Easter 5 (2)
Paul tells how the Jewish leaders had Jesus executed, but God raised him to life. He explains how Jesus is a Saviour—not a military leader defeating their enemies, but a perfect sacrifice paying for their sins.
Paul ends his sermon. He urges his hearers to receive the forgiveness that Jesus offers. Or will they laugh at this good news and reject God’s saving love?
Paul’s message excites great interest. Some want to hear him again, while others are hostile. On the following sabbath, the leading Jews publicly reject Paul. As a result, Paul and Barnabas resolve to take their message to the Gentiles.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is to be preached to the Jews first. Paul sees that this message must start with the Jews, but it mustn’t end with them. The gospel is good news for all nations.
As Paul and Barnabas are expelled from the region, they shake its dust from their feet. This is what Jews used to do after crossing Samaria on their way from Galilee to Jerusalem. To shake the dust from your feet and clothes is to reject a place and its people (Luke 9:5). If the people want nothing to do with God, so be it. It’s their choice.
The second opportunity arises on the next Sabbath when most of the city comes to listen to Paul. The unbelieving Jews are aroused to jealousy, however, and another pattern is set for the rest of Paul’s ministry: persecution by Jews (see 1 Thess. 2:14–16). This pattern also includes a turning away from the synagogue to a ministry exclusively to the Gentiles (vv. 46–48).
One further observation about this sermon as well as all evangelism in Acts is important: the sovereign working of the Holy Spirit permeates it all. If one stops to think about it long enough, he realizes how remarkable it is that in such a relatively brief time and with such little information many come to faith in Jesus Christ. Undoubtedly this is the result of long preparation by the Holy Spirit prior to the coming of the missionary, and goes even further back to the eternal counsels of God in which his chosen ones “were appointed for eternal life” and finally believed (v. 48) as the message was preached.
Luke offers a postscript to the Antioch ministry by describing the spreading of the gospel through the whole region (v. 49), very likely through the efforts of the new converts themselves, for Paul and Barnabas are soon “expelled … from [the] region,” shaking “the dust from their feet in protest against them” (v. 51), a Jewish gesture of scorn commanded by Jesus himself (Matt. 10:14; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5).
“We now turn to the Gentiles.” Here was the second consequence of their blaspheming unbelief. For turning to the Gentiles implies turning away from these Jews who had turned their backs on the gospel and eternal life. Paul, of course, was not expressing his personal judgment. Yes, the God of unlimited, ever-so-patient grace at last turns his back on those who persistently, adamantly spurn his grace and recklessly, endlessly challenge his patience.
Paul justifies the action of turning to the Gentiles by quoting Isaiah 49:6. We should note well that here the Lord (= the covenant God, the God of changeless grace) is addressing the Messiah. Through him the Lord would bring the light of salvation to the Gentiles everywhere (“to the ends of the earth”). (Compare Luke 2:31, 32.) So this had always been God’s plan: The Gentiles were to share in the redemption and salvation purchased and won entirely by the divine Christ. Realizing this, we have no problem with Paul’s words: “For this is what the Lord has commanded us.” He and Barnabas knew God’s will regarding the Messiah and his salvation. They knew as well that those who had come to the light of salvation found in him were to bring it to all in this dark, lost world. This gracious will of God they regarded as a command they would carry out with a joyous zeal.
“When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored [or: glorified] the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Realize what Paul’s pronouncement meant for these Gentiles. They realized that they were to be admitted into the ranks of the redeemed and the saved without first fulfilling certain conditions. They did not have to submit to circumcision or obligate themselves to the Jewish ceremonial law with its endless prescriptions (many of them man-made). The Christ of God with his redeeming work, received by a faith worked in them by God—this alone was the open sesame for entrance into God’s kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy, for membership in God’s blessed family.
• The departure from the Jews. “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold … lo, we turn to the Gentiles … for so hath the Lord commanded us” (Acts 13:46,47). The opposition of the Jews to the Gospel resulted in their losing the privilege to hear Gospel message. The principle here, which is true in every age, is—spiritual privilege must be respected or you will lose it—so if you refuse the Gospel message, God just may take it away from you, and you will lose your opportunity to be saved.