ACTS 13:42

The Apostle Paul had just finished delivering a sermon to Jewish people in a synagogue in what is today the country of Turkey, and the Bible says in Acts 13:42-43, “And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.” Gentiles as well as those who were Jews by birth were accustomed to visit these synagogues. That means that the Jews were at least partially fulfilling one of the responsibilities that God had given to them: to take the truth to the rest of the world. Before Christ came, the truth was Judaism. In other words the highest revelation possible from God to man came through the Jews. That is why the truth came through Christ. He was a Jew. Just as Jesus said, “Salvation is of the Jews.” Once Jesus came on the scene, in order to get the highest revelation possible one must believe in Jesus and learn of Him.

Now in our day and age, and since the time of Jesus, what happens is this: if someone learns Judaism, but rejects Jesus the Christ, then such a person is rejecting the truth. Jesus is the Savior for everyone on the earth. Jesus is the Savior of the Jews and Jesus is the Savior of the Gentiles. Just as it shows here in Acts chapter thirteen, everyone in the world whether Jew or Gentile gets saved in the same way: by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

No one deserves to be saved. No one can earn salvation. It is only by the grace of God. Whoever gets saved, gets saved by the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus. The emphasis is on grace: the unmerited favor of God. John 1:17 says, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” We just recently looked at Acts 13:39 that says speaking of Jesus, “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.” If you started by grace through Jesus, then make sure you continue with grace. Do not make the mistake that some have made and turn back to law. That is why it says in Acts 13:43 that Paul “persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.” Be careful how you encourage certain behavior or actions. Do not ever present the keeping of certain rules in a way that makes it seem doing such things are a replacement for the grace of God: the unmerited favor of God.

If God has given you grace through Christ, you did not deserve that and you can never deserve it. Enjoy it. Do your best to serve Him, but do not let anything take away from the proper emphasis on grace and the fact that you are accepted by God only by His grace. That is exactly the point that Paul is making in Galatians 3:1-5 where it says, “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministers to you the Spirit, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?” If your relationship with God started by grace, then by all means make all the effort possible to serve Him as well as you can, but never forget that your relationship with Him is not due to your efforts, but is always due to the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus. Be persuaded to continue in grace.

The Bible says in Acts 13:44-45, “And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.” At least we see that the people in this city of Antioch had the right motivation. They came to hear the Word of God. That is the number one reason to gather together. The Apostle Paul had the gift to teach. Once people realized that he had the gift to teach the Word, they came to hear the Word. I wonder how many people go to church for the primary purpose of hearing the Word? I wonder how many people actually hear the Word of God taught when they do go to church? Jesus said, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” How many people can truly say what David said in Psalm 119:103, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

People came to hear the Word of God, and Paul taught the Word of God. The things that Paul taught from the Word were so good, and were just right for that time and that place. But this is a spiritual warfare that we are involved in, and there will always be opposition of some kind to the preaching of God’s Word. The evil forces want to stop it. Notice that the evil forces used selfish human nature to motivate humans to oppose the Word. Verse 44 says that the Jews “were filled with envy.” They were jealous of the fact that so many people came to hear the Word of God. Some of the greatest sins possible have been committed because of human envy and jealousy. It was the reason that the Jews even had Jesus put to death. Remember the commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.” Envy and jealousy are closely related to the sin of coveting what someone else has or what someone else has accomplished.

The Bible says in Acts 13:46-49, “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.” Just like the other apostles, Paul and Barnabas initially went primarily to Jewish people with the gospel. But here on the first missionary journey they realized two things. First they saw that the Gentile people wanted to hear the gospel more than the Jewish people, and often it was the Jewish people who opposed and resisted the preaching of the gospel. Secondly, Paul and Barnabas realized that God was speaking to them through His Word, telling them that the gospel of Christ was for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews. In the Jewish Bible, in the Old Testament, it says in Isaiah 42:6, “I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles.”

A very interesting word is used in verse 48 in reference to those that believe. It is the word ”ordained.” It says of the believers that they “were ordained to eternal life.” The word “ordained” means “appointed” or “arranged” or “set in order.” If you have been saved, it did not happen by accident. God arranged things for you to hear the gospel. God set things in order such that your heart would be ready to respond and to turn to Him. If God had not ordained things or arranged things in the way that He did, you would have never been saved. To say that believers are ordained does in no way take away the fact that they still had to make a choice. It just means that God made the choice possible.

The Bible says in Acts 13:50-52, “But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.” What do you do when your message is not received? Go to the next place or the next person, and see if maybe it will be received this time. The responsibility of believers is to give out the gospel. We do not control the results. Jesus said, “Cast not your pearls before swine.” In other words if someone does not want the gospel, then do not give it to them. Go and find someone else who does want it.

In the next city that Paul and Barnabas went to, it was almost an exact repeat of what had just happened. Acts 14:1-7 says, “And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Gentiles believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren. Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of His grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the multitude of the city was divided; and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them, they were aware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: And there they preached the gospel.”

One of the important phrases to notice in these verses is in verse three where it says that Paul and Barnabas “gave testimony unto the word of His grace.” In the previous chapter when they had spoken to converts in Antioch, it says that Paul and Barnabas “persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.” Of course, they emphasized the grace of God. They knew that they had been saved by the grace of God through Christ, and they knew that for people to be saved they needed to hear about grace. “By grace are you saved through faith.” If you are going to spread the gospel, then you need to talk about grace. People get saved when they realize the greatness of their sins, and they realize that they can come to Jesus and be forgiven. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. The grace of God is always greater than anyone’s sins. “The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Never forget that the reason that so much grace is available to us is because of what Jesus suffered on the cross.

The Bible says in Acts 14:8-10, “And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked; The same heard Paul speak; who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.” There are several important things that these verses teach us about divine healing. Can God heal even the most hopeless situation? Yes, no doubt about it. God can heal, because God can do anything. What things happened that led to the healing? First, the Word of God was being preached. The Word of God is alive and powerful. One of the things that the true preaching of the Word of God will do, is to build up the faith of those who have ears to hear. That is exactly what happened here. The Word of God was preached, and then it says concerning the one who heard Paul that Paul “beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith:” faith to be healed. With faith all things are possible. Of course, this healing was much different than much of the supposed healing that you see people make claims about today. This was not aching joints from rheumatism: this was a man who had been crippled from birth. Beware of the false healers of our day. What they do is nothing at all like what happened here on the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul.

The healing of this crippled man became such a well-known event, and the citizens were extremely amazed by what had taken place. The problem was that they reacted in the wrong way. Because these people believed in the Greek mythology, they wanted to honor Paul and Barnabas as if they were Greek gods. It says in Acts 14:11-18, “And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lacaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice to the people. Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth and the sea, and all things that are therein. Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice to them.”

As we have already seen before in the book of Acts, the apostles would not permit any undo honor or praise to come their way. They knew that they were sinners, just like all humans. In verse 15 Paul said, “We also are men of like passions with you.” Do you realize that you also are a sinner in need of turning to “the living God” and to the Savior that He has sent? If you have not yet turned to Him, today could be your day: your day of salvation. Turn to Jesus and call upon His name and He will save you.

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