So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.
So they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, departed.
Remarks:
(1) How little mere critical acumen, especially when tainted by unhappy rationalistic prejudice, suffices to throw light on such a history as this-or rather, how it often darkens what is perfectly clear-appears strikingly in the argument of Schleirmacher against the historical accuracy of this book, drawn from the order in which the five persons are named in Acts 13:1. He thinks it incredible that, in any authentic narrative of these events, the last place should have been assigned to Saul. Even Bengel and Baumgarten, who set this down to the apostle's modesty and humility, have not taken such a natural view of the passage as they might have done. In the light of the simple explanation we have given, we venture to think that the historian has arranged the names just as the circumstances of the case at the time would naturally suggest. Be this, however, as it may, can anything more painfully show how critical sagacity can distort what it seeks to illustrate, than this petty cavil of the great German?
(2) The distinction between what is official and what is purely spontaneous in the work of the Church, comes instructively out in this short section. Not to speak of the labours of Stephen at Jerusalem and of Philip at Samaria-though holding no official position, that we know of, beyond that of deacons for the distribution of temporal provisions-it was surely good substantial missionary work which was done, all spontaneously, by those persecuted disciples who found their way to Antioch; and a rare seal it was which the Lord put upon it, when out of it He made to stand forth that new thing in Christianity-a church of the uncircumcised, and one which so won the admiration of Barnabas that he was constrained to throw himself into it as a congenial field of labour, and found it rich beyond his unaided power of cultivation. But when something more systematic, more continuous, more difficult was required in the missionary field, and Barnabas and Saul were to be honoured to undertake it, an express order of the Spirit comes through prophetic men to "Separate unto Him" those two men for the missionary work whereunto He had summoned them. Yet this being done by the laying on of hands, with prayer and fasting, they are said to have been "sent forth," not by the church that set them apart, but "by the Holy Spirit." It is impossible not to see in this an evidence that there was designed to be in the Church a work of ministry of a higher and more formal character than the spontaneous evangelistic efforts of private Christians, which the Church should nevertheless develop and encourage, and on which the Lord will assuredly smile.
And further, from this incident it will be seen to be the will of the great Head of the Church that those whom He has called to such official work should not go forth to it of themselves, but should by the Church, through its recognized organs, be taken by the hand and solemnly set apart to it. These two spheres of Christian labour-the official and the non-official-agree well together, and each is fitted to strengthen the other. On the one hand, those private Christians whose gifts and impulses for evangelistic labour will not suffer them to keep silence, but constrain them to speak the things which they have seen and heard, should be content to occupy their own sphere, and be satisfied with the success-sometimes astonishing-which attends their casual, scattered, miscellaneous efforts, without intruding into the higher spheres of the Christian ministry; which when they do, they make it painfully evident to all discerning persons that they are out of their proper walk.
But those, on the other hand, who have been solemnly set apart to official service in the Church, should beware of frowning down the work of such as have received no formal 'separation' to it, and viewing its results with suspicion, as irregular and disorderly. In times of spiritual lethargy there will be few such efforts to put down. But when the dry bones of an apathetic Christian community begin to be shaken, and the breath of the Spirit of God enters into a multitude of souls in different places, then it is that quickened Christians, rejoicing in a felt salvation, speak, because they believe, wherever they have an open door; and while in general confining themselves to very limited spheres and quiet modes of operation, some discover themselves to possess rare preaching gifts, whose fervid addresses are listened to by gathering thousands, and hundreds are turned through them from darkness to light, as they move about from place to place.
Such work it will be the wisdom of the true ministers of Christ to recognize and to hail. The solid fruit of it, when the workmen have departed to another place, remains for them to gather, in the accession to their flocks of souls added to the Lord, to be by them built up on their most holy Faith, in a deepened earnestness, diffusing itself perhaps over the entire worshipping community, and in a quickened tone imparted to their own ministry. It is only when such zealous labourers, lifted off their feet by the success they have had, begin to think of settling down in some one place, and setting up for themselves as pastors of a flock, that they are to be blamed. But neither in this case need the ministers of Christ disturb themselves; because the most effectual way of dealing with such persons is to leave them to themselves, until their folly becomes manifest to all men, and they themselves are fain to leave a field which the result has proved their incapacity to cultivate.
(3) The strength and activity into which this Antiochene church appears to have risen so rapidly may furnish materials for thought as to how the energies of young Christian communities may be developed. The special way in which the Gospel first reached them, and the novelty at that time of a church composed, as theirs was, of the uncircumcised, tended no doubt to stamp upon it a certain freedom from traditional trammels, and a simplicity and freshness of character all its own. But even when Barnabas came to them from Jerusalem, and remained to labour among them, aided afterward by Saul from Tarsus, no jarring seems to have occurred between what may be called the official and the non-official elements, but both seem to have worked harmoniously, and the Gospel to have made steady progress. Then, when the predicted famine brought distress upon their Jewish brethren in Palestine, they raised a contribution for them, thinking probably that if the Jews had sown unto them spiritual things, it was no great thing if they in turn should reap of their carnal things (1 Corinthians 9:11).
And as this act appears to have been self-prompted on the part of the Gentile Christians at Antioch, rather than done in compliance with the suggestions of Barnabas and Saul, we are disposed to think that the very absence of apostles and apostolic men, at the first formation of this church, tended to develop a spirit of self-reliance and spontaneous activity, which rose into vigour when they were more fully organized. Certain it is that, in proportion as the people in Christian churches are overlaid by ecclesiastical machinery, and are accustomed to have all things done for them by men officially set apart for such purposes, their own energies either lie dormant or are greatly cramped; whereas, when they are taught and encouraged from the first to show practically what they owe to the Lord who bought them, to their fellow-believers scattered abroad, and to the vast outlying world, they are not slow to learn the lesson. What beautiful illustrations of this are afforded by the religious activities of young Christian communities that have sprung up within our own time in various parts of the world-in the South Seas, in the revived Nestorian Church, and in some parts of India!
(4) The special fitness of the two men selected by the Spirit to inaugurate the grand Missionary Enterprise must strike every intelligent reader. Barnabas, as a Levite, a man of substance and a Cypriot, already of mature years, would carry a certain weight with him; his largeness of heart (Acts 11:24), and persuasiveness of address (Acts 4:36), would find him ready audience for his Master's message; while that fullness of the Spirit and of faith by which he was distinguished would raise him above hardships and dangers, draw forth his compassion for perishing souls, and enable him to hold up to them the sovereign remedy with unction and power. It may surprise us that we have no such specimens of his preaching as of Saul's, nor indeed any express mention of his having ever addressed the people whom they visited; but, perhaps, that is owing to the particular department of the work which he selected. If we put together all that we read of him, we shall probably not err in supposing that while Saul undertook the more public proclamation of the Gospel, and disputed with those who opposed themselves, the less prominent but scarcely less important department of private conversation-answering inquiries, filling up the outlines and enlarging on the topics rapidly touched by his companion-fell to the lot of 'the son of exhortation.' As for Saul, his wonderful power of adapting himself equally to Jewish and Gentile audiences, to the refined Greeks of Athens and the rude barbarians of Lycaonia, to crowds in the streets of Jerusalem and to a few women assembled for prayer on the green bank of a river at Philippi, to a sanhedrim of Jewish ecclesiastics, and to the civil tribunal before Agrippa and Festus, has impressed every thoughtful reader of his history; while his heroic devotedness to Him whose Gospel he had once hoped to root out from the earth, and that rare combination of intellectual power, energy of purpose, and womanly tenderness, which make his addresses go to the stoutest heart, stamp him as a man of an age.
We speak not here of his writings, but of his qualities by nature and his gifts by grace as a missionary preacher and teacher of Christianity, in which he stands forth confessedly unmatched. But if each of these men was richly endowed for the work entrusted to them, their adaptation to each other is not less observable. The service which Barnabas rendered to Saul on his first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion, in removing the scruples of the apostles as to his real character, would never be forgotten; and his going to Tarsus for him, and the harmony and success with which they laboured together at Antioch, went together to Jerusalem with a contribution for their necessitous brethren, and together returned to renew their labours, until they received the divine call to go forth on this great mission-all go to show them well matched, probably by nature, and certainly by long association in the work of the Lord.
Finally, it ought not to escape notice that those who were divinely selected to begin the great missionary enterprise were not novices-however gifted, however devoted-but men already inured to work of that very kind, both in the Jewish field and in the Gentile; while the younger of them, who was to eclipse not only his senior but all others in the service of Christ, had already endured no little hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, his life having more than once been in imminent peril from the enemies of the Gospel. Is there no lesson here to the churches of our own day, as to the choice of men for the missionary work? We may, indeed, be glad to take what materials we have, rather than neglect the great duty of making disciples of all nations until men of high capacity and Christian attainments volunteer their services. But if there is one truth which more clearly than another stands out on the face of this narrative, it is this, that the Lord of the Church deems the missionary work a field for the highest endowments both of nature and of grace; and that as those who possess them should be prepared to consecrate them to this work, when the divine will to that effect is sufficiently indicated, so the Church should count it an honour and privilege to give away to this service the best of its sons.
Sailing to Cyprus, They Preach in the Synagogues of Salamis-At Paphos Elymas Is Struck Blind, and the Proconsul Is Converted (13:4-12)
So they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus - in order to take ship there (see the account of Antioch and Cyprus on Acts 11:19). 'The two apostles (says Baumgarten beautifully) are now standing on the shore of that great sea which washes the islands and the coasts on which are situated the central interests of the nations and languages of the earth. Shall they then at once set off for the ultimate object of their labours, or only attempt gradually to draw near to that their highest but remotest aim? To their spiritual eye, piercing into the remote distance, the great island of Cyprus is the first object that presents itself. It was the birthplace of Barnabas, and the native country of all those who had especially contributed to the formation of the first church of the Gentiles in Antioch. How could they ever pass this island, which possessed so many ties and attractions to them? Such considerations induced them to make Cyprus their first landing-place, and the first scene of their labours.'