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42 While Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people asked them to tell them more about these things on the next Sabbath. 43 When the meeting was over, many people with those who had changed to worship God followed Paul and Barnabas from that place. Paul and Barnabas were persuading them to continue trusting in God’s grace. 44 On the next Sabbath day, almost everyone in the city came to hear the word of the Lord. 45 Seeing the crowd, the Jewish people became very jealous and said insulting things and argued against what Paul said. 46 But Paul and Barnabas spoke very boldly, saying, “We must speak the message of God to you first. But you refuse to listen. You are judging yourselves not worthy of having eternal life! So we will now go to the people of other nations. 47 This is what the Lord told us to do, saying: ‘I have made you a light for the nations; you will show people all over the world the way to be saved.’” Isaiah 49:6 48 When those who were not Jewish heard Paul say this, they were happy and gave honor to the message of the Lord. And the people who were chosen to have life forever believed the message. 49 So the message of the Lord was spreading through the whole country. 50 But the Jewish people stirred up some of the important religious women and the leaders of the city. They started trouble against Paul and Barnabas and forced them out of their area. 51 So Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet and went to Iconium. 52 But the followers were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. ~ Acts 13:42-52
Today, we complete our study of Acts 13 where the Apostle Paul and Barnabas had traveled to the city of Antioch of Pasidia while on their first missionary journey. Their aim during this trip was to carry out the third part of the commission the Lord Jesus gave in Acts 1:8. The third part of that commission was the spreading of the gospel unto the utter most parts of the earth. The gospel had been spread throughout Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, now, it was onto the ends of the earth.
In v.42-43 of today's passage we read, "42 While Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people asked them to tell them more about these things on the next Sabbath. 43 When the meeting was over, many people with those who had changed to worship God followed Paul and Barnabas from that place. Paul and Barnabas were persuading them to continue trusting in God’s grace."
Previously, Paul quoted Habakkuk when he addressed the reason the people of Israel were sent off into exile during the Babylonian captivity. With that quotation he then equated that situation with the one at hand. His warning was to those who would reject the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. After hearing this, many believed in the Lord Jesus as their Messiah and others were quite eager to hear more as they begged Paul and Barnabas to share more the next Sabbath.
While Paul had preached the message of God’s grace to the people, he noted the insufficiency of the Law of Moses to justify anyone. This is why he gave the warning of what would happen if they ignored God's message of grace. Paul highlighted the fact that the Scriptures testified to the fact that the Lord Jesus would be crucified for the sins of His people. And, His cross was the greatest display of God's grace. God's grace is the greatest change agent in the world because it is unconditional. We do not earn His grace and we surely do not maintain it.
In v.44-49 of today's passage we read, "44 On the next Sabbath day, almost everyone in the city came to hear the word of the Lord. 45 Seeing the crowd, the Jewish people became very jealous and said insulting things and argued against what Paul said. 46 But Paul and Barnabas spoke very boldly, saying, 'We must speak the message of God to you first. But you refuse to listen. You are judging yourselves not worthy of having eternal life! So we will now go to the people of other nations. 47 This is what the Lord told us to do, saying: ‘I have made you a light for the nations; you will show people all over the world the way to be saved.' Isaiah 49:6 48 When those who were not Jewish heard Paul say this, they were happy and gave honor to the message of the Lord. And the people who were chosen to have life forever believed the message. 49 So the message of the Lord was spreading through the whole country."
When the next Sabbath arrived, everyone in the town of Antioch in Pasidia was present in the synagogue. They came "to hear the word of God." In Romans 10:17 we read, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." The folks gathered at the synagogue had been trained to hear the Lord. The emptiness in their souls served them and that is where the Word of the Lord stepped in to awaken them to their Savior. Faith in the God of the Bible comes as a result of hearing His voice within our hearts. The word translated "word" in Romans 10:17 literally means "the spoken word" of God. Since our faith in the God of the Bible is aroused by our hearing His Word with our hearts, we do well to hone those skills which enable us to really hear, to hear with our hearts. Learning to hear God comes through the unwanted moments of life, those moments that include pain and suffering. It is during these types of moments that we hear that still small voice most effectively. This does not mean that if we have intense pain in our lives that we will automatically be intimate with God. It is only when we encounter these moments and these moments aid us into seeking Him more and knowing Him better that we experience such a level of intimacy with Him. This, of course, is easier said than done.
On the contrary, the Jews in the synagogue at Antioch at Pisidia were upset because the Gentiles were believing the gospel. It was then that Paul and Barnabas confronted the unbelief of the Jews there. Like the Pharisees with whom the Lord Jesus constantly dealt, these Jews were indignant because they thought that they alone merited God’s favor. They lacked a personal relationship with God because they had never been trained to hear Him with their hearts. They arrogantly thought that they automatically had a personal relationship with God and they didn't.
In that moment Paul and Barnabas warned these unbelieving Jews of the fact that they were rejecting the very life of God in them. Due to this they would spend eternity in hell. And, due to the Jews unbelief, Paul and Barnabas were preaching the gospel to the Gentiles because they chose to believe it. Of course, they chose to believe because they were chosen by God to be given the gospel. This is what we know as prevenient grace which is a phrase used to describe the grace given by God that precedes the act of a sinner exercising saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The term "prevenient" means "to come before." By definition, everyone is the recipient of God's grace that enables us to believe. The question is whether we believe and receive the truth of God or not.
Many more believed in the gospel that day in Antioch of Pasidia even though many opposed it. Many of the Jews did not believe in the gospel even thought Paul and Barnabas showed them from Isaiah that this gospel was the fulfillment of all that God had spoken in the Old Testament. The work of Jesus Christ was first sent to the people of Israel, but its scope was always intended to extend to the entire world. With the rejection of the word by the Jews at Antioch of Pisidia, the word was to continue to be proclaimed to those who would hear and believe it.
In v.50-52 of today's passage we read, "50 But the Jewish people stirred up some of the important religious women and the leaders of the city. They started trouble against Paul and Barnabas and forced them out of their area. 51 So Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet and went to Iconium. 52 But the followers were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit."
Since the gospel is a message of freedom and since Satan and his followers hate freedom, it was inevitable that Paul and Barnabas would face opposition. It was then that Paul and Barnabas were expelled from the region of Antioch of Pisidia. With that, "they shook off the dust from their feet." This was obviously a way of demonstrating their displeasure with those who had expelled them, revealing that even the dust on their feet that was associated with those of Antioch was detestable. The Lord Jesus instructed His disciples to do this after people rejected the gospel. With this a new dispensation had entered. The shaking of dust off of their feet was done as a witness against them.
While the Jews by and large rejected the gospel in Antioch, for those who received it the Spirit delivered to them great joy. The same happens to all believers in the Lord Jesus. When we were saved, at that moment in time, the burden of the debt created by our sinfulness was lifted from us, and we experienced the knowledge that God had done this for us, apart from any effort of our own. That brought to us the joy and the filling of the Holy Spirit. And, even though we haven't changed to the point of sinless perfection, we still have the joy of the Lord because He lives in us. And, our acceptability before God is based solely on the work that was accomplished at the cross.
