Acts Ch13 Paul's 1st Missionary Journey: Part 1

Text

Acts 13 ESV

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. 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.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 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. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 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? 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. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 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. 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.” So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 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. And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 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. 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.’ Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 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.’ “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 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. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 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. But God raised him from the dead, 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. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 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.’ 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.’ Therefore he says also in another psalm, “ ‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ 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, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: “ ‘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.’ ” As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 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. The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 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. 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.’ ” 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. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 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. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Outline

Lessons from Paul’s 1st mission trip

Cyprus: Expect Varied Responses

Expect some to be open to the gospel

Expect some to oppose the gospel

Expect some to believe the gospel

Pisidian Antioch: Proclaiming the Gospel

Introduction

Proclamation

Application

Lessons in Conclusion

Introduction

Worshiping & fasting

Seeking the Lord’s will

Mission begins with the church fasting and praying

Contrast: initial spread was due to persecution

The church is maturing: understands Acts 1:8

Fasting -

preparing yourself for prayer (Calvin)

earnestness of prayer - desperation (Calvin)

discipline - compared to starving a city of food and water during s siege (John Short)

Paul and Barnabas are set apart

mission field is 100% commitment

easy to forget what our main purpose is - we are all set apart to God

We are all in our mission field

Every Christian is a missionary

Whether crossing the border into another country / crossing the street

We can all learn from the lessons from Paul’s 1st missionary journey

1. Cyprus: Expect Varied Responses

Paul’s habit is always to start in the synagogues

Expect some to be open to the gospel

Summoned by Sergius Paulus

(Proconsul - both political and military authority)

Roman governor of Cyprus

a man of intelligence

a religious man - he keeps the company of Bar-Jesus, a religious prophet

Bar-Jesus -

Luke says he is a false prophet (v6)

a name that basically means “son of the Saviour”

a name that basically means “son of the Saviour”

Paul and Barnabas had been teaching in the synagogues

Paul’s teaching was very different to anything Bar-Jesus taught

being an intelligent man, the proconsul was interested

Paul and Barnabas came to witness

couldn’t have known exactly who they would witness to

you never know who the Lord might direct you to

Don’t expect that you will get shot down everywhere

Some will be open to hearing

Example: Derick

Expect some to oppose the gospel

Paul, Barnabas and John Mark were opposed by Bar-Jesus

Romans were superstitious - omens and magic

Also believed Jews had some inside information on religious matters

Made this Jewish magician quite popular with the Romans

He tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith

not on the same team as Paul & Barnabas & John Mark

sees them as a threat - to his prestige & livelihood

Those are both major reasons that people oppose the gospel

Pride

Arrogance - refuse to admit wrong

Materialism

Pride lends itself to this

Selfish - hoarding treasue

The unconverted find it hard to give up this lifestyle

The weeds in the parable of the sower

The gospel confronts both head-on

The Bible tells us to humble ourselves and repent

The Bible tells us to forsake all idols and worship God alone

When the gospel clashes with pride & materialism, we can encounter very strong opposition

Example: Derick

How does Paul handle this opposition?

quite harshly!

verse 10 - 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?

Bar-Jesus goes blind

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Is Paul being too harsh?

The proconsul’s soul is at stake!

Compassion

Jesus also said some harsh things: - if someone causes one of his children to sin, it would be better for that person to have a millstone around his neck and drown

Eternity is serious

What can we learn from this?

Expect opposition

opposition doesn’t mean you’re on the wrong path or in the wrong place

Be bold

not nasty

not suggesting you go around cursing people with blindness either

be prepared to stand firm against evil and to confront it

In a world where everyone believes their own truth, have the courage to declare the gospel as absolute truth - including the consequences

Bar-Jesus was made blind - a foretaste of what is to be expected for all who refuse to bow their knee to Jesus

Have the courage to

Be confident in the power of the gospel

what enables us to be bold in the face of opposition is that the power to convert is not in us

Romans

the gospel is the power of God for salvation to all who believe (Romans 1:6)

Expect some to believe the gospel

Darkness came over Bar-Jesus, but the light of salvation came to Sergius Paulus

The proconsul believed

We are not called to a hopeless mission

It will be difficult

It will require sacrifice

We will encounter opposition

but we are in Jesus’ mission

Jesus is still working in the world today

People say they wish they could see Jesus’ miracles in real life today - you can if you engage and join in His mission

Let this encourage you -

2. Pisidian Antioch: Proclaiming the Gospel

From there, they left and went to Perga - and that’s where John Mark left them and went back to Jerusalem

Then Antioch in Pisidia - Roman province of Galatia

Again they went to the synagogue

After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, they were asked if they had any words of encouragement

Maybe they had heard that Paul had been trained under Gamaliel

Gave him the opportunity to give the exposition of the day

Introduction

Contextualisation

Preparation

Preparing them for the coming of Christ

Paul starts with a brief summary of their history

covering their time in Egypt to the rule of David

The sermon is filled with the works of God

16 times, God is shown to be the central actor in history

God chose our fathers...

God made the people great in Egypt...

God led them out...

God put up with them in the wilderness...

God destroyed seven nations in Canaan...

God gave them their land...

God gave them judges...

God gave them a king...

God removed the king...

God raised up David to be king...

(verse 23) Of (David’s) offspring God has brought to Israel a Saviour, Jesus, as He promised.

None of Israel’s history happened by chance.

God has been working out His eternal plan - everything centers on His plan to send the Saviour

Israel were expecting a saviour - the Messiah

Paul mentions John the baptist - it wasn’t him

But like John pointed to Jesus - Paul is showing the Jews that all of their history pointed forward to the coming Saviour and Jesus is the One they were waiting for

Proclamation

So Paul moves from their history to proclamation - he proclaims Jesus as the Saviour

Application

3. Lessons in Conclusion