Acts 13

Division 3. (Acts 13:1-52; Acts 14:1-28; Acts 15:1-41; Acts 16:1-40; Acts 17:1-34; Acts 18:1-28; Acts 19:1-41; Acts 20:1-38.)The Mysteries Opened. It has been already said that we must not expect to have any full opening of the mysteries here, as we have in the epistles. The New Testament is characterized by them: “Let a man so account of us,” says the apostle, “as ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). There are “mysteries of the Kingdom” (Matthew 13:11), as the Church also is one. Even the “blindness in part” which “is happened unto Israel” is a mystery (Romans 11:25); and the partaking of the Gentile in the promise in Christ on equal terms with the Jew (Ephesians 3:6) is a mystery also. Thus we can speak of mysteries being opened here without implying that the truth of the Church is declared as Paul elsewhere declares it. The mystery is the one assembly of Jew and Gentile, and Christ’s epistle in the world, with the ministration of righteousness and life, and of the Spirit, in contrast with the legal ministration of death and of condemnation.

As this, we shall not wonder if the enemy would use the Jew in his unbelief against it, and the legal principle which God, having accomplished His end with it, has set aside. This will appear, in fact, as Satan’s great endeavor from the beginning. We have even a typical presentation of this as an enforcement of warning, in Elymas. The attempt of the Pharisaic converts to put the yoke of the law upon the Gentiles is a more open endeavor, and from within. The “ministration of righteousness” we find at the Pisidian Antioch.

Acts 13:1-14

Subdivision 1. (Acts 13:1-52; Acts 14:1-28.)Foundation principles. The first subdivision here naturally comprises the account of the first mission from Antioch, constituted thus, instead of Jerusalem, the center of the new work. It gives us evidently the foundations laid by one who was a “wise master-builder,” and with this the reception accorded to the grace proclaimed. This lies upon the surface; how much that must be underneath may the Spirit of God disclose to us as we take up what is here!

1. We have first the divine call, which must in some way be repeated, wherever profitable labor is to be done after this fashion. The Spirit of God is here pleased to make known to us that all the separation and guidance of the Lord’s servants and messengers is from Himself. How strange and incongruous is the thought of “ordination” which so attaches to it in the minds of many! For, in the first place, both Barnabas and Saul are expressly named among the “prophets and teachers” ministering to the Lord in Antioch at this time. They were not. then, to be ordained to such an office, who had already been a good while in it; and surely not by men who could not be supposed to be any way superior, if equal, to themselves!

One would surely say that the idea of equals lifting equals to a higher position than themselves, and which after all was only the position they had held before; would be too contradictory to be entertained by any serious mind. But if not, this was no ordination to an office at all. Again, there was only one degree higher than those of these prophets and teachers, and that was the apostle’s. Paul was an apostle, as all admit, in the fullest and most eminent way; but he distinctly declares himself (Galatians 1:1) “an apostle; not of men, nor through man:” men neither called him, nor ministered in this in any way. It was not then to this that he and Barnabas were called at Antioch. We are told, moreover, to what it was they were called: for, at the end of the special work to which in fact they immediately set out, they return to Antioch, and there it is added, “whence they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.” It is as certain, therefore, as Scripture itself can make it, that the work in question was not an apostle’s, prophet’s, or teacher’s office, but simply an evangelistic mission to the needy fields of Asia Minor. Indeed, by this separation of Saul and Barnabas from their number at the Spirit’s word, is only made more distinctly apparent that free and necessary work on His part which has been continually coming into more prominence in this book. He chooses, He sends; nothing is rightly done apart from this. Fit it was, the Spirit being come to take charge of all that should be done in the Name of Christ on earth, that this choice and will of the Spirit should now be emphasized in the strongest way. Judaism was a system of law, with a strong principle of succession in it; where in the most sacred things, as in the priesthood, son succeeded father; where the elders ruled as elders (though in this there was a right and necessary element, as has been said, and as we shall have more fully to see hereafter); the only exception to this (and it is a streak of blessed light through all the darkness of the history) is in the reservation of the prophet’s office in the hand of God alone. Elsewhere, with the succession of kings, priests, elders, the flesh came in to defile and mar in every shameful and terrible way possible; while the prophets, with God’s call and message; were the men of God in their several days. Each could say, after the pattern of Paul, “neither of men nor by man.” Prophecy in this character of it, as has been already said, is of the very spirit of Christianity.

It breathes of intercourse with God. And with God manifested in Christ, the sanctuary opened, who can wonder that the apostle should say, “I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied; for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues;” “covet spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy;” for “ye may all prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1; 1 Corinthians 14:5; 1 Corinthians 14:31). In the shadow of Judaism, (as we see in the disastrous return to it, now for so many centuries,) succession -that is, dependence upon flesh and blood -comes in naturally everywhere. The simple rule of God -the conscience before Him alone -cannot be permitted. The prophet call, the prophet voice, -these have less room for them in such legal systems than in Judaism itself: naturally, again; for this is the veil reintroduced, and therefore darker than anything that God could ever have permitted. At the time to which we have come in the book before us, Christianity was coming into her proper freedom from the yoke of bondage, the last remains of the shadow passing from her spirit; and in the new freedom, that it might be freedom, the rule of God was to be recognized in its full and sweet reality. The Christian was “not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,” which meant both of these two inseparable things. Thus, of necessity, in the highest department of Christian work, the rule of the Spirit must be above all emphasized. It was only the assertion of what was now to be the universal principle; but it is here expressed in a manner the most distinct; not by a Voice within the soul itself merely, but by one that demanded and obtained the obedience of the gathered company, -to which they openly set their seals; for the imposition of hands was the sign of identification and fellowship with those to whom the call was -with their obedience to it. They were all in all seriousness of spirit waiting upon the Lord when the word came; and afterwards when they laid their hands upon them, prayer and fasting accompanied the action. But those who acted with this true and earnest interest assumed no authority in it: they “let them go” -not “sent them away.” The “sending forth,” as now directly said, was of the Spirit.*
2. The journey through Cyprus has but one point in it upon which the historian dwells. Salamis is only mentioned to state that they announced the word of God there in the synagogues of the Jews. The rule, “to the Jew first,” was observed in this case; nor have we any record of work among the Gentiles. Among the Jews also the fact of the preaching is not accompanied by any statement as to the effect; there may have been such; it would be natural, under such preachers, and on a mission directed by the Spirit of God, to reason that there must have been; but it is certain that it is only the fact that is given us here; and not its consequences. The Jew is still sought by divine grace, and sought in an especial manner also.

The giving up of the nation as such does not mean any turning away of the offer of salvation from them. The first step upon the road here makes plain that the love that has been with them seeks them still. The breach is upon their side; not on His. This seems to connect morally with the account which is now given of the Jew at Paphos; scarcely a Jew indeed, one would say, so perverted, heathenized, demonized, is he. All the more, however, is he the true picture of the Jew, or of Judaism, fallen by opposition to Christ into the power of the enemy, and then becoming the most virulent of foes. Such is this Bar Jesus, with his fair name and his practice of occult arts, false prophet through and through. He is the worst hindrance to the Gentile inquirer, stout refuser of salvation on his own account; and that, whether outside the professing church, or (as he will be by-and-by) within it. He is to be the great antagonist of Paul all through, bringing him at last into the Roman prison, in which for so many generations he was shut up; for without the Jew the Roman could have done little. Plainly, it is not the opposition of the moment at which we are looking here, but something far deeper and more lasting; -lasting until the “mist and darkness,” come upon the Jew for his opposition to the truth, shall pass away, in the dawn of a day beyond the present. Bar Jesus, living reality as he was, is nevertheless a type of something far more enduring than himself, and to us all more important. It will be good for us to stand still a little; and contemplate that to which our attention is here by the Spirit of God pointed, -the universal foe of the grace of the gospel. “God gave man the law.” This, which is almost the universal cry (hardly accurate as it is), is an argument which no one can contest, and which, it is thought, makes it really heresy to take seriously what Paul says about a Christian being “dead” to it. You may put in a word, and say, “dead to the (ceremonial) law.” Then it will be all right to say so. But unfortunately the apostle, no matter what his apologists may invent for him, will not permit this. For the law of which he is speaking in the very place in which he says this (Romans 7:4-7), is at any rate that which said, Thou shalt not covet," the last commandment graved upon those tables of stone shown, it is argued, by their very material to be absolutely permanent. If this be true; then, as undoubtedly the Jew thought, he has certainly matter of contention with Paul about it. But the Jew went further than this, and upon the same warrant of “This do and thou shalt live,” denied Paul’s whole gospel of “righteousness without works” (Romans 4:6), spite of his testimonies from Abraham and David. We shall find all this carefully gone through in the epistles, and we have no intention of taking it up here; but here is the fundamental controversy through the Christian centuries, within, more than with those outside the profession. Ritualism, Romanism, (how much more than these!) are just Judaism come into Christianity; but yet not purely that, -not Judaism as God gave it, -but with an element introduced which is of the enemy. Judaism was not an enemy to the truth of God; the law was a handmaid -Hagar. It pointed to Christ its end and fulfilment, not only in its types, but also by its own manifest incompetence to bring to God.

Its “ministration” was of death and condemnation, with the veil before the face of God! The word from His lips was “None can see Me and live.” Thus the finger of hope could only point forward to the “new covenant,” which in the mere announcement of it made the first old (Hebrews 8:13). But in the new ritualism of Rome and of her daughters, while the shadows of Judaism are darker than of old, no finger is found pointing beyond itself, -no glory of Christ illumines them. He is come and gone; and has left still a closed up sanctuary, and a gospel of doubt! The glory is still in the face of Moses; the veil is upon His own! But this is Judaism with its heart dead within it, and the light that plays over it weird, fantastic, demonic.

Its mysteries are magic; the power it craves oppressive, not protective; its yoke is tyrannous, and its burden heavy. It is Elymas the sorcerer, courting the powers of the world, and opposing the gospel of grace in the apostle. It is Paul of all men whom this does oppose. The conflict with the Jew manifests Saul as Paul, the name which he henceforth retains. The contrast between the two is such as could not escape notice. Saul, the man of Benjamin, necessarily brings up the figure of that other Saul, the king of men, such as the people “asked,” head and shoulders above the common stature, in contrast with Paul, the “little,” the man “less than the least of all saints,” and only the chief of sinners. But this is he who can now be “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” “a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Paul is the fittest name possible for the man who is to be taken into the third heaven, and lead us into the open sanctuary, and present us “perfect in Christ Jesus.” It is not from the converted Sergius that Paul derives his name, the most unlikely thing possible for one so free from all human dependence. While, at the same time, it is quite in keeping with all else here that the man who escapes from the snare of the Jew should be also a Paul -a “little” one. “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” In Scripture, while the history is ever truth, the fullest reason of things is always the spiritual one; for He who is Infinite Wisdom governs all, and with an absolute control of all material, which if we accredited it, and realized the service of love in which it is made to work, we should see the glory of God indeed. Upon the opposers of truth the mist and darkness of error must surely settle down. Woe to him who resists at any point the light of God! It is by the cover of darkness alone that he can do it; and he who shuts his eyes to any part of truth will find that he can make no terms with the error to which he surrenders. In the purport of his act he shuts out everything; and it is only the mercy of God which can put limit to the terms of an absolute surrender to the “authority of darkness.” 3. The conflict at Paphos is thus but a typical introduction to what follows it; in which we are now to find what the reception of the gospel of Christ will be in a world so needy of it, so ignorant of its need. The conversion of the proconsul is all that we hear of in this way in Paphos; for we have not all that took place; but all that the Spirit of God saw fit to communicate. Cyprus is now left behind, and “Paul and his company” cross over to the mainland, to Perga in Pamphylia, on their onward way. There John their assistant leaves, when the work is just beginning, and returns to Jerusalem. With the general reticence of Scripture in such matters, we are told nothing of his motives.

We may inter, as it is usual to do, and as the point at which he leaves and his return home naturally would indicate, that the difficulties of the way were making themselves felt with one whose strength was not sufficiently in God for the demand. The path of faith will surely be too severe a test for all that is not faith; and all may not be faith that at first seems so. Faith is strengthened in the path, and does not fail because of difficulties which it supposes, and by which it is exercised: but the unreal is sifted out, and the true state of things is made apparent. Not that there was not reality in John, as we realize in his recovery afterwards. He needed, no doubt, the lesson, to learn which Paul’s faithfulness also might be requisite, when again he offered himself for what he failed in now. How good when we truly learn by our failures the way not to fail!

A different thing, indeed, from the constant failure to which so many seem only to become habituated, and easily plead their weakness, as if they found no more strength in God than in themselves.*
With the sorrow of this defection on them, the travelers pass on from Perga; and next we hear of them at Antioch in Pisidia, where we have the proclamation of Paul’s gospel, in a way that “stands over against” the proclamation to the Jews by Peter at Jerusalem. Antioch of Pisidia (“the well-watered plains?”) may give us a hint of this, as the other Antioch (of Syria -Aram, the “high” or “exalted”) has been seen to “stand over against” Jerusalem in another respect. The address here is indeed to Israelites, and in the synagogue also, but taking in the proselytes in a distinct way, too, -“ye that fear God.” The announcement, besides, of justification for every one who believeth in Jesus gathers in the Gentiles in numbers the next sabbath, inflaming, alas! the jealousy of the Jews. As a consequence of this, the turning to the Gentiles is definitely announced. Peter declares forgiveness of sins to those who repent and are baptized. Paul, justification in Christ for the believer.

No apostle except Paul in terms declares this; although John here; as in other ways, comes nearest to him; indeed, the difference in this respect is scarcely more than verbal. The bold assurance as to the impotence of Moses, law, in the face of the synagogue, is characteristic of Paul. The apostle begins by reminding them how God had brought Israel out of Egypt, and planted them in the land. After this, while through their sins the time was indeed disastrous, He had raised them up judges to the end of about 450 years, till Samuel -another memorable deliverance. There was more disaster, for the people would have a king; but here also, after forty years of trial, God over-topped their failure with the gift of one after His own heart; with him the promise of a Saviour in his line. There was then a weary interval, which for his purpose the speaker can pass over; at last, after a needed baptism of repentance proclaimed to Israel, the Saviour came. All had known John; and he had borne public witness to the coming after him of One with regard to whom he was not worthy to do a menial’s office. His salvation whom John had heralded was now being declared to the residents at Antioch. A strange story indeed, of a smitten and slain Saviour! slain in accordance with their prophecies, by a people who refused the testimony of the prophets. Causelessly slain, yet His death had broken the bonds of death, and God had raised Him in an exceptional manner from among the dead: a thing borne witness to by many witnesses. The apostle had testimony of his own which he could have added, as we know; but he prefers to make his appeal to what they had in their hand, the Scriptures which, thank God, are in our hand also. He appeals to three special texts as to the fulfilment of this promise. The first is the second psalm, to which Peter also had appealed. God had owned a Man on earth -His anointed King on Zion -as His begotten Son. This was the claim which, as made by Jesus, the scribes so stoutly resisted. That any man should dare; in that sense, to call God his Father, was in itself, whatever he might offer in proof, incredible and monstrous. All His glorious works were nullified by this claim. Yet there it was, upon the face of their own scriptures, true certainly as to some Man: so that, if He had not claimed it, He could not have been the Christ of God! Thus the very objection that they made was proof rather for, than proof against Him. Jesus was in fact the One raised up of God to them in fulfilment of the promise. Did they but recall that psalm, -and how could an Israelite forget it? -they might see how the very controversy of Israel and of the kings of the earth with Him was recorded in it, -the vain attempt “against Jehovah and against His Christ.” Did not He who sat in the heavens laugh? What could they do with Him they had safely guarded in His sepulchre? -with the Risen One whom they had helped so manifestly to proclaim? If they had His body, they had only to produce it, to quench all this joy that had so strangely arisen over the grave of a Crucified Man.

But everywhere that Cross itself became a triumph! The Crucified had become glorified on earth; was it not the reflection of a brighter and heavenly glory? The second psalm does not, however, speak of resurrection; for that the apostle adduces a singular text from Isaiah (Isaiah 55:3), “I will give you the sure (or faithful) mercies of David.” These mercies, as every one knew, were to be in a Person (as the next verses also show), a Son of David, greater far than he. And of Him the sixteenth psalm, next quoted, plainly speaks. David it is; and yet was it fulfilled in David? Here was a Pious One; who on account of what He was, though His soul would be in hades, would not be suffered to see corruption in the grave. That was not true of David, as they all knew. Of One whom they could not deny to be the Son of David it was true. In Him those mercies were deposited in a way which rescued them from peril evermore. The connection between the “mercies” and the “Pious” One is not seen in English. The words are really the same -and this both in Greek and Hebrew; and some would make them so in English, by translating, “Thy Merciful One;” but I do not take this to be the connection. It is not as being merciful that God could not suffer Him to see corruption: nor for anything that He is towards men. As “Thy Pious One” is undoubtedly a good translation, so it is one that suits the place in which we find it here. But the word used in relation to Jehovah, as in the first case, cannot mean this; we cannot speak of Jehovah’s “piety”; and here the alternative rendering as “mercies,” “benefits,” is evidently right. The word in Hebrew, in its radical meaning, speaks of affection abundant and ready to flow out, whether God ward or manward, and needing therefore to be variously expressed.

In the One before us, the true David, or “Beloved,” is found the abundant outflow in both directions; and here is the connection between the passages as far as this word is concerned. In the Mediator standing between God and man, both God and Man are found in full, ideal relationship. And it is in the Risen Man that this is clearly established, never to be disordered any more. The effect is now that there is a gospel: “Through this Man is announced to you remission of sins;” and that in a complete way which not only witnesses mercy on God’s part, but righteousness, -as justification manifestly does. The wail of the Jobs of ancient time is answered, “How shall man be just with God?” though in a way transcending all ability on man’s side; for now God is just, and the Justifier of the ungodly, through faith in Jesus. The justification of a sinner -the righteousness of God put fully upon his side -in the only way in which it could possibly be accomplished, will be the wonder and delight of eternity. What indeed could Moses, law do in such a matter? It was only for sins done inadvertently that it provided (Leviticus 4:2; Leviticus 4:13; Leviticus 4:22; Leviticus 4:27); for any other it was incompetent. And if “without shedding of blood is no remission,” “the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins” (Hebrews 9:22, Hebrews 10:4-7). Of something beyond itself it was ever speaking; yea, of Him whose death for sinners was now an offence everywhere to the Jew. The apostle adds the warning which the prophet had already given; or rather, God by him; an intimation not to be carried away by the unbelief of their leaders, -an unbelief so plainly foretold. Alas, it was soon to be seen that they needed the warning, and yet that it was to be, except to a remnant, given in vain!*
4. The history of this follows; in which we see the pride of the Jew in his exclusive privileges making him refuse the most precious blessings, if he is to share them with the Gentile. The simple condition of faith which the gospel imposes sets the believing Gentile upon the same footing with the Jew; and on the next sabbath almost the whole city comes together to hear news like this. The sight of the multitudes stirs up the Jews to jealousy, and they contradict Paul with open railing. This in turn rouses the two evangelists to declare their express commission to the Gentiles; and that, since they who had been privileged to have the first invitation of divine grace had put it from them, they would turn to these. And again they produce the undeniable statement of the Word, that Christ was set to be a light to the nations, a salvation even to the end of the earth. It is, in fact, to One whose labor has been in vain in Israel that God speaks after this manner (Isaiah 49:4-6). If Israel were not gathered, this even would be a small thing, compared with the work in which. He should be glorified, of wide blessing among the Gentiles. This shows it contemplated, at least, that there might be a time when Israel would reject while the Gentiles would receive Him. What serious question would not such a suggestion raise in the mind of a Jew! And these prophets were read continually in their synagogues! but unbelief gets through the plainest testimonies. The Gentiles are glad, however, and glorify the word of the Lord; and in the sovereign grace of God many believe; and the word of the Lord is carried abroad throughout all the country. But an opposition is now roused, which follows the apostles through all their labors in these parts. Those who will not themselves receive the truth will not, if they can help it, suffer the truth to be received; and the Jews have influence enough with the Gentiles to turn them against those whom they hate for bringing blessing to the Gentiles! Such is man! So the bringers of good news are cast out for the news they bring; but the disciples are filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. 5. The work at Iconium does not present much difference from that at Antioch; only that here a larger number of the Jews believe. The end is similar; the unbelieving Jews stir up the Gentiles, and the apostles have to flee. What is emphasized in the account given is certainly the help found in God, who links Himself to human weakness so as to make it “mighty through God.” First, in the synagogue they “so spake that a great multitude of both Jews and Greeks believed.” Here, spite of its being clearly the work of God to bring men to Himself, yet none the less is He pleased to give effect to the words of His people in such sort that it can be said, they so spake as to produce faith. There is a right fitting of words to such an end which must not be overlooked; a skill which only a wisdom begotten of love can enable with, and which disdains not diligence for the attainment of its ends, -“And because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he pondered and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written uprightly, even words of truth” (Ecclesiastes 12:9-10). There are many who seem to think that the teaching of the Spirit of God should set aside all this. They speak slightingly of the “study” even of the word of God. They no longer cry after knowledge," nor “lift up the voice for understanding;” they do not “seek her as silver,” nor “search for her as for hid treasures.” Yet they doubt not to “understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:3-5). Without sowing of seed, they expect harvests, and that negligence now shall do the work of diligence, and find the blessing it has never sought. But the man of God is to be furnished unto all good works; and from Scripture only is this furnishing. If we are to be “as new-born babes, desiring the sincere milk of the Word,” how much does a new-born babe desire milk? Alas! the careless way in which the word of God is read today shows little of the teaching of the Spirit of God; and thus with each new wind of doctrine, the anchors of so many drag at once! Here we are speaking rather of the ability to affect others; and for this the need of gift from God must not be forgotten. But the possession of whatever gift does not render one superior to the rules which are common to all Christians, and which are plain moral rules, every one. The servant serves with what the Christian has acquired; and this is a most important rule indeed! We acquire and prove in our own souls what we can then use for the souls of others; and the very fact that we are to serve others with it shows the need all have of it, and not servants only. There is no part of the word of God that is not intended for all the people of God; and we all learn as learners, not as teachers. Oh for the longing from the heart of every Christian for that which has all come from the heart of God for all His own! Those so speak as to make men believe, who have themselves received with a living and joyous faith what they impart to others; and who impart it therefore, not according to the rules of an artificial pedagogy, but from such full hearts as alone can reach hearts. So the apostles spake, and so the Iconians believed. But all the more it stirred the souls of some to faith, the more would it awaken opposition in the hearts of its rejectors. Again it was the Jews who evil affected the Gentiles towards the brethren, newly become such. Here too, however, the weak are with the Strong, who protects them and enables them to continue in the midst of the opposition, by means, perhaps, of the signs and wonders which He grants them to do, and of which at Antioch we hear nothing. They seem by no means, therefore, a necessary accompaniment of the gospel, but rather an occasional help, -in this case, seemingly, to quiet opposition, and make men realize with whom they had to do. The city was divided; but at last a determined attack was to be made, -a combined attempt to stone them on the part of Jews and Gentiles both. Acting then upon the Lord’s words to the disciples, they flee to Lystra and Derbe, in the wilder parts of Lycaonia, and there pursue their work. 6. As at Iconium there was seen the power of Him who was with His word, so now at Lystra is demonstrated the fickleness of the multitude, who presently stone the man whom at first they would have worshiped as a god. The healing of the impotent man suggests the latter; yet is all incompetent to commend to the mass the blessed truth brought to them by the healer, which should have been its own commendation; while the tale of his traducers finds its way to the very bottom of their hearts! Both ways one touches boundaries here, but finds good nowhere. Men will idolize you, perhaps; for God has lost His place with them, and it is easily given to another. They will destroy their idol too, as easily.

This is the creature, man, to whom nevertheless God has sent a message of infinite grace, the story of a work more wonderful than ever blessed before the ears that hear it; but over this he has the greatest difficulty! What but the power of the Spirit could one trust to make way for the gospel in a world like this? Preserved from it at Iconium, Paul is permitted to be stoned at Lystra; how, amid it all, his mind must have gone back to Stephen! but that he should abide in the flesh was needful yet for many; and this, and not the wills of lawless men, governs all: while the disciples stand round him, he rises up, and returns into the city. “Fear would have said, Go anywhere else just now. Self would have said, Stay there, and see what a future triumph for the gospel! But the thoughts of man are in neither suggestion the mind of Christ; and this the apostle had and acted on.” (W. Kelly.) “On the morrow he went away with Barnabas to Derbe.” 7. The limit of their journey at the present time is now reached. At Derbe there are many disciples made, with no record of after-persecution; and thence they return to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, “confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God.” Such words for the mass seem idle now, though assuredly they should still have meaning. The lives of the speakers were in this case an illustration in full of what they declared, and it was not possible for any to dissent from a principle so manifest as these had made it. Now for the first time we come to the appointment of elders in the assemblies; a class of officers of which we have heard hitherto only among the assemblies in Judea. Unless age and experience are to count for nothing in the affairs of the assembly, an eldership must naturally obtain recognition everywhere, practically if not formally; and in the Jewish assemblies it seems to have been simply a natural growth (1 Peter 5:1; 1 Peter 5:5), officialized by antique and patriarchal custom. Yet all would not be ready to take their part in the responsibilities implied, and many would become in different ways disqualified. The eldership would thus become more restricted than the term properly would argue for. In the assembly also, in contradistinction from Judaism, all terms had a spiritual significance. The “babes, young men, and fathers” were spiritual grades primarily; even though by no means wholly severed from their natural representatives. Years would count, and yet not simply as time and nothing else. That would be true even in nature, that men might be older or younger than their age; but spiritually much greater and more significant would such disproportion be. Thus there would be disqualifications for eldership, and mainly moral, though not wholly. If any one examines the apostle’s qualifications of an overseer (which was the official status of the elder), as given in the first epistle to Timothy, he will easily discern the moral character on which all is based, and that it is that of the “father” (1 Timothy 3:1-7; comp. 1 Timothy 5:1).

A specific gift was quite another matter; and though it might and should develop, no age or experience could communicate it. But it was just the experience of one spiritually a “father” which would enable him for oversight in the family of God. In the case of the assemblies here, the apostles choose elders for them; they are not able, therefore, to do it for themselves: and this is confirmed by die express commission given to. Titus to appoint elders in those of Crete, as by the directions as to them given to Timothy; where the fact of his being at Ephesus, where there were already such (Acts 20:17) makes their inability to appoint also as evident as that of the assembly. It was an office which apparently any might desire, and to which, therefore, one would say, all who had the needful qualifications might be appointed. The appointment conveyed an authority which the exercise of special gift did not require; that of the preacher or teacher being simply that of the word he ministered, and not of office. Things being thus set in order in these young assemblies, with prayer and fasting they commended them to the Lord, in whom they had believed; and passing back along the road by which they had come, having reached the seacoast, sailed to Antioch. There they had been committed to the grace of God for the work now fulfilled; and there they related how God through them had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. There they remained no little time.