free to read or explain the Scriptures there.

Back on the mainland they come to Antioch in Pisidia, in what is now Turkey. It is not really that far north of Antioch in Syria. Visiting the local synagogue on the Sabbath day, they sit down. The regular custom of reading in the law and the prophets began the service. The rulers of the synagogue saw that Paul and Barnabas were Jews and men of clear ability. So they invited them to speak. Certainly this was the Lord's opening of the way for them.

It is remarkable how much liberty they had… Can there be a more painful contrast with the habits of the Christian world? Surely we might expect more liberty where grace rules than among people raised under the restrictions of the law. Yet who ever hears of such an invitation nowadays? … In this case the visitors were only strangers. No one seems to have known them, except as serious, godly-looking Jews.

These Scriptures prove that the Lord's day holds a place quite unique, quite heavenly, quite divine. But they just as fully prove that the Jewish Sabbath and the Lord's day are two entirely distinct days. The New Testament speaks of the two days as distinctly as we speak of Saturday and Sunday.

We know that a portion of the law and of the prophets was read every Sabbath. Acts 13:15 makes it clear that anyone present who had a "word of exhortation for the people" received the opportunity to deliver it.

ἀρχισυνάγωγος, ruler of the synagogue. Mark 5:22, 35, 36, 38; Luke 8:49; Luke 13:14; Acts 13:15; Acts 18:8, 17. In the last two passages the Authorised Version has "chief ruler," but the Greek is the same.

The rulers of the synagogue recognised Paul and Barnabas as Jews and men of evident ability. They invited them to speak. Certainly this was the Lord's opening of the way for them.

It is remarkable how much liberty they enjoyed. After the reading of the law and the prophets, the synagogue-rulers sent them a message: speak, if you have any word of exhortation for the people. Can there be a more painful contrast with the habits of the Christian world? Surely Scripture leads us to expect more liberty where grace rules than among people born and raised under the restrictions of the law. Yet who ever hears of such an invitation nowadays? The church has so completely lost the enjoyment of that holy liberty which marks the Spirit of the Lord. Here too the visitors were only strangers, unknown to anyone, it seems, except as serious, godly-looking Jews. In modern times routine governs solemn public occasions, however well known the strangers may be for their gifts, their work and their life.

In the synagogue service, after the reading of the law and of the prophets, there was room for exhortation (Acts 13:15). Its aim was to press home on the hearts of those present the lessons drawn from the Scriptures. But it became clear that more than this was needed. The number of God's children can only grow by the action of the divine Word on the soul, and some from among the Gentiles were to become children together with some from among the Jews. So a ministry was needed that could first convert, and then build up the converts. Paul at Antioch understood this well. Invited to exhort the congregation, he preached the gospel of the grace of God instead.

"Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man" — that is, Christ — "forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by Him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses." What an announcement to make in a synagogue of the Jews! And that right after the reading of the law and of the prophets.

But the law pointed out to Israel what they ought to do. The prophets brought God's ministry to a people who had failed... with predictions of future blessings under the personal reign of David their King, the Messiah. But He had not appeared in power. Their place among the scattered people, and their home in Pisidia, was a standing witness that the nation had failed in the past, and that the Messiah's appearance in power was still to be desired.

After the reading of the law and the prophets, the synagogue rulers sent them a message: if they had any word of encouragement for the people, let them speak. From Scripture you would expect more liberty where grace rules than among people born and raised under the restrictions of the law. Yet who ever hears of such an invitation nowadays? In this case too the visitors were only strangers, unknown to anyone, it seems, except as serious, godly-looking Jews.

Almost at once the places of Barnabas and Saul changed. Up to this moment Barnabas is always named first. Then came the conflict with "a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus," who tried to turn Sergius Paulus from the faith. Through Saul the Spirit's power was strikingly displayed, for Saul is here said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. After that, God gave Saul the lead in service. From now on it is Paul and Barnabas. Whatever the devotion, faith and grace of Barnabas, Paul was the Lord's chosen vessel.

It is well to avoid confusing the apostle's act here with what he did in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:16). That was "beckoning with the hand", quite different in character and aim from stretching it out, here too with a chain.

The word is not the general anthrōpoi but the precise andres, which means men as distinguished from women. The truth however is that andres is the regular word in public addresses, because it is more respectful. It is used even when women are present (compare Acts 1:16; Acts 2:14; Acts 3:12). Here it has that sense only.

In the Acts the word "worshipper", sebomenos, often occurs. It is the name of a large class of Gentiles who saw that Gentile idolatry was empty and hated its disorders. They attended the Jewish worship, looking there for a refuge in their moral distress. Despite the unfaithfulness of the Jews they found one, though it was not enough. So mighty is the truth of God! "Proselytes" is another word, although these "worshippers" may also have been such. We might have translated the word, as others do, "fearing God". That would describe a state of soul. In the Acts it is instead the title of a class of men who, though Gentiles by birth, attended the Jewish worship.

Here in the apostle's address, the place given to Gentile proselytes is clearly marked for the first time.

He dwelt mainly on truth outside of man, not on inner experience. He spoke of God, and of His ways, full and varied as they were. God had chosen their fathers. God had exalted them in Egypt, and had brought them out with an uplifted arm... Then He appeared as a Giver. He gave them judges and prophets. He gave them Saul as king too. After that He was known as a Raiser-up: first of David, then of David's offspring — Jesus, born into the world — and last in raising Him up in resurrection. A Giver, a Raiser-up, a Fulfiller of His promises — what an announcement was heard that day! If God is such, all can and should rest on His word.

We have seen how Peter could preach the gospel. We learn here how Paul could preach it. It was objective, not subjective, truth that he chiefly dwelt on. He spoke of God, and of His ways, full and varied as they were. God had chosen their fathers. God had exalted them in Egypt, and had brought them out with a high arm.

First, God's dealings begin with His choice of the fathers, and they run straight on to the exodus of the people from Egypt. Then comes His care of them in the wilderness, until He gave them the land to inherit. It is the first five books of the Bible and the book of Joshua in miniature, centring in Israel, loved for the fathers' sake. The gospel confirms, instead of cancelling, God's love to Israel.

God took them in hand and allowed them to feel the scorching heat of Egypt's furnace. "The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad" (Exodus 1:12). In that furnace of affliction they were welded together as a nation. They entered Egypt a feeble and disunited family; they left it a compact and powerful nation.

Even the bondage they came into had already been promised to them. What seemed most against them was really the working out of promise for them. The hand of power works in disguise, yet faith can see straight through it.

In His sovereignty He has given Israel the chief and central place among the nations. In them divine government has been displayed on the earth, and will be again. With a high arm He brought them out of Egypt to Himself, to be their King and their God.

He follows the history until he comes to David, since the aim, of course, was to bring in the Son of David. The apostle, led by the Lord, speaks with the thoughtful skill that love always uses, shaped by the Spirit of God. … It was no question of a great man, or of great deeds, but of God accomplishing His purpose.

…His promise of a Saviour from David's line. Now the news of the salvation centred in that Saviour was sent to all his hearers. That included "those among you who fear God" — the non-Jews among them who had come over to the Jewish faith.

He spoke of God, and of His ways, full and varied as they were. God had chosen their fathers. God had made them great in Egypt, and had brought them out by His mighty power. God had also put up with their behaviour in the wilderness. He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan and divided it among the tribes by lot. Then He appeared as a Giver. He gave them judges and prophets. He gave them too Saul as king. After that He was known as One who raises up: first David, then David's descendant — Jesus, born as a man — and last of all in raising Him up from the dead. He also showed Himself to be One who keeps His promises. A Giver, One who raises up, One who keeps His promises — what an announcement they heard that day! If God is like that, everyone can and should rest on His word.

and for a time of about forty years bore them nurse-like in the desert

A mother holds her child in her arms because she loves it and wants to protect it, and she holds its arms when she teaches it to walk. God dealt with His earthly people in the same way. He carried them the way you carry a baby. He held them up with His everlasting arms while He taught them to walk in His ways, leaning on Him completely and trusting Him without wavering. But their steps were unsteady and uncertain. They stumbled all the way — at Marah, in the wilderness of Sin, at Rephidim — and still those mighty arms held them up with a patience that never ran out.

FORTY = 10 × 4. Complete testing, to bring to light good or evil… The tribes were tested forty years in the wilderness. Acts 13:18.

They put God to the test: He bore with them for a long time. They tested Him, and countless times He showed Himself faithful and gracious despite their self-will. For forty years they saw His works of grace and power. But all this, along with His patient endurance, they treated with contempt. So time proved their hearts false and ignorant of God's ways.

If Israel would not enter Canaan with Jehovah, He would go back into the wilderness with Israel. Nothing can go beyond the grace that shines here. If they had been treated as they deserved, they could at least have been left to wander through the desert alone. But — blessed for ever be His great name — He does not deal with us according to our sins, or pay us back for our wrongdoing… The people were unbelieving, ungrateful, and full of provocation. Their return to the desert was the fruit of their own conduct. Even so, Jehovah, in stooping grace and patient love, turned back with them to be their travelling companion for forty long and dreary years in the wilderness.

So the wilderness gives us our own experience of what God is. It is a school where we learn His patient grace and His full resources. "For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness" (Acts 13:18). A spiritual mind will always admit that bitter waters are worth having, so that God can sweeten them.

He spoke of God, and of His ways, full and varied as they were. God had chosen their fathers. God had exalted them in Egypt, and had brought them out with great power. God also had put up with their behaviour in the wilderness. He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan and divided it among the tribes by lot. Then He appeared as a Giver. He gave them judges and prophets. He gave them Saul as king. After that He was known as a Raiser-up. He raised up David first, then David's seed — Jesus in the incarnation — and last of all He raised Him up in resurrection. He had also proved Himself a Fulfiller of promises. A Giver, a Raiser up, a Fulfiller of His promises — what an announcement they heard that day! If God is like this, all can and should rest on His word.

These nations were sunk in the most awful sexual immorality, and they practised the vilest evils. There are different reasons to believe that Satan had a special hold on them. God had put up with these nations for many centuries. In His mercy He waited before He drew the sword of justice. Now their wickedness had reached its full measure, and the time for judgment had come. The Lord called Israel to carry out that awful judgment.

God had driven out the nations who occupied the land of promise, for Israel certainly did not have the power to do this. It was God who planted Israel in the land. It was God who brought trouble on those who had seized the land He meant to give to Israel. Israel did use their swords in conquering the land, but it was not their swords that won the victory.

First, God's dealings from His choice of the fathers are tied at once to the exodus of the people from Egypt. Then comes His care of them in the wilderness, until He gave them the land to inherit. It is the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua in miniature, with Israel at the centre, loved for the sake of the fathers. The gospel confirms God's love to Israel; it does not cancel it.

In verses 19 and 20 there is a notable difference from the usual wording. The point is not that He gave the land by lot, though that is true in itself, but that He caused them to inherit their land… This connects the date of "about 450 years" with the carrying out of the promised inheritance.

In Acts 13:20 the King James Version reads that God gave them judges for about 450 years, until Samuel the prophet. This would not agree with the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1. But there is a different reading in Acts 13, which editors of the Greek Testament and the Revised Version have adopted, apart from all questions of chronology. It reads, "He divided to them their land by lot, about 450 years; and afterwards he gave them judges." So the 450 years are not applied to the length of the judges. This period may be made up by counting from the birth of Isaac, because the promise was to the seed of Abraham, and Isaac was the child of promise.

He spoke of God, and of His ways, full and varied as they were… Then He appeared as a Giver. He gave them judges and prophets. He gave them Saul as king too. After that they knew Him as a Raiser-up. He raised up David first, then David's descendant — Jesus, when He came into the world as a man. Last of all He raised Him up from the dead. He also proved Himself a Fulfiller of promises. A Giver, a Raiser up, a Fulfiller of His promises — what an announcement they heard that day!

In the common text of 13:20, Paul marks the period of the Judges as about 450 years… But this cannot be squared with 1 Kings 6:1. That verse fixes the start of the Temple building — in the fourth year of Solomon — at 480 years after the Exodus… Now the earliest Greek manuscripts, along with the Latin and Egyptian versions, read the passage another way: "He divided the land among them by lot about the space of 450 years. And after that He gave them judges." So the years mentioned would come before the time of the Judges.

The "450 years" in Acts 13:20 looks like a round figure. It covers the time from the entry into the wilderness to the end of the reign of Saul… We must also remember that the Judges often ruled over only part of the people. So Ehud and Shamgar worked among the tribes in the south, while Deborah and Barak brought deliverance in the north.

If the oldest witnesses are accepted, it was in about 450 years that Israel was made to inherit this land, after the promise to "our fathers," that is, counting from the birth of Isaac as the starting point… It cannot therefore be assumed that Paul assigns a duration of 450 years to the judges, and so invalidates the date in 1 Kings 6:1 of 480 years from the Exodus to the founding of Solomon's temple.

Their unfaithfulness brought misery on them, and that misery moved the compassion of God. His mighty grace raised up deliverers by His Spirit among the fallen and wretched people… But Israel did not change. "And yet they would not listen to their judges." "When the judge died, they turned back and became more corrupt than their fathers." This is the sad history of the people of God. It is also the history of the grace of God, and of His compassion towards His people.

We read, for instance, that God gave the people of Israel judges (Acts 13:20), that is, certain men who became leaders and rulers of the people. But there was nothing in Gideon, Samson, or any of them to magnify the love of God. These servants in themselves had little moral worth. They did not make their office great by their own excellence. Instead, their office made them great.

Samuel, the first prophet (Acts 3:24; Acts 13:20), was also a judge over Israel (1 Samuel 7:6). He thought he could set up his sons as judges after him (1 Samuel 8:1), but their unfaithfulness ended that arrangement. The period of the judges was also short-lived by nature. The judges gave only brief relief to the misery of a guilty people. Israel had let the enemies of the Lord live instead of destroying them.

What a sad day had dawned in Israel when they came to the prophet Samuel with this request. On the surface they complained about the misrule of Samuel's sons. But the prophet took this request to God in sorrow, and God showed Samuel where the real trouble lay — it was in their hearts. They found God's rule a burden. As He said to Samuel, "they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them." If they had only asked for a king like Moses ("and he was king in Jeshurun"), that would surely have pleased God. But no — what they wanted was a king "like all the nations." Long afterwards we read, "I gave you a king in My anger, and took him away in My wrath," Hosea 13:11.

Until then God had kept the government in His own hands. But the people were restless and dissatisfied, always ready to complain about the ways of divine goodness. They ask for a king, so that they may be like the nations around them. Yet the Lord, who always answers faith, is pleased at times to answer unbelief as well, as He did when the people demanded quail. So here He gives them their desire. He sets over them Saul, the son of Kish, the man they wanted, the man who would so soon show the actual state of their hearts.

Scripture numbers are instructive. Forty is the number of full trial (Psalm 95:10; Matthew 4:2). For forty years Saul reigned. This is how the trial ended. The arrogant enemy nailed the dead bodies of the king and his sons to the wall of Bethshan. The people were scattered like sheep without a shepherd (1 Samuel 31). What confidence dare we place in flesh?

The apostle begins by reminding them how God had brought Israel out of Egypt and planted them in the land. After that, their sins made the period a disastrous one. Yet He raised up judges for them, for about 450 years, until Samuel — another memorable deliverance. Then came more disaster, for the people insisted on a king. But here too, after forty years of trial, God rose above their failure. He gave them a man after His own heart, and with him the promise of a Saviour in his line.

Like his former namesake Saul the son of Kish (1 Samuel 9:1-2), who hunted David, the anointed of God, and meant to destroy him, Saul of Tarsus was just as set on wiping out the Name of Jesus — David's greater Lord. These two men of the tribe of Benjamin were true to type, for both were "ravening wolves" (Genesis 49:27). We understand that Saul means "asked" — likely a reference to the people asking for Saul the son of Kish: "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations" (1 Samuel 8:5). We are also told that Paul means "little."

Like his namesake of old, he too had been "granted by request" — but in a very different sense! Jehovah gave the first Saul "in His wrath" to be king over His people. They had asked for him stubbornly, because they preferred a government like that of the nations to Jehovah's government. But the "Saul" of the New Testament came out of the prayer of the first Christian martyr: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Saul had agreed to that man's death, and had watched it as an active witness.

Paul then quickly sketches God's deep and constant interest in His people, up to the time He gave them a king. He stops with David, the well-known picture of the Messiah, as David's own psalms clearly show. From David he moves easily to David's promised descendant. God, he says, "brought" that descendant to Israel as a Saviour, Jesus (v. 23). Was this not like God? Was it not promised in the law and the prophets as well as the psalms? Were the Jews not looking for Him? Did they not desperately need Him?

Paul briefly tells the history of Israel up to the time of David. Then he sets out the two basic parts of the gospel. First, God kept His promises. Second, God stepped in with power and raised Christ from the dead, showing Him to be the Son of God... The subjects are repentance and forgiveness of sins. For Israel, John the Baptist had prepared the way. Then God, according to His promise, raised up (not raised from among the dead) a Saviour.

Then he jumped over the centuries in between. He announced that God had kept His promise to David: from David's descendants He had raised up a Saviour for Israel, Jesus... God had been faithful to His word in the past. He kept His promise to Abraham when He brought Israel out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan (Gen. 15:13-16). And He was faithful to His promise to David when He raised up one of his descendants (2 Sam. 7:12), in the person of Jesus.

The rulers of the synagogue had looked for a word of encouragement. Everyone heard a word of salvation. It was present salvation, full and free, for all who would receive it. Israel expected salvation in the future, and rightly so, but only when their Messiah appeared in person and in power... Was salvation entirely future? Paul would tell them it was not. There was then, and there is now, a present salvation, the salvation of the soul.

He begins with a brief history of the people of Israel. He quickly comes to this point: God kept His promise to His people Israel by giving them Christ, who came as a man (vv. 32-33). But Israel rejected and killed their Messiah. Humanly speaking, at this point, all was lost. But what did God do? He "raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption"... God had promised that David would have a descendant to sit on his throne (2 Sam. 7:16). This promise is certain, sure and unchangeable. To keep it, God raised up Christ from among the dead.

He then presented Jesus as the promised descendant, the one John the Baptist had testified about. The news of the salvation centred in that Saviour went out to all his hearers. That included "those among you who fear God" — the non-Jews among them who worshipped the God of Israel.

He showed that although the nation rejected and killed Him, God had raised Him from the dead. He showed that there is now forgiveness, and justification too, for all who believe.

Then he leapt over the centuries in between and announced that the promise to David had been kept: from his descendants God had raised up a Saviour for Israel, Jesus. And he fixed the date of this act of God by telling how John had preached first, before the Saviour came, a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. So God had been faithful to His word in the past.

No one could say that God had failed to confirm the coming He had promised so long before. He gave fresh testimony, and it carried all the more weight because no prophet's living voice had been heard for more than four hundred years after Malachi... So, before the face of His entering in, John preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And his call was not only a moral one, a self-judgment before God. He also told them to believe on the One coming after him, that is, on Jesus.

Earlier prophets had reasoned with Israel and called them back to the law they had broken. John no longer does that. He demands repentance. They were to admit that the law left them completely lost, and to take their place as dead men in the waters of his baptism. It was "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." If they listened to John and repented, they were ready in heart to receive the forgiveness of sins through the One who was about to come.

Through John's baptism the godly few took separate ground from the nation as a whole, waiting for the Messiah to come. They judged themselves, and cleared themselves of the sinful condition of the nation. John baptised the Lord too. In this way He took His place among the repentant in Israel, not confessing sins, but fulfilling righteousness, as He said, "Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 3:15).

So God gave a fine witness to the Messiah who was just at hand. It was not a question of a great man, or of great deeds, but of God carrying out His purpose. If even a trace of ambition had moved John, he could easily have set himself up as the Messiah, for he had an immense following among the people. The truth was that he was not the Bridegroom but His friend. The fear of God shut out such low desires. He felt it was his joy and his duty to do the will of God, and to be the witness of the One who was coming.

When our Lord spoke, Christian baptism was not known. The only baptism then was that of John the Baptist. Christian baptism was not known until after Christ had died, because believers are baptized into the death of Christ. John's baptism was "a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel" (Acts 13:24)... Baptism as a mere rite never did anything vital for anyone.

No one could say that God had failed to confirm His long promised intervention with fresh testimony. That testimony was all the more striking because no prophet's living voice had been heard for more than four hundred years after Malachi. Everyone took John for a prophet. Our Lord bore witness to him as more than a prophet: he was Jehovah's messenger, sent ahead of the Messiah to prepare the way before Him.

They completely mistook what John meant. Human nature is always ready to exaggerate man and belittle God. But the forerunner left no room for doubt.

As he finished his course, he acknowledged that he was not the Messiah. So God gave an admirable witness to the Messiah who was just at hand. This was not about a great man or great deeds. It was about God accomplishing His purpose. If even a trace of ambition had moved John, he had a huge following and could easily have set himself up as the Messiah. The truth was that he was not the Bridegroom but His friend, and the fear of God shut out these base desires.

The strap or ribbon that fastens an eastern shoe or sandal. Scripture mentions it as a thing of the least value, and untying it counted as a menial, servant's job.

If He were only a man, John would surely have been worthy to be His servant, however great that man might have been. But He was God, and He had come among His people bringing good news. How wonderful to find Him washing the feet of His disciples! No one greater than John was ever born of women, yet John was not worthy to untie the strap of that One's sandal. And He tied a towel around Himself and washed His disciples' feet.

All Israel knew that John was a true prophet of God. He took the lowest place because of the greatness of the One he bore witness to, insisting that he was not worthy to untie the shoes on His feet. Not the least doubt was left about who this was. When Jesus came to him in front of all the people, John declared, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

The voice that uttered "the things" had passed away, but the things — yes, "all things that he spoke" — had remained. The vessel had been broken, but its treasure endured. The star had sunk below its horizon, but a greater Light had filled the sphere. John had decreased, but Christ had increased.

By natural descent the Jews were Abraham's children. Yet they are called "sons of the stock of Abraham" (Acts 13:26), because they held a recognised position on earth connected with that forefather. Christians, on the other hand, are called "sons" of Abraham, but never children of Abraham. We are his sons, justified by faith. He is the father of all who believe, for "it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7). We are not his children as offspring of his stock — that is, by natural descent.

Here the apostle's address marks out, for the first time, the place given to Gentile converts.

We now come to a word of very large meaning. It is so large that it can cover other gospel words such as justification, redemption, reconciliation. Hebrews 2:3 shows how large that meaning can be. There God's mighty intervention on man's behalf, which the Lord Himself first began to speak, is called "such a great salvation." In Acts 13:26 the apostle Paul speaks of "the word of this salvation," using the term in just the same broad sense.

Paul's message in the synagogue dealt exactly with Habakkuk 1:5. When there was no salvation, and the prophet said, "You do not save," God raised up a Saviour to Israel who had died and who was risen. "The word of this salvation" was sent specifically to those who had rejected Christ. They all heard this word, and those who feared God were called to accept it.

The oldest manuscripts read "us." Most manuscripts support "you"; but "us" graciously includes the witnesses. The "you" just before may have got repeated.

From these words we learn one thing as clearly as possible. Every soul in that synagogue was called on, there and then, to take into his heart the blessed message falling from the preacher's lips. Not one was excluded. "To you is the word of this salvation sent." If anyone had asked the apostle whether the message was meant for him, what would the reply have been? "To you is the word of this salvation sent." Was there some preliminary question to be settled first? Not one. All the preliminaries had been settled at the cross.

He then goes on to say, "Whoever among you fears God, to you is the word of this salvation sent." Are you a God-fearing person, still looking towards God, though you do not yet know forgiveness and salvation? "To you is the word of this salvation sent."

Hearing the voice of the Son of God is not just hearing certain words the Lord spoke. In Acts 13:27 we learn that the people of Jerusalem heard the actual words of the prophets every Sabbath day. Yet they did not know "the voice of the prophets". It is clear, then, that we may hear the words and miss the voice. Again, in 1 Corinthians 14:10, we read there are "so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without meaning". The voice, then, is the true meaning of the words — the message that the words contain.

Ten thousand eyes saw Him as to His personal appearance (John 6:40), yet did not see Him in the truth of His Person. He was in the world and the world did not know Him (John 1:10). A hundred Scriptures had foretold His coming, His ways and His glories. Those Scriptures were in the hands of His earthly people, in His own land of Israel. Yet we read, "He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him" (John 1:11). More than that, in their ignorance of His glory, they fulfilled those very Scriptures in condemning Him.

Israel was sent "the word of this salvation". Against it stands the stubborn ignorance of those who boasted most: the people living in Jerusalem and their rulers. They had the voices of the prophets read to them sabbath by sabbath, yet they fulfilled them in unbelief. They knew neither themselves nor the One they presumed to judge — the Judge of Israel struck on the cheek, the Judge of living and dead hung on the tree… Yes, in their blindness they fulfilled everything God had written about Him. Law, psalms, and prophets all centre in Him. They should have known Him most of all, and they knew Him least; their eye was not clear, and their body was full of darkness.

They could bring no charge of guilt against Him, yet they demanded that Pilate hand Him over to death. Without realising it they had done just what Scripture said they would do. Prophecy had spoken of His betrayal, His crucifixion, the piercing of His hands and feet and side, and many more details. All of it came true to the letter.

God has His determinate counsel and foreknowledge. The Jews played their evil part, the Gentiles theirs. Their thoughts and feelings differed, yet together they showed their characters and their guilt. By that very act they fulfilled the prophets. The same act gave occasion for God to display His holiest judgment and to accomplish the work of His grace.

In the days after the death of Christ, the Spirit of God spoke through the apostle to Israel. He said, "You killed the Author of life," and also, "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers" (Acts 3:15, 17). In His grace, God accepted that those who had murdered Jesus had sinned in ignorance… The deliberate, planned murder of the Lord, as the Sent One of God, would have been a sin beyond forgiveness.

He is the One of whom Pilate had to say, "I have found no cause of death in Him" (Luke 23:22). Pilate was using these words as a judge, yet they were true in the most absolute sense. We must die; but here at last is found on earth a blessed, perfect Man over whom death has no claim. There is plenty of cause of death in us, but no cause of death in Him.

Through His three and a half years of ministry the Saviour lived in the fierce glare of hostile criticism. He was no hermit, as John the Baptist was; the desert was not His home; He moved freely in and out among the people. So everyone knew all the facts of His life. If His enemies could have found a single flaw in Him, how it would have delighted their evil hearts! But He was God's holy One. The Passover lamb had to be "without blemish." Only such a lamb could picture the One who was holy in nature and stainless in all His ways.

Next Paul boldly sets out the terrible position the Jews had put themselves in… Along with spiritual blindness there was, as usual, the most glaring lack of common righteousness.

At the trial of our Lord, Pilate declared in public that he found no fault in Him. Yet he gave way to the fanaticism of the Jews. He was also afraid he might not stand well with Caesar if he let One who claimed to be the King of the Jews live. So, to his eternal shame, he gave sentence that it should be as His enemies demanded (Luke 23:24).

Their eye was not single, and their body was full of darkness. That darkness came to its head in the death of their own Messiah, forced out of a reluctant Pilate. Pilate was blind too, and he was not without warning and moral witness. Yet he was not as blind as those who said they could see. So their sin remained, and it remains, sadly, to this day!

They could bring no charge of guilt against Him, yet they demanded that Pilate hand Him over to death. Without realizing it they had done exactly what Scripture had said they would do. His betrayal, His crucifixion, the piercing of His hands and feet and side, and many other details spoken of in prophecy were fulfilled to the letter, then His removal from the cross and His burial in the grave.

Great promises of God lie scattered over the pages of the Old Testament. But death always stands in the way of their fulfilment. Then at last there comes One in whom there was "no cause of death" (Acts 13:28). He goes into death, yet death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24). So at last we find a Man who, in regard to the promises of God, is "the Yea" and "the Amen." As "the Yea" He is the One in whom the blessedness of every promise is displayed. As "the Amen" He is the One through whom God fulfils every promise.

The people of Jerusalem and their rulers heard the words of the prophets read out sabbath by sabbath, yet they fulfilled those words in unbelief. They did not know themselves, and they did not know the One they dared to judge. Yes, they blindly fulfilled everything God had written about Him. The law, the psalms and the prophets all centre on Him. He was the One they should have known best, and He was the One they knew least.

Acts 13:29 seems the widest of all. It speaks not only about the prophets but about "all that was written of him" being fulfilled. God, in His sovereignty, used wicked enemies to fulfil His purpose and the Scriptures — and those enemies remain fully responsible for what they did.

A crime could carry the death penalty, but only certain crimes called for hanging the body afterwards. The hanging showed that the man died under the curse of God. It was meant as a public disgrace and a warning to others. But that disgrace was not to last beyond the day of the hanging. Galatians 3:13 shows that this applies mainly to the Lord Jesus. At Calvary He was made a curse for us, and He bore the most dreadful disgrace for our sakes. But that awful treatment was limited to that one day. When His great work of atonement was finished, those who loved Him took His body and laid it in a grave.

But at last, "when they had carried out all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb." His work was finished. Now man could do nothing more to insult that body, though God's patience had allowed such insults before. It is taken down from the cross and wrapped in spices, which suggest how sweet and fragrant that death was to God. It is laid in a new tomb that death had never touched. The ashes of the sacrifice were poured out in a clean place, and no decay is allowed to touch that Holy One.

They would have given Him the grave of the wicked, but God had foretold otherwise. An older translation of Isaiah 53:9 reads, "they appointed His grave with the wicked, but with the rich He was when He had died." The tomb was one in which no other dead person had ever lain.

Here we see the blindness of the world, and above all the blindness of Israel. Without knowing it they fulfilled all that was written about Him, right up to the moment when they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. "But God raised Him from the dead." It was not only that the promised One had come. It was also that God stepped in and raised Him from among the dead, at the point where unbelief seemed to have lost everything in His rejection and death. Glad tidings indeed! Glad tidings of a victory over all that sin could do, up to death itself.

In the synagogue of the Jews... they announce Jesus and the resurrection. Let us notice certain points in this address. As usual, it was made up of facts. The apostle tells Israel's history in brief, down to the time of David. He then lays down the two basic parts of the gospel: the fulfilment of the promises, and the powerful intervention of God in the resurrection of Christ, which showed Him to be the Son of God. In this way also he begins the Epistle to the Romans.

As to the tomb of this blessed One, Satan, with man as his partner, had things all his own way. When Jesus was born, He was laid in a manger, because the inn had no room for Him. All through His life on earth He was the constant object of Satan's malice. The cross was the great proof of this... the greed of hell had its fill when the great stone closed the mouth of the tomb. The victory seemed complete. Death wrapped itself around the Lord of glory. "But God raised him from the dead."

It is true that loving hands took Him down from the cross and placed Him in a tomb; but wicked hands sealed Him there, and the world hoped never to see Him again; "but God raised Him from the dead." The One whom men killed, God raised up.

"But God raised Him from the dead." Acts 13:30. How simple that is. This, then, was God's great public showing of His complete satisfaction with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why people truly and gladly call the resurrection the foundational truth of the gospel.

Notice that the apostle Paul took great pains to prove that God had raised Christ from the dead. He proved it from the Scriptures and from the testimony of eyewitnesses. (Acts 13:30-37.) And with reason. The resurrection of Christ was the evidence that His work of atonement was complete, to the satisfaction of God... For it was God Himself who stepped in — stepped in with the overflowing joy of His own heart — and lifted out of the grave the One who died on the cross. And He seated Him at His own right hand in heaven, to show what He thought of the value of the work finished on the cross.

What a fact, proved by every kind of evidence that grace could, would, and did supply... And it is not only "the great exception" that rebukes the emptiness, pride, and self-will of unbelieving man. It is also such a source and supply of peace, light, joy and blessing to all who believe!

This was not only the promised One come at last. It was also God's own intervention, raising Him up from among the dead when unbelief had made everything seem lost in His rejection and death... God's grace in Christ wins the victory over evil in Satan's last stronghold. So man may believe and be saved, before God judges those who keep on refusing to believe. It is therefore no question of what man deserves. He has no righteousness before God — only unrighteousness, in every way.

The resurrection is the grand foundation truth of the gospel. To be a witness of His resurrection was the main requirement for an apostle (Acts 1). The truth Peter pressed most was that God had raised up Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified (Acts 2). He urged the same thing later in Solomon's porch (Acts 3), and before the Jewish council more than once (Acts 4, 5). The same was true in preaching to the Gentiles (Acts 10), and Paul pressed it even more than Peter did (Acts 13). This witness especially grieved the Sadducean leaders (Acts 4). It is what rouses the undying scorn or opposition of unbelief all over the world.

Here the apostle points out the gracious care and wisdom of God. He gave the risen Christ to be "seen," and not once or twice only, but for "many days." Now who could be valid witnesses of this staggering fact? People who barely knew Him, or did not know Him at all? Or those most familiar with Him when He was alive? Clearly the latter. So He appeared, once risen, to these very people. They were the slowest of all to believe He was alive again for evermore, and their slowness matched the depth of their grief and disappointment over His cross and His grave.

The common printed text, with more than one excellent ancient copy, leaves out the word "now," though it is really emphatic and important. They are at this moment, says the apostle, His witnesses to the Jews.

The disciples were slow to believe. They refused to accept that the Lord had risen until they had indisputable, first-hand proof. That is a strong point in the proof of His resurrection. If they had been gullible, ready to believe any tale they heard, you could understand their testimony carrying no weight. But these men were slow to believe such astounding news, and indisputable evidence convinced them. No one should deny their testimony.

In verse 31 he puts the twelve apostles clearly in the place of testimony to Israel. They had been with the Lord themselves, and they had seen Him after His resurrection. "They are," he says, "his witnesses to the people."

He insists on it just as strongly, even though he was not one of them. In fact, he contrasts himself and Barnabas with this group. Grace provided another character of testimony, so that the mouths of those who spoke against it might be stopped. Witnesses were raised up who had not known Him at all while He lived here on earth. Paul himself was bitterly hostile, until the Lord revealed Himself to His enemy and in him, outside Damascus, and made him His devoted servant.

An essential feature of apostleship was first-hand knowledge of the risen Saviour. An apostle had to be able to testify that he had seen Him himself, risen. That is why Paul asks his third question in 1 Corinthians 9:1. Paul saw Him, not during the forty days, but later in the full blaze of His glory.

From verse 32 comes the application of the facts about the Messiah, already given in verses 23-31. Chief among them are His death at man's hands, His resurrection by God, and the full witness of His appearing afterwards among those who knew Him best.

Christ's coming fulfilled the promise made to the fathers. Their children now had the good news of it in His Person here below. The raising up of Jesus in verse 33 therefore goes no further than the Child born, the Son given. Psalm 2:7 agrees. It refers not to His resurrection from the dead, as many have supposed, but to His birth, just as the words say... He, the Messiah, born of woman, born under law, was the object, accomplisher, and heir of the promises.

God raised up the Messiah according to promise and the prophecy of the second psalm. To that, verse 34 adds another and still more important truth: God raised Him up "from the dead"... Acts 3:22, 26 and Acts 7:37 are clear cases of this use of "raised up" in the same book.

The New Testament speaks of the Son as begotten in several places: Acts 13:32, Hebrews 1:5 and Hebrews 5:5. Not one of them refers to the Son being born. Each points instead to His being begotten to an office — in resurrection, in being supreme in the inhabited world, and in priesthood.

He begins with a short history of the people of Israel. It leads straight to the point: God fulfilled His promise to His people Israel by giving them Christ in incarnation (vv. 32-33). But Israel rejected and killed their Messiah. Humanly speaking, at this point all was lost. But what did God do? He "raised Him from among the dead, no more to return to corruption"... God had promised that David would have a descendant to sit on his throne (2 Sam. 7:16). This promise is absolutely certain, sure and unalterable. To fulfil it, God raised up Christ from among the dead.

Only the death and resurrection of the Messiah could make the covenant everlasting. Only that way could the promised holy or merciful blessings of David become unbreakable... Only that way could the soul even of the Jew live, or the door of grace open wide enough to take in a Gentile.

"Forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you" — not promised for the future, but proclaimed now, announced as a present reality. "And by Him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses."

The coming of Christ fulfilled the promise made to the fathers. Their children now had the good news of it in His person here below. The raising up of Jesus in verse 33 does not therefore go beyond the Child thus born, the Son thus given. This agrees with Psalm 2:7, which refers not to His resurrection from the dead, as many have supposed, but to His birth, as the words simply say. He, the Messiah, born of a woman, born under law, was the object, accomplisher, and heir of the promises.

The word "raised up" here has a wider meaning than where it is repeated just after. It means that God ordained Christ and, as it were, brought Him into the light by His own hand, so that He might fulfil the office of Messiah. Scripture also shows us kings and prophets raised up by the Lord. Acts 3:22, 26 and Acts 7:37 are clear cases of this use of "raised up" in the same book... "Raised up" is correct. "Raised again" would fit only if the text certainly pointed to the resurrection, and it does not at all. But "raised up again" is unjustifiable.

The eternal Son was never begotten. Even if He is called the only-begotten Son, the sense is not any begetting. It means "unique and the only one of its kind." But here we have the begetting: the creation of a being who has not been there before in this way — a man in this world... This wonder, "today I have begotten you," comes true; this miracle of the incarnation of the eternal Son of God. And the angel answered her [Mary], "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." That is "today I have begotten you" in Psalm 2:7. And therefore the holy thing, this little child, this unique child, which shall be born, shall be called Son of God.

This passage is quoted in Acts 13:33, Hebrews 1:5 and Hebrews 5:5. This however presents no difficulty. It refers plainly to Christ as a man, Jehovah's Anointed and Jehovah's King, in connection with this world. The expressions used — "the hill of Zion," "the uttermost parts of the earth," and "this day" — clearly belong to the earth and to time. This confirms the view.

This psalm shows the royal glory and world-wide rule of Christ, the One whom Israel and the nations reject... The title here refers to His incarnation, and secondarily to His resurrection from the dead (Acts 13:33-34). So this statement is not about the fact of His eternal Sonship. It speaks of Him as Son of God in time. The eternal Son of God became incarnate, but this did not lower His eternal Sonship... "But for the truth, and for His own personal dignity, it is of the highest importance to remember this: His Sonship when incarnate, and in resurrection too, rests on His eternal relationship as Son. Without that, the other could not be."

"Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this Man" (Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and glorified) "forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you" — not promised for the future, but proclaimed now, announced as a present reality — "and by Him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses."

The raising up of Jesus in verse 33 does not go beyond the Child born, the Son given. God raised up the Messiah according to promise and the prophecy of the second psalm. To that, verse 34 adds another and still more important truth: God raised Him up "from the dead". This is as certain as it is plain. It is no mere reasoning on the verse before, and no explanatory note. It is further teaching of the highest value. That is why the words come in this way: "But that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus…"

He is risen, not like Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, and others, to return to corruption, but never again to die (Acts 13:34). Death has no more dominion over Him (Rom. 6:9). He is alive, then, for ever — the living One (Rev. 1:18).

The proper sense of the word is pious, compassionate, that which is not profane. Scripture applies it to Christ, who sums up all the goodness of God towards men, as well as perfect piety… In Acts 13:34 the word translated "the sure mercies of David" is the same word translated "your Holy One" in verse 35 of the same chapter, and in Acts 2:27. The resurrection of Jesus, the Holy One who was not to see corruption, makes these holy things, or mercies, sure. They are the same mercies set out in Psalm 89.

We must have Christ's resurrection even to get the earthly blessings of Israel. So in Acts 13 Paul says that God raised Christ "up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption"; and "I will give you the sure mercies of David," Isaiah 55. Israel could not have them without death and resurrection. So the sure mercies of David are proof of resurrection. There was nothing sure till that. If they trusted in a living man, all failed.

Only the death and resurrection of the Messiah could make the covenant everlasting. Only so could the promised holy or merciful blessings of David stand unbreakable… Only so could the soul even of the Jew live. Only so could the door of grace open wide enough to take in a Gentile. So notice how the chapter in Isaiah begins: with God's call to "everyone who thirsts". He who was lifted up on the cross will draw all, not Jews only. A risen Messiah gives the utmost sureness to Israel's promises, yet He cannot be bounded in His grace any more than in His glory.

The resurrection, then, was God's answering act to the guilt of those who killed the Fulfiller of His promise. By raising the Lord Jesus, God secured to them "the sure mercies of David". So the apostle applies the further Scriptures quoted from Isaiah and Psalm 16 to the raised One, who is "no more to return to corruption"… And "through this Man" the apostle preached the good news of the forgiveness of sins, and of justification from all things for all who believe.

The quotation of Psalm 16:10 (verse 35) proves not His Sonship as man and Messiah here below, but His resurrection. So it stands in close and logical connection with verse 34. Peter had already used this Psalm in the same way in Acts 2:24-32. It is strange that any who believe the Christian revelation can allow a doubt that Christ's resurrection is the just and only meaning of the tenth verse of the psalm.

"Holy" here answers to the Greek word hagios, while the word used in the Greek Old Testament version of the Psalm (and quite accurately) is hosios. The first means holy in the strict sense, separate from evil... The second is often used of Christ in the Greek Old Testament as the "pious" or "gracious" One. In practice that comes to the sense of "holy" when said of man, and "merciful" when said of God. This is the word that occurs in Psalm 16 as quoted in Acts 13:35. Psalm 89 is very instructive: the first word is used of the Holy One of Israel, our King, in verse 18, while in verse 19 God speaks in vision of His Holy or gracious One — the One in whom His loving-kindnesses or mercies centred.

Also, "Your Holy One" would not see corruption. This of course refers to His body. His body was in a state of death, because the spirit and soul had left it; even so, it would not see corruption.

Paul then quotes Psalm 16:10... This is most striking, because it points to nothing less than a resurrection before corruption could set in.

But one man, the Messiah, was to taste death and yet see no corruption. David served the counsel of God in his own generation, but he saw corruption. So did all his descendants, except that One of whom he prophesied in the Spirit. Scripture cannot be broken. One man alone does and must fulfil the condition: who was He but Jesus, the Christ? In fact the witnesses gave the fullest evidence for His resurrection, apart from the predictions. All proofs centre in Him.

The Lord was perfectly sinless. So we can understand how His blessed holy body saw no corruption, for corruption is the effect of sin. He had also fully settled the question of sin by His atoning death on the cross, so death could have no further claim on Him. When sinful bodies die, death holds its sway and the process of corruption sets in at once.

He is now in the heavens in a body which saw no corruption, a body which is incorruptible for ever. He is the Firstfruits from among the dead. He is the pledge that God will raise the bodies of all believers in the same way, though in their case they saw corruption.

Paul reasons in verses 36 and 37 much as Peter does in Acts 2:29-31, and both with unanswerable power. But one man, the Messiah, was to see no corruption while tasting death. David in his own generation served the counsel of God, but saw corruption — as did all his descendants, except that one of whom he prophesied in the Spirit. Scripture cannot be broken. One man alone does and must fulfil the condition: who was He but Jesus, the Christ?

Paul urged this fact about our Lord Jesus Christ on those who heard him at Antioch. He contrasted Christ with the psalmist. David, he said, "fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption." But He whom God raised again "saw no corruption" (Acts 13:36-37). Those who deny the actual physical resurrection of Jesus must also deny that God kept His word in Psalm 16:9-11. They are committed as well to the blasphemy that Christ saw corruption. For it is written, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile" (1 Cor. 15:17).

At Antioch Paul is insisting that Christ did not see corruption, and that the psalm does not apply to David, for he has seen corruption. Does he say anything about his soul? Not a word. Stephen fell asleep — the word Paul uses of David — but Christ received his spirit.

In Acts 13:36 we have a full, unqualified commendation of David's life. No "but" comes in to spoil the picture. The New Translation gives a delightful rendering of this verse: "David, indeed, having in his own generation ministered to the will of God, fell asleep."

We notice that David "served his own generation by the will of God," or "in his own generation ministered to the will of God." He could not truly minister to his own generation unless he ministered to the will of God.

David had thought to do much in his day, and he was sincere in the thought. But he had to learn that the will of God for him was that he should "serve his generation." We too must learn this. A humble mind, a devoted heart, a tender conscience, an honest purpose are far more precious in God's sight than outward services, however showy and attractive.

Scripture says of David that he "served the purpose of God in his own generation" and then "fell asleep." We cannot serve a generation that lived before our time, or one that lives after we are gone. God has brought us into this world to serve Him today, in the time we were born into. Sighing after another day, one we may judge to be better, will get us nowhere. It will only tempt us to give up.

The New Translation renders this verse, "David, after he had in his own age served the will of God." That is the most any of us can do. It is impossible to predict the details of the future. My business is to do the little bit given to me in the present, as His grace enables me. I do it very imperfectly, as I can see, but the great Head on high has resources that are everlasting. To carry on His work through the years — that is His business.

The apostle to the Gentiles, in verses 36 and 37, reasons much as the apostle to the Jews does in Acts 2:29-31. Both speak with unanswerable power. But one man, the Messiah, was to see no corruption while tasting death. David in his own generation served the counsel of God, but saw corruption, as did all his descendants, except that One of whom he prophesied in the Spirit. Scripture cannot be broken. One man alone does and must fulfil the condition: who was He but Jesus, the Christ?

It was clear that David did not mean himself in that sixteenth Psalm, the one the apostle had just quoted. David died, was buried, and saw corruption. So he was writing about another — about Him whom God raised from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ. … How would that come true? Not by keeping Him from death, but by raising the Lord Jesus Christ on the third day.

His work was finished. Now man could do nothing more to insult that body, though divine patience had permitted such insults before. It is taken down from the cross. It is wrapped in spices, which suggest the sweetness and fragrance of that death to God. It is laid in a new tomb that death had never tainted. The ashes of the sacrifice were poured out in a clean place, and no corruption may touch that Holy One (Acts 13:37).

Notice the great pains the apostle Paul took to prove that God had raised Christ from the dead (Acts 13:30-37). He proved it from the Scriptures, and from the testimony of eyewitnesses. And with reason. The resurrection of Christ was the evidence that His work of atonement was complete, to the satisfaction of God. Indeed, it was God's own demonstration that the death of His Son had glorified Him, and that the question of sin was settled once and for all. For God Himself stepped in. He stepped in with the abounding joy of His own heart, and He lifted out of the grave the One who died on the cross.

He is now in the heavens in a body which saw no corruption, a body which can never decay. He is the Firstfruits from among the dead. He is the pledge that the bodies of all believers will be raised in the same way, though their bodies did see corruption.

This fact is of basic importance for us today. Those who deny the actual physical resurrection of Jesus are committed to denying that God's Word in Psalm 16:9-11 came true. They are committed to the blasphemy that Christ saw corruption. And as a result they are committed to the falling away from the faith that was foretold. For it is written, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile" (1 Cor. 15:17).

If we look at the context of this verse, it is easy to see that "this Man" is Christ. The apostle had been showing that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, and proving that His resurrection had been foretold by David. The death and resurrection of Christ had been his theme. As soon as he had proclaimed a risen Christ, he turned to them and said, "Through this Man" — the risen Christ — "forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you."

The resurrection, then, was God's answering act to the guilt of the Jews, who killed the One who fulfilled His promise. By raising the Lord Jesus, He secured to them "the sure mercies of David." So the apostle applies the further Scriptures quoted from Isaiah and Psalm 16 to the raised One, who will never return to corruption. And "through this Man" was preached the good news of the forgiveness of sins, and of justification from all things for all who believe.

Some would like to persuade us that we cannot know our sins are forgiven. They say we must go on to the end of our life completely uncertain about this most vital question. Faced with such miserable teaching, what do those glowing words of the apostle Paul in the synagogue of Antioch mean? "Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this Man" — Jesus Christ, dead and risen — "is preached the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all who believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." Preached: not promised as a future thing, but proclaimed now. All who believe are justified — not shall be, or hope to be.

This fully authorises us to go to any man and tell him that Christ has died for him, and so forgiveness is preached to him (Acts 13:38). We can do this because as a propitiation — a sacrifice for sin — He gave Himself "a ransom for all"; He died "for the ungodly." The forgiveness of sins, however, is the portion of those who believe only, since it involves substitution.

Forgiveness of sins! They could have it right there and then. There was no need to bring a sin offering to the altar at Jerusalem, the only altar where a Jew was allowed to offer a sacrifice for a sin. We say for a sin, because that was all the law provided, and not even for every sin. There were many sins — every deliberate, defiant sin — for which the law made no provision (Num. 15:30). But this proclamation of forgiveness covered all sins, however serious.

To forgive is to graciously clear someone's offences. To justify is to righteously make someone not guilty. Only the blessed sacrifice of Christ can do such a wonderful thing. It removes the guilt of sin, and it credits the believer in Jesus with a righteousness that can never be taken away.

This is how early, how strongly and how plainly the apostle proclaimed this great truth. He meant it for all among the Jews who bowed to it, no doubt. But he stated it in words that would take in a Gentile believer just as much as an Israelite. The law of Moses could justify from nothing. "All who believe are justified from all things."

What an announcement to make in a synagogue of the Jews, and that after the reading of the law and of the prophets! ... But the law pointed out to Israel what they ought to do. The prophets carried God's message to a people who had failed, reminding them of what the law had commanded.

But he declares more than forgiveness. He declares that all who believe in Jesus are justified from all things. The law of Moses could never forgive sins or justify the guilty. It exposed and condemned sin, and declared all men guilty. To forgive is to graciously discharge one's offences. To justify is to righteously constitute one not guilty. Only the blessed sacrifice of Christ can do such a wonderful thing. It removes the guilt of sin. It also credits the believer in Jesus with a righteousness that can never be taken from him.

To be justified is to be cleared from every charge that could be brought against us. ... The law could most effectively bring charges against us. It could lay sins to our account and bring a righteous condemnation upon us. Only Christ can clear the believer, and clear him righteously, of every charge in the indictment. The sentence of condemnation is then lifted off him.

Here the law of Moses is no help at all, whatever the pride, the unbelief, or the ignorance of the Jew might think. There is no possibility of justification by that law, holy as it is, and the commandment holy and just and good. Law is all in vain to save. It can give neither life nor pardon, neither holiness nor power. It holds lust back, and so both exposes it and stirs it up. It is the power of sin, and it works out wrath. It is a ministry of condemnation and death.

Justified in Christ is always used in contrast to being justified in the law. Does justified in the law mean justified by being in the law? Of course not, everyone will say. No more, then, does justified in Christ mean justified by being in Christ. The phrase "justified in" tells of the cause of justification. It shows that we are justified by virtue of the thing named — whether the law, Christ, or His blood.

To all it is preached; there is no limit to the grace of Christ, any more than to the effectiveness of His blood. Among those who hear the gospel it takes effect only upon all that believe. For faith glorifies the Saviour God, as it humbles man the sinner.

Peter declares forgiveness of sins to those who repent and are baptized. Paul declares justification in Christ for the believer.

As far as God was concerned, that sin was forgiven along with all his other sins, for he stood "justified from all things". But toward Philemon, confession and some restitution were needed. ... If we have clearly wronged someone, nothing proves our repentance better than confession and restitution, as far as we are able.

In Habakkuk's day God had raised up the Chaldeans to carry out this work of judgment through government. Yet God's people were in such a low state that they would not believe God's testimony about His own work. They refused to see God's hand behind their enemies, whom He was using to discipline them. The apostle quotes this passage when he preaches the gospel at Antioch. There he announced the grace of God that proclaims forgiveness through Christ, and that all who believe are justified from all things. Then at once he quotes the prophet Habakkuk to warn them against despising the work of grace through unbelief, as their ancestors had despised the work of government through unbelief.

The words cited are mainly Habakkuk 1:5, with Isaiah 29:14 and Proverbs 1:24-31 perhaps also in view. Unbelief is the same evil scorn of God's word, whether long ago or in days to come. It is never worse than now, when grace begs people, just as they are, to be reconciled to God. And whatever work is still to be done in the future, none of it can ever match what God has already done — the ground on which the gospel goes out to every creature.

The apostle's fear was that they would despise this work of God. He was not afraid that they would be irreligious. He did not fear that they would break the law even more. He was not concerned for the moment about their morality or their care for others. He warns them against one thing only: the possibility that they would not believe the work of God... This was the danger for them, and it is ever the danger for all men. Man prefers his own work to the work of God.

"I WORK." This is the whole point. It is God's work that is preached. Turn from your own work, whether you think it good or bad, and believe God's work. As I have said, you see that work in a risen Saviour at God's right hand.

He proclaims a present, a personal, a perfect salvation to every creature under heaven, and he states it without any limit or condition. Everyone who heard him was responsible there and then to believe. Everyone who reads him now is just as responsible. Suppose someone had dared to tell the preacher that his hearers were not responsible — that they were powerless and could not believe, and that calling on them to believe only deceived them. What would his reply have been? The solemn appeal that closes his address is itself a full and overwhelming reply.

When people go so far as to despise God and His blessing, they perish, as Acts 13:41 says. In our day and in our land, crowds are slipping into that great sin with regard to the Gospel, and they stand on the brink of destruction.

It does seem in Scripture that when unbelief rises to the height of mockery, the testimony stops.

In Habakkuk's day God had raised up the Chaldeans for this work of governmental judgment. Yet we are told that God's people had sunk so low that they would not believe God's testimony to His own work. They refused to see the hand of God behind their enemies, whom He was using to discipline them. We know that the apostle quotes this passage when he preaches the gospel at Antioch. There he announced the grace of God that proclaims forgiveness through Christ, and that all who believe are justified from all things. Then at once he quotes the prophet Habakkuk to warn them against despising the work of grace through unbelief, as their forefathers had despised the work of government through unbelief.

We said he was quoting the Greek version. It is not word for word the same, but it agrees in sense. And it has what is not in the Hebrew — "you despisers," and also "and perish."

This might have seemed unclear, and the Jew could have brushed it aside. He would say, "That is exactly our conviction. We all know the nations are in a dangerous state. But why overlook the favour shown to the people of God?" So the application drops the direct reference to the nations. It makes everything pointed and personal to the people themselves... No one can justly plead the inherited place given to the Jew to keep them from the consequences of slighting and blaspheming God and His grace.

"I WORK." This is the whole point. It is God's work that we preach. Turn from your own work — whether you rate that work as good or bad — and believe God's work. We see it, as I have said, in a risen Saviour at His right hand.

Whatever work is still to come, none can ever match what God has already done. That work is the ground on which we preach the gospel to every creature. The Chaldeans were about to carry out judgment, and that was enough to stop any soul who listened to Habakkuk's warning... But what is any providential work of God, or any future harvest of judgment, next to what our Lord Jesus went through in His rejection and atoning work?

Never forget what the apostle does when he stands up as an ambassador of Christ, the herald of salvation. He proclaims in the most absolute and unqualified way a present, personal, perfect salvation to every creature under heaven. Everyone who heard him was responsible there and then to believe. And everyone who reads him now is just as responsible. Suppose someone had dared to tell the preacher that his hearers were not responsible — that they were powerless and could not believe, and that calling on them to believe was only deceiving them. What would his reply have been?

Esau lived wholly for this world and shut God out of his thoughts. He had not only done this, but had also despised what was of God. Now when people go so far as to despise God and His blessing, they perish, as Acts 13:41 says. In our day and in our land, crowds are slipping into that great sin about the gospel. They stand on the edge of destruction.

Verse 42 is better translated in Darby's version: "And as they went out they begged that these words might be spoken to them the next Sabbath." Of course it would be Jews and converts to the Jewish faith in the synagogue. Gentiles would not know what Paul had said, but they would surely hear about it before the next Sabbath.

Souls struck by the truth might well beg to hear "these things" again — words so blessed yet so startling, so weighty yet so solemn. That is easy to understand, and it is the plain sense of the true text.

God had chosen their fathers. God had raised them high in Egypt, and had brought them out by His mighty power... Then He appeared as a Giver. He gave them judges and prophets... A Giver, a Raiser-up, a Fulfiller of His promises — what an announcement they heard that day! If God is like that, everyone can and should rest on His word. No wonder such an address touched and gripped the audience, both Jews and converts to the Jewish faith. No wonder they wanted to hear such words again. We should read verse 42, "As they went out, they begged that these words might be spoken to them the next Sabbath"... So far Luke has not mentioned any Gentiles in the synagogue.

"From which you could not be justified by the law of Moses" concerned the Jews, and told them of a blessing they could never gain through the law. "By Him all who believe are justified from all things" showed that the grace of justification was within reach of the Gentile just as much as the Jew. Everyone who believed could share in it. No wonder that on "the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of the Lord."

The Gentiles now come forward, and beg the evangelists that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath day. This is an intensely important moment in the history of Paul, and of Christianity at large. Until now Paul had gone to the synagogues and spoken to his fellow countrymen. Now the Gentiles for the first time hold out beseeching hands, and ask that they may hear the story of redeeming love.

This stirred up the Jews: it was something new, and it kindled their jealousy at once... But a new feature comes out here. The Spirit of God lets us see it from now on in all the journeys and work of the apostle Paul: the hatred the unbelieving Jews felt at the preaching of the truth to the Gentiles... The scene now lay outside, among the nations they despised. If the gospel was a lie, why feel it so sharply?

And as they were going out (for the service was over, not interrupted as some have singularly imagined), the hearers begged that they might have these words spoken to them the next sabbath, the great occasion for such a discourse.

The name given to anyone from among the nations who embraced Judaism. Acts 2:10; Acts 6:5; Acts 13:43. It comes from a Greek word meaning "to come to." The Greek Old Testament uses it where the Hebrew has "the stranger" who lives among you.

In Acts we often find the participle of a verb that means "who serves God." We point out this expression because it marks a class of people who were not Jews. They avoided the emptiness and the defilements of paganism, and they took part in Jewish worship. See Acts 13:43, 50; 16:14; 17:4, 17; 18:7, 13.

Later the gathering broke up. Many of the Jews and the converts to Judaism, drawn and impressed beyond the rest, followed Paul and Barnabas. (From now on, at least away from Palestine, Paul takes the lead.) The two men, for their part, spoke more freely to them than the synagogue could permit, and urged them to stay in the grace of God.

What can one think of a man like Calvin, wondering whether it was these young converts who urged Paul and Barnabas not to lose heart but to stand firm in the grace of God! He does not, however, lean far enough toward that reading to choose it over the common and only correct view. The gracious words and the strengthening call came from the apostles to those on whose hearts God's grace had just dawned.

Souls were won for Christ that day. The company of believers on earth grew, and it now suited them to continue in the grace they had heard. What the law could not do for them, grace had provided. They could enjoy peace with God — an effect of justification — for continuing in the grace made known was the way to have settled peace of conscience.

Paul preached at Thessalonica "with much conflict" — "with much earnest striving" the New Translation renders it. He speaks of how "we persuade others," and with Barnabas he persuaded certain converts "to continue in the grace of God."

The apostle knew that the heart and conscience of those made alive by the grace of God would answer the truth he set out. That held true even though legalism had buried that truth for the moment. How earnestly and constantly do real Christians need to be "persuaded to continue in the grace of God." Legalism presents itself in such an attractive form — moral, charitable, or religious — that it seems hard to name it as the great disturber and troubler.

Yet Paul rebuked the Galatians for not continuing in the grace of Christ. He told them to stand firm in the freedom Christ has given them, and he told them plainly that they had "fallen away from grace" if they carried on the way they were going. God held them securely in the place where He had set them. Yet in their own thoughts and inner awareness they might fall from that place.

This was the sermon with which the great apostle to the Gentiles opened his missionary work in Pisidian Antioch. The result was encouraging. As the people were going out (the service was over, not interrupted, as some have imagined), the hearers begged Paul to speak these words to them again the next sabbath, the great day for such a talk... So far no Gentiles had heard, apart from the proselytes. But the next sabbath the report drew them in crowds. The effect on them was as marked for good as it was on many Jews for evil, as we shall see.

The words "from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses" concerned the Jews, of course. They told the Jews of a blessing the law could never give them. But the words "by Him all who believe are justified from all things" showed that the grace of justification was within reach of the Gentile just as much as the Jew. All who believed could share in it. God had a message for men who had sinned, and He inclined that large company to attend, and to hear it.

Previously there had been just Jews and proselytes together; now a large mix of Gentiles appeared — natives, many of them, no doubt, of the place. Very probably most of them had never set foot inside those walls before. On this occasion it was clear they could not stay away. They had come to hear the word of God. Though they were Gentiles, many of them were thirsting for truth. Judaism could not supply that truth, but these strangers could give it.

The power of God was clearly behind this awakened interest, as the Jews should have discerned. Yet when they saw the crowds, envy filled them. They did not share the same concern to learn the truth of God. This selfish party spirit among the Jews blinded their minds to how precious the grace of God is. Without realising it, they sentenced themselves to be left with nothing. Selfishness always defeats its own ends.

But the poor Jews, moved with jealousy, cannot bear to be outdone in religious influence, or that a religion other than theirs should work on the Gentiles. Oh, poor human heart, always stronger in religious people! The truth it already believes does not put the heart to the test. It believes that truth because many others received it — people who were themselves unconverted — and because professing it does them honour. But truth is always truth, even when the many do not receive it. It does put the heart to the test, and we must receive it only because God gives it.

How could anyone preach the voice of God by His Spirit to the soul? (Acts 13:5, 44) Was it not still the Word of God, even if not one soul heard God's voice in it by the Spirit — even though the people who first heard it contradicted it and blasphemed? (v. 46)

The power of God was clearly behind this awakened interest, as the Jews should have discerned. Yet, when they saw the crowds present, envy filled them instead of the same concern to learn the truth of God. This selfish sectarianism blinded their minds to how precious the grace of God is... They opposed what Paul was speaking. They did not only contradict him; they blasphemed (verse 45). That shows their contempt for God Himself. They were that intent on holding on to their sectarian pride.

But a new feature comes out here. From now on the Spirit of God lets us see it in all the journeys and labours of the apostle Paul. It is the hatred which the unbelieving Jews felt at the preaching of the truth to the Gentiles. The scene now lay outside among the nations whom they despised. If the gospel were a lie, why feel it so strongly? It was not love or respect for Gentiles. But Satan stirred up, not now simply their religious pride but their envy.

A Jonah would rather see Nineveh destroyed than see the vast city spared when it repented. That way he keeps up his reputation as a prophet. These Jews would rather keep the Gentiles ignorant of the gospel, and so keep up their prestige among them. They could not bear to see these preachers drawing crowds of Gentiles to hear the word of grace. That word put everyone on a common level. It announced that the blessings God was now giving out were equally within reach of all, and that all could share in them.

How low, as well as evil and malicious, jealousy is — religious jealousy above all, as here! Had the gospel been powerless, the Jews would have kept their composure. The long preaching of Moses had never worked like this. The gospel won such wide attention at once, and that was intolerable to them. But the hatred of grace, though it ruins those guilty of it, only enlarges the field of work. It also frees the messengers from waiting too carefully on the men of tradition and their narrow channels. Blasphemies did not shock Paul and Barnabas into silence. They grew bold instead.

This filled the Jews with envy, such is the smallness of fallen human nature. The Jews refused the message, and they would not let the Gentiles have it... Do we not see it sometimes even in Christian circles? In prison, Paul had the unhappy experience of knowing that some brothers were preaching the gospel out of envy and strife. They meant to add trouble to the chains of this devoted servant of Christ. And we have known servants of the Lord, jealous of a younger man with more gift, seeking to hinder him in his work.

As with pride, so it is with envy. Its most horrible and deadly form hides itself under a cover of zeal for the Lord. Under this or some other religious excuse, it seeks the harm of another.

We may notice the apostle's practice. It matched the principle so familiar in his inspired words: "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." At Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. It was indeed the only religious place where any such liberty existed. And such was God's order until Jerusalem fell — or at least until the letter to the Hebrews was written. Then the "no difference" which the gospel declares found a still clearer and final application.

How base, evil and spiteful is jealousy — religious jealousy above all, as here! ... But "the crowds" were too much for religious prejudice. It had lain asleep until now, and it woke with the most spiteful feelings of hatred and abuse. This is what flesh does in the presence of grace and truth, when it sees hearts attracted and consciences touched. Had the gospel been powerless, the Jews would have kept their composure. The long preaching of Moses had never worked like this, and the gospel's immediate success in winning such wide attention was unbearable to them. But the hatred of grace, ruinous to those guilty of it, only enlarges the field of work. ... Paul and Barnabas grew bold, instead of being shocked into silence by Jewish blasphemies.

"Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life" — how solemn to judge oneself unworthy of eternal life, as every unbeliever does!

God is now in Christ, begging and pleading with you to be reconciled to Him. The ground is His acceptance of the One who was made sin. Your rejecting Him proves that you are not willing to be saved. He is ready to save you, to pardon here and now. But you have some secret reserve, something you are keeping back from Him. Either you wish to serve sin a little longer, or you do not believe that God is as good as He is. You prove that you judge yourself unworthy of eternal life.

Turning to Gentiles, when the Jews should judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life, was no afterthought in the mind of God. The Gentiles who now heard it were glad. The Scriptures given to Israel contained this announcement about them. Would the Jews boast of a divine written revelation given only to them? That very revelation, it was now shown, had foretold mercy to Gentiles.

Paul's use of Isaiah 49:6 in the next verse is both striking and full of instruction. The prophet is speaking of the Messiah rejected by Israel. God grants Him this comfort: His humiliation opens the door to wider glory. The slighted servants of Christ take this to themselves. In the same circumstances, infinite grace gives men of faith that right: what was said of Christ is no less true of the Christian. "For so the Lord has commanded us." ... The spirit of obedience, we may add, finds a command where no other eye could see one.

"Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:46) was a challenge of a new kind. It was destined to turn the tide away from Jerusalem, the land of Israel, the synagogue, the law and that whole system. It was to be the beginning of the evangelisation of the world, whatever a person's country or background. It was indeed the beginning of the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy, written over five and a half centuries earlier.

"For so," he says, "the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles." What had this to do with Paul and Barnabas? Everything. There is no doubt that the prophet has Christ directly in view. Some might want to limit the words to Christ alone. But the Holy Spirit does not; He extends their reach to Paul and Barnabas. Did not Paul afterwards write, "to me to live is Christ"? Christ was everything to them. Christian faith takes to itself what was said to Him.

In Acts 13:47 you have a quotation from Isaiah. He calls that a commandment, though it was a word of prophecy; but the moment they understood it, it was a commandment. If they had words which gave them the knowledge of God's will, they really are commandments.

We should notice this last point: the energy in action that spiritual understanding gives. Prophetic declarations turn into light and authority for action when the Spirit of God gives the true practical meaning — the application. Someone else might not understand it; but the spiritual man has full assurance in his own conscience from the word he has understood. He leaves the rest to God.

The original thought was to gather Israel, but Israel would not be gathered. Then God says, That is too small a thing; I will save the nations also. But Christ is first given as a light to the Gentiles. It is going out rather than gathering in. At any rate, that is the turn given to the passage now, under the gospel. While Israel is not yet gathered, Christ becomes a light to the Gentiles.

During the time of Christ's rejection by the Jews — while Israel is still scattered among the nations — God will give Christ as a light to the Gentiles, so that He may become God's salvation to the ends of the earth. No doubt the prophecy looks on to the Millennial blessing of the world for its complete fulfilment. But in the meantime the Spirit of God, through the Apostle Paul, gives these beautiful words an application to the present time.

God brings Himself before the eyes of men in this Person. If we do not believe in Christ as the revelation of God we must stay in our natural darkness; we can never know Him. There is no other light. Jesus is the true light… And all this light is so that our souls may be saved. Jesus is set to be a light for the Gentiles, that He may be for salvation to the ends of the earth. Salvation is found in the knowledge of God; it cannot be known any other way.

Paul and Barnabas say, Christ is our life. If it is true of Christ, it is true of us. If Christ, rejected by Israel, turns to the Gentiles, so should we. If one casts us out, let us take it meekly and turn to another. Where there is humble love, you turn from those who reject you, and you go where the door is open.

The turn to the Gentiles, when the Jews would judge themselves unworthy of eternal life, was no afterthought in God's mind. The Gentiles who now heard that were glad. The Scriptures given to Israel held this announcement about them. Would the Jews boast that God gave His written revelation to them alone? In that revelation, it was now shown, mercy to Gentiles was foretold.

For a long time the nations were both hidden and shut out. Now they are brought into view. They are the direct object not of law, as Israel once was, but of God's mercy in the gospel. God's righteousness is toward all, though it takes effect only on all who believe.

Such was free grace, poured out on all, leaving the strict limits of Judaism and directing itself to the whole world. But still the grace of God, mingled with faith, was necessary to make the truth enter the heart, so that it might be born of God. This is what happens here. The power of God accompanied the word and "as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."

Why should we take one of these truths, and not the other? Or why should we seek to alter either? Some would say, Do not preach the gospel to all, only to the elect. Paul preached it to all alike, and declared that all who believe are justified. Others would change the second one, and say, As many as believe are then ordained to eternal life. But it is not so; "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." Surely we have no right to alter God's word to suit human opinions.

Many Gentiles did believe, and by that it became clear that they had been ordained to eternal life. We do not know who are ordained to eternal life, so we cannot foretell who will believe. When we find anyone really believing, we know at once that they are ordained to eternal life.

Another error has caused trouble about election. Some hold that since certain people are ordained to eternal life, God must also have foreordained others to destruction. They call this "reprobation." But Scripture does not teach it. God desires that all men should be saved, 1 Timothy 2:4, and His election to life ensures that some will be.

But then some may feel inclined to ask, "Do you want to set aside the doctrine of election?" God forbid. We only want to see it in its right place. We want it as a landmark, not as a stumbling block. We believe the evangelist has no business to preach election. Paul never preached election. He taught election, but he preached Christ. This makes all the difference.

Jews and converts to Judaism had received blessing on the first Sabbath. On this second Sabbath the Gentiles shared in it too. And further, Luke writes, the Word of the Lord was spread abroad throughout all that region. Like a river in flood overflowing its banks, the living waters were no longer held inside the synagogue and its congregation. They forced their way outside, beyond the limits of Judaism. A river in flood often destroys and spreads dismay. The preaching of the Gospel did the opposite: it found ready access to hearts, and brought everlasting blessing and boundless joy.

These two messengers of the Holy Spirit quote the testimony of the Old Testament about God's purpose towards the Gentiles, of whom Christ was to be the light. They carried that purpose out by His power, and according to the understanding of it that the Spirit gave them. The passage is in Isaiah 49. There the opposition of Israel made the testimony of Christ useless to themselves. That gave God occasion to declare that this work was but a small thing, and that Christ should be a light to the Gentiles, and great even to the ends of the earth.

In those days Antioch in Pisidia had a strategic position. It lay in the heart of what we call Asia Minor, at that time the gateway between the Land of Israel and the great countries of Greece, Italy, and so on. In this region conquering armies, trading caravans, Persians, Romans, Turks, had travelled for centuries. It was a fit place for the Apostle to lift up his eyes, and look out on the Gentile fields, "white already to harvest."

The evil and the ruin are man's. All the good is of God's grace alone, and the believer enjoys it in His sovereign mercy. So the word of the Lord was carried abroad through all the country. And this roused the Jews, as usual, to a more systematic effort of opposition.

The gospel went out through the whole region. This was too much for the enemy. So the Jews stirred up "devout and honourable women and the chief men of the city," and so raised persecution against these servants of the Lord, and drove them out of the district. In such matters the Devil does not always rely on the rabble of the slums. He does use them, but the most powerful opposition comes from people of high position and religious devotees, who do not know the grace of God in their hearts.

The prosperity of the work stirred up such a persecution that Paul and Barnabas had to depart. We might have considered it disastrous that these new disciples should get persecution and lose the preachers. But the work in their souls was so solid that, instead of being discouraged, they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Without a doubt disciples are more often damaged by prosperity than by persecution.

Opposition is now stirred up, and it follows the apostles through all their work in these parts. People who will not receive the truth themselves will not let others receive it, if they can help it. And the Jews have enough influence with the Gentiles to turn them against the very men they hate for bringing blessing to the Gentiles!

They despised the Gentiles. So why were they not glad that Gentiles were receiving what they thought was poisonous teaching? But they were moved by blind, unreasoning hatred toward the name of Jesus. That name was a challenge to their national pride. It was a cunning move: they stirred up devout and respected women, not the lower classes. Women are more easily stirred where religion is concerned, and they have influence over men. The chief men of the city were the main target of that influence.

In Acts we often find a form of the Greek verb that means "one who serves God." We point out this expression because it shows a class of people who were not Jews. They kept away from the emptiness and the filth of paganism, and they took part in the Jewish worship.

Judaism had drawn these ladies in, and it brought them huge relief from the uncleanness and the degrading follies of paganism. So one can understand how open they would be to influences stirred up against a testimony that left the law in the shade. And they would know how to reach the leading men of the city. Those men were of their own rank, and most likely close to them. So they could get the preachers expelled.

The aim was to cast a slur on the preachers. Women of position and men of rank in the place joined to drive them away. One can see what a handle this would give. "Poor ignorant people are easily led astray," it might be said. "But see how those who deserve respect treat such people! The intelligent and the influential at Antioch will have none of their teaching. If only we Jews made an uproar, people could blame our religious prejudices. But the honourable people of the town, men and women alike, oppose it — so there must be something wrong in it." The plot was crafty.

In such matters the Devil does not always use the rabble of the slums or the rough men of the streets. He does use them. But the strongest opposition comes from people of high position and religious devotees, who do not know the grace of God in their hearts. No opposition is so bitter and fanatical as religious opposition… Paul would understand this. Was he not the chief persecutor himself, when he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees?

But the Jews would not give up their envy. The greater the blessing, the more it galled their hearts… Faith looks to God and to the truth. Unbelief runs to influence of one kind or another — women on the one side, great men on the other.

God allowed it, though He still held the reins in His own hand. The devotees of the old religion, and the devout women, with the chief men under their influence, try to cast out the gospel. The apostles shake the dust off their feet. This is a testimony of the justice awaiting those who rejected the grace and salvation of God. "And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit."

To 'shake the dust off the feet' when leaving a city that had rejected the servants of Christ was to leave that city to judgement. Not even the dust of their city would be carried into the presence of the messengers' Master. Matt. 10:14; Acts 13:51.

It was to be a solemn act of separation, giving up all identification with the city that rejected their Lord. Preaching the gospel today does not call for any such action, because the gospel goes to people in an evil world, not to cities.

But the apostles gave way to the persecution and acted on the Lord's word. They not only fled to another city; they also shook the dust off their feet against those who persecuted them. Meanwhile joy in the Holy Spirit filled the disciples, who were left behind like sheep among wolves.

The Jews in Antioch blasphemed, so Paul and his companions left the city. The same thing happened again in Corinth (Acts 13:45-51; 18:6). They shook the dust off their feet and their clothes against them. This showed that no fellowship of the Spirit was possible at all. If they had gone on preaching the precious gospel of salvation in the face of this fierce refusal, they would have given what is holy to the dogs and thrown their pearls before pigs.

The book of Acts holds back the judicial side until Acts 28. There the sentence is spoken… Here it was still in progress, as the Jews were being put to the final test. One very significant act is recorded at the end of this very chapter — the shaking of the dust off the disciples' feet. It shows that, although no sentence was formally spoken, there was still a loud testimony to it. It was a hint that they had better beware, for their danger was as extreme as their unbelief.

The great salvation was announced first to the Jews. If they despised it, and so proved to be despisers, the apostle would turn to the Gentiles… This happened in this same city of Antioch. There the Jews pushed God's salvation in Christ away from them, and so did not judge themselves worthy of eternal life.

The Jews now show their true character as enemies of the Lord and of His truth. So Paul and Barnabas shake the dust off their feet against them. The disciples, whatever their difficulties may be, are no hindrance to this. The stand the Jews take here… makes us understand what a source of grief and pain they must have been to the apostles.

Iconium was a city in Lycaonia, in the centre of Asia Minor. Paul and Barnabas went there after they were driven out of Antioch of Pisidia. Large numbers of Jews and Greeks believed the word of God's grace… They had to flee for their lives, but they returned again. Acts 13:51; Acts 14:1, 19, 21… In 2 Tim. 3:11 Paul speaks of the persecutions he had endured at this city.

However, they left many new believers behind them. They shook the dust off their feet as a solemn act and left for Iconium. Yet the disciples who stayed there were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Persecution could not take this away.

They left behind them many new believers. They solemnly shook the dust off their feet as they left for Iconium. The disciples who stayed behind were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Persecution could not take this away.

We might have considered it disastrous that these new disciples should get persecution and lose the preachers. The work in their souls, however, was so solid that instead of being depressed they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Without a doubt disciples are damaged more often by prosperity than by persecution.

After they faithfully preached the gospel at Antioch, the city expelled them. This is what the servant of Christ may expect, according to his Master's word. But what was the effect of this persecution upon the minds of these devoted servants? Were they depressed and discouraged? Did they think about giving up and going home? No — they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. So the night only makes the pillar of fire shine out more brightly.

Look at how the believers at Antioch are described (Acts 13:52), and at the exhortation given to God's saints in the letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 5:18). A translation may not show the distinction, but in the original you can see it easily. Of believers we read, "they were being filled" (eplerounto) with the Holy Spirit. To the saints it is said (plerousthe), "be filled" with the Spirit. The first tells us what generally marked those believers. In the second the apostle reminds us what should mark Christians.

The Spirit's presence is connected with liberty, light, power and joy. So we read, "The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." Doubts, fears, and legal bondage flee away before the precious ministry of the Holy Spirit.

There is nothing like persecution for keeping the saints of God bright and near the Lord, and it is this that fills them with joy. Divine joy is not to be found in our circumstances here, but in the Lord Himself. Although Jesus was a Man of sorrows He knew what joy was. We read, "In that same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit" (Luke 10:21). That was when the seventy returned, and after the cities where He had done His mighty works had rejected Him.

It is very significant that the last mention of being filled with the Spirit comes in Acts 13:52, not even half-way through the book. That is a bad sign. It shows how decline sets in when things are left to man's responsibility. For all time we have the exhortation to us all, "Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18).

Even Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, could write of the gospel he preached: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16). Again and again we find Paul going first to the synagogue, following out the divine thought, "to the Jew first."

Perhaps no feature of his life is more striking or more instructive than this: nothing turns Paul's heart away from the poor Jews. He loved them with an unreturned affection. He loved them despite all their hatred and their envy. Into the synagogue he went again here, as in each new place that he visits.

What this account stresses is certainly the help found in God. He links Himself to human weakness so as to make it "mighty through God." First, in the synagogue, they "spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed." Bringing men to Himself is clearly the work of God. Yet He is still pleased to give effect to the words of His people, so that it can be said they spoke in a way that produced faith. There is a right fitting of words to that end, and we must not overlook it. It is a skill that only a wisdom born of love can give, and it does not despise diligence in reaching its ends.

Here they entered the synagogue, and the Spirit of God gave them grace to speak in a way that deeply moved a great number of both Jews and Gentiles to believe the gospel. They were not always given power to speak like this. No special self-effort can produce it. It depends entirely on the energizing power of the Spirit of God. If we desire this, let us pray for it and depend on God for it.

Connect the "so" of this verse with "God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." And Paul and Barnabas so spoke that a multitude believed. George Whitefield, it is said, felt the love of God and the need of souls so deeply that he often wept over people while preaching. Little wonder that they wept under him. The Lord help you and me to preach like that.

The Greeks were an intellectual people who looked for wisdom. A crucified Christ was foolishness to them. How could they, on their own, put faith in a man crucified alongside criminals? But to the called ones Christ became the power and wisdom of God. 1 Cor. 1:22-24. When Paul preached the gospel among them, "great multitudes" believed and lost their proud nationality in Christ.

There was without doubt marked blessing at Iconium. The Lord honoured and greatly used the bold preaching of His grace: "a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed." This roused the enemy. The Jews who disobeyed the good news stirred up the souls of the Gentiles and turned them against the brothers and sisters. The trouble did not come from outside. It came from the Jews on the spot, who refused God's message and turned away.

Unbelieving Jews again at Iconium used their evil influence to stir up bitter hostility. But the apostles were not driven out of the city. They kept preaching the Word there for a long time, in the face of such persecution. The Lord also gave special witness to the truth by granting signs and wonders to be done through them. Notice the word "therefore" in verse 3. The opposition was a reason for their remaining there, so long as it did not erupt in violence.

Paul and Barnabas grew bold. Boldness goes along with confidence in the Lord. "They so spoke that a great number … believed." How did they speak? "Trusting in the Lord." If you have a gift you need the Lord's help, and if you are weak and nothing, you will surely have it.

In the past He spoke through Moses, as recorded in the Old Testament: that was the Word of His demand upon men. Now He has spoken in Christ, as recorded in the New Testament; and that is the Word of His grace. To this Word we are specially commended, for it is able to build us up in the faith. It also gives us that inheritance among all the sanctified, in spiritual power and enjoyment.

God accepts the brave deeds of His servants and puts them to their account. Yet it is all done in His strength, and by the grace He gives. So to Him all the glory is due. In one place we read that "God bore witness to the word of His grace." In another an apostle speaks by the same Spirit of a man he had fathered in his chains, as if he himself had brought about the man's conversion. But this shows how gracious God is: He owns us as His instruments, and makes much of our little service.

The Lord "bore witness to the word of His grace, by granting" (rather than, "and granted") "signs and wonders to be done by their hands." Here we read of miracles: at Antioch we read of none. But, as is common in the work among the Gentiles, they have a subordinate place. The word was first spoken, then miracles were worked to confirm it.

Here too the weak are with the Strong. He protects them and enables them to keep going while the opposition lasts. He may do it by means of the signs and wonders which He grants them to do, and of which at Antioch we hear nothing. They seem by no means, therefore, a necessary accompaniment of the gospel, but rather an occasional help.

It is a solemn fact, however, that such deeds of divine energy, as a rule, do not turn the stubborn heart. Men judge mainly by their feelings, whatever qualms of conscience they may have. And where the will is set on its own way, none are so hardened as those who breathe a constant atmosphere of miracle. We see this in Israel's history in the wilderness.

It is a solemn fact that such deeds of divine energy, as a rule, do not turn the stubborn heart. Men judge mainly by their feelings, whatever their conscience may say. And where the will is set on its own way, no one is more hardened than people who live surrounded by constant miracles. We see this in Israel's years in the wilderness. So here, in the face of it all, the crowd of the city split in two. Some held with the apostles; others held with the Jews just as firmly.

They were favoured with the clear working of God among them. Yet the residents of Iconium divided into two camps. Many sided with the Jews against Paul and Barnabas, and many others took a stand with the apostles. We may wonder that Gentiles sided with Jews, but this happens where both share a hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The results were striking, great, and, we may say, immediate: "The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles." This was not work done in a corner. The apostles did not carry on their work in the dark, like conspirators. They worked as men who did not fear the fullest publicity. They did not shrink from the light.

It would be a wrong to Paul and Barnabas to rank them as mere "messengers of the churches" entrusted with supplies for poor believers. They are called "the apostles" twice over — not Paul only, but Barnabas also — in the same chapter that records their choice of elders.

What is the New Testament thought of an apostle, and in what sense were the twelve and Paul apostles above all others? See, for instance, Acts 14:4, where Barnabas is associated with Paul as an apostle, and yet we all instinctively feel that there was a difference.

Note there is no neutrality of position or practice. No one can say, "I am not with Christ, but I am not against Him." It is either "with" or "against." Nor can anyone say, "Though I do not gather, I do not scatter." It is either gathering or scattering. One counts two on a division. How searching this is!

So they bowed to the storm. Nothing at all of what men call heroism marked the apostles. There was something much better — the simplicity of grace. Patience is the true wisdom, but God alone can give it.

It is a solemn fact that such deeds of divine energy, as a rule, do not turn the stubborn heart. Men judge mainly by their feelings, whatever the qualms of conscience may be. And where the will is set on its own way, none are so hardened as those who live surrounded by miracles day after day. We see this in Israel's history in the wilderness. So here, in the face of it all, the crowd in the city split in two. Some held with the apostles; others held just as firmly with the Jews.

We may wonder at Gentiles siding with Jews, but this happens in cases where there is a common enmity against the Lord Jesus Christ.

They were joined in one body in the assault. Gentiles and Jews made only one body, one object in the apostle's mind.

The word here seems to mean a plan or a first move of this kind, not an "assault"... If there had been a real rush, the words "becoming aware of" make little sense. Such a rush could not be doubted, and it would have made escape hard... Suppose they learned of a plan to abuse and stone them, a plan so widely formed that it carried along Gentiles and Jews with their rulers. Then they judged it wise to leave at once.

As long as it was only opposition, it was simply a reason to keep going. But a warning reached them in time about an assault planned against them, and they leave for Lystra and Derbe.

So they bowed to the storm. Nothing at all of what men call heroism marked the apostles. What was there is far better — the simplicity of grace. Patience is the true wisdom, but only God can give it.

His opponents attempted this more than once; it took effect only once... Here we can again notice the striking moral link between his sufferings as a Christian and his earlier violence as a Pharisee. Stephen was stoned, and so was Paul; both for the Lord Jesus, and each as a separate and singular example of His grace. Paul was allowed to taste the very thing he had once urged others to inflict on the man who ran the race of faith before him. That was not vindictive payback, but abounding grace.

This was the wise course. Once violence begins, it does not stop quickly, and it would have reached many more than the apostles. More than this: a testimony to Christ now stood in Iconium, and the Lord uses persecution to send His servants to other places to proclaim His name.

But the intent of violence, which had leaked out, brought the testimony to a close: the word here seems to mean a plan or an attempt, not an actual "assault"... If there had been a real rush, the words "becoming aware of" would make little sense. Nobody could doubt a rush, and it would have made escape hard. If they learned of a plan to abuse and stone them, they judged it wise to leave at once. That plan was so widely formed that it carried along Gentiles and Jews with their rulers. So they fled, and there they carried on their gospel work.

He had also laid down a general principle long before: "When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next" (Matthew 10:23). Paul and his companions clearly carried out that principle later, even to shaking the dust off their feet (Acts 14:6; Acts 17:10-14).

So they bowed to the storm. Nothing at all of what men call heroism marked the apostles. There was something far better — the simplicity of grace. Patience is the true wisdom, but only God can give it.

Like Iconium, Lystra and Derbe lay in the old province of Lycaonia. By this time that province had several different governments. Iconium, as we have said, was under a tetrarch, a minor local ruler. Lystra and Derbe had belonged since AD 37 to the territory of Antiochus IV, King of Commagene. This explains why the historian says they fled to Lystra and Derbe. A different power ruled these two cities. Lystra lay about forty miles from Iconium and about twenty miles from Derbe.

During this first mission among the Gentiles, a great and blessed work was done... At Lystra, Christianity met paganism for the first time. But in every place the gospel triumphs, and Paul's various gifts as a workman appear in the most blessed way. He addressed Jews who knew the Scriptures, ignorant barbarians, cultivated Greeks, and enraged mobs. In every case he proves himself a chosen vessel, fitted by God for his great work.

Outrage and violence neither hinder the work nor weaken the courage of the servants. When the Lord so wills it, they return in peace to the very places from which they have been driven. It is beautiful to see the calm superiority of faith over the violence of man, and how God guides the heart of His servants. They submit to violence, or avoid it if possible; but if the work needs it, God opens the door, and the labourers are there with it again.

Paul and Barnabas fled there from Iconium, and there cured a cripple... Soon afterwards, however, the Jews stirred up the people, who stoned Paul and left him for dead. The labours of the apostles were not in vain; an assembly of saints was gathered there. Paul visited it again on his second missionary journey. There he met Timothy and attached him to his mission.

The city was divided. At last a determined attack was coming — Jews and Gentiles together would try to stone them. So, acting on the Lord's words to the disciples, they flee to Lystra and Derbe, in the wilder parts of Lycaonia. There they pursue their work.

Faith never teaches one to court danger and difficulty, but to walk the path of Christ in peace and thankfulness. The Lord has not called His servants to desert it. I dare say some of us have been struck by this: the Lord told them to flee to another city when one city persecuted them. This is surely not courting martyrdom, but the very opposite.

If they got word of a plan to attack and stone them, they judged it wise to leave at once. The plan was so widely formed that it carried along Gentiles and Jews with their rulers. So they fled to the cities of Lycaonia — Lystra, Derbe and the country around — and there they went on with their gospel work.

This was the wise course. Once violence starts, it does not stop soon, and it would have affected many more than the apostles. There is more. Now that a testimony to Christ stood in Iconium, the Lord uses persecution to send His servants to other places to proclaim His name.

The devil let his fury loose on the believers in Jerusalem, hoping to stamp out the name of Christ for good. He only drove the gospel into a wider field. God's purpose was fulfilled in this: the gospel reached the Gentiles. So God makes the wrath of the devil and of men praise Him.

The other word means to proclaim as a herald. It has no connection at all with office and authority, or with regular organised congregations. Neither has the word for preaching good news. This herald word is used of the Lord and the apostles, and just as freely of others too. So Mark 5:20 uses it of the man set free from demons, and Philippians 1:15 of the brothers at Rome — some of them preaching Christ out of envy and strife, some out of goodwill.

In Acts 14:8-18 we find ourselves among the people of a district that was shrouded in pagan darkness. The solemn fact lies plainly on the surface. In heathen Lycaonia God was unknown.

Soon afterwards, however, the Jews stirred up the people, and they stoned Paul and left him for dead. The work of the apostles was not in vain; an assembly of believers came together there. Paul visited the city again on his second missionary journey, and there he met Timothy and attached him to his mission.

The miracle was probably done in the open air, with the apostles preaching in public, for there is no mention of a synagogue in Lystra or in Derbe. Crowds could therefore see what had happened. The powerless man was on his feet, using his legs in a way he never had before.

The healing of the hopelessly lame man was well suited to seize the attention of a rough pagan crowd. It was also a practical and extraordinary witness to the gracious character of God — a character so foreign to the thoughts of man left to himself. It all stood in contrast with the mysterious mutterings their magicians used to work their spells.

The apostles were preaching the Gospel there. One of the listeners was a man crippled from birth, powerless in his feet, and we are not told his name. He heard Paul speak. No doubt he was drawn by news he had never listened to before, and he had no idea of the blessing in this life that was waiting for him. We can imagine him sitting with his eyes fixed on the Apostle. The Apostle now fixed his eyes on him.

At Iconium and at Ephesus we have notices of other miracles worked, but they seem to have confirmed the word spoken before them (14:3; 19:11,12). The miracle at Lystra need not be an exception to this rule. It seems quite possible that the word had taken hold of the powerless man before he leaped up and walked at Paul's command (14:9).

Paul fixed his eyes on him as he spoke, and saw that he had faith to be healed. Clearly the power of the Word through Paul awakened a faith in this man's heart that there was nothing too hard for the Lord. With a loud voice Paul cried out, "Stand upright on your feet." The command carried with it the Divine enabling. The man who had never walked from his birth leaped up and walked.

At Lystra God showed His power by the hand of Paul in healing a cripple who had never walked. Here we find that the faith of the cripple had to go along with his healing. In other cases we do not see this. The cure came from the power of God alone, working through the person He used as His instrument.

Scripture recognises specific faith about a specific thing. So one of the people healed by a miracle had faith to be healed (Acts 14:9). And 1 Cor. 12:9 plainly teaches that there is a distinct spiritual gift of faith, which some have and some have not.

A remarkable miracle took place at Lystra through Paul. A man lame from birth was healed. It was almost the exact counterpart of the miracle Peter worked, which we read of in chapter 3. Peter's miracle happened in the very heart of Judaism... This one happened in front of pagans, who read the wonderful event in the light of their false beliefs. They would have held an idol festival, if the Apostles had not protested.

Preaching the gospel there, a cripple from birth, powerless in his feet, whose name we do not know, was one of the audience. He heard Paul speak, and was no doubt drawn by news he had never heard before, unaware of the earthly blessing in store for him. We can picture him sitting with his eyes fixed on the apostle. The apostle now fixed his eyes on him. Perceiving that he had faith to be healed, he said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." "He leaped up," we read, "and walked." He was walking! To spring up was the act of a moment, and never repeated; so Luke uses the aorist tense. He walked — that is, he was walking; so the imperfect tense describes it.

Paul, as he spoke, fastened his eyes on him, perceiving that he had faith to be healed. Clearly the power of the Word through Paul awakened a faith in this man's heart that there was nothing too hard for the Lord. With a loud voice Paul cried out, "Stand upright on your feet." The command carried the divine enabling with it.

At Lystra the power of God was shown by the hand of Paul in healing a cripple who had never walked. Here we find that the faith of the crippled man had to go along with his restoration. In other cases this does not appear. There the power of God alone worked the cure, through the one who was His instrument.

It is worth noticing that the word sozo, usually translated in the New Testament "save," is used in its general sense of deliverance in regard to healings. It is applied to the crippled man at the temple gate, Acts 4:9, and to the cripple at Lystra, Acts 14:9. In these instances the Greek word is translated "made whole," or "healed."

Scripture recognizes specific faith about a specific thing. One of the subjects of the miracles had faith to be healed (Acts 14:9). And 1 Corinthians 12:9 plainly teaches that there is a distinct spiritual gift of faith, which some have and some do not… Genuine, divinely-given faith, not mystical or imagined faith, is what is meant here.

It might, or might not, be that the patient would himself have faith to be healed. Faith-healers insist on such faith; Scripture does not.

With a loud voice Paul cried out, "Stand upright on your feet." The command carried the enabling power of God with it. The man who had never walked from birth leaped up and walked.

At Lystra God showed His power through Paul in healing a lame man who had never walked. Here we find that the man's faith had to go with his healing. In other cases this does not appear: the power of God alone worked the cure, through the man He used as His instrument.

The power of the Word through Paul evidently awakened faith in this man's heart that nothing was too hard for the Lord.

At Iconium and at Ephesus we have records of other miracles. But they seem to confirm the word spoken before them (14:3; 19:11-12). The miracle at Lystra need not be an exception to this rule. It seems likely that the word had already taken hold of the helpless man before he leaped up and walked at Paul's command (14:9).

"He sprang up," we read, "and began walking." He was walking! To spring up was the act of a moment, and never repeated; so Luke uses the aorist tense in telling it. He walked — that is, was walking; so the imperfect tense describes it.

All this stood in contrast with the mysterious mumblings their wizards used in working their charms. The addition to verse 10 came early, to guard against any hint of pretension in the man who worked the miracle. Its absence is the instructive lesson: such words would be useless in another mouth, as events at Ephesus later proved. And they are not needed at all where the whole life and testimony aim at magnifying Christ. There was no formula anyone had to use.

At Lystra a remarkable miracle was worked through Paul. A man lame from birth was healed. The miracle was almost the exact counterpart of the one Peter worked, which we read of in chapter 3. That was done in the very heart of Judaism... This one was done in front of pagans. They read the wonderful event in the light of their false beliefs, and would have held an idolatrous festival if the Apostles had not protested.

An amazing miracle like this ought to have drawn people's attention to the message Paul brought. But Satan cunningly took advantage of this to deceive the superstitious people of the city. They got the idolatrous notion that Paul and Barnabas were gods who had come down in human form. Rather than listening to them, they wanted to worship them... Mere excitement carries men to foolish lengths. If it was true that these men were gods, why were they not quiet, wanting to listen to them?

The apostles were probably preaching in public and worked the miracle in the open air, for there is no mention of a synagogue there, nor at Derbe. So the crowds could see what had happened. The crippled man was on his feet, using his legs in a way he never had. All were amazed. They spoke in their own language, Lycaonian, and explained it this way: the gods, they thought, had come in human form.

It was all the more natural for people who did not know God to conclude what the Lycaonians did. They had a legend that these very gods had once been welcomed in a part of Asia Minor. A Latin poet, Ovid, had made that story popular a little earlier. Physical differences would lead their superstitious minds to name each man, and in Paul's case there was a further reason as well. The proposal to sacrifice to them followed as a matter of course.

An amazing miracle of this kind surely ought to have drawn people's attention to the message that Paul brought. But Satan was cunning. He used it to deceive the superstitious people of the city, who came up with the idolatrous notion that Paul and Barnabas were gods come down in the form of men. Rather than listening to them, they wanted to worship them... Mere excitement carries men to foolish lengths. If it were true that these men were gods, why were they not quiet, wanting to hear them?

It is remarkable that the Spirit of God put it on record that men offered homage to both Peter and Paul. Both men stopped it at once and with force. "Stand up; I too am a man," was Peter's command to Cornelius when that centurion fell at his feet (Acts 10:26). And when the people of Lystra brought sacrifices to offer to Barnabas and Paul, they "tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out... 'We also are men, of like nature with you'" (Acts 14:11-15). These were true men. They would not let anyone think they were more than men, and they would not accept adoration, which belongs to God alone. From these incidents in the lives of His servants we learn something by inference. Jesus was God when He accepted the adoration of Thomas. If not, what was He?

At Lystra the fickleness of the crowd is on display: they soon stone the man whom at first they would have worshipped as a god... Men will idolize you, perhaps. God has lost His place with them, and they easily give that place to another. They will destroy their idol just as easily.

What is notable, especially for all those doing the Lord's work, is the variety in the apostles' addresses... The talk in the synagogue was built on the Jewish scriptures. Here, to these men of Lycaonia, there is no reference to the Old Testament at all. Instead there is a plain appeal to what everyone sees and knows: the heavens above them, the seasons God has assigned around them, and the steady supply of good things from His generosity in nature. Even the hardest heart can barely miss it.

They called Barnabas Jupiter, since he clearly had the more impressive presence. Paul they called Mercury, because he was the better speaker of the two. The city was famous for its devotion to Jupiter, the so-called father of gods and men. His priest brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice.

In their excitement they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, as being the chief speaker, Mercury being the god of eloquence.

It was all the more natural for pagans to conclude what the Lycaonians did. They had a legendary tradition that these very gods had once stayed as guests in a part of Asia Minor. A Latin poet had made the story popular a little earlier. Differences in looks would lead their superstitious minds to identify each man, on top of the specific reason given in Paul's case. The proposal to offer them sacrifice followed as a matter of course.

It was fitting for Barnabas, when travelling with a more gifted brother, to let Paul be the chief speaker. But would it have been fitting for Paul to refuse to use the gift he had received? Would it have been "all lowliness and meekness" to hold back in front of Barnabas, who was his elder? … These examples show the difference between true lowliness and meekness and what is easily mistaken for it. That mistake is only the laziness or timidity of the natural heart, indulged against the leading of the Spirit of God.

The account names Barnabas first, since Mercury was servant to Jupiter.

The miracle happened in front of pagans, who read the wonderful event in the light of their false beliefs. They would have held an idolatrous festival if the apostles had not protested. The apostles seized the chance to declare to them the true and living God, who is the Creator. The Lycaonians would have done just what Paul charges the pagans with doing in Romans 1:25, saying they "worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever."

Men will idolize you, perhaps; for God has lost His place with them, and it is easily given to another. They will destroy their idol too, just as easily. Yet this is the creature, man, and God has sent him a message of infinite grace.

It is too obvious to need mentioning how much of this idolizing goes on today. Men who claim to be servants of the Lord seek and love the honour and praise of men. Seeking honour from men and delighting in the applause of the "religious world" is a deadly thing. It dishonours Christ, to whom all honour and glory belong.

Zeus. Supreme god of Greece and Rome, though the religious ideas of the two nations were quite different. At Lystra the pagan inhabitants thought that Barnabas was Jupiter in human form.

It was all the more natural that pagans should draw the conclusion the Lycaonians drew. A little while before, a Latin poet (Ovid) of the age of Augustus had spread a legend. It said that these very gods had once been received as guests in a part of Asia Minor... The scene is set before us vividly, as usual. There is the crowd, and the priest of Zeus, whose temple, or statue, stood before the city. The oxen and garlands are all brought ready to the gates — probably the gates of the house or courtyard where the apostles were staying.

An amazing miracle of this kind should certainly have drawn people's attention to the message that Paul brought. But Satan cleverly used it to deceive the superstitious residents of the city. They took up the idolatrous idea that Paul and Barnabas were gods come down in human form. Rather than listening to them, they wanted to worship them... If these men really were gods, why were they not quiet, wanting to listen to them? An idolatrous priest of Jupiter is ready at once to offer sacrifices to them.

By nature the same heart is deeply set against holiness and at the same time built for religious observance. Man has an inborn, settled sense that he is not enough in himself. That sense makes him unable to stand simply independent of some power mightier than himself. A god, in some shape, is a natural necessity of man. His natural desire, in his first falling away from truth, is a god after his own heart.

The priest of Jupiter wants to offer sacrifice along with the people. The apostles, Barnabas and Paul, are grieved at heart when they see what the people intend. Far from wanting any honour for themselves, they tear their clothes and run in among the crowd to stop them. They announce the one true God — not, here, salvation.

No doubt the enemy was lurking behind this, but the grace of God gave the apostles power to act as they did. There is so much of this kind of idolizing today. Men who claim to be servants of the Lord seek and love the honour and praise of men. It is too obvious to need saying. Seeking honour from men and delighting in the applause of the "religious world" is a deadly thing. It dishonours Christ, to whom all honour and glory belong.

At Lystra we see how fickle the crowd is. They soon stone the man they would at first have worshipped as a god. Men will idolize you, perhaps; for God has lost His place with them, and it is easily given to another. They will destroy their idol just as easily.

A miracle like this ought to have drawn people's attention to the message Paul brought. But Satan used this to deceive the superstitious people of the city. They took up the idolatrous idea that Paul and Barnabas were gods who had come down in human form. They did not listen. They wanted to worship them, and even named Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercury. Mere excitement carries men to foolish lengths. If it was true that these men were gods, why were they not quiet, desiring to listen to them?

Paul and Barnabas wanted nothing to do with that. They used all their powers of persuasion to clear this deception out of the people's minds. They even tore their clothes — hardly what heathen gods would do — and cried out loudly against any worship of themselves.

The apostles heard of the plan and stopped it at once. They tore their garments and rushed, or sprang, out — perhaps from the lodgings they had gone back to. Now among the people gathered with the priest and the sacrificial animals, they spoke to them. The homage they declined, and instead of receiving a sacrifice they would teach the crowd.

On the other hand, Barnabas and Paul rejected this God-dishonouring honour with anger and deep earnestness. (They are named in that order here, in keeping with the place assigned to them.) They sprang forth with garments torn, protesting loudly. Their words were no less uncompromising though courteous.

Closely connected with this is a further point. These miracles were kept apart from any honour attached to the persons who performed them. Of course they attested the divine character of their ministry. But they were wholly a testimony to the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all He taught... As we have seen, there was no personal relief and no self-advancement. They sought no glory for themselves or for their company. So Paul and Barnabas; Acts 14:14.

Cornelius would have worshipped him, but Peter raised him up, saying, "Stand up; I too am a man." Compare this with the anger of Paul and Barnabas when the men of Lystra wanted to offer them sacrifice (Acts 14:14). Compare it also with the words of the angel in Revelation, whom John was ready to worship (Rev. 22:9). These servants knew their place, and what was due to the Lord.

These were true men. They would not let anyone think that they were more than men. Nor would they, even for a moment, accept adoration, which was God's alone. These incidents in the lives of His servants teach us by inference that Jesus was God when He accepted the adoration of Thomas. If not, what was He?

It would wrong Paul and Barnabas to rank them as mere messengers of the churches, sent with supplies for poor saints. Scripture calls them "the apostles" twice over — not Paul only but Barnabas also — in the same chapter that records their choice of elders. (See Acts 14:4, 14, 23.)

It is remarkable that the Spirit of God has put it on record. Men offered homage to both Peter and Paul, and both stopped it at once and with force. "Stand up; I too am a man," was Peter's command to Cornelius when that centurion fell at his feet (Acts 10:26). The people of Lystra brought sacrifices to offer to Barnabas and Paul. The two men tore their clothes and ran in among the people, crying out, "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you." These were true men. They would not allow anyone to think they were more than men. And they would not accept for a moment adoration that belonged to God alone. These incidents in the lives of His servants teach us, by inference, that Jesus was God when He accepted the adoration of Thomas. If not, what was He?

On the other hand, Barnabas and Paul rejected this honour that dishonoured God, with anger and deep earnestness. They sprang forward with torn clothes and loud protest. Their words were courteous, but no less uncompromising.

At its root the word means "to turn towards," "to turn round," "to turn about." So when it is applied to people, it includes "turning from" their evil ways and sins, and "turning to" God. An example or two will make this clear. Paul and Barnabas urged the people of Lystra to "turn from these vain things to a living God" (Acts 14:15). Paul's mission was to turn men "from darkness to light" (Acts 26:18). The Thessalonians are said to have "turned to God from idols" (1 Thess. 1:9). In the full sense of Scripture, then, conversion means nothing less than the change from the state of a sinner to that of a Christian.

To the living God He directed attention. That speaks of one, and only one, divine Being. There are not two living Gods. Israel's fathers had understood what this title meant. It marked out their God, the Lord Jehovah, as wholly different from the idols of the nations. Such had no life. "They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk" (Psalm 115:5-7).

But the witnesses of the Lord Jesus are jealous for a living and true God. They refuse to let a sinful personal influence grow at His expense... In substance it was an appeal much like what Paul afterwards spoke to the Athenians on the Areopagus. How degrading pagan religion is! The ignorant Lycaonian and the refined Athenian needed the same message. They are set to spell the alphabet of creation.

He and Barnabas had come to Lystra to make Him known, because God wants His creatures to know His mind. That was why they were there. They were to turn from idols and acknowledge the living God... They did not know this God and had never served Him. Yet year after year He was thinking of them, caring for them, and providing for them. No pagan religion would have taught them that. It was new teaching indeed. There Paul stopped. Had he missed a chance to present the gospel? We believe not. He was meeting those ignorant pagans on ground they could all understand.

The call of Abram marks a solemn turning point in the history of the world... God turned away from a world that had abandoned Him and chose one man to become the father of a people. The nations around them served empty lies. This people's own glory was to know and worship the true and only God. Meanwhile He left the other nations to their own dishonoured way. (Acts 14:16)

How different this is from the vileness of a Jupiter or a Mercury — one god given to corruption and self-will, the other given to stealing! Was this the best religion and morality the pagans had, making gods just like themselves? Such a being is certainly not the true God. Who can deny that it was all empty, even in the minds of the most civilized and refined of the Gentiles?

Who could deny that in the generations gone by He allowed the nations to go on in their own ways? Yet He had shown active goodness to every land and every age. His generous gifts from heaven cover the otherwise barren earth with every good thing for man's life and heart. So when He now sends the gospel about His Son, is that not fully in keeping with the same goodness?

The Christian world is used to debating what divine justice holds for the poor heathen. God will certainly judge them by the witness they received, the witness through which they could have known Him (Acts 14:15-17). But we never hear the Christian world asking about the fate awaiting itself.

Here the apostle keeps to one point. God did not bring judgment on those times of terrible and inexcusable ignorance. In His goodness He overlooked the past, and now He calls people to repentance... The rejected Christ has now died as propitiation and has been raised. He Himself marks the change that has come: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations"; "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation."

So at Lystra, among ignorant pagans, we find him speaking of the goodness of the living God in giving men fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:15-17). At Athens, among learned pagans, we hear him insisting on the oneness and supremacy of the Creator... With pagans he felt he had to begin at the very lowest rung of the ladder of truth.

What is notable, especially for all those engaged in the work of the Lord, is the variety in the character of the apostolic addresses. There was no such stiffness as we often find in preaching today. What monotony! What sameness of routine, no matter who is listening! In Scripture we find people dealt with as they were, with the appeal to conscience that suited their state. The discourse in the synagogue was founded on the Jewish Scriptures. Here, to these men of Lycaonia, there is no reference to the Old Testament at all. He points plainly to what everyone sees and knows: the heavens above them, the seasons that God has assigned from of old, and the constant supply of good things He provides in nature. Even the hardest heart can hardly miss it.

They owed the God he preached their rain from heaven, and the fruitful seasons which had so often gladdened their hearts. A God they did not know, and had never served, was thinking of them year after year, caring for them and providing for them. No religion in the heathen world would have taught them that.

That the gods are envious of human gladness was the lie and curse of paganism. Not such is He who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them. Who could deny that in past generations He let the nations go their own way? He had shown active goodness to all lands and all times. His generous gifts from heaven cover the otherwise barren earth with every good thing for man's life and heart. So when He sent the gospel concerning His Son, was that not fully in keeping with such goodness?

As Creator and Governor of the universe, God delights to lavish His gifts on people, despite their unworthiness and ingratitude. "The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made" (Ps. 145:9)... The seasons come and go with a regularity that stands as lasting evidence of God's gracious interest in His creatures.

We may consider the providence of God in two ways. In the first, people have the public spectacle before their eyes every day. This providence is on unmistakable display, as the apostle says here. The second providence is hidden in its ways and purpose. People can only recognise it by its final result.

Still His goodness was meant, if it might be so, to lead them to repentance. And it is this goodness of His that the apostle refers to as God's perpetual witness in all times and lands.

He does not tell us that any poor heathen ever felt after God like a blind man groping in the dark. But He does let us know why. If it did not happen, the only cause was the deep-rooted hostility of the human heart towards God. By the abundant expression of His goodness He was drawing him to seek Him. By nature people think God is hard, severe and demanding. Even by His providence He convicts everyone of how wicked and wilful those thoughts are. He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Has anyone acknowledged His hand? How many homes in this so-called Christian England gave thanks at the meal table today? The old-fashioned "grace" is dying out, in keeping with the growing unbelief of our time. If people fail to own God in His lesser gifts, what is their attitude towards the immense gift of His Son?

The people, astonished by the miracle, call Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercury, because he was the chief speaker. Barnabas (as Mercury was servant to Jupiter) is mentioned first in the narrative. The priest of Jupiter desires to do sacrifice with the people. Barnabas and Paul are distressed in heart when they see what the people intend. Far from wanting any honour for themselves, they tear their clothes, run in among the crowd to stop them, and announce the one true God.

The idolatry of the heart is so deep-rooted that the Lord's servants could hardly stop the crowds from sacrificing to them (v. 18). How awful to think that most of Christendom pays divine honours to men who share the same nature as themselves! ... For the truth that marks this time is oneness — not only one God, but one true Mediator. So the enemy's special attack is not to honour more gods than the living God. It is to set up other mediators or intercessors, such as the Virgin Mary, angels, and saints.

The enemy lurked behind this, no doubt, but the grace of God gave the apostles the power to act as they did. So much of this idolizing goes on today. Men who claim to be the Lord's servants seek and love the honour and praise of men. It is too obvious to need saying. Seeking honour from men and delighting in the applause of the "religious world" is a deadly thing. It dishonours Christ, to whom all honour and glory is due.

In substance it was the same appeal Paul later made to the Athenians on the Areopagus. How degrading pagan religion is! The ignorant Lycaonian and the cultured Athenian needed the same kind of message. Paul sets them both to spell out the alphabet of creation. Here, though, the theme is not so much the unity of God, or man's true and close relationship to Him set against his absurd worship of idols and his god-making. It is God's active goodness shown to the Lycaonians in rains and fruitful seasons, and in the plenty of food and gladness these brought.

There Paul stopped. Had he missed an opportunity to present the gospel? We believe not. He was meeting those ignorant pagans on ground they could all understand — the blessings they had enjoyed as creatures. He was acting in the spirit of the Master, who when on earth spoke to the crowd as they were able to hear it (Mark 4:33). So here Paul dwelt on the goodness of God, showing His desire to do His creatures good by filling their hearts with food and gladness. To quote Old Testament scripture on this occasion would have been out of place. What did these Lycaonians know of a written revelation from God?

At Lystra we see how fickle the crowd is: they soon stone the man they would at first have worshipped as a god. Men will idolize you, perhaps; for God has lost His place with them, and it is easily given to another. They will destroy their idol too, just as easily. This is the creature, man — and yet God has sent him a message of infinite grace. It is the story of a work more wonderful than anything that ever blessed the ears that hear it. But over this he has the greatest difficulty! What but the power of the Spirit could one trust to make way for the gospel in a world like this?

At Iconium people saw the power of Him who was with His word. Now at Lystra the crowd shows how fickle it is: they soon stone the man they had first wanted to worship as a god... Men will idolise you, perhaps; for God has lost His place with them, and it is easily given to another. They will destroy their idol just as easily.

Their Jewish persecutors followed them from Iconium, about 30 miles away. Others came from Antioch, about 100 miles away. Does it not show what malice men are capable of, that they would travel such distances to oppose the Word of God? Once these persecutors arrived in Lystra, they persuaded the people that Paul was not fit to live. So they stoned him.

But idolatry was not the only danger at Lystra... This is mostly the work of men who know some truth, but are jealous of more and better. These are the men who stifle conscience and thirst for blood — the blood of God's saints and Christ's servants. Their ill-will blinds them, so they see these servants as the worst of men. So it was, and so it is... That very refusal of the honour the people of Lystra were ready to pay is deeply offensive to man. It makes him ready to believe the most hateful lies about those he was about to worship.

God's grace met him while his wicked opposition to Christ and His saints was at full flood. God saved him, blessed him and transformed him. But this did not stop God's righteous government working on the earth. Many of his later sufferings for Christ matched his own earlier misdeeds exactly. He instigated the stoning of Stephen, and before long was stoned himself.

Stephen was stoned, and so was Paul; both for the Lord Jesus, and each a distinct and remarkable example of His grace. Paul was allowed to taste the very thing he had once urged others to inflict on the man who ran the race of faith before him. That was not vindictive punishment, but abounding grace.

But the Lord, who had announced such suffering for him, had watched over His servant. He was in His own hands, as every child of God is in His care. The enemy stood behind the furious mob, just as he stood behind the attempt to sacrifice to them. He would have killed Paul. But he could not touch Paul's life, just as he was not permitted to touch the life of another servant of God, Job (Job 2:6).

God gave him that marvellous revelation: he was "caught up into paradise and heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter" (2 Cor. 12:4). As far as we can judge, it came just when others on earth had given up hope for his life for Christ's sake. The mob had "stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead." It was the right moment to let a man who seemed finished with earth see what heaven was like. So in His wonderful wisdom God lets this man see and hear Jesus there. Then he comes back to earth, to the place from which Christ was cast out. There he learns afresh that the grace of Christ is enough.

Paul now goes through the very thing he had helped to bring on Stephen. In Stephen's case God did not step in; in Paul's case He did. Was Paul dead, or only beaten to the edge of death? We have no way of knowing. Either way, his return to normal health and strength, almost in an instant, was a miracle. The next day he set out to preach the gospel in another city, just as though nothing had happened to him.

But the Lord, who had said beforehand that he would suffer like this, had watched over His servant. Paul was in the Lord's own hands, as every child of God is in His care. The enemy stood behind the furious mob, just as he stood behind the earlier attempt to offer sacrifices to them, and he would have killed Paul. But he could not touch Paul's life, just as he was not allowed to touch the life of another servant of God, Job. His sudden recovery was supernatural.

But his life was still in him, as Paul himself said later about Eutychus. Paul's work was only beginning, not finished. His staying alive in the body was needed for many sinners and for all saints. He could not die like this, though Jews had stirred up Gentiles to do their worst and imagined it was all over.

It was not enough that he stood up; he went into the city that had just dragged him out as a corpse... Fear would have said, Go anywhere else for now. Self would have whispered, Stay where you are, and see what a triumph this will be for the gospel later! But neither of these thoughts of man is the mind of Christ. The apostle had the mind of Christ, and acted on it. May we have it too, by His grace!

At Lystra they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead. It is very likely that the boy Timothy was among the disciples who "gathered about him" when he "rose up and entered the city."... Yet he did not hesitate to follow Paul, though he must have known well that it would mean sharing the same kind of persecution.

But his life was in God's hands... They had stoned him and left him for dead, and his enemies were satisfied. Now the Lord worked and raised up His servant... The next day he was able to travel, and he went with Barnabas to break new ground at Derbe. He did not only recover: he was fit for the twenty-mile journey the next day, and able to start preaching the good news of salvation in a new place.

But it was not in the thoughts of God that His servant should die then... Cruelty and violence neither stop the work nor weaken the courage of His servants. When the Lord wills it, they come back in peace to the very places they were driven out of. It is beautiful to see the calm superiority of faith over the violence of man, and how God guides the hearts of His servants.

Remember that it was usually the Jews who stirred up the trouble, using Gentiles as their tools. So if there were few Jews in Derbe, it is no surprise that they were left free from persecution in that city. This agrees with what Paul wrote many years later. He lists the treatment he met on this journey at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra (2 Tim. 3:11), but he mentions no opposition at Derbe. So here they could work in peace, preaching the gospel as they always did, and great blessing followed. For they made many disciples (Acts 14:21) — that is the better translation. It was a breathing time for them.

This, or the country round about, was the farthest limit westward for the present. A visit to Cilicia, or even to Tarsus, might have looked like an inviting opportunity. But he had blamed John Mark for leaving them and the work to return to Jerusalem. He was not the man to allow such a claim.

He was much blessed in this city. Then he goes on his way and returns to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, the cities that had expelled him. Outrage and violence neither hinder the work nor weaken the courage of the servants. When the Lord so wills it, they return in peace to the very places from which they have been driven. It is beautiful to see the calm superiority of faith over the violence of man. It is beautiful to see how God guides the hearts of His servants. They submit to violence, or avoid it if possible; but if the work needs it, God opens the door, and the labourers are there with it again.

We may wonder how the people of Lystra felt when they saw this man they had stoned to death preaching again in their city.

They had been evangelising as they passed from city to city, and many converts were the result. Would they leave them, when just converted, to get on as best they could? From 1 Thess. 2:17-18 and 3:10 we learn that this was not what the Apostle Paul wanted. He knew that converts had to be established in the faith. When he was allowed to, he loved to revisit the places where he had worked, to do just that. And no persecution that he had met with could deter him from such a service.

Their outward journey ended at Derbe. It had been a journey of gospel work and suffering. On the way back they gave themselves to pastoral work, to confirm and establish the souls of the disciples in the faith.

First, they were "establishing the souls of the disciples". This is a necessary part of the labour of love, and a real need for new-born souls. Many who are blessed in awakening others have little power to confirm young disciples. Here were servants of the Lord fitted beyond all to help on the unestablished.

It seems that Timothy was brought to the Lord in this area, during this visit, through the apostle Paul (1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2). In Acts 16:1 he is already called a disciple in Derbe and Lystra, well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Here no reference is made to him, though grace had great things in store for him.

The apostles chose elders for the assemblies in every city. The elders were neither chosen by common vote nor ordained. That is not the true rendering of the word. The word means "chose." The same word is used in 2 Corinthians 8:19, where the assemblies chose brothers to travel with Paul carrying the money collected for the poor of Jerusalem. The same word occurs again in Acts 10:41, there of God, and "chosen" is the only possible sense. The letter to Titus is a further proof that the authority of the apostles was the source of the authority of the elders.

Scripture nowhere points to the churches picking elders by a show of hands, or in any other way. If the word did carry that sense here, it would mean that Paul and Barnabas chose the elders by a vote. Nobody holds that, or wants to. The pronoun "for them" confirms this still more. It shuts the disciples out of the part in the election they would like. It makes the apostles choose the elders for the saints concerned. Of all the readings, then, the worst is the friendly compromise that says the apostles ordained whoever each church elected.

The elders and bishops, or overseers, were the same people. The verse shows that the apostles appointed the elders, and that there were several of them in each assembly. It also shows that the assembly was not dependent on them. The journey described took a long time. Until the apostle returned to each city, the church of that city had no elders. That was so despite the persecution it endured and the little knowledge it had.

Souls were saved and assemblies were formed. Afterwards we find the apostles returning and strengthening the disciples. More than that, enough time had passed to reveal who were qualified to be elders in these assemblies.

Making the choice needed apostolic discernment. It needed a real spirit of dependence on God, so they prayed. It needed a refusal of the desires of the flesh, so they fasted. They chose the elders so that all might recognise them. Even so, they did not put the rest of the believers into the hands of the elders. No, they "committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed." Faith set each believer in direct connection and communion with the Lord. The apostles appointed elders not to block the faith of the saints, but to stir it up to more reality and depth.

The apostles chose elders in each assembly in this region, but then, interestingly, commended the other believers to the Lord — not to the elders. While oversight was useful and necessary (and its official institution possible while there were apostles on earth), each believer had and kept a direct relationship with the Lord in whom they had believed. The apostles' prayer with fasting shows how intensely they longed that each of these young believers should prosper spiritually, in direct communion with the Lord.

We have no such apostolic power or delegated authority today. But we can still rely on the Holy Spirit to raise up qualified and able men, and to give them energy to take the oversight of His flock and to feed His lambs and sheep. The Holy Spirit was at work then, and it must be the Holy Spirit now. Suppose God raises up an elder or elders in an assembly. They go after the wanderers, warn the disorderly, comfort those who are cast down, and counsel, correct and guide souls. Then we should gladly own such men and value them very highly for their work's sake.

Pisidia. District of Asia Minor lying between Pamphylia and Phrygia, through which Paul passed. Acts 13:14; Acts 14:24. Travellers speak of it as wild and rugged.

As you read these records, try to realise how many hundreds and thousands of miles the apostle travelled. He went by sea, on foot, on animal, or by carriage. Sometimes the journey was under the sweltering heat of the summer sun. Sometimes it was through snow and ice, biting winds, blizzards, and mountain passes blocked for weeks at a time. The roads at best were poor, often mere bridle-paths, or non-existent. The country was full of robbers and bandits, who held life cheap.

He was much blessed in this city. Then he goes on his way and returns to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch — the towns that had expelled him. Outrage and violence neither stop the work nor weaken the courage of the servants. When the Lord wills it, they return in peace to the very places from which they have been driven. It is beautiful to see how calmly faith rises above the violence of man, and how God guides the hearts of His servants. They submit to violence, or avoid it if they can. But if the work needs it, God opens the door, and the workers are there again.

They had been evangelising as they passed from city to city, and many converts were the result. Would they leave them, when just converted, to get on as best they could? From 1 Thessalonians 2:17-18 and 3:10 we learn that the apostle Paul did not want that. He knew converts needed to be established in the faith. When he could, he loved to go back to the places where he had worked, to do just that. And no persecution he had met with could stop him from such a service.

Their outward journey ended at Derbe. It had been a journey of evangelistic work and suffering. On the return journey they gave themselves to pastoral work. Their aim was to confirm and establish the souls of the disciples in the faith. Notice that they did not hide from the disciples that suffering lay ahead. They told them it was unavoidable. They did not say that we may enter the Kingdom through some tribulation. They said we must enter through much tribulation.

They sailed to Perga, the main city of Pamphylia. Nothing noteworthy about Perga is mentioned, except that Mark there left them and returned to Jerusalem. "He did not go with them to the work," said Luke some time later (Acts 15:38). The time to evangelise Perga had evidently not yet come (14:25).

They had started from there, commended to the grace of God — not to the work, but for the work. God had called them to it, and they fulfilled it. No man appointed them to it. But the fellowship of the saints in it was a valuable encouragement.

So from Paphos they sailed to Perga, the chief city of Pamphylia, on the river Cestus, about seven miles from the sea. The record tells us nothing worth noting about Perga, except that Mark left them there and returned to Jerusalem. Luke said some time later that Mark "had not gone with them to the work" (Acts 15:38). They pushed on north to Antioch in Pisidia. It seems the time to preach the gospel in Perga had not yet come (14:25). They reached that city, the capital of the province, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

Commending the disciples to the Lord Himself, Paul and Barnabas leave and pass through Pisidia and Pamphylia, preaching the Word in Perga, then passing into Attalia. They had visited Perga before (Chapter 13:13), but nothing is said of any results of their work there.

So ended the apostles' first great journey to preach the gospel to the nations. Perga had heard the word on their return, if not on the earlier visit — the visit saddened by John leaving them there. This time they touched at Attalia (the modern Satalia, or Adalias), instead of Paphos or any other part of Cyprus. From that port they made the voyage to Antioch in Syria, their starting point, without difficulty.

We see that they rejoiced in the work of preaching the gospel. Yet neither Barnabas nor Paul neglected the important service of establishing the converts in the faith. Each line of service, however, had its time and place. We notice also the care they took to shepherd the sheep and to keep order in the assemblies. Once this was arranged, they left the scene of such marked blessing given to them. They passed through Pisidia and came back to Perga in Pamphylia. This time they spoke the word there. Then they went down to a seaport named Attalia, about sixteen miles away.

From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch in Syria. They had started from there, commended to the grace of God. They were commended not to the work, but for the work God had called them to, and which they carried out. Man's appointment had nothing to do with this. But the fellowship of the saints in it was a valuable encouragement.

The church in that city must have gladly welcomed the travellers back, after an absence reckoned at nearly two years. We have no account of the number of professed converts. There is no record of those baptised, and no list of members in any of the towns where they had worked. Modern mission reports often make much of such statistics. The inspired account of gospel work among the Gentiles generally leaves them out. Paul and Barnabas worked without salary, so they owed no account of their success to men. The record is with God.

The last part of verse 26 makes the meaning of what came before this missionary visit clearer still, if that was needed. It was in no true sense an "ordination" of Barnabas and Paul. As described here, it was their recommendation to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. Indeed Acts 15:40 suggests the same was done again on the apostle's second journey with Silas. The notion of holy orders founded on the beginning of Acts 13 is therefore false and out of place. It also strips the act of all its gracious meaning.

Laying on of hands was practised as far back as Genesis, when a father or grandfather laid his hands on the children. It was a sign of recommendation to God by someone who was conscious of being so near to God that he could count on His blessing. So in the New Testament people often did this with no claim that it gave anyone a ministerial position. Here in Acts 13 it expressed a solemn and precious act of fellowship with these honoured servants of Christ in the special missionary work to which the Holy Spirit had called them.

We are also told what they were called to. They set out at once on this special work, and at the end of it they return to Antioch. There Scripture adds, "where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled." So it is as certain as Scripture can make it: the work in question was not an apostle's, prophet's, or teacher's office. It was simply an evangelistic mission to the needy fields of Asia Minor.

The Holy Spirit had sent them out with His own authority (Acts 13:4). That placed them under direct responsibility to the Lord, whose servants they were. Even so, they were quick to share all His doings with the saints. They call together the assembly they had gone out from, so that all could rejoice in His grace, and above all in His grace to the Gentiles. The church is not the source of mission, but the scene of communion with divine grace.

It is quite true that the servant answers to his Master for how and where he works. Yet he is also responsible not to compromise the fellowship he has with the saints. Each servant is under the control of the Lord himself. Even so, he cannot act as a lone unit. He has to weigh how, where, and with whom he works, so as not to compromise the assembly he comes from. … In Acts 13:1-4 Paul and Barnabas start from Antioch with the commendation of their fellow believers. In Acts 14:26 they return and give an account of their work.

It is to Antioch they go, not to Jerusalem; they return to their starting point, from where they had been recommended to the grace of God. On earth the Holy Spirit's work is linked with Antioch, but the power for it all comes from above.

The servants told what "God had done with them." God was the worker. They were only the instruments He was pleased to use. And it was God who had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. The first missionary journey had proved this beyond all dispute.

In Acts 10, we see God opening the kingdom of heaven to the Gentile. In Acts 14:27, we see Him opening "the door of faith" to the Gentile. In Acts 28:28, we see Him sending His salvation to the Gentile. But we search in vain, from cover to cover of the blessed Book, for a passage in which He places the Gentile under the law.

Faith comes first, and that is only natural. It is by "the door of faith" (Acts 14:27) that we enter into blessing. And in our everyday lives as believers, "without faith it is impossible to please" God (Heb. 11:6).

The Church's testimony stood firm in front of a hostile world, without human influence, human organization or human learning. The Lord "opened the door of faith to the Gentiles" (Acts 14:27) and no man could shut it. Again the Apostle can say, "a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries" (1 Cor. 16:9). If the Lord opened a door for one man, many adversaries could not silence his testimony.

The church however ought to take delight in acknowledging those whom the Lord sends. We find it so at Antioch (Acts 14:27), when Paul and Barnabas came back from a mission on which the Spirit of God had sent them. So the believers at Antioch "let them go"; but the Holy Spirit "sent them out" (Acts 13:3-4)… He has not given up His rights, or handed them over to the church or to anyone in it… Mission, like gift, belongs to the Lord; and He is the same still.

If we gather the assembly of God's people together, as was the case with Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, it should be to declare "all that God had done, and how He had opened the door" (Acts 14:27). But when, after service, we gather together to Jesus, it is to tell Him what we have done and taught. How good for our souls to look back over our acts and words in the presence of One Who will never flatter. Before Him we cannot boast, and from Him nothing can be hidden.

When you come back from a happy and successful gospel campaign, do you dear evangelists gather the Church together to share the good news? Oh, you say, we should not like to put ourselves forward like that. The saints would not come together for that purpose. I am very sorry for the saints. If you went home and did it, some would probably say, "He thinks a great deal of himself." If that is so, at least one other thing is clear: the church today has lost its first love for the gospel, and its victories. In plain language, we are not so simple as they were in that day. God enlarge our hearts, for we need it.

They go to Antioch, not to Jerusalem. They return to their starting-point, where they had been commended to the grace of God. The work of the Holy Spirit is linked with Antioch here on earth. The power is all from above. There the apostles recount the great things which God had done for them, and how He had opened the door among the Gentiles. "And they remained no little time with the disciples."

They went out from the assembly, commended by the assembly. The assembly was the centre from which their service flowed, and back they came to it. They served the Lord in their individual responsibility to Him. They did not take their directions from the assembly. They took their directions straight from the Lord Himself. They served the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit and as guided by Him. But the assembly was their centre.

From this time Barnabas and Saul were fellow-workers and close companions in the work of the Lord, until the events recorded in Acts 15. Antioch would appear to have been their headquarters for a considerable time. From it they went out on the special missionary tour recorded in Acts 13, prayerfully commended by the assembly there. And to it they return.

We should bear in mind that the stay of Paul and Barnabas on their return to Antioch was not short.

For a long time Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch. No doubt it would be a welcome break. Paul had endured hard toil, and he had passed through very turbulent times of persecution.

The assembly had sent them out from its heart, with the entire fellowship of the saints. They, on their part, were in fullest fellowship with the saints, and counted on their interest in the Lord's work. So they gave the saints a detailed description of what God had done through them in the proclamation of His word. They then resumed their labours in Antioch, for they "remained no little time with the disciples."

No one challenged them in Antioch itself during their long stay there, but then most in that church were of Gentile descent. Then certain men came down from the Jerusalem area. Everything changed with their teaching: keeping circumcision was absolutely necessary for salvation. Paul and Barnabas had not practised this.

It was of God that Paul and Barnabas should return to Antioch at this time. The question of how Christians stood in relation to the ceremonial law was just coming up for discussion, and it demanded an authoritative settlement.

Circumcision "according to the custom of Moses," that is, according to the law, tied the circumcised person to Judaism. By asking for it, these teachers were trying to rebuild the middle wall of partition which God had broken down. There is no such partition in the church. We who belong to it stand on a completely new basis. Whether Jew or Gentile, we are made one new man… So these men came down and they said in effect, "You will have to make these people a kind of second-rate Jew. You'll have to bring them into our legal system, or they'll never be saved."

An addition no one had a right to make endangers the truth of God even more than the open opposition of unbelief. These men did not openly deny the gospel. They did not teach that a religious ceremony by itself could save anyone. But they did insist that circumcision was necessary for salvation. This undermines Christianity, which is not just promise but accomplished work… What does law or circumcision have to do with Him who is at the right hand of God?

These men came from Jerusalem, so they seemed to have the approval of the assembly and of the twelve apostles there. That gave their statements greater weight. Paul and Barnabas saw how serious their error was, and they "had no small dissension and debate with them" — and well they might. To insist that keeping the law of Moses was essential to salvation nullified Paul's gospel. It destroyed the doctrine of grace. It raised the deeds of the law into at least a partly saving grace.

They are not called "brothers," we notice. In our chapter Paul does not hesitate to call them "false brothers secretly brought in." So even this early, unconverted men were getting in among the saints of God, despite apostolic watchfulness and care!

They did not say, "You are Christians, and that is fine. But now you also need to be circumcised. You need to keep the law to live a holy life for God." No, they said, "Unless you are circumcised, you cannot be saved." The first view is more subtle, but it is very dangerous. It is an attack of the enemy to corrupt this new testimony of God's grace. The gospel is one hundred percent grace. To put one percent law into it, as these enemies did, corrupts it… Today this happens in many forms. For example, some people say, "I have been baptized, so I am saved."

They preach their legal doctrine boldly and without a doubt, as men of their sort usually do… One would think it need not have caused much alarm, for they could quote neither Scripture nor apostle for it. But the sheep of Christ are, sadly, a timid people. A loud voice and a confident tone tend to dismay them, if not carry them along… Jerusalem is to be the place of settlement, and for this very reason: the Jewish yoke is to be taken off the necks of the Gentiles for ever, and no other hands could do it so well.

Men from Judea, claiming to know Christ, came to Antioch. They taught the Gentile believers that they had to be circumcised to be saved. Of course, such a mixing of Judaism with Christianity would corrupt the whole character of the gospel of the grace of God. Paul and Barnabas saw this and stood against this effort of the enemy.

The troublemakers came from Judea, and that would tend to lend weight to their words with the weak and ignorant. Satan is always active to take advantage of this. Human tradition creeps in easily, and just as naturally flatters the flesh… We can never trust human tradition, even among disciples. God is jealous for His word. That word bears constant witness to Christ, and so it witnesses against human pride.

God did not allow Paul and Barnabas to settle the question at Antioch. Such a decision would not have ended the controversy; it would have made two assemblies. But once the Jewish Christians and the assembly at Jerusalem allowed liberty to the Gentiles, no one could oppose their freedom from the law. The apostles did not settle the point by their apostolic authority, although that authority confirmed the decree.

Paul and Barnabas themselves were unable to settle the dispute. Self-will cannot be beaten, even by apostles… Ending the dispute at Antioch might have been dangerous, however desirable that was in itself. The evil was deep-rooted in principle by its very nature. It would surely have broken out again later, and elsewhere — probably worst of all in Jerusalem itself. So it was true wisdom to take the further discussion of the question back to the source the mischief had come from.

The whole of Galatians 2 gives us remarkable insight into what was at stake in the discussion, which started at Antioch and ended at Jerusalem: nothing less than the truth and liberty of the gospel. Our chapter says "they determined" that Paul and others should go to Jerusalem. Yet Paul himself went up "by revelation" — the Lord made it clear to him that he was to go… The Galatian letter shows that Paul was fully assured what the mind of God was in this matter, but that God also showed him he should agree to the question going to Jerusalem for settlement there.

Elder is a word that has come down from the early family days of Israel (Ex. 3:16). The family was the model of government, and in the family the father, as the elder, had authority. The nation then followed the same pattern, and the heads of households became the heads of the nation… Acts 11:30 gives us the first use of the word for leaders in the Church of God, and it appears often in that sense afterwards.

We do not have apostles today, nor a "Jerusalem" as in Acts 15. Yet Acts 15 lays down an important principle for us to act on at all times. Questions that affect the Church as a whole call for representative brothers from the assemblies to weigh them together, seeking the Lord's guidance in prayer and consultation. No assembly and no person has the right to act alone in matters that affect the whole Church.

Is there any good reason why propemphthentes should not be rendered "set forward" here, as in Romans 15:24, 1 Corinthians 16:6 and 3 John 6? No doubt the heart of the saints was with them, not with the legalists. But there was also thoughtful and affectionate care for their needs along the way.

The voices causing trouble have come from Judea. That is where a growing and fatal error may have its seat. The place to meet it is where it started, and with the full agreement of the leaders in the Jewish assemblies. Paul and Barnabas, with others from Antioch, are to go up there. The assembly sets them on their way, as evidence of its fellowship with them.

This is from epistrephō, "to turn to." In Scripture it is the actual effect that goes with the new birth — a turning to God. It comes out beautifully in the Thessalonians. They "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thessalonians 1:9). Paul and Barnabas were able to make known to the saints the "conversion of the Gentiles" (Acts 15:3).

But, blessed for ever be the God of all grace, He caused a noble stand to be made against such deadly teaching. When the enemy came in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord raised up a standard against him. … They passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing — not the circumcision, but — the conversion of the Gentiles. And they brought great joy to all the brothers.

There again you have the servants sharing their common joy with the saints, and causing great joy. That is what took place in those early days of freshness and simplicity. I am only telling you what the Lord has recorded, just to stir us all up. … I know the secret of all this fellowship in the effects of the gospel. They had all one heart for Christ. They thought only of the glory of Christ.

Paul and Barnabas tell what happened on their journey — the conversion of the Gentiles. The brothers rejoice with great joy. Here the simplest hearts enjoy the grace of God with simplicity. But at Jerusalem they met with greater difficulty.

Everywhere, as they pass through Phoenicia and Samaria, they carry the news of the Gentile work now properly beginning, and of the wonderful power of God shown in it. This was a fitting introduction. It would bring hearts into accord with Him in the grace He has already shown. And it would make them afraid to cloud that grace by bringing in a principle that flatly contradicts the first free action of the Spirit — the very principle men would now gladly introduce.

The disciples in Phoenicia and Samaria showed great joy as they heard of the conversion of Gentiles. We read of nothing like that from the assembly at Jerusalem. Perhaps the strong party there who pressed the Jewish law made some regard Paul and Barnabas with a degree of suspicion.

Sadly, Jerusalem was now the source of the evil. This disease spread out from the assembly in Jerusalem itself. Satan's aim was to corrupt the doctrine of the grace of God... It was far more important to stop the tide at Jerusalem. The apostles, the elders and everyone had to give their verdict firmly against these wrongdoers. That counted for much more than the censure of Paul and Barnabas on its own. So taking the question to Jerusalem was a very fitting and wise act.

Suppose Paul had tried to settle the matter at Antioch and act on his own apostolic authority. There could easily have been a split between himself and the other apostles. Instead, the decision granted liberty to the Gentile converts. And it came in the very place where the decision would have gone the other way, if God had not controlled things by His Spirit.

The heart of the church beat truly, but now there were enemies inside as well as outside. This was not yet the conference, only the meetings leading up to it. There the wonderful works of God through the gospel drew out sympathy from some at Jerusalem who bore the Lord's name, and opposition from others. Scripture says plainly that those who at this time resented the liberty of grace had believed.

Paul took Titus with him as a protest against that teaching which pressed the Jewish law on Gentiles, and as a defence of the truth. Titus was a pure Gentile by birth, and Paul took him up still uncircumcised. So when the believers at Jerusalem welcomed Paul and his company, they welcomed an uncircumcised Christian among them.

Here again they speak of what filled their hearts with joy — and that is important. I am sure of this. Often a servant of the Lord has a painful duty, and his heart gets filled with it. Even when that is right, this very earnest pressure becomes a real hindrance... Meanwhile your heart goes out to what matches His own grace. Then, when you do have to speak about the thing that grieves you, there is so much more power.

The disciples in Phoenicia and Samaria showed great joy as they heard of the conversion of Gentiles. We have no mention, however, of anything like that from the assembly at Jerusalem. Perhaps the strong party there that pressed the Jewish law made people view Paul and Barnabas with some degree of suspicion. It seems reports had reached those at Jerusalem about him and Barnabas that did nothing to improve their reputation as faithful workers and guardians of the truth... All distrust and distance seemed to disappear completely.

Elders come into view as the fellow workers of the apostles in the church at Jerusalem in Acts 15:2, 4, 6, 22, 23. Notice that the text refers to them in the plural. The New Testament gives no support to the idea of one bishop or elder set over a church. It gives still less support to the idea of one bishop overseeing several churches.

Notice that this is something new. The trouble is not only the envious Jews who do not believe. It is legalism at work in the Jews who do believe. This is the serious evil that now starts to show itself. They insist that it is "necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses." In fact they thought that Christians would be all the better for being good Jews.

No doubt these believers — priests, Pharisees, or eager lovers of the law — were mostly true souls with sincere faith in Christ. Yet nothing they had heard in the gospel had made them feel that any of this was out of place. They saw no clash between faith in Christ and priestly service in the worn-out and empty temple. They saw none between faith in Christ and the ways of the Pharisees, or eager law-keeping. They had heard the tune of the gospel. But the note that would lift them up and out of all these things had not yet sounded clearly in their ears.

The word translated "sect" comes from a Greek word meaning "to choose." The same word is used of the parties among the Jews, such as the Sadducees and the Pharisees (Acts 5:17; Acts 15:5; Acts 26:5). … The teaching that is held and pressed may be true in itself, but it may be blown out of proportion or taken out of its place. The usual result is that a party or sect is formed. … God has given in His word everything the church needs. So there is no room for man's choice or man's will. He must be a humble receiver.

Who made it "necessary"? Not God, surely. In His infinite grace He had opened the door of faith to them without circumcision, and without any command to keep the law of Moses. No; it was "certain men" who dared to call such things necessary — men who have troubled the church of God from that day to this — men "desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions."

The heart of the church beat true, but now there were enemies inside as well as outside. … So the crisis was grace.

God did not want to "put a yoke on the neck" of people whose hearts the gospel of peace had set free. … How could we ever accept the idea that God receives people in grace and then rules them by law? Impossible. "We believe," says Peter, "that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will." … Those Pharisees were pulling down the very foundations of the Christian faith. And so is everyone who tries to put believers under the law.

Jerusalem, sadly, was now the fountain of the evil: this plague spread from the assembly in Jerusalem. Satan's aim was to pollute the doctrine of the grace of God. God let the authority, and even the power, of Paul and Barnabas fail completely to stop the evil. This turned out for good. It was far more important to stem the tide in Jerusalem, and to have the apostles, elders, and all give their verdict fully against these evildoers, than to have only the censure of Paul and Barnabas.

The truth is, the question was whether Judaism would be forced on the Gentiles. In mercy, God did not let it be thrown out at Antioch and win the day at Jerusalem, which would have split the church in two at once. Instead, in His gracious wisdom, under the apostles' guidance, He led the Jewish part of the church to decide that the old ordinances they clung to were not binding on Gentiles.

The apostles and elders (not all the assembly) came together to consider this serious matter: were Gentile believers to be circumcised and commanded to keep the law of Moses? Notice here that Paul did not take a leading part. Yet in Galatians 2:1-5 he makes it clear that he would not give in one inch to these teachers who pressed the law on people.

Does this not teach us something? Some matters, either weighty or special in character, may be better weighed first by the older brothers. Only then are they brought to the whole assembly for approval. In sending chosen men and a letter to Antioch, the whole assembly stands with the apostles and elders in the decision (Acts 15:22, 23).

They allowed free but sober discussion. Both sides stated their case openly. There is no record of anyone trying to score points by stooping to the level lawyers sometimes show in court. There was much discussion, as verse 7 states. The truth is great, and therefore it fears no investigation.

We read of none but apostles and elders; but the letter is addressed from all (verses 6 and 23). The people had been disputing a long time before the apostles said anything. Peter and Paul were wise to let them wear themselves out first.

But did not the council at Jerusalem decide a doctrinal question? But at that time the New Testament was not yet written. The apostles were there, taught by God about the Church, and they spoke with an authority that now belongs only to the Scriptures. Besides, this was not a general council of the Church. It was only a local gathering of the Church of Jerusalem... All the circumstances were exceptional, and cannot possibly be repeated.

There, in conference, they settled the matter and found the mind of the Lord for both Jewish and Gentile believers... United consultation and united action had prevented a split among the assemblies, and the result was joy and comfort.

Verse 7 tells us there was much debate or questioning. No doubt it was sad and humbling that they argued like this, even in front of the apostles. But the fact is plain, and the Holy Spirit records it calmly. That should convince quite a few people how far their idea of church order differs from the earliest history. Even in the apostles' days we see how liberty prevailed, though the flesh took advantage of it. Destroying that liberty because people abuse it would be a cure worse than the disease.

In Acts 15:7 Peter speaks of God choosing him to preach the gospel to the nations from the earliest (or ancient) days. He no doubt means the beginning of the church at Pentecost.

The main use of keys is to open doors. So in Acts 2 God chose Peter to preach the first sermon after the Holy Spirit came down from heaven. Three thousand people were brought to repentance, and baptised at once in the Saviour's name. But these were Jews only. In Acts 10 the same apostle preached Christ for the first time to a Gentile gathering. The happy result: everyone gathered in Cornelius' house believed.

That gives us the particular work of Peter. My aim has been to show how God put honour on that blessed servant of His. It was by his mouth that the Jews, as a whole, heard the gospel in its fullness and received the Holy Spirit... Peter was used to preach to the Gentiles first of all; and Paul, I would note, was used to write to the Jews last of all. Both came at just the right time. This shuts out all thought of independence, since some might have thought Peter was out of his place. He was the apostle of the circumcision. Yes, but for all that, it was by his mouth that the Gentiles first heard the gospel.

The fact was that God had already decided the point in principle by what He did in the case of Cornelius. We can now understand why so much space is given to that case in the Acts; for this is the third time it is brought before us.

How sweet is the grace of God, and what an unexpected blow to the claims of the Pharisees who believed! And this from Peter! If Paul had said it, there would have been less to wonder at. The apostle of the Gentiles (so they were inclined to think) would of course speak up for the Gentiles. But what about Peter? What led the great apostle of the circumcision to speak like this? And to say it in front of the twelve apostles, in Jerusalem itself?

There was much "disputing," or "discussion," and then Peter made a decisive pronouncement, by referring to the case of Cornelius, in which he had himself been involved. He pointed out that the heart-knowing God had borne witness to these Gentile converts by giving them the Holy Spirit — the same gift He had given to the Jewish believers on the Day of Pentecost. God had cleansed these Gentiles, as Peter's vision of the great sheet showed. He purified their hearts by faith, not by any ceremonial washing. In fact God had already settled the point in principle by what He did with Cornelius. We can now see why Acts gives so much space to that case; this is the third time it comes before us.

Ordinarily the Spirit came after faith. It was God who knew the faith of their hearts, bearing witness to them as His by the outward sign. They occupied the same level with the apostles and the saints of Judea.

Our apostle claimed the same grace for the believing Gentiles when he pleaded the cause of their liberty against those who sought to put them under law: "And the heart-knowing God bore them witness, giving the Holy Spirit just as to us also, and made no difference between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith."

Here again the gift of the Holy Spirit is quoted as the voucher upon which the Jewish Christians acted in their first reception of their Gentile brothers to a recognised position in the new community.

He needed to hear the word of truth, the gospel of his salvation; and that gospel went out once Christ had finished His work. Without this, as the fruit of Christ's work, the Holy Spirit could not be given. But as Cornelius and the rest listened, the heart-knowing God bore them witness; and they received the Holy Spirit as the Jewish saints did at Pentecost.

Peter's vision and the admission of Cornelius only showed that in every nation the one who feared God was acceptable to Him. In a word, the favour of God was not limited to the Jews. There was no need to become a Jew to share the salvation that is in Christ… The Holy Spirit — the seal of Christian blessing among the Jews, the fruit of redemption accomplished by Jesus — was given to Gentiles as to Jews. The Jews might be astonished at it; but there was no resisting God.

It might seem a small matter for Peter to treat the Jewish believers as Jews and the Gentile believers as Gentiles. That was the practice of his nation in past centuries. But in doing so, Peter was actually denying what he himself had established in preaching the gospel — that God now put no difference between Jews and Gentiles.

Peter reminds the assembly how God had chosen him first to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. God had given the Spirit to Cornelius, though he was not circumcised. God Himself had testified to them by the Holy Spirit, just as He had to the believing Jews. He had made no difference between them, purifying their hearts by faith. ... For did not they themselves believe that they had been saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, and not by ordinances?

Peter receives a threefold testimony of God's purifying the Gentiles by faith, instead of separating Israel by circumcision. The cross had changed everything, and put no difference between believers, Jew or Gentile. The Jew had lost his old superiority according to the flesh. Both alike were now open to far better blessings in Christ by faith.

Would the objectors argue that purification by legal ceremonies was necessary? Such things could really only serve to sanctify the flesh. But God looks at the heart. Now He had purified the hearts of those Gentiles by faith... So the ground was being cut away from under their feet — and by the apostle to the Jews.

Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as made known in the gospel produces a moral cleansing in the heart, the seat of the affections, cleansing it from the defilement that belonged to it as inherited from Adam.

Now when God's word enters the soul by faith, it deals with the conscience in a purifying way; it awakens a sense of sin, and produces repentance toward God. That is why Peter speaks of cleansing our hearts by faith (Acts 15:9)... It was God's word which worked in His grace. It was received not as men's word, but as what it truly is — God's word, which also works effectively in those who believe (1 Thess. 2:13).

God Himself had worked to remove the difference between Jewish and Gentile believers. He purified their hearts by faith, not by ordinances. Could they dare to ignore the immense significance of this? If so, they were tempting God. They were opposing what He Himself had done, and putting a yoke on the neck of Gentile believers which Israel had never been able to bear.