Some years ago, an article in the Harvard Business Review called “Market Myopia” talked about how some people didn’t understand what business they were in. For example, the railroad people didn’t understand that they were in the transportation business. Had they realized it, they would have invested in the airplane. The telegraph people thought that they were in the telegraph business. They failed to realize that they were in the communications business. In 1886 or so, they could have bought all of the telephone patents for about $40,000. But they didn’t know what business they were in.

What is the main business of the church? Some would say that it is to care of its members. The church is here to visit the sick and pray with them, to take care of people at important transitions in life, such as marriage, childbirth, and death. It’s here to provide guidance and comfort for people at important times. No doubt, these are all functions of the church. But I would argue that these functions are not the main business of the church, and if we start acting as if they were, we will miss our main business.

We are always in danger of slipping into a maintenance mentality in the church, where we focus on maintaining our religious club and preserving its sacred traditions, and we forget about the lost. Erwin McManus, a pastor in Los Angeles, said, “We somehow think that the Church is here for us; we forget that we are the Church, and we’re here for the world.”

John Piper, a Minneapolis pastor, says, “The book of Acts is a constant indictment of mere maintenance Christianity. It’s a constant goad and encouragement and stimulation to fan the flame of Advent—‘The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.’” (www.desiringgod.org, Sermon on Acts 13:1-12, 12/8/91). As Piper elsewhere articulates (e.g., chapter 1 of Desiring God [Multnomah Books]), the main goal of evangelism and missions is not just to reach the lost, but to glorify God. The glory of God is the supreme goal of history. He saves sinners “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph. 1:6, 12). Thus,

The main business of the church is to obey the Holy Spirit in promoting God’s glory among the nations by sending out workers called by God to preach the gospel.

The scene in Acts shifts back to the church in Antioch, where some men who had been scattered by the persecution in Jerusalem had the audacity to speak the gospel to Gentiles (11:19). The hand of the Lord was with them, and many got saved. At the end of chapter 12, Luke reports that Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, where they had taken the gift for those affected by the famine. They brought back John Mark with them. This sets the stage for a major shift in the focus of Acts. From now on, it is the Acts of the Apostle Paul. It is the story of the missionary thrust of the church in Antioch, resulting in the planting of many churches in the Gentile world. Just as the founding of the church in Antioch was a radical turn, with Jews and Gentiles getting saved and joining together on the basis of the cross, so Acts 13 is another turning point. The gospel goes out into Gentile territory, as the church in Antioch responds to its rightful business. Note three things:

1. The Holy Spirit is sovereign over the church.

G. Campbell Morgan notes that the central feature of these verses is “the declared activity of the Spirit of God” (The Acts of the Apostles [Revell], p. 305). The Holy Spirit speaks, and He does not give suggestions, but orders: “Set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (13:2). He tells these leaders what to do, and when they obeyed, Luke notes that Barnabas and Saul were “sent out by the Holy Spirit” (13:4).

A. The Holy Spirit is sovereign in initiating the work of missions.

The idea of world missions originates with God, not with men. These leaders weren’t brainstorming on how to pep up their church program when one of them said, “I know what we should do! Let’s send out some missionaries!” Rather, the Holy Spirit broke in and told them what to do.

How did the Spirit speak to them? Was it an audible voice? It could have been, or it could have been one of the prophets speaking out a revelation that God had just given him. But I’m inclined to think that rather, these leaders were spending time in prayer and fasting because they sensed the need for God’s direction for the work. No doubt they were burdened with the thought that many had never heard of Jesus Christ and His salvation. As they spent time in prayer and praise, one of the men said, “I sense that the Lord wants Barnabas and Saul to be set aside for the work that He has called them to.” The rest of the men strongly affirmed that impression, and so they saw it as the Holy Spirit speaking to them. But the point is, the cause of world missions originates with God. We can only obey His directive.

B. The Holy Spirit is sovereign in calling workers.

This occasion was not the first time that Barnabas and Saul knew anything about God’s calling them to be missionaries. Barnabas had already responded in obedience by leaving Jerusalem for Antioch. When the Lord sent Ananias to open Saul’s eyes just after his conversion, He told Ananias that Saul “is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (9:15). No doubt, Ananias relayed those words to Saul. Later, Paul tells how when he first returned to Jerusalem after his conversion, he was praying in the Temple when he fell into a trance. The Lord told him to get out of Jerusalem, saying, “I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (22:21). So Paul knew about God’s calling him to be a missionary to the Gentiles many years before this commission in Acts 13.

I have heard some missions advocates say that we all are called to be missionaries; it’s just a matter of whether or not we are obedient. I would agree that missions should weigh heavily on the heart of every Christian, since it is at the heart of the main business of the church. Thus it is on God’s heart. As John Piper puts it, “There are only three possibilities in life: to be a goer, a sender, or disobedient” (Mission Frontiers [Jan.-Feb., 1998], p. 8).

But I would disagree that every Christian is called to leave his or her native country and take the gospel to those in other cultures. That takes a special calling from God and requires spiritual gifts that not all believers possess. I also believe that a man should not go into pastoral ministry unless he senses God’s call to do so. Otherwise, he will grow discouraged and quit when the battle gets intense. By a call, I do not mean a hearing a voice from heaven. Spurgeon defined a call as an intense and all-absorbing desire (mentioned by Rick Gamache, in a sermon by John Piper, “Exultation on Education,” on Acts 13:1-5, www.desiringgod.org). In my case, it was a strong sense that I could not be satisfied doing anything else with my life. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “I have always felt when someone has come to me and told me that he has been called to be a preacher, that my main business is to put every conceivable obstacle that I can think of in his way” (Preaching and Preachers [Zondervan], p. 108). In other words, he wanted to make sure that the young man was sure that his calling was from God, not from some emotional experience or idealistic view of the ministry. So a calling from God is essential.

Thus the Spirit is sovereign in initiating missions; and, He is sovereign in calling workers.

C. The Holy Spirit is sovereign in directing His work.

The Spirit had a distinct work in mind for Barnabas and Saul to do (13:2), namely, “to bear [His] name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (9:15). Before these men left Antioch, they had another session of fasting and prayer (13:3). Presumably, they were seeking the Lord’s direction for where He wanted them to begin. This is further implied in verse 4, “being sent out by the Holy Spirit [not by the church], they … sailed to Cyprus.” Thus from start to finish, the Spirit is sovereign over the church and the work that He calls us to do in taking the gospel to all peoples.

2. To be obedient to the sovereign Spirit, godly church leaders must take time to worship God and seek His will.

It’s easy to get so busy in serving the Lord that you fail to take the time to meet with the Lord in worship and prayer. I think that behind all of the talk about burnout in our day is this basic failure, to block out adequate time to draw near to the Lord and seek His will for His work. With the great numbers in the church at Antioch (11:21, 24, 26), many of them from pagan backgrounds, undoubtedly there were many needs crying for attention. But if church leaders spend all of their time responding to needs and not enough time seeking the Lord, they will miss His direction for the work. Note several necessary qualities for church leaders:

A. Church leaders must be godly men.

We’ve already studied Barnabas, who is described as “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (11:24). The remaining chapters of Acts, as well as his many epistles, reveal the godly character of the apostle Paul. While we do not know anything more of the other three men listed here, they must have been godly men to have worked side by side with these two men. They had to step into the huge void left when the Lord called Barnabas and Saul to leave Antioch.

In First Timothy 3 and Titus 1, Paul gives the necessary qualifications for church leaders. Almost all of the qualities relate to godly character, none to leadership skill or personal charisma. Also, although God gifts women and calls them to serve in many capacities in the church, the role of elder and the task of preaching and teaching God’s Word to the church at large is limited to men (1 Tim. 2:11-15; 3:1-7). On the mission field, women have done some admirable and courageous work, often going where men could not go. But if they follow biblical truth, those women missionaries will aim at establishing godly men over the churches that they see God raise up.

B. Church leaders must lead the church to know God through teaching His Word of truth.

These leaders are described here by their gifts as prophets and teachers. Although there is much difference of opinion about the description and function of New Testament prophets, it would seem that their main role was to proclaim to the church direct revelation that they received from God. Sometimes it would be to predict a future event (11:27-28; 21:10-11). At other times, it would be a word of edification, exhortation, or consolation (1 Cor. 14:3). Paul states that the church was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20). Thus there is a sense in which these gifts ceased once the foundation was laid. There is debate about whether there is another sense of prophecy that is valid for today (see Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today [Crossway Books]). But whatever we say about that, these men knew God and knew how to discern His voice so that they could communicate His truth to His church.

Teachers explain and apply God’s Word of truth to His church. In our day, we are privileged to be able to take advantage of gifted Bible teachers in a way that was not possible in earlier generations, namely, through the radio, tapes, the internet, and Bible conferences around the country. On the other hand, there seem to be fewer pastors who are willing to put in the hard work necessary to do an adequate job of teaching the Word week in and week out on the local church level. Many pastors buy into the view that sermons should be short, inspirational pep talks filled with moving stories, rather than an exposition of what Scripture teaches. But the solid teaching of God’s Word is one of the most important tasks for church leaders.

C. Church leaders should be plural, not singular.

Five leaders are mentioned from this church in Antioch. They may have ministered in different meeting places, since a large church such as this may not all have met in the same place. But when the word “elder” is used with reference to a local church, it is always in the plural, “elders of the church” (11:30; 14:23; 20:17).

These five leaders were a diverse bunch. We’ve already met Barnabas and Saul, who were both from strict Jewish backgrounds. Simeon had the nickname of Niger, which means “black.” He was probably dark-skinned. Some think that he is the Simon of Cyrene who carried Jesus’ cross, but that cannot be proved. Lucius was from Cyrene in North Africa, and probably was one of the original evangelists who helped found the church in Antioch (11:20). Manaen, which is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Menahem (meaning “comfort”), was brought up with Herod the tetrarch (Antipas, who executed John the Baptist). It is interesting that these two men, raised in the same setting, would go in such opposite directions. Manaen had to turn his back on wealth and a possible position of power to follow Christ.

These five different men learned to wait upon the Lord together and work together in leading the church. When the Lord sent out these first missionaries, He did not send out one, but two. While team ministry is sometimes difficult (as we will see with Barnabas and Paul), it is God’s way. Even the strongest of leaders (like Paul) need other men who are strong enough to confront them at times and to help them to see other points of view. God designed the church to be a body, not a single member. The leaders should complement one another and learn to work through differences in a spirit of humility.

D. Church leaders must take the time to worship God and seek His direction for His church.

They were ministering to the Lord and fasting. All ministry should be first and foremost to the Lord. The Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me” (13:2). The Greek word translated “set apart” means to devote something to a special purpose. These men were to be devoted to the Lord first, then to the work to which He called them. Jesus told the woman at the well that the Father seeks worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). It was while these men took the time to worship that the Lord gave them this history-changing directive.

Fasting is somewhat neglected in the modern church, but it should not be. In the Bible, it is often connected with a need to seek God’s direction or to get an answer in prayer on important matters. I have never gone on a long fast, but I have seen God use times of fasting in my life. It can be as short as skipping a single meal and devoting the time to prayer and seeking God through His Word. The hunger pangs remind you of your purpose!

E. Church leaders must be obedient to the direction God gives, even if it’s difficult.

These leaders sought the Lord and He answered them, but they might not have liked what they heard at first. Barnabas and Saul were two of the most gifted men in that church, and God sent them out on this missionary journey. They would have left a gaping hole in the ministry there! The other leaders would have been burdened with more work. But they obeyed and trusted God to make up the difference.

It’s interesting that these men were sent out and there isn’t a word about what is usually foremost in our minds: how will they be supported? Whether the church got behind their ongoing support or gave a one-time gift to cover their living expenses or whether they assumed that they would work to support themselves, we don’t know. But the impressive thing is, without a word of protest, the church obeyed the Spirit’s directive and released these gifted men for ministry outside of Antioch.

Thus the Holy Spirit is sovereign over the church. To be obedient to the sovereign Spirit, godly church leaders must take time to worship God and seek His direction.

3. The purpose of the sovereign Spirit is to glorify God among the nations by sending out workers who preach the gospel.

A. God’s ultimate goal is His glory.

Habakkuk 2:14 states, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” In Psalm 46:10, God says, “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” John Piper rewords the first answer of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself forever” (Desiring God, pp. 33, 42, italics his). He states, “This is why God has done all things, from creation to consummation, for the preservation and display of his glory” (p. 45). Thus salvation is not God’s ultimate goal, but rather a means to His goal of glorifying Himself.

B. God will be glorified on earth when the gospel is preached among the nations.

In Revelation 5:9-10, John hears the heavenly chorus singing, “Worthy are You to take the book, and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” When the church preaches the gospel to all the nations, God will use it to save His elect to the glory of His name. Thus as Piper again puts it, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. The glory of God is the ultimate goal of the church—because it’s the ultimate goal of God…. Missions exists because worship doesn’t” (Mission Frontiers, p. 13).

Conclusion

Some years ago, Stan Mooneyham wrote (“World Vision,” July, 1980),

The other day when I was reading about a certain church, I came upon the fact that it “seats 900.” That’s a common enough way of describing size. The Houston Astrodome seats 50,000; the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 91,000. But, I wondered, is seating power the way a church should be measured? Wouldn’t sending power be more relevant? I’d like to know if that church sends 900. Or even 90.

Perhaps we’ve gotten in the habit of lumping churchgoing with spectator sports, where it is the coming and not the going that is important. That may help to explain why we attach such importance to glossy, fast-paced church services in which even ushers are expected to perform with the choreographed precision of the Rockettes.

The entertainment industry knows all about slickness and image, and if we are trying only to fill seats, that’s probably the route. But it seems to me that the church might better be trying to empty its seats. The church is, or ought to be, a sending agency. A recruiting office, as nearly as I can tell, doesn’t talk about the number of recruits it can hold, but the number it has sent. Come to think of it, I have never seen a very big or a very plush recruiting office. They don’t have to be, because the action is somewhere else.

Let’s keep our main business in focus: To obey the Holy Spirit in promoting God’s glory among the nations by sending out workers called by God to preach the gospel. As Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (Matt. 9:37-38).

Discussion Questions

1. Do you agree with John Piper: Either you’re a goer, a sender, or disobedient? Why must missions be the focus of all?
2. How can a person know if he or she is called to going to another culture as a missionary?
3. Should missionaries be supported by many churches or primarily by one church? What are the pros and cons?
4. What are some ways that those who do not go as missionaries can be involved in the cause?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2001, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

In October, 1940, Presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt promised, “I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” In October, 1964, candidate Lyndon Johnson promised, “We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves” (both quotes in No Matter How Thin You Slice It, It’s Still Baloney [Quill], ed. by Jean Arbeiter, p. 85). We’re so used to politicians not keeping their campaign promises that those outrageous quotes hardly bother us.

But it does bother us greatly when someone we love and trust fails to keep an important promise. “I promise to love you in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, and to keep myself ever and only for you, till death do us part.” When those kinds of promises are broken, it leaves a trail of grief and pain. If I were leaving on a long trip and I entrusted to you a rare family treasure, which you promised to keep safe for my return, I’d be a bit stunned to return and find that you had sold it at a yard sale (even if it was for missions!). We’re hurt when people fail to keep important promises.

If you’re going to entrust your soul for eternity to God, it is important to know that He keeps His promises. Most of us have had the experience of being disappointed with God. We trusted Him for something that we thought He had promised, but it did not work out as we had hoped. Whenever that happens, it is we, not God, who were mistaken. We somehow failed to understand or properly apply His promises. But on the matter of our eternal destiny, it is crucial that we properly understand and apply God’s promise of salvation. To be mistaken here would be eternally fatal!

The apostle Paul’s first and longest recorded sermon deals with the theme of God’s promise of salvation: “From the offspring of this man [David], according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus” (13:23). “To us the word of this salvation is sent out” (13:26). “And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children [or, to us, their children] in that He raised up Jesus, as it also is written …” (13:32-33). The sermon falls into three parts, each beginning with Paul’s direct address to the congregation: The promise given (13:16-25); the promise kept (13:26-37); and, your response (13:38-41). We have here only a synopsis of what undoubtedly was a much longer message. His main idea is:

God’s promise to send a Savior and His fulfillment of that promise in sending Jesus demands a response.

The sermon was delivered at the synagogue in what is called Pisidian Antioch, in modern Turkey. It was about 100 miles inland, at 3,600 feet elevation. To get there, Paul and Barnabas had to go through some dangerous mountain passes, infested with robbers. Some think that the danger was one factor in Mark’s deserting the team and returning to Jerusalem. Since Paul was a disciple of the renowned rabbi, Gamaliel, the synagogue officials gave him the opportunity to bring the sermon. They had to be surprised at what he said!

1. The promise given: By His grace, God promised His chosen people to send a Savior (13:16-25).

Paul begins by addressing both the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles in the congregation. He starts with facts that every Jew would have known and agreed with: God chose the patriarchs; He delivered their descendants from Egypt; He gave them the land of Canaan; and, He chose David as their king (13:17-22). In all of this rehearsal of Israel’s history, Paul’s very words are almost taken directly from the Old Testament (F. F. Bruce, The Book of Acts [Eerdmans], p. 272). Up through verse 22, every head in the synagogue was nodding in agreement with Paul.

Then Paul skips the rest of Israel’s history and jumps from David to David’s descendant, Jesus, proclaiming Him to be the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Savior (13:23). Perhaps observing a ripple of shock sweep through the room, Paul quickly goes back to John the Baptist, the forerunner of whom Malachi prophesied. Since John was highly regarded in most Jewish circles, Paul shows that John did not regard himself as Messiah, but rather affirmed that he was not worthy to untie the sandals of the one coming after him. Paul weaves three themes into this brief sketch of history:

A. God is sovereignly moving all of history according to His purpose to fulfill His promise of salvation.

Paul’s sermon centers on God and His sovereignty over all of history, especially the history of salvation. God began the process by choosing Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was not their choice of God, but God’s choice of them, that is significant. Then, God made the people great during their stay in Egypt. God led them out of Egypt with an uplifted arm (emphasizing God’s power). God put up with them in the wilderness for 40 years. There is a textual variant of one Greek letter that changes the meaning to, “God carried them in His arms as a nurse in the wilderness.” It is difficult to determine which reading is original, but both were true: God put up with Israel’s sin and He bore them gently in His strong and loving arms in spite of their sin.

Continuing, Paul mentions that God destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan (Deut. 7:1). Israel didn’t conquer the land by her own strength. God distributed their land as an inheritance. The 450 years refers to the 400 years of captivity in Egypt, the 40 years in the wilderness, and ten years of conquering most of Canaan. Then God gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. In response to their request to be like the other nations, God gave them Saul as king. This is the only biblical reference to the length of Saul’s kingship, agreeing with the Jewish writer Josephus. The Old Testament text is obviously corrupt when it reports on the chronology (1 Sam. 13:1). It was God who removed Saul and God who raised up David. It was God who brought to Israel from David’s offspring, according to His promise, a Savior in the person of Jesus.

Paul continues the same theme throughout the rest of the sermon. In verse 26, it is clearly God who sent out the word of this salvation. In verse 27, the wicked rulers in Jerusalem, who did not recognize Jesus or the words of the prophets, nonetheless fulfilled those very words of God by condemning Jesus. The point is that even wicked men who are bent on carrying out their own will actually fulfilled God’s sovereign will. History is God’s story, and no one can do anything to thwart His plan. Verse 29 makes the same point: Jesus’ death, their taking Him from the cross and laying Him in a tomb all simply fulfilled all that was written concerning Him. The specific events of the crucifixion and burial, such as the soldiers gambling for His robe, their offering Him gall to drink, and His being buried in a rich man’s tomb, all fulfilled specific prophecies. Paul continues with God’s sovereign working: God raised Him from the dead (13:30). God has fulfilled this promise (13:33). He hammers the theme home: God is in control of history.

All of this should give us great comfort, especially when things in our world seem to be running out of control. Nothing thwarts God’s sovereign purpose in history! He promised to send the Savior, and He did it in spite of the many failings of His people and the strong opposition of His enemies. That leads to the second theme that Paul weaves through his sermon:

B. God’s grace permeates His working in history.

God’s grace is seen in His sovereign choice of the patriarchs. Why did He choose Abraham? Scripture is clear that it was not because Abraham first decided to choose God. No, Abraham was a pagan idolater, living in a pagan nation, when God in sovereign grace revealed Himself to Abraham and called him to move to Canaan (Josh. 24:2-3). There was nothing of merit in Abraham to make him the recipient of such grace. The same is true of Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s sons, the twelve patriarchs of the nation. As Paul makes clear in Romans 9, God’s choice of Jacob and His rejection of Esau had nothing to do with anything in either man. Rather, it was “so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls” (Rom. 9:11). If grace is contingent on anything in us, including our choice of God, it is no longer grace (Rom. 11:6).

God’s grace is further illustrated in the exodus and the time in the wilderness. Israel didn’t even want to be delivered from Egypt, and more than once after they were delivered, they wanted to go back. But God graciously brought them into the land and destroyed the nations that were living there. In spite of the wickedness of His people, God graciously gave them judges and then sent His word through Samuel the prophet. While they were wrong to ask for a king, God graciously both granted their request and chastened them by giving them Saul. Then He graciously raised up David. Although over the course of his life, David was a man after God’s heart, we all know of his terrible failure in murdering Uriah and committing adultery with his wife, Bathsheba. But in spite of these failures, God graciously sent the Savior through the offspring of this man, according to His gracious promise. This extended emphasis on grace is why Luke sums up Paul and Barnabas’ exhortation to those who responded in faith, that they should “continue in the grace of God” (13:43).

If you think that your standing before God is because of anything in you—your choice of God, your basic goodness, your religious practices—you do not understand the gospel of God’s grace. God’s sovereign grace means that we are saved in spite of, not because of, anything in ourselves. God initiated the process with His promise, He moved all history to accomplish it, and He brings it to individuals who are rebels deserving of His judgment. It is all from His grace, to the praise of the glory of His grace!

C. God is moving all of history to culminate in Jesus the Savior.

This should be obvious by all that I’ve said so far. Paul is showing that Jesus Christ is the goal and culmination of history. God purposed to sum up all things in heaven and earth in Christ (Eph. 1:11). “All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Col. 1:16b-18). Paul sums this up in his great doxology in Romans 11:36: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

Anyone or anything that diminishes the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ is not from God. All of the Old Testament was written to point forward to Jesus Christ. He fulfilled hundreds of prophecies, some of which Paul cites in the next section of his sermon. All of the New Testament centers on the person and work of Jesus Christ. As the Book of Revelation makes clear, God is moving history toward the grand climax of Christ’s defeat of Satan and His eternal reign.

Thus Paul’s first point is that God graciously promised His chosen people to send a Savior, and that Jesus, the son of David, is that promised Savior. He elaborates on the fulfillment of God’s promise in Jesus in his second point:

2. The promise kept: God’s salvation comes to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (13:26-37).

Paul here anticipates and answers two questions that he knew his audience would be thinking. The first is, If Jesus is God’s Savior and Messiah, why did the Jewish leaders reject Him? Second, When the Jewish leaders rejected and killed Jesus, did they somehow thwart or nullify God’s purpose?

In answer to the first question, Paul shows that the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus because they did not recognize Him when He came (13:27). They were looking for a political Messiah who would deliver them from Rome’s domination. Surely, he would be a great soldier or statesman. He would be trained in the rabbinic schools. He would come from a prominent family and have prestige and influence in society. Jesus had none of these and so they did not recognize Him.

The reason they didn’t recognize Him is that they did not hear the voices of the prophets who spoke to them every Sabbath as God’s Word was read aloud (13:27). They heard the words and they even memorized great portions of Scripture. But they did not understand it. As Jesus charged, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). Or, as Jesus quoted Isaiah with reference to the people, “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them” (Matt. 13:14-15).

In answer to the second question, Paul shows that the Jews’ rejection and killing of Jesus did not in any way thwart God’s plan, but rather fulfilled it in exact accordance with Scripture. Here he echoes both Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:23), and the prayer of the early church (Acts 4:27-28), which show that the crucifixion of Jesus only fulfilled what God’s hand and God’s purpose predestined to occur. This is not to absolve the wicked men who killed Him of their responsibility. But it is to exalt God, who is able to use the most wicked deeds of the most wicked men to accomplish His sovereign purpose, and yet hold them guilty for all the terrible things that they do.

Paul also emphasizes that God overruled their wicked killing of Jesus by raising Him from the dead. As with all apostolic witness in Acts, the resurrection of Jesus is central. Paul mentions the many witnesses who saw the risen Jesus over many days (13:31). In 13:33, the word “raised up” probably refers not only to the resurrection, but also to Jesus’ exaltation on high. The quote from Psalm 2, “You are My Son; today I have begotten You,” predicts the enthronement of God’s Messiah over all His enemies. Some take the word “today” to speak of the “day” of God’s eternal decree, when Christ was declared to be the Son of God and begotten (John Walvoord, Jesus Christ Our Lord [Moody Press], p. 41). Since the decree is eternal, Christ’s Sonship is eternal. Others, such as John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], Acts, pp. 535-536), think that “today” refers to the resurrection, when Christ was exalted by His eternal identity as God’s Son being most clearly manifested. Support for this view is Romans 1:4, which states that He was “declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul (13:34-37) further underscores Jesus’ resurrection by quoting two Old Testament prophecies. First he cites Isaiah 55:3, “I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.” The “you” is plural, pointing to God’s people, but the holy and sure promises were mediated to them through David’s promised descendant, the Messiah. A dead Messiah could not fulfill the promised blessing to David, to have one of his descendants sit on his throne forever (2 Sam. 7:16). Only a perpetually living Messiah could do that. Then, as Peter did at Pentecost, Paul cites Psalm 16:10, showing that it could not have applied to David, who died and did undergo decay, but rather applied to David’s descendant, the Messiah.

Thus Paul’s argument so far is that God had given His promise to send a Savior to His chosen people, Israel. He had kept that promise by sending Jesus, the son of David, in fulfillment of the prophecies given hundreds of years before. The fact that the Jewish leaders rejected and killed Jesus did not thwart, but actually fulfilled, God’s promises. God raised Jesus from the dead, also in accordance with several prophecies. Then comes the bottom line:

3. Your response: Will you believe in Jesus and be saved or will you scoff at God’s promise and be judged (13:38-41)?

Again Paul addresses them as brethren, meaning, “fellow Jews.” First, he proclaims two great promises to them (13:38-39); then, he ends with a solemn warning from the prophet Habakkuk (13:40-41).

A. The two promises: God offers forgiveness of sins and justification to everyone who believes in Jesus (13:38-39).

Both promises are “through Him.” Paul’s audience was trying to gain God’s acceptance through keeping of the Law of Moses. But Paul boldly states what he develops at length in his epistles to the Galatians and to the Romans, that right standing with God can never come through the law. The law brings condemnation to all, because all have sinned and violated God’s holy law. If anyone had tried to keep it, it was Paul (Phil. 3:4-6), but it had not brought him into right standing before God.

Then Paul uses twice the word that became the center of his gospel, “justified” (I don’t understand why the NASB translates it “freed”). It refers to more than our sins being taken away through forgiveness. It refers to God declaring us righteous in His sight through the merits of Jesus Christ. We stand before Him just as if we had never sinned, because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us through faith. What a wonderful promise, that our standing before God can change instantly from guilty sinner to justified saint at the moment we put our trust in Jesus as the one who paid our penalty on the cross!

B. The solemn warning: Be careful not to scoff at God’s promise, because scoffers will incur God’s judgment (13:40-41).

Paul quotes Habakkuk 1:5, which warned Judah of the impending judgment that God would bring on them through the Babylonians because of their unrepentant hearts. The implication is, just as God surely carried out that judgment, so He will bring destruction on you if you scoff at His gracious promise of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

We live in a day that scoffs at the thought of God’s judgment. Even many who profess to know Christ say, “My God is a God of love, not a God of judgment.” But what matters is not how you speculate God to be, but rather, how He has in fact revealed Himself in His Word. Some who claim to be evangelical theologians argue that hell will not be eternal punishment. Rather, they say that God will annihilate the wicked after they have served an appropriate sentence. While appealing to the flesh, that view contradicts the very words of Jesus, who quoted Isaiah, that hell will be a place “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (see Mark 9:42-48). Just as eternal life is forever, so eternal punishment is forever (Matt. 25:46).

The God who keeps His promises is also the God who carries through with His warnings! Paul’s sermon gives abundant evidence that God faithfully kept His gracious promise to send Jesus as the Savior of all who will believe in Him. The word of this salvation is sent to you (13:26). Through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you (13:38). Through Him everyone who believes is justified in God’s sight (13:39). But also, all who scoff at Him or ignore Him “will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:9). Remember, Paul was speaking here to a religious audience. Everyone present believed in God. But they needed personally to put their trust in His promise of salvation through Jesus Christ so that the words of His warning did not come upon them.

Discussion Questions

1. Why must God’s election be the cause, not the result, of our faith in Christ?
2. Why is it important to affirm that God is sovereign even over evil?
3. Why must a person believe in the deity of Jesus Christ in order to be saved?
4. What lessons can we learn about witnessing from Paul’s presentation of the gospel here?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2001, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

I don’t know whether Jesus will speak English when I stand before Him someday, or whether He will give me the ability to understand Hebrew or Aramaic, or whatever language is spoken in heaven. But if He is speaking English, I will be watching His lips and hoping that I see them forming a “W.” I want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master” (Matt. 25:21). It would be absolutely tragic to hear, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23)!

The apostle Paul wrote, “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” (1 Cor. 4:1-2, New KJV). We who know Christ should view ourselves as His servants and our aim should be to be faithful in that role. Our text shows the faithfulness of Paul and Barnabas in some great victories and in some difficult trials as they complete the first missionary journey. Their experiences are recorded so that we can follow their example:

We should learn from and imitate Paul and Barnabas as faithful servants of Christ, no matter what the cost.

The faithfulness of the apostles is contrasted with the fickleness of this pagan crowd. God used Paul to heal a man who had been lame from birth, and the crowd was ready to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas as gods. Shortly after, some Jews from Anti­och and Iconium who hated Paul’s message easily persuaded the same crowd to stone Paul as an imposter. They dragged the unconscious apostle out of the city and threw him on the trash heap as dead. Some think that Paul actually died, but Luke’s words indicate that he was not dead, but supposed to be dead (14:19). Some think that Paul may have had his out-of-body experience of being caught up into the third heaven at this time (2 Cor. 12:1-7), but the chronology doesn’t fit.

But even though Paul was not dead, he was seriously wounded. He later reminds the Galatians (these very churches) that he bore on his body the brand-marks of Jesus (Gal. 6:17), probably referring to scars that he suffered from this harrowing incident. God miraculously raised him up and gave him the strength to begin the 60-mile journey to Derbe the next day. Through it all, Paul kept on faithfully serving the Lord Jesus and preaching the gospel. We could probably come up with a dozen or more marks of faithfulness, but I will limit myself to seven:

1. A faithful servant points people to the living God, not to himself.

Lystra was a small town about 20 miles south-southwest of Iconium. Since there was no synagogue, Paul probably preached the gospel in the open marketplace. During one of his messages, he noticed a lame man, and the Lord gave Paul the insight that this man had the faith to be healed. Sometimes in the Bible, God healed people apart from any faith on their part. At other times, He healed in response to their faith. So Paul loudly commanded this man who was lame from birth to stand upright. When he leaped to his feet and began to walk, the crowd was amazed.

They began to speak in their native Lycaonian language (which neither Paul nor Barnabas understood), excitedly telling one another, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us.” They called Barnabas, who was older than Paul and the more quiet, stately man, “Zeus” (Jupiter); and they called Paul “Hermes” (Mercury), who was the orator god.

They were basing their identification on a legend that the Roman poet Ovid wrote about. According to Ovid’s story, Zeus and Hermes had once visited a valley near Lystra. They went from door to door, but no one invited them in. Finally they came to a cottage where a poor couple took them in, fed them, and gave them a bed for the night, not knowing that they were gods. Because of their kind hospitality, the two gods turned this poor couple’s cottage into a golden-roofed temple, but they destroyed the selfish people who had refused to take them in (see James Boice, Acts [Zondervan], p. 255). The people of Lystra didn’t want to make the same mistake again! So they ran to the local temple of Zeus, told the priest what had happened, and he quickly brought oxen to sacrifice to these two powerful visitors.

At some point, someone, perhaps Timothy, who was one of the converts from Lystra, told Paul and Barnabas what was happening. The apostles were horrified! They tore their robes as they ran into the midst of the crowd and with great difficulty restrained them. Luke reports the gist of what either Paul or Barnabas shouted out to the crowd (14:15-17). It would seem that they did not get to finish the sermon, since it does not give the gospel. The impression I get is that Paul was moving toward the gospel, but he got interrupted as the crowd noisily and, probably, angrily dispersed. They had been hoping that this was the rare experience of the centuries that would put their city on the map forever. People would flock from miles around to the place where the gods came down to earth as men. Think of what it would do for the local economy! So when these mysterious visitors insisted that they were mere mortals, not gods, the people were really bummed out!

Paul began by telling them that Barnabas and he were men of the same nature as they had. He preached the gospel to them so that they would turn from the worship of vain idols to the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them. When he spoke to the Jews, Paul could argue from Scripture, since they already believed it. But with these uneducated pagans, he began with creation, appealing to their sense that a living God, the Creator, stood behind all that they saw in the world.

In verse 16, Paul anticipates an objection from his audience: “We have served what you call ‘vain idols’ for centuries, and life has not been so bad. Why should we now turn from them to this God that you call ‘the living God’?” Paul explains that in the generations gone by, God permitted the nations to go their own ways. In His patience, God did not destroy them in their sin. Although God did not give them His written revelation, as He did with the Jews, yet He did not leave Himself without a witness. He did good towards them, giving them rain and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with food and gladness.

Paul’s line of reasoning here is similar (although simpler and more abbreviated) to his comments in Romans 1:18-32 and his sermon to the Athenians (Acts 18:22-31). Through creation, every person should know that there is an almighty Creator and we are accountable to Him. Men invent myths, like the ancient Greek mythology and the modern myth of evolution, to dodge their accountability to the Creator. As he puts it in Romans 1:18, they “suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

The testimony of creation is sufficient to condemn people for their rebellion against God, but it is not sufficient to save them. To be saved, people need to hear the gospel, which tells of God’s provision of a Savior, Jesus Christ, who offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who will put their trust in Him. If he had been allowed to continue, I believe that Paul would have urged his audience to repent of their idolatry and would have told them of the Savior who died and rose from the dead (see Acts 18:30-31), but he got cut off when they angrily dispersed.

His words in verse 16 raise the thorny questions: “Will God judge the heathen who have never heard the gospel? Why did God let all of these nations go for centuries without hearing the gospel?” Without digressing for too long, consider the following. First, God does not owe mercy to any nation or human being. We all have rebelled against God’s rightful rule and we all deserve His judgment. He is perfectly just in letting the nations go their own ways without giving them the revelation of the gospel, since they all have suppressed in unrighteousness the truth of creation.

Second, God in His inscrutable wisdom knows how people would have responded if they had had the revelation that others have had, and He will judge each person according to His wise justice. In Matthew 11:20-24, Jesus reproached the cities where He had performed miracles, but they did not repent. He tells them that it will be more tolerable for places like Tyre, Sidon, and even wicked Sodom in the day of judgment than for them, because if they had seen His miracles, those people would have repented. The mind-boggling thing is that these cities did not receive this revelation, and they perished in their sins. But God knows how they would have responded if they had received such revelation, and He will judge them accordingly!

When I am sharing the gospel and people raise this objection, I try to bring it back to this bottom line: “You now have heard about God’s sending Jesus Christ as the Savior who gave Himself on the cross as the sacrifice for sinners. How are you going to respond? If you do not repent of your sins and trust in Christ, God will judge you according to the light that He has shown you!”

To come back to the point, Paul and Barnabas could have heard that these people were about to offer sacrifices to them and thought, “Well, it’s about time that we got some respect. What will a little mistake like that hurt for a while? Maybe we can use it later to tell them about Christ, since they will then respect us.” If that temptation flitted through their minds, they immediately cut it off. As faithful servants, their spontaneous response was to point people away from themselves and toward the living God, to whom we all must one day give an account.

2. A faithful servant courageously keeps on proclaiming the gospel in spite of persecution.

Paul and Barnabas had been forced to flee from Antioch and Iconium. But when they came into the region of Lycaonia, they continued to preach the gospel (14:7). Even after getting stoned, Paul didn’t give up. I would have thought that a short vacation would have been in order about then! But he got up, walked to the next city, and preached the gospel there (14:21). On the way back through Perga, where for some reason (perhaps the controversy over Mark’s departure, 13:13) they had not been able to preach on the outward journey, they spoke the word when they went back through there (14:25). Their persistence in preaching the gospel in spite of intense opposition was nothing short of amazing!

Most of us have never known any persecution that compares to what Paul and Barnabas went through. But you will catch criticism if you attempt to serve the Lord. How you respond will be a test of whether you are a faithful servant of Christ or not. If you’re prone to get hurt and quit, you need to learn the lesson of courageous persistence from these two servants of the Lord.

3. A faithful servant strengthens and encourages other disciples, especially regarding the role of trials in the Christian life.

The journey out to Derbe was more evangelistic in nature; the journey back through the same cities was more pastoral in focus. Probably the apostles knew that if they preached openly again in these cities where they recently had been driven out, they would be killed and their missionary labors would come to an end. Besides, they now had groups of converts in each city, and these new believers could carry on the work of evangelizing their own cities if they got grounded in the faith. So Paul and Barnabas concentrated on “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God’” (14:22).

One of Satan’s most effective tools that he uses to cripple new believers is to send trials. That’s why Peter warns (1 Pet. 5:8-10),

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

The fact that Jesus Christ is King does not mean that His people will be free from severe trials. Sometimes He permits the enemy to afflict us to teach us to put on the full armor of God and stand firm. Through trials we learn to trust God more fully and not lean on the arm of the flesh. Trials strip us of worldly attitudes that have attached themselves to us like barnacles to the hull of a ship. But whatever the lesson, no disciple of Christ will be exempt from trials. It is important for you to learn to submit to God’s mighty hand in them, and then He can use you to strengthen and encourage newer believers, so that they will continue in the faith in the face of trials.

4. A faithful servant helps churches to be organized under godly leadership.

On the return journey, Paul and Barnabas “appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting” (14:23). As the body of Christ, the church is a living organism. It is the very life of Christ flowing through the members of His body that gives vitality and direction to the church. All of the members, but especially the leaders, need to walk in daily reality with the living Lord, abiding in Him. If we don’t, the church can turn into a dead organization rather than a living organism.

But at the same time, we need to remember that every organism is highly organized; if it’s not, it won’t survive for very long. Churches need adequate organization so that the life is preserved. The apostles were traveling evangelists who established new churches through their preaching. Elders were long-term residents who were responsible to give oversight to the local churches.

Three terms are used somewhat interchangeably to describe these leaders. “Elder” looks at the spiritual maturity of the man. Their maturity will be in relation to a particular local church. These elders that Paul and Barnabas appointed were fairly new in their Christian experience, but they were the most spiritually mature men in those churches. Usually there is a correlation between physical age and spiritual maturity. Elders should normally be old enough to have the wisdom that comes from years of living.

“Overseer” looks at the work itself. Elders are to have oversight of the flock, to make sure that people are growing in godliness and that the church is doctrinally sound. The third term, “pastor,” looks at the job from the analogy of a shepherd. Some of the elders should devote themselves to the ministry of the Word, and to that end Paul directs that they be financially supported (1 Tim. 5:17-18).

The word “appointed” (Acts 14:23) in Greek meant “to approve by a show of hands in a congregational meeting” (Simon Kistemaker, Acts [Baker], p. 525). Although Paul and Barnabas appointed these men, and that only after fasting and prayer, and no doubt based on the spiritual qualifications that Paul later enumerated (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9), they probably did so in conjunction with the participation of the local members.

We seek to follow the biblical guidelines in the selection of elders. We screen men to make sure that they are in line with the biblical qualifications. We also invite congregational input, so that if anyone knows a reason why a man should not be an elder, they can bring that to our attention. The congregation ratifies the elders each year at our annual meeting. One of the biggest mistakes that churches make is to put men into leadership who are not spiritually qualified, mature men of God.

5. A faithful servant is accountable to those who sent him into ministry.

Paul and Barnabas sailed back to Antioch, gathered the church that had sent them out, and reported all the things that God had done with them (14:26-27). It must have been thrilling to hear their stories, as they told how God opened a door of faith to the Gentiles! No doubt the church in Antioch had been praying during the year or more that these men had been gone. They didn’t have email or probably even snail mail to let them know the progress of the work as it unfolded. But eventually the men reported back and the church rejoiced to hear what God had done.

Faithful servants welcome accountability, because they know that ultimately they will answer to the Lord who knows everything that they have done. Besides, it is great to know that a sending church is praying for you and your work. The church has a responsibility to pray for and support missionaries, and the missionaries have a responsibility to the church to let them know what God is doing through them in the work. I hope that you come out whenever we have missionaries giving reports of their work (usually on Sunday nights). In that way, your interest in missions will grow, and you will have a part in extending God’s kingdom worldwide.

6. A faithful servant gives the glory to God for what He does through him.

This is somewhat similar to my first point, that a faithful servant points people to the living God, not to himself. But that was especially with reference to unbelievers. This point is in the context of Paul and Barnabas’ reporting to the church. They did not report on all the things that they had done, and how they had the brilliant insight of taking the message to the Gentiles. Rather, they reported on “all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (14:27).

Faithful servants make sure that all the credit goes to the Lord. If He does not work, there will be no fruit. In some places Paul and Barnabas did not see as much response as in other places. But whatever the response, they were depending on the Lord, and when He worked mightily, they gave Him the glory. It was only by His grace (14:26) that they had gone out, and it was by His grace that they had accomplished anything.

7. A faithful servant knows when to recharge his spiritual batteries.

I trust that I’m not reading too much into the text here, but Luke notes that Paul and Barnabas “spent a long time with the disciples” (14:28). It was probably a year to a year and a half before Paul left on the second journey, although this included the visit to Jerusalem for the council. We can be sure that they were actively serving at the home church during this time, but I think they were also getting recharged for the next term of service. After a time of worshiping and fellowshipping together with their old friends in Antioch, they were ready to go back into the battle again.

You can’t give out more than you take in or you will run dry. I need time off each week and every year to recharge. I need adequate time to read and think and pray, or I begin to feel drained. Each of us is wired differently, but you need to know yourself and watch yourself so that you don’t burn out. Schedule time each week and each year for renewal in body and soul.

Conclusion

Andrew Murray, the well-known devotional writer, had a brother who labored all his life in an African country with no visible fruit. He did not see any converts. But shortly after his death, revival broke out there and many were converted. He had broken the hard ground by his years of labor, but others saw the visible fruit. Being faithful, not necessarily being outwardly successful, is the important thing.

Paul and Barnabas are given to us as examples of faithful servants. May we imitate them so that someday we will hear our Savior welcome us into heaven with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Discussion Questions

1. Paul often urged others to follow his example (1 Cor. 11:1). Does this contradict the principle of pointing people to God, not to himself? If not, is there a danger here?
2. Why didn’t God spare Paul from being stoned (Barnabas didn’t get stoned)? What does this teach us about God’s protection as we serve Him?
3. What is the difference between true and false humility? Is it wrong for the Lord’s servant to say “thank you” when someone tells him how his ministry has helped him?
4. What are some warning signs of burnout? In light of the many needs in the world, is it wrong to take time off from ministry?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2001, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

We live in a day of much spiritual and moral compromise, even among evangelical Christians. For that reason, many of us abhor any thought of concession or compromise. Those words imply a weak, wishy-washy, kind of Christianity that isn’t worth following. We value men of conviction who stand firm no matter what. We want nothing to do with concession.

But I have seen people who are so strong on their convictions, even about minor issues, that no one can get along with them. If you don’t agree with them on every minor point of doctrine, they write you off as being a liberal or a heretic. If you confront such a man with his lack of love, he will write you off as a person who does not stand for God’s truth.

Spiritual maturity requires discernment, so that we stand firm when it comes to essential truth; but, on matters not essential to the faith, where godly men may differ, we elevate love over our rights. In other words, as we saw last week, there are times when unity is wrong, namely when it compromises the essentials of the gospel of salvation by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But, also, there are times when concession is right:

Concession is right when it does not compromise essential truth and it is done out of love to avoid offending others.

We see both sides of this important principle in our text, which reports the conclusions of the Jerusalem Council. The main issue at stake was, must a person be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses to be saved (15:1, 5). Peter powerfully showed that we all, Jew and Gentile alike, are saved in one way only: by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, through faith in Him (15:9, 11). To add our works to faith alone is to pervert the gospel and put ourselves under God’s eternal condemnation, as Paul argues in Galatians 1:6-9. As we saw, Paul and Barnabas did not set aside this crucial truth in the name of love and unity. Rather, they had great dissension and debate (15:2) with those who taught the necessity of works being added to faith for salvation.

The force of Peter’s argument silenced even those who had disagreed, at least for the moment. Then Paul and Barnabas began to relate how God had worked through them as they preached the gospel to the Gentiles, confirming their message with signs and wonders (15:12). Paul could have launched into a defense of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, as he does in Romans 3 & 4. But here his emphasis was on what God had done through them, so that their opponents would know that the spread of the gospel among the Gentiles was God’s doing. The miracles that He granted confirmed His will through them (Heb. 2:3-4).

After Paul and Barnabas finished speaking, James took the floor. This was not the brother of John, who was killed by Herod (12:2), but the half-brother of Jesus, who later wrote the Epistle of James. He was the presiding elder of the church in Jerusalem. It seems to me that in some ways, James never did come to the depth of understanding of God’s grace that Paul had (see 21:18-25). When he stood up to speak, the Judaizers were hoping that he would champion their cause. But they were taken aback when he affirmed Peter’s message, backing it up with Amos 9:11-12. And, without mentioning them by name (until the letter, 15:25), he backed Paul and Barnabas’ view that the Gentiles need not be circumcised (15:19). Then, out of concession, he enumerated four things that the Gentiles should abstain from so as not to offend the Jews (15:20-21).

When everyone agreed with James’ judgment, the church chose two leading men to return with Paul and Barnabas to relate verbally to the Gentile churches the outcome of the Council (15:22). This would protect Paul and Barnabas from any false charges by the Judaizers that they slanted the report in their favor. Also, the final resolution was put into a letter that was to be circulated among the Gentile churches (15:23-29). The outcome was that the Gentile churches were greatly encouraged and the unity of the churches, made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers, was preserved (15:30-35). There are three main lessons that we can learn from our text:

1. Concession is never right if it compromises essential truth from God’s Word (15:12-18).

There are several difficult interpretive issues in James’ use of the quote from Amos 9:11-12. For one thing, he does not cite the Hebrew text, but rather the Greek Septuagint version, and even there he differs at several points. Perhaps he was citing it from memory and modifying it to give the sense of it as it related to his application. Also, it has been pointed out that James’ citation agrees exactly with one of the Jewish Essene sect texts of Amos 9. If some of the scrupulous Jewish Christians in his audience came from this sect, James may have been showing them that their own version supported the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s purpose (Richard Longenecker, Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], 9:447).

The main difficulty concerns the interpretation of the quote from Amos. Most premillennial commentators interpret it to refer to the second coming of Christ and the future restoration of David’s throne, followed by worldwide witness to the Gentiles in the millennium. Thus James would be arguing that since Amos predicted the future inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s purpose apart from their becoming Jewish proselytes, there is therefore no need for them to become Jewish proselytes in the present situation (John MacArthur, Jr., Acts 13-28 in The MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Moody Press], p. 69).

It seems to me, however, that James is using the quote from Amos to refer to what God was doing in the present, not to what He would do in the future. This is not to deny a future aspect and greater fulfillment of the prophecy in the millennial kingdom. But I think James uses the quote to establish that God’s purpose in the present age includes the calling of the Gentiles apart from their becoming Jews (Ray Stedman, Acts 13-20, The Growth of the Body [Vision House], pp. 64-65).

Another problem concerns the interpretation of verse 18. The quote from Amos 9:12 ends with “says the Lord, who does these things.” The rest of the verse is James’ comment. The problem is, his comment is so elliptical (incomplete) that it is hard to make sense of it. This resulted in a number of textual variants introduced by scribes who expanded the phrase into a complete sentence (Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament [United Bible Societies], second ed., p. 379). Probably James’ brief comment means, “The Gentiles’ inclusion in the gospel was no surprise to God, who knew it from eternity.”

All the interpretive problems aside, the bottom line is that James was using Scripture to support Peter’s argument, that salvation for all people, Jew or Gentile, is by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The quote from Amos and James’ concluding comment support what Peter emphasized in verse 7, that the salvation of the Gentiles originated with God, not with man. It was not something that Peter or Paul and Barnabas dreamed up. God purposed to do it from eternity, and He revealed it through His prophets centuries before.

As we saw last week, the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is not to be set aside or compromised in the name of love and unity. It is the only way of salvation, both for Jews and for Gentiles. If we compromise the gospel, we have given up the very essence of the Christian faith. Any unity that is achieved through such compromise is not Christian unity in the biblical sense of the word. Included under the term “the gospel” are the essential truths of the sinfulness of all humanity, of the inability of people to save themselves, and of our need for a spiritual new birth that can only come from God.

Beyond the matter of the gospel and how we are saved, there are several other biblical truths that we cannot yield or we compromise the essence of the Christian faith. The inspiration, authority, and total trustworthiness of Scripture must never be compromised or we have no objective, authoritative basis for our faith. The nature of God as a Triune being, one God who subsists in three equal and co-eternal persons is another essential. We must affirm both the full deity and the full humanity of Jesus. It is also essential to affirm His sacrificial death on the cross, His bodily resurrection from the dead, His bodily ascension into heaven, and His bodily return in power and glory to judge all the living and the dead. Any concession on these essentials, even if it is for the sake of unity, is wrong because it is to join with those who are Christian in name only, but not in God’s sight. Concession is never right if it compromises essential truth from God’s Word.

2. Concession is right when it is done out of love to avoid offending others (15:19-29).

James sums up his judgment first by affirming that the Gentiles should not be forced to adopt circumcision and the keeping of the Law of Moses (15:19). Some think that James’ conclusion and the letter are weak in that they never state directly that these things are not required (James Boice, Acts [Zondervan], p. 266). Perhaps James and the Council were trying to be diplomatic, while still making the point, which the church at Antioch understood (15:31).

Then (15:20-21) James mentions four things that the Gentile Christians should abstain from for the sake of not offending the Jews. Three of these were not essential doctrinal matters, but rather matters that took into consideration the social situation and sought to avoid needlessly giving offense.  There are several views of verse 21. Without going into all of the possibilities, it seems to me that James is saying, “The reason that the Gentile believers should abstain from these four behaviors is that almost every city has adherents to the Jewish faith. So as not needlessly to offend Jews who need to believe in Christ as Savior, and so as not to offend recently converted Jews who are in the churches and thus cause divisions, Gentile Christians need to abstain from these four things.”

The four things are repeated, although in slightly different order, in the letter (15:29), which James probably drafted with the approval of the whole body. The tone of the letter is not authoritative and demanding, with warnings of judgment if it is not obeyed. Rather, the overall tone is kind and encouraging toward the Gentile believers, and supportive of Paul and Barnabas and their outreach to the Gentiles. It also makes it clear that the false teachers had acted without the approval of the leaders in Jerusalem.

The fact that three of the requirements seem to be related to the Jewish ceremonial law, whereas the other seems to be moral, has led to many textual variants and interpretations. Some take them all to be moral; others take them all to be ceremonial. I think that three of the items related to Jewish ceremonial laws, and the other (fornication) related to a moral issue toward which many Gentiles would be insensitive because of their culture.

The first item, “things contaminated by idols,” or “sacrificed to idols,” referred to meat that had been offered to pagan gods, but then was sold in the marketplace. It would be offensive to most Jews if Gentile Christians ate such meat. “Blood and things strangled” referred to eating meat that had not been killed by draining the blood from it, thus violating Jewish dietary laws (Gen. 9:4; Lev. 3:17; 7:26; 17:10-14; 19:26; et. al). While the Gentiles were not subject to these laws, the Council requested that they abstain from these practices so as not to offend the Jews.

The last item, “fornication,” has been variously interpreted. Since the other three items are ceremonial, and since the prohibition against sexual immorality would apply to every believer as a moral absolute, some understand it to refer to the levitical prohibition of marriage to a near relative (Lev. 18:6-18), which the rabbis described as “porneia” (Metzger, p. 380).  The problem with this view is that it is an unusual use of this Greek word, and most Gentiles would not have taken it in this sense.

I think that we must understand the word as the Gentile recipients would have, to refer to sexual relations outside of marriage. But, why did this even need to be mentioned, since it is a part of God’s moral law? Sexual immorality was so commonly accepted among the Gentiles that there were probably some who professed faith in Christ, but did not yet understand God’s moral standards. They came out of a background where temple prostitution and having a mistress for sexual gratification were shrugged off as standard practice. If they professed faith in Jesus Christ, and yet continued these practices, unbelieving Jews who held to the sanctity of marriage could never be reached with the gospel.

From these four prohibitions, we can draw three applications:

1) Out of love for the lost, we should not do culturally offensive things that would cause them to reject the gospel.

Paul deals with this at length in 1 Corinthians 9:19-22:

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

Paul was always sensitive to the cultural backgrounds of those he was trying to reach with the gospel, and he tried not to do anything that would put up a barrier between them and their need for Jesus Christ. Every missionary needs great wisdom to discern which issues are merely cultural, that he can go along with, and which issues are biblically essential, that he cannot compromise.

Some matters may need to be set aside temporarily, until people come to saving faith, and then introduced later. For example, if you are trying to reach Muslims, you probably should not begin by emphasizing the equal standing of the sexes before God. While that is a biblical principle (Gal. 3:28), it would probably keep most Muslim men from believing the gospel, since male dominance is a major cultural issue with them. But if a Muslim man comes to faith in Christ, he then needs to be taught to treat his wife as a fellow-heir of the grace of Christ (1 Pet. 3:7), and to respect women as co-laborers in the cause of the gospel (Phil. 4:3).

2) Out of love for fellow believers, we should not do morally permissible things that would lead them into sin.

Paul deals with this in 1 Corinthians 8 and Romans 14. Some Christians felt free to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols, and in Christ, they had such freedom. It was not violating any moral command of God to eat such meat. But, there were some weaker Christians whose consciences would be violated if they ate such meat. They had come out of pagan idolatry, and to eat such meat might lead them back into their former practices. Out of love for their brethren, Paul tells the stronger Christians to give up eating such meat so as not to cause their brothers to stumble.

There is a lot of confusion over this principle in our day. Often, legalistic church members set up their own unbiblical standards and impose them on newer believers. For example, they require that these newer believers adopt a certain manner of attire for church, although the Bible does not stipulate such. If a newer believer does not conform, he is told that he needs to conform so that he doesn’t cause this older believer to stumble. But “causing your brother to stumble” does not mean that. It refers to doing something that is morally permissible for you, but it would be sin for another Christian, and your behavior would lead him to join with you and thus to sin.

I might add that it is impossible to live so as not to offend anyone. This decree from the Council no doubt offended many of the Jewish believers, who still found it difficult to accept any Gentiles in the church who did not live as Jews. So we can’t get too hung up about not offending anyone. We should seek to live in good conscience before God, seeking to please Him. If we know that we are offending another Christian, we should go to him and seek to get the matter resolved if possible.

3) Out of grateful obedience to God, we must never do things that are culturally accepted but absolutely forbidden by His Word.

We live in a day when many who profess to be Christians are ignorant of God’s holy standards for His people. I have met college students who say that they know Christ, but who do not feel that it is wrong to have sex outside of marriage. Divorce has become so widespread, even in evangelical circles, that many professing Christians walk away from their marriages as if divorce were just an unfortunate event, rather than a grievous sin. God’s moral standards do not change over time or from culture to culture. We must not be so influenced by our culture that we violate God’s holy standards. This leads to the final section of our text:

3. Our authoritative guide for all faith and practice is God’s Word, which should be taught and learned (15:30-35).

Judas and Silas, who accompanied Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch, “strengthened the brethren with a lengthy message.” I like that! And Luke reports that Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, “teaching and preaching, with many others also, the word of the Lord.” In Acts 11:26, we saw how these men “for an entire year met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”

We often forget that the Great Commission is not just evangelism. That’s the first part of it; but the Great Commission also requires “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). Churches today are starved because pastors are expected to do all sorts of things, with teaching and preaching God’s Word low on the list. It should be at the top.

Also, the church has always been plagued with false teachers like these Judaizers, whose words unsettled the souls of the saints (15:24). The Greek word “unsettled” occurs only here in the New Testament. It was used outside the Bible to refer to going bankrupt or to a military force plundering a town (James Moulton & George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament [Eerdmans], p. 37). Paul later warned the Ephesian pastors that from among their ranks, men would arise, “speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). So we always need to be growing in our knowledge and application of God’s Word, so that false teachers do not plunder our souls.

Conclusion

During 1977, millions of people lined up at museums across the United States to view the treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamen of Egypt. It is interesting that Ali Hassan, the curator of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, discovered that some of the jewels in the tomb were not genuine, but were only colored glass. When he was asked how this could go undetected for so many years, Mr. Hassan answered, “We were blinded by the gold. One just assumes that real gold and real gems go hand-in-hand. This is a case where they don’t” (“Our Daily Bread,” Fall, 1978).

Satan mixes truth and error to deceive Christians. He gets us to compromise and unite over doctrines where we should not budge an inch. And, he gets us to fight and divide over issues where we need to concede our rights out of love. We need God’s wisdom and discernment to know essential truth where we must never concede, and to know areas where it is right to concede out of love so as not to offend others.

Discussion Questions

1. How can we determine which doctrines in the Bible are essential to the faith and which are not as important?
2. What are some examples of offensive things that Christians can do that keep unbelievers from believing the gospel?
3. What are some examples of offensive things that Christians can do that could lead weaker believers into sin?
4. What are some culturally acceptable practices that the Bible says are always wrong, but where Christians are in danger of imitating the world?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2001, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation