And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words.
Growth of apostolic power
1. There are always unexpected hearers arising to give encouragement to the preacher. Strangers are there, who spring up, and say, “This is the gate of heaven.” The Gentiles hailed the Word as strangers might hail tidings of home. We know some things not by direct intellectual instruction, but by subtle and inexpressible sympathy. We feel that certain words are true. We may not know music technically, but surely the dullest man knows when the right tune is being sung. The Gentiles heard a strange speech that day, yet they knew it. The Lamb was slain before the universe was built. The gospel comes to a measure of preparation. Somehow in the most savage breast there rises up an answering voice, saying, “This is what I have been waiting for.”
2. But preachers have to find out their hearers. Paul and Barnabas were no doubt amazed at the desire of the Gentiles. The invitation would have come naturally from the Jews. It would be a pleasant thing if our neighbours would invite us to this or that renewal of service, but they go away and leave us. But we are not alone; for God, who is able to raise up out of the stones children unto Abraham, raises up strange hearers, unknown hearts, and from them comes the cry which we cannot refuse to answer.
3. We think we have expressed the very last formula of science when we say the same causes produce the same effects; in all moral questions the axiom is not only doubtful but untrue. The Jews were “filled with envy,” the Gentiles were “filled with joy.” How do you account for that? It was the same Sabbath, preacher, doctrine, congregation. There the same cause did not produce the same effect. You are not dealing with cause and effect only in a case of this kind; you are dealing with the middle quantity, human nature. Like goes to like. The same preacher cannot minister to all people. A man may dislike this ministry or that solely because he may not understand it or be in sympathy with it, but to another man it is the very breath of heaven. Thanks be unto God, every true Paul has at least some few Gentiles who understand and love Him.
4. “Now, when the congregation was broken up” (Acts 13:43). Was it then all over? Congregations should never break up in the sense of terminating spiritual ministry. There were after meetings. Beza says that herein is a justification for mid-week meetings and lectures. “Now when the congregation was broken up, the people dispersed, and referred no more to the matter.” Does the text read so? It would read so if it had been written today. I never hear anyone make reference to the solemn engagements of the sanctuary after they are over. It is a decency observed, a ceremony passed through, a fact accomplished. In the olden time Christian service used to be the be-all and the end-all of the life of those who engaged in it. Here is life in the olden time (Acts 13:44-45). That was life I a man could preach then! Sermons were thunderbolts! Religious services were not opportunities for sanctified slumber; they were calls, as with the blast of a thousand trumpets, to the standard and to the sword of the Lord.
5. In the forty-sixth verse the ministers become new men. “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold.” There is history in these words; it was a critical moment; it was one of two things--the Jews by their blasphemy prevailing, or the apostles of Christ saying, “The day shall be ours.” Some men are so easily put down. Paul and Barnabas were not made of such material; history is not made of such stuff! Somewhere, in symbol or in speech, you must find the heroic element in every true man. I know nothing of that marvellous love of Christ that never mentions His name; that never touches His memorial bread or wine; that never gives Him a cup of cold water. Be ours the Christianity that is heroic and self-sacrificing. Let the world know that we are followers of the Cross. When I read that Paul “waxed bold,” I am not surprised; but when I read that Barnabas waxed bold, I wonder if he would have done so if Paul had not been there. Barnabas! take care that your strong brother is always nigh at hand when you go out to do Christian work, for in his strength you may be strong.
6. “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” How many poor souls have stumbled there, as if a door had been shut in their faces, whereas there is no door but an open one to the heart of God! Never found what you call good theology upon bad grammar. Happily these words, the most learned men tell us, might be read, “And so many as set themselves in order” were saved; as many as took up this matter; as many as accepted the Word; as many as disposed themselves in soldierly order and array went on to victory and honour. There can be no more terrible blasphemy than for any man to think that God has a spite against him, and will not let him be saved. God would have all men to come unto Him and be saved.
7. Notice an extraordinary expression. In Acts 13:46 “the Jews were filled with envy”; in Acts 13:52 “the disciples were filled with joy.” It is always so with the gospel; it is a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death; it makes a man a worse man, or a better man. But “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” The apostles said, “It was necessary that the Word of God should first be spoken to you”; but after that comes the withdrawal of the opportunity, the taking away of the light, the shutting of the hospitable door. This may be our last chance!” He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” (J. Parker, D. D.)
The results of Paul’s first reported sermon
I. A general spirit of religious inquiry (Acts 13:42). A sermon has done much when it has broken the monotony of thought, and excited the spirit of religious inquiry.
II. The conversion of many of the hearers (Acts 13:43). The fact that Paul and Barnabas exhorted them to continue in “the grace of God” implies of course--
1. That they had received it. Had been converted.
2. That there was a danger of losing it.
III. A great excitement amongst all classes (Acts 13:44). The words of Paul had struck into the heart of the population, and set the minds of all alive. During the previous week his sermon was the one subject of talk in all circles. All felt anxious to hear more; so that now, at the dawn of the Sabbath day, they gather in crowds to hear the wondrous truths again. The gospel breaks the stagnant atmosphere of the mind, and unchains the strong winds of thought.
IV. The stirring up of a bitter persecution (Acts 13:45). When the Jews saw the crowds of Gentiles flocking to the apostles, and treated by them as on terms of equality with the chosen people, their envy was kindled, the fiendish flame raged in their bosoms, and they began to contradict and blaspheme. They dealt in calumny, reviled them as heretics and false teachers. True and powerful sermons will excite antagonism as well as win converts.
V. The increased power of the apostles in their work (Acts 13:46). Like all true men, they grew greater in the presence of difficulties, and braver as perils thickened around them. Opposition never intimidates great natures in a good cause. On the contrary, it brings out their manhood in defiant attitudes. In the text we have three things--
1. The gospel offered by a Divine plan. “It was necessary,” etc. Why? Because Christ had commanded that the Jews should have the first offer. There were reasons for this. Their offer to the Jew “first” was--
(1) The strongest proof of the sincerity of their own faith. The Jew lived on the very scenes where the great facts of Christianity occurred. They were eyewitnesses of the whole.
(2) The strongest proof of the mercifulness of their system. The Jew was the greatest sinner; the Jews crucified the Lord of life and glory.
2. The gospel rejected by an unbelieving people. “Judge yourselves unworthy!” Is not this withering irony? The Jew thinks himself unworthy of eternal life! Proud spirits; they considered nothing too good in heaven or earth for them; they felt themselves worthy of heaven’s choicest gifts.
(1) Man’s conduct is his true verdict upon himself. A man is not what he may think he is, or say he is, or what others may judge he is. His everyday life pronounces the true sentence upon himself.
(2) Man’s sentence upon himself when he rejects the gospel is terribly awful. “Unworthy of everlasting life.” The man who rejects the gospel declares by the very act his thorough unfitness for eternal life. He dooms himself to eternal death.
3. The gospel promoted by earnest men. “Lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” We have no time to lose. Souls by millions around us want the salvation we are commissioned to offer. We have offered it to you. You have rejected it. Adieu, we hasten to other spheres. Two things are suggested here--
(1) A lamentable condition for a people. These unbelieving Jews are left--the apostles turn from them--the gospel is withdrawn. A greater calamity this than if the sun went down and left their heavens in sackcloth. Mercy will not always continue with a people. “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.”
(2) An obvious duty for a ministry. It was right for these gospel labourers to leave a rocky, sterile, and unproductive soil, and try elsewhere. Their field is the world. Ministers are justified and often bound to leave their sphere of labour. That ministry which is unsuccessful in one sphere is often prosperous in another. The apostles wrought wonders amongst the Gentiles.
4. The gospel designed for the world by the mercy of God. “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying,” etc. They assured them fruit of God’s special kindness to them.
VI. A practical acceptation of the gospel by a large number of the Gentiles (Acts 13:48-49). The idea is, that as many as were disposed unto eternal life--the gospel--believed in it; and this is evermore the case.
VII. The expulsion of the apostles from their coasts and their departure to Iconium (Acts 13:50-52). “Devout” in the sense of being proselytes, “honourable” in the sense of social rank. The persecuting Jews used the influence of these women to banish the apostles. Women have often been used as tools in the hands of persecutors. The persecutors so far succeeded that the apostles withdrew. “But they shook off the dust of their feet against them.” The act does not mean indignation. No fires of revenge or resentment glowed in their bosoms. It was a dramatic act expressing abhorrence of their conduct in desecrating the most sacred of missions. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Now when the congregation was broken up.--
The congregation and its dispersion
I. The congregation.
1. It is a wonderful thing when we reflect upon it. It differs from every other gathering. It is a mixed assemblage. Persons of all ages and of all ranks are here. Persons who meet nowhere else meet here. The house of mourning and the house of feasting alike contribute their quota to this one gathering. In this one place there is silence, except from certain authorised speakers, or at certain prescribed points. To the words of a man, one of themselves, all are bound to listen in respectful silence.
2. The inference which all must draw from such a scene is that there is a consciousness of a great want--the want of the knowledge of God, communion with God, directions from God. Men cannot do without a religion, and that religion must have its exercises. It could scarcely be accounted for, except on the supposition that there is a God, whom to reverence is man’s first duty, whom to know is life. And this supposition condemns us. We do not (it may be) know God, and we do not reverence Him. What the congregation does, the individual does not.
3. We may well form a high estimate of this great institution. What is done here tells upon the life; yea, upon the eternal life. Carelessness of thought, the entrance of the world and the devil into the heart here, does involve consequences of which none can set the limit. When we come together, as St. Paul says, in one place, it must be either for the better or for the worse.
II. The breaking up of the congregation.
1. He who sees the gradual emptying of this holy place, and pictures to himself the various scenes to which the worshippers are returning, may well look after them anxiously, and wonder where and how the seed sown is to have its development, if at all. Whither will the All-seeing eye track its dispersion? Shall there be any deed of darkness done by one who is now hearing the Word of God? Shall there be around any hearth thoughts of unkindness or words of dispute and bitterness? Or shall there be any lying down to sleep unblessed by prayer? Surely, if the sight of a congregation has its solemnity, the sight of its dispersion is more solemn and more anxious still. Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and of the table of devils.
2. In this case, an apostle had been the preacher, his topic was a new gospel, and the impression made had been such that the audience wanted to hear the same sermon again. And yet even when Paul preached, even when One greater than Paul preached, some believed the things that were spoken, and some believed not. It is even so now. Those who were satisfied with the hearing went away; those who desired to live by it stayed behind. Is there nothing now to correspond with this distinction? Where amongst us are the religious proselytes who follow the ministers when the congregation is broken up; use, in other words, the opportunities afforded them for a more private and personal instruction, link together the Sunday services by a chain of holy effort and assiduous devotion in the week between, and thus set themselves with all earnestness to grow in knowledge and in grace?
3. Paul and Barnabas felt that an attentive congregation, though a great blessing, is an ambiguous sign. They knew the precariousness, as well as the importance, of the spiritual life, and never rested satisfied with one symptom or evidence of a strong impression. They spoke to these new disciples, and persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. It is a great thing to set out well; it is more to run well: it is more still to end well. (Dean Vaughan.)
And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together;…but when the Jews saw the multitudes they were filled with envy.--
Denominational envy
And are not religious bodies sometimes guilty of this sin? Has it no existence in the breasts of professing Christians of different denominations? Is there no envy in Dissenters towards the Church of England, or of the Church of England towards Dissenters? Of Baptists towards Paedo-baptists, Paedobaptists towards Baptists? Of Methodists towards Congregationalists, and Congregationalists towards Methodists? What meaneth that disposition to suspect and traduce each other, which is but too common amongst all the divisions of the Christian Church? If one denomination prospers, are not all the rest too apt to look on with envious eyes, because theirs is likely to be eclipsed or diminished? Are not all the little arts of detraction most busily employed, and a hundred tongues made voluble to arrest the progress and limit the prosperity of the rising sect? And how much of this spirit is often seen in the conducting of rising congregations of the same denomination! What ill-will is often cherished by the members of the declining cause towards those of the prosperous one, and only because they are prosperous! They can never hear of the success of their neighbour society, their sister Church, without feeling and appearing uneasy and displeased, as if an injury were done to them; they profess to be incredulous of the fact; they suggest that it is more in outward show than reality; they do not scruple to mention drawbacks in the talents or perhaps the inconsistencies of the minister; detraction, yea, even slander, is employed against some of the members of this “prosperous” society, as it is sneeringly called. Such even in Christian Churches, or rather in the minds of some of their members, are the operations of envy. (J. A. James.)
Envy at the success of the gospel
A witness--
I. Against the envious.
1. Their secret pride.
2. Their evil conscience.
3. Their internal unhappiness.
II. For the envied. There must be something in it.
1. A truth which cannot be denied.
2. A good against which we cannot contend.
3. A blessedness which cannot be mocked away. (K. Gerok.)
The opponents of the gospel injure only themselves
1. They disclose their evil hearts (Acts 13:45).
2. They make themselves unworthy of eternal life (Acts 13:46).
3. They disgrace themselves by the bad weapons they employ (Acts 13:50).
4. They do not arrest the victorious course of truth (Acts 13:48-52). (K. Gerok.)
Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said,…seeing ye put it from you, and Judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life.--
Unworthy of eternal life
I. That clearly we all are, however exorbitant may be our estimate of our own excellencies. Finite merit can never entitle us to an infinite reward. If it were ordained that for each year lived in perfect virtue we were to have meted out to us one year more of heaven, he would be a rash man who would affirm that the reward was insufficient. But suppose that for each such year we were to have a thousand years in glory, who would dare to say that the reward was not far in advance of our deserts?
1. Try and form some idea of everlasting life, that you may be the better able to realise how little you can merit it.
(1) It stands contrasted with all forms of life in this transient world. We read of some who seem to have lived to an extraordinary age in primitive times. Yet each record ends with the words, “And he died.” Even Methuselah had to come to this at last. I have seen trees in England that possibly may have been growing in the time of Caesar, and there are trees in America that may have been young in the days of Moses, but even these have to die at last. Let your mind wander backwards until you reach the time when man first appeared, and back further through the long ages in which animal life assumed a thousand forms of wonder and beauty, while type after type appears only to pass away. Go back further still through those past ages whose history is written only in “scarped cliff and quarried stone,” until you reach the period inconceivably remote, when the earliest forms of life began to exist. Look back beyond that to the time when the world was desolate and lifeless, and back beyond that to the time when it was but a stormy aggregation of gases and vapours, and back beyond that to a time when the planet had no separate existence; and as you contemplate these vast geological periods, which have to be measured by millions of years, reflect that all these are but as a watch in the night as compared with everlasting life, and then tell me who can merit such a destiny as that.
(2) Try to present the wondrous vision of the future. Everlasting life! the glory of an age that has no period; a God-like life--a life in which existence itself must be an unmixed boon, because all that could interfere with its blessedness has passed away forever; and as you contemplate the wondrous object, pause and ask, “What can I do that I should win for myself such a prize?”
2. But now look at the other side. Although eternal life is so glorious, yet there is not a man in this congregation who can bring his own heart to be satisfied with the prospect of anything less. Promise to yourself, if you will, a thousand ages, or multiply that thousand by any number of figures, yet let it be understood that there is to come a term at last, sooner or later, and at once there is a bitter drop in your cup of pleasure.
3. But now place these two definite conclusions side by side--that we none of us can deserve eternal life, and that we cannot be satisfied with anything short of it. Bring these two facts together, and then you will find yourselves landed in one of two further conclusions--either that man is to be disappointed, and that human life is to be the victim of death, or else eternal life must become ours without our meriting it, that is to say, by deed of gift on the part of Him who alone has the power to impart it. Nothing can be more plain than the utterances of the New Testament upon this point (John 10:27-28; Romans 6:23; 1 John 5:9-11).
4. But if God has given it, why is it that we do not possess it? The answer is, that a gift needs to be accepted as well as given. The gift has not been given to each sinner severally, but it has been treasured up in the Son for all. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Over and over again we are taught that our eternal life is dependent upon our faith in Christ as God’s provision for our need. Now it is obvious that this faith is not an exhibition of merit, but rather a confession of helplessness. Hence clearly it follows that this life is only to become ours by deed of gift. We may receive a gift by an act of simple faith, but something more than faith is required to earn it. If, for instance, the condition had been prayer, we might have felt entitled to some sort of favourable consideration because we had struggled so long and so patiently. Or if the condition had been fasting, etc., we should have felt that our penances had established some sort of claim upon God’s mercy. Or had the condition been almsgiving, should we not have felt as if we had paid a very considerable, if not a sufficient, price for this wondrous boon? But faith is at once the simplest and the least meritorious of conditions, and in ordaining this God has not only proved that eternal life is a gift, but that it is a gift that none need find it difficult to appropriate.
5. And this leads to the next point, that there is no excuse for us if we do not possess ourselves of eternal life. If we had to earn it we might well despair. But what have we to say for ourselves if we are so blind to our own interests as to refuse to accept everlasting life as a gift? Are you possessed of eternal life? You have no right to remain uncertain about this. It is not too much then to say that you may become possessed of this blessed gift today. Will you spurn such a splendid gift as this? And will you barter this for fleeting trifles, and thus judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life?
II. But you say, “How can we avoid judging ourselves unworthy of eternal life if, as you have yourself shown, this is our real condition? If We are unworthy of it, nothing is gained by our abstaining from judging ourselves to be so.” This objection brings us to ask, “In what sense were these Jews judging themselves unworthy?” Obviously not in the sense in which we have used the words; had that been so, they would have been the more disposed to listen to the messengers who brought it as a gift. It is one thing to be absolutely unworthy of any particular benefit, and another to prove relatively unworthy of it when it is brought within our reach. If a benevolent man chooses to take a homeless street Arab and offer him the benefits of a comfortable home, it is clear that this fortunate boy is receiving treatment that he can lay no claim to; he is absolutely undeserving of it. If, however, his benefactor chooses to bestow all this kindness upon him, it is a deed of gift, and the unworthiness of the boy is no bar to his enjoying it. But suppose the silly boy does not know when he is well off, turns his back upon his benefactor, and prefers the gutter to the mansion--what do we say of him now? It is with quite a different meaning now that we affirm that he is unworthy of his benefactor’s goodness; and so absolutely we are all unworthy of everlasting life. But when God brings this unspeakable gift within our reach, we judge ourselves relatively unworthy when we treat the priceless treasure as though it were not a thing worth having. Now this is the great sin of man. “Ye put it from you.” All I that is how we pronounce sentence upon ourselves. Men put it from them--
1. When they are too busy with other concerns to pay any attention to this. The making of money, the improvement of our social position, the politics of the day, the claims of science or of art, these things are allowed to absorb the attention, while the great question, besides which all other things are mere trifles, How shall I inherit eternal life? remains unanswered and unconsidered.
2. When they endeavour to feel satisfied with a religion that does not impart this gift.
3. When they allow themselves to be blinded by prejudice, or held in bondage by the opinions of others. This was the way in which these Jews of Antioch put it from them. The first thing to be settled before we touch doctrines or party creeds is the question of life.
4. When they treat it with contempt, sneering at it as cant and hypocrisy, instead of examining carefully the nature of the spiritual phenomena occurring before their eyes.
5. By clinging to the sins and follies of which the apostle says so truly, “The end of those things is death.” We cannot sow the seeds of death and reap the harvest of life. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
Lo, we turn to the Gentiles.--
The apostles turning to the Gentiles
I. The results of the apostles’ labours are set before us in their variety.
1. We see their success. At Antioch “came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God” (Acts 13:44). At Iconium “a great multitude, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed (Acts 13:1). The quality of this success was, most encouraging.
2. This success was the cause of opposition. The Jews at Antioch, jealous over the impression made by Paul, contradicted what he said, and even cursed the name of Jesus and all concerning Him (Acts 13:45). Confront evil with the gospel, and you must expect an answer, as the sign that your challenge is satisfactory. A gospel which raised no opposition would be questionable.
3. Out of this opposition came failure. The apostles had to leave Antioch under the ban of the law with their work unfinished. Such is the mixed result of Christian work always. We know no place where the gospel has entered to convert every heart, where no opposition of any sort has arisen to check the peaceful conquest, where every soul has remained wholly true to the Lord Jesus Christ. No. The gospel wins its way by struggling with evil.
II. The causes of this variety of results are hinted at.
1. Man is shown to be responsible himself for his attitude toward the gospel. The Jews, to whom Paul preached first, rejected the gospel, and Paul told them that they had judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life (Acts 13:46). The Gentiles of Antioch, on the contrary, by their deeds, by their gladness at receiving the gospel and their glorifying God for it (Acts 13:48), showed that they were worthy of it in Paul’s sense. So there is a curious paradox in the coming of the gospel to men: men think it comes before them to be tested as to its truth, whereas it comes to test them as to their character, whether they are worthy to receive it or not. The responsibility for the result therefore rests with them.
2. At the same time Paul points to the mysterious fact that God works in the choice of men. Man chooses; and God is choosing in man’s choice. For God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Therefore Paul says (Acts 13:48) that “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” He shows us first the earthly stage, with the will of men directing events. Then he draws back the curtain and shows us God at work directing things His way, through the direction of men. But how shall we reconcile the two, the sovereignty of God with the freedom of the human will? They are irreconcilable to a finite mind.
III. The conduct of the apostles in view of these diverse results should be noticed.
1. As opposition arose in the form of contradiction, the apostles “waxed bold” (Acts 13:46). They told the Jews of Antioch plainly that they were unworthy of everlasting life and showed it by their deeds. They were not afraid of men. The strength of Christian confidence needs opposition in order to be fully seen.
2. As they left Antioch they warned its inhabitants most solemnly: “they shook off the dust of their feet against them” (Acts 13:51). This was a common Jewish symbolical act.
3. But the apostles did not stay in hostile Antioch while other fields lay untouched; they went on to Iconium. And when this, too, showed itself hostile, they “fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about” (Acts 13:6). They were but human. They did what they could. When they could do no more they went to new places, and so on and on. In our Christian work we are to do the best we can, using our wisest judgment, going on from Antioch to Iconium, and from Iconium to Lystra, if need be. But in all we are to remember that God works in our presence and in our absence; and even by preventing our active work may do through us better things than we know.
4. For all their hardships the apostles had an abundant joy (Acts 13:52). And it was just when conscious of their failure that this joy was given. It takes the night time and the prison to bring out the best songs. Earthly disappointment is God’s opportunity. Luther wrote his hymns of Christian exultation when his enemies were nearest to overcoming him.
IV. The general lessons of the passage are easily seen.
1. Humanity is a vast democracy in the presence of the gospel of Christ. There is no distinction of persons here. All fall short of the glory of God. All men are equal. The proclamation is to every creature. Let no man say ever that the gospel is not meant for him.
2. Salvation is of grace. The plan of it was formed away back in the counsels of eternity.
3. Every man is responsible to God for his relation to Christ. Our deeds are our own judges.
4. The Holy Spirit goes up and down the world seeking whom He may comfort.
Turning to the Gentiles
In this brief declaration we gather--
I. The deliberate judgment of the Jews. Theirs was no hastily formed opinion. They had learned what were the central truths of the gospel, and they deliberately said, “If the Gentiles are to receive this message, we put it away from us.” Abraham saw Christ’s day, and was glad. The ritual of the old covenant was typical of what should come. The life and death of the Redeemer fulfilled the words of their prophets. It was such a people, with such privileges, who, in rejecting the fulfilment of their own faith, judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, or decreed their own sentence of condemnation. The fact, historic in their case, is repeated every day. By our own deeds we decree our own judgment, by accepting or rejecting the truths of the gospel. No one will be condemned who has not by his own deliberate choice condemned himself.
II. The decision of Paul. It must be admitted that all his sympathies had been with the Jews. He too had once rejected Christ. He stood before the great crowd in Antioch, and heard their words of blasphemy. The Jews had formed their choice as between Christ and the Gentiles; the choice of Paul was made between Christ and the Jews. He chose Christ, and weaned himself from all his early associations. How keen a rebuke to many in all ages! Every one is called upon to choose between the gospel and its enemies. The question is not concerning family or business connections, how these would be affected by our choice. “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” Paul’s foes were “they of his own household.” Thus is Christian heroism the highest of all, never asking man’s opinion in order to follow it, but doing what Christ enjoins, whether men will hear or forbear.
III. The blessing of the Gentiles. It was the early dawn of the promised day. From henceforth there should be no difference between the children of men. “The light to the Gentiles” had come. It is no wonder, therefore, that “when the Gentiles heard this they were glad.” No body of men can reject the Word and cover up its truths from others. Whom and what one class rejects, another class will receive. There is no faithful minister but can find work somewhere. Whom one Church refuses, another calls. But the Gentiles, among whom we belong, may exercise the same spirit in other ways. Christ came to seek and to save the lost. It is possible that many a disciple may forget those who live in the hedges, and for whom the gospel feast has been spread. It is possible for us to become so Jewish as to think God despises whom we, in our sinfulness, despise. (D. O. Mears.)
The use of opportunities of grace
Such was the speech of the apostles Barnabas and Paul to the Jews who dwelt at Antioch, in Pisidia. That an opportunity had passed by them; that, being solemnly offered to them, they had rejected it; and now that it had left them. This was being fulfilled at that time all over the world, wherever the Jews had been scattered--to them “first was the news of this salvation sent”--they were first to be called into Messiah’s kingdom. But the Jews would not hearken, and so these gracious purposes of God were defeated--the offer of salvation passed from them to the Gentiles; their birthright departed from them. The first blessing was lost; and this was a loss which they could not now repair. It is a leading principle of that rule under which we are living--I mean, that all through our lives God is setting before us, at certain times, certain opportunities, upon our employment of which our after life will depend; that we are continually beset by opportunities which may be used, and which may be lost--but which, if lost, are lost forever. And, first, see how this has always marked the dealings of God with man. Begin at the very first opening--when God created Adam and Eve, and blessed them, and placed them in paradise. They were placed there in a state of trial; they had the opportunity of obedience or of rebellion. If they obeyed, there were before them the choicest of God’s blessings. We know that they transgressed, and that they lost this opportunity. And now look at God’s dealings with the children of Israel, which we are told are expressly recorded to instruct us in His ways. God chose them to deliver them from their hard slavery in Egypt, and to plant them in the land of Canaan. Here was their trial, their opportunity; and if they had obeyed, doubtless they would have gone straight up into the land, and God would have prospered them so that they would at once have taken possession of it: but they rebelled, and they lost their opportunity. God threatened to destroy them; but upon their repentance, at the intercession of Moses, He spared and pardoned them. But to what were they admitted by this pardon on their repentance? Not to the same blessing which they would have had. This was lost, and lost forever. Now they were told that, though accepted, they should not enter into the land of promise, but that their children should enter in if they were obedient. And again, in the case of those children, when at last they got possession of Canaan; God promised to cast out at once all their enemies, if they made no alliance with them, nor spared them. Here was their opportunity, and if they had used it, they would have had ever after a peaceable possession of their land; but they neglected it, and what was the result? God forgave them, and told them their enemies should not overcome them; but they had lost the full blessing--He would not now cast out these remnants of the people of the land, but suffered them to remain to be a perpetual grief and trial to His people. And to take only one more instance from the Old Testament. We read in 2 Kings, chap. 13, that the prophet Elisha, just before his death, promised, by a sign to the king of Israel, certain victories over his enemies, the Syrians, and he bade him, in token of his trust in the promise, smite on the ground with his arrows. Here was his opportunity; but, being weak of faith and faint-hearted, he “smote thrice upon the ground and stayed.” And what was the prophet’s conduct? He told him that he had lost this opportunity--that it was gone. “Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times, then hadst thou smitten Syria until thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.” And now, from the history of God’s dealings with men in Holy Scripture, turn to what we see in life around us. Here we may mark on every side the constant action of the very same rule. We may see it in the growth and strengthening of our bodies--childhood and youth are the appointed opportunity for this growth; if there be then provided food, and exercise, and the like, and so the frame is kept healthful and vigorous, the body reaches its full strength and stature; and, on the other hand, a starved and sickly childhood and youth will lead surely to a stunted and weakly manhood, and this can never be wholly replaced; a certain measure of health and strength may be afterwards regained, but not the full measure--that is lost, because the opportunity of growth is gone. And so it is in all around us. Seed time comes but once in the year, and he who loses that, may weep in vain for a harvest, but he cannot reap. And so it is with a man’s business and his fortune. See, then, how this principle runs through all of God’s dealings with men; and now see how forcibly it applies to the higher and better life of our immortal souls.
1. First, then, it applies most awfully to the whole space of a man’s life here, as a preparation for eternity. Here is his trial--his opportunity--extending over more or fewer years, as God may appoint; but, be it shorter or longer, forming altogether his only opportunity of preparing for eternity, and if lost, lost therefore forever.
2. But this principle applies not only to the whole of our lives here, as our only opportunity of preparing for eternity, but also to all the particular circumstances of life, through some of which we are every day passing; and it is this which I would desire you more especially to notice. Take a few of them as examples of the rest, and begin with the very first. When by baptism we are brought into the fold of Christ, some measure of God’s most Holy Spirit is then doubtless given to us. Now here is a special opportunity; for, if these strivings of the Spirit of God be attended to--if the child, is a holy child, and does not, by resisting the Spirit, drive Him away, his heart is purified in an especial manner; the habits grow up pure, and there is a meekness, and gentleness, a purity and simplicity, a tenderness of heart, and a deep quiet delight in God’s service, which is most rarely known in its entire fulness by those who have wandered from God, and lost the first opportunity of a religious childhood. Here, then, is an opportunity of gaining a blessing, which, of God’s mercy, may last all our life through, and which if lost cannot be regained. And this early blessing is the type and earnest of others which, all our life through, are waiting upon unnumbered opportunities to pour upon us in all their fulness. From the greater occasions of our life--from our holy vows at confirmation--from the marriage blessing, and the funeral separation, down to every duty and temptation of our common days--from the monthly eucharist to the Sunday’s worship. And now, from this view of the character and condition of our life, there flow many and most important lessons.
Two or three of the chief of these shall be pointed out to you in conclusion.
1. And, first, this subject teaches all of us a lesson of habitual watchfulness. What a picture is this of life! how full is it of the seeds of things! how great a blessing or how great a loss lie hid continually under its most common opportunities!
2. Let us learn, secondly, another lesson--and that, one of humiliation. Let the most watchful look back upon his course, and how thickly will he see scattered all along his path the memorials of too frequent negligence--lost opportunities; each one, like broken urns, with its blessing spilled upon the ground and its grace wasted.
3. Lastly, with humiliation for the past, let us learn, for the time which yet remains, a lesson of earnestness and patience. (Bp. Samuel Wilberforce.)
Man’s need and God’s help
There is no great boldness in reading that now, and it does not precisely appear that it was a very bold speech in them; but it was. So we find constantly, in the apostle’s ministry, that while he began with the Jews, they very soon turned against him, and he had his chief success among the Gentiles. It is very hard for old men or the ruling class to have young men or a new class come in and take the reins out of their hands. Among the Jews the word “Gentile” was a hedgehog, all bristling. It was one of those words of indignation which exist in every language, and which change in every period, by which men express the pent-up prejudices and hatreds which are collected in them with regard to certain classes and certain tendencies. It was very bold, therefore, in Paul and Barnabas to say what they did--that the Gentiles were more worthy of Christ than the Jews were, according to the testimony of the Jews. Now, by reason of changes that are going on I observe a good deal of disenchantment. It is a very painful thing, I think, for a man of any sensibility to give up that which has come down to him from his childhood, and which carries with it the memories of his father and mother and of his own early life. What you believe when you are young you cling to with great tenacity. All the mystery and charm that the imagination and the twining affections inject into any thought or belief renders it exceedingly precious and beautiful. As when Nature etches--in the winter--on panes of glass, pictures which no artist dare touch, because to touch would be to mar, so there are these natural inspirations of childhood’s early days, which are exquisite, charming, and which, if they are marred, are beyond rectification. Alas! that the kindling of a fire in the stove for domestic uses should destroy all these pictures, and that the wonderful picturesqueness of Nature should melt with the growing convenience of the household! If you are losing all your early thoughts and imaginations, if you are losing all sense of sanctity, and nothing else comes to take their place, woe is you! Scepticism is to human life what the arid sands of the Great Sahara are in Africa--unpopulous, ungarden-like, useless, dreary, death-dealing to those who dwell in them. But if, while you lose the poetry of early impressions, you are somewhere else gaining a firmer foothold, and are subjecting yourself to impressions that are mightier--that is, that run more nearly with the educated tendencies of a just reason--then you lose no power over the moral sense: you even gain power over it. When I was a student in Amherst College I used, in autumnal days, to go up on the tower of the chapel in order that I might see the clearing off of those mists which would steal in with the darkness, and cover with a silver veil the whole of that magnificent panorama of the valley of the Connecticut--a beautiful valley full of sparking villages and undulations of land. When I came very early in the morning--though never before the sun had come up--this vast landscape had its own new mountains. I saw that the mist, following the secret touch and the warmth of the coming sun, had lifted itself up: and there were elevations here and openings there which, as compared with the shores of mist round about them, looked like deep seas. There were fantastic rifts and scarfs, and everything that was strange and weird, and shadows of hills as yet undispersed. As I stood and looked upon that picture, and made it more picturesque, I was filled, and I filled it, with my own work. The sun, steadily rising, and penetrating, and agitating, drank up the vision; and in half an hour the whole thing had taken wings and faded away into vacuity, and there was nothing of it to be seen; but when it lifted there were Mount Holyoake, Mount Tom, Sugarloaf Mountain, Hadley, Northampton, all the mountains and villages, and a great territory of peaceful and beautiful farms. The mist had gone, to be sure, but the landscape was as charming as the mist had been. So when men, looking back upon the beliefs of other days, see that they take wings and fly away, woe be to them if there is nothing under them; but blessed are they who, when the mist picture is gone, see the substantial earth lying sweet and beautiful underneath their sight. Upon this state of facts I propose to give an account of what is the substance matter of the New Testament teaching, and to ask you whether religion as it is taught there is not justified, by your experience and by your moral sense, to your reason. (H. W. Beecher.)
Turning to the Gentiles
The history reminds us of--
I. The narrowness of orthodoxy. To be right in our opinions is immensely important; but history shows that orthodox people are apt to dislike the progress of opinions. Moreover, we are all apt to think ourselves orthodox; and so Protestants are apt to be grieved when they hear of the success of Popish missionaries, and vice versa. More is thought of the progress of the one or the other than of the overthrow of idolatry. So here the Jews instead of rejoicing that the Gentiles were leaving heathenism were envious at their becoming Christians.
II. The possibility that excellent persons may become the tools of bad men (verse 50). Otherwise, in this case, the envious Jews would have been harmless. The Jews persuaded these ladies, and the ladies their husbands, that the apostles were dangerous men. Just as priests in Roman Catholic countries stir up excellent people to persecute Protestant teachers. Similar things happen in this country. Always suspect those who incite you to dislike your neighbours.
III. The fate of the benefactors of mankind. We must not take it for granted that beneficence will be rewarded with gratitude, but that more often than not we shall meet with the fate of Paul and Barnabas.
IV. The right method of dealing with prejudiced and obstinate sceptics. After having placed before them the considerations which ought to convince them, let us go to others who will listen more readily. To argue further with them will only inflame their self-conceit; and there are multitudes yearning for the truths these men reject. Life is too short to be wasted in duels with men who will not receive the truth.
V. The glorious fact that Christ is the saviour of the world. Not of Jews only. Let this thought check us when we are inclined to be intolerant. He is the Saviour of all who believe--whatever their doctrines may be. Let this comfort us when we are suffering from intolerance; those who hate us may excommunicate us, but they cannot cut us off from Christ.
VI. Christian joy is independent of outward circumstances (verses 51, 52). The loss of the apostle had its compensations. (R. A. Bertram.)
The severe farewell
1. Not the language of cowardly fear of men, but of resolute obedience to the intimations of the Lord.
2. Not an expression of proud contempt, but of commiserating pity towards the despisers of salvation.
3. Not a signal to a lazy retreat, but to a new field of labour. (K. Gerok.)
The gospel for the Gentiles
In Flanders there is a pretty legend told of a place called Temsehe. A clear fountain was in a farmer’s field. He was a churlish man, and would not let the villagers go into his field to draw water from it one hot summer, when the land was parched, and all the wells were dry. Then a holy maiden, living there, went and filled a sieve with water, and shook it over the neighbouring common, and wherever a drop fell, there sprang up a living fountain. Now the old Jewish nation was much like that farmer, that would keep Divine grace for itself alone. It would have the living fountain of spiritual life for its own use only, and deny it to the Gentile world. But then came the apostles, who took up the living water given them by Christ, and scattered it over all the wide earth. (Baring Gould.)
Gather the outcasts
If you have been mainly labouring with the children of godly parents, and these refuse, turn you to the slum children. If you have tried to bless respectable people, and they remain unsaved, try those who are not respectable. If those to whom it was natural and necessary that the word should first be spoken, have put it from them, turn to those who have hitherto been left out in the cold. Take the Lord’s hint in this apostolic history, and distinctly turn to those people who are not yet gospel hardened. Turn to those who have not been brought up under religious influences, but have been looked upon as without the pale. That, I believe, is the Lord’s mind towards the Church of today. Let her break up fresh soil, and she will have richer harvests. Let her open new mines, and she shall find rare riches. We too often preach within little circle where the message of life has already been rejected scores of times. Let us not spend all our time in knocking at doors from which we have been repulsed, let us try elsewhere. If you work for Christ among those who are in our religious circles, and fail to win them, the field is the world, and the larger part of that field has never been touched as yet. We have laboured for London; but if London counts itself unworthy of eternal life, let us think of Calcutta, Canton, and the Congo. If these near ones will not reward our endeavours, let us be of enterprising spirit, and do as traders do, who, when they find no market at home, strike out new lines. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Light for men who are to see
If I saw a wise man going into a blind asylum, laying on gas or making preparation for the electric light, I should feel sure that he had a view to people who can see; and if none but blind people could come into the building, I should conclude that he anticipated a time when the poor blind folks would find their eyes again, and would be able to use the light. So, as the Lord has set Jesus to be a light, you may be sure that He means to open blind eyes. Jesus will enlighten the people, souls will be saved. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Jesus a Saviour for all
God has not appointed His Son to save a few dozen people who go to a particular meeting-house. He has set Him to be a light to the nations, and He means He shall be so. This encourages us to labour among all classes. Jesus is a fit light for the upper ten thousand, and some of them shall rejoice in that light: He is equally set to be a light to the teeming millions, and they shall rejoice in Him, too. What God has appointed must be carried out. Jesus is yet to be a light to outcast people--to the persons of whom we have never thought favourably, the classes whom even philanthropy has felt ready to abandon. This is God’s set purpose concerning His Son Jesus, and His omnipotence will carry it out. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Seeing the sun
The Burman Missionary tells the story of an old man who, years ago, when a heathen, came in possession of a copy of the Psalms, in Burmese, which had been left behind by a traveller stopping at his house. He began to read, and before he had finished the book he had resolved to cast his idols away. For twenty years he worshipped the eternal God, revealed to him in the Psalms, using the fifty-first (which he had committed to memory) as a daily prayer. Then, having occasion to go to Rome, he fell in with a white missionary who gave him a New Testament. With joy unspeakable he read for the first time the story of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. “Twenty years I have walked by starlight,” he said. “Now I see the sun.”
A light of the Gentiles
Dr. Vanderhemp was a Dutch military officer, and then a distinguished physician. For some years he was a sceptic, but he was converted. When converted, he gave up all for Christ, and, at the age of fifty-one, sailed for South Africa, where he laboured amongst the natives for thirteen years with singular self-denial. Well did the venerable Moffatt say of him: “He came from a University to teach the alphabet to the poor naked Hottentot and Kaffir; from the society of nobles to associate with beings of the lowest grade of humanity; from stately mansions to the filthy hovel of the greasy African; from the army to instruct the fierce savages in the tactics of a heavenly warfare under the banner of the Prince of Peace; from the study of medicine to become a guide to the Balm of Gilead and the Physician there; and, finally, from a life of earthly honour and ease to be exposed to perils of waters, of robbers, of his own countrymen, of the heathen, in the city and in the wilderness.”
The great alternative
The Jews contradicted, the Gentiles were glad as effects of the same gospel. The gospel is a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. As on the highest Alps, up there where the summits join the clouds, there are masses of ices which, when acted on by the sun, pass down as refreshing streams, beautifying and fertilising the country through which they pass, and side by side with those, other masses of ice which, when acted upon and loosened by the same sun, rush down as roaring avalanches, carrying death and destruction in their path, and at last dashing themselves to pieces on the crags beneath; so it is to men to whom the gospel comes. It may be with one man operating as “the power of God unto salvation,” blessing him and making him a blessing, whilst with his neighbour, if it is not producing this benign effect, it is hardening his heart, adding fearfully to his power for evil in the present world, and preparing for him the darker condemnation of the next. If the gospel is not the sun to soften the wax, it is the sun to harden the clay. (J. A. Macfadyen, D. D.)