The Church Reaches Out

MEMORY VERSE: “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.” —Acts 13:47

ACTS 13:13, 42-49

AFTER the stoning of Stephen the brethren were scattered, and, through the providence of the Lord, wherever they went they proclaimed the Gospel of Christ. And now, through the brethren at Antioch, the Lord was again causing his people to extend the witness work. The record states that the Holy Spirit indicated that Barnabas and Saul should be sent out into the missionary work. Probably this was expressed by a vote of the brethren in the church at Antioch. The laying on of hands was the way the brethren revealed their choice of these two to represent them in the Lord’s vineyard.

They had interesting experiences from the very start of their missionary journey, but it was at Antioch in Pisidia that their efforts began to bear much fruit. Incidentally, these two faithful servants of the Lord were first referred to as “Barnabas and Saul,” but after Saul invoked a spell of blindness upon the sorcerer Barjesus, it became so evident that the Lord’s hand was upon him in a miraculous manner that thereafter his name is mentioned first, and in chapter 13, verse 13, we find the expression, “Paul and his company.”

At Antioch in Pisidia, Paul and Barnabas witnessed in the Jewish synagogue. Paul’s sermon is recorded in Acts 13:16-41. It is an eloquent witness for Jesus, calling attention to some of the prophetic references to him in the Old Testament, to his death and resurrection, and emphasizing that he was indeed the Messiah of promise. Paul also affirmed that justification to life comes only through Jesus, and not through the Law of Moses.

When the meeting was over, the Gentiles—who perhaps had been listening from outside—“besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.” Besides, “many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas; who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.” Truly this must have been a moving experience for Paul and Barnabas, and also for those whose ears of under standing had been opened to appreciate the message.

“The next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.” Here was manifested the same spirit that was displayed against Jesus. Instead of rejoicing in the evidence that the Messiah had truly come and that, through his death, life had been opened up for all who believed on him, they were envious, and they hated the messengers of light. Religious prejudice dies hard.

Because God had chosen the Israelites to be his people, the opportunity to accept Christ and the Gospel was first given to them. That is why Jesus instructed his disciples to confine their efforts to the Israelites when first sending them out into the ministry. (Matt. 10:5,6) But this exclusive favor was not to continue indefinitely. After his resurrection Jesus commissioned his disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the people of every nation.—Acts 1:8

Paul and Barnabas explained to the Israelites at Antioch of Pisidia that the time had come to turn to the Gentiles. They said: “It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.”

Paul and Barnabas continued: “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee [Jesus] to be a light to the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.” (Acts 13:47; Isa. 49:6) We are not to understand from this that the Israelites to whom Paul and Barnabas witnessed, and those to whom Jesus and others in the Early Church witnessed, but who rejected the message, are forever lost.

The work of the age which began there has been to call out from all nations a people to be associated with Jesus in his thousand-year kingdom. The unbelieving Jews and the unbelieving Gentiles in every part of the age have not qualified for this high position, the “great salvation,” but they will have an opportunity to gain life in “the times of restitution of all things.”—Heb. 2:1; Acts 3:19-21

QUESTIONS

Describe Paul’s experience in the synagogue in Antioch.

Are the Israelites who rejected Jesus lost forever?

What is the work of this age?

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