What to Say in Antioch (Acts 13:13-39)

Paul and Barnabas are now in the area known as South Galatia. There were several cities called Antioch, and this is not the place from where they started their missionary journey.  

There are a couple of interesting details connected to this location. The first is that Paul, when later writing to the Galatians, said that he first preached the gospel here because of a personal illness. Some scholars think he had contracted malaria when he was down at sea level and, therefore, he moved to the higher altitude of Antioch (it was about 3,600 feet above sea level) to recover. Malaria also affects eyesight, and it could have been the cause of Paul’s vision problems that he also refers to in his letter to the Galatians.

The second details is that it is known that this Antioch was the hometown of Sergius Paulus, the proconsul who was converted through Paul’s ministry in Paphos. It is reasonable to assume that the proconsul may have suggested to Paul that he go to Antioch.

The time in Antioch followed what must have been a disappointing experience for Paul and Barnabas when Mark left them in Perga and chose to return to Jerusalem; Paul later described Mark’s departure as a kind of desertion (later on, Mark was restored in the estimate of Paul and wrote the Gospel with his name). 

Nevertheless, the two apostles continued their journey for over a hundred miles. I suppose the reader would like to know if anything else happened in Perga, but Luke chooses not to say here, although he says in the next chapter that they preached there as they made their way back to the coast.

Luke used his account of what occurred in the synagogue in Antioch to include one of Paul’s sermons. We have no way of knowing whether this was the sermon word-for-word or is it Luke’s summary of what Paul said to those listening to him. It is also possible that Paul chose to link his sermon to the passage that would have been read that day in the synagogue. But we cannot know for certain if that was the case.

Why did Luke include this sermon in his account? It must be included so that we will know what a Pauline sermon looked like, at least one that he delivered to people who would have known the Old Testament. So we can consider some of the features that Luke mentions. 

Desire for Encouragement

The first comment that we can notice is that the listeners expected the address by Paul to be a word of encouragement (v. 15). This would have been their expectation every Sabbath when someone spoke from the Old Testament. And that is what we would expect as well because we live in a world where there are many discouragements.

Know your audience

The second feature of his address to observe is that Paul let his audience know that he recognised who was present in front of him – he knew that there were two groups: some were Jews and others were Gentile godfearers. This would inform both groups that he recognised their differences and that his message was for both groups and not just for one.

Introduction – have a context

The third feature of the sermon is that Paul gave a brief summary of the history of Israel from the time of Moses to the appearance of the predicted forerunner of the Messiah (vv. 17-25) because he wanted to set his sermon within a context. I suppose we could regard this brief summary as his introduction. He may also have done this to show to his audience that his message was accurate and whatever he would go on to say would be connected to the predictions of the Old Testament.

Centrality of Jesus

The fourth feature of his sermon is that it is Christ-centred. As we hear the apostle speak, he goes straight to the death of Jesus. We might think that was a bit unusual because he could have mentioned some of the prophecies that were fulfilled in the birth of Jesus or he could have focussed on some of the miracles that Jesus performed. 

Yet he does not shrink from mentioning that Jesus was executed, and he would have known that his listeners would immediately conclude that in some way Jesus had been accursed by God because a Jew would know that the Old Testament stated that anyone who was put to death on a tree was cursed. Paul does say that the sentence was unjust because Jesus had done nothing worthy of death.

Paul did not limit his comments to the death of Jesus. In addition, he wanted his listeners to realise that the Jesus who had died came to life again. He was raised from the dead by his Father and was seen afterwards by his disciples. Yet Paul is not wanting just to state the fact of the resurrection of Jesus. In addition, he wants his listeners to see that the resurrection of Jesus was according to the Scriptures.

In order to do so, Paul refers to three Old Testament texts. The first is Psalm 2 where David says that God the Father said to Jesus in connection to his resurrection, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ In the context of the psalm, these words are said after the psalmist describes the rebellion against Jesus that was led by the rulers. Indeed, in the psalm the speaker is the Son himself.

The second Old Testament passage that he cites comes from Isaiah 55:3 where God says that the blessings promised to David would be available to sinners. Paul’s listeners would have been familiar with the context, so Paul did not need to mention them. Isaiah 55 was one of the chapters I was taught as a child in Sunday School. In that chapter the prophet highlights the fact that grace is free and that they are summarised in the promises to David that his descendant would be an eternal king. In order for this to happen, Jesus had to be raised from the dead.

Paul may have anticipated that a sensible person would wonder if Jesus, when he died, had undergone some form of corruption. The apostle has the answer from this possible objection by referring to what David wrote in Psalm 16 about a dead person not seeing corruption after his death. This could not have been David himself because his body had corrupted. The psalm describes someone else, and Paul says that it is fulfilled in Jesus who saw no corruption.

How can we summarise this sermon by Paul? I would suggest that it was scriptural, straightforward and staggering. We have already noted how it was scriptural – Paul was very careful to make sure that his listeners were informed about passages he was using from the Old Testament. His address was straightforward – it was not difficult for listeners to grasp what he said. And his sermon was staggering because it described the amazing achievements of the Saviour.

Application

Of course, a sermon is more than passing on information, even true information. A sermon calls for a response. The point of the resurrection of Jesus as far as the listeners were concerned was that they needed the forgiveness of sins that Jesus, through his death and resurrection, could give to them. That was the encouragement he offered to them, in response to the request of the rulers of the synagogue, which was that they should come to Jesus immediately for pardon. 

Paul contrasted this gift with the impossibility of finding forgiveness by keeping the law. And he also warned them about the possibility of not listening correctly to information about an amazing work of God, and he cites an Old Testament passage from Habakkuk which describes such a response.

Reaction

Immediately there was two reactions, and while they looked promising, they actually were not. The first reaction was that the people begged to know more and the second was that many of the listeners continued to discuss the message with Paul and Barnabas. What was wrong with their response? They did not do what Paul had urged them to do, which was to go to Jesus for forgiveness. 

It is good to want to know more, and it is good to discuss the contents of the gospel, but the point of the gospel is to take its benefits immediately. This the people did not do. They were curious, but not convicted, and there is a huge difference. We can see that Paul and Barnabas realised that all was not well in a spiritual sense with the listeners. Time would tell, and it did a week later.

Next time

On the following Sabbath, almost the entire city gathered to hear the message. This may have happened because the hearers had been telling people about the unusual address they had heard, or maybe Paul and Barnabas had been speaking to people day by day. Whatever the reason, the biggest gathering to hear a message from the Old Testament in that city met. 

Luke tells us that the crowd displeased the Jews because they were jealous of the influence of the servants of Christ and realised that they needed to oppose what was being said. The apostles realised what was happening and informed the Jews that they had despised the gospel and now it was going to offered to the Gentiles in Antioch. What does this tell us about hearing the gospel? A person only has to hear it once in order to be accountable for rejecting it.

The Gentiles in Antioch, in contrast to the Jews, were delighted to know that the gospel was for them. If they had been to the synagogue before, they would not have heard such a message. But now they had, and it made them glad. What does this tell us about hearing the gospel? You only have to hear it once in order to be saved.

A church is born

Luke mentions the fact that the ultimate reason for the Gentiles believing was that they had been ordained to eternal life by God. What does this tell us about the gospel? It tells us that the only way for a person to discover the reality of election is to believe the gospel. So a church commenced in the city and Luke says that the people were really on fire because the gospel spread throughout the entire region.

It was inevitable that the devil would not let this continue and he resorted to a common tactic, which was to cause the new believers to face persecution. He used the Jews for this and their influence over the leading people in the city, with the outcome that Paul and Barnabas had to leave. Nevertheless, the opposition from the civic leaders and the removal of Paul and Barnabas did not cause the new disciples to lose their joy.

We may wonder how the new church would survive without Paul and Barnabas. They would need someone to teach from the Old Testament, and maybe that was provided. There would be spiritual gifts given by God to church members. Yet we also know that within a few months Paul had to send a letter to the churches in Galatia because they had adopted wrong views of the law of God. Perhaps the opposition did hinder the churches there in ways that would not have happened if Paul and Barnabas had stayed longer.

Some applications

As we conclude, we can mention some obvious applications from this period Paul and Barnabas spent in Antioch. First, the gospel involves explaining the person and work of Jesus. Second, the gospel is only preached when an offer of pardon is given to sinners. Third, it is inevitable that opposition will appear towards the progress of the gospel. Fourth, the presence of churches with some instability should not surprise us. Fifth, church problems can have positive outcomes, because the universal church has the blessing of having the letter to the Galatians which Paul later wrote to the churches in the area.