Grace Institute: Luke & Acts: Bearing Withness in Asia Minor and Europe

Bearing Witness in Asia Minor and Europe Acts 12:25-19:20 Spring 2008

The Growth Moves to Asia Minor (12:25 - 16:5)

Paul's First Missionary Journey

The church in Antioch instigates the next movement outward. In 13:1, they commission Barnabas and Paul to a missionary journey into Cyprus and Asia Minor on the “First Missionary Journey.” On this journey Paul and Barnabas establish a pattern for his visits to each city.

• Paul and Barnabas preach to the Jews in the synagogue (13:14, 14:1).
• Many Jews & Gentiles hear & believe (13:43, 14:1b).
• Jews grow jealous. Incite Gentile leaders (13:50, 14:2).
• Paul and Barnabas face persecution (13:50, 14:5).
• They leave for next city (13:51, 14:6).
• The disciples are filled with joy & HS (13:52).

The Message of Paul

The first recorded message of Paul took place in Pisidian Antioch during his first missionary journey. This message has elements of both Peter's message on Pentecost and Stephen's message. Like Stephen, Paul recounts the history of Israel. Like Peter, Paul declares that the Jews crucified Jesus (13:28), that God raised Him (13:30), and that the apostles are witnesses to this fact (13:31). Paul also borrows from the Peters' Pentecost message in his quotation of David from Psalm 16 (13:35). Paul also declares that through Christ sins can be forgiven (13:38).

Paul, however, adds a unique element at the end of his message. Paul states that Christ brings a freedom that cannot be found in the Law of Moses (13:39). This is an intriguing addition to the message given Pisidian Antioch's location in Galatia and Paul's emphasis in his epistle to the Galatians on freedom in Christ.

The similarity between Paul's message and that of Peter is not a coincidence. As the book of Acts shifts from the ministry of Peter to Paul, Luke begins to purposefully draw a comparison between the ministry of Peter and Paul.

Luke is establishing Paul's authority as an apostle by showing that his message and his ministry is the same as Peter and the rest of the apostles.

The Jerusalem Council

As Paul and Barnabas continue their travels throughout Asia Minor, more and more Gentiles join with the Christians. The response of the Gentiles, however, brings new questions as to the role of Jewish law in Christianity. The early church is struggling for its identity; namely, is Christianity a sect of Judaism or is it something entirely new.

As seen in the sermon in Pisidian Antioch, Paul had already declared that Christ brings freedom which the Law can not bring. From Paul's epistles, we know that he had been teaching freedom from the Law. But many in the church in Jerusalem believed that upon conversion Gentiles needed to be circumcised and begin following the practice of the Jewish law.

The debate was settled in the only recorded church council in scripture. James summed up the argument by showing from the Old Testament that the witness to the Gentiles had been part of the plan all along (15:16-18), and that the earthly kingdom would not take place until the “uttermost parts” knew the gospel. The Gentile believers did not have to be circumcised, nor did they need to keep the Law (15:28). All they were to do was to avoid idolatrous practices and sexual sin (15:29).

Progress Report #5

The fifth progress report (16:5) concludes the section on the witness in Asia Minor.

The Growth Moves to Europe (16:6 – 19:20)

Paul's Second Missionary Journey

After the Jerusalem council, Paul and Barnabas set for their second missionary journey from Antioch. Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them on their journey, but Paul insisted that they travel without Mark because he had abandoned them on a prior trip. The scripture says “there arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.”

Paul selects Silas as his partner for this journey. Their intent was to continue in Asia Minor to check on the churches established in the first journey. But God had a different plan. If the gospel was to reach the remotest parts of the earth, it had to expand to the next sphere of influence: Europe.

The Holy Spirit forbade Paul and Silas from preaching in Asia (16:6). Then Paul receives a vision from God of a man in Macedonia who appeals to Paul to help them (16:9). God had called them to cross over to Europe (16:10), and so they crossed the sea to Macedonia and Greece (16:11).

Just as in the first journey, this second journey also develops a consistent pattern:

• Paul and Silas go to synagogue and present from scripture that Jesus is the Christ (17:1-3, 18:4-5).
• They depart synagogue after rejected by leaders, taking Jewish and God-fearing believers (17:4, 18:6).
• They preach to the Gentiles at large and teach daily (17:5, 18:7)
• They receive abuse or mob threat and false charges that are at some point dismissed by the city magistrates or Roman officials (17:5-8, 18:12-16).
• Leave town, sometimes leaving workers behind (17:9, 18:17).

Paul's Message to Gentiles in Athens

The pattern changes somewhat with the audience. Paul, in chapter 17, does not begin in the synagogue, but in the market place. Now Paul speaks in a culturally relevant way to Gentiles first. Paul and Silas become separated after persecution in the city of Berea. Paul flees ahead to Athens, and while waiting for Silas and the others to catch up with him, he acts as a tourist, walking through the beautiful city of Athens (17:16).

Paul begins debating with some Greek philosophers in the market place. This is Paul's second recorded message to Gentiles. He addresses the Athenian philosophers using their philosophical terminology. Like with the Gentiles in Lystra, he begins by discussing God as creator (17:24) and demonstrating that he is transcendent (17:25). Paul declares that all need to repent of their ignorance, for “a Man” is coming who will judge the world. Paul states this man's authority to judge is based on his resurrection from the dead (17:31).

While Paul lost his audience with his discussion of a resurrection, we can see that Paul was trying to direct the message from that which the Gentiles would understand (God as creator) towards the resurrection of Jesus.

A Defense of Paul

Luke records details on this trip of three incidents where Paul is surrounded by uprisings. In 16:19, we see that Paul's ministry in Philippi interrupts the profiteering of some fortunetellers. But when all is said and done, they are exonerated by the magistrates (16:37-40), and it is shown that Paul's rights as a Roman citizen have been violated.

In Corinth, the Jews rise up against Paul and haul him before the Roman official, Gallio (18:12). But Paul is again exonerated by the Roman leader (18:14-15), saying that this was an internal religious debate and that it did not concern him (18:17).

During the third missionary journey, Paul's ministry in Ephesus is so successful that it begins to impact the sale of idols at the temple to Artemis. The merchants rise up in a riot against Paul and take him to the amphitheater. There the town clerk declares that this riot was unlawful and dismissed the assembly (19:38-41).

In all three of these incidents, Luke demonstrates to his audience of the peaceful intentions of the Christian movement and that any disorder was the cause of the Jewish leadership or profiteers.

Paul's Third Missionary Journey

Paul's third missionary journey is dominated by a two year stay in the city of Ephesus. Rather than a “journey” like the first and second trips, this really is a description of Paul's move to Ephesus and his leaving Ephesus as he journeys back to Jerusalem.

Apollos and the Disciples of John the Baptist

In Ephesus, Paul's associates Priscilla and Aquila met an Alexandrian Jew named Apollos. Apollos was a gifted speaker, and Luke tells us that he was accurately teaching “the things concerning Jesus,” even though he himself had never heard of Jesus, instead being “acquainted only with the baptism of John” (18:25). Priscilla and Aquila take Apollos aside and told him “the way of God more accurately” (18:26), and Apollos became a powerful apologist for Christianity in Ephesus and Corinth (18:27-19:1).

When Paul came to Ephesus he found some others who evidently may have been converted through Apollos' incomplete teaching of Jesus (19:1). Paul explained to them the fuller message of Jesus as the fulfillment of John the Baptist (19:4), and they immediately became baptized and received the Holy Spirit (19:5-6).

This intriguing narrative gives rise to an intriguing question: when were these disciples of John the Baptist “saved?” They were not “Christians,” for they had not heard the message of Christ. Yet the scripture says Apollos was teaching of things concerning Jesus and they are called disciples.

These were people caught in a dispensational cross-over period. These were Old Testament believes who had not yet heard the New Testament gospel. But when told of the gospel of Jesus Christ they readily accepted it and were baptized.

This leads to a larger question. When Jesus came, there were people who were “saved” by belief in a coming Messiah who would bring salvation to His people. After Pentecost and the institution of the church age, did these people have their salvation revoked until they could hear the gospel of Jesus, at which time they could be re-saved? Of course not. The narrative of Apollos and his disciples confirms this. Old Testament saints remained saints until they heard the gospel. But the confirmation that indeed they were Old Testament saints is that when they heard the New Testament gospel, they readily accepted it. Those who rejected it did not loose their Old Testament salvation, but never had salvation under the Old Testament to begin with.

This explains why Paul and his associates always started by preaching in the synagogues, and explains why the mission of the early church was “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16, 2:9-10). Those who were already saved deserved first to hear the gospel first.

This also has some intriguing ramifications for those who believe, but who may not have a complete understanding of the gospel. People need to be taught “the way of God more accurately,” but their moment of salvation comes when they believe the revelation which God has already provided. This does not mean that we shouldn't send missionaries to unreached peoples, for most are not believers and they need to hear the gospel more fully in order to find salvation. Furthermore, if there are those who already believe but who haven't heard the message of Christ, if they are believers, as they hear the fullness of the gospel, they will readily accept the gospel. If they don't, they were never believers in the first place.

Progress Report #6

The sixth progress report (19:20) concludes the section on the witness in Europe. In 19:10, the extent of the witness if profound when it states that “all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.”