The missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas
13
📚Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch 📖, and Saul.13:1 The gifts of prophesying and teaching were two of the greatest gifts God gave the church – Rom 12:6-7; 1 Cor 12:28; 14:1; Eph 4:11-13.⚜
2 📚As they were engaged in ministry for the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to do”.
13:2 Notes on fasting at Matt 9:14-15. Observe here again the personality of the Holy Spirit. See Acts 8:29; 10:19; John 14:16-17. He calls men for specific work in God’s kingdom. In Antioch those He called for missionary service were the two most qualified men in the whole church for preaching and teaching. Happy are those who know what the Holy Spirit has appointed them to do. Notice that the church was to cooperate with the Spirit by recognizing His choice of individuals and setting them apart for the work.⚜
3 📚And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.
13:3 Laying on of hands here indicated their recognition and approval of the call that came to these two, and their identification with them.⚜
On the island of Cyprus
4 📚So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went to Seleucia, and from there sailed to Cyprus 📖.
13:4 For the church to send men for service is useless if the Holy Spirit does not send them.⚜
5 📚And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the Jewish synagogues 📖. And they had John as their assistant.
13:5 Salamis was the chief city of the island. They went first to the Jews as was their custom – v 46; Rom 1:16. John was Mark’s other name – Acts 12:12.⚜
6 📚And when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they met a certain sorcerer and false prophet who was a Jew named Bar-Jesus.
13:6 Paphos was the capital city of the island. The name Bar-Jesus means “son of Joshua” (Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua). This Bar-Jesus was an apostate Jew – he had turned away from the teachings of the true God. God forbade the Jews to have anything to do with sorcery. See notes at Deut 18:10-13.⚜
7 📚He was with the proconsul 📖 of the country, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. 8 📚But Elymas the sorcerer (for this is his name by translation) opposed them, trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
13:8 Trying to keep others from believing in the Lord Jesus is one of the worst of sins. See Matt 23:13. “Elymas” was another name for “Bar-Jesus”.⚜
9 📚Then Saul (who is also called Paul), filled with the Holy Spirit 📖, fixed his eyes on him,
13:9 Here is the first use of Saul’s other name, Paul, the name by which he was always known thereafter.⚜
10 📚and said, “You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery, you child of the devil 📖, you enemy of all righteousness! Will you not stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?
13:10 Sometimes God’s Spirit will enable His servants to see clearly a person’s character and to speak harsh truth in a bold way.⚜
11 📚And now, look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind, not seeing sunlight for a time”. And immediately a mist and darkness fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
13:11 If God is against us who can be for us? See the reverse of this at Rom 8:31.⚜
12 📚When the proconsul saw what had been done, he believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
In Antioch of Psidia
13 📚Now when Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos they went on to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem.
13:13 Perga was about 20 kilometers inland from the southern coast of what is now called Turkey. No reason is given why John Mark left them, but Paul did not think he had any good reason at all (Acts 15:38-39). By deserting them Mark missed some great things on this first of Paul’s missionary journeys, and was rejected for his next journey.⚜
14 📚And when they left Perga they came to Antioch in Pisidia. There they went into the synagogue 📖 on the Sabbath day and sat down.
13:14 This Antioch was an important city about 160 kms north of Perga.⚜
15 📚And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent word to them which said: “Men, brethren, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, speak”.
13:15 See Luke 4:16-17; 14:1. It was not unusual for Jews who were strangers to be asked to give messages in the synagogues.⚜
16 📚Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God 📖, listen. 17 📚The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm brought them out of it. 18 📚And for about forty years he endured their behaviour in the wilderness. 19 📚And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land to them through the casting of lots.
13:17-19 In three verses Paul covers 450 years of Jewish history recorded in six Old Testament books (Genesis – Joshua).⚜
20 📚“And after that he gave them judges 📖 for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.
13:20 Samuel was the last of the judges and the first man after Moses called a prophet.⚜
21 📚And afterwards they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin. He ruled for forty years. 22 📚And when he removed him, he raised up for them David as their king. He also gave testimony about him, saying, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all I want.’
23 📚“From this man’s descendants God, according to his promise, has raised up for Israel a Saviour, Jesus.
13:23 Paul’s purpose in referring to Israel’s history was to show his orthodox belief in the revelation God had given, and to bring his hearers to consider the Lord Jesus. Here he states in so many words that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. God’s promises concerning Him begin at Gen 3:15 and go on to Mal 3:1.⚜
24 📚Before his coming, John first preached the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 📚And when John was finishing his course, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not the one. But, see, someone is coming after me and I am not worthy to take the sandals off his feet.’
26 📚“Men, brethren, children of the family of Abraham, and whoever fears God among you, to you this message of salvation has been sent.
13:26 Abraham was the forefather of the nation and all Jews were descended from him.⚜
27 📚For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not recognize him or even the voices of the prophets who are read every Sabbath day, have fulfilled them by condemning him.
28 📚And though they found in him no cause for death, still they asked Pilate to have him killed. 29 📚And when they had fulfilled all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 📚But God raised him from the dead. 31 📚And he was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are his witnesses to the people.
32 📚“And we declare to you the glad tidings that the promise which was made to the fathers, 33 📚God has fulfilled for us their children by raising up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm,
You are my Son,
this day I have begotten you.
34 📚And concerning the fact that he raised him from the dead, never to return to corruption, he spoke like this:
I will give you the sure mercies of David 📖.
35 📚Therefore he said also in another psalm,
You will not allow your Holy One
to see corruption.
36 📚“For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep 📖, was buried near his fathers, and saw corruption. 37 📚But he whom God raised up, saw no corruption.
38 📚“Therefore, be it known to you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins 📖, 39 📚and in him all who believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
13:39 Being justified is the other side of being forgiven. It means that God counts people righteous and innocent of all sin. This is one of the wonderful truths Paul later developed in Romans and Galatians (Rom 3:20, 24, 28; 5:1, 9; 8:30; Gal 2:16; 3:11, 24). Everywhere he insists that justification comes only by faith in the Lord Jesus. The law of Moses cannot justify but only condemn – Ex 19:21-25; Rom 3:19-20; Gal 3:10.⚜
40 📚Beware, therefore, that this which is spoken about in the Prophets does not come on you:
41 📚Look, you despisers, and wonder,
and perish, for I do a work in your days,
a work that you will not at all believe,
though a man declares it to you”.
42 📚And when the Jews had gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these things might be preached to them the next Sabbath. 43 📚Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas who spoke with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God 📖.
44 📚And the next Sabbath day almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
13:44 This means the Gentiles were the large majority of the crowd.⚜
45 📚But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with envy and, contradicting and blaspheming, opposed the things Paul was saying.
13:45 Compare Acts 5:17; 7:9; Matt 27:18; Prov 27:4. None of them had ever been able to draw such a crowd, or to capture the interest of people so powerfully, so they envied Paul and Barnabas – a thing not unknown in our day.⚜
46 📚 Then Paul and Barnabas became bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you. But seeing that you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life 📖, see, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 📚For thus the Lord commanded us:
I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
that you would be the source of salvation
to the ends of the earth”.
13:47 Isa 49:6. “You” refers to Christ.⚜
48 📚And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed to eternal life believed.
49 📚And the word of the Lord spread throughout all that region. 50 📚But the Jews stirred up the devout 📖 and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their borders. 51 📚But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and went to Iconium.
13:51 Compare Matt 10:14. The important town of Iconium was about 130 kilometres to the southeast.⚜
52 📚And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.