“Calling an Audible”
Acts 13:44-52
December 2, 2007
Ever been in a church where it was obvious that people had assigned seats? Ever been in a church where they didn’t? That’s a better question, because we all know that we are creatures of habit, and we get ourselves so easily stuck in ruts; it takes actual, honest effort not to get caught up in those ruts. Already, some of us, even in a group of this size, are settling into ruts a little, aren’t we? And in some churches, people come to expect that a certain pew/seat is theirs. As a teenager at Shenandoah Baptist, the right front was the domain of the teenagers; we loved to sit up front and close in the large auditorium. In fact, I personally liked the second row down front—but so did this other family…and it almost got to be a race to get the seats we wanted—and it never got ugly, but it could have, you know? And sometimes it does; we hear stories of visitors being asked to move, in no uncertain terms. God help us…but something like that must have been going on this particular Sabbath morning in the synagogue in Antioch. Note
I. Reception by the People - :44
Remember that last week, Paul and Barnabas were welcomed as visiting teachers in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, where they’d gone following their time on the island of Cyprus. And they had boldly proclaimed Jesus, using a history lesson drawn from God’s dealings with His people Israel to demonstrate that the coming of Jesus was the natural fulfillment of all that the Old Testament law had been pointing to. When they left, folks followed them home, Jew and Gentile alike, some already believing, with others no doubt curious to hear more. So what happened between the time when Paul and Barnabas spoke in the synagogue one Sabbath, and the following Sabbath when nearly the whole city came out? The God-fearing Gentiles got out and invited all of their friends, and the result was an evangelist’s dream: a throng of people turn out to hear Paul and Barnabas.
Luke is speaking a bit “evangelistically”, perhaps; the “whole city” meaning that it sure seemed like everyone in town was there. This would include, of course, many Gentiles, flooding the courts of the synagogue, and this would be an unwelcome sight for many pious Jews. A few Gentiles, who were willing to be “God-fearers”, to worship the God of Israel; well, these could be tolerated and even encouraged. But a mass display of them, people who’d never before shown interest in the things of God, and taking up the choice seats? That’s another story! But such was the interest and curiosity of the crowds at the things they’d heard.
II. Rejection by the Jews - :45
“The Jews” – Obviously, this refers to the Jewish religious leaders, those who were not interested in accepting the truth of the gospel.
Not only were the Jewish leaders miffed because their nice little synagogue had been invaded by all of these strangers, but they were miffed as well because the message being presented by Paul and Barnabas was not to their liking. The idea that this salvation was wide-open to Gentiles as well as to Jews, and on equal footing, was a bridge too far for these Jewish leaders. This was the greater problem, almost heresy to the Jews, to think that this gospel of Jesus that was being proclaimed as the natural fulfillment of the OT Law would be open to Gentiles without them at least having to go first through the door of Jewish faith.
KJV uses the word “blaspheming” to describe what these Jewish leaders were doing, and the word in the Greek is blasphemountes, which signifies that “blaspheme” is an appropriate word to describe their actions. If this is the case, in what sense could “blaspheme” accurately describe what they were doing? It is in this sense: when the gospel is spoken against, Christ is spoken against! And when Christ is spoken against, God is spoken against, for He is God, and when God is spoken against, we are guilty of blasphemy. That’s not to say we call for the execution of people because for naming a teddy bear “Jesus”…
But there is more than simple regard for what they perceived as truth motivating these Jewish leaders; Paul gets right to the heart of things when he identifies jealousy as a motive, jealousy that kicked in when these guys saw that Paul and Barnabas, in a week’s time, could draw a crowd to the synagogue unlike anything they’d been able to in all their years of ministering. Jealousy: a particularly deadly sin, one that we must be on guard against.
Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals. Their stores were directly across the street from each other, and they would spend each day keeping track of each other’s business. If one got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival. One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, "I will give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. Would you be rich? You can be very rich, but he will be twice as wealthy. Do you wish to live a long and healthy life? You can, but his life will be longer and healthier. What is your desire?" The man frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, "Here is my request: Strike me blind in one eye!"
Wise Ben Franklin remarked, “It is the eyes of other people that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I should want neither a fine house nor fine furniture.”
What motivates the opponents of the gospel to reject Jesus? A good question, with “jealousy” as the clear answer. But for that matter, a good question for us is, what motivates us to serve Him? Keeping up appearances? The expectations of others? Obligation? Pride? Or even a misguided attempt to achieve our own salvation by virtue of the things we do? No…the things that should motivate us are the glory of God, and gratitude for the salvation that He gives freely and without obligation.
III. Revision of the Strategy - :46, 47
In football, an “audible” is a play called from the line of scrimmage, as opposed to in the huddle. The quarterback will survey the defense, and determine whether the play called in the huddle is likely to work against the way the defense is aligned. If he doesn’t think it is, he will audibly change the play at the line of scrimmage, calling out the new play audibly, hence, “audible”. Now, the quarterback isn’t making up a new play; he’s signaling some play that the team has practiced many times during the week. But he is making a shift in strategy.
Paul, effectively, calls an audible here, changing the strategy that the two will employ, and making that call audibly, letting everyone know that the play is changing. And just like a good play in football, this isn’t something Paul cooked up on the spot. No, after the conversion of Sergius Paulus at Paphos, on the trip from Paphos to Antioch, undoubtedly Paul and Barnabas had much to discuss, and we can certainly and easily surmise that a shift in strategy was part of that discussion. It could even be, as we suggested last week, that John Mark’s decision to abandon the mission was made in significant part in response to this change in strategy, and his discomfort with the whole idea of taking the gospel directly to Gentiles, even Gentiles with no prior involvement with Jewish faith.
The Scriptural quote we find in this verse is taken from Isaiah 49:6, when the prophet Isaiah is foretelling the coming of the Messiah, One Who will not only be good news for the people of Israel, but for the nations as well. And we remember the story from Luke 2, where an old man named Simeon had been promised by God that he would not die until he saw the Messiah’s birth. Here are his words from Luke 2, again recalling Isaiah 49, spoken when Joseph and Mary brought the infant Jesus to the temple:
29"Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30for my eyes have seen your salvation 31that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and( for glory to your people Israel."
All along, this Messiah that the Jews were looking for was not to be only the Messiah, the Deliverer, of the Jews alone, but He was to be the Savior of the whole world, and Paul interprets the words of Isaiah’s prophecy to say just this thing, that the salvation offered through Christ was good news for Jew and non-Jew alike.
A pattern is set here that we see replicating itself all through Acts, and indeed, for two millennia: Paul would preach the gospel to Jews, who would by-and-large reject it (with some notable exceptions, of course); then the gospel would be proclaimed to Gentiles, who’d accept it in droves. Paul was viewed as a usurper, a sheep-stealer, if you will, offering salvation on terms deemed easier than Judaism (and indeed, in this sense they are, that we are not obligated to follow Jewish law in order to achieve salvation, but rather we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ). God-fearing Gentiles were being won away from the synagogue, many prior to their final acceptance into Jewish faith, as well as some Jews themselves. We can understand their frustration, even empathize with them a bit; it’s as if Moonies came into Red Oak, began proclaiming that Jesus was great, but Sun Myung Moon was greater, and stealing away followers to that faith. And yet, Paul’s message, perfectly in harmony with the Old Testament Law and prophets, was the logical extension of the faith Jews claimed—yet they’d not see it, because of their jealousy and blindness.
IV. Results of the Change - :48-52
A. On the Gentiles - :48
It was pretty remarkable that the gospel received this strong a positive response in Antioch, given that the city was a center of emperor worship, and that the temple of Augustus, in the center of town, was not only the city’s most prominent building, but the worship that took place therein dominated the daily life and annual calendar of the citizenry of the city. And yet come to faith they did, Gentiles by the droves.
But notice this: coming to faith in Christ isn’t merely a matter of you choosing Jesus; it’s a matter of God choosing you. “Appointed to eternal life” – Suggests an enrollment in the records of Heaven, and it speaks of something that God does, not something that we do. You can’t come to Jesus except God comes first to you; you’re not smart enough, wise enough, talented enough, spiritual enough, discerning enough, or anything enough to do so. Yes, we respond to God in faith, but this is only as God the Father draws us to Himself. And that’s what happened here in Antioch; many Gentiles came to faith.
B. For the Gospel & Its Messengers
1. Spread - :49
Here’s the big picture of the book of Acts, and we’ve seen it many times now: the gospel is not stymied by persecution, but spread by it. This is God’s work, God’s cause, God’s plan, the outworking, as we said last week, of the fact that God is in control of the events of history. Taken together, they represent His story. And thus this opposition amounts to little in the sight of God; the gospel marches on. And once again we’re reminded of our own place in the outworking of the plan of God we call “history”. Your existence is no accident; your being here is no accident. Your faith in Christ, or the fact that you’re considering it, is no accident. Just as the persecution of Paul and Barnabas was integral in God’s plan for the spread of the gospel, and the outworking of His history, so are you!
2. Persecution - :50
But while the gospel marches on, it doesn’t mean that its messengers escape all unpleasant experiences. “Devout women of high standing” is probably a reference to God-fearing Gentiles who didn’t accept the message of the Messiah, and the Jewish leaders appealed to them on the grounds that this “new faith” of Christianity wasn’t a legal Roman religion, and hence constituted a threat to the Pax Romana, one that couldn’t be tolerated lest it cause a great upheaval in the social peace. We can picture some well-to-do women with time on their hands being susceptible to the words of the Jewish leaders, and then in turn influencing their husbands to reject and even to crack down on this new sect.
And the chances are that some violence was employed in the removal of Paul and Barnabas from town. Paul spoke in II Timothy 3 of the fact that he had endured persecutions and sufferings in such places as Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, and these weren’t pleasant experiences, yet that God had rescued him from them all. And again we’re reminded of the fact that following Jesus isn’t a ticket to getting all the goodies or all the money or all the anything; sometimes it’s a ticket to grief and pain, as it was often for Paul. This time, it led to
3. Relocation - :51
Shaking the dust off one’s feet is a Jewish gesture of scorn, directed at the Jewish leaders and the city fathers. Christ commended this tactic to His followers, that when they’d leave a town that had proven inhospitable to the gospel, they shake the dust of the town from their feet in judgment. Pious Jews, when re-entering the Holy Land from being abroad, would perform this symbolic act, lest they be “contaminated with the dust of profane places” (D.J. Williams). Now, Paul employs this same tactic against these pious Jews, declaring, in effect, their rejection of the gospel of Christ to place them on equal par with the pagan nations that they so rejected because of their unbelief. And off to Iconium go Paul and Barnabas, while in Antioch, the result is
4. Joy & Fullness of the Spirit - :52
This on the part of those who’d found salvation in Christ as a result of their preaching and the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives.
God is working in history to accomplish His purpose, and a key component of that is bringing many to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. As we said last week, Jesus Christ’s work on the cross, and His resurrection, demand a response from each of us. He died for you; He died for me. His resurrection trumped death and provides for us the way to life eternal, beginning now and lasting forever. Here in Antioch hundreds responded to the gospel. And the invitation is still open today.
