Acts 13:1-3

[Deborah_]

The church in Antioch don’t know it yet, but they’re about to start a brand new missionary initiative – and it’s very clear that it’s the Holy Spirit who’s in charge. He is the one who sets the ball rolling in the first place (verse 2). Now wouldn’t we all like to get guidance like that? How can we get the Holy Spirit to speak to us? Well, He doesn’t only talk to especially keen Christians, or especially holy ones. He can (and does) speak to any one of us, anywhere, and under any circumstances. But we are more likely to hear Him, and hear Him clearly, if we are listening – if we are ‘tuned in’, so to speak. Now this is what we see the church in Antioch doing: they meet together for worship, prayer and fasting – which is quite a potent combination. This is when they receive a message that is going to change the course of history. And since Luke specifically mentions prophets (verse 1), it’s very likely that the message came through a word of prophecy at one of their prayer meetings.

Now if you read this passage very quickly, you might get the impression that this prophecy comes completely out of the blue, and that Paul and Barnabas dash off on their mission immediately at the end of the prayer meeting. But it wasn’t quite like that… We are told elsewhere in the New Testament that prophecy must always be tested (I Corinthians 14:29; I John 4:1). So the church do a lot more fasting and praying before releasing the two men. And fasting isn’t a five-minute activity – it implies a number of days at least, probably weeks. Also, Paul has known about his calling to preach to the Gentiles for years, ever since his conversion. This new prophecy is a confirmation of what had gone before, and an indication that ‘now is the time to go’.

When Jesus sent His disciples out on mission, He always sent them ‘two by two’ (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1), and this principle hasn’t changed. The Holy Spirit doesn’t send Paul out on his own, but with his old colleague Barnabas. And throughout the book of Acts we see that Paul never works alone, always as part of a team. This time the third member of the team is John Mark (verse 5). “Two are better than one,” says Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 4:9,10), because they can help and support each other. But there are disadvantages as well: sometimes team members fall out, and the more members you have in the team, the greater the risk of friction. We don’t know what caused John Mark to break away and go home early (verse 13). Lots of different suggestions have been made, but they’re all speculation. The main thing to note is that although such things happen, they don’t need to stop the work going forward.

 

[Deborah_]

Acts 13:4-12

In Paphos Paul and his friends meet with opposition from a man called Elymas, who is also Jewish. But he is an example of the kind of person you often find on the ‘fringe’ of mainstream religion. Many Jews at that time thought it was quite all right to dabble in magic and astrology, just as many Christians today dabble in the New Age movement. “It’s all ‘spiritual’, so it’s OK, isn’t it?”

Well, here we have Elymas, who is a very manipulative, very plausible man – but he’s gripped by the wrong spirit, He is ‘successful’ – he has managed to worm his way into a position of considerable influence, and he probably gets a substantial fee from the proconsul for his services. But something in him recognises the Christian message as a threat to his own reputation, or even his livelihood. When Moses was trying to persuade Pharaoh to set the Israelites free, there were Egyptian magicians who competed with him for Pharaoh’s attention (Exodus 7:8-13). Elymas the magician does something very similar: he tries to distract the proconsul from what Paul is saying. But whereas Pharaoh’s heart was hard (because he didn’t want to believe Moses), Sergius Paulus has an open heart (he genuinely wants to know the truth) – and so the outcome is very different.

Where does Paul’s outburst (verses 9-11) come from? This isn’t the normal way of dealing with people who disagree with us! It’s not just Paul, acting on his own initiative. The Holy Spirit brings the issue out into the open by showing Paul what Elymas really is. Then He gives Paul the authority to deal with the situation and the words to say – but it’s Paul who says them. So it’s not just Paul, but it’s not just the Holy Spirit either – it’s both together.

We now have a straight fight between the power of God and the power of Satan – and there can be only one winner! See how the punishment fits the crime… Jesus warned us against ‘blind guides’ (Matthew 15:14), and Elymas is one of those – he has gone the wrong way himself, and he is trying to blindfold other people and lead them astray too. His temporary physical blindness makes this fact obvious to all, and Sergius Paulus is set free to enter the Kingdom.

 

[numenian]

The church in Antioch don’t know it yet, but they’re about to start a brand new missionary initiative – and it’s very clear that it’s the Holy Spirit who’s in charge. He is the one who sets the ball rolling in the first place (verse 2). Now wouldn’t we all like to get guidance like that? How can we get the Holy Spirit to speak to us? Well, He doesn’t only talk to especially keen Christians, or especially holy ones. He can (and does) speak to any one of us, anywhere, and under any circumstances. But we are more likely to hear Him, and hear Him clearly, if we are listening – if we are ‘tuned in’, so to speak. Now this is what we see the church in Antioch doing: they meet together for worship, prayer and fasting – which is quite a potent combination. This is when they receive a message that is going to change the course of history. And since Luke specifically mentions prophets (verse 1), it’s very likely that the message came through a word of prophecy at one of their prayer meetings.

Now if you read this passage very quickly, you might get the impression that this prophecy comes completely out of the blue, and that Paul and Barnabas dash off on their mission immediately at the end of the prayer meeting. But it wasn’t quite like that… We are told elsewhere in the New Testament that prophecy must always be tested (I Corinthians 14:29; I John 4:1). So the church do a lot more fasting and praying before releasing the two men. And fasting isn’t a five-minute activity – it implies a number of days at least, probably weeks. Also, Paul has known about his calling to preach to the Gentiles for years, ever since his conversion. This new prophecy is a confirmation of what had gone before, and an indication that ‘now is the time to go’.

When Jesus sent His disciples out on mission, He always sent them ‘two by two’ (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1), and this principle hasn’t changed. The Holy Spirit doesn’t send Paul out on his own, but with his old colleague Barnabas. And throughout the book of Acts we see that Paul never works alone, always as part of a team. This time the third member of the team is John Mark (verse 5). “Two are better than one,” says Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 4:9,10), because they can help and support each other. But there are disadvantages as well: sometimes team members fall out, and the more members you have in the team, the greater the risk of friction. We don’t know what caused John Mark to break away and go home early (verse 13). Lots of different suggestions have been made, but they’re all speculation. The main thing to note is that although such things happen, they don’t need to stop the work going forward.

The Holy Spirit speaks quietly and those that may hear this voice are changed within and are not pointing fingers.

 

[Deborah_]

What is Paul’s missionary strategy? He tells us in his letter to the Romans: he preaches “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16) He didn’t invent this himself; it’s based on Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet (Luke 14:15-24). The Jews already have an ‘invitation’ to enter the Kingdom of God, and so they must always hear the Gospel call first.

So Paul and Barnabas arrive in town, find somewhere to stay, and their first ‘missionary’ action is to go to the local synagogue on the Sabbath. Now Paul mentions another of his strategies in I Corinthians: “to the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.” (I Corinthians 9:20) So we have to imagine him dressing that morning as a devout Jew, maybe even putting a phylactery on his forehead to make it obvious that he’s a Pharisee. This will virtually guarantee that he will be invited to contribute to the discussion and that the other men there will respect what he has to say.

When I first read the book of Acts, I used to wonder how it was that Paul could just walk into a synagogue where he’d never been before and be allowed to preach there. But that was because I was subconsciously thinking that a first-century Middle Eastern synagogue was like a 20th-century European church. And of course, there were a number of differences! For a start, the men and women were separated. Now the meetings were very democratic – but only for the men! Any of the men present could speak to the congregation. When they had had their say, the other men would discuss and debate it. So although we call Paul’s speech a ‘sermon’, it was really more of a discussion starter.

It is very similar to Peter’s sermon in chapter 2 (and quite different from the sermon to pagans that Luke records in chapter 17) In the synagogue Paul is speaking to people who know the Scriptures and are familiar with religious concepts such as sin, so he refers to the Old Testament quite a lot. The first part (verses 16-22) is a fairly standard review of Jewish history and his theme is how God is faithful to His promises. “God promised our ancestors a homeland, and He gave them a homeland. They asked for a king, and God gave them a king.” So far, Paul has said nothing out of the ordinary. The congregation can follow his line of thought quite easily, and they think they can see where he’s going. What they expect him to say next is this: “And so, brothers, God has promised us a Messiah and one day He will give us a Messiah.” And everyone will nod and feel encouraged and say ‘Amen’. But he doesn’t say that! Instead he says: “God has promised a Messiah and the Messiah has come!" That’s not just unexpected, that’s absolutely mind-blowing! Any old codgers nodding off in the front row wake up with a start! Paul then talks about John the Baptist, and Jesus, and then he quotes the Scriptures, to show that Jesus fulfils the Messianic prophecies. And he says a lot about the Resurrection, because that is the proof that Jesus really is the Messiah!

When he has finished talking, questions will be fired at him: What is the evidence for what he has just said? How can Jesus be the Messiah if he was crucified? We can imagine that the discussion was unusually lively that Sabbath! And note that at this point there is no hostility at all. A lot of the people there become Christians on the spot, and even those that don’t are looking forward to another session the next week.

 

[Deborah_]

Acts 13:44-52

But something happens during the next few days. Paul and Barnabas have done their bit; and now the Holy Spirit sets to work. People go home and start talking to their friends and relatives about what they’ve heard, and a ripple of interest starts to flow through the city. And next Sabbath, when the synagogue president goes to open up for the meeting, he finds such a crowd in the street outside the synagogue that he has difficulty getting to the door! Now weekends haven’t been invented yet; for most people the Sabbath is a normal working day. Yet here is a vast horde of people, most of whom he has never seen before, pouring into the building, filling up all the seats, pressing in until there isn’t even room to stand – and still there are people trying to push in at the door! And are the ‘regulars’ pleased by this? Not a bit! They are thinking things like:
“Most of these people don’t know anything about the way we do things here. They don’t understand our traditions. They will be irreverent.”
“We’ve come here to listen to the Scriptures – the Law that makes us God’s special people. But this Gentile riff-raff aren’t interested in the Law at all, they want to hear Paul tell them that the Law has been fulfilled!”

And so the mood changes completely from the previous week, and in fact it gets quite ugly. Paul tries to explain the Gospel to all these new people, but the other Jews start shouting him down, contradicting him, and even insulting him. Like the guests invited to the wedding banquet in the parable, they are turning down their invitation into the Kingdom of God. And they don’t just refuse to join the party; they try to trash the party. Paul and Barnabas are saddened but not surprised, because they know that this was also something foretold by the prophets!

Mission is never going to go smoothly, because it’s a spiritual battle. But we have the human and the divine, working together – the apostles, witnessing in the power of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Holy Spirit plays a very obvious role, sometimes a more subtle one. Many people in and around Antioch became Christians – you can look at it from one angle and say that it was because Paul went and preached the Gospel there, but you could also look at it from another angle and say, as Luke does, that it was because God had “appointed them for eternal life.” (verse 48).