Acts Chapter 13: Sent by the Spirit

The church at Antioch had a remarkable leadership team. Luke lists them: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been raised with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. Five men. Look at what those five names represent. A Levite from Cyprus. A man whose name suggests African descent. A man from Cyrene in North Africa. A man connected to the royal court of Herod. A Pharisee from Tarsus. Five backgrounds, five histories, five sets of cultural assumptions — all gathered in the same room as prophets and teachers in the same community.

The gospel had already done something in Antioch that was virtually unimaginable anywhere else in the ancient world. These men led it together.

While they were worshipping Yehovah and fasting, the Holy Spirit said: set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. They fasted and prayed further, laid hands on them, and sent them off. Luke adds immediately: so they, sent out by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus.

Sent by the church. Sent by the Holy Spirit. Both. The church recognized what the Spirit had already initiated. Their role was to confirm and release what Yehovah had already determined. This is the pattern for every genuine missionary calling in Acts — the Spirit moves first, the community responds, the sent ones go.

Cyprus and the Sorcerer

They began in Salamis, Cyprus’s largest city on the eastern coast, in the synagogues. The pattern is consistent throughout the first journey: to the Jew first. Then they worked across the island to Paphos, the Roman provincial capital.

In Paphos they encountered the proconsul, Sergius Paulus — an intelligent man, Luke says, who wanted to hear the word of Yehovah. With him was a man named Bar-Jesus, a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet who had positioned himself as the proconsul’s spiritual advisor. His name means son of Yeshua — the tragic irony of someone bearing a messianic name while working against the Messiah.

When Bar-Jesus — also called Elymas, the Arabic word for sorcerer — saw what was happening he opposed them, trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith. He had everything to lose. His access to power, his income, his influence — all of it depended on being the most spiritually credible person in the room. Paul had just walked in and that position was suddenly threatened.

Paul looked directly at him, filled with the Holy Spirit, and said: you who are full of all deceit and all villainy, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness — will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of Yehovah? The hand of Yehovah is against you. You will be blind, unable to see the sun, for a time.

Immediately mist and darkness came over Elymas and he groped around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. It is impossible not to notice: Saul had been struck blind on the road to Damascus. Now Paul strikes a sorcerer blind in Paphos. The same judgment that had broken Saul open was now applied to a man who, unlike Saul, had every opportunity to see clearly and chose not to. The proconsul saw what happened and believed — astonished at the teaching of Yehovah.

This is the first time Luke refers to Saul as Paul. From this point forward in Acts, he is Paul. The Roman name, used in the Gentile world. He is walking fully into the calling Yehovah had spoken over him on the Damascus road: to carry My name before Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.

Pisidian Antioch and Paul’s First Recorded Sermon

From Cyprus they sailed north to the mainland, arriving at Perga in Pamphylia. Here John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. Luke records it without comment, but it will become a significant issue between Paul and Barnabas later. They continued inland to Pisidian Antioch, a Roman colony on the plateau of Galatia. On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue.

After the reading of the Torah and the Prophets the synagogue leaders sent word: brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, speak. Paul stood up.

His sermon in Pisidian Antioch is the first extended sermon of Paul’s that Luke records and it follows the same structure as Peter’s sermons — because it is built on the same foundation. He starts with Israel’s history: the exodus, the wilderness, the conquest of Canaan, the period of the judges, Samuel, Saul, David. He quotes 1 Samuel, Psalm 89, Isaiah 55. And then he arrives at Yeshua — whose coming John the Immerser announced, whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their rulers condemned without finding any grounds for it, whom they asked Pilate to have executed, whom Yehovah raised from the dead, who appeared over many days to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now His witnesses to the people.

Then Paul does something Peter does consistently: he opens the Psalms. Psalm 2 — you are My Son, today I have begotten you. Psalm 16 — you will not let your Holy One see decay. David fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw decay. But the one Yehovah raised did not see decay. The tomb is a landmark in Jerusalem. Everyone in that room knew it. The argument is the same as Peter’s on Shavuot: if the Psalm applied to David, it failed. David died. Therefore the Psalm is pointing forward to the one who would not stay dead.

The offer is direct and extraordinary: through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the Torah of Moses. The Torah defines righteousness and exposes sin. It cannot remove guilt. Faith in the risen Yeshua provides the righteousness the Torah demanded but could not produce. Paul is not setting aside Moses. He is showing what Moses was pointing at.

The Second Sabbath and the Turn to the Gentiles

When the congregation broke up, many Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who urged them to continue in the grace of Yehovah. The next Sabbath almost the whole city came out to hear the word of Yehovah. When the Jewish leaders saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting what Paul said and blaspheming.

Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: it was necessary for the word of Yehovah to be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life — look, we are turning to the Gentiles. For this is what Yehovah commanded: I have made you a light to the Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 49:6. Written about the servant of Yehovah. Applied by Paul to his own calling.

The Gentiles who heard this were glad and began glorifying the word of Yehovah. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Luke writes that sentence simply and leaves it there. The sovereignty of Yehovah in salvation and the genuine response of human faith held together without apology or explanation. Those Yehovah had prepared believed. And the word of Yehovah spread through the whole region.

The Jewish leaders stirred up the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city and drove Paul and Barnabas out. They shook the dust off their feet against them in accordance with Yeshua’s instruction and went to Iconium. The new disciples in Pisidian Antioch were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. They had just watched their teachers get expelled from the city. They were filled with joy. That is the Spirit’s signature on genuine conversion — a joy that does not depend on circumstances because it comes from a source circumstances cannot touch.

Next: Acts Chapter 14 — Gods, Stones, and the Long Way Home