Acts - Lesson 23

In Acts 13, Paul was in Antioch of Pisidia in the mountains. He and Barnabas preached, founded a church, and suffered persecution, and moved on to Iconium.  

Acts 14:1-7 … Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, and there they continued to preach the gospel.

The pattern we saw in Antioch of Pisidia was repeated in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas found the synagogue, Paul preached, the Holy Spirit moved (including signs and wonders), church of believers was formed, and then the unbelievers began to forcefully reject the Gospel. At that point, Paul and Barnabas would move on and minister in the next city. However, the next city was Lystra and they were deeply pagan and dangerous both spiritually and physically.

Acts 14:8-13 … Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.

Lystra also seems to be different because things did not apparently develop around the Jewish synagogue. The person who was crippled from birth was listening to Paul speak and Paul sensed that the Holy Spirit was moving in this man’s life. It seems this was in a public place and not in a synagogue. However, the people of Lystra saw one healing and decided they had a visitation from Zeus and Hermes. The use of the Lycaonian language by the mob made communication difficult. So, initially, they had a very positive reception physically but a very confused and negative reception spiritually.

Acts 14:14-18 … But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.

When Paul and Barnabas figured out what was going on they naturally objected. Tearing garments was a cultural method of showing how distressed you were. This would have communicated across cultures. Even with this protest by Paul and Barnabas it was all they could do to keep these people from sacrificing animals to them. In Luke’s record of Paul we get glimpses of the epistles and it adds depth to what the epistles stress.

One important take home message here is Paul’s ability (under the anointing of the Holy Spirit) to communicate to a pagan crowd. Notice what is not in this evangelistic message. Paul doesn’t use Jewish history and verses from Scripture. He communicates that he has good news for them, he urges them to repent, he tells them to turn to the living and true God who is no longer working only through ethic Israel, and Paul refers to the sufficiency of general revelation as a testimony that God exists.

General revelation is the revelation of truth we see in creation and common grace is blessing of the reliability of creation that we enjoy. Unbelievers today will often reject general revelation, assume the existence of bad things disproves God, and assume the existence of good things is a natural right of mankind in a godless universe. This general response is found in the entire spectrum of society. The poorest person with a drug dependency may articulate this as well as the most brilliant and respected physicist. It transcends mankind’s social structures as well as time itself. Men – even atheists – make gods with a little “g” that they can manage for their comfort.

Here is Paul from the book of Romans that speaks to the context here in Lystra as Paul references God’s common grace that gives witness to His existence via general revelation. Common grace and general revelation cover all mankind.

Romans 1:19-23 … For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Creation testifies to the existence of God. If anything exists then it testifies to the existence of God. God’s common grace is the grace we receive in the regular function of the universe and the regularity of physical events. They are so regular that we call them the laws of physics.

Stephen Hawking was quoted as having communicated that, “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing.” Here is one of the brightest men on the planet today very seriously asserting something silly. If there ever was a time when there was nothing then there never would be anything. So while ignoring a fundamental law of logic he elevates the “law of gravity” to a self existent position above the God of the Universe. Gravity is part of common grace and it “rules” – if you wish to call it ruling – at the discretion and pleasure of God. However, the atheist has a fundamental need to reject those concepts because the existence of God (omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, perfect, and eternal) would threaten mankind’s autonomy.

Paul tries to lift the eyes of the people of Lystra from their exchange of the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men. Paul and Barnabas are partially successful as the Holy Spirit did make some disciples in Lystra but it was a hard place to minister and the disgruntled unbelievers from Antioch in Pisidia and Iconium had followed them to Lystra.

Acts 14:19-23 … But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Think of the temptation here to fall back on manipulating the crowd with their pagan beliefs. The temptation would be to go back to the Zeus and Hermes story and use fear and manipulation to control this crowd. What a temptation that would be compared with being beaten with stones.

Ovid (Metamorphoses) in ancient times wrote a story about Zeus and Hermes coming to a valley near Lystra and they were not treated very well. Only one old couple in a shack treated them well. In the end the valley flooded and the old couple’s shack was turned into a temple with a golden roof while everyone else drowned. The residents of Lystra would have known this story. This helps explains the response of Lystra to Paul and Barnabas because they didn’t want to all die in a flood. I would have been tempted to take advantage of them with the story if they were lining up to stone me.

Paul was beaten with stones, dragged out of the city, and left for dead in Lystra. He went from being a god to being despised very quickly. When you are sick with a chronic illness then life is hard. When you are sick with malaria and beaten with stones until people think you are dead then I’m afraid that would have been at least one bale past the last straw for me. I would have headed home but in Paul we are seeing a man surrendered to the Holy Spirit with a firm grasp of his great indebtedness to God’s grace.

Paul went back into Lystra, then to Derbe, and then back to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia. At each place they established leadership for the churches. This first journey was an “out and back” trail for them and not a loop. As they went back and visited each church they, 1) gave encouragement, 2) taught the believers, 3) organized the church, and 4) prayed. This was the way the Holy Spirit built these early churches and formed living communities of believers in hostile territory.

Acts 14:24-28 … Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they remained no little time with the disciples.

Perhaps because of Paul’s thorn in the flesh they didn’t speak the word in Perga when they went though the first time so they ministered there on the way back. This was where John Mark had left them as they went on to Antioch in Pisidia. They preached there and probably in Attalia and then sailed back to Antioch in Syria. This was the local church that had sent them on the first missionary journey. They had fulfilled the work that God had sent them out to do. At home, in a manner similar to missionaries today, they shared what God had done with those who had supported them.

Acts - Lesson 22

In Acts 13, as we were reading last week, Paul was in Galatia visiting Antioch of Pisidia (not the Antioch that sent him on the missionary journey). Paul ends the sermon with a warning from Habakkuk 1:5 that is somewhat similar to Isaiah 29:14.

Acts 13:41 … “‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’”

The warning is especially relevant to the Jews there in Galatia as Paul states that we are freed from everything from which we could not be freed by the Law of Moses. Paul foreshadows his letter to the Galatians (and other epistles as well) on the relationship of works to our justification. This is the point in which we really begin to see the salvations of the Gentiles as Paul’s main ministry.  

Acts 13:42-43 … As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

The grace of God was the Gospel or good news that Paul and Barnabas were communicating to the Galatians. This was the heart of the message but this would also be the stumbling stone for those whose hearts were hardened.

Acts 13:44-47 … The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

We see the power of the Holy Spirit here. The Word of the Lord was the attraction as the Holy Spirit stirred up hearts. However, the contrary response of those hardened hearts is also stirred up. When the Holy Spirit moves then you will have both reactions. Remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus.

John 3:6-8 … That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

In the midst of the move of the Holy Spirit you need to pray for obedience and rest in God’s sovereignty. It is an amazing thing that God the Holy Spirit is working around you and we need to be at peace about that. The unbelieving Jews were contradicting and making fun of Paul and Barnabas and I think that what Paul says is a massive indictment of the failure of the Jews to accomplish their God given mission.  Paul speaks Jew to Jew to these hard hearts and says that God commanded us to be a light for the Gentiles and to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Paul tells them that if they will reject the good news and try to keep it from the Gentiles because of their jealousy then they will be left behind and he and Barnabas will go to the Gentiles.

It was appropriately offered to the Jews first because of the order of Acts 1:8. Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” So it was appropriate for Paul to start in synagogues but the Gospel is not limited to a particular race of men anymore. If you reject the Gospel of justification by faith then you can’t be a light to the unsaved or bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

Acts 13:48-52 … And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

God planted a church here in Galatia by using Paul and Barnabas. This was a very quick church planting but the church grew around this group of salvations and impacted the whole region. The jealousy of those who rejected the Gospel produced persecution from the government. I find the negative reaction pretty easy to understand. Some of the big influences for those whose hearts were hardened would have been that the Jewish leadership of Jerusalem had rejected Jesus. Paul also stated that justification is from faith. This sets aside the Law for righteousness sake. That would have offended the Jews. He didn’t say the law was bad but he stated the truth that the law condemns you. However, those rejecting the Gospel would have perceived Paul as preaching against the law even though he was simply showing the limitations of the law. However, jealousy is the word used by Scripture as those who were of the “correct” lineage and had the “correct” behavior saw so many Gentiles coming to faith. For someone who thinks of themselves as one who represents the line of the faithful to hear the hard truth that God has kept a remnant in spite of the lack of faith and sinful rebellion of your ancestors would be hard to hear. This is especially difficult to accept in light of the general Jewish rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah as the Gentiles come to faith through Him in spite of you. So the sinful jealousy is easy for me to understand. What is harder for me to understand is the wonderful faithfulness of men like Paul and Barnabas as well as all those Jews who accepted the Gospel as a result of their ministry. However, the early Church had many challenges from Jews and Gentiles alike … as we will continue to see in the book of Acts.

Acts - Lesson 21

As we continue in Acts Chapter 13, Luke presents the change in the role of Saul as an apostle and gives insight so that we can see the making of Paul as an apostle to the Gentiles. Notice that verse 7 refers to “Barnabas and Saul” and then verse 9 refers to Saul “who was also called Paul” using first his Hebrew and then the Roman name. In the next verse, Paul is “Paul and his companions”.

Acts 13:13-16a … Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:

They sailed from the western part of the island of Cyprus to southwestern Turkey. Barnabas demonstrated intelligence and humility when he brought Paul to Antioch to help with the church planting effort there. None of us have anything that we haven’t received from God but (after intellectual acknowledgement of that) we typically act like we are responsible for our success. Barnabas obviously cared deeply about the Church of God. When he saw it being blessed then that blessed him. Barnabas was “sent by the Apostles” and the apostles even had a pet name for him. In Luke’s narrative his name is gone and he is a companion of Paul. Being at peace when God is exalting you is easier than being at peace when the Holy Spirit is making you a helper. Barnabas somehow had the spiritual maturity to deal with it.

Luke also simply says “John left them” and the reactions of Paul and Barnabas differed over this. Paul felt deserted by John Mark and Barnabas - a relative of John Mark – felt differently. He had brought John Mark on the trip with perhaps questionable direction from the Holy Spirit. We will get to the verses indicating the difference of opinion in Chapter 15. It was a point of stress between Paul and Barnabas in any case and this is when it first became an issue. The relationship was healed later but these are real people with real problems. It always has and it always will take a determined focus on God to rest in His sovereign control of history. That is particularly true when it is our history. It can be easier to trust God with history in general than our history in particular. Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark are working through these real struggles on the first missionary trip of the Church.

You may wonder why they passed through Perga and then on to Galatia to get to Antioch of Pisidia. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians he says that he was ill when he first came to them. In Galatians 4:13-14 Paul writes, “You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.” It is at least probable that Paul had a case of malaria from being down on the coast and decided to head up into the mountains of Galatia to Antioch of Pisidia. This would have put him at a higher elevation to recover. Perhaps Dr. Luke suggested the move and the Holy Spirit, in his sovereignty, led them up into the mountains to preach. This illness may have also caused the younger John Mark to doubt the mission and to head back home. He may have asked, “Where is God if He can’t heal Paul?” We know that Paul asked to be healed more than once.

Consider the spiritual opposition in the midst of this outreach. Barnabas was learning to play second fiddle to Paul. John Mark abandoned them and went home. Paul is both offended at being abandoned and struggling with a serious debilitating illness. The relative success on Cyprus is gone and they have a real struggle in western Turkey. We don’t know why John Mark bailed out and we can think of many reasons for God to keep Paul healthy. The “health and wealth” preachers would say Paul’s faith was weak. We love reasons for everything even when they are nonsense. God knows the reason but He doesn’t always share those reasons with us.

We have had a cult visiting homes in our neighborhood lately. I went back to refresh my memory on the issues with that particular cult. They have multiple errors in their teaching but one interesting error is that they reject the idea that Paul was sick. They teach that his thorn in the flesh was a group of false teachers. That is a very poor exegesis but they simply can’t handle Paul being sick because he would – in their way of thinking – simply pray and be healed. Job was essentially told that he wasn’t smart enough to know why the bad things happened to him. We don’t like that answer. It doesn’t satisfy us when our focus is on us instead of God. However, we need to remember that God is sovereign even when things are not going well. We almost never know the “why” of a thing even when we know the “how”. Even when we have a man like Herod Agrippa I struck down after receiving blasphemous worship and we have a partial explanation for his judgment we still don’t get to generalize to other sudden deaths. I’d say the first missionary journal should be all about healings and blinding magicians who oppose the work. God says not.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 … So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Well that would test your trust in God wouldn’t it? However, if an omniscient God tells you that you have the grace you need then you can believe that you have the grace you need … at least you should believe. The possibility of Paul struggling over his lifetime with malaria, gives more deeper meaning to his comments to the Corinthians that he was with them “in weakness and in fear and much trembling.” We don’t see Paul with a problem in public speaking in Acts. I can imagine some of the hard hearted and superficial Corinthian Church saying, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” 2 Corinthians 10:10.

Paul’s sermon to the Jews and God fearing Gentiles here in Antioch of Pisidia (found in the mountains of western Turkey) is somewhat like Stephen’s sermon but also has Paul’s fingerprints on it. Some of the ideas we find here turn up in the epistles.

Acts 13:16-22 … So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’

In this first portion of his sermon, Paul names his audience and lets us know that it contained both Jews and God fearing gentiles. Paul has a God focus. This is a proclamation of God’s work among men. Paul’s presentation is the history as “His story” or God’s story and must be understood in that way. God chose, God made the people great, God delivered them from Egypt, God destroyed the nations, God gave the inheritance, and God gave them human leadership. Paul ends this section David because he was faithful and the promises that David had from God.

Acts 13:23-25 … Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’

The promises to David are fulfilled in Jesus as proclaimed by John. John the Baptist faithfully knew his role and pointed to Christ in his mission. John had a clear glimpse of the holy and divine. He knew that he wasn’t worthy to do the task of the lowest disciple and untie Jesus’ sandals. As Jesus said, John was the greatest of men but less than the least in the kingdom. John needed grace and he knew it. That should startle us into recognition of our sinful state and our need of grace. We are not suitable for the kingdom apart from His mercy and grace. As someone has pointed out, we often sing amazing grace but really are not amazed by grace and often more amazed by judgment.

In his preaching, Paul transitions from a proclamation of God’s work in the world to a proclamation of the Gospel.

Acts 13:26-31 … “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

Paul is careful to fit Jesus into the historical role he established in the first portion of his message. He points out how ironic it is that Scripture is read every Sabbath and that it was fulfilled by the condemnation of Christ by those who read it. They carried out all that was written of Jesus. Paul will come back to the response to this revelation and warn them not to fall into the trap that those in Jerusalem fell into.

Acts 13:32-41 … And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ Therefore he says also in another psalm,      “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: “‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’”

We are freed from everything from which we could not be freed by the Law of Moses. Here is a finger print of Paul in this message that the Holy Spirit, through Paul, explains more fully in the book of Romans.

Romans 8:1-4 … There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Here is Paul on his first missionary journey and in his first recorded sermon preaching the Gospel to both Jews and gentiles. In his own words Paul says, “it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus (Galatians 4:13-14). The Holy Spirit moved in Galatia.

Acts - Lesson 20

As I mentioned last week, Roman law provided that if a prisoner escaped then the guard was subject to the punishment that the prisoner would have had. So the soldiers who lost Peter were ordered to be killed. It can be a little confusing to keep all the Herod’s straight. There are 5 characters named Herod.

Herod the Great (34 to 4 B.C.) - Controlled Palestine at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.  This Herod ordered the murder of the babies of Bethlehem (Matt. 2:2).

Herod Archelaus (4 B.C. to A.D. 6) - Herod the Great was succeeded by his son Archelaus. Archelaus was so bad that the Jews complained to the emperor and he was removed from office in A.D. 6 (Matt. 2:22).

Herod Antipas (A.D. 6 to 39) - After Archelaus, Judea was governed for a time by Roman procurators. But the line of Herod the Great continued through Herod Antipas until he was banished to Gaul in A.D. 39. This Herod killed John the Baptist and was mentioned at the trial of Jesus Christ.

Herod Agrippa I (tetrarch of Trachonitis from A.D. 39 and then as king of Judea from A.D. 41–44) - He was the son of Aristobulus, Herod the Great’s son by his second wife, Mariamne. This is the Herod who appears in Acts 12.

Herod Agrippa II (reigned over various territories from A.D. 50 to 100) - This Herod was a son of Herod Agrippa I and was seventeen when his father’s death. The emperor Claudius did not to give him his father’s kingdom because of his age. In time, Agrippa II was given other territories. This Herod spoke with Paul years later (Acts 25-26).

Herod Agrippa I was apparently so frustrated that he left Jerusalem went to the beach (Acts 12:19).

Acts 12:20-23 … Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

Herod was at the port city of Caesarea and these two port cities to the north (Tyre and Sidon) came to ask for a normalization of trade relations so they import needed food from further south. I’m not sure when flattery was invented but it is obvious that it was before the time of Herod and these folks attempted to oil the wheels of commerce by saying that Herod’s speech was so good that it was “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Herod should have ducked and covered at this blasphemous praise. Josephus tells us that Herod was known as Agrippa the Great in his time. Rather than back away from the praise in humility before God, he accepted the praise from these people and was struck down.

The Jewish historian Josephus says that Herod Agrippa 1^st had heart and stomach pains and died after 5 days in A.D. 44 (the 4^th year of Claudius Caesar). So with the report of Josephus and Luke taken together we can assume that he was immediately in great pain, suffered for 5 days, and then died or perhaps had some pain over 5 days and died as soon as he received the blasphemous praise. Luke, being a doctor, may have known someone who let him know that parasites were part of the problem. It may have been a disease process known as Fournier gangrene. This same process may have also killed his grandfather Herod the Great but his father was murdered. This is a very tough bacterial infection and even today mortality rates are high. The worms were likely maggots as a result of necrotic surface tissue. That may be more than you wanted to know but I feel sure that Dr. Luke would want me to share that additional information.

Acts 12:24-25 … But the word of God increased and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

Luke sets the death of Herod against the strength and growth of the Word of God. God was continuing to work and Barnabas and Saul were back in Antioch after delivering the collection of money for the Christians in Jerusalem as suggested by Agabus. They also brought John Mark the author of The Gospel According to Mark for ministry with them for a while.

Acts 13:1-3 … Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

The narrative switches back to Antioch here. Remember that Barnabas was sent to Antioch by the Apostles and found he needed Paul to help disciple the believers. The Church was blessed and grew and now they have “prophets and teachers” in addition to Barnabas and Saul to keep growing the Church. Simeon who was called Niger or “Black” in Latin may have been the one who helped with the Cross of Jesus (Luke 23:26) and was the father of Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21 and Romans 16:13). These two were active in the Church at Rome. Cyrene referred to the province of Cyrenaica in what is now Libya.

Notice that they laid hands on them believing that the Holy Spirit was going to work through Barnabas and Saul but this was in response to what the Holy Spirit had directed. They invented missions work but they didn’t invent missions work apart from the Holy Spirit. They bathed every aspect of the missions program in prayer asking God what they should do. It is very important for us to try to do what God says rather than to ask God to bless what we think would be good. This brings us back to the “fear and trembling” attitude that we need in our Christian walk.

Philippians 2:12-13 … Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

The brethren at Antioch were careful to get direction from prayer and fasting and to act in obedience with prayer and fasting. We are commanded to exercise care and diligence in seeking God’s will for the details of our lives. God is able to make His will known and we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to walk out our lives. Our lives are “Coram Deo” (Psalm 139).

In walking out this missionary trip, Barnabas and Saul (along with John Mark) first went to the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean.

Acts 13:4-6 … So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.

Paphos is on the western end of the island and Salamis is on the eastern end of the island. The cities are mostly on the coastline so they preached from east to west in some organized pattern either running north or south around the island. The Holy Spirit isn’t opposed to organized plans and here we see a methodical approach to evangelizing the island of Cyprus.

They were still often focused on efforts in the synagogues. That would have been the likely place to start because the Hellenistic Jews would have a background for understanding the Gospel.

Here they met Bar-Jesus and he was a magician. We saw the problem that the Church had with Simon Magus earlier in the Book of Acts and here we have Magus Bar-Jesus. Jesus was a fairly common name so we don’t know if he was adopting this name to seem powerful (like Jesus) or if it truly reflecting that he was the son of a man named Jesus or Joshua. In either case, like Simon Magus, he was adopting magic and assuming a position of spiritual authority that was forbidden by his Judaism.

We must not let similar religious beliefs to have any place in our lives because Scripture tells us not to seek any spiritual authority or power apart from what God gives in Scripture. We don’t do astrology, we don’t do water witching, we don’t do séances, we don’t look for ghosts, and we don’t incorporate eastern religious traditions just to give a few examples. Bar-Jesus was being syncretistic in his religion and that step is the step that we rationalize as we begin to depart from following Christ. This is old history. Someone will say, I did one of those sorts of activity and it worked so what can I say other than it worked? Well there are two possibilities. First, it may simply be a deception or a lie. In that case we abandon it because it is a lie. Secondly, it may have actually worked. That is far more serious and we abandon it in that case because it is demonic knowing it is not God because He said that He would not honor that sort of behavior. The idolatry of Israel in the Old Testament and the fashionable idolatry of superstitious Christians today both lead away from Scripture. Bar-Jesus was in a position of Power and his position was threatened by Barnabas and Saul.

Acts 13:7-12 … He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

Sergius Paulus was a proconsul because he answered to the Roman Senate and not the Emperor. This was the way Cyprus had been governed since 22 BC. Saul looks at this man whose name means Son of Jesus and calls him the son of the devil. Elymus or Bar-Jesus was at heart an enemy of righteousness. He had rejected and bent the Law of God and now he was opposing the Grace of God. He was continuing to make crooked the straight paths of the Lord. Paul knew something about having a little blind time and so he (under the anointing of the Holy Spirit) sent darkness on Bar-Jesus. The combination of this sign at the expense of Bar-Jesus and the teaching of grace resulted in the salvation of the proconsul.