Bible Commentaries

Chapter39

Prayer

Almighty God, upon our hearts do thou write the word of Acts 13:1-13

1. Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers [the two not necessarily identical, though the higher gift of prophecy commonly included the lower gift of teaching], Barnabas, and Symeon that was called Niger [nothing more is known of him], and Lucius [probably one of the first evangelists of Antioch] of Cyrene, and Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch [Antipas], and Saul [copied from a list made before Saul became famous].

2. And as they ministered [a word commonly used of the service of the priests and Levites in the Temple] to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me [from the construction of the Greek it would appear as if the command had been given in answer to prayer] Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

3. Then when they had fasted and prayed [the fasting and prayer were continued until the laying on of hands had been completed] and laid their hands on them [the formal act by which the Church testified its acceptance], they sent them away.

4. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, went down to Seleucia [a town about sixteen miles from Antioch], and from thence they sailed to Cyprus [where the population was largely Greek].

5. And when they were at Salamis [at the east end of Cyprus], they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they had also John as their attendant [not deacon or preacher: he personally served in baptisms: he was the apostolic courier].

6. And when they had gone through the island unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer [same word in Matthew 2:1], a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Acts 13:14-41

14. But they, passing through from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia [one of the many cities built by Seleucus Nicanor, and named after his father Antiochus], and they went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down. [The act implied that they were not listeners only, but teachers. They sat in the seat of the Rabbi, and thus showed that they asked for permission to address the congregation.]

15. And after the reading of the law and the prophets [the order of the lessons was fixed by a kind of calendar] the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them [it was part of the duty of the elders to offer persons in such a position the opportunity of addressing the assembly], saying, Brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

16. And Paul stood up, and beckoning with the hand [a gesture of waving rather than of beckoning, as if requesting silence], said [almost certainly in Greek], Men of Israel, and ye that fear God [the latter being those who, though in the synagogue, were of heathen origin], hearken.

17. The God of this people Israel [a speech, as we formerly hinted, modelled upon the plan of Stephen's great apology] chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they sojourned in the land of Egypt [they were exalted in the sense of being innumerably multiplied], and with a high arm led them forth out of it.

18. And for about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness [the Greek word translated "suffered" differs by a single letter only from one which signifies to carry as a father carries his child, and that word is used in many of the better MSS. versions.]

19. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance,

20. for about four hundred and fifty years: and after these things he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

21. And afterward they asked for a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin [the very tribe to which Paul himself belonged], for the space of forty years [the duration of the reign is not given in the Old Testament],

22. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king; to whom also he bare witness, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse [the words that follow are a composite quotation, after the manner of the Rabbis, made up of Psalm 89:20, and 1 Samuel 13:14], a man after my heart, who shall do all my will.

23. Of this man's seed hath God according to promise brought unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus [even in those remote regions of Pisidia there was some vague knowledge of the life and death of Christ];

24. When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

25. And as John was fulfilling his course [the tense implies continuous action], he said, What suppose ye that I am [the question is inferred from the substance of the answer, Matthew 3:10; John 1:20-21]? I am not he. But behold, there cometh one after me, the shoes of whose feet I am not worthy to unloose.

26. Brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you that fear God [the two classes, as before, are pointedly contrasted], to us is the word of this salvation sent forth [the demonstrative pronoun connects the salvation with the Jesus just named: the expression "this salvation" recalls the corresponding terms, "this life," Acts 5:20].

27. For they that dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath [the Apostle appeals to the synagogue ritual itself, which had just been read, in proof of what he was stating], fulfilled them by condemning him.

28. And though they found no cause of death in him [he had been technically condemned on the charge of blasphemy], yet asked they of Pilate that he should be slain [seeking to terrify him by the suggestion that acquittal would mean treason to Csar].

29. And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of him [unconsciously to themselves], they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb.

30. But God raised him from the dead:

31. And he was seen for many days [he speaks as one who had personally conversed with the eye-witnesses] of them that came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are [now] his witnesses unto the people [literally, the people of God].

32. And we bring you good tidings of the promise made unto the fathers,

33. how that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children, in that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm [in some copies of the Old Testament what is now the first psalm was treated as a kind of prelude to the whole book, the enumeration beginning with what is now the second], Thou art my Psalm 16:10], he has spoken on this wise, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.

35. Because he saith also in another Acts 13:38

HOW can it be true that through Jesus Christ is preached the forgiveness of sins, when, as a matter of fact, the forgiveness of sins is an Old Testament doctrine? If nothing had been known about forgiveness until the appearance of Jesus Christ, he would have been justly entitled to identify his name with the doctrine; but seeing that it is historically earlier than his birth, how is it that the act of forgiveness is now inseparably associated with his priesthood?

The solution of the apparent difficulty turns wholly upon the right principle of interpretation, which I can conceive to be that the Old Testament:—Jewish or Pagan—written or unwritten—is as full of Christ as the New; that, in fact, the Old Testament is an anonymous book until Christ attaches his signature to it. "Search the Scriptures, for they are they which testify of me." In my opinion we not only lose nothing, we gain much by tracing the best elements and aspirations of every paganism to a Divine source and treating them as an Old Testament full of types and shadows, yearnings and symbols, which find their meaning and their abrogation in the truth and love of Jesus Christ. Hence the wise missionary (Paul at Athens, for example) has ever found it best fully to acknowledge all that is good in heathenism and to carry it forward to its highest meaning. The application of this principle to the Old Testament of Judaism puts an end to the historical difficulty respecting the forgiveness of sins, by showing that what was once anonymous has been at length identified as the anticipatory action of Christ—the more clearly so because nowhere in the New Testament is the basis of forgiveness changed; it is still, as ever, a basis of mediation, sacrifice, priesthood.

But there is another difficulty less easy of solution by the mere intellect, the difficulty that the sinner should be forgiven for the sake of Christ and not for his own sake. It is clearly for Christ's sake that sin is forgiven; thus: "Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." This difficulty has expressed itself in various sophisms, some of them obviously puerile, some of them disingenuous, but most of them likely to arrest and captivate the popular mind. For example: If sin is a debt, why should Christ have paid it? If Christ has paid it, why should men be called upon, in suffering and sorrow here, and in perdition hereafter, to pay it over again? How could Christ's Cross pay debts that were not contracted; that is to say, pay in advance the debts of men who were not born and who would not be born until many centuries after the transaction? Puerile and uncandid as these questions, and the group to which they belong, undoubtedly are, perhaps they only imperfectly express the agony of many honest minds in wrestling with this stupendous difficulty of forgiveness for the sake of another. In offering some suggestions upon this difficulty, let us, if possible, lay hold of some principles that will carry with them all outposts and casualties, otherwise we shall be fretted by merely formal variations of one and the same difficulty. Let the question stand thus: Why should a man be divinely forgiven not for his own sake but for Christ"s? And let that inquiry support itself by the further question, If one man can forgive another without the intervention of a third party, why cannot the Almighty do the same thing as between himself and the sinner?

These questions, simple as they seem, touch nearly every point of the whole argument of this book; it might be permitted for that reason to refer the inquirer to all that has gone before, but we will summarize for him that he may the more easily come to a right conclusion. First of all, he must say distinctly where he learned that word "forgive," which he now uses without apparently suspecting his claim to it. He evidently thinks that he coined the word, that he fixed its proper meaning and scope, and that therefore it is his own property. This is exactly what is utterly denied. We hold as Christian teachers, that forgiveness is an idea which never occurred to the uninspired mind; that it is a revelation; and that to the man who exercises it may be said, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed that unto thee, but the Father who is in heaven." Even if it could be shown that men who never heard of Christ forgave one another, we should require to know precisely what they meant by forgiveness. Was it a compromise? Was it a purchase? Was it a snare? Was it a fear? Possibly if we knew the exact answer, it might be found that the Acts 13:42-52

42. And as they went out [the participle implies that they stopped as they went out], they besought that these words might be spoken to them the next Sabbath.

43. Now when the synagogue broke up, many of the Jews and of the devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

44. And the next Sabbath [probably in the interval Paul and Barnabas worked at their trade as tent-makers] almost the whole city was gathered together [thronging the portals and windows, or gathered in some open piazza] to hear the word of God.

45. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul, and blasphemed.

46. And Paul and Barnabas spake out boldly, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you. Seeing ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy [probably a touch of irony in the tone] of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

47. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles, That thou shouldst be for salvation unto the uttermost part of the earth [the germ of the argument, afterwards more fully developed in Romans 9:25; Romans 10:12].

48. And as the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

49. And the word of the Lord was spread abroad throughout all the region [the border district of the provinces of Cappadocia and Galatia].

50. But the Jews urged on the devout women of honourable estate, and the chief men of the city [they compassed sea and land to make one proselyte], and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and cast them out of their borders.

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.

Growth of Apostolic Power

THERE are always unexpected hearers arising to give encouragement to the doubting and often disheartened preacher. He thinks he foreknows who will be delighted with his testimony and thankful for his service; but in most of his forecasts he is wrong, yet is he not left without encouragement: strangers are there who spring up, and say, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." The Gentiles hailed the Word as strangers might hail tidings of home. We know some things not by direct intellectual instruction, but by subtle and inexpressible sympathy. We feel that certain words are true. Were we invited to hold controversy about them on general grounds, we might decline the discussion, saying, "Whatever may be stated on the other side, there is something in this doctrine that touches my necessity, and offers a balm to my wound and pain." We may not know music technically, but surely the dullest man knows it sympathetically, and feels when the right tune is being sung. He has no explanation in words; he cannot conduct a controversy upon the matter, but his soul says, "This wind cometh from heaven; this sound is an inspired utterance; these are the tones that will find their way back again to the heaven whence they came." So we sometimes sing, not with the voice—we sing with the understanding, with sympathy of the heart, with appreciation, with answering love. Some persons imagine they are not singing unless they are uttering tones with their own voice, whereas sometimes the best singing is that which is done silently in the heart, the heart giving out in great Amens as the thunder rolls, or the tender whisper expresses the inmost desire and rapture of the hidden life. The Gentiles heard a strange speech that day, yet they knew it. Sometimes we say, "Where did I see that man before? You tell me I have never seen him, but I feel that I have seen him somewhere. "No, you never did in the flesh; but you know him; he is a revelation to you—his presence, his voice, the touch of his hand; all things conspire to confirm the impression that you must surely have seen that man somewhere before. So when we hear great gospels, sweet promises, and tender invitations, we say, "When did these things come under our attention before?" From before the foundations of the world! This is the meaning of the compass and the pomp of God's eternity! The tiny little dewdrop moments shall throw back the sun that fills infinity. Surely we have an identifying faculty; most truly there is something within us which says, "This is none other than the house of God; surely this is music fit for angels. Where did we hear this before? All this is like a dream." So it is; because the universe is the expression of an eternal thought. The Lamb was slain before the universe was built; the Atonement was completed before black Sin struck God in the face. It is we who are late; we are behind the ages; eternity has breathed its infinite speech across our little time-planet, and we think in our delirious imagining that we were first, and that all things came after us! Know of a very truth, time is younger than eternity; that time is, so to say, part of eternity, and that the Gospel, wherever it comes, comes to a measure of preparation—not of a technical kind, but somehow in the most barbaric and savage breast there rises up an answering voice, saying, "This is what I have been waiting for; this is the piece, one of ten,. that I had lost." Herein is the whole mystery of preordination, election, predestination—namely, the heart throwing itself back upon the Eternities, and finding that things are not broken up into little fragments, but that "one increasing purpose runs through all the process of the suns"; the purpose of God, the thought of heaven, the election of omniscient love.

But preachers have to find out their hearers. Paul and Barnabas were no doubt amazed that "the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." The invitation would have come naturally from the Jews. It would be a pleasant thing if our neighbors, friends, comrades, would invite us to this or that renewal of service, but they go away and leave us. But we are not alone; for God, who is able to raise up out of the stones children unto Abraham, raises up strange hearers, unknown hearts, and from them comes the cry which we cannot refuse to answer. Every preacher has his own set of hearers, and they who hear him can hear nobody else with the same breadth of advantage, and with the same conscious masonry of love and sympathy. "My sheep know my voice" is a doctrine which has its human applications as well as its Divine meanings. There are some men without whom, speaking in human ignorance, we could not live happily; there are some voices which if we do not hear we are conscious of a great vacancy; yet the same words may be pronounced, but not with the same tone. It is the heart that accentuates the speech, and carries the eloquence, however broken and swift, straight home.

We think we have expressed the very last formula of science when we say the same causes produce the same effects. There is something of the conciseness of Euclid himself in that neat sentence; it reads like one of the old geometrician's axioms; yet it is not true. If I may so put it, the so-called axiom is a fact, but not a truth. The truth is larger than any fact. In mathematics, or in physical science, the same causes may produce the same effects, but in all moral questions the axiom is not only doubtful, out untrue. The Jews and the Gentiles represented this solemn doctrine in the various ways in which they received the Divine communication. The Jews were" filled with envy," the Jews contradicted and blasphemed; the Gentiles were "filled with joy." How do you account for that? It was the same Sabbath, the same climate, the same preacher, the same doctrine, the same congregation, but the Jews were filled with envy, and spake against those tilings which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming; but the Gentiles were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord. There the same cause did not produce the same effect. You are not dealing with cause and effect only in a case of this kind; you are dealing with the middle quantity, human nature. Like goes to like. "Like priest like people"; the preacher incarnates himself in his audience in the degree in which that audience is sympathetic and appreciative; the pulpit and the pew in such circumstances are occupied by the same man. Find a congregation knit together in the bonds of sympathy in reference to the Paul, or the Barnabas, or the preacher of their choice, and you find a marked intellectual and moral likeness between the preacher and the people. Like to like; hatred may be as sincere as love. The same preacher cannot minister to all people. A man may dislike this ministry or that ministry solely because he may not understand it or be in sympathy with it, but to another man it is the very breath of heaven. So then, let us have the larger outlook, the nobler charity, that says God's chariots are twenty thousand in number, and you cannot tell in which one of them the king will ride forth;—it is the King; never mind the particular chariot in which he goes abroad. The Gentiles understood Paul and Barnabas: the Gentiles said, "This is a true word; oh, that there were seven Sabbaths in the week, and that we could stay and hear this wondrous sound, this music of the heavens." Thanks be unto God, every true Paul, every true Barnabas, has at least some few Gentiles who understand and love him.

The forty-third verse reads, "Now when the congregation was broken up." Was it then all over? Congregations should never break up in the sense of terminating the spiritual ministry which they were organized to foster and sustain. There were after-meetings. Beza says that herein is a justification for mid-week meetings and lectures. "Now when the congregation was broken up the people dispersed, and referred no more to the matter." Does the text read so? It would read so if it had been written today. I never hear any one make a moment's reference to the solemn engagements of the sanctuary after they are ov. Who would not be positively astounded to hear one of his fellow-hearers refer to the service? It is nothing, it is a decency observed, a ceremony passed through, a fact accomplished. In the olden time Christian service used to be the be-all and the end-all of the life of those who engaged in it. They were never late, they were never reluctant; what was said was meant to be done in the obedience of a noble life. This was the ancient Christianity. We have gone down in these latter ages. Were Paul amongst us now, he would be the first man who would be turned out of the Church, unless indeed Christ himself were to come, and he would not be allowed to live one day. We use a name without knowing any tittle of its meaning! Here is life in the olden time. There is a savour of antiquity about it; it is like something very old—"And the next Sabbath came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against these things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming." That was life! A. man could preach then! Sermons were thunderbolts! Religious services were religious battles; they were not opportunities for sanctified slumber; they were calls, as with the blast of a thousand trumpets, to the standard and to the sword of the Lord. Nothing now is so easily forgotten as a sermon—simply because nobody ever listens to one; they endure it, they sit it out, but as to listening to it, in the sense of opening the heart and letting every word go right in as a guest from heaven, who listens? We could not be so dumb if we did it. This is the old familiar scene which has passed before us so often in the Scriptures. The preacher preaching, the hearer contradicting, the Apostle declaring the counsel of God, the angry Jew blaspheming. What a medley it made! What a tumult! What vexation of mind and distraction of thought! That was living! We have fallen on cold times. Christianity has had its heroic time even in Western lands, but the heroic days are dead.

In the forty-sixth verse the ministers spring to their feet. They have felt, as it were, the sting of fire. In this verse they become, so to say, new men. "Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold." There is history in these words; it was a critical moment; it was one of two things—the Jews by their blasphemy prevailing, or the Apostles of Christ starting up and saying, "The day shall be ours." Some men are so easily put down; if they think there is going to be an extra crowd, they remain at home and sigh; if they see a man a little rougher than another coming to church, they go out by the back door lest something should happen. Paul and Barnabas were not made of such material; history is not made of such stuff! Herein do I approve of the badges which some men wear, proclaiming thereby that they belong to this or that party, and are not ashamed of their colours; there are others whose boldness is in their spoken testimony. Somewhere, in symbol or in speech, you must find the heroic element in every true man. I know nothing of that marvellous love of Christ that never mentions his name, that never touches his memorial bread or memorial wine; that ineffable love of Christ that never gives him a cup of cold water. Be ours the Christianity that is bold, open, candid, and, if need be, heroic and self-sacrificing. Let the world know that we are followers of the Cross. "When I read that Paul "waxed bold," I am not surprised; but when I read that Barnabas waxed bold, I wonder if he would have done so if Paul had not been there. We cannot decide that interesting question, but Barnabas ought to take care that Paul is always there! Paul will lead, Barnabas will follow. Barnabas! take care that your strong brother is always nigh at hand when you go out to do Christian work, for in his strength you may be strong.

"As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." How many poor souls have stumbled there, as if a door had been shut in their faces, whereas there is no door but an open one to the heart of God! Never found what you call good theology upon bad grammar. Always, first and foremost, be right in your grammar, and then build your theology, because if you build a theological system upon a sandy foundation, the rains will fall, and the floods come, and beat upon it, and your theological house will fall down because it is founded upon the sand of bad grammar. Happily these words, which have frightened so many, need not frighten any more, for the most learned men tell us that they might be read "and so many as set themselves in order" were saved; as many as took up this matter; as many as accepted the Word; as many as disposed themselves in soldierly order and array went on to victory and honour. There can be no more terrible blasphemy than for any man to think that God has a spite against him, and will not let him be saved. Beware what you say! It is a fearful thing to stand up and say—magnifying yourselves so as to be of importance to the universe—"God has a feeling against us which prevents us accepting the Gospel of Salvation." From end to end, from top to bottom, in every point of it, that is a lie! God would have ALL men to come unto him and be saved. Jesus Christ came "to seek and to save that which was lost." If you are "lost," he came for you; if you are not lost, he did not come for you; for "the Son of man is not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Notice one extraordinary expression. In the forty-sixth verse "the Jews were filled with envy"; in the fifty-second verse we read "the disciples were filled with joy." It is always so with the Gospel; it is a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death; it makes a man a worse man, or a better man. The Gospel will not let a man remain just as he is; coming to a man, pleading with the man, asking for his confidence and love, and the man saying NO—from that moment the man is a worse man than he ever was before. Or the man saying "YES come in, thou blessed of the Lord, and take every inch of my heart"—then the man is what the Lord would have him be—noble, pure, upright, a creature in the image and likeness of the Creator. But "my Spirit shall not always strive with man." The Apostles said "It was necessary that the Word of God should first be spoken to you"; but after that comes the withdrawal of the opportunity, the taking away of the light, the shutting of the hospitable door. This may be our last chance! We cannot tell what a day may bring forth. "He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." As a matter of fact—solemn, interesting, and thrilling—the great Gospel of Christ is now amongst us in this synagogue or congregation; it is offering itself to every heart, and it is for us to say whether this Sabbath shall be the most memorable in our history by our acceptance of the Divine Guest, or whether it shall be the most memorable in our history in that we said, "We will not have this man to reign over us." But know that whether we accept or reject, God's house shall be full. He is able of these stones to raise up children unto Israel! Out of the dust of the earth he will make himself an exceeding great army. What say you? Unto us the opportunity is now given. Christ will not be disappointed; in the long run he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied, and at his great banquet board there shall not be one vacant seat. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near." " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." "The Spirit and the bride say, Come; let him that heareth say, Come. Whosoever will, let him come." Shall so fair a chance be answered with a mean reply?