Paul’s First Missionary Journey

Acts 13-14

            We refer to the events of Acts 13-14 as Paul’s first missionary journey, but that’s a bit of a misnomer for two reasons. First, Barnabas is a full partner in the work; frankly, he’s the senior partner in the work. Second, Paul didn’t go of his own volition. The church in Antioch sent him. More importantly, the Holy Spirit sent them (13:2, 4). It’s important to recognize the Holy Spirit’s role here and in our own work. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit works in hidden ways, and His direction is hard to see. Consider the calling of a pastor. There can be a lot of human maneuvering. Sometimes men angle to be considered; sometimes congregations argue and fight and disagree; sometimes the minority has it in their head to oppose the incoming pastor because he wasn’t their candidate; sometimes the incoming pastor isn’t anything like how he portrayed himself Yet, in all of that, in all of the church’s work, in her success and in her failures, the Holy Spirit guides and directs His church.

            A second thing that stands out is the shifting context. We are no longer in a familiar Jewish context. We are entering the world of the Gentiles. Jewish beliefs still loom large as Paul and Barnabas almost always begin in the synagogue, but Luke portrays that their message is received best by God-fearing Gentiles, a semi-technical term for Gentiles who were attracted to Judaism, but probably hadn’t done everything (especially circumcision!) to fully convert. One of the hints at this changing context is shifting names. In Paphos, Paul and Barnabas encounter a Jewish sorcerer named Bar-Jesus, but he is more commonly known by a Greek name, Elymas. Saul himself begins to be identified as Paul (13:9), his Roman name. (We will find out later that Paul was a Roman citizen, which standing would have been to his advantage in that world.)

            Related, but third, being in a predominantly Gentile culture means that the apostles have to learn new strategies to share the faith. In Pisidian Antioch we see them making a typical presentation to a Jewish crowd (which gets them thrown out of the city—Jewish opposition really ramps up in the second half of Acts). But at Lystra, in a thoroughly pagan context, Paul and Barnabas are mistaken for Greek gods, and their approach to sharing the faith has to change.