CRITICAL REMARKS
Acts 13:45. Contradicting and blaspheming.—The best MSS. Omit “contradicting” (Lachmann, Westcott and Hort); but as it is neither superfluous nor Hebraistic (Hackett), and defines more exactly the nature of the opposition (Zöckler), it may be retained.
Acts 13:46. It was necessary.—Compare Luke 24:47; Romans 1:16; Romans 2:10.
Acts 13:47. I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles.—This citation from Isaiah 49:6 (LXX.) represented the apostolic mission as a continuation of Christ’s (see Luke 2:32).
Acts 13:48. Ordained to eternal life.—τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Cannot be rendered—those who believed were appointed to eternal life, or those who were disposed, i.e., inclined, to eternal life believed. The words mean what they say—“as many as were ordained to eternal life believed” (Calvin, Kuinoel, Olshausen, Meyer, Winer, De Wette, Hackett, Spence, and others)—the “ordained to eternal life” being those who are “chosen” (Ephesians 1:4), and “foreordained” (Romans 8:29), though it need not be doubted that this Divine “choosing,” “electing,” “foreordaining,” does not destroy, but is compatible with and realises itself through the complete freedom of the human will.
Acts 13:49. Implies a certain lapse of time; how long, uncertain.
Acts 13:50. The devout and honourable women, or devout, honourable women—i.e., devout women of honourable estate (R.V.)—were Gentile females who had embraced Judaism (see on Acts 17:4). The influence here attributed to women “is in perfect accord with the manners of the country. In Athens, or an Ionian city, it would have been impossible” (Ramsay). The chief men of the city were probably their husbands or kinsmen.
Acts 13:51. Shook off the dust of their feet (compare Acts 18:6), as directed by Christ (Matthew 10:14), for a testimony against their persecutors (Luke 9:5).
Acts 13:52. The disciples—i.e., at Antioch—were filled with joy, notwithstanding the persecution which raged against them (Acts 14:22).
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Acts 13:45-52
A Second Sabbath in Pisidian Antioch; or, the Promising Situation changed
I. Fierce opposition to the gospel on the part of the Jews.—Displayed in ascending stages.
1. Indignation.—They were filled with “envy” or “jealousy,” or better, boiling wrath, against the multitudes of Gentiles who on this second Sabbath had crowded the synagogue and perhaps overflowed into the street, and who everywhere manifested an eager desire to hear the word of God (Acts 13:45).
2. Contradiction. They interrupted the apostles while preaching by declaring what they said about Jesus to be contrary to fact and therefore untrue, possibly asserting that He was not the long-promised Messiah, was not God’s Holy One, had never been raised from the dead, and could not be the author of salvation to any.
3. Blasphemy. Either reviling Jesus as an impostor and a malefactor, or declaring Him to have been in league with Satan (compare John 10:20). Perhaps also hurling opprobrious epithets and railing accusations against the apostles (Acts 13:45).
4. Rejection. Rising into greater heat, they appear to have openly and scornfully intimated their determination not to believe in Christ or accept of salvation through His name, but to thrust away from themselves the offer of eternal life (Acts 13:46).
5. Persecution. They stirred up and urged on the devout women of honourable estate who were proselytes, along with the chief men of the city, most likely their husbands, to set on foot a persecution against the apostles—a persecution Paul afterwards alludes to (2 Timothy 3:11).
6. Expulsion. So successfully did they work that the apostles were forcibly ejected from their “coasts” or “cast out of their borders.” The persecution, probably a tumultuous outbreak, obliged the apostles to retire beyond the precincts of the city, to which, however, they returned on their homeward journey (Acts 14:21).
II. Solemn decision as to preaching on the part of the apostles.—
1. Its purport. Not that they would henceforth discontinue preaching to the Jews, and turn exclusively to the Gentiles, since they do not appear to have passed by their countrymen in their subsequent ministrations (Acts 14:1), but that there and then they would leave their unbelieving brethren to their blind infatuation and self-elected doom, and devote their attention to the Gentile inhabitants of the city.
2. Its reason. It was necessary, both as according with Christ’s command (Acts 1:8; Romans 1:16) and with their own natural instincts, that their countrymen and kinsmen should obtain the first offer of the gospel; but these, having judged themselves unworthy of the everlasting life, having shown by their unbelief, but more especially by their contradiction and blasphemy, that they loved the darkness rather than the light (John 3:19), had thus virtually made their choice to seek no part or lot in the kingdom of God or the salvation of Messiah.
3. Its boldness. It was uttered in no half apologetic tone, but with courageous manliness as became those who were conscious, not only of following the path of duty, but of being guided by the Spirit.
4. Its finality. They shook off the dust of their feet, as Christ had directed them (Matthew 10:14), not in contempt for (Meyer), but as a testimony against, the unbelievers, and departed into Iconium, presently called Konieh, a city variously located—at ninety (Plumptre), sixty (Lewin), forty-five miles (Hackett) south-east of Antioch, the capital of Lycaonia, and situated at the foot of the Taurus (see on Acts 14:1).
III. Hearty reception of the gospel by the Gentiles.—
1. Eager listening. Almost the whole city—the greater part of the congregation being the native heathen inhabitants—came together to hear the word of God.
(1) A sublime spectac’e, a whole city moved by a common impulse, more sublime when that common impulse is to hear the gospel, most sublime when that common impulse is yielded to. Compare the situation in Samaria (Acts 8:6).
(2) A hopeful attitude. When men will not hear their conversion is impossible, or at all events improbable, since “faith cometh by hearing” (Romans 10:17). Those who hear the gospel, if not yet in, are at least near the kingdom. The word of the kingdom received into the understanding may find its way to the heart and conscience.
2. Earnest believing. Those among the listeners who were ordained to eternal life and whose hearts the Lord opened (Acts 16:14), believed, received the truth in the simplicity of faith, and were thereby saved.
(1) That any believed was due to grace Divine. Whatever else is signified by being “ordained to eternal life,” this is implied, that their faith proceeded not from themselves, but was the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).
(2) That all did not believe was due to the natural disinclination of the human heart (1 Corinthians 2:14). If it cannot be supposed that all the Antiochians were converted, the impression conveyed by the narrative is that many were. Had the majority been won over, the persecution of the apostles would scarcely have been successful.
2. Triumphant rejoicing. The Gentiles were glad.
(1) At the intimation of the apostles that they were about to bear their gospel message to the heathen.
(2) At the announcement that Christ had been “set for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”
(3) At their own personal experience of the blessing of the gospel, “they were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.”
4. Adorirng gratitude. They glorified the word of God, or of the Lord, not simply by listening to, believing in, and making experience of, but also in giving thanks for it—“for the mercy which had embraced them in the plan of salvation and had given them this opportunity to secure its benefits.”
Learn.—
1. That the duty of every one to whom the gospel comes is to accord it a hearing, patient, unprejudiced, and respectful.
2. That the gospel cannot be killed by contradicting and blaspheming either it or its messengers.
3. That the first to hear the gospel are often the last to accept it.
4. That none are lost except those who judge themselves unworthy of eternal life.
5. That none believe except those who are ordained to eternal life.
6. That the same gospel which fills some with rage fills others with joy.
7. That joy in a believer’s soul arises from the inhabitation of that soul by the Holy Ghost.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Acts 13:44. A Marvellous Sight. “Almost a whole city gathered together to hear the word of God.”
I. Unusual.—Cities or the people in them have so much else to engage their attention, as, e.g., business, pleasure, social duties, political engagements, etc.
II. Wonderful.—Not to see groups of persons assembled to hear the word of God, but to observe a whole city or nearly so gathered for such a purpose.
III. Sublime.—To look upon a vast multitude all absorbed in higher things than those of time and sense, in things pertaining to salvation and eternal life.
IV. Desirable.—Few, who can rightly estimate the value of the gospel as God’s word in contradistinction to man’s, will deny that such a spectacle as is here described is one greatly to be longed for.
V. Hopeful.—What consequences of good might be expected to result from a whole city or the larger portion of it turning out to hear the word of God! Surely an immediate awakening would follow with not a few, perhaps a multitude of conversions.
Acts 13:45-48. Jews and Gentiles; or, Gospel Hearers and their Different Attitudes, Characters, and Destinies.
I. The Jews full of envy, the Gentiles full of gladness.
II. The Jews contradicting, the Gentiles listening.
III. The Jews thrusting from them the word of God, the Gentiles glorifying the word of God.
IV. The Jews condemning themselves as unworthy of eternal life, the Gentiles believing to justification as worthy of and qualified for eternal life.—Stier.
Acts 13:47. Salvation.
I. Its nature—light.
II. Its medium—“Thee,” Christ.
III. Its destination—the Gentiles, the uttermost parts of the earth.
IV. Its source—God.
Acts 13:48. Ordained to Eternal Life.
I. The goal, eternal life.
II. The way thither, through faith.
III. The impelling power, Divine grace.
IV. The plan in accordance with which it works, foreordination.
Or thus:—
A Sermon on Foreordination.—Foreordination. An act—
I. Divine.—Of necessity whatsoever comes to pass is known beforehand to God. Whether foreordination is grounded on foreknowledge (Arminius) or foreknowledge on foreordination (Calvin), makes no difference to the issue. Whatever comes to pass is and has been divinely arranged, τεταγμένον.
II. Sovereign.—This arrangement has its basis in the good pleasure of God, or the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:5; Ephesians 1:11). This so, even should it be that God in arranging has had regard to foreseen faith and good works in man.
III. Gracious.—It is ordination, not to condemnation, but to eternal life. If men are lost, it is because they judge themselves unworthy of eternal life; if they are saved, it is because Divine grace has chosen them to eternal life (Ephesians 1:4).
IV. Rational.—Foreordination is not an arbitrary or mechanical force or decree that overrides the human will and executes itself irrespective of the nature of man, but a counsel of perfection that works towards its end by making use of man’s free will and responsible intelligence.
V. Mysterious.—After all has been said that can be said by metaphysical theologians, it remains an impenetrable secret how God can be sovereign and man free. Yet Scripture, providence, and individual consciousness attest that both doctrines are true.
Acts 13:52. Filled with Joy.
I. Desirable.—Cannot be desirable to live in doubt, sadness, and fear arising from uncertainty as to personal salvation.
II. Possible.—Proved by numerous instances in Scripture; as, e.g., the Samaritans (Acts 8:8), the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 8:2), the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1:6), the Eunuch (Acts 8:39), the jailor of Philippi (Acts 16:34).
III. Attainable.—
1. By being filled with the Holy Ghost (Romans 15:3; Galatians 5:22).
2. By believing on Jesus.
Acts 13:48-49. How to glorify the Word of God. By—
I. Listening to it.
II. Believing it.
III. Obeying it.
IV. Spreading it.