Acts 13:1-13

Chapter 39

Prayer

Almighty God, upon our hearts do thou write the word of wisdom, and in our memory do thou put the word of instruction. We forget thy commandments, and thy statutes flee away from our recollection. Oh that we might have an inspired memory, so that no word of thine might ever be lost! How rich we might have been in wise words! Our heart might have been as a store-house laden with treasure from heaven. We would that our memory were written all over with thine own hand with laws of light, with words of truth, with doctrines from heaven. Then surely the Enemy would have no place in us, nor could we admit him to the hospitality spread by thine own hand. Bring us daily closer to the Saviour of men. May we enter into his spirit, having tasted of his grace; having been reconciled unto God by him, may our reconciliation become the beginning of a new ministry of our own! May men take knowledge of us that we are no longer in rebellion against God, but are at one with his righteousness and purity! This is the miracle of God! This is the triumph of Almightiness! This is the sweet conquest of the Cross! We are brought nigh by thy Son; even we that were afar off now stand at thy right hand clothed with the garments of holiness and of praise. We are therefore living miracles! We are wonders unto ourselves, and unto many, and we would that astonishment of a saving kind might strike every one who beholds the wonders of God.

Thou dost not smite to destroy, but to heal. Thy rod is not a weapon of destruction; it is, in reality, though hidden from our poor sight, a sceptre of mercy. May we believe this, and rest in this persuasion, and be strong in this infinite comfort; then our tears shall be precious to us; in shedding of them we should lose something of thy grace; for whilst they are yet in our eyes we see thy providence in its largest and noblest form. Many are thy mercies; and they are all treasured in Christ for us. No good thing wilt thou withhold from them that walk uprightly. Thou delightest to give grace on grace, more grace, a continual increase and accumulation of grace, until grace itself is turned into glory. We would live in God as revealed to us through his Son. We did not make ourselves. We are the work of thine hands. As such we would live in thy presence, and seek to know thy will, and try to do it with both hands earnestly. May ours be a fervent love, a great and noble passion of the soul, an enthusiasm full of the Spirit of the Cross; seeking to redeem men, and bring wanderers back from the wilderness in which there is no way. Thou knowest the way that we take; when thou hast tried us, thou wilt bring us forth as gold. One day we shall emerge from the darkness, and when we stand in the light, we shall see that even in the night-time thou hast been clothing us with garments of beauty. Few and evil are our days at the most; they are dwindling fast; some now in thy presence see the very last milestone on the road, and they know it to be the last; but they are not broken-hearted. They make that stone an altar; they write upon it, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us;" and in the strength and majesty of that Divine faith they walk the few remaining yards, knowing that they are walking towards victory and home. We bless thee for the inspiration of hope. We thank thee that at night-time we can sing even in the prison. We rejoice that there is no place, however far off and desolate, that may not be turned into a sanctuary because of thy presence. Heal the heart thou hast smitten! Find the link in the chain which thou hast broken! Bring back memories that shall be as presences in the night where thou hast desolated the house, and put out its fire! The Lord send comfort to all our hearts! Where sin abounds, may grace much more abound, and where the presence and sense of sin are intolerable, may there be the shining of the Cross, which shall make the contrite glad with a renewed hope. The Lord hear us, and be mindful of us, and kind to the least thankful of us, and pitiful to the feeblest and weakest, and at the last may we be gathered from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, in the name of Jesus, and in the blood of the everlasting Covenant, may we stand before thee a mighty host, free men, loyal in heart, because washed in the blood of the Lamb! Amen.

Act 13:1-13

1. Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers [the two not necessarily identical, though the higher gift of prophecy commonly included the lower gift of teaching], Barnabas, and Symeon that was called Niger [nothing more is known of him], and Lucius [probably one of the first evangelists of Antioch] of Cyrene, and Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch [Antipas], and Saul [copied from a list made before Saul became famous].

2. And as they ministered [a word commonly used of the service of the priests and Levites in the Temple] to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me [from the construction of the Greek it would appear as if the command had been given in answer to prayer] Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

3. Then when they had fasted and prayed [the fasting and prayer were continued until the laying on of hands had been completed] and laid their hands on them [the formal act by which the Church testified its acceptance], they sent them away.

4. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, went down to Seleucia [a town about sixteen miles from Antioch], and from thence they sailed to Cyprus [where the population was largely Greek].

5. And when they were at Salamis [at the east end of Cyprus], they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they had also John as their attendant [not deacon or preacher: he personally served in baptisms: he was the apostolic courier].

6. And when they had gone through the island unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer [same word in Mat 2:1 ], a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus;

7. Which was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of understanding [intelligent and discerning]. The same called unto him Barnabas and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God.

8. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn aside the proconsul from the faith ["the charlatan feared the loss of the influence which he had previously exercised over the mind of the proconsul"].

9. Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled [the tense implies a sudden access of spiritual power] with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him,

10. and said, O full of all guile and all villany, thou son of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

11. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.

12. Then the proconsul, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

13. Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came to Perga [the capital of Pamphylia, about seven miles from the mouth of the river Cestra] in Pamphylia: and John departed from them [for what appeared to Paul as an insufficient reason] and returned to Jerusalem.

Notes

Saul's change of name. "It is impossible not to connect the mention, and probably the assumption, of the new name with the conversion of the proconsul. It presented many advantages." Plumptre. "The name was one familiar to the Gentiles, of whom he was presently after the apostle, and agreeable on them rather than to the Hebrew name Saul. It answered also to his stature. Paulus = little. Barnabas gives place to him from this point." Bengel. "Satisfactory reasons are sought for this sudden change of name. There were probably more reasons than one. As a Roman citizen, it would be perfectly likely and natural that he should own a Roman as well as a Jewish name. He was now going forth to the Gentiles, and of the two names the Latin would be much more acceptable to his heathen hearers than the Hebrew... Paulus, though originally meaning small, was a famous name of great dignity, and associated with high rank." Malleson.

The First Missionary Journey

"IN the Church," how much is implied in these three words! How much they assume! From some points of view the whole Christian idea may seem to be involved in the brief expression "in the Church." What is the Church? Is it not part of common human society? Why this separateness of indication? Why treat it as a world within a world? Why not refer to the human family as a whole, on the principle that the greater includes the less? There must be some meaning in this society within society. Are not men continually engaging their invention in such arrangements? Whoever speaks of society as a whole, as a grand sum total of human life? The integer is broken up into innumerable fractions of all values and denominations, but there is ONE fraction, alas! only a fraction just now, which says that it will, and must, by the force of a sweet and Divine compulsion, become itself the whole number, that fraction is the Church. Are they ordinary men who compose the Church? Certainly not. How many men does it take to make a Church? Two! In what name do they meet? In the name of Jesus Christ! Where do they meet? Where they please. What pomp and circumstance are requisite to constitute them into a Church? How much money must they have? None! How much learning of a merely technical and mechanical kind to constitute them into a Church? None! Then they must be very weak? That is impossible. The side on which Omnipotence fights cannot be weak. Then they may be very poor? No! The side that banks in heaven can never be short of treasure- But they must have some place to meet in? Not necessarily. Under a tree will do, or in the middle of a meadow or within some fold of the night's darkness, in the dens and caves of the earth, a Church not made with hands! Why if that idea in all its simplicity, but unfathomable depth of meaning, could seize the Christian mind of to day, a sublime revolution would be the immediate and permanent consequence. But the moment two men come together to constitute a Church they forget that nothing further is requisite but the presence of Christ. They must build! Peter wanted to build on the mountain top. They must create an institution; they must establish an intricate and expensive organization. Kind two godly souls in the poorest village in the land, and they do not ask for our help. Help! What to do? A Church is as complete as a family; a Church is self-bounded, self-contained, self-complete, self-sustaining, so far as all human resources are concerned. It has an open highway to the all-supplying heavens, and when it goes abroad on the earth, it is in the spirit of brotherhood and sympathy and common desire, and neither as a beggar nor a patron. The Church is composed of redeemed and regenerated men. They are one in Christ: diverse in stature, in figure, in colour, in speech; diverse in everything that enters into the composition of humanity; yet they are one in him who breaks down all middle walls of partition, and in him they have their indissoluble and indivisible unity. Why do they not, then, "cleave unto the Lord"? When we pray we are one; when we speak to each other we are divided: in worship one, in opinion countless thousands! Then why do we not pray, and let opinion alone? "What doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God?" But men will have opinions, and opinions divide men. The whole Christian Church this day throughout the world says to God: "Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forev. Amen." And the moment the Christian Church begins to preach it speaks ten thousand differing and irreconcilable dialects. "Pray without ceasing." Meet for worship, not for the propagation of opinions. One man has as much authority for his opinion as another; opinions are growths, opinions belong to processes of education. There is only one thing true in all the possibilities of its bearing, and that is worship. Could these two ideas recover their place in the Church, I repeat, a most beneficent and profound revolution would be the instant consequence. We have torn the seamless robe of Christ into innumerable rags! Christianity has now become a tissue of opinions; once it was a world-shaking faith; now it is a cage filled with opinions and dogmas and controversies that can never be reconciled. Pray on! Worship is the union of the Church! "Certain prophets and teachers," different gifts, you observe, but the same subject. Take care that we do not exclude the PROPHET from the Church; we are inclined to do so. The prophet had a higher gift than the teacher; the teacher read a book that was written with pen and ink, but the prophet read a book not yet written, but that was going to be written. He forecast the ages, and read the scroll of the future traced by an invisible hand with invisible ink. Have we reached the final point? Do we stop at a flat black line and say Finis? We have excluded the prophet from the Church; we call him "heterodox," fanatical, unsafe, peculiar, not always to be relied upon; men write cautiously to him; men are afraid of him; they speak of him with many parenthetic qualifications; they write about him with so many footnotes that the substantial text is reduced to a minimum. It is the prophet that must lead us; there must always be amongst us some man who has the next word. I cannot see those who are on the mountain top, but I can see the next man on the mountain ridge; that is enough in the meantime, for he, turning to me below, says, "Come up higher, higher still." Where is the prophet today? He is a dead man, and his grave cannot be found!

"The Holy Ghost said." How much is implied in that expression also! The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church. "Know ye not that ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost?" The Spirit finds his abode in the Church; there he can whisper; there he can touch gently the minds which he seeks to affect; there he can tell "the secret things of God." Had we listened more, we should have known more; had we invited fuller confidences from heaven, we should have known the meaning of this sublime word, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." The Holy Spirit must be our genius, our ability, our inspiration, our wealth, and our whole strength. Pray that the Holy Dove may return," sweet Messenger of rest." He will take of the things of Christ and show them unto us. He will not testify of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear the Son say he will whisper to our hearts, and will "show us things to come." Alas, we have no future, because we have no Holy Ghost! It is the function of the Holy Spirit to elect his own ministers: do not let us meddle with God in this matter. God will find his own ministers. A minister is not a manufacture he is an inspiration! "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." There our interest may well cease, for a great prayer will answer itself, and you will be found doing the earthly share of the work with a glad heart and a willing hand. Ministers are not to be made by us. Young men are not to be driven into the ministry they are to be "called" to it. Put all the emphasis you can upon the word which the Holy Ghost himself used:" The work whereunto I have CALLED them." The ministry is a calling; men are called to particular work; they are called to particular countries, places, and surroundings; the Lord hath a candlestick for every candle; the Lord allots the place as well as calls the man.

A singular combination of the human and the Divine you will find in the third and fourth verses. Barnabas and Saul were chosen and separated, and we read in the third verse that when the Church "had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." That is the human side. Now read the beginning of the fourth verse and see the Divine aspect. "So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost." We are "fellow-workers with God." Who sent forth Barnabas and Saul? The Church did. The Church alone? No, the Holy Ghost sent them forth. Then this was a joint work? It was, certainly. The united work of the Spirit and of the Church. This is the solution of the whole controversy about the Divineness of our salvation and our share in it. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you." So then we are fellow-workers with God. We are called into this high partnership it has pleased God so to address us as to give us the comfort of having done somewhat in our own case, for said Jesus to those who believed on him and received his healing: " Thy faith hath made thee whole." The two men then were sent forth both by the Holy Ghost and by the Church, and we find that their way was marked out and made clear for them. God will take care of his own ministers. No minister of Christ in all this world but has friends: opponents he may have, but they will, as the clouds in the air, set out in sharper accent and more glorified expression the light that is above. Do not tell me that you can go forth at God's bidding without having friends, and men's respect and confidence and love. You may meet an Elymas, but you will first meet a Sergius Paulus. God himself will open a man's way, and the wonder of the man will be, not that Elymas should have opposed him, but that Sergius Paulus, the proconsul, should have taken any notice of him. We are surprised by love, not by hate: the marvel is that we should have bread, not that we should sometimes be an hungered. But the true ministry develops the evil-spirit of the times. Elymas, the Sorcerer, withstood Barnabas and Saul, seeking to turn away the viceroy from the faith. So we sometimes hear timid people saying that whether this or that movement be good or not they will not say, but certainly since it took place there has been a great deal of rioting and tumult in the neighborhood; and such poor philosophers are allowed to be counted as one each in a vote by hand! How pitiable, how heart-discouraging! Do let us have to do with men who see that wherever the good is the evil will be developed. Wherever Barnabas and Saul are, Elymas will put in his claim, and there will be controversy in any town whose possession by the sorcerer is disputed by those who claim it in the name of Christ. Wherever there is a movement in the direction of sobriety on a larger scale, there will be corresponding opposition to it. Wherever there is Gospel preaching of a right sort, not tepid, uncertain, halfhearted, but the mighty yearning preaching of the heart in the tongue and accent of the people, the devil will leap up from his darkness and dispute the field. We are disabled by timidity. Did Barnabas and Saul write home to Antioch that opposition having arisen, they would return by the next boat? They were not given to returning except with victory, or to equip themselves for further Christian assault!

It is beautiful to mark how Saul takes his right position by a most natural process. They went out Barnabas and Saul, but when we hear of them again they will be Saul and Barnabas. This inversion took place providentially. Men are tested by their work. Nothing can keep down a man whom God has appointed to the throne. There will be no controversy between Barnabas and Saul, for Barnabas was a good man, and he instantly knew where the power was, and he stood aside with the graceful courtesy which is taught and acquired only in the school of heaven.

"Then Saul" wrought his first miracle. In many chapters in the Bible you find beginnings. In this chapter Paul worked his first miracle. He fixed his eyes on the Sorcerer, and said: "O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?" Truly his speech was then not "contemptible"! Stung by fire, he turned into a mighty and thrilling speaker. Never could he have prepared those words in any mechanical sense: they are the words which follow the touch of fire! That fire we have lost. We talk to Elymas in syllables of ice; we look at him with vacant eyes, he returns our unmeaning stare. This first miracle seemed to bring back Saul's own experience on the way to Damascus. It seems as though he knew only one kind of miracles, and that was making opponents blind. He began with Elymas where the Lord began with himself. He had not yet seen the range of the Divine movement. Many a time he had thought of the blind days, and mayhap he said to his soul, This is how Christ afflicts men who oppose him! so when he comes to work his own first miracle he begins with the Sorcerer where Christ began with himself; he struck the Sorcerer blind! Yet he remembered the mercy as well as the wrath, adding "not seeing the sun for a season." Just his own experience! His was not a lifelong blindness, but a temporary suspension of the visual power. How we repeat our experience in others! How the father lives again his own childhood in his son! How the instructor takes his pupils just as he himself was taken some thirty years before!

In this chapter we shall presently hear Paul's first speech. Truly he begins in this chapter! He has been at home waiting, wondering, reading, thinking much and praying ever day, and now his turn has come, and in this chapter we shall see his first miracle, and hear his first thunder, and shall know that the king of men has arisen in the Church!

That great preacher is now about to begin! Let us look and listen well!