AD Norris - The Apostles, Their Acts and Their Words - Class 3

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is the 1981 Texas Christadelphian Bible School. The third class. Brother Alfred Norris, the subject, the Apostles, their Acts, and their Words. Trouble Pursuance saw wherever he went, whether as Jew or as believing Christian. It was impossible to be near him without being involved in some kind of controversy. And whereas in the earliest days it took the form of his raising a great persecution against the Church, in the later days it took the form of great persecutions being raised against him, with the result that whenever he was around, the fellow Christians were in danger.

2. 0:40

   And when, as we found out in part of yesterday’s talk, the enmity against him in Jerusalem grew too great to be tolerated, and the Brethren took him to Caesarea and shipped him off to sautasis. You can almost sense the air of relief in Luke’s words when he says then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and they walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, were multiplied, but the rest was not to last long. We have a happy interviewed when Peter is called into service again to preach the gospel to Cornelius and his household in Caesarea, and you might get a note. From that point on, Peter practically fades out of the picture in the Acts.

3. 1:23

   You can divide Acts into roughly 2 parts as far as chapter 12 where Peter is prominent, and after chapter 12 what he’s only heard of once again, and that is in the discussion at Jerusalem in which Paul and Barnabas. As they then are, then take part. Peter’s work at that stage was with the Jews. The work of Paul, as we shall see, was in other quarters, though not exclusively, and Peter fades graciously from the picture himself.

4. 1:51

   It seems quite content to take a second place as the work develops into the form which, from Acts chapter 13 onward it takes. And that work was even before the days when he was an apostle, as I have already said, the work of Saul of Tarsus. It was his persecution of the Saints in Jerusalem which led to them being scattered abroad and preaching the gospel in Samaria. And now we learn in the 11th chapter that it was the continued effects of that persecution that took the gospel even further afield.

5. 2:22

   Again, Acts Chapter 11, verse 19. Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, travelled as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus to whomever they preached.

6. 2:51

   The circle was widening. You would go north from Caesarea, further north even than Damascus, and come to the Antioch, which is almost on the corner as you turned round from the north-south coast of the Mediterranean Sea to the east West Coast on Asia Minor. Almost on that corner stood Antioch, a very much of A gateway to Asia Minor and later to Europe. So far the preachers of the Gospel went some went overseas to Cyprus, not very far away from the port of Antioch, and they preached the word to begin with only to the Jews, as everybody had done hitherto save for the work in Samaria and the work of Peter in Caesarea.

7. 3:31

   But some went further and preached the word to yes. And now what is the word? We should use the authorized version, the King James Version, says to the Grecians. And the Grecians, if understood literally, would mean Greek speaking Jews. But there’ll be nothing novel about that at all that. Had been done all the time.

8. 3:48

   And the revised version following a smaller number of manuscripts and almost certainly rightly corrects that word and reads Greeks. In other words, they are no longer preaching to Jews only, whether they are Hebrew speaking Jews or Greek speaking Jews. They are preaching to Gentiles in the same way as Peter did to Cornelius, and the result is a widespread belief. Considerable numbers of people come to the faith, not having passed through the boundary state of being Jews first, not proselytes now, but purebred Gentiles accepting the faith. And clearly Luke wishes us to understand that this was God’s work, that it was just the way it was meant to go for he says. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things came into the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem.

9. 4:40

   And they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch. Rumours reached the church in Jerusalem that Gentiles were being converted. And if we can judge from the outlook revealed in Acts chapter 15 later, there would be some amongst those who believed in Jerusalem who would welcome the news rather less than some others. The apostles, we can feel satisfied, would want to believe that this was the work of God, but would want to be sure. Some Jews of Paris sake background might not want to believe that this was the work of God and would want to see it stopped.

10. 5:14

    Certainly at later stages conditions were laid down by certain Judaizing Jews which would not have allowed the preaching to go forth in this form. But the obvious thing was you had to find out. And to find out, you had to have a reliable messenger, one who could be trusted in what he saw and said, one who will be sympathetic in what he observed. One who would give back a faithful report, and yet would do nothing to hinder anything.

11. 5:41

    That was God’s word. And for what better choice could there have been than that of Barnabas? So they sent Barnabas, and he went to Antioch, and he observed the work that was going on. Now there will be some crabbed minds going into those circumstances who would pursue in their own ways that trite English proverb which says go and see what little Tommy is doing and tell him to stop.

12. 6:08

    No matter what he’s doing. It’s wrong. And there could be that kind of attitude towards the work of the Lord to go and see what’s going on in Antioch and stop it. But I’m sure the apostles didn’t want that, and certainly Barnabas wasn’t the man to do it. In fact, the way in which Barnabas looked at it is made very plain in verse 23. Barnabas, when he came, was glad and exhausted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit, and the faith and much people was added unto the Lord. Could there be a better picture of the godless enthusiasm of the simple mind, of the readiness to believe the best? That we find in what Barnabas, that good man, did when he came to Antioch and saw the work and rejoiced in spirit, that yet further progress was being made.

13. 7:00

    Now in Mass amongst purebred Gentiles to bring them to the faith, he was a good man, had rejoiced, and the son of consolation, or the son of exhortation, exhorted the people, that with steadfastness of heart, purpose of heart, they would cleave unto the Lord. No doubt it was specially necessary in those circumstances, For once you start preaching the gospel in gentile surroundings, and once you are bringing into the ambit of the faith those who might hitherto have worshipped heathen gods with all the abominations with which that could be associated, The change is abrupt and rapid, and needs to be maintained and confirmed.

14. 7:38

    They would need every piece of exhibition they could be given that they must now cleave to the Lord, and the idea of cleaving to the Lord, perhaps. Cannot better be illustrated than a comparable use of the same English word. When we are told, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be 1 flesh. It’s almost that they should be the kind of people who would pit themselves to be the bride of Christ, cleaving together in a potential marriage, leaving the world behind, and joining the new union.

15. 8:08

    That’s what you must do, said one of us. Don’t ever forget it. But then the strange thing happens. Verse 25 then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him into Antioch. And it came to pass that for a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people, and the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. Now Barnabas been sent with a quite simple Commission. Go as far as Antioch, see what’s going on there and report he exceeded that part of the Commission which has been taught to us.

16. 8:51

    Whether he actually exceeded what his instructions were, we may never know. But he went further than Antioch. He went right up the coast to Antioch, saw that the work was good. And then travelled West or southwest round the bulge of Cynicia until he had pounds all again. Why had he done the work? Was there nothing more to do?

17. 9:09

    Not that because when he found Saul, they went back and worked for another year with the community there. Did he need a vacation? Would like to spend it with an old friend? Was that why he went to Tosser’s to seek Saul? Was it purely a personal, friendly visit to a man who we’d like to see again?

18. 9:24

    I don’t think it was either the one thing or the other. The man who can exhort other people about purpose of heart had a great purpose in his own. Heart. He knew what the work of the Lord needed. Just remember, when Barnabas first sponsored Saul, he was sponsoring the man who had been on the Damascus road to persecute the church, had been stricken down and blinded and led by the hand into Damascus, had been preached to by Ananias, and had been baptized, and had received a direct Commission from the Lord. And the Lord had told Ananias, amongst other things, that this this man, Saul, was a chosen vessel for Jesus to bear his name, before Jews and before Gentiles and before kings. Jesus had told Ananias that Jesus had certainly told Saul no less than that.

19. 10:13

    And we find that when Barnabas took Saul upon his return to Jerusalem, and introduced into the apostles and the other believers, he Saul told him, Barnabas, about these visions and revelations he had received. So pick it yourself, Barnabas, in Antioch, seeing the development of this new community, consisting at least in large part of baptized purebred Gentiles. And he says.

20. 10:39

    This is the gospel going to Gentiles. Now let me see, what did Saul tell me? He told me that Jesus had said to Ananias that he saw was a chosen vessel to bear his name before Jews and Gentiles and kings. This is Saul’s work. I’d better go and find it. And it’s the same spirit, isn’t it? The spirit that gives up his goods for the widows. The spirit that sponsors an outcast and makes himself the guarantee for his good behaviour before the apostles. The spirit that says I’m not going to keep this word to myself.

21. 11:18

    This work in Antioch is not for me to be the leader of this somebody else who must be called in at this stage. And he departed to Saint Tosses, and he found Saul, and he brought him back. There was a lot of work still to be done. They worked there for a year, and while they were working there a new word arose in the vocabulary of the Bible. Then were the disciples called Christians, first at Antioch, now bearing in mind the spirit of Barnabas, who was a good man and rejoiced when he saw a good thing. Take a good, calm, sympathetic and charitable look at that word Christian.

22. 12:02

    The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. Now we know in our 19th and 20th century community that there are a great many people and many communities that claim the word Christian without having any title to it. We know that there are a good number of communities who would blame the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ for what is fundamentally wrong, teaching about the Lord’s own nature and much else besides. And we have decided in consequence of that that we will be known by a more specific name, characteristic of our own community.

23. 12:38

    And we call ourselves Christadelphia. And we who are, if not proud, at least grateful for the fact that all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ received the adoption of children, and therefore become brethren one of another in a family of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the head. And so brethren in Christ tend, with good reason, to prefer the exalted and intimate privilege associated with that name to an amorphous name that can mean anything from a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as we understand it.

24. 13:13

    To a believer in eternal Son of God as trinitarians understand it, who believe it in Christ is just a very good man called Son of God. For courtesy as the Unitarians understand it, and all the other possible variants of the sects grouped together, and each claiming some part in that word Christian. And for that reason the word has tended to be in disfavor, in arm.

25. 13:35

    It’s at least sometimes, and obviously if it is used at all, needs to be used with discrimination. But that’s our 20th century situation. We’re considering what it was like in Antioch in the days when Barnabas went there and as a good man rejoiced in the word of God that was being proclaimed and prospering there.

26. 13:54

    And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. Now it is possible to hold that they were called Christians because that was a kind of corruption of Christians, which was a kind of corruption of a name based upon Christ as it wasn’t a very good person, and that therefore it was a term of mockery. Just possibly there was.

27. 14:15

    Those are mocked. In fact, almost certainly there would be those who mocked. There always are. But is Luke telling us that the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch as though to tell us that it was a term of mockery which they didn’t like having, which they would never have called themselves and which they ignored as much as they could? Well, it doesn’t.

28. 14:34

    Read like that. And the only two other occasions that we have in the New Testament where the word Christian is used, you don’t necessarily read like that either. There’s one later in Acts chapter 26, when a gripper being preached to by Paul says, almost thou persuaded me to be a Christian, or with but little persuading, thou wouldest fain make me a Christian.

29. 14:58

    And that could have been mockery on Agrippa’s part. But that doesn’t mean that the word itself was the word of mockery. You might have been saying, Paul, you think you’ve got an easy convert here, don’t you? You can think that with one day’s preaching you can make me into one of you. Well, the word itself would have been all right, though not the use that Agrippa made of it, as far as he himself was concerned. And the other is in Peter’s first letter, where he says, if any man is persecuted as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, that let him rejoice that he suffers in this name. That doesn’t sound at all unfavorable, or at all mocking, or at all discreditable.

30. 15:33

    So go back, remembering the spirit of Barnabas, who was a good man, and rejoice when he saw a good thing, and ask. Was it a good thing that caused the disciples to be called Christians at Antioch? And the answer I think that shouts out from the pages, yes. It was a very good thing for hitherto what would you have called believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? You could have called them disciples. You would have called them brethren, though that was not very specific.

31. 16:02

    You might, though the evidence seems to be to be somewhat insecure. Have called them the way but. What do you do now? They’re not just Jews. They’re not just Jews and Samaritans. There are Jews and Gentiles in the community at Antioch. And they’re all bound together in Christ. What is it that binds them together?

32. 16:25

    By? What could it be? But in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, There is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female. You’re all. One in Christ Jesus in Who? In Christ? Christ’s people, Christ’s men, Christians. That must surely be the reason why. With the development of the first large scale mixed community with Jews and Gentiles in it, the disciples were called by a name that bound them both together and didn’t say this is a Jewish body or this isn’t a Jewish body, but this is a body of believers and it doesn’t matter where they came from. So the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Now we still have the need to be discriminating and the use we make of the term because of the way in which it is indiscriminately used by so many people in our own day. But let not the term itself be mocked in our midst. To be a real Christian is to be a very good thing. And Barnabas was a good man and didn’t seem to mind. There’s a short interlude now where there’s a problem of the famine that was to arise over the whole world, the fact that the church in Jerusalem was particularly hard. Hit by it that they suffered more than most other places did, and were once again in need of relief, And the generous collection taken amongst the Saints in Antioch, and the fact that it was Barnabas and Saul who took it to Jerusalem, and having greeted the community there, came back again to Antioch.

33. 17:56

    At some point during that period there was the unhappy episode where Herod caused the second of the known Christian martyrs to lose his life, and James, the brother of John, was slain with the sword, and Herod, because he thought it would please the Jews, took Peter also, where Peter, languishing in prison, was visited by the Angel who struck off his irons and led him out and took him to the gate of the house where the rifts of disciple were assembled praying for him.

34. 18:24

    There’s that strange contrast between men engaged in prayer for a particular object and men smitten with unbelief. When that object is achieved, gather together, praying for Peter and not being heard at the door. A damsel named Rhoda going to answer the door, hearing the voice of Peter and coming back and saying Peter at the gate.

35. 18:43

    And they said you’re mad, that can’t be true. We’re only praying for it. An extraordinary situation, isn’t it? Which reveals the limitations of our own prayer. A little bit like our own, I would think. Many times praying for something but. If it should be granted, almost hardly daring to believe that it would be.

36. 18:59

    And in asking for it, not really. Expecting it to come about, Of course, they had a reason to be in doubt about it. Stephen hadn’t been delivered and James, the brother of John, hadn’t been delivered. Peter might have been destined in God’s purpose to suffer martyrdom at that time rather than later. He had done the major part of his work in opening all the doors with the keys given to him.

37. 19:21

    Perhaps that was to be the end of Peter’s experience, they might have thought, but still they were engaged in earnest prayer on his behalf. And it pleased God to grant the answer to the prayer. And Peter went there and there at the door he knocked and Rhoda heard his voice and she knew it was his voice. And all they concluded was that they’re rather unintelligent servant girl.

38. 19:40

    That got the wrong end of the story. There was somebody saying, I’ve got a message from Peter, for they said it is his Angel. Now I know there are various ways of looking at that statement. Is his Angel. It could in some circles today. I mean Peter’s dead is this. End body’s spirit has come back.

39. 19:59

    We could never have meant that for that. Or it could in some circles at any time mean Peter’s guardian Angel has come to tell us about him. No doubt angels are in God over the sense of God. The weather 1 for one is another matter, but by far the most likely thing. In disciples that were not used to getting personal visitations from angels of personal disciples was that the word angelos was being used as it was when John sent two of his angels to Jesus and said, Art thou he that should come? That in fact it was his messenger they thought it was somebody’s come with a message about Peter, they said That’s what it means, brother.

40. 20:35

    It’s not the real Peter, but of course it was, and Peter left. To fight another day, when James the brother of John had been slain with the sword and Herod the king paid for his Polly and his danity by being struck down by the seacoast and being consumed of worms. And Paul, I’m sorry.

41. 20:57

    And Barnabas and Saul went back from Jerusalem to Antioch. And now the door which has been opened, the faintest chink is about to be flung open wide in the preaching to the Gentiles. Acts chapter 13 verse one Now there were in the churches was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon.

42. 21:26

    That was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Bernard the foster brother of Herod the Tetroc and Saul. Protocol is being very properly observed here. There are 5 prophets there and you start with the near apostle and name him first. That’s Barnabas. Then you go on to three others about whom we would otherwise have heard nothing. And finally you come to the novice Saul, only recently converted, and for the most of that time in exile. It’s quite right and proper that it should be so, though it represents a very transitory change stage. He’s not going to stay like this for long. But for that moment, there they are, Barnabas and three others, and then Saul, and they’re in the community in Antioch. And what are they doing?

43. 22:07

    Verse two, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, separate me, Barnabas, and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Now it doesn’t seem that fasting was a regular daily or weekly habit of the disciples. We know from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ himself that the question arose, Why do we, the disciples of John and they, the disciples of the Pharisees, fast but thine fast not?

44. 22:39

    And though the Lord did speak of a moment of fasting, when they would be bereaved of him at the crucifixion, there’s no reason to believe that fasting was a normal routine of the Christian believer. But they did do it sometimes. There is, for example, in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, the advice that husband and wife should live together as though they were husband and wife, save that in certain special circumstances they might abstain, that they might give themselves to fasting and prayer.

45. 23:06

    So when particular needs or crises or objects arose, then fasting might be entertained, but as a normal practice, apparently and properly not. But this time they were. Those five profits, perhaps with the rest of the community following in their wake, were praying to the Lord and fasting. And a point is being made about it.

46. 23:27

    They were doing it for a reason. There was some special ’cause that caused them to gather together at Antioch and pray with fasting. What was it?

47. 23:36

    Well, you know, the game in which you said this is the answer. What is the question? Well, we’re given the answer and I think we’re quite easily led to the question from that. The answer is the Holy Spirit said separate me, Barnabas and Saul. So what was the question please? Lord, where do we go next?

48. 23:55

    And whom are you sending? That must be it, wasn’t it? They’re gathered together and they’re seeking for a revelation, and they’re looking for it and they get it. And the Holy Spirit says, just to pause on that expression. The Holy Spirit said, if you did believe in the Godhead of three persons, then you might find it quite easy to believe the Father said, or the Son said or even the Holy Spirit said you might even if you were that kind of person, engaging prayer to each of the three separately. Sometimes they do as though there were three gods, Tri theistically rather than in a Trinitarian way. So there’s a well known hymn which says Eternal Father strong to save whose arm hath bound the restless way. Or here is when we cry to Thee for those in peril on the sea, oh Christ, whose voice the waters heard and stopped their raging at Thy word.

49. 24:52

    Or hear us when we cry to Thee for those in peril on the sea, oh Holy Spirit, who is brewed upon the waters, dark and rude. Or hear us when we cry to Thee for those in peril on the sea. And they pray to them severally, as though several supplications to three different persons within a Godhead would achieve 3 No doubt equally favourable, but different answers from different means of granting grace. Well, we know that’s not a Scriptural procedure. We know that the Bible contains no example of such a triune, or rather a Tri divided prayer.

50. 25:29

    What then, do we make of expressions like this? The Holy Spirit said it’s not the only occasion when it happens. It occurs later in the experience of Paul and his followers when they are said to go into Bethania but the Spirit suffered them not. Or they were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia. It doesn’t look as though the spirit is used in a personal way, so it properly can.

51. 25:56

    For what we mean is that God sent a message, and he sent it by the agency of his spirit, and either they heard a voice from Heb, nor more likely they had a message through a prophet, and that prophet spoke with the voice of the Spirit of God, moved by God’s Holy Spirit. And in fact, in general, in the very large number of occasions where the word Spirit or Holy Spirit do appear in the New Testament when it’s used with the Greek article the Spirit or the Holy Spirit or the Spirit, the Holy is put in all those ways.

52. 26:32

    It doesn’t give a personal slant to what is said and nearly always refers to a direct act or word or prophecy or commandment of God. So as they were praying, this prophet guided assembly. The voice of the Holy Spirit, the voice of God, by the agency of a prophet, guided by the Spirit, I would presume, spoke and said, Separate me, Barnabas, and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

53. 26:59

    Now it’s good that Barnabas initiative should have been proved right, that we should see quite clearly that he had correctly interpreted the information that Saul had given him from the visions of the Lord. Good, that Barnabas faith in Saul should now be confirmed by a concrete revelation. It’s you too thy one said, Jesus, Barnabas and Saul. And protocol is still being observed. Barnabas still comes first and Saul still comes last of two which is second.

54. 27:32

    So the two of them are separated for the work and. This is rather a fine example of the way in which I should pray more often than I do, and perhaps some of you should. They prayed for the answer. They got it. And then what did they do? Dash out and tell everybody?

55. 27:45

    Not quite. And when they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them. So the sequence was pray for an answer, get the answer, and pray again, no doubt with Thanksgiving, no doubt with gladness that the answer has come, and no doubt with desire to know how the rest of the work should be done and to seek God’s blessing on it. And they laid their hands on them and sent them away. They laid their hands on them.

56. 28:15

    Almost certainly they would do it with the hand upon the head. I don’t know whether each individual would lay one hand or two hands upon Paul and Barnabas, Barnabas and Saul before they sent them away, whether there will be some collective putting of hands upon their heads. But hands upon heads would have been the way, I think.

57. 28:33

    Why did they lay their hands upon them? I suppose there are more reasons than one. They brought little children to Jesus, and he would bless them. And he laid his hands on them, no doubt to convey to their parents that children should come to him for instruction. He was very glad if they did. When Saul and Barnabas, Barnabas and Saul had gone and preached the word to the Gentiles, we find they came back and informed the apostles in Jerusalem what they had done. And when they learned about it, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.

58. 29:06

    And whereas our modern practice of giving the right hand of fellowship when a baptism has taken place is a very good and sanitary practice, and I hope it will long continue, it isn’t very well based upon that verse where two people already thoroughly baptized and well experienced in the faith, came and the apostles gave them. What did they give them, their fellowship, their agreement, their companionship, their approval, and what they were doing, And whether it was a hand on head giving the right hand? I don’t.

59. 29:34

    Know because our modern handshake is a very modern thing, isn’t it? We shake hands with each other like that, but they didn’t do that. I believe in the earliest Romans times. I wasn’t present, but I gather that what they did was take you by the hand like that, so that you couldn’t draw your sword.

60. 29:56

    It was a rather precautionary kind of hand shaking. When Saul and Barnabas, Barnabas and Saul had gone and preached the word to the Gentiles, we find they came back and informed the apostles in Jerusalem what they had done. And when they learned about it, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. And whereas our modern practice of giving the right hand of fellowship when a baptism has taken place is a very good and salutary practice, and I hope it will long continue, it isn’t very well based upon that verse where two people already thoroughly baptized and well experienced in the faith, came, and the apostles gave them.

61. 30:33

    What did they give them? Their fellowship, their agreement, their companionship, their approval and what they were doing? And whether it was a hand on head giving the right hand, I don’t know. Because our modern handshake is a very modern thing, isn’t it? We shake hands with each other like that, but they didn’t do that. I believe in the earliest Romans times I wasn’t present, but I gather that what they did was take you by the hand like that, so that you couldn’t draw your sword. It was a rather precautionary kind of handshaking and from that our modern handshaking has.

62. 31:13

    Degenerated in the sense that you don’t hold so much of the arm but become a more peaceful rather than a military thing. In the earlier days, though, it would have been a hand on head movement when people were linking themselves with the movements of others. I would think that’s what the elders of the community in Antioch did to Saul and Barnabas. And they were not ordaining them. God was doing that.

63. 31:36

    They were sending themselves with them. They were saying you go, but we go with you. You do the work, but our prayers and our companionship, our support, are in. Your helps are to your help. So Barnabas and Saul went out. Their first move was to Cyprus from Cyducia, the port of Antioch. No doubt they would go in a broadly Westerly direction and arrive at Cyprus. And they spent some time there doing what became Paul’s regular practice and preaching first in the synagogues of the Jews. They had some success, but their success seemed likely to be challenged when they actually came into contact with the governor of the island, who it seems had in his course and in his retinue a much favoured wonder worker, a Duke called Ellie, master sorcerer or by bar Jesus. And I want to look at that episode because it introduces us to something which I’ve mentioned before, slipped into from time to time, but which now becomes actual, so Acts chapter 13.

64. 32:39

    Verse five When they were at Salamist, they preached the word of God in the synagogue of the Jews, and they had also John as their minister. That’s John Mark who later leads them, about whom there arises A controversy that we must further discuss. They had John to their minister, and when they had gone through the island of Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was bar Jesus, which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God, but only master sorcerer, for so is his name, by interpretation withstood.

65. 33:23

    Them seeking to turn aside the proconsul from the faith, but Saul, who also is called Paul. Filled with the Holy Spirit, set his eyes on him and said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, will thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Now analyse that episode carefully. There’s the governor of the island. There’s a wonder working Jew who has two names, one of which is Ellie, master Sorcerer and the other of which is bar Jesus. And that Jew seeks to withstand the wholesome words of Barnabas and Saul, as a result of which Saul, who also is caught Paul, engages in a condemnation of him, which is almost unmatched in Scripture, except perhaps in Matthew 23, when Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, the bitterness of it, the harshness, the thoroughgoing condemnation in those words, is almost incredible in one called to the gospel of gentleness, as the apostle Paul was to be.

66. 34:27

    Yet there must have been a reason for it. I read the words again. He said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, will thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and that would be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. Why was Saul, who also is called Paul, so rough with any master sorcerer who also is called bar Jesus? Well, we’re not told, but we are told that he was a false prophet.

67. 35:03

    We’re also told in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that many false prophets shall arise. They shall come in my name. They shall say I am Christ the lead away disciples from me. And here was a man at least in some degree fulfilling that prophecy. He was seeking to turn away a potential disciple. He was coming in Jesus name.

68. 35:24

    He was bar Jesus. And whereas Jesus was not so uncommon a name amongst the Jews that we can say for sure that he was claiming some relationship with the Lord Jesus, perhaps he was and bar Jesus, meaning Son of Jesus contains all manner of unspoken innuendo in a name like that, and Paul finds him guilty of villainy. And that villainy of the Authorized or Revised Version is only found once elsewhere, when a Roman ruler in Nation Minor tells the population that if this were a matter of villainy or of wicked lewdness, then he would do something about it. But as it was, he wouldn’t.

69. 36:01

    And there appears to be some suggestion that this man was guilty of profligate talk, of unclean Speaking of dirty innuendo against the Name of the Holy Saviour. And against that Paul could not remain silent. So he spoke in utter and terror, and bitter condemnation of this evil man caused him to be afflicted with that which had brought him to his senses had him struck blind, with the hope, no doubt, that that would lead him to repentance.

70. 36:30

    But Saul, who also is called Paul, introduced to us for the first time, and so complete in the transformation it brings, that Paul is never called Saul again afterwards. Oh, yes, there are three occasions later in the Acts where the word Saul is used about him, but they’re all recapitulating. Going back at the time when I was on the road to Damascus, Jesus said to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Or Ananias said to me a little later, Brother Saul received thy side, because those were the things they said at that time. But that’s merely looking back into the past. From this time onwards, Saul becomes as completely and absolutely Paul.

71. 37:11

    As Abraham became Abraham, when God changed his name for him, or in a lesser degree Sarah, I became Sarah and never looked back to their old names at all. So why does Saul suddenly become Paul? Why Saul, which also is called Paul? Why Paul?

72. 37:31

    Well, they tell us, and no doubt they are right, that Jews who were also Romans and Jews who moved in Gentile society, tended to have two right names, one for their Jewish use and the other for Gentile use. And they say that Saul is a Jewish name, which it is, and Paul is a Roman one, which it is. So that may be part of the answer, but I think we can go further.

73. 37:53

    We can’t really expect to be told, but it might be interesting to inquire why did Paul’s parents call him Saul Shaul? Well, they were Benjamites. And Saul was the most famous of the Benjamites because he became king of the United Kingdom of Israel. So they called him after their great king. Perhaps, though, there was nothing very great about Saul, the first king, he died in disgrace by a suicide’s hand on the field of battle with the enemy that conquered him.

74. 38:23

    Saul was nothing really to be proud of as a king. I’m not sure that a Benjamite would want to choose that name in honour of that king. But then perhaps the name meaning desired might mean that Saul’s parents had wanted a son for a long time and had only daughters or no child at all.

75. 38:39

    And then her son was born, and they gave him by the name that showed they’d been granted what they asked for. As Israel was granted the king, they asked for that. Wouldn’t be unreasonable. But for whatever reason they gave it to him. It looks as though they did our new apostle. There is considerable disservice in giving him that name. For if you ask what it is about Saul, the name Saul, which most comes to mind when you use the word, apart from the fact that he didn’t fight Goliath, what is it that from the shoulders and upwards he was taller than anybody else? Not compared with Goliath, but compared with most normal Israelites, Saul was a big tall man. A man.

76. 39:25

    It was not to be equalled for desirability as a king. If you had the other qualities, that was Saul’s characteristic. That was the name they gave to our new apostle. Well, if Paul was the other name, there couldn’t have been a sharper contrast, because Paul Paulus means small, little, and the association of the word Saul with the meaning of the word Paul couldn’t have been in sharper contrast.

77. 39:55

    But wonders a little, which was right. Perhaps it was a nickname. Perhaps his school friends called it him. They did things like that to me anyway, and then they would do that to me. I don’t see why they wouldn’t have done it to him. So ah, here’s palace. Here’s the little one coming.

78. 40:11

    They might have said the name could well have stuck. But whether given name or nickname or conveniently, both? It is on this occasion that the word Paul is chosen for him and stays with him. He never calls himself anything else from that time on. I wonder why?

79. 40:32

    Well. Perhaps there’s some clue to that a little bit later in this same chapter, Acts chapter 13 verse 13. Now Paul and his company loosed from pathos and they came to Purga in Pamphaglia. And John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga and came to Antioch in Presidia, they went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down. And after the reading of the Law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them saying, Yemen and brethren, if you have any word of exitation to the people, say on. And Paul stood up and beckoning with the hand said what the rest of the chapter says.

80. 41:15

    He said, Now notice the procedure. They went into the synagogue and they sat down. And when the law had been read, these men were invited to speak if they wanted to, and so fostered up and spoke and beckoned with the hand too. Now contrast that with what happened when the Lord Jesus Christ preached in the sing of Nazareth. He took the book of the prophet and he stood up for to read and he read the part of the prophet Isaiah that spoke in prophecy of his mission.

81. 41:47

    Then he gave the book back to the attendant and sat down to preach. It’s quite different, isn’t it? Jesus sat down. Paul stood up and beckoned with the hands. I wonder. Why? I wonder why?

82. 42:03

    Well, you see, I’m in the synagogue now, following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I am. Talking to you all and you must wonder whoever is talking from behind that desk being poor. So I stand up and beckon with the hands and say I’m here. Now you can all see me. So it looks as though he was small and that’s why he stood up.

83. 42:26

    That’s why the name stuck. There’s a little bit more evidence when they preached at Iconium, and an ancient legend reminded the people there that the gods had once come down. The likeness of men had been well received by the people. Two people in the town, and there had been rich blessing as a consequence. And the two gods were, they thought, Hermes and Mercury. I’m sorry, Jupiter and Mercury or Zeus and Hermes? I’ll get them right now.

84. 43:01

    When they thought that they were those two gods, they saw a big, tall, outstanding chief of the gods, and they saw the messenger of the gods who carried their cups. And so thinking they were seeing the same thing all over again, or hoping they were, they called Barnabas Jupiter, and so they called Hermes. Because he was the chief speaker. He talked a lot.

85. 43:19

    He didn’t look much That seems to have been their feeling. They chose the man with the appearance to give the name of the chief of the gods to, and they gave the lesser name to the small goddess stature of the Greek and Roman pantheon, and they called Paul Hermes. The only other piece of evidence I suppose bases upon is based upon the slander which Paul had to suffer in the his letters of the Corinthians, the second one, where he said. That some people said about him that his letters are weighty and powerful, but his speeches mean, and his bodily presence contemptible.

86. 43:53

    When he himself took that up and in some way admitted the charge, and he said, who in presence and base amongst you? Again, there is perhaps some indication that this was the man’s smallest statue, not particularly prepossessing in appearance. So that’s why Saul might have been called for. Why did he choose the name now?

87. 44:14

    Because somebody chose it. Jesus might have told him to use it, of course, but he might have taken it from choice. And can it not so well be that a man who was accustomed to being big in the Jewish world, who sought great things for himself, who was becoming a leader in the persecuting community, had now died to an old life, being born again to Christ, become a little child in Christ, and wanted to grow up, and preferred to be known as the small man growing up than the big man stooping down South. Saul, which also is called Paul, says about his preaching work, and he’s given his new name as soon as he opens his lips. It’s the first time we hear him doing anything in public that we learn that’s the name by which henceforth we are to know him. Now that was on the island of Cyprus. Shortly after that, as we have actually already read, they crossed the seas from Paphos to the Asia Minor coast and came to Perga in Pamphaglia.

88. 45:22

    Later went on to the other Antioch. There are two Antiochs in the Acts you will know. There’s the one on the corner within the north-south border of the Promised Land. There’s the other one in the middle of Asia Minor. Called Presidian Antioch, a great marketing centre in the Asian, Greek or Roman world.

89. 45:42

    That’s the one they came to and at which Paul gave the speech which now we are to hear. But in the meanwhile John as their minister John mark some kind of blood relation to Barnabas called Sister son. But that may not be the meaning of the word. But at all events, some junior blood relation of Barnabas goes with, goes from them and returns to Jerusalem. We’re not told why he went back.

90. 46:10

    We are told when we get to the further repercussions of this episode, that he had gone with them from Pamphaglia and went not with them to the work. So it does look as though there was some dereliction on his part. It does look as though it’s of one piece back with the man who following the Lord Jesus Christ from the garden where he was arrested. Was seized by the guards who had taken Jesus and fled from them, leaving his garment in their hands. It may indicate some kind of the long word is pusillanimity, I think lack of courage anyway, in the matter of this Barnabas and this matter of this mark that made him not very suitable for the work at that stage.

91. 46:51

    And if that was it, then from me at least he has every sympathy, but he would have been unsuitable. So he went back to Jerusalem and. Barnabas and Saul continue the work without him. No, not Barnabas and Saul. They’ve become Paul and Barnabas now. Protocol has been inverted. Paul takes the lead. Barnabas takes the back seat.

92. 47:23

    It’s very rarely indeed Barnabas and Paul from now on. In fact, only one example springs to mind, and that was when they went to Jerusalem over the matter that will shortly engage our attention. And the elders of Jerusalem, being no doubt very conservative in their protocol, said our beloved brothers Barnabas and Paul have told us, and quite right too. But still, in the eyes of the historian, in the experience of the churches and by the nature of their work, it now is well and truly Paul and Barnabas.

93. 47:53

    Paul is the leader, Barnabas is the follower. As John the Baptist might have said in the same circumstances he must increase, but I must decrease. A smaller increase and a smaller decrease to power. But Paul became the head of that company, so much so that at one point it’s called Paul and his company.

94. 48:10

    And Barnes isn’t even named by name. We read it only a moment ago. So Barnabas has gone nicely into the background now, where he always seems to have preferred to be where he was, if he was not chosen as apostle when he did, if he did bring forth his gifts and retire gracefully to the background when he did. And we know he did, introduce Saul to the apostles, and then let him get on with his work.

95. 48:37

    But he did then going to find him, letting him be his companion in Antioch. What he has done now in assuming the second place in this company of preachers, and where we shall find him, do yet once again before we lose him from our sight.