DAY SEVENTY-SEVEN: 

The First Missionary Journey 

Acts 13:1-14:28 

Yesterday we saw how Saul, who applauded Stephen's execution and spearheaded a vicious persecution of the church, encountered the risen Christ and became His servant. We saw that the believers in Jerusalem didn't trust Saul when he professed his faith in Jesus Christ. Barnabas took him to the apostles, and they recognized that God had changed this man. They received him into the family. When their Jewish opponents threatened Paul they sent him back to his hometown of Tarsus in modern-day Turkey for his own safety. 

The persecution that Paul had spearheaded fizzled out when its leader left. By that time the Christians had scattered from Jerusalem and shared the Gospel everywhere they went. When believers arrived in Antioch, the third largest city in the Roman Empire, the people were very receptive to the message of Christ. "And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord." (Acts 11:21) When word reached Jerusalem of the rapidly growing church in Antioch the apostles were concerned with how to turn these new believers into disciples. They sent Barnabas, who soon realized this was too big of a job for him alone. He made a quick trip to Tarsus to appeal to Paul to join him in Antioch. Paul was an able teacher. He was grounded in the Scriptures of the Old Testament yet was also fluent in the Greco-Roman culture. The church continued to grow, and we read that it was here that followers of Christ were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). The term means "little Christs," and was an insult from their opponents. The Antiochian Christians realized they were exactly that, because Christ lived in and through them. So they proudly claimed the title as a statement of their identity.

While the church in Antioch was blowing the doors off, the church at Jerusalem was suffering. Persecution had started again, and a severe famine compounded the church's hardship. When the believers at Antioch heard of their brothers and sisters' plight they took up a generous offering and sent Paul and Barnabas to deliver it. After spending some time with the church in Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, taking with them John Mark, Barnabas' nephew.

Now we come to our passage. Saul and Barnabas were praying with the other prophets and teachers at Antioch when the Holy Spirit spoke, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." I don't think this came out of the blue. Paul and Barnabas probably had talked with the others about heading out to share the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire, and they were taking this desire to the Lord. When they received His answer they blessed Paul and Barnabas and sent them off.

They took John Mark and caught a ship to Cyprus, where Barnabas was born. They went first to the Jews, preaching in the synagogues. They also spoke to the Gentiles of the island, and Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul, believed in Christ.

From Cyprus they sailed to the southern coast of modern-day Turkey and then journeyed inland until they came to Antioch of Pisidia. This other Antioch was situated where several important trade routes met, and so was the gateway to the eastern part of the Roman Empire. They went to the local synagogue first, as was their custom, and preached the Gospel to the Jews. Our passage records an example of Paul's preaching to the Jews. He used the Old Testament Scriptures to show that Jesus was the Son of God and Israel's Messiah. A number of the Jews believed. The next week great crowds of Gentiles came to the synagogue, eager to learn about Jesus. The synagogue leaders, jealous of Paul and Barnabas' success, started to argue with them. They convinced some of the "devout women of high standing," Gentiles who believed in the God of Israel, that the Gospel was not good news but rather bad news. They in turn convinced their powerful husbands to drive them out. But Paul and Barnabas left behind a church.

Next they went west to Iconium. Again they went first to the synagogue, and again a number of Jews believed. But those Jews who didn't believe stirred up the Gentiles and "poisoned their minds" so that they joined in opposing Paul, Barnabas and John Mark. They remained in Iconium and persisted in preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ. The city split right down the middle. When a plot to murder them was uncovered, the three moved on.

They came Lystra and Derbe, Roman colonies near Iconium. After Paul healed a lame man, the people of Lystra thought that the gods had come to visit them. They thought that Barnabas must be Zeus, the king of the gods, and that Paul must be Hermes, the messenger god, because he was the one who did most of the talking. The Lystrans brought out a calf to sacrifice to them, but Paul and Barnabas stopped them. They shared the Gospel with the crowd that gathered around them. Jews from Antioch and Iconium followed them to Lystra and got to the synagoge before Paul and his entourage. They stoned Paul and left him for dead. It's certain that he was dead, because stoning wasn't something that was done halfway. But after the angry mob left, Paul got up! They left for Derbe and after preaching there started to make their way back to Antioch of Syria, stopping at the churches they'd founded to encourage the disciples as well as visiting other places, like Pamphylia and Perga. They had a lot of good news to share with the folks who had sent them out and had held them up in their prayers!

The first missionary journey has come to an end. The Gospel is spreading among the Gentiles and they are beginning to outnumber Jewish believers. This raised an important question: do Gentiles have to become Jews in order to become Christians? Do they have to be circumcised and observe the dietary laws to remain in fellowship with God? Tomorrow we'll see how the early church discerned God's will in this matter.

Paul, Barnabas and John Mark were the first missionaries. They traveled to carry the Gospel message to places where it hadn't been heard, and looked beyond the Jewish community to engage the Gentiles. The missionary enterprise went dormant after Europe was evangelized. In the 17th century St. Francis Xavier journeyed to the Far East with the Gospel. The modern missionary movement, however, traces its origins to William Carey, who in 1793 left England for India. The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw great endeavors that bore much fruit in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Now churches in many nations around the world are sending missionaries.

I've heard some say that we shouldn't concern ourselves with people in far away lands when we have so much need at home. My response: If you see need at home, do something about it. But we should care about people in China and India and the South Sea Islands because Jesus cares about them. He died for them no less than for us. He commanded us, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20) So let's get behind those who commit themselves to serve Christ around the world, with both our prayers and our financial support.

I had a happy earworm pop into my head this morning as I was working on this post. I hadn't heard this song in a long time, but all of a sudden I found myself singing it. The song is "He's Everything To Me," by Ralph Carmichael. I found out that the song is 50 years old this year! Carmichael is acknowledged as the father of Contemporary Christian Music. This particular rendition also brings back memories for me. The Imperials are a Southern Gospel quartet that broke out of that mold. I heard them live back in the 80s. I pray this song will bless you as much as it has blessed me, because He IS everything to me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvgspvBVEUo