The following teaching is the 16th of a series on the book of Acts by the Reverend John W. Howell of Truel Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title of this teaching is Turning to the Gentiles and the scripture reference is Acts chapter 13. Turn to Acts chapter 13. This really is a super passage to look at on Epiphany. It has to do with Paul's turning to the Gentiles.

Just take a look quickly at the first paragraph, Acts chapter 13. Now, in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manion, a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Let's just recap. We've had a couple of weeks break here.

Let's sort of recap where we are. In the previous chapter, we read about the response to a prophecy that had come to the church in Antioch. Already at this time, the center of operations is beginning to shift from Jerusalem up to Antioch, and it's about to become the center of expansion into Gentile territory.

The church is breaking out of a Jewish-only mold and beginning to really become a place where Jews and Gentiles are on a free, equal status in Christ. There was a prophecy given to the church in Antioch that famine was coming throughout the whole world and it would particularly hit the believers back in Jerusalem, partly because of the sharing of resources that they had gone through which left them with nothing in the bank, so to speak, and partly because of the persecution which had laid waste the church there. So they took up a collection and they sent Barnabas and Saul to share contributions for the relief of the saints.

It does not say so in the book of Acts, but if you correlate this story with the beginning chapters of Galatians, chapter 2 of Galatians tells us that when Barnabas and Saul came down out of Antioch and went to Jerusalem, they were accompanied by Titus. When they returned, after a most interesting time in the city of Jerusalem, in which James was killed and Peter was supernaturally released from imprisonment, when they returned, John Mark, who was Barnabas' nephew, accompanied them. So three went to Jerusalem, four returned to Antioch. Note verse 24 of chapter 12, one of these little summary statements.

This is as if to say that a particular phase in the life of the church is being drawn together, sort of coming to a conclusion and something new beginning. But the word of God grew and multiplied, And we've noticed that repeatedly through the whole of this book. There comes a sort of a conclusion of one thing, and we hear, but the word of God grew and multiplied.

The church grew and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul, accompanied by Titus, returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark. Now, they're about to embark at this point on what comes to be known as the first missionary journey.

the first of three that are recorded in the book of Acts, and their missionary journeys that concern primarily Paul, who at this point is still called Saul. His name is just about to be changed. At this point, Barnabas is still very much the leader, and Saul, Paul, is his second fiddle.

We're on ground that we've already looked at quickly in previous weeks. We're going to look at it again this morning. John Mark is their attendant or their assistant, very much in a disciple role.

Probably he's carrying their bags and just attending to their needs, whatever it might be. He obviously a young man looking up to his big important uncle Barnabas and Saul who with him. I want us to notice, just in passing, the folks who are mentioned in this first paragraph.

That is a remarkable constituency when you stop and notice it. Barnabas is a Jew, but from Cyprus. He's not a Jerusalem Jew.

He's a member of the dispersion, a Cyprian Jew. He's a Levite. Saul, we already know a great deal about, a Pharisee, a Jew of the Jews, but again from not Jerusalem, but from Tarsus.

Simeon, who is here called Niger, really that means blacky. You can recognize a number of words that come from there. The slur word nigger, which I don't like at all, but that's where it comes from.

Niger. He's blacky. That's his nickname.

He has a relationship to the Niger River. He has a relationship to Nigeria. He's an African.

Lucius from Cyrene. That's on the coast of Libya. It's now called Tripoli.

Again, part of Africa. He's really more of Arabian descent. Some have suggested that perhaps Simon the Cyrenian who carried Jesus' cross, you remember, is the same Simeon who's mentioned here.

That's possible. We couldn't prove it. It's possible.

It is clear that Simon, who carried Jesus' cross, was an African. You might just allow that to register in your mind a little bit. In any event, you've got that group and then a fellow by the name of Mannion, a member of Herod's court, a Roman.

How's that for the leadership of the church in Antioch? Let me tell you, when Jesus Christ can overcome the differences that would exist in the natural between such a group of people as those, the world had better duck. And that's his will, is to make one body out of people who have nothing in common, humanly speaking, and allow them to function together under the lordship of Christ.

It says here they were worshiping and fasting. King James Version says they were ministering to the Lord. They're waiting upon him to direct his church.

There's a whole lot of funny thinking about fasting. I want to just comment on that. There is absolutely no sense of merit involved in fasting.

It's a matter of focusing their attention, of depriving themselves of one kind of bodily resource that their minds would be all the more attentive to another kind of nourishment, another kind of feeding. And there's a great discipline that can't attach to fasting, but please don't ever think of it in terms of earning brownie points with God or somehow twisting his arm to get him to do something that he doesn't want to do. That is as foreign to the scriptures as anything could be.

It's a matter simply of waiting upon him and depriving myself of extraneous things that I might be all the more attentive. If you'd like to do an interesting Bible study on your own, you might look into Isaiah 58 sometimes, especially beginning with verse 6, where it talks about the true fast, the fast that I would honor, says the Lord, in contrast to all sorts of funny ideas about it. It says the Holy Spirit spoke to them in that context.

They're worshiping, ministering to the Lord, one body, one church that spans all kinds of human divisions, fasting, waiting upon Christ to direct them, and the Holy Spirit speaks, no doubt, through a prophet, perhaps one of those just mentioned. May I suggest to you that this is not the call of Barnabas and Saul. This is not their call when the Holy Spirit speaks in this instance.

When, in fact, did the Holy Spirit call Saul to himself? Approximately 15 years earlier. And he said at that time, I'm going to send you to stand before kings.

Right? I'm going to be sending you abroad to bear witness for my name. That's when his call came.

We don't know when Barnabas' call came, but from at least Acts chapter 4, he's been exercising a ministry of encouragement, and that's where his name comes from. This is not their call. This is the confirmation of their call to the church.

And I want us just to pause on that for a second. I think there are at least two reasons why it's important to be aware of that. It's important, first of all, that the church recognize that it does not confer something in ordination.

It recognizes it. Can I say that again? That ordination is not the conferring of something.

It's the recognition of it. God's the one who confers the gifts, the ministry, and the call for that matter. And ordination is a matter of the church bearing witness to and agreeing with and publicly endorsing and commissioning those whom God has already called and touched and equipped.

The Episcopal Church in particular has gotten itself into an enormously difficult situation in controversy that surrounds the ministry of women. And my own personal opinion on the matter is that it's not primarily because it misunderstands women, but primarily because it misunderstands ministry. You see.

And when you think that ministry is something that the church can dispense, well then, of course you're going to talk about it as you would any other issue of human rights. Why not this one, if this one? Do you see?

But if it's not a matter of what the church dispenses at all, but it's a matter of what God calls, then we find ourselves into a totally different discussion. it's not a matter of rights at all it's a matter of recognition of gifts and calling and so i think we've really been on the wrong line uh in that particular controversy that's the first thing is that the church needs to understand clearly that its role is to endorse what god has already done do you see not to confer something that wasn't there and secondly it seems to me that we, all of us, whether ordained or lay, all of us need to be very, very sensitive to the fact that we get our marching orders from the Lord. All right.

And praise God when and as he confirms it through other people. But I would be very, very chary about taking uncritically a so-called word of prophecy that somebody else gets for me. If I tried to do everything that people have prophesied that I ought to do, there's no way.

I'm very grateful when people want to share that. And I'll take it very seriously and I'll pray about it, but I will never take as direct from the Lord a secondhand word. If God wants to say something to me, Lord, I'm listening.

And if he says something to you about me, that probably is for you to pray. Okay. It would never be more than or other than that you could encourage me to hear what God is already saying to me.

Could I just leave that for you to meditate on? There's an awful lot of funny business, you know, where we move from daring to believe that God can speak. Okay.

To then hearing him for each other. to then a presumption of authority over each other, the net result of which is bondage. Okay.

Somebody's been... Amen. Okay.

You know that point. I mean, I think that's one of the most insidious things in the church today. And I've seen people out of a desire to be more obedient to the Lord getting to the point where they need to check everything out with their prophet or their shepherd or their, you know, spiritual authority, whatever it might be, some other human being, the end is paralysis, that I can do nothing unless my shepherd tells me it's okay, you see.

That's not the Spirit of God. Okay, Spirit speaks and confirms what he said to Saul 15 years ago, what he said to Barnabas even earlier than that. Now is the time. They've been waiting.

They've been waiting for this moment. Now is the time, and the church commissions them and sends them out. They laid hands on them, and off they go.

They went from Antioch, which is in Syria, to the coast of Syria, and there they got on a boat from Seleucia. They went to Salamis, which is on the eastern shore of Cyprus, the island in the Mediterranean. If you have a very good map in the back of your Bible, you can plot this out.

You don't really need to worry about the detail. They went across Cyprus from the eastern shore almost to the western shore to a place called Paphos, and there we read about the next incident in the story. In Paphos, the Roman procouncil, a fellow by the name of Sergius Paulus, invites them to explain the gospel.

He's heard about it. He wants to know more about it. He invites them to come in and explain it to him, somewhat like Cornelius did.

Perhaps he's not as receptive as Cornelius was, but he's interested. He wants to hear about it. gives them an invitation to explain it to him.

There is, in that community and in the midst of Sergius Paulus, a Jewish false prophet, probably a magician, a practitioner of the black arts. He's not a genuine magician, he's a phony. The language is very clear, a false prophet, a man by the name of Elemas.

And he has a nickname, Bar-Jesus, which may have been a deliberate mockery of the gospel. I don't want to read that in. It may have been.

Jesus was a fairly common name, Yeshua, and it may have just been his name. But it may have been a deliberate mockery that he's the son of Jesus, you see. And he comes and he attempts to prevent this explication of the gospel.

Notice verse 10. In fact, verse 9. But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, here is an immediate anointing for that particular instance of need, filled with the Holy Spirit, an anointing comes upon him for a very unusual conflict, looked intently at him and said, you son of the devil, not son of Jesus, not bar Jesus, bar Satan, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

That's a fairly strong accusation, isn't it? Notice what he's actually calling him. He's actually calling him a negative John the Baptizer.

What did John say his ministry was? To make straight what is crooked. He says you are making crooked what is straight.

He calls him a negative John the Baptizer and then performs a negative miracle on him. And now behold the hand of the Lord is upon you. You'd think that would be a good thing. The hand of the Lord is upon you, but here's what it will result in. You shall be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.

Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Notice the result. Then the procouncil believed. I suspect you would too.

Very interesting circumstance that's going on. He calls him a negative John the baptizer, and he performs a negative miracle of healing. I just wonder if in Saul's mind, Saul about to be Paul, was the remembrance of a time when he was making crooked the straight paths and when the hand of the Lord came upon him and he was visited with blindness.

Could be. Could be. I notice secondly that as in all of the positive miracles of healing, there's not a whole lot of room for making a mistake.

I don't know how you would handle that situation had you been there, but if you pronounce darkness upon somebody, it better happen, you know, right then and there. There's not a kind of a hoping that maybe God will confirm this. He's got an anointing from God to deal with this very difficult situation, and he takes authority, and it happens immediately, and Sergius Paulus is converted.

At this point, we read that Saul takes the name of Paul. Now, he already had that name. As a Roman citizen, he was given both a Jewish name, Saul, and a Roman name.

And in formal discourse, he would be referred to as Paul or Paulus. At this point, he takes and adopts as his own name and from now on is referred to as Paul. And I think a couple of interesting things are happening there.

Number one, that is the name of the man who was just converted, Sergius Paulus. He takes as his own name the name of the first ruler who is converted under his ministry, the first fulfillment of the prophecy that he got back there on the road to Damascus. Secondly, I think he's announcing in the clearest kind of way that his ministry is going to be a ministry among Gentiles.

He took his Gentile name, his Roman name. And so we can now refer to him correctly as we've been kind of moving between the two names all along. Now, from now on, he's going to be Paul.

At this point, John Mark goes home. And Paul becomes very clearly the leader of the group. And maybe those two things are related.

Notice verse 13. Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos. Up to now, as we saw earlier, it's been Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul.

Now, in this instance, in the middle of this conflict, the anointing comes upon Saul. He acts under a tremendous empowering of the Spirit. He becomes the center stage figure.

He confronts and wins the victory over the forces of darkness, and leadership clearly shifts to him. And from now on, it's Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas. And finally, it's Paul.

Okay. It's possible that John Mark is angry at that. We're given no reason for his return home.

It is possible that he didn't like the way Barnabas is being demoted. It is possible that he foresaw something of the persecution which was about to break out and wanted no part of that. Thank you very much.

It is possible that he was not cut out to be a missionary. The church has occasionally sent out people who weren't cut out to be missionaries. We don't know.

He went home. And that leads to consequences in a couple of chapters. Real disagreement that comes later.

Maybe he just missed his mother and he went home. We don't know. From here, Paul and Barnabas set sail north to Pamphylia.

They go to Perga and then they go to Antioch. This is the other Antioch. Remember I told you there are two Antiochs.

one in Syria, one up in Pisidia. And again, you don't need to be too concerned about this. Where they're going from here is the southern coast of modern-day Turkey, or if you like, the southwestern part of Asia Minor.

You can plot it out. They go from there, they go on up into Iconium and Lystra and Derbe, and they stay there a while, and then they retrace their steps and end up back in Antioch eventually again. in Pisidian Antioch Paul stands up and preaches and that happens in the following way the way that this would usually take place they went first to the synagogue even though they're going into Gentile territory first place they go is the synagogue and in the synagogue there will always be at the back of the room what's called the stranger's seat and if you happen to be a teacher rabbi from somewhere else, especially one from Jerusalem, you would go and sit in that seat.

And that announced very clearly that you were available to address the assembly if they cared to call upon you. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. But you took that seat, it was reserved for visiting rabbi, and if called upon, you're available to speak. And in fact, if it was a visitor from Jerusalem, they would want very much to call upon them. So Paul is now seated in a in a prominent place at the rear of the synagogue.

And it says, verse 15, after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it. So Paul stood up. See, Paul stood up.

Barnabas allows him to have the spotlight again. Motioning with his hand, he said, Men of Israel and you that fear God, listen. If you have one of the modern translations, it might read, Men of Israel and God-fearers.

I'll call your attention to that again. It's the same phrase that was used of Cornelius. You remember what it means.

It is a Gentile who is intensely interested in and basically believes the tenets of Judaism, but who has not converted, who has not been circumcised, who has not become a Jewish proselyte. Alright? There would always be such in the synagogue.

You've got the Jews themselves, you've got proselytes who have joined Judaism, being Gentile in their background, and then you've got the God-fearers. Alright? Who have not become Jewish, though they basically believe what Judaism teaches.

Paul stands up and addresses them, men of Israel and you God-fearers. I want you to notice that. If you go through his sermon or his speech, if you will, you'll find that it is very, very similar to all of the other speeches that we've heard thus far in the book of Acts.

He's covering the same gospel. Okay? Except for the fact that he begins right off the top in his message addressing as equals Jews and Gentiles.

what it took Peter nearly, what, 20 years to work out Paul has the very first words off the tip of his tongue do you follow what I'm saying? do you see the difference between these two ministries? what Peter struggled and struggled and struggled and struggled with and had to deal with Cornelius and his family and the spirit falling and getting confirmed and going back to Jerusalem and arguing about it and proving his case and ah, now I see that even Gentiles are eligible This is where Paul begins.

Men of Israel and God-fearers. And he rehearses the gospel to them. Verse 26, same thing.

Brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who are God-fearers. The very first principle of his ministry becomes that there is no longer any distinction between Jew and Gentile. Jesus Christ has broken down the wall of division, as he writes a bit later.

Now, interestingly enough, it does not say that great numbers of Gentiles believed when he gave this first sermon. As a matter of fact, the only ones who are specifically mentioned are Jews and proselytes. In verse 43, when the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

But, while many of them, that is the Jews, believed, the majority of Jews were incensed at this message. They rejected the message and they reviled Paul and Barnabas for exactly the same reasons that we've seen previously. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy and contradicted what was spoken by Paul and reviled him.

Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you, since you thrust it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we turn to the Gentiles. Let me just recap what we've just seen.

They went to a synagogue in Gentile territory. They spoke basically the same message that's been proclaimed now for nearly 20 years. But they spoke right up front the very first word out of Paul's mouth is that this message is not just to the Jews.

We're not talking about just the King of the Jews. We're talking about a Messiah for all, Jews and Gentiles alike. Many Jews believed in that message, but the majority of them were angered out of their minds, as Paul himself had been way back in the beginning of the story, that there should be the presumption of anything to break down the exclusivity of Judaism.

And so you have a new wave of persecution beginning here. And Paul sees that immediately and he says, from now on, since you have rejected this ministry, we're going to go to the Gentiles. Now the interesting thing is that as they go about Gentile territory, they continue the pattern of starting with the Jews anyway.

But their ministry is overwhelmingly now a ministry to the Gentiles. Paul becomes the great apostle to the Gentiles. From this decision, in verse 46 and 47, four things follow.

Number one, the Gentiles are glad. When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

Paul quotes the prophecy, I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth. That's an interesting prophecy. that originally refers to the nation of Israel.

That's what Israel was supposed to do, was to not just keep God to themselves, but to be a light to the Gentiles. More specifically, it becomes a prophecy about Israel's Messiah, that he is to be the glory of my people Israel, right? But the salvation, the light to the Gentiles as well.

Now Paul says that also is going to be our ministry. We're going to go to the Gentiles and bring salvation and light to them, to the uttermost parts of the earth. Do you remember chapter 1?

The book of Acts, the Holy Spirit comes with the purpose of making them witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts. Okay. God hasn't forgotten that.

The Gentiles are glad. That's number one. When they hear this, they're glad.

They rejoice. They glorify God. Number two, the Jews are enraged.

Verse 50, the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and they stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out. Number three, the church, nonetheless, is built up. I skipped a verse on purpose, another summary verse.

49, and the word of the Lord spread throughout all the region. And number four, the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit and with joy. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium, and the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and with joy.

Let's bow our heads together. Why do the nations rage and the heathen imagine a vain thing? They have risen up against the Lord and against His anointed.

But he who sits in the heavens laughs. Lord, we see at every turn in the unfolding story of the book of Acts, You taking the vain imaginings, the ragings of those who set themselves against you and weaving those things into your pattern of extending salvation to the whole wide world. Thank you, Father, for the anointing that came upon Saul, for the decision that he then made to follow your commission and take the gospel to the Gentiles, even to such as we.

we thank you father that when that ministry was railed against you simply enlarged it and Paul and Barnabas knew your joy in the midst of persecution father we would be excited on this epiphany to be those who would similarly carry the light of Christ to whomsoever you would send us for your great name's sake Amen