Act 13:14-16 | KingComments | STEP | The fact that there is talk of “Paul and his companions” seems to indicate that there is a larger company than Paul and Barnabas. It is possible that people have come to faith together with the proconsul and some of them have joined Paul and Barnabas. The fact that there is ‘a company of Paul’ also means that from now on Paul takes the lead and Barnabas takes the second place. Paul puts his stamp on the company, the company continues under his leadership and responsibility. The company leaves the island of Cyprus. They boarded in Paphos and sailed to Pamphylia in southern Galatia. In Perga they go ashore. There John Mark leaves them. He has had enough of going with the two servants. They have to go on without him and his help. John is the picture of the unfaithful servant. It seems that he was not ready for this service. Barnabas and Paul did not notice that either. Without any remark on their part – at least we don’t read anything about that – they let John Mark go. They themselves go from Perga into the country. On their journey they arrive in the province of Pisidia in a city that is also called Antioch. At that time there were several cities that had this name. Also here Paul goes first to the synagogue. They know the customs in the synagogue and take place there. They know that after reading the law there will be an opportunity to speak to the Jews. We see how the service in the synagogue goes on. There is great freedom in the service, more than in many churches today. After the reading of the law there is a free preaching. The presence of Paul and Barnabas is noticed, and they are asked to speak a word that will serve to encourage the people.

‏ Acts 13:14-16

From Cyprus to Antioch in Pisidia

The fact that there is talk of “Paul and his companions” seems to indicate that there is a larger company than Paul and Barnabas. It is possible that people have come to faith together with the proconsul and some of them have joined Paul and Barnabas. The fact that there is ‘a company of Paul’ also means that from now on Paul takes the lead and Barnabas takes the second place. Paul puts his stamp on the company, the company continues under his leadership and responsibility.

The company leaves the island of Cyprus. They boarded in Paphos and sailed to Pamphylia in southern Galatia. In Perga they go ashore. There John Mark leaves them. He has had enough of going with the two servants. They have to go on without him and his help. John is the picture of the unfaithful servant. It seems that he was not ready for this service. Barnabas and Paul did not notice that either. Without any remark on their part – at least we don’t read anything about that – they let John Mark go. They themselves go from Perga into the country.

On their journey they arrive in the province of Pisidia in a city that is also called Antioch. At that time there were several cities that had this name. Also here Paul goes first to the synagogue. They know the customs in the synagogue and take place there. They know that after reading the law there will be an opportunity to speak to the Jews. We see how the service in the synagogue goes on. There is great freedom in the service, more than in many churches today. After the reading of the law there is a free preaching. The presence of Paul and Barnabas is noticed, and they are asked to speak a word that will serve to encourage the people.

Period From the Fathers to Saul

Paul welcomes the invitation to speak a word to the people. Surely he has a word of encouragement or exhortation, that they cannot be justified by the law, but only by faith in the Lord Jesus. Without preparation, Paul can use the opportunity offered to him to preach God’s Word. He does so in the awareness of the audience he has before him. To get some rest he motions with his hand (cf. Acts 12:17). Then he starts his speech.

The Israelites are addressed as “men of Israel” and the proselytes as “you who fear God”. Paul begins by showing that Israel was God’s chosen people. He reminds his audience of their sojourning – rather than their slavery – in Egypt and how God led them out of it. He presents both the choice of the fathers, who were idolaters, and the deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, which they did not ask for, as acts of God’s sovereign grace.

Throughout his speech, he always points to those gracious acts of God with His people and not to their unfaithfulness and what they had deserved on the basis of the law. This is evident when he presents to them the care of God which they have enjoyed in the wilderness for forty years. He is concerned with the side of Divine grace and not with the continual failure of the people in the wilderness. According to the law, they would have perished.

He points to that same grace, when he recalls how God destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan to be able to give them that land. They did not get the land because they deserved it (Deu 9:4). God did not just give that land either, but gave it to them as an inheritance, as a land that He purposed especially for them and which they received from Him as their real possession. The period in which God has been involved with His people in this way is about four hundred and fifty years. That is the sum of four hundred years in Egypt, forty years in the wilderness and ten years of conquest of the land.

When they arrived in the land, God gave them judges. These judges were always given by Him in His grace as a result of their calling to Him. That this calling to God was again the result of oppression by enemies that God had brought upon them because of their unfaithfulness, Paul leaves aside. The only judge who Paul mentions is the last one God gave, Samuel. Samuel is a special proof of God’s grace. God gave him without being asked for by the people.

When Paul then presents Saul as the king whom the people asked for, he also does so without saying anything about God’s thoughts on this request of the people. He leaves it to his listeners to think about the fact that this king persecuted the man after God’s heart. Listening to a preaching from the Word requires the listeners to think about it and should not be a mere absorption of words. As we listen, we must ask ourselves: What does it mean to me?

Here is another thing we do not read in the Old Testament and that is that Saul was king for forty years.