Acts 13

     Barnabas and Paul are called by the church at Antioch (in Syria, third largest city after Rome and Alexandria) to go on the first missionary journey to the Gentiles.  A summary of Paul’s sermon at Pisidian Antioch (in Galatia) is given.

     13:1-3.  Saul was set apart by Christ from his conversion to take the word to the Gentiles (9:15), but he rightly did not begin this work until after a period of preparation, and finally the Holy Spirit, through the church, called and ordained him to it.  These steps are necessary for such a work.  Great harm would have resulted if he had acted without such unity and authority from the church.

     13:6, 8.  Elymas is the name that translates to wizard, or “magician,” not his Jewish name Bar-Jesus.

     13:9.  From this point on, Saul will be known in Acts by his Roman name, Paul.

     13:10-11.  Why waste diplomacy on the devil?  Paul had authority, and he used it.  Those who pretend to have Paul’s authority, (e.g., some healing and charismatic “ministries”), are in truth more like Elymas than like Paul.  The gullible, who seek for signs when signs have ceased, end up at a magic show expecting a miracle.

     13:13.  We are not told why the young John Mark left them and returned home to Jerusalem, but as we shall see, he had to prove himself before Paul would trust him again.

     13:14.  Pisidian Antioch, a Roman colony, was in the province of Galatia.

     13:15.  It was the usual practice in synagogues for the leaders to invite visiting rabbis to speak.

     13:16-41.  This is no doubt a greatly condensed presentation of Paul’s sermon.  It seems to highlight the following seven sections:

     13:17-21.  Section one.  God’s covenant with Israel, and his gracious choice and dealing with Israel in history up to the time of Saul.

     13:22-23.  Section two.  God’s Covenant with David, and the promise to him now fulfilled in his son Jesus, who is Israel’s savior.

     13:24-25.  Section three.  The witness of John the Baptist.

     13:26-31.  Section four.  Just as the prophets foretold, Jesus was despised and rejected, and was put to death.  But God raised him from the dead, a fact witnessed to by those who knew him best.

     13:32-37.  Section five.  The proclamation of the good news that all this is the fulfillment of the promises made to the fathers (32).  This salvation is for us and our children (33).  God has raised up Jesus (i.e., raised him up as king, cf.22).

     The use of Ps.2:7 calls attention to Christ’s being raised up as king, and as such being acknowledged as son and heir to the kingdom (cf. the voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism, “Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased.”  (Luke 3:22). 

     Not only has he been raised up as king, but he has been raised from the dead as king eternal, for God would not allow his Holy One to see the corruption of death (35, quoting Ps.16:10).

     To the objection that Ps.16 speaks of David, Paul shows that it actually only has its complete fulfillment in David’s greater son, since David’s body did in fact undergo decay (36-37).

     13:38-39.  Section six.  The proclamation that it is through Jesus Christ that sins are forgiven (38).  Everyone who believes is completely freed (Lit., justified, margin) of all sins, even all for which they were condemned by the Law of Moses (39).

     13:40-41.  Section seven.  A solemn warning is given not to reject the grace of God offered in Christ, for to do so will bring the judgment of God (quoting Hab.1:5).

     13:42-49.  The results of the sermon led to a common pattern of events.  There was a great commotion, with many of the Jews and their Gentile converts to Judaism (proselytes) believing, but jealousy was created among the leaders and their followers, who blasphemed Paul, and no doubt Jesus whom he preached (45).  As a result, Paul turned from them to the Gentiles (46), using Is.49:6 as Scriptural warrant to do so (47).

     13:46, 48 compared.  All men have a right to hear the gospel, and the Jews had the right to hear it first.  But any who reject God’s free offer of eternal life in Christ do not judge Christ, they judge themselves.  Paul himself once made the choice these men made in v.46, yet he was saved.  Until God intervenes, it will ever be the choice of fallen man to reject God’s way of salvation.  God is sovereign.  “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires”  (Ro.9:18).  V.48 does not say, as so many would like it to say, that as many as believed were appointed to eternal life.  But what does it say?  It says “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”  It isn’t as if the Bible were made to sound Calvinistic.  Rather, it was that the word of God made Calvin sound Biblical (he and all the other major reformers).

     13:50-52.  Women were not as devoid of influence in the ancient world, for good or bad, as one might be led to believe.  The leading men of the city could tell you tales (50).

     Though Paul and Barnabas were expelled from the district, the believers continued with joy in the infant church which they had left behind (52).