Acts 14:1-18

¹ Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. ² But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. ³ So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. ⁴ But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. ⁵ When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, ⁶ they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, ⁷ and there they continued to preach the gospel. ⁸ Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. ⁹ He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, ¹⁰ said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. ¹¹ And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” ¹² Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. ¹³ And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. ¹⁴ But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, ¹⁵ “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. ¹⁶ In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. ¹⁷ Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” ¹⁸ Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.

I would like to tell you a story of two different preachers.  The first is a modern preacher who is preaching this very morning at his very large church in another state.  Over the last year some interesting and unsettling things have come out about this preacher and his efforts to foster a sense of devotion to him among the members of his church.

For instance, images of pages from a coloring book that the children of the church color in their Sunday School classes have recently come to light.  This coloring book was produced by the church.  One page has a picture of the pastor preaching before a group of people.  The children are to color in the pastor and the people watching him.  Above the picture is the word “Unity.”  The words below the header and on the bottom of the page are disconcerting.  It says, “We are united under the visionary.”  Under this it quotes Romans 13:1:  “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities.”  (I will point out that while there are other passages that speak of a kind of authority for pastors, Romans 13:1 is normally interpreted as referring to the state authorities.)  On the bottom of the page are these words:  “_______ Church is built on the vision God gave Pastor _______.  We will protect our unity in supporting his vision.”  Another page has a picture of this pastor standing beside another well-known pastor.  In addition to informing the children that their pastor spent some time with this other famous pastor, this page asks them to think about how they can honor those who are above them.

In addition to this, an image of a poster that hangs in the offices of this church is entitled, “Reasons _______ Church is the Best Place to Work.”  Among the numbered reasons on the poster are the following:

1. We serve a Lead Pastor who seeks and hears from God.

3. We serve a Lead Pastor we can trust.

7. We serve a Lead Pastor who pours into us spiritually and professionally.

16. We serve a Lead Pastor who goes first.

I share the concerns of other observers who worry what this kind of emphasis on the pastor and honoring the pastor and obeying the pastor means for this church.  Christian history is full of charismatic leaders who were given too much authority and too much honor.  In the end, everybody loses.

On the other hand, let me tell you about another pastor.  This pastor was named Robert Nichols.  He and his wife and son and daughter lived in a small southern town where he served as the pastor of a local church.  Shortly after beginning as pastor, Nichols realized that the church clerk and her husband had a bit of a racket going.  The clerk would collect the offerings, give all the cash to her husband, who would then deposit the money into his account and write the church a personal check for the amount.  He would then count the amount of the checks he wrote as his tithe and claim huge tax deductions for this.

So pastor Nichols, wise to their scheme, fired this man’s wife and effectively ended their dishonesty.  This gave rise to six years of terror in which the man, while still attending the church, besieged the pastor and his family with threatening letters and phone calls trying to run them out of town.  In addition, he would act in a disruptive manner during worship services, trying to distract and unnerve the pastor while he was preaching.  This gave way to the house getting shot-gunned on numerous occasions as well as dynamited a number of times over this six year period.

The law was called and an ATF agent was assigned but, amazingly, they could not stop the harassment or assaults.  Ultimately, this powerful church member lied to a local drunk and told him that the pastor was having an affair with his wife and should be killed.  This led the man to enter the parsonage, shoot and kill the pastor’s wife, and seriously maim the pastor.  The grief stricken pastor would spend the remainder of his days in and out of mental facilities until he died in his late 40’s.  Many of you will be familiar with this story because you have read the book written by the pastor’s daughter entitled The Devil in Pew Number Seven.[1]

Now, why would I tell you these two stories:  one concerning a pastor who is being given too much honor and devotion and the other about a pastor who faced horrifying opposition?  It is because the Church has faced both of these reactions throughout the ages:  undue glorification and undue persecution.  Both are very real challenges and both are present in our passage this morning.

Let us consider these realities in Acts 14:1-18.  We join Paul and Barnabas as they continue their missionary journey by traveling to Iconium.

The early believers were tough, persistent, witness-bearers faced with serious opposition.

Paul and Barnabas entered Iconium and, as was their custom, went first to the synagogues to preach.

¹ Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. ² But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

So many believed but many did not.  This, too, was customary for Paul’s ministry.  William Larkin points out that the phrase “stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds” literally means “made their souls evil against” the brothers and that this implies they preyed on their feelings and not their intellects since “the ‘soul’ is that inward place of feeling that may be influenced by others.”[2]

Perhaps you have experienced this in your own efforts to reach people with the gospel.  Oftentimes the opposition we receive is not grounded in conviction or sound arguments but only in an emotional aversion to the gospel.  This seems especially to be the case with prominent critics of Christianity:  they make arguments against Christianity that tap into emotion-driven stereotypes of irrational fears and rarely engage the essence of the gospel itself.

Regardless, those Jews who did not believe stirred up opposition to Paul and Barnabas.  What Luke next tells us is fascinating.

³ So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. ⁴ But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. ⁵ When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, ⁶ they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, ⁷ and there they continued to preach the gospel.

The opening words of verse 3 are powerful and convicting:  “So they remained for a long time.”  What makes them so powerful are the words of verse 2 that they follow:  “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.”  Thus, Paul and Barnabas receive opposition, “so they remained for a long time.”

It is humorous watching some New Testament scholars struggle with verse three and suggest that it must be a later scribal addition to the text since it does not appear logically to follow verse two.  After all, who in their right mind would stay in a place for a long time because they were being opposed?  Answer:  those people who know that the reason why they are being opposed is the message that those opposing them most need to hear.

The point is not that Paul and Barnabas never left a place.  We have seen them leave towns and escape towns before.  The point is that they did not do so haphazardly and they certainly did not do so because they did not want to experience pain or persecution.  While they did avoid being killed on numerous occasions, they clearly demonstrated that they were willing to be killed for the gospel when and if the Lord should decide that this needed to happen.

The early believers were tough, persistent, witness-bearers faced with serious opposition.  They had grit.  They had resolve.  They had determination.  They had a fierce singularity of purpose:  the exaltation of Christ and His gospel and the advance of the Kingdom of God.  They had counted the cost and had determined that the gospel was worth suffering for.

“So they remained for a long time…”

Do we?  Do you?  Do I?

Here is evidence that the importance of the gospel has taken root in our lives:  when we are willing to take the arrows for speaking the truth.  Is there a time to shake the dust from our feet?  Yes.  God will make it clear when it is time for us to move on after boldly proclaiming the truth of the gospel.  But let us be clear:  that time will not often come before we pay a personal price for Christ Jesus.  This was the approach of the early missionary Church.  It must be our approach as well.

The early believers gave all the glory to God whenever misguided people tried to make too much of them.

The early Church faced some staunch opposition and persecution, but pendulums swing both ways, and, in their next city, Lystra, they faced the opposite:  the misguided worship of the people.

⁸ Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. ⁹ He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, ¹⁰ said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking.

Here we find a miracle that is a typical New Testament miracle…if miracles can ever be called typical!  Jesus healed the paralytic man in the beginning of Matthew 9 and He healed the paralytic man who was lowered down from the roof in the beginning of Mark 2 and he healed the lame man by the Pool of Bethesda in the beginning of John 5.  In Act we saw God use Peter to heal a lame man in the beginning of Acts 3.  And here God works through Paul and Barnabas to heal this man who cannot use his feet.

Whereas we might expect such a miracle to bring division and some measure of opposition, we find a most unusual reaction in Lystra.

¹¹ And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” ¹² Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

Oh my!  The gathered crowds look at Paul and Barnabas and claim that they are gods, specifically the gods Hermes and Zeus respectively.  Paul was likely called Hermes because Hermes was “the Greek god of oratory and the inventor of speech” and Barnabas may have been called Zeus “because of an ancient legend found in their region that Zeus and Hermes had once descended to earth in human guise.”[3]  James Montgomery Boice has offered a summary of this legend.

According to Ovid’s story [Metamorphoses], Zeus and Hermes had once visited a valley near Lystra.  They went from door to door, but the people refused to take them in.  Finally, they came to a poor house occupied by a man named Philemon…and his wife Baucis.  These elderly people received Zeus and Hermes.  So they stayed the night.  In the morning the gods took the couple up out of the city to a mountain, and when they looked back on the valley they saw that the gods had flooded it, drowning everyone.  Then, while they were looking on, Philemon and Baucis saw that the gods had transformed their poor hovel into a great temple with a glittering gold roof.[4]

Ben Witherington has provided some other interesting reasons why these people saw Paul and Barnabas as Hermes and Zeus.

An inscription has been found near Lystra with a dedication to Zeus of a statue of Hermes, another inscription speaks of priests of Zeus, an even more telling is a stone altar found near Lystra dedicated to the Hearer of prayer (i.e., surely Zeus) and to Hermes.  The local Zeus, Zeus Ampelites, was portrayed on reliefs as an elderly man with a beard, and his companion (Hermes) as a young male assistant.  The identification of Barnabas and Paul in these roles has led to the suggestion that the audience may have even thought these two resembled the familiar local reliefs of Zeus and Hermes.  D.S. Potter thus concludes, “The passage is therefore of considerable importance as evidence for the physical appearance of Paul at this stage of his career.”  At the least it probably suggests Barnabas was the elder of the two men and Paul was perhaps in his forties at most (cf. Acts 7:58).[5]

There are reasons, then, why these pagan people were predisposed to see these two men through whom this work of power had come as the gods Hermes and Zeus come among them.  Of course, they were tragically misguided in this, as their efforts to honor Paul and Barnabas reveal.

¹³ And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. ¹⁴ But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, ¹⁵ “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. ¹⁶ In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. ¹⁷ Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” ¹⁸ Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.

The people try to offer sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas as incarnations of Hermes and Zeus.  This is utterly terrifying to Paul and Barnabas.  They cry out in horror and tear their garments, protesting that they are not gods but that instead they have come to point them to the one true God.

This business of receiving worship that is due God and God alone is a serious business.  Do you recall what happened to Herod in Acts 12?

²⁰ Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. ²¹ On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. ²² And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” ²³ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

Even then, Paul and Barnabas’ reaction is not fueled by some self-serving desire not to be struck down.  No, their reaction is fueled again by a deep burden that these people need Christ and that these efforts to deify Paul and Barnabas reveal the distance that yet remained between these lost people and the Lord of life.  Therefore, they refuse all the efforts of the people to make them the objects of worship.

Yes, the Church has historically been tempted by two extreme reactions to the gospel.  The extreme reaction of persecution tempts the Church to despair or to quit or to lose courage.  The extreme reaction of deifying the Church or enthroning some leader in the Church with undue praise or glorification tempts the Church to see itself as God or Godlike.  Both of these temptations will lead to the ruin of the Church:  the temptation to despair or the temptation to see itself as God.

It is therefore all the more shocking to see that some pastors still allow themselves to receive praise that should be directed only to God.  For instance, a February 1, 2012, Christian Post article entitled “Video of __________ [a popular American pastor whose name I will omit] Being ‘Crowned King’ Leaves Viewers Confused” should give us pause.

A 14-minute video clip showing __________ of __________ Baptist Church being crowned by Rabbi Ralph Messer during one of the church’s televised services has gone viral, with members of the Christian community expressing complete confusion over the video…

The rabbi conducted something of a ritual during Sunday’s service at __________ that raised eyebrows across the Internet.

Messer offered __________ on air what he claimed was a 312-year-old priceless Hebrew scroll saved from the Auschwitz death camp after World War II. He then wrapped the __________ minister in it as mood-enhancing music played in the background, and called for __________ to be lifted up on a chair, similar to a throne. While __________ was being carried across the podium, Messer spoke of biblical kingship, which __________ was supposed to represent.

The rabbi went on to say that __________ sits now between two courts, the court of justice and the court of blessings. Worshippers in attendance applauded as __________ was ushered about in the air on the chair.

The meaning of __________ crowning as “king” has apparently been lost on the public, as those commenting on the online video have expressed confusion and skepticism.

Confusion and skepticism indeed.

The title “King” should be reserved for God alone, and no pastor and no Christian anywhere should allow themselves to become the object and focus of the adoration of the Church or the world.  The motto of the Christian’s life should be the motto of John the Baptist’s life:  “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

There is a powerful lesson in our text:  do not be discouraged by opposition and do not be lured in by praise.  The gospel will bring both reactions in unique and tempting ways.  But what we must keep ever before our minds are two different reactions.  The first is the reaction of those who will believe in Christ as a result of our witness.  These who believe need for us to stay focused and stay clear in our hearts and minds.  They need for us not to be distracted by either opposition or praise.  They need to hear the word and see it lived out in the life of the Church!

And above that, a reaction that should matter above all others:  God’s reaction.  Paul and Barnabas stayed the course because they never forgot that they operated before an audience of one:  the Lord Jesus.  His pleasure with them was preeminent in their minds.  They were unable to fear persecution or to be lured in by praise because they had fixed their gaze on the crucified and risen lamb who had come and was coming again.

May we do the same!  May we never stop doing the same!

Like seemingly countless numbers of others, I can say that the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC, holds a very dear place in my heart and in my wife’s heart.  We honeymooned in Asheville almost 20 years and, since that time, have returned to the grounds of Biltmore numerous times.  I can certainly say that I have been affected by the charm of Biltmore and, while I do not necessarily take the entire tour of the house when I return these days, I love going back.

The last time I was at Biltmore was in August of this year.  While there I picked up Howard Covington’s Lady on the Hill.  I’m very glad I did!  The book is less a straight history of the house (though it is a history) than an exploration of how this grand home and estate passed from being the personal home of George Vanderbilt in the late 19th/early 20th century to being what it is today:  one of America’s most famous homes, a privately owned, highly successful tourist destination that attracts thousands of people every year with its charming preservation of Vanderbilt’s original vision in ways that are classic but also unique and fresh.

Dominating this particular angle of the Biltmore story is the character of William Cecil, George Vanderbilt’s grandson and the primary figure in transitioning the house from a glorious but aging money-pit to the astonishing success story that it is today.  Cecil’s story is one of a fierce determination to keep the house in the hands of the family, to make it profitable so that he could preserve it as it should be preserved, and to open it to all who would like to come to America’s home.

It is a story of preservation but also innovation.  Cecil refused to change the house into a museum.  He was determined that people who visited should see it as it was intended to be:  a home.  This approach, as well as Cecil’s unapologetic intention that the house be profitable (so that, again, he could preserve it as it should be preserved), ran him afoul of the conservative preservationist community who essentially accused Cecil of being more influenced by Walt Disney than America’s other great home preservationists.  Cecil responded by remaining faithful to his convictions and to his unorthodox but ultimately triumphant vision for what the house and grounds could be.

The book is well written and engaging.  Those who have visited the house will find many of the details fascinating.  Above all, the enthralling backstory of how Biltmore came to be what it is today will provide visitors with a profound appreciation for the genius and vision of a number of people, but, preeminently, of George Vanderbilt (of course) and his grandson William Cecil.

The book should also be read by leaders.  Cecil is a case study in what can happen when a person is governed by clear thinking, fierce determination, and the compelling power of conviction.  These qualities could lead Cecil to be prickly at times, but it seems clear that none who encountered him failed to appreciate his resolve and grit.  These qualities also led Cecil to accomplish what he did:  the preservation and opening and continuance of one of America’s most beloved homes.

If you have visited Biltmore, this is a must-read.  If you have not but intend to, this book will well-prepare you to appreciate deeply what you are experiencing at Biltmore when you go.

Acts 13:42-52

⁴² As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. ⁴³ And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. ⁴⁴ The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. ⁴⁵ But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. ⁴⁶ And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷ For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” ⁴⁸ And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. ⁴⁹ And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. ⁵⁰ But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. ⁵¹ But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. ⁵² And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Our church’s four canons are (1) “An authentic family” (2) “around the whole gospel” (3) “for the glory of God” (4) “and the reaching of the nations.”  The idea in this way of putting it is that the gospel is the center of our life together as a church and we gather around it the way people gather around a fire for life and for light.  The gospel, in other words, draws us in together and gives us life.

This is no mere ideal or exercise in wishful thinking.  It has been our experience together as a church.  The gospel of Christ provides a framework for our life together.  It sets the trajectory and equips us with what we need to love one another, to forgive one another, to make peace with one another.  This is as it should be.

I am struck, though, by the fact that the gospel not only has the power to draw in and unite, it also has the power to scatter and condemn.  This is evident in scripture, in the history of the Church, and in our individual lives as well.  What is good news to the one who receives it is hated news to the one who rejects it.  Consider our text and how it reveals the uniting and scattering power of the gospel.

The gospel has the power to draw, to save, to unite, and to enthuse.

Paul has just finished his powerful, controversial sermon in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia.  We will first observe how the gospel has the power to draw, to save, to unite, and to enthuse.

⁴² As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. ⁴³ And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. ⁴⁴ The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

What a beautiful scene!  The people are hungry for the gospel and they “begged” Paul to preach again the next week.  This is a scene that was consistently repeated throughout Jesus’ ministry:  the crowds pressing in wanting to hear more.  In Christian history, this hunger for the Word usually is a sign of revival.  Conversely, when a people have grown spiritually cold this hunger for the Word is absent.

They call upon Paul to preach again, and Luke tells us that “the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.”  Missionaries tell of scenes like this when they preach in areas where the gospel has not previously been heard or when they preach in areas where the Church is persecuted.  There is a hunger and the people literally call for the preachers not to stop.  One cannot help but read this amazing account and marvel at the coldness of our own day.  Ours is a day in which the clock is watched and preachers know quickly when they preach too late or too long.

Perhaps familiarity truly does breed contempt.  Perhaps the American Church has had such easy access to the gospel for so long that we no longer marvel at its revolutionary message.  Regardless, it is an established truth that a Church in which God is a moving is a Church that does not face the gospel with indifference.

Later in our text, we see another example of the unifying, enthusing power of the gospel.

⁴⁸ And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. ⁴⁹ And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.

What they are rejoicing about is Paul’s pronouncement that he intends to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles.  They rejoiced and they glorified God!  The Gentiles, of course, had even more reason to rejoice.  That the gospel would come to them was an absolute scandal to those Jews who felt that they and they alone were the objects of God’s affection.  These Gentiles, even the God-fearers who were drawing near, were keenly aware of their status as outsiders.  Thus, at the announcement that the gospel was for them as well, they were exuberant with praise and joy!

Luke tells us at the end of verse 48 that “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”  This has proven to be a controversial verse for many as it clearly states the predestining purposes of God.  John Stott offers some helpful comments.

Some commentators, offended by what they regard as an extreme predestinarianism in this phrase, have tried in various ways to soften it. But the Greek verb tassō means to ‘ordain’ (AV, RSV), sometimes in the sense of to ‘assign someone to a (certain) classification’ (BAGD).[1]

Long ago I determined to preach the scriptures regardless of whether or not what they clearly teach fits in my “system.”  I also long ago decided to be skeptical of nice, neat systems.  I would not consider myself a Calvinist.  I would not consider myself an Arminian.  There are, in my view, elements of truth in each system.  But I have long been struck by the fact that the mystery of the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility is just that:  a mystery that resides in the heart of God.  Emphasize one side and you will see the other calling out to you from scripture.

I love this about God’s Word:  it keeps us off balance on those issues that transcend our own limited understandings.  Does God sovereignly elect?  Yes.  Is man responsible to respond?  Yes.  Does verse 48 say “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed”?  Yes.  Yes it does.  There would seem to be no exegetical reason to suggest that it says anything other than what a plain reading of it appears to say.  Thus, the Word of God should stand.

Does this fit uneasily in your system?  Good!  It will keep you from making an idol of your system.  Does this make you uneasy?  Good!  It will keep you humble.

Regardless, the beauty of this moment is clear.  Many lost souls are coming to Jesus and they have a deep hunger for the Word of God!  Like water before parched travelers, they cannot get enough.  This is how the gospel works.

The gospel has the power to draw and to save and enthuse!

The gospel has the power to divide and to enrage.

But it also has the power to divide and to enrage.  We see this in the reaction of those Jews who were displeased at the enthusiasm of those who received the gospel.

⁴⁵ But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. ⁴⁶ And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷ For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

While some rejoice, others fume.  They fume because they are jealous of the crowds rushing to Paul and they fume because Paul’s unexpected gospel did not fit into their established boundaries of orthodoxy.  Perhaps there were more practical concerns.  F.F. Bruce offers a rather humorous but insightful theory as to one possible aspect of the Jews’ irritation.

Knowing (as we unfortunately do) how regular Christian worshipers can manifest quite un-Christian indignation when they arrive at church on a Sunday morning to find their customary seats occupied by rank outsiders who have come to hear some popular visiting speaker, we can readily appreciate the annoyance of the Jewish community at finding their synagogue practically taken over by a Gentile audience on this occasion.[2]

Ha!  Perhaps we do have a first century example of, “Excuse me, but you’re sitting in my pew!”  But, in all seriousness, the major problem was why these folks were crowding the pews.  They were not coming to hear the normal take on the Law and the Prophets.  They were coming to hear these newcomers and their scandalous message that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

Something else is happening here.  It needs to be recognized that at least a strong number of those Gentiles to whom Paul was turning with the gospel were the Gentile God-fearers and proselytes who first heard Paul in and around the synagogues.  Thus, many of these Gentiles were not necessarily outsiders to the synagogue leaders; they were converts or potential converts.  In this way, Paul was not only disturbing the interior peace of the synagogue, he was making the synagogues smaller by leaving with some of those who previously attended.  Bruce has offered a helpful description of the way the Jews likely viewed Paul and his team.

They regarded him as one who poached on their preserves, a sheep stealer who seduced from the synagogue many well-disposed Gentiles for whose complete conversion to Judaism they had hoped—and seduced them by offering them God’s full blessing, with incorporation in his people, on what seemed to be easier terms than those which the synagogue required from would-be proselytes.[3]

Obviously, in their estimation, this could not be allowed to stand, so the synagogue leaders took action, stirring up dissent and opposition.

⁵⁰ But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. ⁵¹ But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. ⁵² And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

The leaders turn to “devout women of high standing” as well as the city fathers.  Their argument was undoubtedly that these outsiders were disturbers of the peace and disrupters of synagogue life.  So the wealthy and the powerful are enlisted to strike out against these early missionaries.  And, in fact, they drive them out of town.

However, we learn two things about the missionaries in their reactions.  First, “they shook off the dust from their feet” and left for Iconium.  Second, they “were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”  The first phrase comes from the instructions that Jesus gave the disciples in Matthew 10.

⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, ⁶ but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷ And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. ⁹ Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, ¹⁰ no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. ¹¹ And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. ¹² As you enter the house, greet it. ¹³ And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴ And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. ¹⁵ Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

To shake a place’s dust from their feet was a de facto proclamation that God’s judgment would fall on these who had driven the word of life from their borders. These that drove the disciples from their city were sealing their own fate in rejecting the gospel of life and those commissioned by God to share it.  Jesus warned that a people who would reject the gospel and its messengers were a people in a worse position than Sodom and Gomorrah.  What a chilling thought!

While this was bad news for those who opposed Paul and his team, the reaction of the missionaries showed that it was no defeat for them.  On the contrary, they were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.  They were not joyful at the thought of terrible judgment falling on those who rejected and persecuted them.  Rather, their joy was the joy of knowing that they were in the Father’s will.  Their joy was the joy of knowing that the persecutions they endured were part and parcel of the persecutions that Christ endured.  Thus, they were counted worthy to suffer for the name.

And tellingly, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  God was at work, filling their hearts with love and peace and boldness and courage.  They were taking on the mantle of Christ and they were carrying His cross.  What might appear to be a road of pain was, to these brave brothers, the road of peace.

So it can be with us.  The gospel that draws as well as scatters is the gospel that has been entrusted to us.  We are heralds of the great King.  Ours is the high privilege and stewardship of proclamation and witness bearing.  We get to share in the life and struggles and joys of Paul and Barnabas and Peter and this amazing host of early witnesses.  More importantly, we have the privilege of sharing with them in the life of Christ, which is open to us all and which is our calling as well as theirs.

Be a steward of the gospel!  Be a proclaimer of the gospel!  It draws and it scatters, but it is ours to carry to the world!

Acts 13:13-41

¹³ Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, ¹⁴ but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. ¹⁵ After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” ¹⁶ So 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 made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. ¹⁸ And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. ¹⁹ And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. ²⁰ All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. ²¹ Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. ²² And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ ²³ Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. ²⁴ Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. ²⁵ And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. ²⁶ “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. ²⁷ For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. ²⁸ And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. ²⁹ And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. ³⁰ But God raised him from the dead, ³¹ and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. ³² And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, ³³ this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ ³⁴ And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ ³⁵ Therefore he says also in another psalm, “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ ³⁶ For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, ³⁷ but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. ³⁸ Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, ³⁹ and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. ⁴⁰ Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: ⁴¹ “‘Look, you scoffers,
be astounded and perish;
for I am doing a work in your days,
a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’”

Preaching sermons is like raising children:  everybody is an expert on it until they actually have to do it.

Gordon MacDonald said of one sermon he preached, “The sermon was so bad that I asked someone else to give the benediction while I left the building, ran home, and spent the afternoon in the fetal position trying to forget I’d preached that morning.”  Matt Chandler said, “I have my first sermon on my computer, and it’s painful, all of it—exegeses, application, flow of thought, illustrations, theology—it was a train wreck of epic proportions…”[1]  The Apostle Paul once preached Eutychus to death (Acts 20:7-12)!

Indeed, somebody once said that nowhere is the power of the gospel more evident than in the fact that it survives its own preaching.  This is likely true!  Even so, there is power in the gospel proclaimed.  Acts can almost be seen as a chronicle of powerful sermons preached.  Among those, the sermon recorded in our text is one of the greatest.  Here we are privileged to witness the first sermon that Paul ever preached.  This is his inaugural sermon in a ministry that would inspire the ages to come even to our current day.

In our text, Paul, Barnabas, and some others travel to Antioch at Pisidia, a city that, New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III points out, “is not necessarily the most obvious choice for the next place to evangelize.”  It may be the case that they traveled there because the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus, who Paul had led to Christ earlier in the first part of our chapter, had family there who owned a massive estate in the area.[2]  That is, they likely had strategic connections in the area and so they made their journey and took the gospel to this region.

¹³ Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, ¹⁴ but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.

Let me briefly mention that there is a bit of a scandal in the second half of verse 13 that is not fully fleshed out here.  I am speaking of Luke’s statement, “And John left them and returned to Jerusalem.”  We learn later in the scriptures that Paul and John Mark had a falling out.  Why?  It is hard to say, but it has been noted that whereas previously Luke referred to Barnabas and Paul, here he refers to “Paul and his companions.”  This change in wording likely reflects the fact that Paul’s leadership had become clear and he was now established as the leader of the team instead of Barnabas.  There is no evidence that Barnabas took issues with this new state of affairs.  In fact, one commentator writes, “In nothing is the greatness of Barnabas more manifest than in his recognition of the superiority of Paul and acceptance of a secondary position for himself.”[3]  But it is possible that John Mark did not accept this new order with such understanding.  John Mark, after all, was Barnabas’ cousin.  Perhaps he felt protective of his cousin and was defensive and resentful of this change.  Regardless, he leaves the team and Paul, Barnabas, and the others press on to Antioch of Pisidia.  Upon arriving there, Paul and his companions made their customary visit to the synagogue.

¹⁵ After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.”

What an amazing opportunity!  Paul and his team are noticed in the synagogue and the synagogue leaders ask him if he would like to share any words with the gathered crowd.  Now, I know of no preacher who would do such a thing today:  stand and ask if anybody would like to come to the platform and preach.  The very thought makes modern preachers uncomfortable.  And, indeed, the synagogue leaders who invited Paul to speak would soon come to be uncomfortable themselves.

Observe Paul’s sermon and observe his approach.  Here is a consummate preacher and here is a model for us all.

Paul clearly explains the gospel.

What Paul does in his sermon is build up to and then clearly announce the good news of the gospel of Christ.  He builds up to it by first giving a sketch of Israel’s history.  In this, he is doing what Stephen did in his famous sermon in Acts 7, though with different emphases.

¹⁶ So 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 made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. ¹⁸ And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. ¹⁹ And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. ²⁰ All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. ²¹ Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. ²² And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’

Paul begins with the children of Israel in Egypt and tells their story through the Exodus, the conquest of the land, and the eventual establishment of David as King.  He then moves beyond this to show that, out of the Davidic line, God finally brought a greater King.

²³ Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. ²⁴ Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. ²⁵ And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. ²⁶ “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. ²⁷ For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. ²⁸ And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. ²⁹ And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. ³⁰ But God raised him from the dead, ³¹ and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. ³² And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, ³³ this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ ³⁴ And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ ³⁵ Therefore he says also in another psalm, “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ ³⁶ For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, ³⁷ but he whom God raised up did not see corruption.

Here we see Paul laying out the elements of the gospel.  They are:

• God sends the Savior, Jesus. (v.23-26)
• Jesus is crucified. (v.27-29)
• Jesus rises from the dead. (v.30-37)
• If we trust in Him our sins will be forgiven. (v.38-39)

What a stark contrast to much of what passes for preaching today!  Ours is the age of what has been called “moralistic therapeutic deism,” the idea that God wants us to be good, that God wants to fix all of our problems, but that otherwise God is uninvolved in our lives.  Paul, on the other hand, preaches the gospel with passion and clarity.  He speaks of Christ:  His coming, His death, His rising from the dead, and His offered salvation and forgiveness!

Paul’s primary focus is not his own popularity or his own financial security.  He is not looking to establish a career or to “win friends and influence people.”  Nor does he seek first and foremost to inspire his hearers to works of philanthropy and benevolence.  This is not to say that philanthropy is bad.  It is good indeed!  But it is significant that the content of Paul’s proclamation was unapologetically historical and theological before it was ethical.  He told the story of what Christ had done!  He presented the gospel.

The life of the Christian arises out of the truth and reality of the gospel, not separate from it.  Once the gospel takes root, the new life in Christ – which includes works of kindness and goodness and charity – will flow, but what separates the Church from mere philanthropic societies is the doctrinal core out of which Her goodness flows.  Love of man and efforts to feed and clothe him arise, for the church, out of an awareness of the uniqueness of man as created in the image of God and the love of God for man.  Our theology inevitably forms our anthropology, and, more than that, the presence of Christ in us is what enables us to love as Christ loves.

Paul knew this.  Paul knew that the gospel is at the very heart of our salvation and our life before God and man.  The cross and resurrection are the controlling and course-setting realities around which the Church gathers and out of which she lives.  Thus, Paul preaches the gospel!

Paul calls his hearers to receive Christ personally.

But Paul preaches no theoretical gospel.  He then moves on a personal challenge for his hearers.

³⁸ Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, ³⁹ and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

Notice the movement of his sermon.  He moves from the history of Israel, to the coming of Christ, to the need for “you…brothers” to believe and be freed.  That “you” is vitally important.  It means that the gospel is not an abstraction, nor is it an important but impersonal truth.  No, the gospel is life for Paul’s audience…for us.

Christ was born and He was born for you!  Christ died and He died for you!  Christ rose and He rose for you!  Christ intercedes at the right hand of the Father and He intercedes for you!  Christ is coming again and He is coming for you!

Do you see?  Christ, Paul tells his audience and us, offers freedom and “forgiveness of sins.”  But we need to trust.  We need to believe.  We need to receive this amazing gift.

Have you?

Paul warns against rejecting the gospel.

This call to accept Christ carries with it an implicit warning about rejecting Him that Paul makes explicit in his sermon’s conclusion.

⁴⁰ Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: ⁴¹ “‘Look, you scoffers,
be astounded and perish;
for I am doing a work in your days,
a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’”

A.T. Robertson suggests that Paul may have added this warning conclusion because he “noticed anger on the faces of some of the rabbis.”[4]  The 16^th century Swiss reformed preacher Rudolph Gwalther said that there had to be some reason for this sudden rebuke by Paul and concluded that Paul must have “perceived in the hearers tokens of obstinancy and unbelief.”[5]  This is likely so.  The synagogue leaders could not have been thrilled by what Paul had just preached.  Regardless, he cautions his audience to pay heed and listen and refuse to turn away from the offer of salvation.

In Matthew 22, Jesus told an amazing parable about the dangers of refusing the invitation to be saved.

¹ And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, ² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, ³ and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. ⁴ Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ ⁵ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶ while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. ⁷ The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. ⁸ Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹ Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ ¹⁰ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

This is the very essence of Paul’s warning.  He is warning them not to refuse the offered salvation, not to turn away from life itself.  And, like Jesus foretold in the parable, the Jews were indeed turning from the offer of salvation and Paul was indeed taking it to the Gentiles, those previously considered to be outsiders.

Even so, the personal application of this truth is paramount:  we must not ignore or reject the offer of eternal life.  We must make sure that we have said, “Yes!”  If we reject the offer to come in, we will find ourselves shut outside forever.  What a heart breaking tragedy!  What an avoidable tragedy!

Whatever it is that is making you hesitate, set it aside now and run to the open arms of Jesus!

Acts 13:1-12

¹ Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. ² While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” ³ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. ⁴ So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. ⁵ When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. ⁶ When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. ⁷ He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. ⁸ But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. ⁹ But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him ¹⁰ and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? ¹¹ And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. ¹² Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

This text is significant because it reveals the early Church’s intentional efforts to reach the world with the gospel.  Its significance is compounded by the fact that these missionaries are sent forth from a church that was comprised of both Jews and Gentiles, the church at Antioch.  It is noteworthy that the church that was able to embrace the radical if difficult implications of the gospel (i.e., that Jews and Gentiles alike were welcomed into the Kingdom of God through Christ) was the church that commissioned and sent some out to take the gospel to all.  Those who are most grateful for their salvation are usually those who are most eager to share it.

The Spirit calls God-focused believers out of the Church for particular, commissioned tasks and the Church, ideally, agrees and supports those who are called.

We say that the church at Antioch commissioned these missionaries.  This is true, but only after God had done so.

¹ Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. ² While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” ³ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Craig Keener provides some helpful background information on these specific names.

Simeon and Manaen (Menahem) are Jewish names, suggesting strong Jewish representation still in the leadership of the church…But Simeon’s surname “Niger” was a very respectable and common Roman name; he may be a Roman citizen, although this is not clear…the meaning of Simeon’s Latin nickname suggests a dark complexion and may indicate that he was descended from proselytes form the Romanized coast of North Africa (perhaps also Lucius).  Cyrene, on the North African coast, had a large Jewish population.

            That Manaen was “brought up” with Herod may mean they had the same wet nurse.  Slaves who grew up in the master’s household with the son who would inherit them were often later freed by the son, who had been their companion at play…Thus, until the fall of Herod Antipas (“the tetrarch”) perhaps a decade before, Manaen had held a socially prominent position (and is probably Luke’s main source for the Antipas material unique to his Gospel).[1]

What a fascinating and eclectic group this church at Antioch was!  Jews and Gentiles, a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and possible a dark-skinned African were leaders and teachers in the church.  Eclectic, and beautiful!  The leadership of the Church was reflective of the population of Heaven itself:  people from all tribes and languages and ethnicities and backgrounds.

There is also an important Trinitarian note in these verses.  Note that in verse 2 the Holy Spirit says, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul.”

“For me.”

Clearly, the Holy Spirit speaks with the voice of God.  John Chrysostom saw in the words of the Holy Spirit yet further evidence of the Spirit’s divinity.  “What being,” he asked, “unless of the same authority, would have dared to say this?”[2]  What being indeed!  The three-in-oneness of God is a doctrine we dare not abandon.  God is Father, Son, Spirit, three-in-one, and here we see once again the deity of the third Person of the Trinity.

It is also convicting to see the spiritual and communal posture of the Church both before and after the Spirit’s call.  Before the Spirit speaks, we are told that “they were worshiping the Lord and fasting.”  After the Spirit speaks we are told that they fasted and prayed before laying hands on Barnabas and Paul.  Fasting is mentioned twice and then worship and prayer.

It is not coincidental that the Spirit speaks to a church that is fasting and worshiping and praying.  These were a focused, deliberate, committed people.  Their gaze was Godward and then, with the eyes of Christ, worldward.  They had devoted themselves to the discipline of the faith and God spoke and moved.

At times we are tempted to question God and to complain.  “Why do I never hear from God?” we ask.  “Why has God not called me to some great task?” we ask.  “Why do others hear and I do not?”

Our text would beg us to ask another question:  “Have I put myself in a position to hear from God?  Have I emptied myself of all distraction and pretense so that I might hear from Him?  Does my degree of devotion and commit communicate that I even want to be called?”

When is the last time you prayed and worshiped and fasted, intensely seeking a movement of God or a call from God?  When is the last time you even carved out space to hear from God?

There are even more uncomfortable questions for me as a pastor.  Am I leading us to be a fasting, praying, worshiping Church?  Are my priorities as a pastor and are our priorities as a staff and are our priorities as a Church reflective of the priorities of the early Church in and through which God did such amazing things?  Are we too busy to hear?  Are we even too busy with ministry to hear?  When is the last time we were simply still before God?  When is the last time as a Church we cried out with focus and determination to God, refusing to stop?  This was the posture of the early Church, and God did amazing things in and through them!

The Church’s commission of Paul and Barnabas is beautiful.  The Lord calls men and women out of the Church to certain tasks, then, if the Church is attentive, the Church confirms the calling with prayer and acts of commission.

I felt called to the pastorate at the age of fifteen.  I went to my parents about it and then to my pastor.  My pastor told me that there was one way to see if this was actually a calling and that was to preach.  He told me that right after I preached I would likely think either that I would do this for the rest of my life or that I would never do it again.

So I preached, if you can call it that.  It was unpolished, rough, and weak.  But I felt a confirmation of my calling in it.  One of the great helps in this was my home church.  I will never forget how they gathered around me after that and encouraged me:  shaking my hand, hugging my neck, offering words of confirmation, encouragement, and enthusiasm.  I especially treasured the words of Grandfather, who was too ill to attend that night.  Even so, after he watched a videotape of the sermon, he called to encourage me and tell me that he had watched it twice!  He was indeed a patient man if he subjected himself to that sermon two times!

The point is that the church joined its confirmation with the Lord’s calling in giving me a sense of purpose and responsibility.  I felt then and now that the Lord was leading and the Church was supporting.  I am no Barnabas and I am no Paul, but I gladly offer my own imperfect but sincere testimony to the example of the early Church and say that this is a wonderful and awesome display of the body of Christ at work, and one that the recipients of such do not soon forget.

Encourage young people and people of any age who feel called!  Encourage them in their gifts and encourage them in their service.  Tell them you are with them.  Pray for them.  Stand beside them.  Get behind them and let them know you have their backs!  Paul and Barnabas must have felt especially blessed to have been sent out by such a church as the church of Antioch.  So have all who have been called by God and confirmed by their churches!

The first missionaries called out from the Church had ministries of proclamation and confrontation.

So these heroes of the faith begin their ministry.  Immediately they face challenges.  It is clear that the work of these first missionaries was a work of proclamation and confrontation.

⁴ So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. ⁵ When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them.

Let us not miss the fact that Paul goes first to “the synagogues of the Jews.”  We call him the great missionary to the Gentiles, and this is so.  But the fact remains that Paul always went first to his kinsmen, the Jews.  He would later explain his reason for this in the beginning of Romans 9.

¹ I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. ⁴ They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. ⁵ To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

No, Paul had not abandoned the Jews.  Far from it!  He now preached with boldness and clarity and passion to his kinsmen.  Here we see his ministry of proclamation.  This early band of missionaries went about telling people the good news of Jesus Christ, calling all men to come to Jesus.  It is clear that they saw themselves as more than social reformers or philanthropists.  In point of fact, they saw themselves as heralds of the one true King!

So they proclaimed, but this proclamation brought with it opposition.  As a result, theirs was a ministry of proclamation and confrontation.

⁶ When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. ⁷ He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. ⁸ But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. ⁹ But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him ¹⁰ and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? ¹¹ And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

Paul’s confrontation with Bar-Jesus was an astonishing showdown between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.  Bar-Jesus stood at Sergius Paulus’ side and poisoned his mind in much the same way that Wormtongue poisoned the mind of Theoden King in The Lord of the Rings.  In doing so, he was keeping Sergius Paulus from the truth and from salvation while increasing his own condemnation through his wicked acts all the while.

Paul final has enough, turns on Bar-Jesus and proclaims him a “son of the devil.”  “No one familiar with Aramaic,” John Polhill writes, “could have missed the pun.  His name, Bar-Jesus…meant etymologically son of the Savior.  He was no son of the Savior; quite the opposite, he was the son of the devil.”[3]  Paul’s stinging rebuke of Bar-Jesus is reminiscent of Peter’s rebuke of Simon Magus in Acts 8.

Paul foretells that the Lord will strike Bar-Jesus blind “for a time,” which He immediately does.  There is actually a note of mercy in the temporary nature of this punishment, but it was hopefully sufficient to get Bar-Jesus’ attention.  One thing is certain:  It got Sergius Paulus’ attention!

¹² Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

This was power evangelism to accompany verbal evangelism.  In the face of such an amazing and unnerving display of the power of God, this ruler trusted in Christ.  In this, we find a stark contrast to Herod, who, in his arrogance, was struck down by an angel and consumed by worms at the end of Acts 12.  Herod embraced arrogance and was destroyed.  Sergius Paulus embraced humility and faith and was given life eternal.

These early missionaries had ministries of proclamation and confrontation.  The two often go hand-in-hand.  Where the gospel is preached, the devil will actively oppose.

Calvin Miller once told me of a missionary friend of his who was ministering in an African village.  While there he attracted the attention and opposition of the village witch doctor.  The witch doctor sought to drive the missionary from the village and oppose and undo what progress he had made.  The missionary told Calvin Miller of a time when he had enough and, to his own astonishment, informed the witch doctor in the hearing of the village that at noon the next day the true God would strike their sacred totem pole and split it down the middle.  All that night he prayed, realizing that his presence in the village depended upon God moving in this way.

The next day was a clear and beautiful day without a cloud in the sky.  He looked uneasily at the clear sky around 11 a.m.  His heart was beginning to sink when, just before noon, the sky darkened and ominous clouds came over the village.  At noon an amazing lightning bolt shot from the clouds and split the sacred pole in two.  The witch doctor was driven from the village and many people came to know the Lord.

Now, you will either believe that or you want.  Calvin Miller shared with me that he always knew his friend to be truthful and honest.  Regardless, it cannot be denied that the Word has often come with power in the history of the Church and that the Lord often uses startling means to demonstrate His presence.

Perhaps we do not see these things because we do not have the faith to see or receive them.  Perhaps the Lord will do no such miracles in our presence because of our suffocating disbelief.  But this much remains true:  the Church must regain its place as the going, advancing, proclaiming Church.  The Church must expect opposition and it must stand with power and with courage and with love when it is opposed.

Older believers used to speak of “the church militant.”  By that they meant that the Church advanced under the banner of Christ the Kingdom of God in the world.  The word “militant” has a negative connotation today, but, in this older sense, it is a good term.  I believe in our text today we see the Church militant.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his dissertation, Sanctorum Community, helpfully noted, however, that “in history the church-community is, was, and remains ecclesia militans [church militant], not triumphans [triumphant].”[4]  That is, we advance and grow and fly the banner of Christ with love and boldness and conviction, but we are ever a pilgrim Church on this side of heaven, ever growing ourselves towards Christlikeness and sometimes struggling and falling as we do so.  We have not arrived.  We dare not grow arrogant or triumphalist.  We are called to grow together in grace, taking the gospel to the nations, preaching Christ with clarity and conviction, but with an awareness of our own need of grace as we go.

This is the picture of the early Church that we see in our text.

Behold the worshiping, praying, fasting, sending, commissioned, proclaiming, confronting, loving, courageous Church of the living God!

May we do the same!

Malcolm Yarnell tweeted today a link to a fascinating Oxford University Press blog post concerning the Salem Witch Trials  The post was discussing Emerson W. Baker’s A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience.  It provided a fascinating infographic on the witch trials that includes an interesting statistic on the number of clergy or families of clergy who were accused of witchcraft.  The idea that Baker appears to be suggesting is that this reflects the larger culture’s move away from the church and its leadership and may also reflect the reality of the dysfunction within the churches of that time.  It is an interesting thought, and one worthy of consideration.

Here’s the infographic:

Acts 12:6-25

⁶ Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. ⁷ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. ⁸ And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” ⁹ And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. ¹¹ When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” ¹² When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. ¹³ And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴ Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. ¹⁵ They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” ¹⁶ But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. ¹⁷ But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place. ¹⁸ Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. ¹⁹ And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.  ²⁰ Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. ²¹ On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. ²² And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” ²³ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. ²⁴ But the word of God increased and multiplied. ²⁵ And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

This is college football season, which means that many of us are living vicariously through the lives of young men who do not even know we exist.  But we get caught up in it because it is fun or because we have an allegiance to this or that school as alumni, or because it is a matter of state pride.  Truth be told, college football probably serves the same purpose for many men that soap operas serve for women:  an external emotional and psychological stimuli in which we immerse ourselves in a larger drama that, in truth, could take us or leave us.  But we watch and we cheer and we cry and we rage because, for whatever psychological reasons, these things matter to us.

Technology has helped the experience a bit because now, through the miracle of the internet or of DVR, we have the ability to watch the live broadcast tied in emotional knots then, afterward, to watch the recorded and replayed broadcast in a much more calm manner.  Why is this?  Because in the first instance we do not know what is going to happen.  In the second, for good or for ill, we do.

Watching replays of games is especially fun if you win a close game or come from behind and win.  In the replay experience you do not develop ulcers or nervous disorders no matter how far you are behind at the beginning of the fourth quarter because you know you are going to win!  When watching a replay of a come-from-behind victory, for instance, you are at peace, telling yourself, “I know we’ll win in the end.”

I would like to suggest that the Church throughout the ages has been in a similar boat.  No matter how dire things look, no matter how bleak our circumstances appear, and no matter how victorious the forces of darkness appear, we know we win in the end.  The first viewing of the story can be emotionally and psychologically grueling, to be sure.  There are times when we are tempted to think we might lose and the enemy might win, but the hope of the gospel reminds us time and time again that this is not so:  Christ our King has secured the victory!

Even so, it can be tough going.  Acts 12 is a chapter in which we can see this phenomenon at work:  the Church struggling to believe that it will win.  We see two players in this chapter, the struggling Church and the despotic King Herod.  It sets up perfectly as a contest between two forces, the one apparently weak and lowly and the other apparently strong and mighty.  John Stott summarized this chapter nicely.

Here then were two communities, the world and the church, arrayed against one another, each wielding an appropriate weapon. On the one side was the authority of Herod, the power of the sword and the security of the prison. On the other side, the church turned to prayer, which is the only power which the powerless possess.[1]

Let us watch this fascinating contest.  You will be encouraged by this!  Everybody loves an unlikely victory!

The Church thought their leader was dead, but God said, “Not yet!”

The early Church had seen some amazing highs and some heartbreaking lows, but this was one of their toughest seasons yet.  James had been beheaded and Peter was imprisoned awaiting, undoubtedly, the same fate.  The Church, then, can perhaps be forgiven for assuming that their earthly leader, Peter, was as good as dead.  Even so, God said, “Not yet!”

⁶ Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. ⁷ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. ⁸ And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” ⁹ And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

The angel has to wake Peter up in a rather persuasive manner! Parents of teenage children will understand the feeling.  “He struck Peter on the side” and led him out of the prison.  Interestingly, Luke tells us that Peter assumed he was having a vision.  This is understandable, of course, because Peter had recently received his amazing vision of the lowered sheet and the unclean animals.  This current situation had to seem as unusual as that, so he assumes that he is seeing a vision.  But he is not.

¹⁰ When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. ¹¹ When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” ¹² When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. ¹³ And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴ Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. ¹⁵ They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” ¹⁶ But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. ¹⁷ But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place. ¹⁸ Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. ¹⁹ And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.

Peter goes to a house where he knows the gathered church is praying intensely for him.  Stott notes that, “Luke uses the adverb ektenōs (JB, ‘unremittingly’; NEB, ‘fervently’), which he has previously applied to Jesus’ intense agony in Gethsemane.”[2]  This was likely a prayer mixed with cries of deliverance and protection.  They were praying for Peter to be delivered, but one wonders if they did not feel a measure of skepticism perhaps.  After all, James had been beheaded and Peter was surely going to face the same fate.  We may see a measure of this uncertainty in the fact that they cannot bring themselves to believe that Peter is actually standing at the gate outside of the house.

There is a note of humor here.  The servant girl Rhoda runs to the gate.  She is so stunned at the sight of Peter that she runs back in the house rejoicing…but leaving Peter still outside!  One cannot help but chuckle imagining Peter in this episode.  After all, he would very much like to get inside the house, especially given that he is a recently escaped fugitive!  The humor is intensified by irony when the gathered church, praying for Peter’s deliverance, refuses to believe that Peter has been delivered!  We must admit that it really was a rather abrupt answer to their prayer!

So they tell poor Rhoda that she must be mistaken or that it is Peter’s angel.  They may mean by that that it is Peter’s spirit or soul, assuming that he had been executed.  That, however, would be an odd usage of the word “angel.”  They more likely mean that it is Peter’s guardian angel or something along those lines.  Regardless, they cannot bring themselves to believe that this is so.

I am struck by this.  It does seem that the darkness is sometimes so dark that we have trouble believing that the light can break through…even as we are calling on God to let the light break through!  They cry out for God to save Peter but cannot bring themselves to accept that God had saved Peter.

Have you ever felt like this?  Have you even been so distraught that even as you pray you cannot bring yourself to believe that He might actually answer your prayers?  Something like this phenomenon was going on in the church in this episode.

The darkness and evil of the world can be suffocating.  It can disorient us.  Even those of us who know in the middle of the contest who wins in the end can have trouble really believing it.  Thus, the early Church had seemingly resigned itself to the inevitably of their earthly leader’s demise, but God said, “Not yet!”  Indeed, Peter would die a martyr’s death, but not yet!

There is a parallel to the resurrection account in this passage, and it is not difficult to see.  In both cases the struggling Church was gathered together under a sense of doom when they were caught off guard and shocked by resurrection:  the Lord Jesus’ from the dead and Peter’s from prison.  It seems that God is always catching His church off guard with resurrection, is He not?

This unlikely deliverance of Peter from a sentence of death was a reminder to the Church then and now that we are not allowed to despair, to give up hope.  We must believe that our God is the God who still speaks light in the darkness.

Perhaps another, more recent example will help.  The great New Testament scholar F.F. Bruce, in commenting on the deliverance of Peter from prison in Acts 12, pointed to the example of the Indian Christian and missionary, Sundar Singh, as a parallel to our text.

By order of the chief lama of a Tibetan community [Sundar Singh] was thrown into a dry well, the cover of which was securely locked. Here he was left to die, like many others before him, whose bones and rotting flesh lay at the bottom of the well. On the third night, when he had been calling to God in prayer, he heard someone unlocking the cover of the well and removing it. Then a voice spoke, telling him to take hold of the rope that was being lowered. He did so, and was glad to find a loop at the bottom of the rope in which he could place his foot, for his arm had been injured before he was thrown down. He was then drawn up, the cover was replaced and locked, but when he looked around to thank his rescuer, he could find no trace of him. The fresh air revived him, and his injured arm felt whole again. When morning came, he returned to the place where he had been arrested, and resumed preaching. News was brought to the chief lama that the man who had been thrown into the execution well had been liberated and was preaching again. Sundar Singh was brought before him and questioned, and told the story of his release. The lama declared that someone must have got hold of the key and let him out, but when search was made for the key, it was found attached to the lama’s own girdle.[3]

Yes, God is the God who speaks light into darkness and still says, “Not yet!” when things look most hopeless.

The world thought their leader was a god, but God said, “No!”

If the Church sometimes assumes less of the Lord God than we should, the world, conversely, assumes more of its leaders than it should.  The Church thought their leader was dead but he was not.  The world, however, proclaims their leader to be a god, but God decides to show them otherwise.  Here we see the demise of wicked Herod.

²⁰ Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. ²¹ On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. ²² And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” ²³ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. ²⁴ But the word of God increased and multiplied. ²⁵ And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

What a startling scene!  It is as startling in its terror as Peter’s deliverance was startling in its beauty.  The people shout out and proclaim Herod a god.  Josephus wrote that Herod looked godlike in this scene because of the sun reflecting off of his silver armor.[4]  God, however, does not share His glory and He strikes Herod down in a way that is jarring and unsettling.  “An angel of the Lord struck him down…and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.”  Why?  “Because he did not give God the glory.”

Herod made the fatal mistake of believing and embracing his own blasphemous press.  Leaders are wont to do such, and history is full of kings who came to believe that they were gods.  This scene reminded Jaroslav Pelikan of what John Dryden said of Alexander the Great:

With ravished ears,

The monarch hears;

Assumes the god,

Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres.[5]

They seem to shake the spheres, but they actually have no power that is not granted them from on high.  If the Church needed to be lifted out of its despondency by an amazing display of God’s grace, the world needed to be humbled by an unforgettable display of God’s wrath.  While it seems as if the trajectory of the world is toward the victory of the fallen structures of the world and the continued diminishment of the life of the Church, this story reminds us that this is not ultimately so.  God wins!  Darkness is not destined to have victory.  Wicked kings do not get to play God forever and persecuted believers are not forever destined to die martyrs’ deaths.

Which is simply to say that, in the end, the kings of the earth will be brought low and the lowly Church of Christ will be exalted.

T.R. Glover, in commenting on Nero having the Apostle Paul executed, famously noted that the day would come when men would call their dogs Nero and their sons Paul.  And precisely this has come to pass as Christianity has advanced in the world.  Where is Nero?  He has been cast onto the trash heap of history.  And Paul and Peter and the apostles?  We continue the message that Christ bequeathed to them to this very day.  We stand with the cloud of witnesses who have refused to abandon the light for darkness and who have dared to believe the heralded message of the inevitable victory of Christ!

Acts 12:1-5

¹ About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. ² He killed James the brother of John with the sword, ³ and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. ⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

Johann Spangenberg, a lesser known reformer, once pointed to the weather as an analogy for the way that persecutions come and go in the life of the early Church.

Christianity is like April weather, which is erratic and changes nearly every hour:  now it is snowing, soon it begins to rain, now the sun is shining, but then it is cloudy.  So it went in the early church:  Christ preached in Judea and Galilee in good peace for a season, then came a storm.  Christ was imprisoned, crucified and killed.  But this storm dissipated quickly, Christ arose from the dead, ascended to heaven, sent his Holy Spirit.  Whenever the dear Son shone, the Christians rejoiced, but before they could look around, it thundered and there was lightning again!  But this thunder and lightning also had an end; the dear Son broke out again.[1]

I daresay we might extend this analogy to our own day as well.  Honestly, which of us does not turn on the news with some hesitation these days, praying that we do not see yet another person in an orange jump suit on their knees beside a knife-wielding member of Isis?  Some of these men are journalists, of course, but many of them have been Christians, and there can be no doubt that the Church has been the special object of Isis’ murderous rage.

The early Church experienced the same unsettling dynamic.  They knew not what would come from one day to the next, so they rooted and grounded themselves in the changeless person of Christ Jesus the Lord.  There were periods of suffering.  There were periods of peace.  But the secret of the Church was that it transcended these temporal things and took its hope from the very throne of Heaven, at the right hand of which Christ was interceding for His people.

The Church suffers as a result of the political calculations of wicked men.

There is a uniquely political element in the persecution described in Acts 12, an element that mirrors the dynamics surrounding the trial of Jesus.

¹ About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.

Here we find yet another Herod breathing out yet more murder and hatred against Christ and His followers.  This Herod is not the Herod who sat on the throne at the birth of Christ.  This is his grandson.  Let us consider some interesting and helpful information about this Herod.  We will begin with some insights from A.T. Robertson.

Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great, was King of Palestine A.D. 42-44; only for these three years was a Herod king over Palestine since the death of Herod the Great and never afterwards…Herod Agrippa I was an Idumean through his grandfather Herod the Great and a grandson of Mariamne the Maccabean princess.  He was a favourite of Caligula the Roman Emporer and was anxious to placate his Jewish subjects while retaining the favour of the Romans.  So he built theatres and held games for the Romans and Greeks and slew the Christians to please the Jews.[2]

Robertson hit on the key political dynamic at this point in the story by pointing out that Herod “was anxious to placate his Jewish subjects while retaining the favour of the Romans.”  R. Kent Hughes has passed on even more fascinating background information:

His father, Aristobulus, had been murdered by his own father, Herod the Great, the ruler who had ordered the slaughter of innocent babies at Christ’s birth.  After the death of Aristobulus, the Herod of Acts 12 was sent to Rome to be educated, and there he grew up as a close friend of the imperial family.  He was something of a playboy, and in A.D. 23 he fled to Palestine to escape his creditors.  In Palestine he lived in humility and poverty under his uncle, Herod Antipas.

            Upon his return to Rome, he was imprisoned by the Emperor Tiberius for some critical remarks he had made.  His life had hit bottom.  But then Tiberius died, and Herod’s childhood friend, Caligula, came to power – not only freeing him from prison, but giving him a gold chain weighing as much as his iron fetters in prison.  Soon Herod was named ruler of some Palestinian provinces.  When another childhood friend, Claudius, succeeded Caligula, Herod became ruler of Judea and Samaria.  Murder and intrigue had been the currency of his entire life.

            Herod was preeminently a politician.  When he was with the Romans he did as the Romans did.  Though he was Jewish only by race and not by conviction, when he was with the Jews he acted like a Jew.  The Mishnah records that during the annual procession bearing the first fruits to the temple, “when they reached the temple Mount, Agrippa the king [Herod] would take his basket on his shoulder and enter as far as the Temple Court.”  He would do anything to maintain his popularity with the Jewish people.[3]

The picture that emerges is one of a conniving, posturing opportunist who came from a wicked, pernicious family and whose primary interest was the securing of his own comfort and favor in the eyes of even more powerful men.  This is our Herod.  He was a Jew when he needed to be and a Roman when he needed to be.  Like Herod, he found himself faced with an opportunity to placate his Jewish subjects and to endear himself to his Roman overlords.  The opportunity came in the form of the new Jesus movement that was unsettling the Jews and, as a result, the Romans as well.

Thus, Herod strikes out, laying “violent hands” on the Church.  This is a stark contrast to the merciful hands of Christ, the saving hands of Christ.  Herod’s hands bore murder and mayhem.  Christ’s hands bear life and peace.

We should not miss, however, that the Church suffers as a result of the political calculations of wicked men.  Herod, like Pilate, strikes out at Christ with his own security in mind.  In so doing, he was striking out against the Lord of life.  There is a bitter irony here:  in seeking to secure himself, he undid himself, for Christ will not be conquered by anybody, much less by wicked kings.  David said as much in Psalm 2.

1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,

6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.

11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Herod refused to “kiss the Son.”  Instead, he struck out at the Son.  As a result, he would pay a terrible price, but not before the Church suffered as a result of his demonic arrogance.

Some are killed and some suffer, but the Church rallies in prayer.

The specific objects of Herod’s persecution are James and Peter.

² He killed James the brother of John with the sword, ³ and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. ⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

Peter is imprisoned because they cannot kill him immediately due to the holy days of the Jewish Passover.  We will deal more with Peter in the verses to come, but let us consider the heartbreaking words of verse 2:  “He killed James the brother of John with the sword.”  This is  almost certainly a way of describing beheading.

This James is not James, the brother of Jesus.  This is the disciple James, the brother of John.  In Mark 3:17 we see James and John referenced as “James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder).”

I am struck by the understated nature of Luke’s description of his martyrdom.  We do not get the full and detailed account that we get in the martyrdom of Stephen.  Here the words are as bare and simple as a knife thrust.  They unsettle us.

There is a 1722 painting, “Martyrdom of St James” by Giacomo Piazzetta, that captures well the martyrdom of James.  In the painting, James is being restrained by a rope that is held by his persecutor.  He is being bound for his martyrdom, his execution.  As I look at this painting, I cannot help but think of an earlier scene involving James.  It is in Matthew 20 and, initially, it does not cast James or his brother John in a good light.  But read in the knowledge of what we know happens in Acts 12:1, there is something powerful about this.

²⁰ Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. ²¹ And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” ²² Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” ²³ He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

The mother of the Sons of Thunder, apparently with their agreement, asks for positions of authority and favor for her sons.  Jesus dismisses the request but asks a deeper more probing question of the James and John:  “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?”  “We are able,” they respond.

“Can you really suffer as I am going to suffer,” Christ asks?

“I can,” James responds.

At the time, he could have had no real idea what he was saying, but in Acts 12:1 he did.  And we can be sure that the immature James of Matthew 20 had grown a great deal before he became the martyr James of Acts 12.

Did he remember the question Jesus had asked him when they put the sword to his neck?  Did he perhaps repeat his answer again?  “We are able.  We are able.”

James did indeed take the cup of suffering, and, in so doing, he sealed his testimony with his blood.  He identified with Christ in that powerful way that only a martyr can understand.  He drank the cup to the full and bled for the truth of the gospel.

The Church’s reaction was telling.  They prayed.  They did not protest.  They prayed.  John Chrysostom noted that “they did not divide into factions or make an uproar but turned to prayer, that true alliance which is invincible.  In this they sought refuge.”[4]

This truly is the great refuge of the Church:  prayer.  This is not passivity.  It is anything but.  This is a weapon against the darkness.  Prayer beseeches the throne of Heaven to hear and act.  Prayer is the heart’s cry of the people of God for God to rise up and vindicate His name on the earth.

The devil wounded the Church, but Christ would yet crush the devil’s head.  Johann Spangenberg put it succinctly and well.

The more Christians are persecuted and slaughtered, the more Christians are born…And in Christians’ blood the devil must be drowned.[5]

Amen and amen.

Acts 11

¹ Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. ² So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, ³ “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” ⁴ But Peter began and explained it to them in order: ⁵ “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. ⁶ Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. ⁷ And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ ⁸ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ ⁹ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. ¹¹ And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. ¹² And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. ¹³ And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; ¹⁴ he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ ¹⁵ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. ¹⁶ And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” ¹⁸ When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” ¹⁹ Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. ²⁰ But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. ²¹ And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. ²² The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³ When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, ²⁴ for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. ²⁵ So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, ²⁶ and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. ²⁷ Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸ And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). ²⁹ So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. ³⁰ And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

Some years ago a friend of mine asked me to take a ride with him.  He took me to an old, largely empty house in this small rural town in South Georgia.  Inside the house there were a number of boxes containing books.  He informed me that he wanted me to look through the books, taking whichever titles I wanted.  As it turned out, my friend had been the pastor of the man who lived in this house and had become the executor of the man’s estate before his passing.  The man had no family to speak of and so the books were at my friend’s disposal.

As I looked through the boxes I was immediately struck by the weight of the titles and subjects.  Many were books on philosophy and many on theology and church history and biblical studies.  Curious, I asked my friend who exactly this man had been.  He explained to me that he had taught philosophy at a small liberal arts college in an adjoining town and had also spent some time as a pastor.  He went on to tell me a story that struck me then and now as tragic and deeply saddening.

The man whose books I was perusing had served as the pastor of a small, rural Southern Baptist church not too far from the church I was pastoring at that time.  My friend told me that in 1956 his friend had gone into the pulpit of that church and preached a message on the practical implications of the cross, one of which being that all people of all races who came to Christ were now part of one family and one Church.  As such, he informed his church, no church should bar anyone entry into membership on the basis of skin color.  This was, as you might imagine, a very controversial sentiment for a pastor to make in the Deep South in the 1950’s.

My friend went on to inform me that after the service the pastor went to lunch and out visiting.  When he returned for the evening service, all of his furniture had been moved out into the front yard and he was handed his last check along with the news that he was no longer the pastor of that church.

My friend told me that the gentleman never preached again.

I keep this man’s books on my shelves.  They have an added meaning to me.  They stand now not only as books but also as living memorials to the convictions of a man who dared to think through what it meant that Christ laid down His life and rose from the grave.  The consistency and courage of his convictions cost him a job, but won him, I am convinced, the favor of the Father.  Surely the Father is pleased when one of His ministers speaks the truth of the gospel to a Church culture that refuses to follow her King into the uncomfortable places.

In every one of this man’s books I put a sticker briefly recounting his story.  That is so I will not forget.  That is so the next guy who is one day thumbing through my box of books asking, “Who was this guy?” will not forget.

I know very little else about the man whose books I now own, but this I know:  he understood Jesus, he understood the cross, and he understood the seismic shift that had to happen in the minds of the first Jewish converts for them to be able to receive into the fellowship of the faith those whom they had been conditioned to view as unwelcomed outsiders and strangers.

There will often be opposition to the extent of God’s grace within the Church.

As we approach Acts 11, let us look at an unpleasant truth square in the face:  there will often be opposition to the extent of God’s grace within the Church.  Remember that in chapter 10, God had brought Peter together with the Gentile God-fearer Cornelius.  God there taught Peter a lesson:  Christ has opened the door for all to come in, even the Gentiles.  Furthermore, it was no longer appropriate for the Jewish believers to view the Gentile believers as unclean or unworthy.  On the contrary, the same Spirit comes to all through Christ, and the Church is therefore charged with the task of incarnating that oneness.

Peter learned this, but the Church at large had not yet learned this.  Thus, when Peter goes back to the mother church in Jerusalem, he finds a people who are none too pleased.

¹ Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. ² So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, ³ “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

Ah!  We see the rub:  Peter had dared to eat with Gentiles.  John Chrysostom pointed out to his congregation that the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem did not ask, “Why did you preach to them?” but asked “Why did you eat with them?”[1]  This was a scandal!  In eating with the Gentiles he had done what no good Jew would do.  He had sullied himself, dirtied himself in table fellowship with the unclean, outsider Gentiles.  This was unacceptable!  We must remember that while these dear people who are questioning Peter had indeed accepted Christ, they had not yet fully thought the matter through.

Peter’s response is rich with pastoral gentleness and wisdom.  He decides that there is nothing to do but tell the incensed brothers and sisters the story of what happened.

⁴ But Peter began and explained it to them in order: ⁵ “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. ⁶ Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. ⁷ And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ ⁸ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ ⁹ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. ¹¹ And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. ¹² And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. ¹³ And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; ¹⁴ he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ ¹⁵ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. ¹⁶ And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

It is an amazing story, and one that needed to be told.  It is the story we read in Acts 10, the previous chapter.  William Barclay noted the significance of the fact that Luke devoted so much space to telling and then retelling this story of Peter and Cornelius.  Barclay concludes, “Luke was right.  We usually do not realize how near Christianity was to becoming only another kind of Judaism.”[2]

This cannot be overstated:  everything hinged on these early Jewish converts coming to understand what was meant by the gospel.  What was at question here was whether or not Christ and Christ alone was sufficient.  What was at question was whether or not believers in Christ also needed to be circumcised and keep the dietary laws, that is, whether or not believers in Christ also needed to be Jews.  It is a question that haunted the early church and it would dominate the writings of Paul.

Again, these were not evil men questioning Peter.  These were followers of Jesus.  However, they were followers of Jesus who were struggling to take on the mind of Christ.  They were growing up in the gospel.  Peter had to do it first, then Peter helped them to do it.  The response of the gathered Church was amazing.

¹⁸ When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

They fell silent, pondering these things.  Then they rejoiced!  “Well, it looks like the Gentiles get to come in too!”

What an amazing, beautiful scene!  The gospel breaks through!  They decide to embrace the radical conclusions of the gospel in action and open their arms to the Gentiles.  This will be a slow and painful process as there was much that had to be undone in their own assumptions, but it had to be done.

The missional life of the Church should be as wide as God’s mercy.

In the light of Peter’s sermon, there was only one unescapable conclusion:  the missional life of the Church should be as wide as God’s mercy.  Who the Lord God invites should be invited…and He invites all! 

¹⁹ Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.

Here we see that the maturation of the Church on these questions was slow and, in a sense, in stages.  At this point we have essentially two factions in the Church:  those Jewish converts who still felt that one had to be a good Jew in addition to accepting Christ and those who understood that Christ was Himself the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, and that, in Him, we are rendered clean and righteous and right.  So some continue to preach only to the Jews, but others step out further.

²⁰ But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. ²¹ And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

Let us notice that “the hand of the Lord” was with the men and women who took the gospel outside of their comfort zones and proclaimed it to the Gentiles, to outsiders.  This is not to suggest that there were not genuine conversions as a result of the preaching of the group who went only to the Jews, but it is almost certain that this is Luke’s way of highlighting the critical fact that those who made their preaching as wide as the mercy of God were those who held the special blessing of God.  They preached no stunted gospel.  They preached the full, robust, radical, paradigm-shattering gospel of Christ to all!

They preached it in the city of Antioch.  John Polhill calls Antioch “a natural setting for the Gentile missions,” pointing out that Antioch “was the third largest city in the Roman empire” with a “population of some 500,000 to 800,000” which made it third to Rome and Alexandria.[3]  It was therefore a critical population center and a strategic one.  They preached boldly and passionately in this great city.  As a result, many are saved…and as a result of that, the Church once again has to think through what to do.  So they send a representative.  This is not unusual.  They did the same when Philip took the gospel to the Samaritans.  But who they sent is most telling.

²² The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³ When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, ²⁴ for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. ²⁵ So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, ^26a-b and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people.

They send Barnabas.  Why?  Because this great man had already demonstrated a capacity to take his cross well beyond the comfort zone into the unsettling but exhilarating fields of the grace of God.  He had done this earlier by putting his arm around Paul while everybody else was shrinking away in fear.  He was a man who embraced when others were tempted to shun.  But Barnabas’ embrace was not one of mere sentimentality.  It was one of rock solid conviction.  It was because he understood Jesus that Barnabas embraced Paul and helped bring him into the church.  It was because he understood Jesus that Barnabas was now sent to Antioch to embrace this most unexpected Gentile believer.

Tellingly, upon seeing what had happened in Antioch, Paul went and brought the one person who could also understand:  Paul.  How unbelievably beautiful!  This former Pharisee of the Pharisees understood better than most what it was to be an unlikely convert.  He had experienced the awkwardness of the suspicious eyes of the Church.  He knew what it was to be drawn to a Church that did not quite know what to make of his presence.

So these two champions go to Antioch.  They go and they stay and they live and they teach and they grow together in the grace of the Lord Jesus!

^26c And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. ²⁷ Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸ And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). ²⁹ So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. ³⁰ And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

In Antioch, they are first called Christians.  The believers were called “Christiani” in Antioch.  Barclay points out that “-iani” means “belonging to the party of” and that the name Christiani would have meant something like “These Christ-folk.”[4]  It was not, initially, a compliment.  It was almost certainly a slight from outsiders.  Tellingly, however, the Church embraced the name seeing in it a more than apt description of who they were.

For our purposes, it is noteworthy to consider how the name “Christian” itself helped to break down the divisions between the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers.  It did so by removing the front-end qualifier and grounding the Church’s identity in Christian alone.  “These Christ-folk” were no longer Jewish Christ-folk or Gentile Christ-folk.  They were just Christ-folk.

It is possible that in so calling the believers Christians, the outside world inadvertently helped them embrace the only path to unity available to them.  They were now simply Jesus people, and, in Christ, the old distinctions melt away.  Paul would later put it beautifully in Galatians 3:28 when he would write, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

You are all one.

We are all one.

A great Christian from yesteryear, Gregory of Nyssa, once powerfully spoke of the reality of the leveling effect of everybody being called “Christian.”

Our good Master, Jesus Christ, bestowed on us a partnership in his revered name, so that we get our name from no other person connected with us, and if one happens to be rich and well-born or of lowly origin and poor, or if one has some distinction from his business or position, all such conditions are of no avail because the one authoritative name for those believing in him is that of Christian.[5]

“All such conditions are of no avail.”

Why?

Because Christ has triumphed not only over sin, death, and hell…but also over our divisions.

We are one in Christ.

Be one in Christ.

Acts 10:24-48

²⁴ And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. ²⁵ When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. ²⁶ But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” ²⁷ And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. ²⁸ And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. ²⁹ So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.” ³⁰ And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing ³¹ and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. ³² Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ ³³ So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.” ³⁴ So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶ As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), ³⁷ you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹ And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, ⁴⁰ but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, ⁴¹ not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” ⁴⁴ While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. ⁴⁵ And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. ⁴⁶ For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, ⁴⁷ “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” ⁴⁸ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

I used to live near a very elderly man who was, to put it mildly, a colorful character.  He was a member of another church in the town where I pastored but I would go by from time to time and talk with him.  The rumor was that he had once killed a black man and gotten away with it.  His manners did not do much to render that rumor unlikely, but I never asked him if that was so.  What he did volunteer to me one day, however, has troubled me ever since.  I was asking him about his church involvement and he shared with me that he was indeed a member of a local church and used to be quite involved.  He then excitedly went on to tell me with great pride that he had spear-headed the effort to keep blacks from coming into the church and he had been most successful in his efforts.  It struck me then as now as a chilling and pitiful thing to be proud of.

Not too far from where we lived at that time was Koinonia Farms, the experimental Christian community founded in the 1950’s in South Georgia by Southern Baptist minister Clarence Jordan.  You have perhaps heard of The Cotton Patch Gospel.  Clarence Jordan wrote that retelling of the gospels, setting them in 1950’s Georgia in an effort to show how the events of the gospel would play out in their own day and time.  Koinonia was controversial at the time and, in truth, I met with some controversy and confusion about it even when I lived near it not too long ago.  It was most controversial because of the way in which blacks were welcomed and treated as equals there.  Jordan paid all the farmers the same, black or white.  This led to boycotts in neighboring Americus, Georgia, as well as in the community being shot at and firebombed by the Ku Klux Klan.

One of the early residents there was Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity.  Fuller once spoke of the early days of Koinonia and the trials they faced.  They told of how the pastor of a local white church had come to have lunch with them one day.  As he left, he said to the assembled group, “We have a Christmas musical tonight.  Y’all come on out and see us!”  So many from the community decided to do so.  Included in the group was a black resident of Koinonia.

They went to the church, entered it, and sat in the back.  The moment the young black man sat down, an usher ran to him and told him he had to leave, that he was not welcome there.  This caused quite a stir as the man and many of his friends were ushered out.  Fuller says he can still remember when it happened.  As it happened, he recalled, the congregation was singing, “Joy to the World!”

What a tragic irony.

Brothers.  Sisters.  This should not be.

But the Church has had its divisions throughout time and has had from the very beginning to come to terms with what it means that Christ came to create a single people out of many peoples.

We saw in the first half of Acts 10 that God began moving the Jewish Christians and the Gentiles toward each other through the persons of Peter and Cornelius.  Cornelius sent for Peter and Peter came.  Now we are privileged to see the unfolding of this most unlikely meeting.

Peter and Cornelius both grow in their understanding of God and man.

This was an initially awkward meeting to be sure.  Both Peter and Cornelius had to grow in their understandings of God and man.  We can see this in our text.

²⁴ And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. ²⁵ When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. ²⁶ But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” ²⁷ And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered.

The eagerness with which Cornelius receives Peter as well as his having assembled his friends and family is demonstrative of his intense search for the truth.  We would do well to notice that Cornelius is not shy about his faith even when he is not terribly certain of exactly what his faith is!  Even so, we see the deficiencies of his faith in the fact that he falls at Peter’s feet to worship him.  Clearly he saw Peter as a kind of divine messenger.  Peter is quick to correct him.  Thus, we see that Cornelius has to grow in his understanding of God and man but not falling at the feet of Peter as if he were more than a man.

But Peter also had to grow in his understanding of God and man.

²⁸ And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. ²⁹ So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.” ³⁰ And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing ³¹ and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. ³² Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ ³³ So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.” ³⁴ So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

We must not miss how unbelievable it is that Peter (a) goes to this Gentile home and (b) enters this Gentile home.  Peter is a follower of Jesus, but he is still in the process of learning exactly what that means, particularly as it relates to people he previously considered unclean and untouchable.

Therefore he points out to them that Jews do not normally enter the house of Gentiles.  The Mishnah says, “The dwelling-places of Gentiles are unclean.”[i]  Peter knew this as an observant first century Jew.  However, the gospel of Christ is not pushing against what he thinks he knows and he is, again, growing up.

Peter makes two beautiful statements that reveal this growth.  The first is in verse 28:  “but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.”  The second is in verse 34:  “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

John Polhill points out that “the Greek word used for favoritism (v.34) is constructed on a Hebrew idiom meaning to lift a face.”  Thus, Polhill interprets Peter’s statement to mean that “Peter saw that God does not discriminate on the basis of race, or ethnic background, looking up to some and down on others.”[ii]

If Cornelius had to learn that no man should be lifted up above humanity, Peter had to learn that no people should be debased beneath humanity.  To put it simply, both sides had to learn that there are only people.  People are people and God is God.  There is a liberating simplicity about this!  It is the theological and anthropological foundation on which the gospel works:  people are people and God is God.

If the early believers did not come to learn this, they would not have preached the gospel to the nations.  If early Gentiles did not learn this, they would not have dared to approach.

Even though Cornelius is a virtuous man with some sense of who God is, he and his family still need to know and embrace the gospel.

Cornelius also had to grown in his understanding of divine truth.  Clearly he understood something of divine truth.  He knew there was a God and he knew that he was accountable to this God and he knew that his life should reflect the fact that he was accountable to this God.  But what he did not know was the actual gospel of Jesus Christ that saves.  Thus, Peter proclaims it to those assembled in his house.

³⁶ As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), ³⁷ you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹ And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, ⁴⁰ but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, ⁴¹ not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Peter preaches the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.  He preaches the ongoing life of Christ in and through the Church.  Then he makes an appeal:  “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Let us simply note that Peter is not content to leave Cornelius and his friends with a vague sense of God.  It is not enough for Peter that Cornelius believes something.  No, as a witness to the risen Christ, Peter wants Cornelius to believe in Christ.

In our day the following statement has become almost formulaic, especially among celebrities:  “I am spiritual but not religious.”  Often what one discovers when they hear this idea unpacked is that those saying it are at peace with a general notion of God or of a spirit world or of some sense of transcendence.  But this is not enough!  People need to embrace the actual gospel of the actual Christ.

In Romans 1 Paul spoke of the general knowledge of God that all people have through nature.  Tellingly, he notes that this general revelation only succeeds in condemning us, not saving us.

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Man thus rejects what little he can know of God.  Even if, in the case of Cornelius, he responds as virtuously as he can, he still has a deficient knowledge and understanding of the truth of God.

Men and women need Christ.  Peter knew this and was therefore unwilling to leave Cornelius in his ignorance.  We, too, should feel such a discontent that we speak the name of Christ to those who are otherwise “spiritual.”

The Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit and baptism when they receive Christ.

As Peter preaches and the people listen, something most startling happens in the room.

⁴⁴ While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. ⁴⁵ And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. ⁴⁶ For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, ⁴⁷ “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” ⁴⁸ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.

Yes, the Spirit falls even upon the Gentiles!  Here it is!  Peter’s eyes are now fully opened as are the eyes of those who have accompanied them.  God’s great lesson was not merely that the Gentiles should not be despised as unclean.  No, God’s lesson was that the Gentiles, the entire world, could likewise enter the Kingdom of God through the cross and the resurrection of Christ.  Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life for all!

We can sense Peter’s stunned amazement!  As the Spirit falls and the Gentiles speak in tongues and worship, Peter speaks this to his Jewish-Christian friends:  “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”  It is as if they are huddling up to confer and agree upon the inevitable implications of what they have just seen!

These too can be baptized!

These too can come home!

These too can be saved!

These too are our brothers and sisters!

These too are the Church!

Church family, we dare not, dare not miss this!  The Gospel is for all!  All may come!  What a tragedy when we allow racial or ethnic or socio-economic divisions to enter the Church of the risen Christ who laid down His life for all!

R. Kent Hughes has pointed to an episode in the life of Mahatma Gandhi that painfully illustrates how the Church throughout time has struggled to come to terms with the radical implications of the gospel.

            Mahatma Gandhi shares in his autobiography that in his student days in England he was deeply touched by reading the Gospels and seriously considered becoming a convert to Christianity, which seemed to offer a real solution to the caste system that divided the people of India.  One Sunday he attended church services and decided to ask the minister for enlightenment on salvation and other doctrines.  But when Gandhi entered the sanctuary, the ushers refused to give him a seat and suggested that he go elsewhere to worship with his own people.  He left and never came back.  “If Christians have caste differences also,” he said to himself, “I might as well remain a Hindu!”[iii]

Ah!  How badly we want to say to Gandhi, were it not too late, and to that church:  “There is no caste system in Christianity!  The old divisions are no more!  Christ is making a people from all the peoples of the earth!  All may come!  All m