Acts 13:42-52
When we left off last week Paul and Barnabas had just finished delivering their first message in Pisidia Antioch. This week we will be looking at the results of their preaching, and how it fits perfectly with what is going on here at Hyland Heights.
Acts 13:42 picks up the account at the end of the service. Paul and Barnabas are in the process of leaving when people form the congregation stop them to ask questions, or make comments about the message they just heard. This would have been an informal time of questioning and chatting, just like what we find in our modern churches after a guest speaker presents a message. At this point in the account the atmosphere seems like it is very friendly and inviting.
The people must have really been touched by Paul’s message as the text says they begged him to return next week and preach again. This must have been encouraging to the missionary team, it seems not only were they well received, but also they are producing fruit in the hearts of the members of the Synagogue.
There are two words worthy of noting in verse 42 and 43. The first is what we translate in the English as “the people kept begging” (NASB95) or “they begged” (NKJV). The continuous nature of this word is not as apparent in the NKJV translation. This word has the sense of “to urge strongly, appeal to, urge, exhort, encourage.[1]” The people were excited about what they had heard and wanted to hear more. If you picture small children asking their parents for candy over and over, you will have captured the idea of what is been shown here.
The second word, or in this case phrase, to notice is what the NKJV translates as “persuaded them to continue” and NASB95 translates as “urging them to continue.” Notice the text does not mention that Paul asked them to start, but instead urges them to continue. This implies that Paul was speaking to believers and was trying to encourage them to stand strong. All in all at this stage things look very positive for our team.
The next verse, Acts 13:44, jumps forward a week in time to the next Sabbath. While there is nothing recorded for us between the two Sabbaths we can make some educated assumptions about what must have happened. The people who were begging Paul and Barnabas to preach again the following week must have told all their friends about them. The feeling of the text is one of great excitement over the preachers and the message. I am sure that based on what we know about Paul he did not keep quite during this week in between, so it is likely he presented the Gospel in some way several more times through out the week. If we follow this through then one would expect that as the next Sabbath approached many would be anxious to see what all the excitement about and turn out to hear him preach. Since that is exactly what Acts 13:44 says happened I think we can safely assume that is how the week played out.
This time things do not go so well. It does start off in very positive way with a massive crowd gathering to hear Paul preach, but this turns out to be the catalyst to change the entire tone of the account. Paul might have looked out at the crowd and thought about the massive harvest, and possibly remembered Jesus teaching in Matthew 9:37 where he says that the harvest is great, we just need more workers. Whatever it was that occurred to him at this time, something completely different was going through the mind of the Jews.
They saw the crowds and were driven to jealously. It is not exactly clear what it was that they were upset about. It maybe that they were jealous of the success of Paul and Barnabas, but more likely is that they did not like all these Gentiles being invited into their religion. The Jews at this time were still very much separatists and still thought of Gentiles as unworthy of God’s house.
The Jews began to stir up trouble for the missionary team. The text says they contradicted everything Paul would say and blasphemed. This means Paul probably said something like, “Jesus is God” and they replied with “Jesus is a common criminal.” Whatever the exchange was it must have had a very negative impact on the message being delivered as we read of Paul countering them with their own scripture. Paul quotes from Isaiah 42:6 and Isaiah 49:6 to show the mockers that God commanded them to be a light, and therefore the message has to go to the Gentiles.
The text says that when the Gentiles heard this they were excited (Acts 13:48). This is a clear indication that they understood just as well as the mockers did what was happening. Paul was showing them that the wall of separation between Gentiles, Jews, and God had been torn down by Jesus’ death on the cross. We can see in Acts 13:49 that this emotional high carried the message well beyond that Sabbath morning service to the entire region. There is no time frame given, but one could easily imagine in a time where everyone walked everywhere this would have taken weeks, if not months, for the word to spread.
This great news made the enemies of Jesus even angrier. They used the women who were friendly to them to reach the male leaders of the city in order to combat Paul’s revival. Paul and Barnabas were forced out of the city, and on their way out they shake their shoes off. This is an important detail because Paul was formerly a Pharisee. When a Pharisee would return from a trip in Gentile lands, he would shake the dust of his sandals in order to prevent any corruption from Gentiles from following them home. This action by Paul is the highest insult possible, through his actions he told the Jewish leaders that they were as lost Gentiles before God, completely cut off from God’s favor and blessings.
Through this account we can see some very real truths. Last week at Hyland Heights we had Jamey Ragle preach several nights in a row, and many came forward to receive the free gift of salvation not unlike what we see depicted here in the scriptures. After such an event we can expect certain things to happen.
Whenever God moves, Satan will do what he can to interfere. I do not claim, nor want to, that I understand why Satan does what he does, but his pattern is to always attempt to corrupt the plan of God. So what one will see at a real event like this is that first the lost will be angry, and attack the speaker. Second those that are truly saved will be excited and will be unable to not share what just happened to them with everyone. The split is clear, and backed up by many scriptures. There are only two camps you can fall into, for God, or against God.
Look at any major revival or evangelistic camp meeting in modern day America and you will see the same pattern. Big name event/speaker/group comes to town. People flock to the meeting in large numbers. Many will get saved, and in their excitement tell everyone they know (this is the first indication that salvation is genuine) which will increase the crowds at the next event. While this is happening, or shortly after stories will start coming out attacking the speaker/group and trying to cast them in the worst possible light (justly or not) in an attempt to not only break up the meeting but squash the joy of those sharing their salvation story.
Here is the thing to keep in mind when this happens; something is true because it is true, not because someone said it was true. A teacher could be a horrible person, but if he says that one plus one equals two, its still true. Recasting that in to this example will let us see that it does not matter what human instrument lead you to salvation, if you are saved it was the work of God, not man. Truth is that which agrees to reality, and is independent of the speaker. The Gospel is true because it is real, not because some fallen man told you it was. Guard your minds so that you do not fall into the trap of tossing out that which is true just because of the imperfect nature of the people that claim that truth.
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[1] William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 765.
