Acts 13:13-43
Dear RTB’ers,
Today we continue with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, as they move on from the island of Cyprus to the mainland of modern-day Turkey. Today we see for the first time a pattern that Paul follows, to first go to the local synagogue in every city, therein to preach Jesus. And Paul’s preaching in today’s reading takes up 26 of the 31 verses that we read.
And John left them and returned to Jerusalem… (v. 13b) This is a key item in Acts. It will show up later when Paul and Barnabas are ready to go off on their second missionary journey (Acts 15:36, ff.). This “John” is John Mark, also known as Mark, the writer of the second Gospel.
Just over a month ago, in posting about Peter’s Pentecost sermon I pointed out a pattern in his sermon, a common thread that we would see in further sermons in Acts:
- An explanation of events
- Jesus’ life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension
- An exhortation to repentance and baptism/salvation.
We see that today in Paul’s preaching. In addition, as we saw in Stephen’s sermon back in Acts 7, we see Paul also giving his listeners a history lesson, tracing highlights of Jewish history before introducing Jesus and John the Baptist.
A few items from Paul’s sermon… For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize Him nor understand the utterances of the prophets … fulfilled them by condemning Him. (v. 27) It’s always intriguing to me when New Testament people do what has been prophesied in Old Testament scriptures, not knowing that they are fulfilling those prophesies! Finally, Paul connects Jesus with His Old Testament forebears: … what God promised to the fathers, this He has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus (vv. 32-33). Jesus IS the long-ago promise of the Father through the prophets!!
Blessings!