Year 1, Day 246: Acts 13

The Church at Antioch

Before we get to the actual people in the story, let’s talk a little bit about the Antiochian church.  This presentation of church is vastly different than what most of us think about church.  Most of us think about church as a place where “I go to get fed, I go to learn, and I go to find the support I need to deal with living in an ungodly world.”  When I put it that way, it sounds all so selfish, doesn’t it? 

Rather, what is the point of the Antiochian church in these verses?  They exist to equip leaders and send them out into the world – even out away from their own community!  Yes, in order to equip leaders we must teach them and fed them.  But the goal is not for their feeding and growth.  The goal of the church is to use teaching and equipping to propel them into the world!  And that’s a perspective that is greatly lost in today’s religious culture.

Filled with the Holy Spirit

Now getting to the people involved, in Acts 13 we have a dramatic illustration of the difference between a person filled with the Holy Spirit and a person who is not filled.  Before we get there, though, let me talk about the call of evangelist/missionary.  Those words are identical with one exception.  Both words express a call to proclaim God, to proclaim Jesus Christ, to proclaim the Holy Spirit, and to teach about repentance, forgiveness, and salvation.  The one difference is that while a missionary leaves one’s culture to go into a foreign culture the evangelist proclaims the message to their own culture.

However, do not think one is above the other.  Both make the same sacrifices.  The missionary takes the risk of leaving their social network behind them.  The evangelist also risks leaving their social network but in a different way.  As the evangelist proclaims the truth of God the evangelist will experience persecution and rejection – especially among “friends.”  It is easy to pick out the missionary from the crowd: they are the one in a foreign culture telling people about God.  Yet it is just as easy to pick out the true evangelist: they are the one making their own culture foreign by telling people about God.  In that light, how much of an evangelist am I?  How much of an evangelist are you?

Paul is very much an evangelist (everywhere he goes the majority of the Jews loathe him).  But Paul is also a missionary.  He leaves his home in the eastern Mediterranean to head west and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  On this mark, we could also say Barnabas and John Mark are missionaries as well.

Elymas, Bar-Jesus

Now let’s contrast them with this Bar-Jesus (Bar-Jesus literally means son of Jesus, a name whose irony should not be lost on us).  He is also called Elymas.  What is Elymas’ goal?  Elymas is all about telling the proconsul what he wants to hear in order to keep the proconsul’s favor.  Elymas is about saving his own neck and living the good life.  What a contrast Elymas gives us in comparison to Paul and Barnabas who cast off their own people and the comfortable life for the sake of God!  No wonder the Bible remembers Elymas as a Jewish false prophet.

 Furthermore, look at how Paul accuses Elymas in this chapter: Son of a devil, enemy of all righteousness, and full of all deceit and villainy.  What is Paul’s great trilogy?  {No, not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit … although they are the greatest trilogy.}  Paul’s great trilogy of the Christian life is faith, hope, and love.  What is the opposite of faith if not being an enemy of righteousness?  What is the opposite of hope if not being a villain whose main characteristic is deceit?  What is the opposite of love if not being a son of a devil?  Paul accuses Elymas of far more than just being wrong.  Paul accuses him as being the opposite of a follower of God!  In that light, this is quite a critique.

Psidian Antioch

I’ll finish quickly with some words about Psidian Antioch (in modern day Asia Minor).  Note that Paul’s speech is no doubt a summary of what he actually said, but even in this it is the resurrection of Christ that is the crux and thrust of the argument.  Yes, the crucifixion is important for the forgiveness of sins.  It is the point upon which justification stands.  But the resurrection is future hope of sanctification.  The crucifixion has already happened and justification is there for any who desire to receive it.  The resurrection is in the future and the goal to which we press forward.

It is this fact for which the Jews ultimately reject Paul’s message.  Yes, they reject him because they are jealous of his attention.  But the reason Paul gets the attention is because the people want to hear more about this sanctification.  They want to hear more of this “life beyond the law.”  {By “beyond” I don’t mean “separate from” but rather “in addition to.”}

This leads me to the final point.  How do we recognize true faith being proclaimed?  True proclamation leads to God’s name being truly glorified.  True proclamation leads to true discipleship.  True proclamation leads to true repentance, justification, and sanctification.  The Gentiles give glory to God when they hear Paul’s message.  The Gentiles in Psidian Antioch turn to God.  The Word of the Lord spreads.

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