We see in the above focus that Paul, even though called to the Gentiles, was carrying on his ministry in a city where a big contingent of Jewish people lived. He and Barnabas had first journeyed to the island of Cyprus to minister to Jews. He now goes to Pisidian Antioch, an important city in the Roman Empire, a city with a thriving Jewish community. As we see in Paul and Barnabas’ first missionary journey, they are fixed on carrying the Good News to their fellow Jewish brethren. After all, for them, Jesus Christ came to the Jews through the womb of Mary, and He ministered primarily in the Jewish country of Israel. Therefore, his brethren should be the first to know about the Messiah coming to redeem the world from sin and destruction. Paul moves away from Cyprus to go to Pisidian Antioch, a harrowing, difficult journey; first sailing 200 miles from Cyprus to Perga, which is located on the coast of present day Turkey. Then he and Barnabas, without Mark, go to Pisidian Antioch, a 300 mile arduous journey inland through the Taurus Mountains to speak to the Antioch Jews. Paul, in his sermonette to the Jewish community in their synagogue, begins his talk to them by telling them how they became prosperous in their 40 years of slavery in the country of Egypt. This prosperity could be described in three ways: their population was growing faster that the Egyptian population, they were exposed to a civilization much more advanced than their shepherding lifestyle, and finally they left Egypt with the gold and silver and finery of the Egyptian people. Through their wilderness travels, they were carrying with them the luxury of the Egyptian society, which also included idols and images of other gods to worship. These gods of Egypt that they carried with them caused much trouble for the Chosen. Even though they knew Moses’ God, the I AM, had delivered them from Pharaoh’s hands with mighty power and that he led them out of that country, they were a stubborn people. God endured their rebellious nature all the way through their forty years in the wilderness. The Israelites clung to the Egyptian gods. This weakness manifested itself when Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the law, the full revelation of the I Am, they immediately fell into open idol worship because Moses was absent from them. Aaron made them an Egyptian idol in the form of a golden calf to worship. God disciplined them for that behavior, but He still had to put up with their recalcitrant, rebellious nature for forty years in the wilderness. Even though God had chosen these particular Semites, the descendants of Abraham, as his own, they resisted God’s authority over them. Nevertheless, only Jacob’s descendants would be God’s chosen, when they went into Egypt. The family of Jacob consisted of sixty-six people. When they left Egypt, they numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
The Israelites original father was Abraham. Abraham, their patriarch, was raised in an idol worshipping environment; however, he came to know the I AM, Jehovah God, the creator of all things. God because of his grace came to Abraham, spoke to him about his future and the future of his descendants through dreams and visions. In these supernatural experiences, God promised Abram that his barren wife would have a son and that the land of Canaan would be his inheritance. He told Abram not to be afraid for He would be Abram’s shield in life and his great reward. However, He showed Abram that his descendants would experience slavery for four hundred years. “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. (Genesis 15:13-14) Paul begins at this point in his talk to the Antioch Jews to remind them of their history that they were birthed out of slavery as a free people, a special people who because of Abraham’s faith have obtained God’s favor. Sounds somewhat contradictory, for they are ordained to go into slavery, but Esau, a descendant of Abraham through the loins of Isaac, lives free in the hill country of Seir, but Jacob’s descendants find slavery as their inheritance. We know Ishmael, from the seed of Abraham, also lived free in the area east of the Red Sea: from Havilah to Shur. (Genesis 25:18) Now Paul’s ministry is directed primarily to the seed of Jacob, not to the other Semites born from Ishmael and Esau or to the Greeks and Romans. We see Paul on the Sabbath talking to his fellow Jews, even though Abraham’s promise from God was that he would be the father of many nations, many people. Abraham’s choice of believing God’s words to him that he experienced in dreams and visions was more real than any idol worshipping. His stance of believing God’s words to him was called faith. God counted Abraham’s willingness to believe what he heard from God as righteousness or right standing with God. Abraham affirmatively believed God would give Sarah a son and that he would receive Canaan as his own. This strong belief of Abraham made God his friend. Jehovah became Abraham’s great reward. Abraham and his descendants would always have God with them. We see in this transition of Abraham, the idol worshipper to a follower of the Creator, the hand of God’s grace towards him. The Holy Spirit was intricately involved with Abraham’s decision to know God. This activity of the Holy Spirit’s involvement with the thinking of men is illustrated when Peter said to Christ, you are the Son of God, the Messiah. Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16) His affirmation of Jesus as the Son of God originated with the Holy Spirit. Abraham’s willingness to believe what he dreamed and saw in visions was God’s work in him, not his fleshly mind or intellect. Both Peter and Abraham sinned later in their lives, but God did not count that as unrighteousness, for they knew God by faith. The faith in God in both instances came before the real act of circumcision. Circumcision has nothing to do with holiness; it is but a confirmation that you are now God’s child. But real circumcision is not an outward show, but an inward work of God. Peter went on and experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit, an inward work of God, not just an affirmation that Christ is the Son of God. An inward work makes a new specie, a born-again specie that can inherit eternal life.
Paul in presenting the Good News to these synagogue attenders was acting as a surgeon. He was attempting to surgically removed the law as the standard of salvation for these Jews and replace it with faith in the works of Jesus and in his resurrection. For the Jews, accepting the law and living up to its obligation was the standard of holiness, for them there was no other way to serve God or to please the God of creation. Now Paul is setting before them THE WAY to know God, and it comes only through faith in God’s Son’s work on the cross. This is a hard transition for the Jews, for anything other than obeying the law throws them into the abyss of eternal darkness. Paul ends his talk to them with this statement: Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38-39) This is a monumental change in the Jewish belief system. How could one man’s life in their time bring a place of righteousness in their lives? How could they throw away hundreds of years of Jews believing in the efficacy of the law? For Paul his 500 mile journey from Cyprus to them was so representative of his commitment that he would endure anything and everything to tell his fellow Jews the Good News, that Jesus saves, that the Messiah has come to the world for them and all people. Paul understood well that Abraham’s blessing was for the future. He understood the Seed of Abraham would be carried down to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Jesus the Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises made to Abraham, the man of faith. Through Jesus all nations will be blessed, new births will happen, new creations, born in the likeness of God will come to earth, and a new land, God’s kingdom, will come to all people. Jesus fulfilled every revelation of God through the law. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18) What should the law accomplish? To make men and women right before God. Jesus fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law. He completed the work God required of men and women to be right with him. Therefore, to know God we place our faith IN THE WORKS OF CHRIST, or we are covered with his blood, the final and only sacrifice that is pleasing to a holy God. Paul in this breakfast focus is at the beginning of convincing his Jewish brethren to place their faith in the works of Jesus—a challenge that is still going on today. Will the Jews transition from believing the law is the only way to God? Will the Gentiles believe this Jewish man, Jesus, is the path to knowing the Creator of all things? This is the challenge of all Christians within the world today. How can the world know that this Good News is the way to an eternal God? By the Christians' love they will know the truth of Christ. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35) Only the new specie: the born-again, can love as God desires. Old men and women will be critical of others and judge others, harm others, but new creatures will love as God loves. Faith in God requires love. The question for us breakfast companions: do you love freely or is your love only for those you think deserve love? Paul and Barnabas traveled 500 miles to tell the people in Pisidian Antioch that God’s instrument of love, Jesus Christ, has come to them. Such a love drove them to Antioch to deliver the Jews of that city from sin and death. Amen! Where does God want you to take the salvation message today? Where is your Antioch?
