The Spirit Calls, the Messengers Sent

Transcript

GR 1608
06/12/11
The Spirit Calls, the Messenger Is Sent
Acts 13:1-12
Gil Rugh

Acts 13.  As you remember the book of Acts was written by Luke, who also wrote the gospel of Luke.  He becomes a major historian for the New Testament period, recording an extensive account of the earthly life of Christ, then continuing his account, writing about the first thirty years of the church's history.  The book of Acts gives us an overview of the period from about 30 A.D. to 60 A.D., rounded off.  So that thirty-year from really the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Christ, the ascension of Christ taking place in Acts 1 about 30 A.D. down until the first Roman imprisonment of Paul, around 60 A.D.  The book as we noted when we started can be divided in a couple of ways.  One is on the basis of Acts 1:8, you will be My witnesses, after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, in Jerusalem, which we cover the first seven chapters; then in Judean and Samaria, which we cover chapters 8-12; and then to the uttermost parts of the world, particularly in chapters 13 to the end of the book.  Another way to divide it is into just two sections.  For the first 12 chapters Peter is the main person, from chapter 13-28 Paul is the main person.  So either way you divide it, chapter 13 begins a new section of the book, a new emphasis in the unfolding history.

While Peter was the leading figure in the first 12 chapters, now it will be Paul.  While Jerusalem was the center of the activity of the new church and the testimony of the gospel, from Acts 13 and on Antioch becomes the focal point from whence Paul will launch his travels.  The first 12 chapters carried us from 30 A.D. to about 46 or 47 A.D.  So you can see where we are timewise.  A little more than half of that thirty years, about half, the period of the book of Acts is covered with the first 12 chapters.  So we come to about 46 or 47 A.D. for the first missionary journey.

Paul and Barnabas have been ministering in Antioch where there have been a large number of Gentiles converted.  Come back to Acts 11.  And you'll see that men came to Antioch and in verse 21, the hand of the Lord was with them and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.  The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch.  So Barnabas comes from the church at Jerusalem since they have gotten word that there are large numbers of conversions in Antioch, which is north of Jerusalem of course, and a large number of Gentiles are being saved.  So concern for the leadership in Jerusalem that they be grounded in sound teaching.  So they send Barnabas to minister there.

Then down in verse 25, Barnabas left for Tarsus, he leaves Antioch to go to Tarsus, we'll look at a map in a moment and see these things.  And he's looking for Saul.  And when he finds him he brought him to Antioch and for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers.  And the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.  Then as a result of the prophecy of Agabus regarding a coming famine that would be particularly hard on the believers in Jerusalem, a contribution was taken up and Paul and Barnabas took the contribution to Jerusalem.  And you see the connection that is being made in keeping the church tied to the leadership at Jerusalem in these days.  Now an interesting point for us, at the end of Acts 12 verse 25 we're told, when Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission of taking the offering that had been taken to help the believers in Jerusalem during this famine time, they brought with them John who was also called Mark.  And he'll become an important person as the first missionary journey starts out as a traveling companion.  We'll say more about him when we move into chapter 13.

Now as we come to Acts 13 and the ministry now is going to focus on carrying the Word of God, not back toward the region in Palestine and where the Jews are centered, but we're going to go away.  Now the gospel has already gone beyond the confines of Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.  In Acts 8 remember the Samaritans had experienced salvation, and in Acts 10 the Gentiles with Cornelius had experienced it.  And then as you come back to Acts 11:19, we're told that when the Jews were scattered from Jerusalem because of persecution that started under Paul, Saul as we call him then, with the death of Stephen in Acts 7, these believers made their way to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch.  But they were speaking the Word to no one but to Jews alone.  But there were some of them, men of Cyprus, we're going to see that in a moment.  Paul is going to start out his missionary travels at Cyprus.  Men of Cyprus and Cyrene who came to Antioch began speaking to the Greeks also and preaching the Lord Jesus.  That's where we picked up then and read a moment ago that large numbers of these Greeks are being saved.  So you see the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles has already taken place.  The transition with the Samaritans, then under the ministry of Peter to the house of Cornelius in Acts 10, it became clear to the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem that God intended to include Gentiles as Gentiles in the plan of salvation.  They would not have to convert to Judaism.  That was made clear in Acts 11.

So now what is going to happen with Acts 13, there is going to be a concentrated effort to carry the gospel under the leadership of the Apostle Paul to Gentile parts of the world.  And that will result in the church becoming primarily Gentile in makeup.  But Paul will never lose his passion to begin wherever he went by telling the Jews the gospel first.

Acts 13 opens up, now there were at Antioch in the church that was there prophets and teachers.  So the apostles are primarily centered in Jerusalem, remember, even under the persecution.  The apostles remained in Jerusalem.  So the leadership in the church at Antioch is under the prophets and teachers.  They provide the leadership in the ministry in Antioch.  Included in these prophets and teachers are Barnabas, and we're familiar with him, we'll see more of him in a moment.  And Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.  Because remember Barnabas had gone over to Tarsus and gotten Saul.  Remember it was Barnabas who introduced Saul to some of the apostles in Jerusalem and the believers there.  So they became comfortable that Saul had genuinely been converted.  So he has been with Barnabas in the ministry there.

We don't know anything else about these men other than Barnabas and Saul.  Simeon who was called Niger, Niger is a Latin word meaning black, and he may have been from Africa.  Because the next man, Lucius of Cyrene, Cyrene was in northern Africa.  And so these two men may have been from Africa.  What you get here is a picture of a mixed group in the church at Antioch, something of a foretaste of what God is going to do in the world.  You have some Jews here, you would have some from the region, and you have some from evidently a more extensive region.
Manaen, it's interesting here, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch.  Brought up with Herod, that word translated brought up means a foster brother or an intimate friend.  The practice often when you had a ruling family, when they had a prince that they were raising, they would bring someone of the same age in to be a playmate.  Because you just don't send him out to play in the neighborhood.  But you could bring a friend in.  That friend ends up being raised, if you will, in that royal household as the intimate friend of the prince who is being raised up.  So he had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch.  And Herod the tetrarch is the Herod known as Herod Antipas.  And he ruled in the region of Galilee and Peraea for a long time, from 4 B.C. with the death of Herod the Great when the territory was divided among his sons to 39 A.D.  We know something of him.  He is the one responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist, he's the one that Pilate when he heard that Herod was visiting in Jerusalem, since Christ was from Galilee he sent Christ there and Herod wanted to see a miracle.  So here you see in the grace of God reaches down to one who was an intimate friend of that Herod who was such an unregenerate man and such a key figure associated with both the death of John the Baptist and the death of Christ Himself.  But the one who was privileged to be raised in the family with him becomes a believer.  And it's possible he was part of the source of information for Luke.  How did he know about certain things about the Herods that are written and so on?  Well you understand by the grace of the Lord there are individuals here who get saved who would have knowledge of the intimate workings, even of a family of the Herods.  So interesting material.
You have Saul here.  Now we've seen just a couple of references to Saul after his conversion in Acts 9.  He is now going to come to the fore as the leading figure in the church.  And you will dominate the rest of Acts as we know.  As you read through the book of Acts I mentioned some of the time, we're covering a thirty-year period in Acts.  We've come from 30 A.D. to around 46 or 47 A.D. when we come to Acts 13.  Now as you read through the book of Acts and you read Saul gets converted in Acts 9 and then events move along, it's easy to think, well just a year or two or three have gone by.  But when you come to Acts 13 we've had a dozen years approximately gone by since Saul has been converted in Acts 9.  And he has had some marvelous revelation given to him during that time.

Turn over to II Corinthians 12.  Paul relates to the Corinthians something that has happened to him in past years, back fourteen years ago.  He starts II Corinthians 12 by saying, boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable.  Because he has been defending himself and his apostleship to the Corinthians in these chapter leading up to chapter 12.  But I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord that God had given to him to further validate his authority as an apostle and the teaching that he gave.  I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago.  So he's talking about himself and what happened to him fourteen years ago.  Now fourteen years ago, the book of II Corinthians was written either at the end of 55 A.D. or the beginning of 56 A.D.  We can date it pretty specifically into that period.  Fourteen years earlier would have been 41 A.D. or the first part of 42 A.D.  When we come to Acts 13 where Paul is picking up the ministry, we are in 46 or 47 A.D.  So we are four or five years after the revelation he's talking about here.  I know a man in Christ fourteen years ago, whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows.  Such a man was caught up to the third heaven.  And I know how such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know.  He doesn't know whether God physically transported him to heaven or it was in a trance or a vision.  The reality of it engulfs him.  And to this day the Lord didn't tell Paul whether he actually brought him physically to heaven or he did it in a vision.  So fourteen years later all Paul can say, I still don't know.  I know what God revealed to me there in a vision or actually taking me there.  I don't know, God knows.  

I was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words which man is not permitted to speak.  And then he goes on to boast about that.  But it's what God has revealed to him.  He is careful, he is not taking all this credit to himself but the Corinthians must understand the authority that Paul has in teaching them.  This is material that God directly revealed to him, this is new material.  So this is crucial.  But we're here for the connection.

So you see when we come to Acts 13, come back to Acts 13, Saul has been a believer for a dozen years.  And during this time God has given him great and marvelous visions and revelation, including transporting him to the third heaven in the very presence of God.  And he is not even allowed to reveal some of the things that God revealed to him, is what he tells the Corinthians.  So I just want you to realize he was saved in Acts 9 but we don't have a relatively new believer when we come to Acts 13.  We have a man who has been a believer.  He came out, remember, of a Jewish background as a Pharisee where he would have been saturated with the Old Testament.  So in that sense he had a running start because he had a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament, the facts of the Old Testament.  Now through the gracious revelations of God he had a clear understanding of how that all fit together with the coming of Christ.  So he is a man of great maturity in the things of the Lord by this point.  He has had an accelerated growth.  Not only twelve years of growth, but twelve years of accelerated growth with special revelations and visions.  And he said that in the plural.  When he says, I know a man fourteen years ago, that's not all that God had done in revealing to him because he talks about visions and revelations.  And here is one of the most marvelous of them, being transported to the third heaven.

All right, so we have an idea where Saul is and how he has grown as we come to Acts 13.  Verse 2, while these prophets and teachers are involved in their ministry in the church, they were ministering to the Lord and fasting.  The Holy Spirit said.  Here is direct revelation, it may have come through one of the prophets.  Because the distinction, remember, between a prophet and a teacher, a prophet was one who received direct revelation from God and taught it.  Teachers took the revelation that had been given already and further explained it and clarified it.  So when it said the Holy Spirit said, we assume that the Spirit spoke through one of the prophets, like He did earlier through Agabus regarding a coming famine.  One of the prophets here speaks.  And here is what he says, set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.  You see the absolute sovereignty of God and emphasize through the book of Acts.  It will be through the rest of the book.  God is sovereign in this.  The church didn't even decide to send Saul and Barnabas, the Holy Spirit spoke and said, set apart Saul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them.  This is the sovereign intervention and action of God.  These are the two men out of the prophets and teachers at Antioch that I have called to a special work.  You set them apart for Me.  Set them apart.  They are to be set apart and carry out a special ministry.

So when they had fasted and prayed they laid their hands on them and sent them away.  The church at Antioch obeys the Lord and joins themselves, really, to the ministry of Saul and Barnabas.  And obviously when the Spirit says that they are to set them apart for the ministry that the Spirit has called them to, there is evidently revelation here of what that ministry is.  Because they already have a ministry in Antioch.  But obviously this is for a special ministry that these two men are to carry on.  And so we assume with this revelation, they are told where to go to carry out this ministry.  The Spirit has made it clear.

When it says set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul.  Come over to Galatians 1.  Being set apart here, but this isn't when God first set him apart.  This is the manifestation to the church at Antioch of what God had done very early in Paul's life.  Galatians 1:15, but when God who had set me apart from my mother's womb and called me through His grace was pleased to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.  He tells about then how he responded.  So you see Paul said, God set me apart from my mother's womb.  Paul takes no credit for his ministry.  This was the work of God from the beginning, from my mother's womb this was the plan of God for me.  He had set me apart for this ministry, called me for this.  Then in time at the Damascus Road He took hold of Saul and turned him to Christ and Saul is saved.

Romans 1:1, Paul, a bond servant of Christ Jesus, a called apostle, set apart.  There is our word again, set apart for the gospel of God.  When were you set apart, Paul?  I was set apart from my mother's womb.  Now the revelation of that came to me on the Damascus Road and then was further clarified by the revelation given in the church at Antioch that Paul would carry on a ministry that we know him to have in the last part of the book of Acts.

So when you come back to Acts 13, marvelous, you see the plan of God unfolding.  In Galatians 1 he said, He set me apart from my mother's womb and called me, He was pleased then to reveal Himself to me in His Son.  That's when salvation occurred.  But you see this is part of the sovereign plan of God being carried out.  I take it that's true for all of us as the people of God, the children of God.  We see that the sovereign gracious work of God has occurred for each one of us.  We look back to when we came to trust Christ and realized that was the plan of God for us, what He had ordained for us when He formed us in the womb and called us to Himself.  And then He revealed His Son so that call is realized and we came to faith in Christ.  And also to God goes all the credit, all the honor, all the glory because it has been His work from before I had any knowledge or ability even to think about these things.

So verse 3, they fasted and prayed, laid their hands on them, signifying they are joining with them, support for them, praying for them.  They sent them away.  So being sent out by the church.  Wait, no, being sent out by the Holy Spirit.  The church has had a role but we want to keep the focus of where it is.  This isn't primarily an action of the church, this is simply the church recognizing the direction of the Holy Spirit and acting accordingly.  So being sent out by the Holy Spirit they went down to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus.  

Could you put up the map?  This is Antioch right here, Jerusalem is way down here.  So we are up north.  We know where Syria is.  Here is Cyprus over here.  So they are coming from Antioch over to Seleucia which is the seaport, and they're going to come across here from Seleucia over to Salamis, right here.  So you see (1) they start out here and go to (2) and then they're going to cross over the island of Cyprus to Paphos.  Then they're going to go from Paphos up to Perga and then they are going to come up to Antioch of Pisidia.  And so you don't want to get confused.  They are going to go from Antioch to Antioch, but they are going this way.  You know there are about sixteen Antiochs.  There was a ruler whose father was named Antiochus so he named all these cities in honor of his father.  So we sometimes talk about Syrian Antioch, that's where they start and Pisidian Antioch because this Antioch is in Pisidia.  So we distinguish them that way.  So here is where they are going, down here and over to the island of Cyprus.

Seleucia was the port, they are going by ship, you have to go by ship to an island.  They sail from there to Cyprus.  That's about sixty miles.  On a sailing ship on a nice day it would be a nice trip.  They are going to Cyprus.  It's nice that Barnabas is along because you know where Barnabas is from?  The island of Cyprus.  Come back to Acts 4:36, now Joseph a Levite of Cyprian birth, in other words he was born on Cyprus, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles.  So as Saul and Barnabas take off for the island of Cyprus this will be a region that Barnabas is well familiar with.  This is going home, so to speak, it's where he was born.  Although they don't talk anything about this being his homeland in that sense or family there or anything like that.  It's going to just be a brief overview.  You get the idea in the book of Acts that Luke is selectively moving us along.  

So they come to Salamis on the east side there of the island of Cyprus.  And they begin their ministry.  But he doesn't tell anything that happens here.  Just that they began to proclaim the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.  So you see what the method of operation is going to be.  They're going to go preach the Word of God, give them the message of Christ.  Where are you going to start?  Well we have two Jews, three really, John Mark will be mentioned in a minute.  But the leadership here is Saul and Barnabas.  We'll start in the synagogue.  And this will be Saul's practice because he starts in the synagogue and he's well at home in the synagogue, he was raised here, he was a Pharisee, he had ministered and taught as a Pharisee in the synagogues.  So he goes here and he has a starting point.  He's a Jew with a background as a Pharisee and he can pick up with the Old Testament Scriptures and present the truth concerning Christ.  But there is nothing further said about the message.  We'll see as we move further along, at times Luke will give a little more detail on what the ministry content is.  We'll get examples of that.  But it would be repetitive to go through the same message again and again.  And pretty soon the history would get longer than it is intended to be.

In the synagogue they would find Jews primarily but there would be some Gentiles who had joined together with Jews and become converts or at least sympathizers.  They have with them, the end of verse 5, John as their helper.  This is the John who was also known as Mark.  Now it's logical that he comes.  Come over to Colossians 4:10, and here Paul is referring to people who are part of his ministry, sending greetings.  Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you greetings and Barnabas' cousin, Mark.  So we see John who is also known as Mark is traveling with Barnabas and Saul.  And his cousin is Barnabas.  So they are cousins so there is a family connection here.  We call him John Mark and that's the way we can refer to him.

If you come back to Acts 12:12, after Peter had been supernaturally released from prison in chapter 12 by the angel.  Verse 12, when he realized that he had been set free, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark.  So Mark is living in Jerusalem with his mother, evidently.  And then later when Barnabas and Saul take the offering to Jerusalem, we read in Acts 12:25, they brought John back to Antioch with them from Jerusalem.  And he would be a helper.  He's not on the level of Barnabas and Saul, and that's clear here in the way he is referred to.  He is their helper, a word that could be used of a servant.  But he would be the person there to help with things that need to be done in supporting the ministry of Barnabas and Saul.  So we have John Mark here.

Verse 6, when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos.  So you see there is nothing said about the ministry except they started in the synagogue at Salamis and now they are making their way 90 miles across the island of Cyprus to the other side to Paphos.  So Luke is just going to move us along so we can focus on a key event that takes place at Paphos.  Nothing said about how many people are saved, is there good response, is there poor response, are there numbers being saved, was their opposition to them in the synagogue, did the Gentiles respond.  There is just no information filled in on that.  He wants to move us to the western side of the island, to the city of Paphos where a key event takes place.

When they had gone through the whole island, and that's about 90 miles from the east to the west there and it was said that walking they would cover about 15 miles a day.  So they have six days of travel and we assume just ministering along the way wherever there is opportunity to share the gospel with people.  So there are no details here.  We don't know whether it took them longer because they had opportunities for ministry along the way.  That's just not filled in for us.

When they come to Paphos they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus.  Bar-Jesus means son of Jesus or son of Joshua, Jesus being the same name as Joshua.  So he is a false prophet, a Jewish false prophet.  This becomes important in the unfolding scenario here because the opposition is going to come from the Jewish man.  Salvation is going to come to the Gentile man in this scenario.  So you have the magician, magical works, evidently fools people into the things with his magic tricks to think he can do the supernatural.  So he is a false prophet and validating his prophecies with tricks of magic.  And he's a Jew.  

And he was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence.  So here is a wise man.  He is the Roman representative.  And one of the manifestations of Luke's accuracy and writing of the time, he makes clear distinctions in the titles he uses because here the title for him is a proconsul.  And the Greek word he uses for him was of the Roman representative put on the island of Cyprus who did not need Roman soldiers.  So he is the Roman ruler here but he is not supported by Roman soldiers because there is no need for them on Cyprus.  In other places Luke will use the title of the Roman governor or ruler using a title for a Roman governor who had soldiers stationed with him who will deal with any uprisings that might come.  So this man has come under the influence of this Jewish false prophet.  That's what we mean when he is there with him.  So he has been influenced by him and indicates he has an interest in spiritual things.  And he is an intelligent man.  So this Jewish false prophet is evidently good at what he does and is being used of the devil in this Roman authority's life.

This man, the proconsul, basically the governor of the island, summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the Word of God.  So you see he's a man who has interest in spiritual things and he has heard about their ministry.  So we might be interested, how did he hear about it?  Evidently it is making some impact and there are things going on that draw his attention there in Paphos.  Beyond that we don't have any idea what's going on.

But Elymus the magician, and that's his name translated.  He was opposing them.  So he is Bar-Jesus or his name could be translated Elymus.  He was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.  So Saul and Barnabas are here explaining the gospel to Sergius Paulus and Elymus the magician is opposing them, doing all he can to keep Sergius Paulus from believing what Saul and Barnabas are saying and turning in faith to Christ.

Key statement here, verse 9, but Saul who was also known as Paul.  And this marks a transition because from this point on he will be referred to as Paul.  No transition here.  Again as we have with John Mark, John would have been his Jewish name, Mark his Roman name.  So it was customary for Jews even at birth, and since Paul was born into a Jewish family but he was born a Roman citizen, it would have been customary and it was customary even among Jews who might not have been Roman citizens to have both a Jewish name and a Roman name.  In effect they had their two realms of existence.  So John was his Jewish name, Mark was his Roman name.  Saul obviously was his Jewish name, Paul his Roman name.  That would probably have been given to him at birth.  But here the transition because Paul's ministry now focuses, and as Luke unfolds the history, this is a transition point in his history.  He takes the Roman name and we will consistently refer to him from here on as Paul.  So you might mark that in your Bible because it is another one of those turning points.

This opposition by Elymus or Bar-Jesus, the false prophet, to the gospel.  Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit so he is not acting here out of personal exasperation.  He is acting because the Holy Spirit moves upon him.  He fixes his eyes on this magician and said, you who are full of deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?  True prophet like John the Baptist was to come and prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the path, smooth it out, clarify it for people to come to the Lord.  That picture like when a ruler was coming and those roads not paved, those would go out and smooth the road to provide more easy access to come.  So it becomes the picture of preparing the way for the Lord.  Well here Elymus is trying to make the road crooked and twisted so that Sergius Paulus doesn't find his way to the Lord.  And you see how God views these false teachers and false prophets by what he calls him, you are full of deceit and fraud, you are a son of the devil, you are an enemy of all righteousness.  And you refuse to stop making the way to the Lord crooked.  It's so clear.  Paul and Barnabas unfold it, Elymus is trying to make it confusing and twisted so that Sergius Paulus doesn't find his way to the Lord.  Strong condemnation.

Now behold the hand of the Lord is upon you.  You will be blind and not see the sun for a time.  Immediately a mist and darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking those who could lead him.  He immediately becomes a blind man.  Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.  You see the teaching has made an impact upon him and it is clear that Elymus is false.  Now see what happens here.  The true condition of this Jewish false prophet is made clear.  He lives in a world of spiritual darkness and now that is made clear to all by his being cast into physical darkness.  At the same time the Gentile Roman ruler comes to the light of salvation, as Paul tells the Corinthians in II Corinthians 4, the light of the gospel has shone in on the heart.  And it's an indication.  I think that's part of the reason that Luke has brought us quickly to this point.  We see what is going to be true basically of Paul's ministry.  The Jews are confirmed in their darkness.

Just turn over to Acts 13, further on, verse 45, as Paul is ministering on the Sabbath day.  Verse 45, the Jews saw the crowds were filled with jealousy, began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, were blaspheming.  Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, it was necessary that the Word of God be spoken to you first.  Since you repudiated and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we are turning to the Gentiles.  You see we get a foretaste of that here in the conflict between a Jewish false prophet and a Roman ruler, governor.  The Jewish false prophet is further confirmed in his darkened, lost condition.  And the Roman ruler comes to salvation in Christ.  The light shines in his heart and Elymus the Jewish false prophet goes around looking for someone to lead him.  Now there is even grace in that, the blindness is not permanent.  But there is no indication, Luke doesn't say at a later time by the grace of God he came to salvation.  But it's clear the Roman governor does.  And we see what's happening here.  Israel is being further confirmed in their lost, unrepentant gospel-rejecting condition.  And by God's grace under the ministry of Paul the gospel will be carried out.  And that's been the history of the church.  By God's grace some Jews are saved, we see that through the book of Acts.  But by and large the gospel is being carried to Gentiles and here we are 2,000 years later, the last chapter of the book of Acts, the history of the church has not yet concluded.  And what has happened?  Here we sit primarily Gentile recipients of the gospel, brought to us by a variety of people in a variety of places.  But by the grace of God our eyes were opened, the teaching of the gospel impressed our hearts and minds, and by the grace of God we turned to salvation by faith in Christ.

Let's pray together.  Thank you, Lord, for these beginnings of the church.  Lord, these beginnings of a new phase in the church's history wherein the plan that you had established, now it's unfolded that the gospel will be carried to the Gentile parts of the world.  And Lord over the last 2,000 years you have continued that plan and we are trophies of your grace here in a land unknown to men like Barnabas and Paul.  But the gospel has come to us in your plan and we enjoy the marvelous light that has come into our lives, the gospel, the salvation that is found only in Christ.  And we give you praise and thank you that we are part of the church's history and we continue living that history today even as we carry the gospel to friends and family members and those we come in contact with so that we are part of bringing to a conclusion that work that we are reading about that had its beginning so long ago.  Use us to this end in the days of the week before us.  We pray in Christ's name, amen.