PAUL’S FIRST MISSIONARY TOUR.
-MAY 2.-Acts
13:1-13.-
WITH this lesson
we leave the parent Church at Jerusalem, and the later Church at Antioch, and
start with the Apostle Paul upon what is termed the first missionary tour.
Really, however, nearly all of the work thus far done might be said to be of
the nature of missionary work. Our Lord’s work amongst the Jews was in the
nature of a missionary work. The work which began with the day of Pentecost
amongst the Jews was in the nature of missionary work. The work done by those
who were scattered abroad as the result of persecution in Judea was in the
nature of mis-sionary work. The Church at Antioch was itself a mission
Church. And so the missionary journey of the Apostle Paul should not be
considered in the light of special mission work, as that term is used
today (not a mission to savages and barbarians), but rather as a part of the
whole work, which the Lord was pleased to specially bless and use in the
establishment of the truth in various quarters distant from Jerusalem.
In a previous lesson we saw the progress made by the Christians at Antioch
under the instruction of the holy Spirit through Barnabas and Paul. And this
is corroborated by the testimony of this lesson that the Church at Antioch was
in a healthful condition, spirit-ual and full of zeal for the spread of the
gospel. It had in it by this time several persons of ability and full
consecration whom the Lord was pleased to use in con-nection with its ministry;
and the time had come when Paul and Barnabas could be spared to go elsewhere,
to start others in the good way; and the holy spirit indi-cated that
this should be done. How this was indicat-ed we are not informed, and we will not
speculate con-cerning it. Suffice it that the Church understood the directions
of the holy spirit and obeyed them, Barnabas and Paul being agreeable also.
Barnabas is mentioned first in the record because up to this time he had the
more prominent position, as being older than Paul in spiritual things and
perhaps also older in years. While Paul was “a chosen vessel” unto the Lord,
prepared for a great service, it had not yet been fully manifest that he was
the Lord’s choice to fill the place of Judas, the twelfth apostle.
Apparently Barnabas and Paul were sent forth at the expense or charges of the
Church at Antioch, and hence went forth as their representatives, as well as
representatives of the Lord. The importance of the matter was appreciated, and
the dependence of the mission upon divine blessing was recognized in the
fasting and prayer and outward manifestation of ap-pointment by laying on of
hands. This laying on of hands was not by way of giving authority to
preach, for Barnabas and Paul had already been teaching in various quarters for
some years, and had been teach-ing the Church at Antioch for over a year: it
was there-fore merely a ceremony by which the missionaries and the Church
undertaking their support took cognizance of each other as representatives and
represented in this special work about to be begun. But while accepting the
commission of the Antioch Church, as its represent-atives, the missionaries
specially recognized that they were sent forth by the holy spirit.-Verse 4.
They had not gone far before they began the work which lay so near to their
hearts;-the preaching of God’s message, of good tidings of great joy, of
recon-ciliation effected by the precious blood of Christ. They did not go to
heathen people, but went to, sow the seed of the Kingdom in already prepared
soil: they went, first of all, as in every place, to the Jews who for sixteen
hundred years had been under the law as a school-master to prepare them to
receive Christ. The pious Gentiles who were “feeling after God, if haply they
might find him,” and who had some knowledge of the God of Israel, frequently
attended these Jewish synagogues, and hence in going to these the missionaries,
Barnabas and Paul, were reaching the best prepared and most religious element
in every place.
The liberality of the management of the Jewish synagogues is attested by the
fact that the gospel got a ready hearing in all of them up to the point
where they realized that the message was likely to produce a division in their
midst. If the Jewish synagogues and Christian churches today were conducted on
a similar-ly liberal basis, and gave opportunity for the presentation of
any subject that could be presented from the Script-ures and in harmony with
the Scriptures, the present missionary work of disseminating the present
harvest truth would be very much simplified. While today we are less subject
to the violent persecution, on the other hand we are seriously handicapped by
prevailing conditions and sectarian bondage.
John-Mark, the nephew of Barnabas, is here intro-duced to us; not as a third
laborer in the special work of ministry of the truth, but as an assistant or
servant to Barnabas and Paul. In this as in every place the Scriptures, while
teaching that all believers are “breth-ren” and “fellow-heirs,” nevertheless
repudiate entire-ly the thought entertained by some today that all brethren are
exacty on an equality in every matter. Very properly Mark did not say-“If I
cannot go on an equality with Barnabas and Paul, I will not go at all.” Very
properly he did say that if there is any opportunity for service, if by any
means I can render any assistance in the journey and affairs of these whom the
holy spirit has indicated as special representatives, I shall be most glad to
serve them, and thus serve in-directly the Lord and his cause. And there were
op-portunities, as there are always opportunities for those who have a will to
serve the cause; and no doubt Bar-nabas, and especially Paul, received many
helps from their younger brother who had become their servant chiefly from his
desire to serve the cause of Christ. No doubt also their opportunities for
public ministry of the truth were enlarged and broadened by his helpful
assistance in secular affairs. Paul especially constant-ly needed a helper,
because of his thorn in the flesh, his weak eyes.
Mark’s faithful service continued for some time, but for some reason (verse 13)
not stated he left the work, and we may judge very nearly lost his privilege
and opportunity in connection with it. No one knows how much he may have lost
of spiritual blessing and privilege by his failure to continue with Paul. The
disagreement, whatever it may have been, apparently extended to his uncle
Barnabas, and eventually led to the separation of the latter from Paul.
However, years afterward John-Mark apparently saw things in a differ-ent light,
and again joined Paul’s company. He seems to have ultimately become a true
yoke-fellow, very highly appreciated by the great Apostle. (Col. 4:10; 2 Tim.
4:11.) Here is a suggestion to all of us that, no matter what may be the
door of opportunity for en-gaging in the Lord’s service, faithfulness to it is
essen-tial to progress; and there is a further lesson that if we find that we
have erred and been unappreciative of our privilege the best thing to do is to
repent therefor and seek a renewal of the opportunities, and to attest our
loyalty by fresh and increased earnestness.
The gospel heralds continued on their journey through the Island of Cyprus,
until at Paphos they came in contact with a new experience. There Satan has a
special servant, a spirit-medium, a sorcerer, and false teacher. This man had
ingratiated himself with the chief government official of that place, and when
the latter was being reached by the gospel message the sorcerer opposed it,
realizing that there can be no har-mony between light and darkness, between the
spirit of Christ and the spirit of demons, and that if the dep-uty governor
became a follower of Christ and imbued with his spirit, he would be
proportionately out of har-mony with spirit mediumship and sorcery and all the
evil works of the flesh and the devil. It was a peculiar case, such as
apparently had not previously been pre-sented; it was a contention between
truth and error and the servant of truth and the servant of error. It was just
such a case as was needed to bring forward the Apostle Paul’s grand traits of
character: opposition only made him the stronger by arousing him fully to the
necessity of the case. More than this, although he had already been made the
recipient of certain “gifts” of the holy spirit, he was now specially imbued
with divine power, as is here indicated by the Greek text; and acting under the
direction of this holy power which possessed him, he pronounced against Elymas
the scathing rebuke and sentence of blindness, record-ed in this lesson.
The deputy, who was evidently honest-hearted and sincere in his desire to know
the truth, was thus convinced of the truth, and embraced the gospel. From this
time onward Paul takes his place as the chief one in the work: hereafter it is
Paul and Barnabas or Paul and his company. It is quite probable that it was a
failure to recognize the Lord’s leading in connection with the Apostle Paul and
his leadership as an apostle of this branch of the work, and through
family sym-pathy with his uncle Barnabas, that John-Mark here deserted the
work.
The spiritual lesson here, for us all, is (1) that the Lord himself is at the
helm and directing his work, and that each and all of us should continually
look to him for the guidance of his work and to note how he is leading the
various members in the body (I Cor. 12: 25-31); (2) the lesson teaches us the
Lord’s will re-specting the promulgation of the gospel; for altho unfortunately
the Golden Text chosen is spurious -not found in old manuscripts (Mark 16:9 to
end, being omitted by all old manuscripts-See also Revised
Ver-sion),-nevertheless, the same thought, that it is the will of God that the
gospel should be preached every-where, is abundantly taught in other places
(Matt. 28: 19) and enforced by this very lesson under considera-tion. We see
from it, too, that while certain servants are chosen and indicated by the Lord
for certain special services, yet others are permitted to serve as did Mark,
and still others may serve the Church at home, as did Simeon and Lucius and
Manaen, and that still others-the entire Church-are privileged to co-operate in
the matter of sympathy, love, prayers, hos-pitality and financial sustenance.
-Rom. 12:6-13.
Circumstances have since greatly changed, and we are not to be confined to
exactly the same methods of procedure now as then; but the inherent principles
are the same. We neither wear the same kind of clothing, nor travel in the
same kind of vessels, nor are we sup-ported in exactly the same manner. But
with all of these variances the same service is now due to be per-formed;
namely, the preaching of the gospel to all who have “ears to hear.” With the
gospel presented on the printed page, and with present mail and rail
facili-ties, a very much larger number may become public missionaries, going
from place to place, holding up the lamp of life, carying the good tidings from
door to door. The same agencies make it possible for those who must remain at
home and who can use the mails to thus go about doing good, preaching Christ
and his Kingdom and its righteousness. Others in turn can go about preaching
orally as well as circulating the printed page-“every man according to his
several ability.” (Matt. 25:15.) We who are living today have special
opportunities and privileges for ministering the truth to others. Our
responsibility is correspondingly large, and our faith and love and zeal should
be corresponding-ly shown; for he who loves much and who has many
op-portunities will surely do much for him who has called us out of darkness
into his marvelous light.