ACCOMPANYING Barnabas and Saul, we leave the new centre of evangelistic operations and travel westward to Seleucia, the port of Antioch. From Seleucia the vessel steers in a westerly direction to the island of Cyprus. In the east of the island Salamis is visited, and the word of God is proclaimed by our missionaries in the Jewish synagogues. We traverse the island westward to Paphos, and recall the events which we have previously noted as having happened there. From Cyprus we sail northward to Perga in Pamphylia. Here John Mark leaves the company. For some ignoble reason he returns to Jerusalem, and leaves Paul and Barnabas to ascend the rocky ravine and the mountain passes beset with robbers. Our first halting-place is

It was "originally founded by the Magnetes on the Meander; was re-established, and named, like the Syrian city, by Seleucus Nicator. It was on a ridge of the Taurus. It became a colony under Augustus, and was named also Cesarea. ... The site of the city has lately been identified with the modern Yalobatch, where a few ruins yet remain."

Paul and Barnabas entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day. After a portion of the law of Moses and of the prophets had been read, the visitors were invited to speak to the people.

is more fully reported than any of the addresses we have had occasion to study. It was only on special occasions that our historian recorded much that was said. The longest report is indeed brief, and contains only leading points. Of addresses resulting in conversions we have hitherto only had two; both of them by Peter, one in Jerusalem and one in Cesarea. Now that a new worker is becoming prominent, and his work is more of a propagating nature than anything we have heard of Peter, Luke lingers a little and gives more particulars.

Who were Paul's hearers?

1. Children of the Abrahamic stock.

2. Men of Israel. Therefore were they called men and brethren. They were of the same nation as the speaker - Jews.

3. Fearers of God. "Ye that fear God," and "whosoever among you feareth God," are phrases aptly descriptive of proselytes.

Israelites and God-fearing Gentiles composed Paul's audience (verses 16,26).

It will be useful to divide the address which Paul delivered.

1. God's doings for the Jews. Verses 17-24 give an epitome of God's dealings with the Jews from the Exodus until the time of John the Baptist.

a) He chose their fathers.

b) Exalted them in Egypt. He gave them a name and a fame, and a mastery over the Egyptians, before they left the land of bondage.

c) Delivered them in Egypt.

d) Suffered with them forty years in the wilderness. Addressing the Israelites on the borders of the promised land, Moses said, "In the wilderness thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place" (Deut. 1:31).

e) Gave them Canaan. The seven expelled nations are named in Deut. 7:l.

f) Provided judges. See Revised Version.

g) Gave them their desire respecting a king.

h) Gave them a second king better than the first. Saul was their own choice; David was according to God's mind. David acted faithfully as a king for God over the children of Israel, however low he once fell in his private conduct.

i) Fulfilled His promise of a Saviour. The time of the fulfilment was during the ministry of John.

2. John's testimony to Jesus. Verses 24-25.

a) John's preaching the baptism of repentance. Peter to Cornelius and his friends, and Paul to the congregation in Antioch, alike declared that baptism was what John preached. Repentance was emphatically associated with the baptism. The plunging of his candidates in the river was a pledge of their repentance. They were forsaking sin and living in ready expectation of the Messiah's advent.

b) To whom John preached. His mission was for Israel - all Israel. He did not traverse the Holy Land like the Saviour, but his message was for all the inhabitants thereof. All classes went out to him and were baptised by him.

c) John's confession of inferiority. The high moral tone of John's teaching agreed well with the stern asceticism of his life. He had some thing pure for all classes to attend to. The common people were taught benevolence. The exacting publicans were curbed. The rude soldiers were encouraged to tender consideration of others. An adulterous king was rebuked to his face; and canting Pharisees and Sadducees were labelled a progeny of vipers, and warned to flee from impending wrath. John quaked before no man. But there was One before whom this greatest of the prophets bent in lowly reverence. John willingly confessed of Jesus, "He must increase, but I must decrease." He deemed himself unworthy to immerse Jesus, or to do the most menial service for Him. "There cometh One mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose."

To the priests and Levites John declared himself a "voice." His business was to cry aloud and spare not. He himself was willing to be lost sight of. His character was that of a witness. His preaching was preparatory, and his teaching all pointed to Jesus.

3. The treatment of Jesus by the Jews. Verses 27-29.

a) Ignorance of the Jews. They were ignorant of Jesus as their Messiah, and ignorant of the teaching of their own prophets. And their ignorance was inexcusable. The character and doings of Jesus were open to the knowledge of all, and their prophets were read in their synagogues every week.

b) Fulfilling of Scripture. This resembles Acts 3:18. But Peter in that passage attributes the fulfilling of Scripture to God, whereas here it is ascribed to the ignorant conduct of the Jews. Isaiah had said, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." The Jews accomplished these words of their prophet, though they knew not their meaning.

c) Condemning of Jesus.

d) Begging that the faultless One be slain. Blundering and degradation to a fearful depth were displayed by the Jews when they gathered round the judgment-seat of a foreigner, and urged him to condemn to death one of their own nation against whom they could allege no crime.

e) Interment in a sepulchre. The death was a reality; Jesus was buried. Messiah was laid in the tomb.

4. Resurrection of Jesus. Verses 30-37.

a) God raised Him. Here, as in Peter's addresses, there is the antithesis between the attitude of the Jews and that of God to Jesus.

b) Evidence of the resurrection. He was seen, not once and briefly, but many days by those who knew Him best. These witnesses were not easily convinced, because they were not expecting the resurrection. The evidence, however, removed all doubt. Their opportunities made it impossible for them to be deceived; and the circumstances shut out the possibility that they were deceivers. There was nothing to induce them to believe and declare the resurrection except its undeniable truthfulness.

c) The resurrection a fulfilment of prophecy. Paul gives three quotations from the Old Testament writings.

(1) "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee" (Psalm 2:7). On first reading the Psalm one might not think of any applicability to the resurrection of Christ. But a closer examination confirms Paul's application to the resurrection as the primary meaning. It is after kings and rulers, Jews and Gentiles, have plotted against Jehovah and His anointed One, the Messiah; and it is after God has expressed His disapprobation of that rebellious conduct, and declared that, despite all the opposition, He has constituted His chosen One King, - it is after these things that the Son steps forward and says in effect, 'That is the decree which Jehovah made known to Me. He declared Me His Son by the resurrection from the dead.'

(2) "I will give you the sure mercies of David" (Isa. 55:3). "I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David." The promise was given to "every one that thirsteth." The invitation and the assurance of Isaiah were for all the needy of the nation. How the mercies of David were to be insured to all is best seen from the third quotation and Paul's reasoning thereon.

(3) "Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption" (Psalm 16:10). This is part of the quotation which Peter used with much force on the day of Pentecost. Paul here introduces it as helpful to the understanding of the sure mercies of David. The promise respecting the blessings of David was not to be thought of as fulfilled either during his lifetime or by his resurrection. He had gone to sleep, "and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption." But Jesus Christ, the descendant of David, had seen no corruption; for God had raised Him on the third day after His death. In Him were the mercies that had been linked with the name of David made sure to humanity.

5. Salvation and how obtained. Verses 38-39.

a) Forgiveness. Paul's address throughout was of a nature calculated to elicit the interest of his audience. He began by speaking of the Jews as the people of God's choice, and four times in his speech he predicated good news for his audience. "Of this man's seed hath God according to His promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus." "To you is the word of this salvation sent." "We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again." "Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." Jesus was a Saviour. The salvation which he brought was for them. It was insured to them by His resurrection. Its first element was pardon.

b) Deliverance beyond what Judaism could effect. "All that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." The law of Moses condemned rather than justified. "No man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident." The law said, 'There is a curse on every one who does not obey every command in the law.' No one kept all the commands; therefore every one was under the curse (Gal. 3:10-12). The apostle now announced justification not only where the law could not give it, but even where it condemned.

c) Through Christ. He delivered from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13).

d) Through believing. Pardon and justification are restricted to believers. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

6. Warning. Verses 40-41.

The plainest proofs may be overlooked, and pointed teaching may be unheeded. The Jews were a constant example of misunderstanding their own prophets. Paul knew by bitter experience how custom could blind, and how dark the blindness might be. He had spoken of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, even the rulers, condemning Jesus, because of ignorance of their prophets. He warns his hearers to beware of the same error. He cites a warning from God contained in Hab. 1:5, "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." The context in Habakkuk shows that the work of Jehovah there referred to, was the bringing of the Chaldeans against His own faithless people. It was a wonderful work of retribution, which the people believed not when it was told them. Paul's hearers had God's wonderful work of salvation through Jesus told them. It was possible for them to be the children of their fathers by doing as their fathers had done. It was not without cause that Paul cautioned them.

The early part of this address by Paul resembles Stephen's in chapter 7. Both speakers gave a brief summary of the history of their nation. Stephen's summary is more fully reported than Paul's, although Stephen was interrupted before he got beyond the recounting of their history, while Paul went on to speak of New Testament times, and to give teaching on Christianity. Both addresses are pre-eminently historic.

Paul's address also resembles Peter's addresses in some respects. Like Peter in Cesarea, Paul speaks of the baptism of John. He says a little more than Peter on the testimony of John. Like Peter in all his addresses, Paul gives the opposite attitude of God and Jews to Jesus. God approved and raised from the dead; they opposed. Peter and Paul alike make Jesus Christ the chief theme of remark. All else is subservient to this. And both apostles have a practical application - something to do and something to beware of. Peter had exhorted his hearers in Jerusalem to save themselves from a wicked generation; Paul urges his to avoid the folly of an earlier generation of Jews in disregarding the word of Jehovah.

1. The hearers wanted to hear more. "And as they went out, they besought that these words might be spoken to them the next Sabbath." The Revised Version does not attribute this request to the Gentiles exclusively, as the Authorised Version does. Paul had secured the appreciative sympathy of his audience, and they wished him to return to their synagogue the following Saturday, and let them hear the same things again.

2. The forty-third verse is a corroboration of the Revised Version of the forty-second. Both Jews and proselytes were interested. Many of them followed Paul and Barnabas from the place of meeting. Their sympathies were already enlisted, and the speakers urged upon them the desirability of continuity.

3. The news spread throughout the city. New doctrine had been proclaimed in the synagogue, and those who heard it talked of it to others during the week. It is probable, too, that Paul Barnabas were themselves spreading the truth in quiet fashion. Therefore on "the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God."

4. The Jews were full of envy. It was not what they had heard the week before that filled them with jealousy; it was the sight of the multitudes that generated their spite. What! Were their privileges to be handed over without reserve to the unclean Gentiles? Was the light from heaven to be given to all alike? Was their boasted position as the custodians of revelation to be made the common property of others in their own hearing, and before their own eyes? It was too much for their small minds and bigoted natures to ensure. Irrespective of the truth, and solely out of jealousy of the multitudes, they "spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming." It was not blasphemy in our sense of swearing. They contradicted and railed. Opposition was their attitude, and antagonistic speaking of any kind was their weapon. How humiliating to see human nature setting itself against the truth from ignoble envy of others!

5. Paul and Barnabas grew more bold and declared in favour of the Gentiles. Unscrupulous opposition and brazen raillery need not frighten the promoters of truth. These things often fill them with holy energy. "Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." The Jews had an offer of salvation; but if they chose to act so as to exclude themselves from being saved, the speakers had no time to throw away in fighting with such unprincipled stupidity. They had other work to do. They had Gentiles waiting with open ears and hearts to drink in the saving truth.

The commission of the Messiah to His apostles to make disciples of all nations is in agreement with Jewish prophecy, although the Jews had failed to grasp the thought. "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." The prophecy, quoted from Isa. 49:6, speaks to the servant of Jehovah. He was appointed not only "to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel;" He was also to be a light to the Gentiles, and salvation to the end of the earth. This clear prediction of Messiah's universal work, was treated by Paul and Barnabas as a command to go to the Gentiles.

6. The Gentiles were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. To glorify is to make glorious, give honour to, magnify. The word of the Lord had free course and was glorified in Thessalonica (2 Thess. 3:1). The Gentiles in Antioch put no block in the way of the divine word. On the contrary, they welcomed it. The word was honoured by them. It was the glorified means by which they learned of God's unparalleled love. They did the opposite of the Jews, who "thrust it from" them. And they acted more in accord with common sense and the assertions of the Scripture respecting its own value, than do those in modern times who describe the Word of God as a dead letter. It is a living power (Heb. 4:12). It is light-giving (Psa. 119:130). It should be magnified today as it was in Thessalonica and Antioch.

7. They who were ordained believed. Because of its theological associations, 'ordain' is an unsuitable translation of the word here employed by Luke. The word primarily means to set in order, arrange. It is employed eight times in the New Testament. The Authorised Version translates these eight occurrences by five different words. But the idea of arrange is in each passage where the word is found. Jesus arranged that His disciples meet Him on a mountain in Galilee. The translators say that He "appointed" it. The centurion was arranged - placed in rank - under others. The translators say that he was "set" under authority. The brethren in Antioch arranged that Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem. The translators say that they "determined" it. It is a divine arrangement that in society there are rulers and ruled. The translators say that the powers that he "are ordained" by God. The members of the household of Stephanas had arranged, set themselves in order, or prepared themselves, for serviceable work in the Church. The translators say that they were "addicted" to the ministry of the saints. In like manner, as many as were arranged, set in order, prepared, for eternal life believed. It is not too much to say that neither fore-ordination by God, nor any other ordination either by God or man, is contained in Luke's word.

By whom, or by what were they prepared for eternal life? For it should not be overlooked that the verb is in the passive voice. Their own fear of God was the beginning of all that was acceptable to God, and the teaching by Paul and Barnabas operated on the reverential fear to the preparing of them for eternal life. They were made ready to enter upon the enjoyment of eternal life by what they had seen and heard. They were prepared, disposed, determined for eternal life. The antagonism of the Jews might add to influences at work to make them more resolute to lay hold on eternal life.

8. The audience divided itself into two parties. The Jews judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, and thrust the word from them. The Gentiles were ready for eternal life and believed the truths presented to them. This division into two parties was natural. Each man by taking one side or the other, disclosed his own state of mind. Such a division of an audience was common under apostolic preaching. The hearers, perhaps, never all turned to the Lord; and, perhaps, they never all rejected what they heard. Similar faithful and earnest teaching will today produce in some degree the same result. Lifeless speaking may soothe an audience into indifference, but cannot rouse into decision for or against. The leaving out of unwelcome truth, or the toning of it down, may be the means of escaping opposition; but it is equally ineffective in securing decision, and it is both a waste of time and a delusion. Truth should be spoken in all plainness and in all fulness, in intense earnestness and in unmistakable love. The hearers will then soon show what manner of men they are.

9. The word of the Lord was widely spread. It "was published throughout all the region." This may not have been accomplished that day; it may have been the work of many days. And many of those who had heard and believed may have helped, as much as Paul and Barnabas, to bring about the result.

10. Persecution by means of devout and honourable women ensued. The Jews had not power enough themselves to expel the two men they hated. But men who had been moved by unmitigated jealousy to contradict and rail against the truth were not the men to be very nice about what means they employed to accomplish their malignant desire. It looks like a line of scathing irony to tell us that "devout and honourable women" were the ones through whom the persecution was carried to its bitter end. Women! How could they take any part in persecuting? We thought their mission was all love. Honourable women! How could they be induced to such dishonourable work? Devout women! Could devoutness show itself in chasing from the city innocent men who were labouring to do others good? Human nature is a deplorable mixture of religion and irreligion, of honour and dishonour, of love and hatred, of tenderness and cruelty. 'Devout' suggests that the women were worshippers of God with the Jews. 'Honourable' probably denotes their position in society; they belonged to the higher social grade. On the one hand they were connected by their religion with the Jews; on the other hand they were connected socially with men of position who had the power to eject the missionaries. The Jews used their religious influence on the women, that they might use their social, perhaps in some cases, conjugal, influence over the rulers to induce them to expel Paul and Barnabas. In this way frequently the heartless religionist has incited the devoted zealot to bring in the power of the stated to crush earnest men of truth-loving natures and benevolent purposes. It is not religion, at least it is not God's religion, but the absence of it, that so acts. Such conduct has not the slightest resemblance to the Father of spirits and God of love. Rather does it bear the exact impress of the slanderer, the accuser of men; it is like him who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

11. The expelled men shook off the dust of their feet. Was it not a bit like childish spleen or impotent rage? From ordinary mortals it would be so. From men who had a direct commission from the Holy Spirit it was far otherwise. It was a testimony "against them" who had rejected the word of the Lord and the teachers of that word. It was a symbolic prediction of the doom of those who thrust God's mercy away from them, and it was an assertion that they were the cause of their own impending ruin. It was at once a last, solemn, merciful warning, and an outcarrying of the commission of Christ to His apostles (Mark 6:11).

12. "The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." Persecution did not prevent them from being full of gladness. The evil spirit without, which unjustly deprived them of the counsel and presence of Paul and Barnabas, did not shut out the Holy Spirit from being a guest in their hearts. They were rejoicing with unspeakable joy, even though there was a sadness through the trials of persecution. Circumstances of trial need not rob a Christian of joy. The grace of God is ever all-sufficient.