TURNING ELSEWHERE (PART 1)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him.

Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us:”

“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.

Acts 13:45-49

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In yesterday’s message, we saw the aftermath of Paul’s message of exhortation delivered by invitation to members of a Pisidian Antioch synagogue. Not only was Paul invited to speak on the following Sabbath but the scriptures tell us that most of the city showed up to hear him, all eager to hear the word of the Lord.

You would have thought this would be a time for celebration but as we see in today’s first of two devotions covering the final verses of Acts 13, there were some who took offense to the work of Jesus’ faithful apostle.

We read where the Jews saw the great crowds gathered to hear the Gospel of Jesus and became filled with jealousy. You’ll recall how Jesus railed against the Jewish religious leaders in particular because they were so prideful, ever seeking to gain public approval. They liked being the religious rock stars wherever they served.

This is where problems arose when either Jesus Himself or His apostles carried out the will of God by sharing the good news of salvation to everyone they met. This good news was grounded in the truth that anyone could gain salvation, Jew or Gentile, by simply placing their belief in Jesus. Salvation wasn’t simply reserved for the Jewish people as they so believed and they rejected and rebelled against any notion that would say otherwise.

And so when Paul delivered his address in the synagogue and drew the interest of almost the entire population of Pisidian Antioch, it was too much for the Jews to take and so they resorted to religious mud-slinging, committing themselves to try and discredit Paul while “heaping abuse on him”. In other words, they were sending their own message to Jesus’ apostle. Neither he nor the Gospel was welcome.

So how would Paul and Barnabas respond to this inhospitable, Christ-rejecting attitude?

The answer can be found in what Jesus had directed His disciples to do several years prior. Look again at His words from Matthew’s Gospel:

These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.”

“Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts—no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.” Matthew 10:2-15

The message from Jesus was clear. If anyone decided to reject His disciples and the salvation message they provided, the disciples were to leave that place and turn elsewhere, seeking those who would receive and not decline the Gospel. The town they departed would have made their choice, opting for God’s judgment instead of His deliverance.

And so with this, it should be of little surprise that Paul and Barnabas turned away from the Jews and went elsewhere, to the Gentiles who were honored and received Paul and Barnabas with gladness. Before they left however, the apostles had some parting words for their Jewish rejecters, saying:

“We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us:”

“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

The Jews were so caught up in their prideful arrogance that they forgot the very words of the prophets that they read over and over again within the synagogue. In prophesying about Jesus, Isaiah had proclaimed that the coming Savior of the world would be a light for the Gentiles and bring salvation to all people, to the ends of the earth.

In other words, Jesus would bring salvation to places outside of Israel and indeed, he did (and still does) just that.

So what happened when Paul and Barnabas turned elsewhere to the Gentiles?

The scriptures tell us that “all who were appointed for eternal life believed” as the “word of the Lord spread through the whole region”.

The moral of the story here is that anyone who chooses to reject Jesus and try and silence His disciples will find their efforts fruitless in the end. Because Jesus will just send His followers elsewhere until they find a people who will receive and believe in Him as Savior.

The work of the Gospel will never be stopped. It was true in New Testament times and it’s still true today.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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