Exhortation in Pisidian

Introduction

Good morning! We’ll be continuing in Acts chapter 13 today.

Chapter 13 Recap (1-13)

In verse two, Barnabas and Saul/Paul are specifically anointed for this calling of missionary work.

Acts 13:2–5 LSB

2 And while they were ministering to 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, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 And when they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they also had John as their helper.

The next few verses go on to continue describing the beginning of Paul’s first missionary journey with Barnabas, as they are sent by the Holy Spirit from the church in Antioch to preach the gospel in Cyprus. There, they encounter a sorcerer named Elymas, who tries to hinder their ministry to the proconsul Sergius Paulus. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, rebukes Elymas and makes him blind, which leads to the conversion of Sergius Paulus.

[TIMELINE]

This timeline shows where we are in terms of the chronology of events.

Besides being an incredible story full of delicious irony, the beginning of chapter thirteen also marks a significant shift in focus, away from Peter and the church in Jerusalem, to focus the remainder of the book on Paul and his missionary journeys. So, this chapter is a major turning point in the narrative.

In Cyprus, they were met with some opposition, but the gospel was multiplied nonetheless, and they leave the intelligent proconsul astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

To Pisidian (13-15)

This brings us to verse thirteen, where we’ll find Paul’s posse on the move again. Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark leave Cyprus and sail to Pamphylia, but John Mark decides to return to Jerusalem. After John Mark leaves, Paul and Barnabas travel to Antioch in Pisidia, where they attend the Sabbath synagogue services.

Acts 13:13–15 LSB

13 Now after Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia, but John left them and returned to Jerusalem. 14 But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.”

The Journey

So, first of all, where exactly are these places they are traveling to and from?

[MAPS]

From Antioch, they sailed to Cyprus, an island to the West.

From there, they sailed north to the mainland of Pamphylia, specifically the port of Perga on the Southern coast of modern day Turkey.

From there, John Mark catches a boat back to Jerusalem, to the Southeast, while Paul and Barnabas keep traveling, inland to a different town called Antioch, this one being the Antioch of Pisidia. (Apparently there were some sixteen cities named Antioch in this era!)

If that sounds weird, it’s really not; it’s part of the human condition that we just keep naming places after other places, or for the same people. In the United States, we have 88 cities or towns with the name of “Washington,” 41 named “Springfield,” and 35 named “Franklin.” There’s also an Antioch in California. That one is certainly not to be confused with the Antioch in Turkey, nor the Antioch in Syria.

Now, we don’t get any more detail here as to why John Mark left them, but apparently it bothered Paul, because it comes up again in chapter fifteen! As tempting as it is, we won’t get into that today, because we’ll be able to address it when it comes up in a couple more chapters. For now, all we need to know is Mark left them, while the rest of Paul’s team continues traveling through the mountainous interior of this region.

The Setting

They’ve been traveling enough now that they are a long ways from home, from familiar territory. That said, they are still in a Roman province, traveling with at least one Roman citizen, who’s also an educated Jewish man, and they are able to find the Jewish synagogue. So, while they are bringing a new gospel, a new message about Christ, and Christianity, they still have the benefit of not starting from scratch. At a synagogue, they know people are at least familiar with the torah teachings, with who God is and the promises he made to Abraham, to Israel, to David.

They are in the synagogue. The Jewish synagogue. And the synagogue officials don’t chase them away! They don’t conspire to kill them! In fact, not only do they tolerate the presence of Paul and his companions, they actually invite them to speak!

This is after the usual scriptures for the day had been read, one from the law, or the books of Moses, and one from the prophets. Clearly, Paul and his friends are viewed favorably, as opposition from unbelieving Jews had not yet been stirred up in that town. It’s coming! Before the end of this chapter, in fact, but this is the pleasant, peaceful lull before the storm, into which they are invited to speak.

Exhortation

What exactly are they invited to say?

Exhortation, or encouragement.

[Word Study]

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 13

A spoken discourse explaining the meaning and relevance of one or more of the Scriptures that was read aloud. The author to the Hebrews calls that entire work a “word of encouragement” (Heb. 13:22).

Exhortation: an address or communication emphatically urging someone to do something.

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 13

A worship service in the synagogue would include the creed (Deut. 6:4), the prayer of “Eighteen Blessings,” a reading from the Law and another from the Prophets, an exposition and application (Luke 4:16–30), and a concluding benediction.

Only God knows what those officials were expecting to hear, maybe they could sense that these visitors sat with their hearts ablaze with an important message. Maybe they were hoping for an eloquent but benign message of hope and encouragement to inspire those present. Either way, it’s clear they were prepared to hear from them, and that in itself must have been a huge encouragement, pointing to God’s providence and the preparatory work of the Spirit in leading them to this synagogue on this sabbath. Praise God for such an opportunity!

I would also say that this is an example of how a word of encouragement or exhortation is by all means an appropriate followup or response to the reading of scripture!

Paul’s Exhortation (16-41)

Of course, Paul takes this opportunity to present the gospel message.

Acts 13:16 LSB

16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen:

Notice that he’s calling for the attention of the men of Israel, in other words, “God’s favorite people,” right? But also “All you who fear God.” This message is for anyone who cares about who God is and what he says, regardless of one’s background, culture, nationality, heritage, etc.

Israel’s Inheritance (17-19)

From here, he launches into an extremely abridged summary of Israel’s entire history as a people, as a nation, and of the Jewish religion:

Acts 13:17–19 LSB

17 “The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and lifted up the people during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. 18 “And for a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. 19 “And when He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance—all of which took about 450 years.

Hundreds of years of history in just a few sentences; pretty impressive!

He begins by reminding the Israelites, the people of God, who fear God, that God chose them…chose Israel, and made them a great people in Egypt, and delivered them, through Moses, from slavery. He reminds them that God was with their ancestors for forty years in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, and that God gave their ancestors the land of Canaan and conquered it for them.

Judges, Kings, and Promises (20-22)

He continues:

Acts 13:20–22 LSB

20 “After these things 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 after He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, about whom He also said, bearing witness, ‘I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.’

Again, these verses are simply recounting the well-known history of Israel for his audience, not to give them a history lesson, but to place the coming of Jesus Christ in historical perspective. He’s referencing very familiar stories, but connecting them in a way that helps reveal how they point to Jesus.

He brings up the judges, leading up to Samuel the prophet, who anointed the first two kings of Israel: first Saul, and then David. This is all leading up to the reveal of Jesus as

In the following verses, he makes it clear that Jesus came as a fulfillment of God’s promises, which is confirmed in his resurrection.

Without even mentioning Abraham, by referring to the people of Israel as a chosen people, he’s referring to the Abrahamic covenant, wherein God promised to make Abraham’s descendants into a great and innumerable people, through whom the whole world would be blessed.

Genesis 12:1–3 LSB

1 And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go forth from your land, And from your kin And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

By bringing up King David, he’s also uploading the Davidic covenant, wherein God promises the throne of the kingdom of God’s people will belong to a descendant of David for all eternity!

1 Chronicles 17:11–14 LSB

11 “And it will be that when your days are fulfilled to go to be with your fathers, I will raise up one of your seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. 12 “He shall build for Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; and I will not remove My lovingkindness from him, as I removed it from him who was before you. 14 “But I will cause him to stand in My house and in My kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.”’”

Jesus Fulfilling the Promises (23-26)

Going back to Acts, that’s the promise to which he refers in verse 23:

Acts 13:23–26 LSB

23 “From the seed of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, 24 after John had preached before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 “And as John was fulfilling his course, he kept saying, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me of whom I am not worthy to untie the sandals of His feet.’ 26 “Brothers, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the word of this salvation was sent.

In verse 23, the word “descendants” or “offspring” in many translations is the Greek word sperma, a very literal word, but it connects to the Hebrew concept of one’s “seed” and that specific terminology is used with God’s covenants with David and Abraham.

The Faithlife study bible puts it this way:

Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 13

The Greek word used here, sperma, not only refers to the offspring of David, but relates to the Davidic covenant (2 Sam 7:12), and Yahweh’s promises to Abraham (Gen 22:18–19). By using the word in this context, Paul proclaims that God has fulfilled His promises through Jesus.

Jesus, a descendant of David, was God’s promised Savior of Israel, the Messiah whose way was prepared by John the Baptist. A great and widely recognized prophet of God, but as Paul quotes from John’s own words, a humble servant who simply cleared the ground for the one whose coming he announced.

Paul’s making some BIG claims in just a few words here! And he continues.

Jesus’s Death & Resurrection (27-37)

In verse 27, Paul is pointing out how even the Jerusalem religious leader’s ignorance of who Jesus was fulfills Scripture! As Peter even pointed out back in Acts 3:18. And he goes on to recount the shameful treatment Jesus had received:

Acts 13:27–37 LSB

27 “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning Him. 28 “And though they found no ground for death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. 29 “And when they had finished all that was written concerning 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 came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. 32 “And we proclaim to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, 33 that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’ 34 “But that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to corruption, He has spoken in this way: ‘I WILL GIVE YOU THE HOLY and FAITHFUL lovingkindnesses OF DAVID.’ 35 “Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ‘YOU WILL NOT GIVE YOUR HOLY ONE OVER TO SEE CORRUPTION.’ 36 “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his fathers and saw corruption; 37 but He whom God raised did not see corruption.

Alright, Paul’s really gotten into the heart of his message now. He makes it very clear that Jesus was unjustly condemned and killed. That Israel helped crucify the Messiah. But also that God raised Jesus from the dead, as attested by witnesses.

The apostles are God’s witnesses because the resurrected Jesus appeared to them. Paul asserts that what God promised to their ancestors was not lost or forgotten, but passed down and fulfilled in the very son of God himself. That in addition to the good news that God raised Jesus from the dead, that through him Israel, and others, can experience the same…that we can be raised from the dead, like Jesus, irreversibly!

Paul cites Ps 2:7 in verse 33, He also quotes from Ps 16:10, like Peter did in his Pentecost Sermon in Acts 2:31, to help reinforce belief in the reality of the resurrection.

The good news of this message is that through Jesus, sinners can experience forgiveness. And though we live now in corrupted bodies, we need not live in fear of death, as Hebrews says:

Hebrews 2:14–15 NLT

14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

Conclusion (38-41)

This brings us to Paul’s conclusion, and application of this message:

Acts 13:38–41 LSB

38 “Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and that in Him, everyone who believes is justified from all things which you could not be justified from through the Law of Moses. 40 “Therefore watch out, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: 41 ‘LOOK, YOU SCOFFERS, AND MARVEL, AND PERISH; FOR I AM ACCOMPLISHING A WORK IN YOUR DAYS, A WORK WHICH YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE, THOUGH SOMEONE SHOULD RECOUNT IT TO YOU.’”

Paul declares that through Jesus, the promised Savior, whose body was NOT corrupted in the grave, God offers forgiveness of sins and justification by faith to everyone who believes.

He also warns his listeners not to reject this salvation and face God’s judgment, as the prophets had foretold. “Don’t be one of the people the prophets spoke of!” Quoting from Habbakuk 1:5. I love that!

It’s clear here that Paul believes not only in the imperative but also in the efficacy of proclaiming the gospel. That his words have the potential to sway people to believe, by the grace of God, and through the working of the Holy Spirit, and that people have a choice as to which group they will be counted among: those who scoffed or those who believed.

The Response (42-43)

Let’s read how this message was received, in the next couple verses:

Acts 13:42–43 LSB

42 And as Paul and Barnabas were leaving, the people kept pleading that these words might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. 43 Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

I don’t know about you, but I love hearing someone reference topics and stories which are well-known to me, but connect them in new ways and perhaps with a message, theme, or lesson that I hadn’t considered before. It’s exciting! I wonder if there was some of that excitement burning within them, the excitement and hope of the gospel, kindled and stoked by the prodding of the Spirit through Paul’s words.

In some ways, this message Paul gave them is a heavy one. It’s one that requires some contemplation and a personal response, with a grave warning at the end. But they seem to have really understood how important and awesome it is, because they want to hear more!

“PLEASE! You HAVE TO come back and say that again next week!”

Others went so far as to follow them, encouraging them to keep doing what you’re doing! That’s generally an encouraging thing to hear, isn’t it?

The backlash is coming, but we’ll save that for next week, and end on a positive note for now! Next week, Lord willing, we’ll wrap up chapter 13. We have just a few verses left, but they are densely packed full of theology, so I’m excited!

Conclusion

In Acts chapter 13, we witness the pivotal moment when the narrative shifts from Peter to Paul, marking the beginning of Paul's missionary journeys and the spread of Christianity to the Gentiles. Through Paul's exhortation in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch, we see the seamless integration of Old Testament prophecy and the fulfillment found in Jesus Christ. Paul masterfully connects the dots of Israel's history, culminating in the death and resurrection of Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of God's promises.

While worshipping with fellow God-fearers in a Jewish Synagogue, Paul presents Jesus’ death and resurrection as the fulfillment of the story of Israel and concludes with an invitation to accept the message of the gospel, and a warning not to reject it.

Do you accept the message of the gospel? I do. And I pray you will too.

What does it mean to accept the gospel? It involves recognizing one's need for salvation, believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior, repenting of sins, and committing to follow Him.

Recognize your need for salvation: Understand that everyone has sinned and falls short of God's glory (Romans 3:23). Sin separates us from God, and the consequence of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Believe in Jesus Christ: Having recognized the need for salvation, acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, and rose again from the dead (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Repentance: Repentance is a turning away from sin and a turning towards God. It involves acknowledging your sins, feeling genuine sorrow for them, and making a conscious decision to change your ways (Acts 3:19; 2 Corinthians 7:10).

2 Corinthians 7:10 LSB

10 For godly sorrow produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world brings about death.

Confessing and repenting from our sin is NOT about laying on guilt, it’s the opposite!

Confess Jesus as Lord:

Romans 10:9–10 LSB

9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation.

Accepting the gospel means to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved (Romans 10:9-10).

Commit to follow Jesus: Surrender your life to Jesus and commit to following Him as your Lord and Savior. This involves obedience to His teachings and seeking to live a life that honors Him (Luke 9:23; John 14:15).

Luke 9:23 LSB

23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

Receive the gift of salvation: Salvation is a gift from God, received by faith. You cannot earn it through your own efforts; it is given freely to all who believe in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Ephesians 2:8–9 LSB

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not of works, so that no one may boast.

Be baptized: Baptism is an outward expression of your inward faith in Jesus Christ. It symbolizes your identification with His death, burial, and resurrection, and it is an important step of obedience for every believer (Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38).

Grow in your relationship with God: Once you have accepted the gospel, continue to grow in your relationship with God through prayer, studying the Bible, participating in Christian fellowship, and serving others (2 Peter 3:18; Hebrews 10:24-25).

Remember, accepting the gospel is not just about salvation, and not just a one-time event but a lifelong journey of faith and discipleship.

As we reflect on Paul's message, we are reminded of the universal significance of the gospel. It is not confined to a particular people or culture but extends to all who believe. Just as the audience in Pisidian Antioch eagerly received Paul's words and pleaded for more, we too are invited to embrace the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, and therein discover that for which our hearts long and hunger.

May we, like Paul, boldly proclaim the good news of forgiveness and justification by faith to all who will listen. And may we, like the audience in the synagogue, respond with hearts open to God's grace and eager to continue in His ways. As we journey through the book of Acts and beyond, may we be inspired by the example of Paul and the early believers to fervently share the hope we have found in Christ.