Paul among Gentiles

Introduction:

How should we think about our presentation of the Gospel of Jesus?

Through Acts, we can see a consistent pattern:

It spans decades: we are now a decade or more removed from the crucifixion and resurrection.

It is not geographically limited: Barnabas and Paul are outside of Jewish territory.

It is not ethnically limited: the message is the same regardless of the audience.

How important are the basic facts about Jesus’ life?

What does the Gospel call upon us to believe?

Who does the Gospel call upon us to believe?

These questions are not academic questions.

They are essential to our grasp of God’s actions in the world and for the world through Jesus.

Background for Movement

From Cyprus, Paul and his entourage sailed northward to Perga along the central coastline of Asia Minor. The distance would have been around 180 miles.

Perga was approximately seven miles inland from its harbor, Attalia, and it connected to central Asia Minor by a road constructed in 6 BC called the Via Sebaste.

There may have been a family connection between Sergius Paulus and Pisidian Antioch because inscriptions indicate the family of the Sergii Pauli owned estates in southern Galatia.

The writer of Acts does not say if they walked the 140 miles or took some kind of conveyance.

We hardly get any information about how long it took them to travel, what towns they passed through, or anything else Paul or Barnabas might have done.

The writer wishes to focus on what happens at the next important city.

Antioch in Pisidia was a colony city and the principal city of the southern Galatia.

It may have had sizeable number of Jews.

Following a pattern, still, from Cyprus, Paul and his entourage went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day.

Synagogues were often open.

Paul gains an audience to speak by request of the synagogue leader.

God and the Gospel

Paul delivered what for the reader of Acts amounts to his first recorded message.

It follows a pattern from Peter.

The basic operating principle at work as Paul speaks in the Antiochean synagogue is the consistency of the message of the apostles.

Over a decade has passed, and the events of Jesus’ crucifixion have now long ago occurred. Yet, Paul tells of the same basic story with all the key parts even after so much time has passed.

What do we see Paul doing, with any kind of clarity?

Giving the message of Jesus from God’s point of view. God is responsible.

He chose the fathers (a reference usually to the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).

Here, it may distinguish them from Egypt.

He exalted the people in the foreign land of Egypt.

He lead them out from Egypt with a high, strong arm.

He put up with the people in the wilderness for 40 years.

This could also mean “he nourished them” if one consonant differed.

He alloted their land.

He gave judges until Samuel.

Recounting the basic order of details.

John the Baptist

John’s core message about his own identity compared to the identity of Jehovah.

Introduction Part 2

Deut. 18:15-22 vs. Dt. 13:1-3

Prophecy must match actual historical events.

The biblical history mattered to the early apostles and messengers.

It was not secondary.

They established the history to show the legitimacy and authority of the message.

Paul’s message in Pisidian Antioch comes from this point of view.

However, the tragedy appears in Israel’s misunderstanding of the message of salvation.

John 5:39-40.

We must be careful how we understand the indictment of Jerusalem’s inhabitants.

Paul’s Message (Part 2)

Acts 13:26 signals the next part of Paul’s address or teaching to the synagogue.

Notice how he refers to his audience.

They have two parts:

Jews

Partial converts

Paul claims, “the word of this salvation was sent out to us.”

He seems to have more in mind that a message or an account.

Given the language that follows, he appears to mean that the promised salvation to David became a physical reality in Jesus.

God fulfilled that promise.

Evidence for this fulfillment came, however, in the actions of Jerusalem’s inhabitants.

They misunderstood the message (see John 5:39-40), or they misunderstood that the realization of that message was among them.

That combined with their misunderstanding of the prophets which they read every Sabbath day to cause them to fulfill those passages through their condemnation of their salvation.

They requested Pilate to execute him.

The Resurrection and the Fulfilled Promise

Paul explained the basic narrative or facts of what happened in Jerusalem to Jesus.

God, however, raised Jesus from the dead.

Jesus was seen for many days by those who went with him from Galilee to Jerusalem.

Those who saw him are now witnesses to the people.

Paul and Barnabas are proclaiming the promise having come to be to the fathers because God fulfilled it to their children, to their generation when he raised Jesus from the dead.

The key issue seems to be: God promised deliverance to the Fathers through the incarnated Jehovah who would die, be buried, and be raised from the dead.

Their generation lived in the days when God fulfilled that promise.

Paul begins the biblical explanation of this promise from Ps. 2.

Is. 55:3

Ps. 16:10