3  The  Troubling Gospel  (Acts 13:42–52)

And as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God. And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For thus the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, that You should bring salvation to the end of the earth.’” And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region. But the Jews aroused the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (13:42–52)

In Romans 1:16 Paul describes the gospel as “the power of God for salvation.” The Greek word translated “power” is dunamis, from which our English word “dynamite” derives. It refers to the positively dramatic transformation of those who believe. When the gospel is preached with power and conviction, the results can also be negatively explosive. For the gospel first confronts sinners with the law and judgment, then the grace of God in Christ. Such a confrontation and exposure of guilt, shame, and doom, along with the offer of salvation by grace, demands a response; it often forces people to rather passionate rejection. It exposes them as the helpless sinners they are and strips them of their self-righteous pretenses and aspirations. And that stripping often infuriates those who reject the message.

From the first preacher of the New Testament on, this has been the case. John the Baptist’s preaching aroused the opposition of the Jewish authorities to such a level that they sent representatives to him demanding to know who he was (John 1:19–22) and, by implication, what right he had to preach such confrontational calls to repentance.

The Lord Jesus Christ was the most troubling preacher who ever spoke. His life and message so infuriated the rejecting Jewish authorities that they finally demanded His execution. He Himself stated the divisiveness of the gospel in Matthew 10:34–36:

The apostles also preached a divisive message that led to hostility. Peter’s sermons in Jerusalem set the city in an uproar and resulted in the persecution of the apostles. Stephen’s sermon caused such a stir that not only was he stoned to death, but also persecution broke out against the church as a whole. Throughout Acts, the gospel continued to cause divisions wherever it was preached, as the record of conflict to the end of the book demonstrates.

Conflict will often occur when the true gospel is preached today. The gospel does not gather everyone together, nor is it a generally tolerable opinion that nonbelievers can take or leave. Instead it splits people, dividing the penitent from the hardhearted, the saved from the unsaved, the righteous from the reprobate, those who love its truth from those who reject it.

Most of the opposition to the gospel in the early years came from the Jewish people—a tragic corollary to their rejection of their Messiah, Jesus Christ (John 1:11). In Jerusalem, the persecution came from the Jewish leaders (Acts 4, 5, 7). In Samaria, the opposition came from Simon the magician, who likely was either fully or partly Jewish. Paul faced bitter opposition from the Jews in Damascus (Acts 9:20–23). In Acts 12, Herod, attempting to please the Jewish leaders, murdered James and imprisoned Peter. On the first stop of their current journey, Paul and Barnabas encountered the Jewish false prophet Bar-Jesus (Acts 13:6–8). Acts 14:2 records that “the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles, and embittered them against the brethren.” Verse 19 of that same chapter describes how “Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.” Similar opposition appears in Acts 17:5, 13; 18:6; 19:9; 20:3; 21:27ff.; 23:12ff. That the very hope of Israel, so long awaited, did not arouse their faith and love, but their anger, is the greatest tragedy of redemptive history.

Acts 13:42–52 finds Paul and Barnabas in Pisidian Antioch. Here, too, the gospel would prove divisive. Like a giant boulder cast into a tiny pond, it shattered the surface calm between the city’s various ethnic groups. The passage describes the differing reactions to the sermon Paul had just preached (13:16–41). The initial reaction seemed positive; the subsequent response was mixed.

THE INITIAL REACTION

And as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God. And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God. (13:42–44)

The preliminary response to Paul’s sermon by the synagogue audience was favorable, though that attitude would soon change. Four features of their initial positive response stand out.

THEY WERE PLEASED

And as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. (13:42)

Intrigued by what they had heard, as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. Paul’s dynamic, powerful preaching about the Messiah had piqued their interest, and they wanted to hear more. His message was steeped in the Old Testament. Paul had spoken of God’s sovereign choice of and care for Israel. He had referred to Israel’s greatest king, David, and the prophets. There was nothing objectionable in Paul’s message, except his naming Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. If not convinced of that truth, the people at Antioch at least did not manifest the violent opposition to it rampant in Jerusalem.

The ability to arouse people’s interest is the mark of a good preacher. In Acts 17, Paul again displayed that ability:

Paul’s persuasive preaching drove the Bereans back into the Old Testament to verify for themselves that what he preached was true. Paul’s speech on Mars Hill to the pagan Athenians so stirred their interest that some said to him, “We shall hear you again concerning this” (Acts 17:32).

For a preacher to so fascinate his listeners that they demand to hear him again is a testimony to the effectiveness of his preaching. For them to delay a conclusion about Jesus Christ, however, is dangerous. To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “For He says, At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you’; behold, now is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of salvation’” (2 Cor. 6:2). The writer of Hebrews, echoing the psalmist, wrote, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness’” (Heb. 3:7–8; cf. Ps. 95:7–11).

THEY WERE PERSISTENT

Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, (13:43a)

Some in the audience were so affected by Paul’s message that they could not wait until the next Sabbath to hear more. Accordingly, when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of them, including both Jews and God-fearing proselytes (full converts to Judaism who had been circumcised) followed Paul and Barnabas out of the synagogue. They kept up a running dialogue with the missionaries through the streets of Antioch. Their openness to the message and desire for more knowledge about it were encouraging signs.

THEY WERE PROFESSING

[Paul and Barnabas] speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God. (13:43b)

Some in the crowd who heard Paul’s sermon apparently professed to believe. As they continued speaking to them, Paul and Barnabas were urging them to continue in the grace of God. Whether the faith of those listeners was genuine was not immediately apparent; they needed to validate their confession by continuing in the grace of God. Perseverance is a mark of saving faith. The apostle John describes those whose faith was not genuine as those who “went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19). Our Lord also stressed perseverance as the mark of true saving faith: “Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine’” (John 8:31). It is the sign of true branches that they abide in the Vine:

Compare also Colossians 1:21–23:

The key is the phrase “if indeed you continue.” The writer of Hebrews makes the same point: “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end” (Heb. 3:14).

A tragic defect in much contemporary evangelism is the reliance on syllogistic assurance. A person making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ is presented with the following syllogism, designed to provide assurance of salvation: “Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ will be saved. You have put your faith in Him. Therefore, you are saved.” Unfortunately, the second premise presupposes that the individual’s faith is genuine, which cannot be proven at that moment but can be proven by his perseverance.

The result of such defective evangelistic methodology is that many who do not have genuine faith are given a false psychological assurance. Genuine biblical assurance is God’s gift through the Holy Spirit to obedient believers. (For more information on the doctrine of assurance, see John MacArthur, Saved Without a Doubt [Wheaton, III.: Victor, 1992]; Thomas Brooks, Heaven on Earth [reprint; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth], 1982.)

A special temptation faced by Paul and Barnabas’s Jewish listeners was to fall back into legalism. Many who were intellectually convinced that the gospel was true stopped short of saving faith, because they could not let go of their traditional works-righteousness system. They faced and succumbed to societal and cultural pressures and held onto legalism and ritualism, eventually falling back from the message of grace.

The book of Hebrews contains several warning passages aimed at those in that perilous position. They are summed up in chapter 10: “But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul” (vv. 38–39).

Paul addressed the following warning to those Galatians seeking to be justified by keeping the law: “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4). Law-keeping and faith in Jesus Christ are mutually exclusive ways of seeking salvation. To the Romans Paul wrote, “If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace” (Rom. 11:6). Those who seek salvation through works righteousness forfeit God’s grace and Jesus Christ and are eternally damned.

THEY WERE PRESENT

And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God. (13:44)

The interest shown by Paul’s listeners was somewhat sustained. They were not like many who profess only momentary interest in the gospel. On the next Sabbath they were back, anxiously awaiting the message Paul had for them. And because of their contagious enthusiasm, nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God proclaimed by Paul and Barnabas.

THE SUBSEQUENT RESPONSE

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For thus the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, that You should bring salvation to the end of the earth.’” And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region. (13:45–49)

After the initial positive response to Paul’s sermon, the subsequent reaction split along racial lines. The response of the Jewish people was negative; that of the Gentiles positive.

THE NEGATIVE RESPONSE

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For thus the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, that You should bring salvation to the end of the earth.’” (13:45–47)

In an amazing reversal from the previous Sabbath, when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. What caused their vehement reverse reaction? It was really prejudice; they resented that salvation was made available to Jew and Gentile alike. The attitude of the prophet Jonah is the classic case that illustrates that provincial attitude. When sent to preach to the Gentiles at Nineveh, he promptly fled in the opposite direction because he feared they would repent and turn to God. And when the city did repent, Jonah was so angry that he wanted to die (Jonah 4:1–3).

Nothing so infuriated the Jews as the thought that the blessings of salvation might be extended to the despised Gentiles. That thought filled them with jealousy, as it had previously the Sanhedrin (Acts 5:17). Not only that, it stirred them to action. They began contradicting the things spoken by Paul. The imperfect tense of antilegō (contradicting) indicates they were continually speaking against Paul’s message, attempting to refute him.

Not content with engaging in a furious debate with the apostle, his opponents were also blaspheming (cf. Acts 18:6). By speaking evil of God and Christ, they rejected their only hope for salvation and made clear that their initial profession of faith (see the discussion of v. 13 above) was shallow and false. No true believer could ever be guilty of such blasphemy (cf. 1 Cor. 12:3). Blind, unreasoning prejudice against the Gentiles cost them their Messiah, their kingdom, and heaven.

Far from being intimidated, Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly in reply. As the crowd’s fury intensified, so did the missionaries’ courage. Finally, Paul and Barnabas brought the debate to a close by informing their adversaries, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first.” God’s plan was that salvation should be first offered to the Jewish people. In Matthew 15:24 Jesus “answered [a Canaanite woman] and said, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’” When He sent the twelve out on a preaching tour, Jesus commanded them, “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5–6). The resurrected Christ said that “repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). Peter told the Jews in Jerusalem, “For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways” (Acts 3:26). Paul would later write that the gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). Although known as the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:13), Paul nonetheless placed a high priority on Jewish evangelism. He normally began his evangelism in Gentile cities by preaching to the Jews, thus gathering some believers to assist in the witness to the Gentiles.

Tragically, Paul’s hearers chose to repudiate the gospel, and by so doing judge themselves unworthy of eternal life. They brought the verdict on themselves by their own choice. After centuries of waiting for Messiah, His own people rejected Him and the salvation He brought (John 1:11). They would pay a fearful price for such nationalistic pride and love of self-righteousness.

This passage teaches the important biblical truth of human responsibility. Like all who go to hell, the unbelieving Jews at Antioch judged themselves unworthy of eternal life by their unbelief. John 3:18 reads, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” People perish because they choose to reject and refuse to believe, and their choice shuts them out of eternal life. Jesus once said to the unbelieving Jews, “You are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life” (John 5:40). Later He said, “Unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins (John 8:24). Damnation is the result of rejection and unbelief, for which each faithless soul is utterly responsible. That truth of personal volition must be held in tandem with the equally biblical truth that God is absolutely sovereign in salvation and saves whomever He wills to save (see the discussion of v. 48 below). The resulting antinomy (an apparent incompatibility between two undeniable truths) is beyond the ability of our finite minds to resolve. J. I. Packer writes:

Faced with rejection by the Jewish community, Paul and Barnabas announced that they were turning to the Gentiles, as the Lord had commanded them. To support that decision, they quoted from Isaiah 49:6, a well-known messianic prophecy. In that passage God says of Messiah, “I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, that You should bring salvation to the end of the earth.” The narrow-minded view of salvation as an exclusively Jewish possession is even foreign to the Old Testament, which clearly taught that Messiah would be sent to the Gentiles as well (see also Isa. 42:1, 6; cf. Acts 26:22–23). There was no justification for the hostile, negative response of the Jewish people to Gentile salvation.

THE POSITIVE RESPONSE

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region. (13:48–49)

In contrast to the Jewish animosity, when the Gentiles heard the good news that salvation was offered to them, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. The news that proved a stumbling block to the Jews resulted in rejoicing among the Gentiles. They were glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many of them as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

That last phrase is one of the clearest statements in all of Scripture concerning God’s sovereignty in salvation. As such, it is the balancing truth to the doctrine of human responsibility discussed earlier. The Bible unhesitatingly affirms that in salvation man does not choose God, but God chooses man. “No one,” Jesus stated plainly, “can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father” (John 6:65). Paul described Christians as “those who have been chosen of God” (Col. 3:12; cf. 2 Tim. 2:10; Titus 1:1). To the Thessalonians he wrote, “We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13). In fact, the term elect is used as a title for believers in such passages as Matthew 24:22, 24, 31; Luke 18:7; and Romans 8:33. Peter calls believers “those … who are chosen” (1 Pet. 1:1). This choice by God was made before the world began (Eph. 1:4), when their names were actually written in the book of life (Rev. 13:8). The matter of human will and divine election is so inscrutable, so incomprehensible to our minds, as to demand that we believe both without being able to comprehend how they fit together in God’s mind.

Appointed is from tassō, which is used in some ancient documents in the sense of “to inscribe” or “to enroll” (F.F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971], 283 n. 72). The list on which the elect are enrolled is described as “the book of life” (Ps. 69:28; Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27; 22:19; cf. Ex. 32:32–33; Dan. 12:1).

Scripture affirms that those who go to hell do so because they judge themselves unworthy of eternal life (v. 46). Conversely, the elect are saved because God appointed them for eternal life (v. 48). Those truths form a narrow causeway between two deep chasms. To emphasize either truth at the expense of the other is to plunge oneself into the abyss of doctrinal error.

Evangelism always follows true salvation, as those who are saved naturally desire to share their faith. The converts in Antioch were no exception. Through their enthusiastic testimony, the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region. As always, the agent through which salvation came was the word of the Lord (cf. vv. 44, 46, 48). Antioch was turned upside down not because Paul discoursed on self-esteem, politics, or social issues, but because he proclaimed God’s Word.

THE RESULTS

But the Jews aroused the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (13:50–52)

Unable to best the missionaries in debate, the Jews aroused the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. They cleverly used the religious and respected women of the city and the prominent men to persuade the authorities to expel Paul and Barnabas. Paul refers to this persecution in 2 Timothy 3:11; possibly he and Barnabas were beaten with rods or whips (cf. 2 Cor. 11:24–25).

Verse 51 describes the sad, fearful result for the unbelieving Jews, as Paul and Barnabas shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. That act was one of ominous symbolism. When Jesus sent out the seventy, He charged them:

The Jews of Paul’s day were scrupulous not to bring Gentile dust back into Israel. By their act, Paul and Barnabas were saying in effect that they considered the Jews at Antioch no better than pagans. There could be no stronger condemnation. Those Jews were left in their obstinate unbelief.

On the contrary, the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. As the missionaries started for Iconium (about eight miles away), they left behind them two completely different groups: the rejecting, prejudiced, hate-filled Jews; and the joyous, Spirit-filled believers.

This brief passage paints in stark relief the choice facing every man. All men either trust in Jesus and are saved or reject Him and are damned. As He Himself put it, “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters” (Matt. 12:30). He left us no third alternative.