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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
A C T S.
CHAP. XIII.
We have not yet met with any things concerning the spreading of the
gospel to the Gentiles which bears any proportion to the largeness of
that commission, “Go, and disciple all nations.” The door was opened in
the baptizing of Cornelius and his friends; but since then we had the
gospel preached to the Jews only,
It should seem as if the light which began to shine upon the Gentile
world had withdrawn itself. But here in this chapter that work, that
great good work, is revived in the midst of the years; and though the
Jews shall still have the first offer of the gospel made to them, yet,
upon their refusal, the Gentiles shall have their share of the offer of
it. Here is,
I. The solemn ordination of Barnabas and Saul, by divine direction, to
the ministry, to the great work of spreading the gospel among the
nations about (and it is probable that other apostles or apostolical
men dispersed themselves by order from Christ, upon the same errand,
ver. 1-3).
II. Their preaching the gospel in Cyprus, and the opposition they met
with there from Elymas the sorcerer,
III. The heads of a sermon which Paul preached to the Jews at Antioch
in Pisidia, in their synagogue, which is given us as a specimen of what
they usually preached to the Jews, and the method they took with them,
IV. The preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles at their request, and
upon the Jews’ refusal of it, wherein the apostles justified themselves
against the displeasure which the Jews conceived at it, and God owned
them,
V. The trouble which the infidel Jews gave to the apostles, which
obliged them to remove to another place
(ver. 50-52),
so that the design of this chapter is to show how cautiously, how
gradually, and with what good reason the apostles carried the gospel
into the Gentile world, and admitted the Gentiles into the church,
which was so great an offence to the Jews, and which Paul is so
industrious to justify in his epistles.
| The Mission of Paul and Barnabas. |
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1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain
prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called
Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought
up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost
said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have
called them.
3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands
on them, they sent them away.
We have here a divine warrant and commission to Barnabas and Saul to go
and preach the gospel among the Gentiles, and their ordination to that
service by the imposition of hands, with fasting and prayer.
I. Here is an account of the present state of the church at Antioch,
which was planted,
1. How well furnished it was with good ministers; there were there
certain prophets and teachers
(v. 1),
men that were eminent for gifts, graces, and usefulness. Christ, when
he ascended on high, gave some prophets and some teachers
(Eph. iv. 11);
these were both. Agabus seems to have been a prophet and not a teacher,
and many were teachers who were not prophets; but those here mentioned
were at times divinely inspired, and had instructions immediately from
heaven upon special occasions, which gave them the title of prophets;
and withal they were stated teachers of the church in their religious
assemblies, expounded the scriptures, and opened the doctrine of Christ
with suitable applications. These were the prophets, and scribes, or
teachers, which Christ promised to send
such as were every way qualified for the service of the Christian
church. Antioch was a great city, and the Christians there were many,
so that they could not all meet in one place; it was therefore
requisite they should have many teachers, to preside in their
respective assemblies, and to deliver God’s mind to them. Barnabas is
first named, probably because he was the eldest, and Saul last,
probably because he was the youngest; but afterwards the last became
first, and Saul more eminent in the church. Three others are
mentioned.
(1.) Simeon, or Simon, who for distinction-sake was called
Niger, Simon the Black, from the color of his hair; like him
that with us was surnamed the Black Prince.
(2.) Lucius of Cyrene, who some think (and Dr. Lightfoot
inclines to it) was the same with this Luke that wrote the Acts,
originally a Cyrenian, and educated in the Cyrenian college or
synagogue at Jerusalem, and there first receiving the gospel.
(3.) Manaen, a person of some quality, as it should seem, for he
was brought up with Herod the tetrarch, either nursed of the
same milk, or bred at the same school, or pupil to the same tutor, or
rather one that was his constant colleague and companion–that in every
part of his education was his comrade and intimate, which gave him a
fair prospect of preferment at court, and yet for Christ’s sake he
quitted all the hopes of it; like Moses, who, when he had come to
years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Had he
joined in with Herod, with whom he was brought up, he might have had
Blastus’s place, and have been his chamberlain; but it is better to be
fellow-sufferer with a saint than fellow-persecutor with a
tetrarch.
2. How well employed they were
(v. 2):
They ministered to the Lord, and fasted. Observe,
(1.) Diligent faithful teachers do truly minister unto the Lord. Those
that instruct Christians serve Christ; they really do him honour, and
carry on the interest of his kingdom. Those that minister to the
church in praying and preaching (both which are included here),
minister unto the Lord, for they are the church’s servants for
Christ’s sake; to him they must have an eye in their ministrations, and
from him they shall have their recompence.
(2.) Ministering to the Lord, in one way or other, ought to be the
stated business of churches and their teachers; to this work time ought
to be set apart, nay, it is set apart, and in this work we ought to
spend some part of every day. What have we to do as Christians and
ministers but to serve the Lord Christ?
Col. iii. 24; Rom. xiv. 18.
(3.) Religious fasting is of use in our ministering to the Lord,
both as a sign of our humiliation and a means of our mortification.
Though it was not so much practised by the disciples of Christ,
while the bridegroom was with them, as it was by the disciples
of John and of the Pharisees; yet, after the bridegroom was taken away,
they abounded in it, as those that had well learned to deny themselves
and to endure hardness.
II. The orders given by the Holy Ghost for the setting apart of
Barnabas and Saul, while they were engaged in public exercises, the
ministers of the several congregations in the city joining in one
solemn fast or day of prayer: The Holy Ghost said, either by a
voice from heaven, or by a strong impulse on the minds of those of them
that were prophets, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work
whereunto I have called them. He does not specify the work, but
refers to a former call of which they themselves knew the meaning,
whether others did or no: as for Saul, he was particularly told that he
must bear Christ’s name to the Gentiles
(ch. ix. 15),
that he must be sent to the Gentiles
(ch. xxii. 21);
the matter was settled between them at Jerusalem before this, that as
Peter, James, and John laid out themselves among those of the
circumcision, so Paul and Barnabas should go to the heathen,
Gal. ii. 7-9.
Barnabas, it is likely, knew himself designed for this service as well
as Paul. Yet they would not thrust themselves into this harvest, though
it appeared plenteous, till they received their orders from the Lord of
the harvest: Thrust in thy sickle for the harvest is ripe,
Rev. xiv. 15.
The orders were, Separate me Barnabas and Saul. Observe here,
1. Christ by his Spirit has the nomination of his ministers; for it is
by the Spirit of Christ that they are qualified in some measure for his
services, inclined to it, and taken off from other cares inconsistent
with it. There are some whom the Holy Ghost has separated for the
service of Christ, has distinguished from others as men that are
offered and that willingly offer themselves to the temple service; and
concerning them directions are given to those who are competent judges
of the sufficiency of the abilities and the sincerity of the
inclination: Separate them.
2. Christ’s ministers are separated to him and to the Holy Ghost:
Separate them to me; they are to be employed in Christ’s work
and under the Spirit’s guidance, to the glory of God the Father.
3. All that are separated to Christ as his ministers are separated to
work; Christ keeps no servants to be idle. If any man desires the
office of a bishop, he desires a good work; that is what he is
separated to, to labour in the word and doctrine. They are
separated to take pains, not to take state.
4. The work of Christ’s ministers, to which they are to be separated,
is work that is already settled, and that which all Christ’s ministers
hitherto have been called to, and which they themselves have first
been, by an external call, directed to and have chosen.
III. Their ordination, pursuant to these orders: not to the ministry in
general (Barnabas and Saul had both of them been ministers long before
this), but to a particular service in the ministry, which had something
peculiar in it, and which required a fresh commission, which commission
God saw fit at this time to transmit by the hands of these prophets
and teachers, for the giving of this direction to the church, that
teachers should ordain teachers (for prophets we are not now any longer
to expect), and that those who have the dispensing of the oracles of
Christ committed to them should, for the benefit of posterity,
commit the same to faithful men, who shall be able also to teach
others,
2 Tim. ii. 2.
So here, Simeon, and Lucius, and Manaen, faithful teachers at this time
in the church of Antioch, when they had fasted and prayed, laid
their hands on Barnabas and Saul, and sent them away
(v. 3),
according to the directions received. Observe,
1. They prayed for them. When good men are going forth about good
work, they ought to be solemnly and particularly prayed for, especially
by their brethren that are their fellow-labourers and fellow-soldiers.
2. They joined fasting with their prayers, as they did in their other
ministrations,
v. 3.
Christ has taught us this by his abstaining from sleep (a night-fast,
if I may so call it) the night before he sent forth his apostles, that
he might spend it in prayer.
3. They laid their hands on them. Hereby,
(1.) They gave them their manumission, dismission, or discharge from
the present service they were engaged in, in the church of Antioch,
acknowledging that they went off not only fairly and with consent, but
honourably and with a good report.
(2.) They implored a blessing upon them in their present undertaking,
begged that God would be with them, and give them success; and, in
order to this, that they might be filled with the Holy Ghost in
their work. This very thing is explained
where it is said, concerning Paul and Barnabas, that from Antioch
they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they
fulfilled. As it was an instance of the humility of Barnabas and
Saul that they submitted to the imposition of the hands of those that
were their equals, or rather their inferiors; so it was of the good
disposition of the other teachers that they did not envy Barnabas and
Saul the honour to which they were preferred, but cheerfully committed
it to them, with hearty prayers for them; and they sent them
away with all expedition, out of a concern for those countries
where they were to break up fallow ground.
| Elymas Struck with Blindness. |
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4 So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto
Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.
5 And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God
in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their
minister.
6 And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they
found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name
was Bar-jesus:
7 Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a
prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to
hear the word of God.
8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by
interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy
from the faith.
9 Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy
Ghost, set his eyes on him,
10 And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou
child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou
not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and
thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And
immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went
about seeking some to lead him by the hand.
12 Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being
astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
13 Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came
to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to
Jerusalem.
In these verses we have,
I. A general account of the coming of Barnabas and Saul to the famous
island of Cyprus; and perhaps thitherward they steered their course
because Barnabas was a native of that country
(ch. iv. 36),
and he was willing they should have the first-fruits of his labours,
pursuant to his new commission. Observe,
1. Their being sent forth by the Holy Ghost was the great thing that
encouraged them in this undertaking,
v. 4.
If the Holy Ghost send them forth, he will go along with them,
strengthen them, carry them on in their work, and give them success;
and then they fear no colours, but can cheerfully venture upon a stormy
sea from Antioch, which was now to them a quiet harbour.
2. They came to Seleucia, the sea-port town opposite to Cyprus, thence
crossed the sea to Cyprus, and in that island the first city they came
to was Salamis, a city on the east side of the island
(v. 5);
and, when they had sown good seed there, thence they went onward
through the isle
(v. 6)
till they came to Paphos, which lay on the western coast.
3. They preached the word of God wherever they came, in the
synagogues of the Jews; so far were they from excluding them that
they gave them the preference, and so left those among them who
believed not inexcusable; they would have gathered them, but they
would not. They did not act clandestinely, nor preach the Messiah
to others unknown to them, but laid their doctrine open to the censure
of the rulers of their synagogues, who might, if they had any thing to
say, object against it. Nor would they have acted separately, but in
concert with them, if they had not driven them out from them, and from
their synagogues.
4. They had John for their minister; not their servant in
common things, but their assistant in the things of God, either to
prepare their way in places where they designed to come or to carry on
their work in places where they had begun it, or to converse familiarly
with those to whom they preached publicly, and explain things to them;
and such a one might be many ways of use to them, especially in a
strange country.
II. A particular account of their encounter with Elymas the
sorcerer, whom they met with at Paphos, where the governor resided;
a place famous for a temple built to Venus there, thence called
Paphian Venus; and therefore there was more than ordinary need
that the Son of God should there be manifested to destroy the
works of the devil.
1. There the deputy, a Gentile, Sergius Paulus by name,
encouraged the apostles, and was willing to hear their message. He was
governor of the country, under the Roman emperor; proconsul or
proprætor, such a one as we should call lord lieutenant of the
island. He had the character of a prudent man, an
intelligent, considerate man, that was ruled by reason, not passion nor
prejudice, which appeared by this, that, having a character of Barnabas
and Saul, he sent for them, and desired to hear the word of God.
Note, When that which we hear has a tendency to lead us to God, it is
prudence to desire to hear more of it. Those are wise people, however
they may be ranked among the foolish of this world, who are inquisitive
after the mind and will of God. Though he was a great man, and a man in
authority, and the preachers of the gospel were men that made no
figure, yet, if they have a message from God, let him know what it is,
and, if it appear to be so, he is ready to receive it.
2. There Elymas, a Jew, a sorcerer, opposed them, and did all he
could to obstruct their progress. This justified the apostles in
turning to the Gentiles, that this Jew was so malignant against
them.
(1.) This Elymas was a pretender to the gift of prophecy, a
sorcerer, a false-prophet–one that would be taken for a divine,
because he was skilled in the arts of divination; he was a conjurer,
and took on him to tell people their fortune, and to discover things
lost, and probably was in league with the devil for this purpose;
his name was Bar-jesus–the son of Joshua; it signifies the son
of salvation; but the Syriac calls him, Bar-shoma–the son of
pride; filius inflationis–the son of inflation.
(2.) He was hanging on at court, was with the deputy of the
country. It does not appear that the deputy called for him, as he did
for Barnabas and Saul; but he thrust himself upon him, aiming, no
doubt, to make a hand of him, and get money by him.
(3.) He made it his business to withstand Barnabas and Saul, as the
magicians of Egypt, in Pharaoh’s court, withstood Moses and
Aaron,
He set up himself to be a messenger from heaven, and denied that they
were. And thus he sought to turn away the deputy from the faith
(v. 8),
to keep him from receiving the gospel, which he saw him inclined to do.
Note, Satan is in a special manner busy with great men and men of
power, to keep them from being religious; because he knows that their
example, whether good or bad, will have an influence upon many. And
those who are in any way instrumental to prejudice people against the
truths and ways of Christ are doing the devil’s work.
(4.) Saul (who is here for the first time called Paul) fell upon him
for this with a holy indignation. Saul, who is also called Paul,
v. 9.
Saul was his name as he was a Hebrew, and of the tribe of Benjamin;
Paul was his name as he was a citizen of Rome. Hitherto we have had him
mostly conversant among the Jews, and therefore called by his Jewish
name; but now, when he is sent forth among the Gentiles, he is called
by his Roman name, to put somewhat of a reputation upon him in the
Roman cities, Paulus being a very common name among them. But some
think he was never called Paul till now that he was instrumental in the
conversion of Sergius Paulus to the faith of Christ, and that he took
the name Paulus as a memorial of this victory obtained by the gospel of
Christ, as among the Romans he that had conquered a country took his
denomination from it, as Germanicus, Britannicus, Africanus; or
rather, Sergius Paulus himself gave him the name Paulus in token of his
favour and respect to him, as Vespasian gave his name Flavius to
Josephus the Jew. Now of Paul it is said,
[1.] That he was filled with the Holy Ghost upon this occasion,
filled with a holy zeal against a professed enemy of Christ, which was
one of the graces of the Holy Ghost–a spirit of burning; filled
with power to denounce the wrath of God against him, which was one of
the gifts of the Holy Ghost–a spirit of judgment. He felt a more
than ordinary fervour in his mind, as the prophet did when he was
full of power by the Spirit of the Lord
(Mic. iii. 8),
and another prophet when his face was made harder than flint
(Ezek. iii. 9),
and another when his mouth was made like a sharp sword,
Isa. xlix. 2.
What Paul said did not come from any personal resentment, but from the
strong impressions which the Holy Ghost made upon his spirit.
[2.] He set his eyes upon him, to face him down, and to show a
holy boldness, in opposition to his wicked impudence. He set his eyes
upon him, as an indication that the eye of the heart-searching God was
upon him, and saw through and through him; nay, that the face of the
Lord was against him,
Ps. xxxiv. 16.
He fixed his eyes upon him, to see if he could discern in his
countenance any marks of remorse for what he had done; for, if he could
have discerned the least sign of this, it would have prevented the
ensuing doom.
[3.] He gave him his true character, not in passion, but by the Holy
Ghost, who knows men better than they know themselves,
He describes him to be, First, An agent for hell; and such there
have been upon this earth (the seat of the war between the seed of
the woman and of the serpent) ever since Cain who was of that
wicked one, an incarnate devil, slew his brother, for no
other reason than because his own works were evil and his brother’s
righteous. This Elymas, though called Bar-jesus–a son of
Jesus, was really a child of the devil, bore his image, did
his lusts, and served his interests,
In two things he resembled the devil as a child does his father–
1. In craftiness. The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
field
(Gen. iii. 1),
and Elymas, though void of all wisdom, was full of all subtlety,
expert in all the arts of deceiving men and imposing upon them.
2. In malice. He was full of all mischief–a spiteful
ill-conditioned man, and a sworn implacable enemy to God and goodness.
Note, A fulness of subtlety and mischief together make a man indeed a
child of the devil. Secondly, An adversary to heaven. If he be a
child of the devil, it follows of course that he is an enemy to all
righteousness, for the devil is so. Note, Those that are enemies to
the doctrine of Christ are enemies to all righteousness, for in it all
righteousness is summed up and fulfilled.
[4.] He charged upon him his present crime, and expostulated with him
upon it: “Wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the
Lord, to misrepresent them, to put false colours upon them, and so
to discourage people from entering into them, and walking in them?”
Note, First, The ways of the Lord are right: they are all so,
they are perfectly so. The ways of the Lord Jesus are right, the only
right ways to heaven and happiness. Secondly, There are those
who pervert these right ways, who not only wander out of these ways
themselves (as Elihu’s penitent, who owns, I have perverted that
which was right and it profited me not), but mislead others, and
suggest to them unjust prejudices against these ways: as if the
doctrine of Christ were uncertain and precarious, the laws of Christ
unreasonable and impractical, and the service of Christ unpleasant and
unprofitable, which is an unjust perverting of the right ways of the
Lord, and making them seem crooked ways. Thirdly, Those who
pervert the right ways of the Lord are commonly so hardened in it that,
though the equity of those ways be set before them by the most powerful
and commanding evidence, yet they will not cease to do it. Etsi
suaseris, non persuaseris–You may advise, but you will never
persuade; they will have it their own way; they have loved
strangers, and after them they will go.
[5.] He denounced the judgment of God upon him, in a present blindness
(v. 11):
“And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, a righteous
hand. God is now about to lay hands on thee, and make thee his
prisoner, for thou art taken in arms against him; thou shalt be
blind, not seeing the sun for a season.” This was designed both for
the proof of his crime, as it was a miracle wrought to confirm the
right ways of the Lord, and consequently to show the wickedness of him
who would not cease to pervert them, as also for the punishment of his
crime. It was a suitable punishment; he shut his eyes, the eyes of his
mind, against the light of the gospel, and therefore justly were the
eyes of his body shut against the light of the sun; he sought to blind
the deputy (as an agent for the god of this world, who blindeth the
minds of those that believe not, lest the light of the gospel should
shine unto them,
2 Cor. iv. 4),
and therefore is himself struck blind. Yet it was a moderate
punishment: he was only struck blind, when he might most justly have
been struck dead; and it was only for a season; if he will
repent, and give glory to God, by making confession, his sight shall be
restored; nay, it should seem, though he do not, yet his sight shall be
restored, to try if he will be led to repentance either by the
judgments of God or by his mercies.
[6.] This judgment was immediately executed: There fell on him a
mist and a darkness, as on the Sodomites when they persecuted
Elisha. This silenced him presently, filled him with confusion, and was
an effectual confutation of all he said against the doctrine of Christ.
Let not him any more pretend to be a guide to the deputy’s conscience
who is himself struck blind. It was also an earnest to him of a much
sorer punishment if he repent not; for he is one of those wandering
stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever,
Jude 13.
Elymas did himself proclaim the truth of the miracle, when he went
about seeking some to lead him by the hand; and where now is all
his skill in sorcery, upon which he had so much valued himself, when he
can neither find his way nor find a friend that will be so kind as to
lead him!
3. Notwithstanding all the endeavours of Elymas to turn away the
deputy from the faith, he was brought to believe, and this miracle,
wrought upon the magician himself (like the boils of Egypt,
which were upon the magicians, so that they could not stand before
Moses,
Exod. ix. 11),
contributed to it. The deputy was a very sensible man, and observed
something uncommon, and which intimated its divine original,
(1.) In Paul’s preaching: he was astonished at the doctrine of the
Lord, the Lord Christ–the doctrine that is from him, the
discoveries he has made of the Father–the doctrine that is
concerning him, his person, natures, offices, undertaking. Note,
The doctrine of Christ has a great deal in it that is astonishing; and
the more we know of it the more reason we shall see to wonder and stand
amazed at it.
(2.) In this miracle: When he saw what was done, and how much
Paul’s power transcended that of the magician, and how plainly Elymas
was baffled and confounded, he believed. It is not said that he was
baptized, and so made a complete convert, but it is probable that he
was. Paul would not do his business by the halves; as for God, his
work is perfect. When he became a Christian, he neither laid down
his government, nor was turned out of it, but we may suppose, as a
Christian magistrate, by his influence helped very much to propagate
Christianity in that island. The tradition of the Romish church, which
has taken care to find bishoprics for all the eminent converts we read
of in the Acts, has made this Sergius Paulus bishop of Narbon in
France, left there by Paul in his journey to Spain.
III. Their departure from the island of Cyprus. It is probable that
they did a great deal more there than is recorded, where an account is
given only of that which was extraordinary–the conversion of the
deputy. When they had done what they had to do,
1. They quitted the country, and went to Perga. Those that went
were Paul and his company, which, it is probable, was increased
in Cyprus, many being desirous to accompany him. Anachthentes
hoi peri ton Paulon—Those that were about Paul loosed from
Paphos, which supposes that he went too; but such an affection had
his new friends for him that they were always about him, and by their
good will would be never from him.
2. Then John Mark quitted them, and returned to Jerusalem,
without the consent of Paul and Barnabas; either he did not like the
work, or he wanted to go and see his mother. It was his fault, and we
shall hear of it again.
| Paul at Antioch in Pisidia. |
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14 But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in
Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat
down.
15 And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers
of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren,
if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
16 Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men
of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.
17 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and
exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of
Egypt, and with a high arm brought he them out of it.
18 And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners
in the wilderness.
19 And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of
Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.
20 And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of
four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.
21 And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them
Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space
of forty years.
22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to
be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have
found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which
shall fulfil all my will.
23 Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise
raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:
24 When John had first preached before his coming the baptism
of repentance to all the people of Israel.
25 And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye
that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there cometh one after me,
whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.
26 Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and
whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this
salvation sent.
27 For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because
they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are
read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning
him.
28 And though they found no cause of death in him, yet
desired they Pilate that he should be slain.
29 And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him,
they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a
sepulchre.
30 But God raised him from the dead:
31 And he was seen many days of them which came up with him
from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
32 And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise
which was made unto the fathers,
33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that
he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the
second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
34 And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now
no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will
give you the sure mercies of David.
35 Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the
will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and
saw corruption:
37 But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that
through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:
39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things,
from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
40 Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken
of in the prophets;
41 Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a
work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe,
though a man declare it unto you.
Perga in Pamphylia was a noted place, especially for a temple there
erected to the goddess Diana, yet nothing at all is related of what
Paul and Barnabas did there, only that thither they came
(v. 13),
and thence they departed,
v. 14.
But the history of the apostles’ travels, as that of Christ’s, passes
by many things worthy to have been recorded, because, if all had
been written, the world could not have contained the books. But the
next place we find them in is another Antioch, said to be in Pisidia,
to distinguish it from that Antioch in Syria from which they were sent
out. Pisidia was a province of the Lesser Asia, bordering upon
Pamphylia; this Antioch, it is likely, was the metropolis of it.
Abundance of Jews lived there, and to them the gospel was to be
first preached; and Paul’s sermon to them is what we have in these
verses, which, it is likely, is the substance of what was preached by
the apostles generally to the Jews in all places; for in dealing with
them the proper way was to show them how the New Testament, which they
would have them to receive, exactly agreed with the Old Testament,
which they not only received, but were zealous for. We have here,
I. The appearance which Paul and Barnabas made in a religious assembly
of the Jews at Antioch,
Though they had lately had such good success with a Roman deputy, yet,
when they came to Antioch, they did not enquire for the chief
magistrate, nor make their court to him, but they applied to the Jews,
which is a further proof of their good affection to them and their
desire of their welfare.
1. They observed their time of worship, on the sabbath day, the
Jewish sabbath. The first day of the week they observed among
themselves as a Christian sabbath; but, if they will meet the Jews, it
must be on the seventh-day sabbath, which therefore, upon such
occasions, they did as yet sometimes observe. For, though it was by the
death of Christ that the ceremonial law died, yet it was in the ruins
of Jerusalem that it was to be buried; and therefore, though the
morality of the fourth commandment was entirely transferred to the
Christian sabbath, yet it was not incongruous to join with the Jews in
their sabbath sanctification.
2. They met them in their place of worship, in the synagogue.
Note, Sabbath days should be kept holy in solemn assemblies; they are
instituted chiefly for public worship. The sabbath day is a holy
convocation, and for that reason no servile work must be done
therein. Paul and Barnabas were strangers; but, wherever we come,
we must enquire out God’s faithful worshippers, and join with them (as
these apostles here did), as those that desire to keep up a communion
with all saints; though they were strangers, yet they were admitted
into the synagogue, and to sit down there. Care should be taken in
places of public worship that strangers be accommodated, even the
poorest; for, of those of whom we know nothing else, we know this, that
they have precious souls, for which our charity binds us to be
concerned.
II. The invitation given them to preach.
1. The usual service of the synagogue was performed
(v. 15):
The law and the prophets were read, a portion of each, the
lessons for the day. Note, When we come together to worship God, we
must do it not only by prayer and praise, but by the reading and
hearing of the word of God; hereby we give him the glory due to his
name, as our Lord and Lawgiver.
2. When that was done, they were asked by the rulers of the
synagogue to give them a sermon
(v. 15):
They sent a messenger to them with the respectful message, Men and
brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say
on. It is probable that the rulers of the synagogue had met with
them, and been in private conversation with them before; and, if they
had not an affection to the gospel, yet they had at least the curiosity
to hear Paul preach; and therefore not only gave him permission, but
begged the favour of him that he would speak a word of exhortation
to the people. Note,
(1.) The bare reading of the scriptures in the public assemblies is not
sufficient, but they should be expounded, and the people exhorted out
of them. This is spreading the net, and assisting people in doing that
which is necessary to the making of the word profitable to them–that
is, the applying of it to themselves.
(2.) Those that preside, and have power, in public assemblies, should
provide for a word of exhortation to the people, whenever they come
together.
(3.) Sometimes a word of exhortation from a strange minister may be of
great use to the people, provided he be well approved. It is likely
Paul did often preach in the synagogue, when he was not thus
invited to it by the rulers of the synagogues; for he often preached
with much contention,
1 Thess. ii. 2.
But these were more noble, more generous, than the rulers of the
synagogues generally were.
III. The sermon Paul preached in the synagogue of the Jews, at the
invitation of the rulers of the synagogue. He gladly embraced the
opportunity given him to preach Christ to his countrymen the Jews. He
did not object to them that he was a stranger, and that it was none of
his business; nor object to himself, that he might get ill-will by
preaching Christ among the Jews; but stood up, as one prepared
and determined to speak, and beckoned with his hand, to excite
and prepare them to hear. He waved his hand as an orator, not only
desiring silence and attention, but endeavouring to move affection, and
to show himself in earnest. Perhaps, upon the moving of them to give
an exhortation to the people, there were those in the synagogue
that were ready to mutiny against the rulers, and opposed the
toleration of Paul’s preaching, and that occasioned some tumult and
commotion, which Paul endeavoured to quiet by that decent motion of his
hand; as also by his modest desire of a patient impartial hearing:
“Men of Israel, that are Jews by birth, and you that
fear God, that are proselyted to the Jewish religion, give
audience; let me beg your attention a little, for I have something
to say to you which concerns your everlasting peace, and would not say
it in vain.” Now this excellent sermon is recorded, to show that those
who preached the gospel to the Gentiles did it not till they had first
used their utmost endeavours with the Jews, to persuade them to come in
and take the benefit of it; and that they had no prejudice at all
against the Jewish nation, nor any desire that they should perish,
but rather that they should turn and live. Every thing is touched
in this sermon that might be proper either to convince the judgment or
insinuate into the affections of the Jews, to prevail with them to
receive and embrace Christ as the promised Messiah.
1. He owns them to be God’s favourite people, whom he had taken into
special relation to himself, and for whom he had done great things.
Probably the Jews of the dispersion, that lived in other
countries, being more in danger of mingling with the nations, were more
jealous of their peculiarity than those that lived in their own land
were; and therefore Paul is here very careful to take notice of it, to
their honour.
(1.) That the God of the whole earth was, in a particular
manner, the God of this people Israel, a God in covenant with
them, and that he had given them a revelation of his mind and will,
such as he had not given to any other nation or people; so that
hereby they were distinguished from, and dignified above, all their
neighbours, having peculiar precepts to be governed by, and peculiar
promises to depend upon.
(2.) That he had chosen their fathers to be his friends: Abraham
was called the friend of God; to be his prophets, by whom he
would reveal his mind to his church, and to be the trustees of his
covenant with the church. He puts them in mind of this, to let them
know that the reason why God favoured them, though undeserving, and ill
deserving, was because he would adhere to the choice he had made of
their fathers,
Deut. vii. 7, 8.
They were beloved purely for the fathers’ sakes,
Rom. xi. 28.
(3.) That he had exalted that people, and put a great deal of
honour upon them, had advanced them into a people, and raised them from
nothing, when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and
had nothing in them to recommend them to the divine favour. They ought
to remember this, and to infer hence that God was no debtor to them;
for it was ex mero motu–out of his mere good pleasure, and not
upon a valuable consideration, that they had the grant of the divine
favour; and therefore it was revocable at pleasure; and God did them no
wrong if he at length plucked up the hedge of their peculiarity. But
they were debtors to him, and obliged to receive such further
discoveries as he should make to his church.
(4.) That he had with a high hand brought them out of Egypt,
where they were not only strangers, but captives, had delivered them at
the expense of a great many miracles, both of mercy to them and
judgment on their oppressors (signs and wonders,
Deut. iv. 34),
and at the expense of a great many lives, all the first-born of
Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his host, in the Red Sea; I gave Egypt for thy
ransom, gave men for thee.
Isa. xliii. 3, 4.
(5.) That he had suffered their manners forty years in the
wilderness,
v. 18,
Etropophoresen. Some think it should be read,
etrophophoresen—he educated them, because this is
the word the Septuagint use concerning the fatherly care God took of
that people,
Both may be included; for,
[1.] God made a great deal of provision for them for forty years in the
wilderness: miracles were their daily bread, and kept them from
starving: They lacked not any thing.
[2.] He exercised a great deal of patience with them. They were a
provoking, murmuring, unbelieving people; and yet he bore with them,
did not deal with them as they deserved, but suffered his anger many a
time to be turned away by the prayer and intercession of Moses. So many
years as we have each of us lived in this world, we must own that God
has thus been as a tender father to us, has supplied our wants, has
fed us all our life long unto this day, has been indulgent to
us, a God of pardons (as he was to Israel,
and not extreme to mark what we have done amiss; we have tried
his patience, and yet not tired it. Let not the Jews insist too much
upon the privileges of their peculiarity, for they have forfeited them
a thousand times.
(6.) That he had put them in possession of the land of Canaan
(v. 19):
When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, that
were doomed to be rooted out to make room for them, he divided their
land to them by lot, and put them in possession of it. This was a
signal favour of God to them, and he owns that hereby a great honour
was put upon them, from which he would not in the least derogate.
(7.) That he had raised up men, inspirited from heaven, to deliver them
out of the hands of those that invaded their rights, and oppressed them
after their settlement in Canaan,
[1.] He gave them judges, men qualified for public service, and,
by an immediate impulse upon their spirits, called to it, pro re
nata–as the occasion required. Though they were a provoking
people, and were never in servitude but their sin brought them to it,
yet upon their petition a deliverer was raised up. The critics find
some difficulty in computing these four hundred and fifty years.
From the deliverance out of Egypt to David’s expulsion of the
Jebusites from the stronghold of Zion, which completed the casting
out of the heathen nations, was four hundred and fifty years;
and most of that time they were under judges. Others thus: The
government of the judges, from the death of Joshua to the death of Eli,
was just three hundred and thirty-nine years, but it is said to
be [os] as it were four hundred and fifty years,
because the years of their servitude to the several nations that
oppressed them, though really they were included in the years of the
judges, are yet mentioned in the history as if they had been distinct
from them. Now these, all put together, make one hundred and eleven
years, which added to the three hundred and thirty nine,
make them four hundred and fifty; as so many, though not really
so many.
[2.] He governed them by a prophet, Samuel, a man divinely
inspired to preside in their affairs.
[3.] He afterwards at their request set a king over them
(v. 21),
Saul, the son of Cis. Samuel’s government and his lasted
forty years, which was a kind of transition from the theocracy
to the kingly government.
[4.] At last, he made David their king,
When God had removed Saul, for his mal-administration, he
raised up unto them David to be their king, and made a covenant
of royalty with him, and with his seed. When he had removed one
king, he did not leave them as sheep without a shepherd, but soon
raised up another, raised him up from a mean and low estate, raised
him up on high,
2 Sam. xxiii. 1.
He quotes the testimony God gave concerning him, First, That his
choice was divine: I have found David,
Ps. lxxxix. 20.
God himself pitched upon him. Finding implies seeking; as if God had
ransacked all the families of Israel to find a man fit for his purpose,
and this was he. Secondly, That his character was divine: A
man after my own heart, such a one as I would have, one on whom the
image of God is stamped, and therefore one in whom God is well pleased
and whom he approves. This character was given of him before he was
first anointed,
The Lord hath sought out a man after his own heart, such a one
as he would have. Thirdly, That his conduct was divine, and
under divine direction: He shall fulfil all my will. He shall
desire and endeavour to do the will of God, and shall be enabled to do
it, and employed in the doing of it, and go through with it. Now all
this seems to show not only the special favour of God to the people of
Israel (with the acknowledgment of which the apostle is very willing to
oblige them) but the further favours of another nature which he
designed them, and which were now, by the preaching of the gospel,
offered to them. Their deliverance out of Egypt, and settlement in
Canaan, were types and figures of good things to come. The
changes of their government showed that it made nothing perfect,
and therefore must give way to the spiritual kingdom of the Messiah,
which was now in the setting up, and which, if they would admit it and
submit to it, would be the glory of their people Israel; and
therefore they needed not conceive any jealousy at all of the preaching
of the gospel, as if it tended in the least to damage the true
excellences of the Jewish church.
2. He gives them a full account of our Lord Jesus, passing from David
to the Son of David, and shows that this Jesus is his promised Seed
(v. 23):
Of this man’s seed, from that root of Jesse, from that
man after God’s own heart, hath God, according to his promise,
raised unto Israel a Saviour–Jesus, who carries salvation in his
name.
(1.) How welcome should the preaching of the gospel of Christ be to the
Jews, and how should they embrace it, as well worthy of all
acceptation, when it brought them the tidings,
[1.] Of a Saviour, to deliver them out of the hands of their
enemies, as the judges of old, who were therefore called
saviours; but this a Saviour to do that for them which,
it appears by the history, those could not do–to save them from
their sins, their worst enemies.
[2.] A Saviour of God’s raising up, that has his commission from
heaven.
[3.] Raised up to be a Saviour unto Israel, to them in the first
place: He was sent to bless them; so far was the gospel from
designing the gathering of them.
[4.] Raised up of the seed of David, that ancient royal family,
which the people of Israel gloried so much in, and which at this time,
to the great disgrace of the whole nation, was buried in obscurity. It
ought to be a great satisfaction to them that God had raised up this
horn of salvation for them in the house of his servant David,
Luke i. 69.
[5.] Raised up according to his promise, the promise to David
the promise to the Old-Testament church in the latter times of it: I
will raise unto David a righteous branch,
Jer. xxiii. 5.
This promise was it to which the twelve tribes hoped to come
(ch. xxvi. 7);
why then should they entertain it so coldly, now that it was brought to
them? Now,
(2.) Concerning this Jesus, he tells them,
[1.] That John the Baptist was his harbinger and forerunner, that great
man whom all acknowledged to be a prophet. Let them not say that the
Messiah’s coming was a surprise upon them, and that this might excuse
them if they took time to consider whether they should entertain him or
no; for they had sufficient warning by John, who preached before his
coming,
v. 24.
Two things he did–First, He made way for his entrance, by
preaching the baptism of repentance, not to a few select
disciples, but to all the people of Israel. He showed them their
sins, warned them of the wrath to come, called them to
repentance, and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance,
and bound those to this who were willing to be bound by the solemn rite
or sign of baptism; and by this he made ready a people prepared for
the Lord Jesus, to whom his grace would be acceptable when they
were thus brought to know themselves. Secondly, He gave notice
of his approach
(v. 25):
As he fulfilled his course, when he was going on vigorously in
his work, and had had wonderful success in it, and an established
interest: “Now,” saith he to those that attended his ministry, “Whom
think you that I am? What notions have you of me, what expectations
from me? You may be thinking that I am the Messiah, whom you
expect; but you are mistaken, I am not he (see
but he is at the door; behold, there cometh one immediately
after me, who will so far exceed me upon all accounts, that I
am not worthy to be employed in the meanest office about him, no,
not to help him on and off with his shoes–whose shoes of his feet I
am not worthy to loose, and you may guess who that must be.”
[2.] That the rulers and people of the Jews, who should have welcomed
him, and been his willing, forward, faithful subjects, were his
persecutors and murderers. When the apostles preach Christ as the
Saviour, they are so far from concealing his ignominious death, and
drawing a veil over it, that they always preach Christ
crucified, yea, and (though this added much to the reproach of his
sufferings) crucified by his own people, by those that dwelt in
Jerusalem, the holy city–the royal city, and their rulers,
v. 27.
First, Their sin was that though they found no cause of death
in him, could not prove him, no, nor had any colour to suspect him,
guilty of any crime (the judge himself that tried him, when he had
heard all they could say against him, declared he found no fault
with him), yet they desired Pilate that he might be slain
(v. 28),
and presented their address against Christ with such fury and outrage
that they compelled Pilate to crucify him, not only contrary to his
inclination, but contrary to his conscience; they condemned him to
so great a death, though they could not convict him of the least
sin. Paul cannot charge this upon his hearers, as Peter did
(ch. ii. 23):
You have with wicked hands crucified and slain him; for these,
though Jews, were far enough off; but he charges it upon the Jews at
Jerusalem and the rulers, to show what little reason those Jews of the
dispersion had to be so jealous for the honour of their nation as they
were, when it had brought upon itself such a load and stain of guilt as
this, and how justly they might have been cut off from all benefit by
the Messiah, who had thus abused him, and yet they were not; but,
notwithstanding all this, the preaching of this gospel shall begin at
Jerusalem. Secondly, The reason of this was because they knew
him not,
v. 27.
They knew not who he was, nor what errand he came into the world upon;
for, if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory. Christ owned this in extenuation of their crime: They
know not what they do; and so did Peter: I wot that through
ignorance you did this,
ch. iii. 17.
It was also because they knew not the voice of the prophets though they
heard them read every sabbath day. They did not understand nor consider
that it was foretold that the Messiah should suffer, or else they would
never have been the instruments of his suffering. Note, Many that read
the prophets do not know the voice of the prophets, do not understand
the meaning of the scriptures; they have the sound of the gospel in
their ears, but not the sense of it in their heads, nor the savour of
it in their hearts. And therefore men do not know Christ, nor
know how to carry it towards him, because they do not know the voice of
the prophets, who testified beforehand concerning Christ.
Thirdly, God overruled them, for the accomplishment of the
prophecies of the Old-Testament: Because they knew not the voice of
the prophets, which warned them not to touch God’s Anointed,
they fulfilled them in condemning him; for so it was written
that Messiah the prince shall be cut off, but not for himself.
Note, It is possible that men may be fulfilling scripture prophecies,
even when they are breaking scripture precepts, particularly in the
persecution of the church, as in the persecution of Christ. And this
justifies the reason which is sometimes given for the obscurity of
scripture prophecies, that, if they were too plain and obvious, the
accomplishment of them would thereby be prevented. So Paul saith here,
Because they knew not the voice of the prophets, therefore
they have fulfilled them, which implies that if they had
understood them they would not have fulfilled them. Fourthly,
All that was foretold concerning the sufferings of the Messiah was
fulfilled in Christ
(v. 29):
When they had fulfilled all the rest that was written of
him, even to the giving of him vinegar to drink in his thirst, then
they fulfilled what was foretold concerning his being buried. They
took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. This
is taken notice of here as that which made his resurrection the more
illustrious. Christ was separated from this world, as those that are
buried have nothing more to do with this world, nor this world with
them; and therefore our complete separation from sin is represented by
our being buried with Christ. And a good Christian will be
willing to be buried alive with Christ. They laid him in a sepulchre,
and thought they had him fast.
[3.] That he rose again from the dead, and saw no corruption.
This was the great truth that was to be preached; for it is the main
pillar, by which the whole fabric of the gospel is supported, and
therefore he insists largely upon this, and shows,
First, That he rose by consent. When he was imprisoned in the
grave for our debt, he did not break prison, but had a fair and legal
discharge from the arrest he was under
(v. 30):
God raised him from the dead, sent an angel on purpose to roll
away the stone from the prison-door, returned to him the spirit which
at his death he had committed into the hands of his Father, and
quickened him by the Holy Ghost. His enemies laid him in a sepulchre,
with design he should always lay there; but God said, No; and it
was soon seen whose purpose should stand, his or theirs.
Secondly, That there was sufficient proof of his having risen
(v. 31):
He was seen many days, in divers places, upon divers occasions,
by those that were most intimately acquainted with him; for they
came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, were his constant
attendants, and they are his witnesses unto the people. They
were appointed to be so, have attested the thing many a time, and are
ready to attest it, though they were to die for the same. Paul says
nothing of his own seeing him, which was more convincing to himself
than it could be when produced to others.
Thirdly, That the resurrection of Christ was the performance of
the promise made to the patriarchs; it was not only true news, but good
news: “In declaring this, we declare unto you glad tidings
(v. 32, 33),
which should be in a particular manner acceptable to you Jews. So far
are we from designing to put any slur upon you, or do you any wrong,
that the doctrine we preach, if you receive it aright, and understand
it, brings you the greatest honour and satisfaction imaginable; for it
is in the resurrection of Christ that the promise which was made to
your fathers is fulfilled to you.” He acknowledges it to be the
dignity of the Jewish nation that to them pertained the promises
(Rom. ix. 4),
that they were the heirs of the promise, as they were the children of
the patriarchs to whom the promises were first made. The great promise
of the Old Testament was that of the Messiah, in whom all the
families of the earth should be blessed, and not the family of
Abraham only; though it was to be the peculiar honour of that family
that he should be raised up of it, yet it was to be the common benefit
of all families that he should be raised up to them. Note,
1. God hath raised up Jesus, advanced him, and exalted him;
raised him again (so we read it), meaning from the
dead. We may take in both senses. God raised up Jesus to be a
prophet at his baptism, to be a priest to make atonement at his death,
and to be a king to rule over all at his ascension; and his raising
him up from the dead was the confirmation and ratification of all
these commissions, and proved him raised of God to these offices.
2. This is the fulfilling of the promises made to the fathers, the
promise of sending the Messiah, and of all those benefits and blessings
which were to be had with him and by him: “This is he that should come,
and in him you have all that God promised in the Messiah, though not
all that you promised yourselves.” Paul puts himself into the number of
the Jews to whom the promise was fulfilled: To us their
children. Now, if those who preached the gospel brought them
these glad tidings, instead of looking upon them as enemies to
their nation, they ought to caress them as their best friends, and
embrace their doctrine with both arms; for if they valued the promise
so much, and themselves by it, much more the performance. And the
preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, which was the great thing that
the Jews found themselves aggrieved at, was so far from infringing the
promise made to them that the promise itself, that all the families
of the earth should be blessed in the Messiah, could not otherwise
be accomplished.
Fourthly, That the resurrection of Christ was the great proof of
his being the Son of God, and confirms what was written in the second
Psalm (thus ancient was the order in which the Psalms are now placed),
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. That the
resurrection of Christ from the dead was designed to evidence and
evince this is plain from that of the apostle
(Rom. i. 4):
He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection
from the dead. When he was first raised up out of obscurity, God
declared concerning him by a voice from heaven, This is my beloved
Son
which has a plain reference to that in the second Psalm, Thou art my
Son. Abundance of truth there is couched in those words: that this
Jesus was begotten of the Father before all worlds–was the
brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, as the
son is of the father’s–that he was the logos, the
eternal thought of the eternal mind,–that he was conceived by
the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin; for upon this
account, also, that holy thing was called the Son of God
(Luke i. 35),
that he was God’s agent in creating and governing the world, and in
redeeming it and reconciling it to himself, and faithful as a son in
his own house, and as such was heir of all things. Now all
this, which was declared at Christ’s baptism and again at his
transfiguration, was undeniably proved by his resurrection. The decree
which was so long before declared was then confirmed; and the reason
why it was impossible he should be held by the bands of death was
because he was the Son of God, and consequently had life in
himself, which he could not lay down but with a design to resume
it. When his eternal generation is spoken of, it is not improper to
say, This day have I begotten thee; for from everlasting to
everlasting is with God as it were one and the same eternal day.
Yet it may also be accommodated to his resurrection, in a subordinate
sense, “This day have I made it to appear that I have begotten thee,
and this day have I begotten all that are given to thee;” for it is
said
that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as our God and
Father, hath begotten us again to a lively hope, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Fifthly, That his being raised the third day, so as not to see
corruption, and to a heavenly life, so as no more to return to
corruption, that is, to the state of the dead, as others did who were
raised to life, further confirms his being the Messiah promised.
a. He rose to die no more; so it is expressed,
As concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to
return to corruption, that is, to the grave, which is called
corruption,
Job xvii. 14.
Lazarus came out of the grave with his grave-clothes on, because he was
to use them again; but Christ, having no more occasion for them, left
them behind. Now this was the fulfilling of that scripture
(Isa. lv. 3),
I will give you the sure mercies of David; ta hosia Dabid
ta pista—the holy things of David, the faithful things;
for in the promise made to David, and in him to Christ, great stress is
laid upon the faithfulness of God
(Ps. lxxxix. 1, 2, 5, 24, 33),
and upon the oath God had sworn by his holiness,
Ps. lxxxix. 35.
Now this makes them sure mercies indeed that he who is entrusted with
the dispensing of them has risen to die no more; so that he ever lives
to see his own will executed, and the blessings he hath purchased for
us given out to us. As, if Christ had died and had not risen again, so
if he had risen to die again, we had come short of the sure mercies, or
at least could not have been sure of them.
b. He rose so soon after he was dead that his body did not see
corruption; for it is not till the third day that the body begins to
change. Now this was promised to David; it was one of the sure
mercies of David, for it was said to him in
Neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption,
v. 35.
God had promised to David that he would raise up the Messiah of his
seed, who should therefore be a man, but should not, like other men,
see corruption. This promise could not have its accomplishment in
David, but looked forward to Christ.
(a.) It could not be accomplished in David himself
(v. 36),
for David, after he had served his own generation, by the will of
God, who raised him up to be what he was, fell asleep, and was
laid to his fathers, and saw corruption. Here we have a short
account of the life, death, and burial, of the patriarch David, and his
continuance under the power of death.
[a.] His life: He served his own generation, by the will of
God, before he slept the sleep of death. David was a useful good
man; he did good in the world by the will of God. He made God’s
precepts his rule; he served his own generation so as therein to
serve God; he so served and pleased men (as whatever the king
did pleased the people,
2 Sam. iii. 36),
as still to keep himself the faithful servant of God. See
He served the good of men, but did not serve the will of men. Or, by
the will of God’s providence so ordering it, qualifying him for, and
calling him to, a public station, he served his own generation;
for every creature is that to us which God makes it to be. David was a
great blessing to the age wherein he lived; he was the servant
of his generation: many are the curse, and plague, and burden of their
generation. Even those that are in a lower and narrower sphere must
look upon it that they live to serve their generation; and those
that will do good in the world must make themselves servants of
all,
1 Cor. ix. 19.
We were not born for ourselves, but are members of communities, to
which we must study to be serviceable. Yet here is the difference
between David and Christ, that David was to serve only his own
generation, that generation in which he lived, and therefore when he
had done what he had to do, and written what he had to write, he died,
and continued in the grave; but Christ (not by his writings or words
upon record only as David, but by his personal agency) was to serve
all generations, must ever live to reign over the house of
Jacob, not as David, for forty years, but for all ages, as long as the
sun and moon endure,
His throne must be as the days of heaven, and all generations must be
blessed in him,
[b.] His death: He fell asleep. Death is a sleep, a quiet
rest, to those who, while they lived, laboured in the service of God
and their generation. Observe, He did not fall asleep till he had
served his generation, till he had done the work for which God raised
him up. God’s servants have their work assigned them; and, when they
have accomplished as a hireling their day, then, and not till
then, they are called to rest. God’s witnesses never die till they have
finished their testimony; and then the sleep, the death, of
the labouring man will be sweet. David was not permitted to build
the temple, and therefore when he had made preparation for it, which
was the service he was designed to, he fell asleep, and left the work
to Solomon.
[c.] His burial: He was laid to his fathers. Though he
was buried in the city of David
and not in the sepulchre of Jesse his father in Bethlehem, yet he might
be said to be laid to his fathers; for the grave, in general, is
the habitation of our fathers, of those that are gone before us,
[d.] His continuance in the grave: He saw corruption. We
are sure he did not rise again; this Peter insists upon when he freely
speaks of the patriarch David
(ch. ii. 29):
He is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this
day. He saw corruption, and therefore that promise could not have
its accomplishment in him. But,
(b.) It was accomplished in the Lord Jesus
(v. 37):
He whom God raised again saw no corruption; for it was in him
that the sure mercies were to be reserved for us. He rose the third
day, and therefore did not see corruption then; and he rose to die no
more, and therefore never did. Of him therefore the promise must be
understood, and no other.
c. Having given them this account of the Lord Jesus, he comes to
make application of it.
(a.) In the midst of his discourse, to engage their attention,
he had told his hearers that they were concerned in all this
(v. 26):
“To you is the word of this salvation sent, to you first. If you
by your unbelief make it a word of rejection to you, you may thank
yourselves; but it is sent to you for a word of salvation; if it be not
so, it is your own fault.” Let them not peevishly argue that because it
was sent to the Gentiles, who had no communion with them, therefore it
was not sent to them; for to them it was sent in the first place.
“To you men this is sent, and not to the angels that sinned. To
you living men, and not to the congregation of the dead and damned,
whose day of grace is over.” He therefore speaks to them with
tenderness and respect: You are men and brethren; and so we are
to look upon all those that stand fair with us for the great salvation
as having the word of salvation sent to them. Those to whom he does by
warrant from heaven here bring the word of salvation are,
[a.] The native Jews, Hebrews of the Hebrews, as Paul himself
was: “Children of the stock of Abraham, though a degenerate
race, yet to you is this word of salvation sent; nay, it is therefore
sent to you, to save you from your sins.” It is an advantage to be of a
good stock; for, though salvation does not always follow the children
of godly parents, yet the word of salvation does: Abraham will
command his children and his house-hold after him.
[b.] The proselytes, the Gentiles by birth, that were in some
degree brought over to the Jews’ religion: “Whosoever among you that
feareth God. You that have a sense of natural religion, and have
subjected yourselves to the laws of that, and taken hold of the
comforts of that, to you is the word of this salvation sent; you
need the further discoveries and directions of revealed religion, are
prepared for them, and will bid them welcome, and therefore shall
certainly be welcome to take the benefit of them.”
(b.) In the close of his discourse he applies what he had said
concerning Christ to his hearers. He had told them a long story
concerning this Jesus; now they would be ready to ask, What is
all this to us? And he tells them plainly what it is to them.
[a.] It will be their unspeakable advantage if they embrace
Jesus Christ, and believe this word of salvation. It will relieve them
where their greatest danger lies; and that is from the guilt of their
sins: “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren–we are
warranted to proclaim it to you, and you are called to take notice of
it.” He did not stand up to preach before them, but to preach to them,
and not without hopes of prevailing with them; for they are men,
reasonable creatures, and capable of being argued with; they are
brethren, spoken to, and dealt with, by men like themselves; not
only of the same nature, but of the same nation. It is proper for the
preachers of the gospel to call their hearers brethren, as speaking
familiarly to them, and with an affectionate concern for their welfare,
and as being equally interested with them in the gospel they preach.
Let all that hear the gospel of Christ know these two
things–1st, That it is an act of indemnity granted by the King
of kings to the children of men, who stand attainted at his bar of
treason against his crown and dignity; and it is for and in
consideration of the mediation of Christ between God and man that this
act of grace is passed and proclaimed
(v. 38):
“Through this man, who died and rose again, is preached unto
you the forgiveness of sins. We have to tell you, in God’s name,
that your sins, though many and great, may be forgiven, and how it is
come about that they may be so, without any injury to God’s honour, and
how you may obtain the forgiveness of your sins. We are to preach
repentance for the remission of sins, and divine grace giving both
repentance and remission of sins. The remission of sins is
through this man. By his merit it was purchased, in his name it
is offered, and by his authority it is bestowed; and therefore you are
concerned to be acquainted with him, and interested in him. We preach
to you the forgiveness of sins. That is the salvation we bring
you, the word of God; and therefore you ought to bid us welcome and
look upon us as your friends, and messengers of good tidings.”
2ndly, That it does that for us which the law of Moses could not
do. The Jews were jealous for the law, and because it prescribed
expiatory and pacificatory sacrifices, and a great variety of
purifications, fancied they might be justified by it before God. “No,”
saith Paul, “be it known to you that it is by Christ only that those
who believe in him, and none else, are justified from all
things, from all the guilt and stain of sin, from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses”
(v. 39);
therefore they ought to entertain and embrace the gospel, and not to
adhere to the law in opposition to it, because the gospel is
perfective, not destructive, of the law. Note,
1. The great concern of sinners it to be justified, to be acquitted
from guilt and accepted as righteous in God’s sight.
2. Those who are truly justified are acquitted from all their guilt;
for if any be left charged upon the sinner he is undone.
3. It was impossible for a sinner to be justified by the law of Moses.
Not by his moral law, for we have all broken it, and are transgressing
it daily, so that instead of justifying us it condemns us. Not by his
remedial law, for it was not possible that the blood of bulls and
goats should take away sin, should satisfy God’s offended justice,
or pacify the sinner’s wounded conscience. It was but a ritual and
typical institution. See
4. By Jesus Christ we obtain a complete justification; for by him a
complete atonement was made for sin. We are justified, not only by him
as our Judge, but by him as our righteousness, the Lord our
righteousness.
5. All that believe in Christ, that rely upon him and give up
themselves to be ruled by him, are justified by him, and none but they.
6. What the law could not do for us, in that it was weak,
that the gospel of Christ does; and therefore it was folly, out of a
jealousy for the law of Moses and the honour of that institution, to
conceive a jealousy of the gospel of Christ and the designs of that
more perfect institution.
[b.] It is at their utmost peril if they reject the gospel of
Christ, and turn their backs upon the offer now made them
(v. 40, 41):
Beware therefore; you have a fair invitation given you, look to
yourselves, lest you either neglect or oppose it.” Note, Those to whom
the gospel is preached must see themselves upon their trial and good
behaviour, and are concerned to beware lest they be found refusers of
the grace offered. “Beware lest you not only come short of the
blessings and benefits spoken of in the prophets as coming upon those
that believe, but fall under the doom spoken of in the prophets as
coming upon those that persist in unbelief: lest that come upon you
which is spoken of.” Note, The threatenings are warnings ; what we
are told will come upon impenitent sinners is designed to awaken us to
beware lest it should come upon us. Now the prophecy referred to we
have
where the destruction of the Jewish nation by the Chaldeans is foretold
as an incredible unparalleled destruction; and this is here applied to
the destruction that was coming upon that nation by the Romans, for
their rejecting the gospel of Christ. The apostle follows the
Septuagint translation, which reads, Behold, you despisers (for,
behold, you among the heathen); because it made the text more
apposite to his purpose.
1st, “Take heed lest the guilt come upon you which was spoken of
in the prophets–the guilt of despising the gospel and the tenders of
it, and despising the Gentiles that were advanced to partake of it.
Beware lest it be said to you, Behold, you despisers.” Note, It
is the ruin of many that they despise religion, they look upon it as a
thing below them, and are not willing to stoop to it.
2ndly, “Take heed lest the judgment come upon you which was
spoken of in the prophets: that you shall wonder and perish,
that is, wonderfully perish; your perdition shall be amazing to
yourselves and all about you.” Those that will not wonder and be saved
shall wonder and perish. Those that enjoyed the privileges of the
church, and flattered themselves with a conceit that these would save
them, will wonder when they find their ,,am presumption overruled and
that their privileges do but make their condemnation the more
intolerable. Let the unbelieving Jews expect that God will work a
work in their days which you shall in no wise believe, though a man
declare it unto you. This may be understood as a prediction,
either,
1. Of their sin, that they should be incredulous, that that great work
of God, the redemption of the world by Christ, though it should be in
the most solemn manner declared unto them, yet they would in no wise
believe it,
Isa. liii. 1,
Who hath believed our report? Though it was of God’s working, to
whom nothing is impossible, and of his declaring, who cannot lie, yet
they would not give credit to it. Those that had the honour and
advantage to have this work wrought in their days had not the grace to
believe it. Or,
2. Of their destruction. The dissolving of the Jewish polity, the
taking of the kingdom of God from them and giving it to the Gentiles,
the destruction of their holy house and city, and the dispersion of
their people, was a work which one would not have believed should have
ever been done, considering how much they had been the favourites of
Heaven. The calamities that were brought upon them were such as were
never before brought upon any people,
It was said of their destruction by the Chaldeans, and it was true of
their last destruction, All the inhabitants of the world would not
have believed that the enemy would have entered into the gates of
Jerusalem as they did,
Lam. iv. 12.
Thus is there a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity,
especially to the despisers of Christ,
| Paul at Antioch in Pisidia. |
|
|
42 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the
Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the
next sabbath.
43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews
and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who,
speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
44 And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together
to hear the word of God.
45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with
envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul,
contradicting and blaspheming.
46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was
necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to
you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy
of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee
to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for
salvation unto the ends of the earth.
48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and
glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to
eternal life believed.
49 And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the
region.
50 But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and
the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul
and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.
51 But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and
came unto Iconium.
52 And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy
Ghost.
The design of this story being to vindicate the apostles, especially
Paul (as he doth himself at large,
Rom. xi.),
from the reflections of the Jews upon him for preaching the gospel to
the Gentiles, it is here observed that he proceeded therein with all
the caution imaginable, and upon due consideration, of which we have
here an instance.
I. There were some of the Jews that were so incensed against the
preaching of the gospel, not to the Gentiles, but to themselves, that
they would not bear to hear it, but went out of the synagogue
while Paul was preaching
(v. 42),
in contempt of him and his doctrine, and to the disturbance of the
congregation. It is probable they whispered among themselves, exciting
one another to it, and did it by consent. Now this bespoke,
1. An open infidelity, as plain a profession of unbelief as coming to
hear the gospel is of faith. They thus publicly avowed their contempt
of Christ and of his doctrine and law, were not ashamed, neither could
they blush; and they thus endeavoured to beget prejudices in the minds
of others against the gospel; they went out to draw others to follow
their pernicious ways.
2. An obstinate infidelity. They went out of the synagogue, not only to
show that they did not believe the gospel, but because they were
resolved they would not, and therefore got out of the hearing of those
things that had a tendency to convince them. They stopped their ears
like the deaf adder. Justly therefore was the gospel taken from them,
when they first took themselves from it, and turned themselves out of
the church before they were turned out of it. For it is certainly true
that God never leaves any till they first leave him.
II. The Gentiles were as willing to hear the gospel as those rude and
ill-conditioned Jews were to get out of the hearing of it: They
besought that these words, or words to this effect, might be
preached to them the next sabbath; in the week between, so
some take it; on the second and fifth days of the week, which in some
synagogues were their lecture days. But it appears
(v. 44)
that it was the next sabbath day that they came together. They begged,
1. That the same offer might be made to them that was made to the Jews.
Paul in this sermon had brought the word of salvation to the Jews and
proselytes, but had taken no notice of the Gentiles; and therefore they
begged that forgiveness of sins through Christ might be preached to
them, as it was to the Jews. The Jews’ leavings, nay, loathings, were
their longings. This justifies Paul in his preaching to them, that he
was invited to it, as Peter was sent for to Cornelius. Who could refuse
to break the bread of life to those who begged so hard for it, and to
give that to the poor at the door which the children at the table threw
under their feet?
2. That the same instructions might be given to them. They had heard
the doctrine of Christ, but did not understand it at the first hearing,
nor could they remember all that they had heard, and therefore they
begged it might be preached to them again. Note, It is good to have the
word of Christ repeated to us. What we have heard we should desire to
hear again, that it may take deep root in us, and the nail that is
driven may be clenched and be as a nail in a sure place. To hear
the same things should not be grievous, because it is safe,
It aggravates the bad disposition of the Jews that the Gentiles desired
to hear that often which they were not willing to hear once; and
commends the good disposition of the Gentiles that they did not follow
the bad example which the Jews set them.
III. There were some, nay, there were many, both of Jews and
proselytes, that were wrought upon by the preaching of the gospel.
Those who aggravated the matter of the Jews’ rejection by the preaching
of the gospel, cried out, as is usual in such cases, “They have cast
away, and cast off, all the people of God.” “Nay,” says Paul, “it is
not so; for abundance of the Jews have embraced Christ, and are taken
in;” himself for one,
So it was here: Many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, and received further instructions and
encouragement from them.
1. They submitted to the grace of God, and were admitted to the benefit
and comfort of it, which is implied in their being exhorted to continue
in it. They followed Paul and Barnabas; they became their
disciples, or rather the disciples of Christ, whose agents they were.
Those that join themselves to Christ will join themselves to his
ministers, and follow them. And Paul and Barnabas, though they were
sent to the Gentiles, yet bade those of the Jews welcome that were
willing to come under their instructions, such hearty well-wishers were
they to all the Jews and their friends, if they pleased.
2. They were exhorted and encouraged to persevere herein: Paul and
Barnabas, speaking to them with all the freedom and friendship
imaginable, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God, to
hold fast that which they had received, to continue in their belief of
the gospel of grace, their dependence upon the Spirit of grace, and
their attendance upon the means of grace. And the grace of God shall
not be wanting to those who thus continue in it.
IV. There was a cheerful attendance upon the preaching of the gospel
the next sabbath day
(v. 44):
Almost the whole city (the generality of whom were Gentiles)
came together to hear the word of God.
1. It is probable that Paul and Barnabas were not idle in the
week-days, but took all opportunities in the week between (as some
think the Gentiles desired) to bring them acquainted with Christ, and
to raise their expectations from him. They did a great deal of service
to the gospel in private discourse and conversation, as well as in
their public sermons. Wisdom cried in the chief places of concourse,
and the opening of the gates, as well as in the synagogues,
2. This brought a vast concourse of people to the synagogue on the
sabbath day. Some came out of curiosity, the thing being new; others
longing to see what the Jews would do upon the second tender of the
gospel to them; and many who had heard something of the word of God
came to hear more, and to hear it, not as the word of men but as the
word of God, by which we must be ruled and judged. Now this
justified Paul in preaching to the Gentiles, that he met with the most
encouraging auditors among them. There the fields were white to the
harvest, and therefore why should he not there put in his
sickle?
V. The Jews were enraged at this; and not only would not receive the
gospel themselves, but were filled with indignation at those that
crowded after it
(v. 45):
When the Jews saw the multitudes, and considered what an
encouragement it was to Paul to go on in his work when he saw the
people thus flying like doves to their windows, and what probability
there was that among these multitudes some would be, without doubt,
wrought upon, and probably the greater part, to embrace Christ–this
filled them with envy.
1. They grudged the interest the apostles had in the people, were vexed
to see the synagogue so full when they were going to preach. This was
the same spirit that worked in the Pharisees towards Christ; they were
cut to the heart when they saw the whole world go after him.
When the kingdom of heaven was opened they not only would not go in
themselves, but were angry with those that did.
2. They opposed the doctrine the apostles preached: They spoke
against those things that were spoken by Paul, cavilled at them,
started objections against them, finding some fault or other with every
thing he said, contradicting and blaspheming; antelegon
antilegontes—contradicting, they contradicted. They did
it with the utmost spite and rage imaginable: they persisted in their
contradiction, and nothing would silence them, they contradicted for
contradiction-sake, and denied that which was most evident; and, when
they could find no colour of objection, they broke out into ill
language against Christ and his gospel, blaspheming him and it. From
the language of the carnal man that receives not the things of the
Spirit of God, and therefore contradicts them, they proceed to the
language of incarnate devils, and blaspheme them. Commonly those who
begin with contradicting end with blaspheming.
VI. The apostles hereupon solemnly and openly declare themselves
discharged from their obligations to the Jews, and at liberty to bring
the word of salvation to the Gentiles, even by the tacit consent of the
Jews themselves. Never let the Jew lay the fault of the carrying of the
kingdom of God to the Gentiles upon the apostles, for that complaint of
theirs is for ever silenced by their own act and deed, for what they
did here is for ever a bar to it. “Tender and refusal (we say) are good
payment in law.” The Jews had the tender of the gospel, and did refuse
it, and therefore ought not to say any thing against the Gentiles
having it. In declaring this, it is said
(v. 46),
Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, more bold than they had been while
they were shy of looking favourably upon the Gentiles, for fear of
giving offence to the Jews, and laying a stumbling-block in their way.
Note, There is a time for the preachers of the gospel to show as much
of the boldness of the lion as of the wisdom of the serpent and the
harmlessness of the dove. When the adversaries of Christ’s cause begin
to be daring, it is not for its advocates to be timid. While there is
any hope of working upon those that oppose themselves they must be
instructed with meekness
but, when that method has long been tried in vain, we must wax bold,
and tell them what will be the issue of their opposition. The impudence
of the enemies of the gospel, instead of frightening, should rather
embolden its friends; for they are sure that they have a good cause,
and they know in whom they have trusted to bear them out. Now Paul and
Barnabas, having made the Jews a fair offer of gospel grace, here give
them fair notice of their bringing it to the Gentiles, if by any
means (as Paul says
they might provoke them to emulation.
1. They own that the Jews were entitled to the first offer: “It was
necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to
you, to whom the promise was made, to you of the lost sheep of
the house of Israel, to whom Christ reckoned himself first sent.”
And his charge to the preachers of his gospel to begin at
Jerusalem
was a tacit direction to all that went into other countries to begin
with the Jews, to whom pertained the giving of the law, and
therefore the preaching of the gospel. Let the children first be
served,
Mark vii. 27.
2. They charge them with the refusal of it: “You put it from
you; you will not accept of it; nay, you will not so much as bear
the offer of it, but take it as an affront to you.” If men put the
gospel from them, God justly takes it from them; why should manna be
given to those that loathe it and call it light bread, or the
privileges of the gospel forced on those that put them away, and say,
We have no part in David? Herein they judge themselves
unworthy of everlasting life. In one sense we must all judge
ourselves unworthy of everlasting life, for there is nothing in us, nor
done by us, by which we can pretend to merit it, and we must be made
sensible of this; but here the meaning is, “You discover, or make it to
appear, that you are not meet for eternal life; you throw away all your
claims and give up your pretensions to it; since you will not take it
from his hands, into whose hand the Father has given it,
krinete, you do, in effect, pass this
judgment upon yourselves, and out of your own mouth you shall be
judged; you will not have it by Christ, by whom alone it is to be
had, and so shall your doom be, you shall not have it at all.”
3. Upon this they ground their preaching the gospel to the
uncircumcised: “Since you will not accept eternal life as it is
offered, our way is plain, Lo, we turn to the Gentiles. If one
will not, another will. If those that were first invited to the
wedding-feast will not come, we must invite out of the highways and
hedges those that will, for the wedding must be furnished with
guests. If he that is next of kin will not do the kinsman’s part,
he must not complain that another will,”
4. They justify themselves in this by a divine warrant
(v. 47):
“For so hath the Lord commanded us; the Lord Jesus gave us
directions to witness to him in Jerusalem and Judea first, and after
that to the utmost part of the earth, to preach the gospel to
every creature, to disciple all nations.” This is
according to what was foretold in the Old-Testament. When the Messiah,
in the prospect of the Jews’ infidelity, was ready to say, I have
laboured in vain, he was told, to his satisfaction, that though
Israel were not gathered, yet he should be glorious, that
his blood should not be shed in vain, nor his purchase made in vain,
nor his doctrine preached in vain, nor his Spirit sent in vain–“For
I have set thee, not only raised thee up, but established thee,
to be a light of the Gentiles, not only a shining light for a
time, but a standing light, set thee for a light, that thou shouldst
be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.” Note,
(1.) Christ is not only the Saviour, but the salvation, is himself our
righteousness, and life, and strength.
(2.) Wherever Christ is designed to be salvation, he is set up to be a
light; he enlightens the understanding, and so saves the soul.
(3.) He is, and is to be, light and salvation to the Gentiles, to the
ends of the earth. Those of every nation shall be welcome to him, some
of every nation have heard of him
(Rom. x. 18),
and all nations shall at length become his kingdom. This prophecy has
had its accomplishment in part in the setting up of the kingdom of
Christ in this island of ours, which lies, as it were, in the ends
of the earth, a corner of the world, and shall be accomplished more
and more when the time comes for the bringing in of the fulness of
the Gentiles.
VII. The Gentiles cheerfully embraced that which the Jews scornfully
rejected,
Never was land lost for want of heirs; through the fall of the Jews,
salvation is come to the Gentiles: the casting off of them was
the reconciling of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of
the Gentiles; so the apostle shows at large,
The Jews, the natural branches, were broken off, and the Gentiles, that
were branches of the wild olive, were thereupon grafted in,
Now here we are told how the Gentiles welcomed this happy turn in their
favour.
1. They took the comfort of it: When they heard this they were
glad. It was good news to them that they might have admission into
covenant and communion with God by a clearer, nearer, and better way
than submitting to the ceremonial law, and being proselyted to the
Jewish religion–that the partition-wall was taken down and they were as
welcome to the benefits of the Messiah’s kingdom as the Jews
themselves, and might share in their promise, without coming under
their yoke. This was indeed glad tidings of great joy to all
people. Note, Our being put into a possibility of salvation, and a
capacity for it, ought to be the matter of our rejoicing; when the
Gentiles did but hear that the offers of grace should be made them, the
word of grace preached to them, and the means of grace afforded them,
they were glad. “Now there is some hope for us.” Many grieve
under doubts whether they have an interest in Christ or no, when they
should be rejoicing that they have an interest in him; the golden
sceptre is held out to them, and they are invited to come and touch the
top of it.
2. They gave God the praise of it: They glorified the word of the
Lord; that is, Christ (so some), the essential Word; they
entertained a profound veneration for him, and expressed the high
thoughts they had of him. Or, rather, the gospel; the more they
knew of it, the more they admired it. Oh! what a light, what a power,
what a treasure, does this gospel bring along with it! How excellent
are its truths, its precepts, its promises! How far transcending all
other institutions! How plainly divine and heavenly is its origin! Thus
they glorified the word of the Lord, and it is this which he has
himself magnified above all his name
and will magnify and make honourable,
Isa. xlii. 21.
They glorified the word of the Lord,
(1.) Because now the knowledge of it was diffused and not confined to
the Jews only. Note, It is the glory of the word of the Lord that the
further it spreads the brighter it shines, which shows it to be not
like the light of the candle, but like that of the sun when he goes
forth in his strength.
(2.) Because now the knowledge of it was brought to them. Note, Those
speak best of the honour of the word of the Lord that speak
experimentally, that have themselves been subdued by its power, and
comforted by its sweetness.
3. Many of them became, not only professors of the Christian faith, but
sincerely obedient to the faith: As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. God by his Spirit wrought true faith in those for
whom he had in his councils from everlasting designed a happiness to
everlasting.
(1.) Those believed to whom God gave grace to believe, whom by a secret
and mighty operation he brought into subjection to the gospel of
Christ, and made willing in the day of his power. Those came to Christ
whom the Father drew, and to whom the Spirit made the gospel call
effectual. It is called the faith of the operation of God
(Col. ii. 12),
and is said to be wrought by the same power that raised up
Christ,
Eph. i. 19, 20.
(2.) God gave this grace to believe to all those among them who were
ordained to eternal life (for whom he had predestinated, them he
also called,
Rom. viii. 30);
or, as many as were disposed to eternal life, as many as had a
concern about their eternal state, and aimed to make sure of eternal
life, believed in Christ, in whom God hath treasured up that life
(1 John v. 11),
and who is the only way to it; and it was the grace of God that wrought
it in them. Thus all those captives, and those only, took the benefit
of Cyrus’s proclamation, whose spirit God had raised up to build the
house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem,
Ezra i. 5.
Those will be brought to believe in Christ that by his grace are well
disposed to eternal life, and make this their aim.
4. When they believed they did what they could to spread the knowledge
of Christ and his gospel among their neighbours
(v. 49):
And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the
region. When it was received with so much satisfaction in the chief
city, it soon spread into all parts of the country. Those new converts
were themselves ready to communicate to others that which they were so
full of themselves. The Lord gave the word, and then great was the
company of those that published it,
Ps. lxviii. 11.
Those that have become acquainted with Christ themselves will do what
they can to bring others acquainted with him. Those in great and rich
cities that have received the gospel should not think to engross it, as
if, like learning and philosophy, it were only to be the entertainment
of the more polite and elevated part of mankind, but should do what
they can to get it published in the country among the ordinary sort of
people, the poor and unlearned, who have souls to be saved as well as
they.
VIII. Paul and Barnabas, having sown the seeds of a Christian church
there, quitted the place, and went to do the like else-where. We read
not any thing of their working miracles here, to confirm their
doctrine, and to convince people of the truth of it; for, though God
then did ordinarily make use of that method of conviction, yet he
could, when he pleased, do his work without it; and begetting faith by
the immediate influence of his Spirit was itself the greatest miracle
to those in whom it was wrought. Yet, it is probable that they did work
miracles, for we find they did in the next place they came to,
Now here we are told,
1. How the unbelieving Jews expelled the apostles out of that
country. They first turned their back upon them, and then lifted up
the heel against them
(v. 50):
They raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, excited the
mob to persecute them in their way by insulting their persons as
they went along the streets; excited the magistrates to persecute them
in their way, by imprisoning and punishing them. When they
could not resist the wisdom and spirit wherewith they spoke, they
had recourse to these brutish methods, the last refuge of an obstinate
infidelity. Satan and his agents are most exasperated against the
preachers of the gospel when they see them go on successfully, and
therefore then will be sure to raise persecution against them. Thus it
has been the common lot of the best men in the world to suffer ill for
doing well, to be persecuted instead of being preferred for the good
services they have done to mankind. Observe,
(1.) What method the Jews took to give them trouble: They stirred up
the devout and honourable women against them. They could not make
any considerable interest themselves, but they applied to some ladies
of quality in the city, that were well affected to the Jewish religion,
and were proselytes of the gate, therefore called devout women.
These, according to the genius of their sex, were zealous in their way,
and bigoted; and it was easy, by false stories and misrepresentations,
to incense them against the gospel of Christ, as if it had been
destructive of all religion, of which really it is perfective. It is
good to see honourable women devout, and well affected to religious
worship: The less they have to do in the world, the more they should do
for their souls, and the more time they should spend in communion with
God; but it is sad when, under colour of devotion to God, they conceive
an enmity to Christ, as those here mentioned. What! women persecutors!
Can they forget the tenderness and compassion of their sex? What!
honourable women! Can they thus stain their honour, and disgrace
themselves, and do so mean a thing? But, which is strangest of all,
devout women! Will they kill Christ’s servants, and think therein they
do God service? Let those therefore that have zeal see that it be
according to knowledge. By these devout and honourable women they
stirred up likewise the chief men of the city, the magistrates
and the rulers, who had power in their hands and set them against the
apostles, and they had so little consideration as to suffer themselves
to be made the tools of this ill-natured party, who would neither go
into the kingdom of heaven themselves nor suffer those who were
entering to go in.
(2.) How far they carried it, so far that they expelled them out of
their coasts; they banished them, ordered them to be carried, as we
say, from constable to constable, till they were forced out of their
jurisdiction; so that it was not by fear, but downright violence, that
they were driven out. This was one method which the overruling
providence of God took to keep the first planters of the church from
staying too long at a place; as
When they persecute you in one city flee to another, that thus
you may the sooner go over the cities of Israel. This was
likewise a method God took to make those that were well disposed the
more warmly affected towards the apostles; for it is natural to us to
pity those that are persecuted, to think the better of those that
suffer when we know they suffer unjustly, and to be the more ready to
help them. The expelling of the apostles out of their coasts made
people inquisitive what evil they had done, and perhaps raised them
more friends than conniving at them in their coasts would have
done.
2. How the apostles abandoned and rejected the unbelieving Jews
(v. 51):
They shook off the dust of their feet against them. When they
went out of the city they used this ceremony in the sight of those that
sat in the gate; or, when they went out of the borders of their
country, in the sight of those that were sent to see the country rid of
them. Hereby,
(1.) They declared that they would have no more to do with them, would
take nothing that was theirs; for they sought not theirs, but
them. Dust they are, and let them keep their dust to themselves, it
shall not cleave to them.
(2.) They expressed their detestation of their infidelity, and that,
though they were Jews by birth, yet, having rejected the gospel of
Christ, they were in their eyes no better than heathen and profane. As
Jews and Gentiles, if they believe, are equally acceptable to God and
good men; so, if they do not, they are equally abominable.
(3.) Thus they set them at defiance, and expressed their contempt of
them and their malice, which they looked upon as impotent. It was as
much as to say, “Do your worst, we do not fear you; we know whom we
serve and whom we have trusted.”
(4.) Thus they left a testimony behind them that they had had a fair
offer made them of the grace of the gospel, which shall be proved
against them in the day of judgment. This dust will prove that the
preachers of the gospel had been among them, but were expelled by them.
Thus Christ had ordered them to do, and for this reason,
When they left them, they came to Iconium, not so much for
safety, as for work.
3. What frame they left the new converts in at Antioch
(v. 52):
The disciples, when they saw with what courage and cheerfulness
Paul and Barnabas not only bore the indignities that were done them,
but went on with their work notwithstanding, they were in like manner
inspirited.
(1.) They were very cheerful. One would have expected that when Paul
and Barnabas were expelled out of their coasts, and perhaps forbidden
to return upon pain of death, the disciples would have been full of
grief and full of fear, looking for no other than that, if the planters
of Christianity go, the plantation would soon come to nothing; or that
it would be their turn next to be banished the country, and to them it
would be more grievous, for it was their own. But no; they were
filled with joy in Christ, had such a satisfactory assurance of
Christ’s carrying on and perfecting his own work in them and among
them, and that either he would screen them from trouble or bear them up
under it, that all their fears were swallowed up in their believing
joys.
(2.) They were courageous, wonderfully animated with a holy resolution
to cleave to Christ, whatever difficulties they met with. This seems
especially to be meant by their being filled with the Holy
Ghost, for the same expression is used of Peter’s boldness
(ch. iv. 8),
and Stephen’s
(ch. vii. 55),
and Paul’s,
The more we relish the comforts and encouragements we meet with in the
power of godliness, and the fuller our hearts are of them, the better
prepared we are to face the difficulties we meet with in the profession
of godliness.
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