Summary:

The “John” here (v.13) is John Mark, who wrote the gospel of Mark. He went with Paul to minister to his physical needs (v.5), but probably thought Paul would go around healing blindness, not inflicting it (v.11), so he went home here.

The phrase “Paul and his company” is the first time Paul’s mentioned first (cf.13:2,7). This reminds us that Acts is all about the transition from God’s program for Israel in the 4 gospels to His program for us in Paul’s epistles. That’s why Acts comes between the gospels and Paul’s epistles, and it’s why, from this point forward in Acts, Paul is given top billing, and is the focus of everything that God is doing.

Luke tells us Paul went to Antioch “in Pisidia” (Acts 13:14) because it was a different Antioch than the one in Syria where he and Barnabas were ordained (Acts 13:1-3). The Lord sent Paul to the Gentiles, but he went to a synagogue here because, even though the nation rejected Christ, there were still individual Jews who God knew would believe if given a chance, so He gave them that chance through Paul.

The Jews in that synagogue must have heard Paul was in town, for they “sent” to him to preach after the Scripture Reading (v.15). That means it was a large synagogue. Their reading always included a little of the law (cf.Acts15: 1) and the prophets (13:27). They had “rulers” in their synagogues, but one “chief” ruler (18:8,17), just as we have a plurality of teaching elders in our churches, but one pastor.

Paul addressed the Jews in the synagogue (13:16), and any Gentiles who feared God. That’s different than what Peter did at Pentecost. He ignored Gentiles (Acts 2:14,22,36).

But we know Paul was mainly speaking to Jews, because he reminds them that God chose their fathers (13:16) i.e., Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (cf.Acts 3:13), and sent them a savior named Moses. God “exalted” them (13:17) by multiplying them (cf.Ex.1:7), and brought them out of Egypt with a “high arm” (Acts 13:17) of power (Ex.14:8,28; 33:3,4).

But the people of Israel paid God back by rebelling against Him in the wilderness (Acts 13:18). So God sent them another savior, Joshua, who helped them evict the Canaanites from the land God promised them (v.19). Then He sent them a bunch of saviors called judges (v.20). Then they fell into a pattern: they’d rebel against God, He’d judge them, they’d cry to Him, and He’d send them another savior judge (Judges 2:16-20). Paul is reminding them of this to point out they recently rebelled against the last Savior God sent them!

God sent them thirteen judges: 12 He approved of, one He didn’t. That’s a type of how the Lord had 12 apostles: 12 He approved of, and one He had to replace. God set things up in Israel the way He’s going to set things up in the kingdom (Isa.1:26), when He’ll restore their judges (cf.Mt.19:28).

But the Jews didn’t like being ruled God’s way and asked for a king (v.21). God agreed (ISam.8:4-7), but gave them a king who was a type of the antichrist. Saul reigned before David, a type of Christ, just as Antichrist will reign in the Tribulation before Christ reigns in the kingdom. He hated David the way the beast will hate Christ. He died by the sword the way Antichrist will. God set David on Israel’s throne the way He’ll set Christ on it (Acts 13:22cf.Jer.23:5).

Paul knew that those Jews knew that Christ would be of David’s seed, so he reminded them Jesus was (Acts 13:23). He also knew they knew that God said He’d send Elijah back before He sent Messiah (Mal.4:5,6), so Paul reminds them that God sent John the Baptist first, in the spirit of Elijah (Lu.1:16,17). If Israel would have received the kingdom, John would have been Elijah (Mt.11:11-14). As it is, God will send Elijah himself back before the Lord’s second coming to Israel (Rev.11:3,6 cf. James 5:17).

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “Pauls First Sermon” Acts 13:13-26

Summary:

Pretty much all we know about these leaders (v.1) is that they are all Jews, for those are Jewish names. One might even have been kin to Paul (Rom.16:21). This reminds us that the church in Antioch was started by Jews who preached the Word “to none but the Jews only” (Acts 11:19-26). They preached the word of the kingdom gospel (Lu.9:2), the kingdom of heaven on earth (Dan.2:44), the gospel the Lord Himself preached by saying it was “at hand” (Mark 1:14,15).

The kingdom didn’t begin, however, because the Jews rejected their kingdom when they rejected their King and stoned His prophet, and God put the kingdom on hold and sent Paul to preach the gospel of grace instead (Acts 20:24). People who believed that gospel will be raptured to heaven, not live in the kingdom on earth. And since Paul preached that gospel in Antioch for a year, we know there were Body saints in Antioch as well as kingdom saints.

We know the leaders were all kingdom saints though, for they “ministered to the Lord” (Acts 13:2), which usually means they brought Him sacrifices (Ezek.43:19). But sacrifices could only be offered by priests in Jerusalem, not by elders in Antioch, so we know those leaders were ministering to the Lord by praying instead (cf.Ps.141:2). And as they were praying, the Spirit said to separate Saul and Barnabas from themselves (Acts 13:2).

Paul was separated from the warm, comfortable “womb” of apostate Judaism when he got saved (Gal.1:13-16), but God also wanted him separated from the true Judaism of these kingdom saints (Acts 13:2). That’s because Judaism was a religion for one nation, the nation Israel, while God sent Paul to preach “grace” to “all” nations (Rom.1:1,5). Paul had been preaching grace to all nations for years, but he had been doing it alongside kingdom saints. Here, God was separating him to this ministry. It’s only men who mix them!

This was Paul’s ordination (cf.ITim.2:7). The leaders in Acts 13:1 are probably mentioned by name because they were witnesses to his ordination who signed his ordination certificate. We know Paul had one, because he was angry with the Corinthians for insisting on seeing it (IICor.3:1). When Acts 14:25 calls what happened here a recommendation, that tells us that that’s all an ordination is, a letter saying a church recommends a man for the ministry. We “com-mend” a man by putting him in God’s hands by prayer (Lu.23:46; Acts 14:23), then we recommend him to others.

Barnabas was a kingdom saint (Acts 4:36), but he was ordained with Paul to remind people we have a connection to the kingdom church. Paul’s gospel was a mystery (Col.1: 25,26), but it has a connection to the kingdom message (cf. Rom.1;1,2). So God had Paul ordained by a church filled with Body and kingdom saints, then sent him to preach grace with a kingdom saint.

The Jews “fasted” (Acts 13:3) to show God they were serious about something (cf.IISam.12:13-18). Fasting is also associated with solemnity (Joel1:14), and Paul’s ordination was a solemn occasion. The laying on of hands (Acts 13:3) spoke of associating yourself with someone or something, as when the priest associated Israel’s sins with that goat (Lev.4:15). Ever after Paul’s ordination, he was associated with the leaders in Antioch. That church became his base of operations in Acts. In Bible days, the laying on of hands could also impart the Spirit to men (Acts 8:17, and the power to heal (Mark 16:18). But in the dispensation of grace, we can only impart a recommendation to a man by laying hands on him.

Acts 13:3 says that those leaders sent Paul away, while verse 4 says the Spirit sent him away. That’s because that’s how the Spirit works in the dispensation of grace, through the local church (ICor.5:4). Today, God works through the power found “in us” (Eph.3:20), i.e., us members of the Body.

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: “The Separation of Paul and Barnabas” Acts 13:1-5