The Gospel Opposed

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 6 November 2016

We have been studying the ministry of Paul and Barnabas in the city of Antioch. That city was in a region called Pisidia which was in a larger area called Galatia. This is the first missionary journey. Paul and Barnabas were two of the five pastors of the church in Antioch of Syria, a different Antioch, and they had been called of the Holy Spirit to go out and carry the gospel to the Gentile world.

When Paul arrived at the synagogue there, he was invited to preach and his sermon affected the whole city. It was the most influential thing that had ever happened in the city of Antioch. Whenever the gospel is proclaimed in the midst of sin and wherever there are unsaved people, it is bound to have results that are going to be shattering. The gospel was preached in Jerusalem and it exploded. But there was also persecution that came about, and bitter opposition and hatred.

Then the gospel moved to Judea and Samaria as our Lord Jesus had said that it would and as it spread into those areas, and the same devastating results came to pass, turning things upside down. There were people committed to Christ and others hating them and fighting and resisting them and the forces of God for good were set against the forces of Satan for evil. That is always how it is when the gospel is preached.

And now as the good news of Jesus Christ reaches into the city of Antioch, a Gentile community, it has the same devastating effect. Paul and Barnabas arrive and the whole city is in uproar in a matter of a week. And in most cases of evangelism, the chaos and the persecution came directly from Israel.

Everything that God had designed, was designed initially for Israel and yet all throughout the early church and all throughout the life of Christ, Israel rejected it all and fought against it and really played the part of Satan's advocate. You go to Jerusalem, for example, and the early church there in Acts 4, 5, and 7 charts persecution and all of that persecution is directly from the Jews against Christ and Christians.

Now Paul preached about Jesus. He announced that Jesus was the culmination of history, the fulfillment of prophesy and the justifier of sinners and he wrapped it up with a warning and an invitation and tonight we're going to see the response. What did they do? The initial response was positive, in the beginning things really looked good. The subsequent response was split, some very negative and some very positive.

Eventually the issue is going to be whether there is a commitment to Christ and the thing is going to split and that's exactly what happened in the city of Antioch. The reason why Antioch exploded, basically is because the gospel always creates opposition. Christ said in Matthew 10:34, "I did not come to bring peace but a sword." The gospel automatically divides people between the saved and the unsaved, the people who accept it and the people who reject it, and so it causes division.

Look at Acts 13: 42-44 to see how positive it was at first. In fact, through verse 44, it looked like it was a revival. Not until verse 45 do you really see any opposition. There were four things that were tremendously positive. One, they were really pleased. Look at verse 42, “So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.”

Second point, they were persistent. Again, this is a compliment to Paul. What a teacher he was because it says in verse 43, “Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.” The term "devout proselytes" embodies both the proselyte who had been circumcised and the one who was just a God-fearer who had come to the synagogue but never gone fully for circumcision and Judaism.

“Paul and Barnabas persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.” Does that mean they were saved? We don't know just based on verse 43. Paul and Barnabas also did not know whether they were saved or not either and because nobody can know. God knows for sure but we can't really know their hearts. There is only one way where we can really tell when somebody is born again and that is if they continue in the grace of God.

Look at 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” John 8:30-31 says, “As Jesus spoke these words, many believed in Him. 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.” Jesus said that the real saved person continues in the grace of God.

So Paul and Barnabas saw that they had made a profession of belief and he says, in effect, “Validate the genuineness of your confession by continuing in the grace of God.” Now for a Jew, there was a special problem, because they were used to living not in the grace of God but under the law. Paul says now it is a matter of believing. I am offering you a new way.

The great temptation for a Jew was to make an intellectual ascent to Christianity and then under the pressure of his Judaism, under the pressure of his tradition, under the pressure of his friends, be pulled back into Judaism and trying to work your way in under the law and thus invalidating his faith. And so Paul is saying, “I want to see that it is real by you continuing in grace.”

Now that is the problem of the group to whom the writer of Hebrews speaks. Remember the warnings in Hebrews to those Jews who knew it was true and who came all the way into a church and believed in their heads and said, "Yeah, this is for real.” But then they were drawn back to Judaism. Hebrews 10:38 says, “Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”

Look at Galatians 5, where Paul had warned the people "Don't go back to law. Stick with grace." Verse 7-8, “You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you.” “You didn't get this from God,” he says. In Galatians 5:1, Paul says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

And so in Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas say, "Indicate the true character of your faith by continuing in the grace of God." Continue, thus validating your faith. Look at verse 44, “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.” Everything looked good at the beginning but Paul wasn't convinced that they were true believers because the subsequent response went the opposite way.

Verse 45, “But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul.” If there was anything a Jew couldn't tolerate, it was Gentiles homing in on salvation. It's an amazing reversal, isn't it? You want to know the cause? Prejudice. They did not like Gentiles receiving the same salvation and blessings of God. It was selfishness. It was their feeling that they only had this personal privilege and superiority.

The same word is used in Acts 5:17 of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. It translates as the word, “indignation.” They couldn't stand anybody else getting blessed. How tragic is it that prejudice blinds, and so they closed their minds and they were finished. And the sad thing is that they went right back to Judaism. They picked it up again the next Sabbath and all that “continuing in the grace of God” was lost.

Well, they started arguing and a big crowd was there and they were apparently really contradicting Paul. At the end of verse 45, it says they were blaspheming and blasphemy is the worst kind of sin. It is the sin of speaking evil of God and of Christ and they did it. Did they realize that they rejected their Messiah, forfeiting everything for all eternity?

People reject the gospel for many reasons but they are always the same. They love their sin. Now that sin may have different forms. It may be everything from sex to prejudice but it's always the same thing. They're not willing to sacrifice their ego and the established patterns that satisfy self. And here, a whole group of people lost out on eternal heaven for something as stupid as prejudice against Gentiles.

Verse 46 says, “Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.” Paul said in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, but also to the Gentiles.”

God wanted them to be His priest nation and His witness nation and so God said, "I'll send the gospel to you first and if you will believe it, spread it." In Jerusalem and even when they arrived in town, Paul went to the Jews first, he had a priority of Jewish evangelism. God is going to reach the world and if you are not the vehicle then the Gentiles will reach the Gentiles. How sad that the Jews pushed the Messiah away after hundreds of years of waiting for Him.

Paul made a fearful statement in verse 46. It says, "And you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life.” Do you know that a man who rejects Jesus Christ judges himself? I believe in human responsibility. God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). In John 3:18, it says, “he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

And then to justify what he said, he quoted their own prophet. Verse 47, he quoted Isaiah, “For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.” Jesus was the light of the nations. Remember Simeon in the temple when the Baby Jesus was there? Simeon said in Luke 2:30, 32, “My eyes have seen Your salvation. A light to bring revelation to the nations.” The Messiah was sent to the nations.

While the Jews were negative, the Gentiles were very positive. Verse 48, “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the Word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” The Jews were enraged and the Gentiles were getting saved. It says there “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." That sounds like God chose them. Exactly.

Do you mean they were ordained to be saved? That's right. Do you believe that God chose those that would be saved? Absolutely. The word “ordained” is tatogmonoi, which is a form of the Greek verb ‘taso’, and there is papyrus evidence to indicate that the verb "taso" means to inscribe or to make out a list. And what it is saying is that as many as were put on the list for eternal life believed.

So when did God write the list? The answer is in Ephesians 1:4, "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” That is election. Do you mean that everybody who is saved is saved because God ordained them and wrote their name? Yes. But you just said in verse 46 that if a man goes to hell, it's his own fault. Right. But those two are contradictory." Exactly. The Bible teaches both.

And I believe both. That is God's problem, not mine. But I know this, if a man dies without Christ, it's his own fault. And if a man comes to Jesus Christ, it's all God's doing. When you are saved, God gets all the credit. When you are lost, you get all the blame. Now this we cannot understand. I just believe it, because both are in the Bible.

As many as were written on the roll believed but everybody who disbelieved was pronouncing sentence on himself. You have two doctrines in the Bible, beloved. Human responsibility, where if a man dies without Christ, it is his own fault. Divine sovereignty, a man comes to Christ, it is only because the Father drew or drags him.

Verse 49, “And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.” When people get saved, they share it. Let me show you the key. Verse 44, “They all came together to hear the Word of God." Verse 46, "It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken." Verse 48, "And they glorified the Word of the Lord." Verse 49, "And the Word of the Lord was being spread." The key is the Word to everything; speaking God's message.

What were the results of a negative response from the Jews? Verse 50, “But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.” Apparently, they got to these chief men through these women. And Paul and Barnabas were thrown out of that area.

But the sad, fearful results of the Jews is in verse 51, “But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium.” That was an important symbolic statement. Jesus said in Luke 10, when you evangelize, when the people don't believe the Messiah, shake the dust off your feet and leave that town. Treat those Jews like they are Gentiles. They were saying in effect, "We consider you heathens, lost and doomed.”

And positive result in verse 52, “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” See the contrast? Paul and Barnabas left two different groups. God saw some as pagans. God filled the others with His Holy Spirit. You either live life without the knowledge of God, or you live with His Holy Spirit inside you. Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, "He that is not with Me is against Me." Let's pray.