As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate unto Me Barnabas and Saul.
The completion of the apostolate
This act was no conferring of the apostleship by the prophets and teachers; the apostles themselves had received no power from Christ to do that. Both the vocation and its bestowal could only come direct from God. Barnabas and Saul were appointed to fill up the vacant places caused by the execution of James the son of Zebedee, and by the withdrawal of James the son of Alphaeus from apostolic to episcopal work, and thus the number of those bearing the apostolic mission was restored to its normal condition of twelve. The apostolic college always consisted of twelve men at a time, and therefore the Apocalypse knows only of twelve apostles as foundation stones of the holy city. (Prof. Von Dollinger.)
Bodily abstinence
Deep, earnest thoughts have often stirred in me on bodily abstinence, as the condition of helping the spirit through the strait gate of opposing animalism, into the sweet and holy Paradise element. There is an element of which Jesus is the Prince, and there is an element of which Satan is prince. While we appropriate the elements of the nethermost prince, we may be strong in the powers of nature, but perhaps not so strong in the life that is hid with Christ in God; for in the exercise and indulgence of our fleshly appetites we do not breathe deeply enough to inspire the holy element of our risen Prince. Finding that deep and holy spirit breathing was suspended during bodily enjoyments, godly souls have often interdicted the gratifications of the flesh, in order to help their spirits in the God-ward direction. (J. Pulsford.)
Mission and commission
(with Timothy 1:6):--In words such as these we have a picture out of that earliest life of the Church, of which the books from which I take it tell the story. How fresh and vivid it is! What high enthusiasm, unhesitating self-sacrifice! We look at the mighty forces against which the first Christian disciples hurled themselves, at the spiritual torpor, the black hopelessness, the unutterable moral degradation to which they made their appeal, and we wonder at their audacity--or their faith! No hostility daunted them; no tremendous bulk of evil deterred them. They were on fire with a consuming purpose, and they did not stop, whether to measure their task or to discuss its difficulties. This, we say, is the fruit of a great enthusiasm. It always works this way, and it would be without results if it did not. Yes, but the moment we look a little closer at the story of this enthusiasm we shall see that along with it there was something more. It has been common to disparage the gifts of the first founders of Christianity, and to seek to make the more of its distinctive characteristics by making as little as possible of the men who illustrated them. They have been described as insignificant among the great of their own day; and measured in one way they were. But when we come close to some at least among them we cannot so easily disesteem them. One among them was chosen to be the leader among his fellows. Can anybody who reads the story of his life find it easy to believe that he had not in him that natural genius of leadership? The voices that have stirred the world, the messages that have thrilled and enkindled cold and discouraged hearts, have not been the voices and messages of fools. And does anybody suppose when the Church at Antioch fasted and celebrated its solemn Eucharist, and prepared to choose who were to go forth on its high errands, that Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and the rest of them were there at haphazard? Out from these half-dozen men, more or less, were to be chosen two to be consecrated on that memorable day to a great and memorable work. Do you suppose that they did not seek for eloquence (if they could find it), for sympathy, for the quick power of understanding another’s perplexities, for that infinite hopefulness of human nature which, I sometimes think, is quite its finest quality? We may be sure they did. And no less sure may we be that when Barnabas and Saul were singled out from among their associates for the rare dignity of suffering and loneliness and privation in their high office, they were chosen because, among any set of men, and in whatever service, they would sooner or later inevitably have come to the front. Yes, but how were they singled out? “There came a voice,” etc. Whose voice was it? Were those men called thus to their high office by the high acclaim of a public assembly? For myself I have little doubt that before the Voice that spoke those few words was heard there had been heard another and more multitudinous one. That city of Antioch contained the first Church organised among the Gentiles, and it became in time the centre of those missionary activities by which the Roman world was evangelised. The prophets and teachers who began the work were supplemented later by Barnabas and Saul; end step by step in the simple story we may trace the unfolding of the organic life of the Church. There was an assembly first, and then there came to be the ecclesia--and it was this community of the brethren, it may easily have been, that, with more or less formality, first indicated its preferences, and pointed its finger of designation towards the men who were fittest and worthiest for the higher service of the Church. But this was not mission. That came into view when we read that the Voice which said “Separate Barnabas and Saul” was the voice of the Holy Ghost. It is not only “separate”; it is “separate Me.” It is not only for the work ye are to separate them, but “for the work whereunto I have called them.” And thus we come into the presence of that unique distinction which forever differentiates the enthusiasm of the disciples from all other enthusiasms. It was the enthusiasm of a new creation by the power of a Divine breath. It is the sevenfold power of God the Holy Ghost. Call it an influence, water it down to be a cult, disparage it as so much mysticism, verily you will have to tear yonder story to pieces before you can get that element out of it! Bereft of the mission and work of the Holy Ghost, calling, arresting, convicting, convincing, enlightening, transforming, empowering--the whole fabric of primitive history becomes somehow invertebrate, and crumbles into a shapeless mass of incident and talk. But a still further question remains. What was not alone the evidence or token of that mission, but its authentication? Was this the whole story of that mission--that certain men being assembled together, a voice said, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul,” and that then those who were named separated themselves and went away, and henceforth did their work as men fully and sufficiently authorised and empowered thus for its discharge? On the contrary, there is something more in the history, which we may not arbitrarily leave out, and which is just as essential to its integrity as anything that has gone before. “When they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them,” etc. Certainly there is no obscurity here. Juggle with the words as one may, he cannot separate the inward call and the outward ordinance, the spiritual mission and the factual commission, the Divine empowerment and the human authentication of it. There is a way which is of God’s appointment; there is a ministry which He first commissioned, and which they whom He first commissioned passed on and down to others. Its authority does not come up from the people; it descends from the Holy Ghost. And, as in the beginning, its outward and visible sign was the laying on of apostolic hands upon men called, whether to this or that or the other service--pastoral, priestly, or prophetic, yet still to an apostolic ministry--so it has been ever since. We turn from this scene at Antioch to those memorable ministries that came after it. One of them stands forth conspicuous above all the apostolates of its age--unique in its energy, unapproachable in its heroism, incomparable alike in the power of its preaching and in the inexhaustible richness of its writings. What fine scorn there is in those writings for that retrospective piety which lingered regretfully among the beggarly elements of the elder order and ritual--what impatience of the latter, what bold assertion of Christian liberty, what intense ardour of spiritual enthusiasm! Yes; but what scrupulous respect for authority, what careful observance of apostolic tradition, what reverent use of appointed means. There came a day when St. Paul is to set apart a youthful son in the faith to be an overseer of the Church in Ephesus. How does he do it? Does he tell him of the work that he is to do, and then simply dismiss him to do it? Does he say, “Go, my son, and tell men in Asia Minor the story of your Lord’s love, and write me occasionally how you are getting on”? Not such is the meaning of that clear and unequivocal language which he uses: “Stir up the gift of God which is in thee”--and which is in thee, not by inherited cleverness, or acquired learning, or popular endowment--but “by the laying on of my hands”; or, as the same fact is elsewhere stated, “Neglect not the gift that was given thee … with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” And thus once and again does this apostle of a spiritual religion guard against that disesteem of the outward institutions of the Church, without which history demonstrates that religion runs thin and runs out. (Bp. H. C. Potter.)
Church enterprises, how they must begin in order to be blessed
1. Not with worldly computation, but from the impulse of the Spirit.
2. Not with a premature shout of triumph, but with humble prayer.
3. Not trusting to human names, even those of Barnabas and Saul, but in the name of the living God on whose blessing all things depend. (K. Gerok.)
The messengers of the gospel, how they should be sent to the heathen
I. On the call and intimation of the Lord.
1. Those who send must be moved not by their own spirit, but by the Holy Ghost.
2. Those who are to be sent must be chosen, not according to the dictates of human prudence, but according to the evident marks of Divine grace.
II. With holy behaviour.
1. Those who send should fast, i.e., abstain from all superfluities in order to have enough for the wants of the heathen.
2. They should pray; the prayer of the sender cooperates mightily with the word of the preachers.
3. The messengers should depart with the imposition of hands; regularly ordained if they are to have an orderly ministry for the salvation of the heathen and the advancement of the Church. (Lisco.)
Church offices; their value dependent on the Divine choice of the Officers
The meanest office imposed on one according to the Divine call is worthy to be received: the greatest dignity is not worth running after. (Rieger.)
The first missionary ordination at Antioch
I. Why did the first missionaries proceed from Antioch?
1. On account of the flourishing condition of that Church.
2. According to the peculiar will of Divine wisdom.
II. The appointment of the first missionaries.
1. What men were appointed?
(1) Barnabas, the Son of Consolation.
(2) Paul the scholar.
2. Their ordination.
(1) Called by the Holy Ghost.
(2) Separated by the Church. (Lisco.)
The first foreign mission
I. Separated by the Holy Ghost. Missions are of Divine origin. Saul had been chosen for the work, but the Holy Spirit had finally to give the word of command and direction. With regard to these pioneers in mission work, note--
1. The Church from which they were called. It was a strong Church. It had a large membership, and men inspired to declare the will and instruct in the Word of God. Important as Saul and Barnabas were, there were those who could carry on their work after they were gone. The Holy Spirit does not ask any Church to cripple itself even for the sake of missions.
2. The circumstances of their calling. The Church was just in the condition to hear the Divine call. They were offering their services to the Lord, and God designated what their service should be. The Church or the man that offers all to God will be made use of somehow and somewhere.
3. How they were called. “The Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul.” Observe here--
(1) The personality of the Holy Spirit. “Separate Me I have called.”
(2) The rulership of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had said that when the Comforter should come, He would be the one to guide the disciples. This declaration now was being fulfilled. To Him believers should look for direction.
(3) The cooperation of the Holy Spirit. He did not say, “I have separated Barnabas and Saul,” but “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul,” that they might have back of them not only the authority of the Spirit, but the authority of the Church. Doubtless this was done that the missionaries might feel that they were sent forth by their brethren as well as by the Holy Ghost.
4. Who were called. “Barnabas and Saul,” the two chief factors in the edifying of the Church at Antioch. The Holy Spirit chose the two best men, the men that least could be spared. It is a grave mistake to send out to foreign fields third or tenth-rate men. Few Churches ever have made the sacrifice for the mission cause that was made by the Church at Antioch.
5. For what they were called. “For the work whereunto I have called them.” The “uttermost part of the earth” was in the thought of Christ and of the Holy Spirit alike. Their oneness is suggested in the wording of the call.
6. How their call was responded to. Cheerfully and promptly.
II. Sent forth by the Holy Ghost.
1. The missionaries departing. “So they … went down,” etc. They were not only called by the Holy Spirit, but directed by Him as to their journey. That guidance continued, the Holy Spirit not suffering Paul to go into Bithynia, or to preach the gospel in Asia. Those who are called of the Spirit may trust to the Spirit for direction.
2. The missionaries at work. “They proclaimed the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.” They entered upon their work with wisdom--making use of the regular channels for religious effect. Where pulpits were all ready for them they did not try to find new ones. They tried to reach God’s chosen people first as a means of reaching others.
III. Rebuking by the Holy Ghost.
1. The two missionaries were to score one more triumph for Christianity as against paganism, like that which was achieved by Philip in Samaria.
2. The sorcerer overcome.
(1) His opposition evidently had a mercenary inspiration. He was afraid of losing a powerful and generous patron.
(2) His rebuke--
(a) Was inspired by the Holy Spirit. More inspired denunciation is needed, but there is already too much of that which is uninspired.
(b) Justly characterised the man. Elymas was “full of all guile and all villainy.” He made his living by fraud and trickery. He was “a child of the devil”--doing the devil’s work by seeking to turn men to destruction. He was an “enemy of all righteousness”--hating the true as much as he loved the false. He was perverting the right ways of the Lord, and trying to make them seem like wrong ways. For such men today there ought to be the same righteous wrath and severe rebuke.
(3) His sentence. In this, inspired by the Holy Spirit, there was for the sorcerer--
(a) Terror. He was to feel the hand of the Lord upon him in judgment--to experience the power of God whom he had defied.
(b) Hope. It was to be for “a season” only. He was to have opportunity for repentance--to be blinded for a while that he might come out, if he would, into the marvellous light of the children of God.
(4) His punishment. He was blinded physically as he had blinded others spiritually. The impostor was unmasked, and deprived of his power to harm. The false had met with the true, and had been vanquished.
3. The proconsul convinced. The prompt, punitive miracle “taught” the proconsul--
(1) That his old teacher really was a “child of the devil,” instead of being a true prophet. Hence it showed him his danger.
(2) That Barnabas and Saul (henceforth Paul) were teachers accredited of God, and therefore to be heeded.
(3) That God was not to be trifled with, but to be feared and followed. And the proconsul, being ready to accept the truth, believed. The hand of the Lord was outstretched to save him as it had been outstretched to smite Elymas. The opposer of truth always will feel its weight--the seeker after truth always will receive its help. (M. C. Hazard.)
The first foreign mission
“Westward the star of empire takes its way”: and the same may be said about the star of truth. A new departure is now to be noticed in the policy of the Church, Propagation had thus far grown out of persecution; here is the first deliberate organisation--and that on behalf of foreign missions. Notice--
I. This beautiful picture of the Church in Antioch.
1. Strong people make a congregation strong. This body of disciples numbered among them a group of fine intelligent Christians. Besides the unnamed “prophets and teachers,” we recognise Barnabas and Saul, both brilliant, eloquent, scholarly men. It is not prince merchants, nor members of congress, nor fashionable women, that usually build up the piety of our families, unless they are devoted workers, and are constant in prayer.
2. Even inconspicuous Christians can be exceedingly useful. Nobody knows who Simeon was; Lucius received a message from Paul (Romans 16:21), but that is all that is heard of him. Manaen is not mentioned elsewhere. These are only a few among the plain Church members in Antioch--persons who often accomplish most for Christ today.
3. The missionary spirit is the first fruit of Divine indwelling in the hearts of believers (Psalms 66:16). It is not always the most vigorous Christians who are content to sit down and wipe their weeping eyes the moment they think they can read their title clear to mansions in the skies.
4. Those in high service may expect to be invited higher. These people were ministering to the Lord faithfully where they were, when the Holy Spirit gave them the chance of starting the first foreign mission in history. It is a pity that good men forget the chief glory of being Christians, which is to spread the truth swiftly and widely and vigorously.
II. This sudden appointment of missionaries. We shall find much instruction concerning evangelistic methods.
1. The Church should choose its best men for foreign missionaries. The great systems of infidelity are to be besieged by the finest generals the Church can select.
2. The Holy Spirit will tell such praying people whom to commission, Three times does this mention of the Holy Ghost occur. The high authority of the ministry comes straight from Christ; all the Church can do is to follow where He leads.
3. The missionaries should be well supported in each enterprise. Our Lord told His disciples to go forth two by two (Mark 6:7). There is great comfort in companionship (Proverbs 27:17). The most pathetic spectacle in this world is that of one foreign missionary in some distant heathen city. Paul never grew plaintive until he was alone. Elijah never lost his courage until he was alone.
4. Those sent out in prayer will be likeliest to return in triumph (Acts 14:26-27).
III. The account of the voyage and the general results of the mission. Let us notice--
1. Some of the successes.
(1) They had a safe voyage. The Mediterranean is exceedingly vicious, as Paul had reason afterwards to know. The Lord will make His providence protect those whom His grace sets apart for risky endeavour.
(2) They found free chance to preach the gospel. It is quite a grand success always to have an open door. The chief man in the city gave them a hearing. There is hope in every case when people give the chance for conversation.
2. Some set backs. It was to be expected that Satan would show himself somewhere. Things were getting serious for him: so he stirred up opposition from two sources.
(1) Earliest there came trouble from one of the devil’s children (verse 10). But God turned the wrath of man into praise (Psalms 76:10).
(2) Then there came trouble from one of God’s children. Mark left the company; Paul’s heart was grieved (Acts 15:36-40). It is sad to get weary in well-doing (Luke 9:62). Young Christians must be steadfast. Mark did better afterwards (Colossians 4:10-11). (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
The first missionary journey
1. “In the Church,”--how much is implied in these three words! Why this separateness of indication? Why not refer to the human family as a whole; the greater which includes the less? There must be some meaning in this society within society. Who ever speaks of society as a grand sum total of human life? The integer is broken up into innumerable fractions, but there is one fraction which says that it will and must become itself the whole number--that fraction is the Church. How many men does it take to make a Church? Two! Where do they meet? Where they please! What pomp and circumstance are requisite to constitute them into a Church? How much money? How much learning? None! Then they must be very weak? No: 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 in the dens and caves of the earth. And the moment two men come together to constitute a Church, nothing further is requisite but the presence of Christ. The Church is composed of redeemed and regenerated men. They are one in Christ: diverse in everything that enters into the composition of humanity, yet one in Him who breaks down all middle walls of partition. Why do they not, then, “cleave unto the Lord”? When we pray we are one; when we speak to each other we are divided. Then why do we not pray, and let opinion alone? 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. Pray on! Worship is the union of the Church!
2. “Certain prophets and teachers,”--different gifts, but the same subject. 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 that was going to be written. We have excluded the prophet from the Church; we call him “heterodox,” unsafe, not always to be relied upon; men speak of him with many parenthetic qualifications; they write about him with so many footnotes that the substantial text is reduced to a minimum. Yet it is the prophet that must lead us.
3. “The Holy Ghost said.” The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church; there He can whisper and touch gently the minds which He seeks to affect. Had we listened more, had we invited fuller confidences from heaven, we should have known that “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” The Holy Spirit must be our genius, our ability, our inspiration, our wealth. It is the function of the Holy Spirit to elect His own ministers: do not let us meddle with God in this matter. A. minister is not a manufacture--he is an inspiration! “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest,” etc. There our interest may well cease. Young men are not to be driven into the ministry; they are called to particular work and to particular places. The Lord hath a candlestick for every candle; He allots the place as well as calls the man.
4. A singular combination of the human and the Divine you will find in verses 3,
4. When the Church “had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on Barnabas and Saul they sent them away.” That is the human side. “So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost,” presents the Divine aspect. This was a joint 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.
5. The two men sent forth by the Holy Ghost and the Church had their way made clear for them. God will take care of His own ministers. No minister of Christ in all this world but has friends. You may meet an Elymas, but you will also meet a Sergius Paulus. But the true ministry develops the evil spirit of the times. We sometimes hear timid people saying that this or that movement may be good, but certainly there has been a great deal of rioting on account of it. 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. We are disabled by timidity. Did Barnabas and Saul write home 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!
6. It is beautiful to mark how Saul takes his right position by a most natural process. Nothing can keep down a man whom God has appointed to the throne. There will be no controversy, 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.
7. “Then Saul” wrought his first miracle. He fixed his eyes on the Sorcerer, and said: “O full of all subtilty,” etc. Truly his speech was then not “contemptible!” Stung by fire, he turned into a mighty and thrilling speaker. 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. We shall presently hear Paul’s first speech. Truly he begins in this chapter! He has been at home waiting, wondering, reading, thinking, and praying; and now his turn has come, and in this chapter we see his first miracle, and hear his first thunder, and know that the king of men has arisen in the Church! (J. Parker, D. D.)
The first missionary journey
1. At Antioch there was a very large Christian society. But, however large, it is always spoken of as “the Church,” and not “the Churches,” as was the case in Judea and Galatia. We do not wonder, therefore, at finding that there were several instructors, as was probably always the case. Variety of gifts, division of labour, adaptability for special service, a governing body, with other advantages, were naturally secured by this arrangement. In the present case it is very likely that each of the persons named was a man of some consideration and culture. God is a God of order; and however, in introducing into the world something new, men who are rude and unlettered may be employed, yet when things get into a condition that is to be permanent, then laws come into operation which belong to the ordinary requirements of common life. When you have not inspiration, you must have men who have original power and acquired knowledge, and cultivated faculty, which become “spiritual gifts,” fitted for “the work of the ministry and the edification of the body of Christ,” when they are sanctified by God.
2. There was something special about the exercises in which we find these men engaged. They were fasting and praying perhaps under the influence of the state of things in the persecuted Church in Judaea, and because there was a growing feeling amongst them that they should be making aggressions upon the world. As they fasted and prayed the Holy Ghost said, “Separate Me now, Barnabas and Saul,” etc. They had been called long before, and had been endowed with gifts and authority, but now they were to be solemnly set apart to go to their special “work.” They went forth, seeing perhaps the first step or two before them, but not knowing whither they were to be led.
3. In being called specially to set forth on a work of this kind, I do not know whether they were directed, or whether they were left to decide for themselves. If the latter, several circumstances and motives might have influenced them. Saul had been to his native place; what was more natural than that they should now go to Barnabas’s? And then the Church at Antioch owed its very existence to men of Cyprus. A sense of obligation to Cyprus, as well as the natural feeling of Barnabas, might determine them to go there first.
4. The first place they came to was Salamis, where they preached in the synagogues; it is not said with what success, unless there be an underlying implication of success, when it is said that “they had also John to their minister”; in which capacity, as Peter did not baptize Cornelius, and Paul tells us that “Christ sent him not to baptize, but to preach the gospel,” he probably assisted Barnabas and Saul by taking that work.
5. From Salamis they passed on through the island, to Paphos, but most likely preaching as they went. We have here, in vivid type, an image of that grand contest between truth and error which was then beginning--the age, with its inquiry and philosophy, looking on. First of all we have “a certain sorcerer,” the representative of corrupted Judaism and perverted intelligence. He has got a wonderful amount of knowledge from the study of the Divine Word and the science of the day, but he seeks to turn it to selfish purposes, and by false pretensions impudently pretends to be possessed of supernatural powers. This sort of thing was very common in that age, just as it is now, when some of the most gifted are to be found putting faith in communications from the dead--communications which never are anything that seems worth coming from “Hades” to tell! But, on the other hand, you have in Paul Judaism refined, elevated, purified--its prophecies fulfilled, its dark sayings illuminated, and the old faith developed into that high and perfect form of truth which is in future to rule the world. Then, in Sergius Paulus you have the age looking on. Sergius Paulus was “prudent,” most probably an earnest philosophical inquirer, who had seen the absurdity of idolatry, and the insufficiency of scepticism, and in search of truth was ready to welcome it however it came. He thinks he may learn something from Bar-Jesus, and therefore he listens. He hears of the other strangers, and he “calls for” them. When the two are brought together they are found to be opponents. Truth in the one instantly detects the lie in the other. Then there comes forth, at last, a manifestation of Divine power. Immediately there fell upon Elymas “a mist and a darkness,” etc. An outward and visible type of his spiritual state, and of the vanity of his pretensions! Instead of being able to be a guide it was his place to ask for those who might lead the blind. The intelligence of the age, in the person of the deputy, was subdued by “the power of God and the wisdom of God”--and thus he became an unconscious prophecy of what was afterwards seen in the Roman empire, and what will one day be seen in every part of the “round world.”
6. But now there comes a change in the language of the narrative. “Barnabas and Saul,” which we have always had before, now gives place to “Paul and Barnabas.” It is very singular that this change should take place just where this illustrious convert is introduced. It can hardly be thought, however, that Saul took the name of Paul out of compliment to the deputy. It is most probable that he had always had the name, and it came to be used in consequence of his becoming recognised as the Apostle of the Gentiles.
7. Passing from Cyprus, they went over to the continent, and got to Perga, and there Mark left them. We must not be too hard upon this young man. His conduct, no doubt, was very disappointing and mortifying to his uncle, and it greatly displeased Paul. He was inexperienced, and perhaps naturally timid. When he got to Asia, and saw the savage aspect of the country, heard of rivers and robbers, his young heart probably failed. Perhaps he thought that he was not called like Paul and Barnabas, and it is also very likely that his natural feelings towards Peter, his spiritual father, who was more to him than either Paul or Barnabas, had something to do with it. So the two men had, henceforth, to journey alone.
8. They travelled on; and probably the journey was such as to lead to the reference which we have in one of the apostle’s letters to “perils of waters, and perils of robbers, perils in the city, and perils by the heathen,” etc. At last they got to Antioch in Pisidia. There were a good many Jews in this city. On the Sabbath day they “went into the synagogue,” where they were recognised in the synagogue as brethren, though strangers. Their personal appearance indicated, possibly, that they were not ordinary men; or they had been long enough in the town to give rise to some curiosity. After that part of the service was concluded, in which the “minister” brought out the scroll, and read portions of the law and the prophets, the rulers sent to Paul and Barnabas, saying, “If ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on”--expressing both national and religious unity, which made the Jewish people one throughout all the world. Paul began by addressing himself both to the Jews and proselytes, and then “reasoned out of the Scriptures.” Referring to the history of the people, he sketched it from God’s first choice of them, through their fortunes in Egypt and the wilderness, down to the time of David. He then came out with the statement, “Of this man’s seed hath God raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.” He then referred to the ministry of John; the fulfilment of prophecy in the rejection and death of Jesus; and the fact that God had raised Him from the dead. After further “reasoning out of the Scriptures,” he came to the grand Christian proclamation:--“Be it known unto you” (verse 38). This was not the end of his speech, but it was the end of his argument; and the Jews who had listened up to this time rose up, were offended, and made for the door. Seeing them pressing out, Paul added the warning “Beware” (ye who are moving away) “lest that come upon you” (verses 40, 41). They went their way, but the Gentiles were left, and after Paul had spoken to them, the congregation dispersed. Some of the Gentiles, glad to learn what they had heard, with some of the Jews, accompanied Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them as they went along, and persuaded them to “continue in the grace of God.” What a week it would be that followed! And the next Sabbath “almost the whole city came together.” There were many of them who never would have gone under ordinary circumstances, and the Jews were offended. “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold” (verse 46). When they turned to the Gentiles, every man and woman amongst them who had anything like religious earnestness in them in seeking after eternal life, “glorified the word of the Lord, and believed.” (T. Binney.)
Barnabas and Paul sent forth
The original destination of Saul of Tarsus, when he was called to the apostleship, was to the heathen--or, as we should now say, to a missionary life (Acts 9:15; Acts 22:17-21; Galatians 2:8; Romans 11:13; Galatians 1:16; Ephesians 3:8). The appointment of Saul and Barnabas to this work was an important event in each of their lives, determining their own future course. It was important as the manifestation of a more just view of Christianity itself; it was the first development of the idea which has since gone so essentially and so far into the civilisation of the world: viz., that Christian nations should send to the heathen a knowledge of that to which they owe their own elevation. The following points here occur as proper to be illustrated.
I. The barriers which hinder the spread of a new religion.
1. Differences of nationality. Where nations belong to different races--where their independence has been established as the result of wars, where they speak diverse languages, where they have different religions, where they have peculiar manners and customs, where they are rivals in trade, where one is warlike and another peaceful--all these, and kindred things, constitute barriers not easy to overcome. Thus to the ancient Jews the whole world was divided, “Jews and Gentiles,” producing in their minds the feeling that they were the peculiar favourites of heaven, and that all others were outcasts. Thus the Greeks divided the world into “Greeks and Barbarians.” In modern times, a similar instance occurs among the Chinese, who regard themselves as the children of heaven, the “Celestials,”--and all others as “outside Barbarians.” In a world thus divided, any new religion that claims to be universal must find serious obstructions.
2. Distinctions in social life--of rank and caste. These exist within a nation, dividing the rich and the poor--the learned and the ignorant--the bond and the free; or they are based on a derivation from royal blood, an aristocracy or a priesthood.
3. Diversities of colour and complexion. The class favoured with what they deem a fairer complexion, have not only sought to enslave those of a different colour, but they have been slow to believe that, even in the eye of God, a dark skin is not an emblem of a darker debasement than is found under a white one, and seem to imagine that even the blood of the atonement fails to efface the distinction, and to place them in any manner on a level. This is the most formidable barrier of all.
4. Separate religious beliefs. The idea still prevails that the religion of each nation is, by the purpose of the Creator, their own--designed like their laws, customs, climate, mountains, etc., to separate them from other people--a religion good for them; adapted to them; intended for them; and not to be changed for another.
II. The difficulty of overcoming these barriers. This difficulty exists--
1. In those who regard themselves as of the more favoured class. How difficult for them to offer to others the same privileges as themselves, or to admit that others are on the same level! To counteract this narrow feeling in the apostles required all the skill of the Saviour Himself; and after three years’ teaching it required a special revelation to convince Peter that he should go and carry the gospel to a Gentile.
2. In men’s unwillingness to receive a communication in favour of a new religion from one of inferior rank or condition. Who knows not what a mighty obstacle this was when the gospel was preached at Athens, at Ephesus, at Antioch, at Rome? How hard it is for a master to receive the lessons of religion from those whom he regards as slaves--a prince from one of his own subjects--a rich man from a beggar--a philosopher from one occupied in the humbler arts. With what contempt would a Brahmin turn away from one of humbler “caste” who should undertake to teach him the nature of true religion. The relative condition of nations has changed in our times, and the missionary goes out under better auspices. He goes now from a land of civilisation, and science, and art, to those lands where such things are unknown; yet still this difficulty exists. Take, for illustration, the Chinese. An obstacle exists in their case as stern as in the case of Athens or Rome.
III. The teachings by which Christianity triumphs over these obstacles. It declares--
1. That mankind are one race; the children of a common parent; on a level before God. No truth more vital, more far-reaching, more powerful in its bearing on human rights and human liberty, more potent in elevating man, has ever been proclaimed to the world. Revelation describes the creation of man as the creation of a single pair, and declares that “God hath made of one blood all nations of men.” The doctrine of depravity which it urges pertains to men everywhere, as derived from the fall of that one pair; and it makes no exception when it says that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The Redeemer gloried in the title “Son of Man,” for He came not to take on Him the nature of the Caucasian, the Ethiopian, or the American, as such--but the nature of man.
2. That the work of Christ had respect to all men; and whatever there was in the atonement, as such, was designed for one as much as for another. There is no higher argument that can be addressed to men to prove their equality, than to say to them that they all have been redeemed by the same blood.
3. That the hopes inspired by the gospel are the same for every human being. When it makes known a heaven for one, it unfolds it for all. And it is a great thing to go forth to a world where men are separated from each other, and to say to them that, in the hope of immortality, they are all placed on the same level before their Maker.
4. That the way of salvation is the same for all. No one has any priority of claim by his rank, or enjoys any peculiar facilities for salvation by his titles or his wealth; and no one is excluded, or placed in less favourable circumstances, by his poverty, his ignorance, his servile condition. The prince and the sage are not more welcome to heaven than the poor and ignorant.
5. That all men are invested with the same natural rights to the light of the sun, to the tides, and the winds, and the stars; the same right to limb, and liberty, and life;--the same right to the air, and to the productions of the teeming earth, and to a spot wherein to sleep the long sleep when they are dead.
Conclusion:
1. The gospel cannot be preached without sooner or later breaking down every false distinction.
2. Christians, admire and adore the goodness of that Universal Father who has sent the messages of grace to you, so that you are “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” Our ancestors were heathens. The gospel raised them from their low condition. Be it ours to spread the religion to which we owe so much. Other nations have a right to it; and it would elevate them as it has done our fathers and ourselves. (A. Barnes, D. D.)
A place found at last for Saul
No place had been found big enough for Saul; Damascus, Jerusalem, Antioch--none of these could hold him. He had to go. There was that irresistible and expansive force about him. To shut him up in those rotten old cities, full of prejudice and artificiality, was like shutting up dynamite in an eggshell. Saul burst his fetters: he was beginning to feel his freedom. The world hunger took possession of him--the wide sea was before him--the future beckoned to him--the time was come and he had to go, and he went eagerly, elated, triumphant. The Church at Antioch probably heaved a great sigh of relief as he departed--they probably saw rocks ahead. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.)
The strength of missionary work
It consists in--
I. The call of God, which it follows.
II. The fidelity of the labourers, whom it sends.
III. The prayer of the Church, on which it relies. (K. Gerok.)
The best travelling attendance for a departing missionary
1. The Divine call concerning him.
2. The impulse of the Spirit within him.
3. The prayers of the Church behind him.
4. The sighing of the heathen world before him. (K. Gerok.)
Missions, home and foreign
A gentleman once said to Dr. Skinner, who was asking aid for foreign missions, “I don’t believe in foreign missions. I won’t give anything except to home missions. I want what I give to benefit my neighbours.” “Well,” the Doctor made reply, “whom do you regard as your neighbours?” “Why, those around me.” “Do you mean those whose land joins yours?” “Yes.” “Well,” said Dr. Skinner, “how much land do you own?” “About five hundred acres,” was the reply. “How far down do you own it?” inquired Dr. Skinner. “Why, I never thought of it before, but I suppose I am half-way through.” “Exactly,” said the Doctor; “I suppose you do, and I want this money for the Chinese--the men whose land joins yours at the bottom.”
Obligation of Christians to send out missionaries
A Karen convert in Burmah who was taken to America, and was asked to address a meeting upon their obligation to send out missionaries. After a moment of thought he asked with a good deal of meaning, “Has not Christ told you do it?” “Oh, yes,” was the reply, “but we wish you to remind them of their duty.” “Oh, no,” said the Karen; “if they will not mind Jesus Christ, they will not mind me!”
The duty of sending the gospel to the heathen
The possession of the gospel involves the duty of giving it to those who have it not. If the Jewish Christians of the apostolic days had not performed their duty in that respect, we should not have it now. Yet probably they regarded the Gentiles as quite as hopeless as we are apt to regard the savages of Patagonia. When in 1788 William Carey ventured to advocate an effort being made to send the gospel to the heathen, Rev. John Ryland, a venerable minister, reproved him. “When God pleases to convert the heathen,” said the clergyman, “He will do it without your help or mine.” But the son of that minister was one of the first to join in the great rejoicing when forty years later William Carey could tell of thousands of heathen who had received the Holy Spirit. The duty might involve difficulty, but he who loved his fellow man, and knew how much good the gospel would do to any who accepted it, would be anxious to preach it at any cost to himself.
Blessing sent to others
Loch Katrine, embowered among the highlands of Scotland, a poem in water, immortalised in story and song, till it seems almost transfigured with a glory beyond its natural beauty and charm, is yet the source of the water supply of the city of Glasgow, flowing down among the homes of the poor, cleansing the filth from the streets, bringing refreshment, cheer, comfort, cleanliness, and health everywhere. So to everyone who has the living water--and all the more if it is possessed amid wealth, culture, education, talent--is given the privilege of sending the living water in copious streams to the heathen, to the poor, to the sinful, to all who are in need.
Work of missions
I remember, when in Wales, seeing the men working in the quarries there. A man is suspended by a rope half-way down the stone quarry, and I have seen him there for a length of time boring a hole in the rock; and after spending much care and toil and time in boring the hole to a sufficient depth, I have seen him fill it with some black dust, and if I did not know what power lodged in that black dust I should say, “What a fool that man was to spend so much time in boring a hole in the rock, and then fill it up again!” But I know that that black dust is powder. There is a wonderful explosive power in it. And then when he has filled the hole with powder he has applied his fuse and lighted his match, and while the fuse was burning in the direction of the powder he has taken the opportunity of fleeing to a distance by climbing up the rope to the mountain top. Well, that is just what many of our missionaries are doing abroad. At present they are preparing the way. They are cutting a hole into the very rock of heathendom, and they are filling it up with the powder of Divine truth. What we want is fire from heaven to touch it. And God is doing it. He is preparing the people. By and by we shall have a mighty upheaving in this rock of heathenism and ignorance and superstition, and from it polished stones to adorn the temple of our Lord. (R. Roberts.)