Bible Commentaries
Acts 13

Verses 1-28

XIX

ANTIOCH OF SYRIA, THE CENTER,

AND PAUL’S FIRST MISSIONARY TOUR TO THE HEATHEN

Acts 13:1-14:28.

A map of the Roman Empire in the times of the apostles should be always before the New Testament student. The reason that a map of that kind is of so much importance to the student is that it gives the Roman provinces to which the New Testament, and particularly the book of Acts, makes so many references. This is specially needful in studying any part of the New Testament that applies to Asia Minor and the provinces of Asia, in order that one may comprehend the governmental divisions at that time, and the form of the government in the different places.

It is important to locate the two Antiochs of this section, and tell how there happened to be two. The first Antioch – the one from which Paul starts out – is the capital of Syria. Syria includes the Holy Land. The second Antioch is in the Roman province of Galatia, but the native name of it is the Phrygian Antioch of Pisidia. There happened to be two, because the ruler of the Syrian Antioch built the other Antioch, and that ruler was Antiochus. Whether he was Antiochus Is, II, III, or IV, we do not stop to notice now, but he was Antiochus, ruler of Syria, and built over in Asia Minor, in the country of Pisidia, which was afterward included in the Roman province of Galatia, the second Antioch.

Alexander the Great conquered all of Asia Minor and Syria, and the Orient up to the river Indus. When he died his empire was divided into four parts, and one of his generals, Seleucus, had the empire of Syria, whose capital was this Syrian Antioch, built by Antiochus, one of the Seleucidae, so that it was the capital of the fourth part of the Greek empire. There this great man ruled, and before the New Testament times one of the kings who reigned was Antiochus Epiphanes, who was the one that troubled the Jews so much, and tried to destroy their religion, the history of which we find in the book of the Maccabees. After a while the Roman Empire rises, and the Romans sweep the Greek Empire away. And when they sweep it away, then they divide the whole Roman Empire into governmental provinces, and one of the governmental provinces was Syria. That included Antioch, Damascus, and Jerusalem, and the head of the district lived at Antioch. That brings up the history somewhat to the first Pentecost.

In Acts 2 we learn that certain Syrian Jews were there in Jerusalem, and heard Peter’s great sermon. In Acts 6 we learn that Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch, was one of the first deacons. When the persecution of Saul, which commenced at the death of Stephen, was raised against the Jerusalem church, certain Syrians who were there went as far as Antioch, some of them preaching to the Jews only, and some of them preaching to the Greeks. As soon as information came to the Jerusalem church that the Greeks were being preached to in the city of Antioch, they sent Barnabas there, a good man, full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Barnabas had been the means of introducing Saul, after his conversion, to the Jerusalem church. When he saw the magnitude of the work in the Syrian Antioch, and knowing that Paul was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, he went to Tarsus after Paul. Paul joins him in Antioch, and they start off to preach and build the first blended church of Jews and Gentiles.

Paul’s commission to the heathen was given to him on the day he was converted, and the exact words of it are found in Acts 26:16 as follows: "But arise, and stand upon thy feet; for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein Is will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me" (Acts 26:16-18). That was his commission, given him the day he was converted.

It was about ten years after that commission was given to the commencement of this section, and there were many intermediate events. It was three years from his conversion to his first visit to Jerusalem; he was five years in Cilicia; he was more than one year at Antioch; so it would be about ten years in all since this commission was given. The intermediate events are as follows: (1) His going into Arabia to receive the gospel. (2) His preaching at Damascus. (3) His preaching and rejection in Jerusalem. (4) His preaching in Cilicia. (5) His preaching at Antioch.

This long delay of ten years between the giving of his commission to the Gentiles and his now being ordained to be sent out to the Gentiles, are explained thus: As an example, God called Moses as a deliverer of Israel forty years before he instructed him to commence the delivery. As there was a necessity for delay in the case of Moses in the proper preparation of the public mind and Moses’ own mind and the mind of the Egyptians, to take place between his call and the work of deliverance, just so it was in the case of Saul. He was not ready to preach outright, at once, from the day he was called to preach to the Gentiles. Public sentiment at Jerusalem in the church that already existed was not yet ready for him. In his own time God would tell him when this great work would commence.

The Holy Spirit now intervenes to give effect to this commission. He found a certain number of disciples, brethren, prophets and teachers at Antioch, engaged in fasting and prayer, and impressed their minds to ordain Barnabas and Saul to go to the Gentiles. He is the one that intervenes, and that is how he did it, as Acts 13 commences thus: "Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, and Symeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Gyrene, and Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away" (Acts 13:1-3).

There is a distinction between prophets and teachers. A prophet was one who had, by inspiration and authority, revelations from God to deliver to the people. He might also be a teacher. A teacher was one) when he was not a prophet also, who could instruct other people in the things that were revealed by inspiration. This is the distinction between a prophet and a teacher.

Here we have an ordination ceremony. An ordination is an official ceremony by the church, setting apart a man to a specific work by prayer and laying on of hands. The value of the ordination here is this, that while Paul had received his commission known to him, there had been no occasion of the Holy Spirit calling a church to recognize that commission of Paul. In other words, God always makes a double shot. If he calls a man to preach, he calls a church to recognize that call. If he calls a man to do a specific thing, then he also calls the particular person that he is to work with. The Eunuch meets Philip promptly, and is at the place to receive him when he comes. He called Peter to go to Cornelius, and he called Cornelius to receive Peter. Sometimes a young fellow thinks he is called to preach, and no church agrees with him. I think he had better not preach. There must be a call at both ends of the line. Paul had been preaching before. This was not to call him out as a preacher. This was to send him out to preach to Gentiles, therefore the necessity of this ordination.

Let us delimit the three missionary tours with Antioch as the central authority. The first one is set forth in Acts 13-14. At the beginning of Acts 13, Antioch sends out the missionaries. At the end of Acts 14 they get back home and report all their work. So that one is delimited. The second one starts from Antioch, commencing in Acts 15:36. And that one ends at Acts 18:22. That is the end of the second tour. The third commences at Acts 18:23: "And having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples." That takes us to the end of Acts 20. With Antioch as a starting point, here are three great missionary tours to the heathen, as just delimited; so that we are now to consider these tours in order, and our topic now is the first tour.

The missionaries thus far are Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas is the one who so kindly befriended Saul, and introduced him to the Jerusalem church, and who went after him to Tarsus and brought him to Antioch to help in the great revival there, so their relations were very close. There went along with them a young man named John Mark as their minister; that is, he was to attend to a great many details of this expedition, and Paul needed him very much on account of his own physical condition, being half-blinded. It was a great help to have a young man along who could manage details. So the missionaries were Barnabas, Saul, and John Mark.

With a map before you, start from Antioch, the great capital of Syria. Damascus is about half-way between Jerusalem and Antioch. Come down to the sea from Seleucia. There they take ship and come to Salamis, on the Island of Cyprus; then they go through the country about 100 miles to Paphos, which is the capital of Cyprus; then they take ship and go to Perga, which is the capital of the Roman province, Pamphylia; then they go through the Taurus Mountains into Pisidia to Antioch, its capital; then they go southeast to Iconium and then south to Lystra, then east to Derbe. Now they take a back track until they get down into Pamphylia again at Perga; then they go across the land to that seaport, Attalia; there they embark and go home; they do not go back by Cyprus, but they go straight to Seleucia. That is the course on the map; so the tracing is from Antioch in Syria to the Seleucian sea port; from that sea port to Salamis, on the Island of Cyprus; through the island to the capital of the island, to Pamphylia, across the mountains to Antioch in Pisidia; and from there to Iconium; then to Lystra, to Derbe, and right back over the trail until they get to Perga, then to Attalia, and then straight across to Seleucia in Syria.

The Island of Cyprus, in the Mediterranean Sea, has always been a famous place. I could speak at length on its past history. At this time it was a part of the Roman Empire, and Paphos is said to be the birthplace of the goddess, Venus. The Greeks said she was born out of the foam of the sea, and hence the worship was largely the worship of Venus, and as vile a worship as the human mind can devise. The Jews had been there quite a while. Long before Christianity came, Jews were there. There was also a synagogue at Salamis, which is on the east side of the island, and Paphos is on the west. Both are sea ports. One can go from one place to the other, either by land or by sea.

The recorded incidents of the work in Cyprus are few. The record tells us, without any other incident, that they preached in the synagogue at Salamis. What happened we do not know. The record then says they went from there to Paphos, and there they found a certain Jew, Bar-Jesus, i.e., son of Jesus. His Greek name was Elymas, and he was a sorcerer, and that sorcerer opposed Barnabas and Paul, by exerting an influence over the Roman governor. And Paul by the exercise of apostolic power, smote him with blindness, and the miracle made such an impression on the mind of Sergius Paulus that he accepted the faith preached to them; so the Roman governor became a convert.

Just here it is well to account for the important position of Elymas, a sorcerer, at the court of Sergius Paulus. By this time in history, mythology was rejected by the Romans. They saw it was a deception, but the human mind cannot do without some kind of religion, and particularly are men anxious to understand the future, and, therefore, they turn to the fortunetellers, diviners, and sorcerers, and we find them at almost every Roman court. We find them with the kings up to the fifteenth century. This Roman, like any other man, was anxious about the future. He had no faith in the heathen religion, and this Oriental comes along as a sorcerer, like Balaam in the old time, like Simon Magus that we have just heard about over in Samaria, and Rome was full of them. That is how they came to find such a gentleman (?) there.

There are two changes relative to the missionaries, which date from Paphos. First, from this time on Saul is called Paul. Never after this is he called Saul. In Acts 13:9, "Saul who is also called Paul" is there in parenthesis. We need not try to account for this change in the name by attributing it to the conversion of Sergius Paulus; that is conjecture. It is a fact that Jews took corresponding Roman names. It may be that the great Elymas family at Rome was the one who bought the ancestors of Paul, and that among the Romans his name was always Paul, and among the Jews it would be Saul. But anyhow the change takes place in that name. We find from now on Paul steps to the front. Second, Barnabas has been in the front all the way, and his name was first when they were first sent out. All the time after this date it is Paul and Barnabas, and when they talk about who is going, Paul is first. The braver man in an exigency ill a missionary tour comes to the front. The next preaching place is Antioch of Pisidia.

Let us look at the way of going from Paphos to Antioch. They take a ship here at Paphos and come to Pamphylia, and a little distance from the coast is Perga. Leaving Perga, they go over some awful mountains. The men that travel over those roads say now that they are horrible, and terrible to get over. They keep climbing and climbing, and when they get up there to Antioch, they are on a high plain, far above the seacoast, just as the Panhandle plain is above the lowlands of Houston; just as they climb from Amarillo to Denver through the mountains.

A far-reaching event occurred while they were at Perga. John Mark left them, the cause of which we have but a faint idea. Paul and Barnabas do not tell why, but we know that it was something blame worthy, for Paul kept it in his mind as a bitter and blamable thing. It may be that this young man started out with them on this trip, willing enough to stay with them as long as they were at Cyprus, Barnabas’ own home, where he could be with kinsmen, for Mark was akin to Barnabas. He was all right there, but when they got to Perga, and there saw before them that terrible climb into the mountains, into an unknown world, and the peril of robbers, and ten thousand other perils, he took the toothache, or something of that kind, and dropped out.

The effect on the relations between Paul and Barnabas was that when they started on the second tour, and Barnabas wanted to take Mark, Paul said he should not go, because he turned back before. Barnabas stood up for his kinsman. This separated Paul and Barnabas. Barnabas took Mark, and went back to Cyprus, and Paul took Silas and went over the same country. So these two good friends separated in their work for life. As to the effect on the further relations between Paul and Mark, I am glad to report that, later on, Paul takes Mark back, and writes, "Send Mark to me, for he is profitable to me for his ministry." So the relations between Paul and Mark ended promisingly.

Here this question arises, Why probably was there no preaching at Perga on the going-trip, and yet when they return, they do preach at Perga? The probable answer, as given by quite a number of very distinguished men on this question, is, that they got to Perga at the middle of the spring. The people down on the coast at that season leave the coast and travel up into the mountains on account of malaria. When they came back, that malaria was over, and the people were at home; therefore, when they came back they preached at Perga. Moreover, in going with this emigration of the people to the mountains they would have needed escorts. Two lone men, going through that terrible mountainous country, would have had a hard time.

This Antioch, as I have said, was built by Antiochus, one of the Greek rulers at the other Antioch, and it was a city of very considerable importance throughout the Grecian and Roman world. Augustus, the second Roman Emperor (Julius Caesar being counted the first), made it a colony. We will strike another colony when we get to Philippi a little later. Antioch in Syria was a free city, but Antioch in Pisidia was a colony. That gave them the privilege of Roman citizens, their names being retained on the muster of the citizens in the city of Rome. They had free municipal government, Roman magistrates just as they had in the city of Rome, who ruled over that town. It remained an important place for 1,400 years, which is a long time. Probably more than 1,500 years it remained an important place. It was right on the Roman road that commenced near Ephesus, and went through this country to reach Syria. It ran along the mountains, and came right down close to the sea, and there is that pass where so many important battles were fought. Antioch was right on that road. There was the native population; there was also the Greek population that came when the country was in the empire of the Greeks, then there was the Jewish population – a very large population – and finally, the Roman population. Their religion was heathen and vile.

There was a synagogue at Antioch and we have their service described in Acts 13:14-15: "But they, passing through from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia; and they went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on." That is a scene such as can be witnessed until this day, and is witnessed in ten thousand places of the earth. On the sabbath day a certain part of the law is read, then a section of the prophets, then comes what is called the Midrash – the interpretation of the scriptures read.

Quite a number of men, with whom I agree, have inferred from certain Greek words used in the passage of the law that was read, that it was a portion of Deuteronomy I, and the portion of the prophets read was Isaiah 1:1-22. They appointed so much of the law to be read every sabbath day, and a certain portion from the prophets. Having read, the custom was for the minister in the synagogue to look around, and if there was any distinguished brother present, he was very apt to invite him to deliver the Midrash. When Jesus was in the synagogue at Nazareth, they handed him the book and told him to read, and he read a passage to them in Isaiah, whereupon he delivered a sermon and told them that the scripture he read was fulfilled in their midst that day. In like manner, Paul, taking the second passage of the law and prophets, delivers his first recorded sermon, and we have it right before us.

Let us analyze this first recorded sermon of Paul’s. He commenced with the references in Deuteronomy and Isaiah. He told them bow that God had brought them up out of the land of Egypt; how he had cared for them in the wilderness; how he had preserved them in the time of the Judges until David was king, and how he had promised that the Son of David should be the Messiah, and how the prophecy had been recently fulfilled; that the Son of David had come; that the rulers at Jerusalem had misunderstood and crucified him, and he had risen from the dead, and wound up by saying, "Now my glad tidings to you is that through faith in this crucified Son of David, who is risen from the dead, you can be purified from all the things that are written in the law against you." In other words, his sermon, in the most tactful way, gives us a historical account of that people, winding up in the crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, and the justification through faith in Jesus, which brings salvation. It is one of the most orderly sermons in the world.

There is a very important chronological date given in this sermon. He says that it was 450 years from the beginning of the period of the Judges to Samuel, the prophet. Then, if we add forty years, the time Samuel judged Israel, we have 490 years, the period of the Judges. So, from the call of Abraham to the settlement in Canaan was 490; from the settlement in Canaan to the rise of the monarchy, 490 years; from the rise of the monarchy until its downfall, 490 years, and from the downfall of the monarchy to the coming of Christ, 490 years.

QUESTIONS

1. What map should be always before the New Testament student, and why?

2. Locate the two Antiochs of this section, and tell how there happened to be two.

3. Give brief account of the Syrian Antioch up to the first Pentecost.

4. Trace in Acts the events touching this Antioch up to Acts 13.

5. What was Paul’s commission to the heathen, and when was it given to him?

6. How long was it after this commission was given him to the commencement of this section?

7. What are the intermediate events, and why the long delay between his commission and his ordination?

8. Who now intervenes to give effect to this commission, and how?

9. What is the distinction between prophets and teachers?

10. What is an ordination, and what its value here?

11. Delimit the three missionary tours, with Antioch of Syria as the central authority.

12. Who the missionaries, and what their relation thus far?

13. Trace on a map the first tour.

14. Give a short account of Cyprus, its government, its heathen religion, the Jews there, and its connection with Christianity thus far.

15. Locate Salamis and Paphos.

16. What the recorded incidents of the work in Cyprus?

17. How account for the important position of Elyrnas, a sorcerer at the court of Sergius Paulus?

18. What changes relative to the missionaries dating from Paphos?

19. Describe their way of going from Paphos to Antioch.

20. What far-reaching event occurred while they were at Perga, what the probable cause, what the effect on the relations of Paul and Barnabas in the next tour, and what the ultimate effect on Paul’s relations to Mark?

21. Why probably was there no preaching at Perga on the going trip, and yet when they return they do preach at Perga?

22. Give a short account of this Antioch, its government, its heathen religion, and the Jews there.

23. Describe the synagogue at Antioch and their service therein.

24. Analyze this first recorded sermon of Paul’s.

25. What important chronological date given m this sermon, and what its bearing?

XX

FIRST MISSIONARY TOUR TO THE HEATHEN ANTIOCH OF SYRIA, THE CENTER, AND PAUL’S (Continued)

There are certain Old Testament passages interpreted in Paul’s great sermon in Antioch of Pisidia. The Psalms 2:7: "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." Paul interprets that to refer to the resurrection of Christ. Christ was the Son of God in several ways – by eternal subsistence, by being born of the Virgin Mary, and by his resurrection from the dead: "This day have I begotten thee." The second passage that he interprets is Isaiah 55:3: "I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." Paul refers that to the resurrection, and not the sure mercies that come to David, but the sure mercies that David, as a prophet, foresaw. This he explains by another passage in Psalms 16:10, in which David foresaw that the Messiah’s body would not see corruption, and that his soul would not be left disembodied. If it were not for Paul’s interpretation no man would have rightly given the meaning of these Old Testament passages. So the third one is the passage in Psalms 16:10, and the last one is Habakkuk 1:5, in which Paul applies to them the prophetic warning of Habakkuk.

The results of this sermon were immense. Both Jews and proselytes, before they left the house, crowded around him and asked him to present the same matter to them the following sabbath. Whenever a preacher goes to an appointment, and the brethren crowd around him and ask him to repeat that matter the following Sunday, then he may know that he made a good impression. The second result was that a great many of the Jews and proselytes, even after they had left the house, talked with them personally and evidenced conversion. And the third result was that the sermon was so much talked about in the intervening week that when the next sabbath came, the house would not hold the people. He had a message for the Gentiles by which they, without becoming Jews, could be saved – saved at once – by simply believing upon Jesus Christ. It certainly was glad tidings to those Gentile people in that city, and the result was that the city turned out en masse. I consider it one of the greatest recorded sermons.

But when the next sabbath came, and the Jews saw such a vast multitude of Gentiles pouring into their synagogue, they were filled with jealousy. The Jews were willing to take the Gentiles in occasionally, but they must become Jews. They would keep them proselytes at the gate a while, and after they were circumcised they became proselytes of righteousness. But they never sought to turn great bodies of people. They thought that salvation and the divine favor were for the Jews. When they saw this mixed multitude of Gentiles pouring in to bear this new gospel, their prejudice and jealousy caused them to stand against the gospel. The crowd divided. How did Paul meet this issue? He says, "Since you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we turn to the Gentiles." In other words, "You have had the gospel offered to you, and you reject it; you don’t want these others to have it; now we turn away from you and we turn to these other people." Then he makes a bold declaration which shows what a power of interpretation is in the man: "For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles, That thou shouldest be for salvation unto the Uttermost part of the earth.

Jesse Mercer preached a great missionary sermon on this text. It was on an important missionary occasion. This was the point he made: Whatever a prophet foretells as to God’s purpose, that to succeeding men becomes a command to do that thing. When God, through Isaiah, said, "I have get thee for a light of the Gentiles," that prophecy becomes a command to us to go, and we should acknowledge that command; and he deduced the sermon from the text. When I was a young preacher I memorized that sermon. It may be found in the life of Jesse Mercer.

The last clause of Acts 13:48, which reads thus: "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed," needs some explanation. When I was a young fellow and had not imbibed the doctrine of predestination I wanted that to read, "And as many as believed were ordained to eternal life." Perhaps that is the way you want to interpret it. Dr. Broadus said, "Let the scripture mean what it wants to mean," and you let that passage stand – ordination to precede eternal life. Ordination to eternal life takes place in eternity. Paul, in Romans 8, gives us the order. Many modern people do not believe it. We seldom ever hear anybody preach a sermon on it. I heard a strong preacher once say, "I just can’t believe it." Romans 8:29 reads, "For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son . . . and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified." Justification comes at believing. So unless that passage reads, "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed," it would break Paul’s chain all to pieces.

Settle it in your mind that salvation commences with God, and not with man.

If you put it the other way, "As many as believed were ordained to eternal life," then you put the man ahead. It is the question after all, Is salvation of grace or of works?

There are certain notes of time which they spent in Antioch. We do not know how long. We know they were there two sabbaths, for we have an account of his great sermon one sabbath and his repeating the same discourse the next sabbath. Then there is this additional note, Acts 13:49: "And the word of the Lord was spread abroad throughout all the region." So we can’t tell just how long they were in that city. But that sermon that day touched and converted many Jews and proselytes. It interested a whole Greek city, and not only the city, but all that country around Antioch was stirred up.

Acts 13:50-51 read as follows: "But the Jews urged on the devout women of honorable estate, and the chief men of the city, and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and cast them out of their border. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium." The things that need explanation are (1) that reference to those women, and (2) their shaking the dust off their feet. It is an interesting fact that very many of those who became proselytes to the Jews were great and intelligent women. These women evidently became disgusted with the heathen religion. A woman in her sorrow is much more apt to want to find a real consolation than a man, because he is out in the busy world, and finds in the press of business an engagement for his mind, while the woman, sitting at home, perhaps churning with her hands, or rocking the cradle with her feet, with a question in her mind that keeps knocking for an answer. The Jews went to these leading women and got them to use their influence.

And when the leading Women of the town go to talking against a preacher, he had just as well pack his grip.

As long as the women stand up for him he need not be afraid of the men. Jesus commanded that when the disciples entered a town, they should go to a house and say, "Peace be to this house," and if they received them they should let their peace rest on that house, but if they did not receive them, they were to shake the dust off their feet. Just what Jesus said do, Paul and Barnabas did. They shook the dust off their feet as a testimony. All this we will meet at the great judgment day. A man is on trial, and there is brought up a little handful of dust in evidence, and he looks at that and says, "What has that dust got to say against me?" The answer comes, "On this very dust God’s apostle stood and preached to you the word of eternal life, and you rejected it." That is the thought.

When I was in Mexico, Brother W. D. Powell, who was then missionary there, brought me a little pebble – a beautiful translucent stone, with a crimson streak through it. I said, "What do you bring that to me for?" He said, "It is a memorial. When Maximilian was shot to death it was found that he stood on this white stone, and it is a memorial of the killing of Maximilian."

It is astonishing how many witnesses will rise up in the judgment against people. The Book of Tears, the Book of Curses, the words we speak, and the dust they stand on when they plead with men to turn to God, all witness against those who reject Christ and persecute his witnesses.

AT ICONIUM

I will give a short account of Iconium, its government, its heathen religion, the Jews there, and why the apostles here were safe from the authorities at Antioch. The jurisdiction was different here. Iconium was the central one of fourteen cities under Roman government, governed by a tetrarch, and the authorities at Antioch had no jurisdiction in that tetrarchy. It was the convenience of these several communities that was of great advantage to the apostles. Sometimes they would have to go only a few miles to get into a different jurisdiction. In this case it was sixty miles from Antioch of Pisidia to Iconium, and it was sixty miles from Iconium to Derbe. The heathen religion was about the same as at Antioch of Pisidia, which has been described, and there were a great many Jews, just as there were at all the other places.

Of Paul’s ministry here the record says, "And it came to pass in Iconium that they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude, both of Jews and of Greeks, believed." Mark the words "so spake." A long time ago I discovered that I did not need so much to study to know what to say when I went to preach, but I did need to study in order to "so speak" that what I said would stick – take root. There is the problem of speaking – any kind of speaking. It is a very easy matter for any preacher that has good common sense to take a passage of scripture and outline what he is going to say, but now let him deliver it, and so say it that it will attract attention – that it will fasten itself upon the hearts of the people. The difference in the power of men is the difference in the way they say things. They so spake that a great multitude of Jews and Greeks believed.

Suppose they had gotten up there and preached this way: "I am telling you about God, and some time or other in your life it would be a good thing to look into this." They certainly would not have convinced anybody. But they shot to kill. They wanted an immediate acceptance. They so spake as to put the issue right on the hearts of the people, so that they would decide that day – not wait until after dinner, not wait until they went home, but that they decide right then.

"But the Jews that were disobedient stirred up the souls of the Gentiles, and made them evil affected against the brethren. Long time, therefore, they tarried there, speaking boldly in the Lord, who bear witness unto the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. [Now you come to an important result.] But the multitude of the city was divided; and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles." Jesus says, "I came not to send peace, but a sword." If you preach the gospel straight-out, you are going to make a line of cleavage unless you give up and Just say some little easy thing that will have no more effect than that Bar-Jesus had. When you preach as these men preached, lines will be drawn; they are going to stand for or against.

The other way you won’t make any enemies and you won’t make any friends with the people. You will be like the fly when it apologized for resting on an ox’s horn. He said, "If you had not said something I would never have known you were there." If you are like that fly, they won’t know you are in town, but if you stir them up, how ready they are to begin to draw the line! They will talk about you on the street, and in the home, one man saying, "I like this, and I don’t like that," and the fire gets hotter and hotter, and at last you have the town divided. Easy preachers never can divide a town. So that is a part of the result.

Let’s see the next verse: "And when there was made an onset both of the Gentiles and of the Jews, with their rulers, to treat them shamefully and to stone them, they became aware of it, and fled into the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, and Derbe, and the region round about." When they could no longer meet them with argument, or withstand the power of these men, then they took up persecution, just as Saul himself did when Stephen beat him in the debate; he went over and borrowed the weapon, persecution, from the Sadducees, as if to say, "I will throw rocks at him." As to the time of the ministry there, all we know is what the record says – that it was a long time. As to the result, they captured half the crowd, and it terminated as it did at Antioch, by persecution.

AT LYSTRA

Lystra had a different government from Iconium. It was a place of some importance, and the heathen religion there was different from the heathen religion at Cyprus. In Cyprus the main worship was Oriental Venus. Here at Lystra there was a temple of Jupiter, and the worship of this place was the worship of Jupiter, the chief god according to the Greek mythology. Zeus, the Greeks called him, but the Romans called him Jupiter. The Jews were here, just as they were at the other places.

The events of the ministry here are found in the following scriptures: Acts 14:8-20; Acts 16:1-3; 1 Timothy 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:18; 2 Timothy 1:1; 2 Timothy 3:10-11, which are very important. The record commences: "And at Lystra there sat a certain man, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked. The same heard Paul speaking who, fastening his eyes upon him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped up and walked. And when the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down, to us in the likeness of men."

This ministry commences there with the healing of that helpless cripple. By one word of Paul’s he became sound in a moment. The miracle had a tremendous effect upon the whole population, as you see from the next verse (Acts 14:12): "And they called Barnabas Jupiter, [he was more imposing]; and Paul, Mercury [he was quicker], because he was the chief speaker." The old legends are full of the accounts of gods moving among men. It was a favorite trick of Jupiter’s; sometimes for no very nice purpose. But now when they saw these men, at a word, convert a hopeless, helpless cripple into perfect soundness of health, they said, "These men are gods; Jupiter comes down; we have his temple and he has not been here in a long time, but he is here with Mercury." They went to the priests of the Temple, and they were ready enough to respond; they got ready to sacrifice to Jupiter; they took a large handsome bull, or steer, put garlands on his horns, and prepared him for sacrifice. They marched in a big parade down to where Paul and Barnabas were, and were going to kill that ox in the street. Paul and Barnabas, having been reared Jews, with the idea of one God, it seemed to them the most awful blasphemy, and they rushed among them and said, "We are men just like you! We are not gods! There is only one God!" But they had a great deal of difficulty in keeping these people from welcoming them as gods.

Notice still further (Acts 14:19): "But there came Jews thither from Antioch and Iconium [the two last places visited] and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead." They left him lying, bruised by heavy stones. These are the three events: (1) The healing of the cripple. (2) The attempted worship of them as gods. (3) Paul stoned until he was supposed to be dead. If those had been all the events I never would have added Acts 16:1-3; 1 Timothy 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:18; 2 Timothy 1:1; 2 Timothy 3:10-11 to the list of scriptures to show the events at Lystra. What do we learn by looking at these passages? We find that among the number that were converted at Lystra were a grandmother named Lois, a mother named Eunice, and a boy named Timothy, which is the biggest event that happened here. We will hear from those same people again as we go on in the history. If nobody else had been converted in that meeting but that one boy, whose mother was a Jewess and whose father was a Greek – that boy Timothy – the whole tour, with all its sufferings and its changes, would have been paid for. When Paul got up he moved on and went to Derbe.

AT DERBE

The events at Derbe were these: They had an exceedingly successful meeting. There was no persecution here at all, which is the first place where they did not meet with strong resistance, and a very famous man was converted, whose name is Gaius. We find him referred to in Acts 20:4. Gaius, of Derbe, who attached himself to Paul, just as Timothy attached himself to Paul later. But Acts 19:29 tells us about a Gaius, Acts 20:4 tells us about a Gaius, Romans 16:23 tells about a Gaius, 1 Corinthians 1:14 tells about a Gaius, and 3 John tells about a Gaius. Now, what is the difference between the Gaius of Acts 19:29; Acts 20:4; Romans 16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:14; 3 John? The Gaius of Acts 19:29 and Romans 16:23 is a Macedonian. He will be converted later on. We have not come to his conversion yet. The Gaius of Acts 20:4 is a Derbe man. Gaius of 1 Corinthians 1:14 is a Corinthian man. We have not come to his conversion; we will get to it later. The Gaius of 3 John, I don’t know. It is probable that he may have been an Ephesian. He may possibly have been the Gaius of Derbe. John afterward came to stay in this country, had jurisdiction over it after Paul had passed away, and he knew Gaius and wrote him a letter.

They returned the same way and the sublimest spirit of Christian courage was evinced by going back this way. They had just been expelled by persecution from Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. They go right back to every one of those places, and follow clear on down to Perga. Let us imagine that we are off on a missionary tour, and are nearly home; that we could go home without much trouble, and the impression comes to us to go back the way we came, a very circuitous Way, and as we go back, to stop at the places where our lives had been in danger – where those enemies still were. But there were two great objects accomplished by going back this way. They are clear and distinct: They went back to confirm the faith of the converts in those places, and to ordain elders in every church that had been established. These people had just emerged from heathenism. The record says that the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. These churches had no preachers. These young converts had no training, and they go back to confirm them in the faith.

I never will believe in the Roman and Episcopal rite of confirmation. There is no such thing in the Bible, but the Bible doctrine of confirmation is a great thing.

Do not leave a young convert, who is like a little toddling fellow – a baby that doesn’t know how to walk – to run around and pick up just what he can find to eat. Nurture him.

There is a mighty lesson for mission work here. One of the surest and best opportunities of mission work is to strengthen the things that are. When we raised this question in the mission work in Texas, all over Texas men said, "I will pay money to the mission work, but I won’t pay money and call it missions to send a man around to the churches." Those are the very places that needed the work of confirmation. When you strengthen a feeble church, you increase the missionary opportunity. General missionaries go from town to town where there are churches, hold meetings, confirm, strengthen, root and ground the faith of the people, and build them up in the knowledge of the grace of God.

When they went to a church they sought out the gifts that had been developed under the preaching.

You can hold big meetings, but when you preach, if no one under your preaching ever wants to preach, then you may question your own authority to preach. Whenever a meeting does not impress some man to preach, I don’t care how much fuss you make, the meeting is a failure.

In those places where they stood up and preached, some converts were impressed to preach (there was always more than one; here the number was from one to fifteen); they were ready for ordination, and we find a sample of just how it was done. The brethren at Lystra and Iconium recommended to Paul the next time he comes along, to ordain Timothy. The apostles went to these churches and found that some young converts had a message, had been talking in prayer meeting, and then the church would say, "Brother A, B, or, C is doing good work. He is speaking and leading some to Christ." "And they ordained elders in every church," as many as were ready for it. There are very few Baptist churches without these. I have known forty-six ordained preachers to be in the First Baptist Church in Waco, but that doesn’t mean that they were all pastors of the church. There may be a pastor with half a dozen assistants. Dr. W. B. Riley’s church at Minneapolis has six or seven assistants. So that has no bearing on the Baptist polity except to confirm it.

AT PERGA in PAMPHYLIA

There were great sufferings on the land part of this tour, and there is another account of them, besides Luke’s in Acts, found in 2 Timothy 3:10-11. Timothy was one of the converts on this tour. Paul, writing in Timothy here, said, "But thou didst follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patience, persecutions, sufferings; what things befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions Is endured: and out of them all the Lord delivered me." This is a reference to Timothy when they were at Lystra, where Timothy was converted. When the grandmother, the mother and the son get right, things are all right: "The unfeigned faith, that is in thee; which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and, I am persuaded, in thee also." When the old grandmother was converted, then the mother, and then the boy, I imagine he stopped at that house. That gave Timothy an opportunity to know about these things. And there is another event – there were certain prophecies about Timothy which show that somebody had prophesied great things about this boy. So, very naturally, Paul would go there to stay while he was in that city.

According to modern maps of the Roman Empire, on the northern border of Pamphylia is a province that used to be Galatia, bordering on Lycaonia, and was by the Romans put under one province. Dr. Ramsay contends that as Acts gives no account of Paul’s preaching in that Galatian province, and as it does give an account of his preaching at Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium, those were the Galatian churches; that Paul spoke of the country as it then existed. I am very much inclined to agree with him. He wrote a great book on it. If his contention be right, the events that are mentioned in the letter to the Galatians must be added. Paul said, "The reason that I stay with you so long is that I am sick, and the trouble is with my eyes." He never got over that blinding light when Jesus appeared to him, and he says, "I bear witness that you Galatians so sympathize with me that you are willing to pluck out your eyes and let me have them." If the thing could have been done, they would have been willing.

The relation of a particular church to this tour is this: The church at Antioch – a great church in the grace and under the direction of the Holy Spirit – started these men out, and they made the tour, came back, gathered that church together, and made a report of the work they had done.

It sometimes happens that a particular church is able to conduct a missionary enterprise by itself. Spurgeon’s church was able to do it. Riley’s church in Minneapolis baa a foreign mission established. Generally it is better for all the churches to combine as an association, state convention, or national convention in the work. But we cannot deny that a single church has the right, and, if it has the ability, it is its duty to do missionary work as a church, whether any other church does or not.

It is interesting to note the distances and modes of travel of these New Testament missionaries. By using a scale we find that from Antioch to Seleucia it is about sixteen miles; from Seleucia to Salamis about 130 miles; from Salamis to Paphos, about eighty miles; from Paphos to Perga, about 200 miles; from Perga to Antioch, about eighty miles; from Antioch to Iconium) ninety miles; from Iconium to Lystra, seventy miles; from Lystra to Derbe about forty miles. There is land travel and sea travel, and part of the land travel is the crossing of mountains. You can get the direction from the map.

In all the places touched, there were certain elements of population. There is always first a native population. This is the Roman province of Galatia, but this part used to be Phrygia, and Phrygia used to reach over to Galatia, and Lycaonia was on the east. There is always the native population, or original people. The next is the Greeks. The Greek population came in when that country was subject to Greece. After this, great multitudes of Jews poured in, and the latest of all came the Romans. At any one of these places could be found original natives, Greeks, Jews, and Romans; that is the order in which they settled. That takes us through Paul’s first missionary tour, which shook the world.

There arose from that tour an issue of very great importance, and a decision was reached that affects all time. That issue was made from the fact that it was the first time that preachers of Jesus Christ went to the heathen. God sent a Roman centurion to Peter, but he was a proselyte, and here they are told to go to the heathen. Then it is immensely important from the personality of the converts. Sergius Paulus, Lois, Eunice, Timothy, and Gaius of Derbe, a mighty man, were brought to God on that tour. And to this day there is the impression of that one expedition.

Many miracles were wrought, but only two are specially set forth, though the record says that God wrought wonders and mighty deeds by their hands. The miracle on Elymas and that cripple are the only ones that are mentioned. I often take up the Bible and read that first tour, then I shut the book and try to see the people. I see the missionaries; then I see Bar-Jesus; then Sergius Paulus, who was converted; then this family – Lois, Eunice, and Timothy; then that cripple, poor fellow, and the joy that came to his soul; then I see that great evangelist, Gaius, that was converted in that way I impress the thing on my mind so that I can get off without my Bible with me and follow every tour of Paul’s, not only the three recorded in Acts, which we are now considering, but the one he took into Cilicia, and the one that follows after the book of Acts. I make these people live before me. Then I begin to say: What shall I do with these people, and what lesson shall I learn from them for myself?

QUESTIONS

1. What Old Testament passages interpreted in Paul’s great sermon in Antioch of Pisidia?

2. What is the interpretation here given of each?

3. What are the results of this sermon?

4. What is the occasion of the issue with the Jews on the next sabbath, how was this issue met, and what the result?

5. What great sermon here cited, and what the theme and content thereof?

6. Explain the last clause of verse forty-eight, which reads thus: "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed."

7. What are the notes of time which they spent in Antioch?

8. Explain verses fifty, and fifty-one which read as follows: "But the Jews urged on the devout women of honorable estate, and the chief men of the city, and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and cast them out of their borders. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium."

9. Give a short account of Iconium, its government, its heathen religion, the Jews there, and why the apostles here were safe from the authorities at Antioch.

10. Give an account of Paul’s ministry here, its time, its result, and its termination.

11. Give a brief account of Lystra, its government, its heathen religion and the Jews there.

12. What are the events of their ministry here?

13. What are the events and characteristics of the work at Derbe?

14. What is the difference between the Gaius of Acts 19:29; Acts 20:4; Romans 16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:14; and 3 John?

15. Trace their way back across to Perga, and then directly to Antioch.

16. What spirit did they evince by going back this way?

17. What two great objects were accomplished by going back this way?

18. What mighty lesson for mission work here?

19. Why was there a plurality of elders in every church, and what Its bearing on present Baptist polity?

20. Locate Pamphylia on the map of the Roman Empire.

21. What are the great sufferings on the land part of this tour, and where is another account of them besides Luke’s in Acts?

22. What is Dr. Ramsay’s contention about the Galatian churches to which Paul wrote the letter later?

23. What is the relation of a particular church to this tour?

24. What the respective distances, directions, and methods of travel from Antioch in Syria to Seleucia, to Salamis to Paphos, to Perga, to Antioch in Pisidia, to Iconium, to Lystra, and to Derbe?

25. In all these places touched, what the elements of population and their order of settlement?

26. What issue arose from this tour, who were some of the prominent converts, and what the miracles wrought?