Acts 13:13-52: The Book of II Acts?

I titled this with tongue in cheek, but clearly it is right here that Acts makes its biggest turn in a little port town of Pisidia Antioch.

Name and Order Change (13:13-15)

Without warning, Paul takes on his Roman name, Paul. We’ll see later that Paul was both a Jew and a Roman citizen. His Jewish name was Saul and his Roman name was Paul (probably short for Paulus). I was taught as a child that Paul’s name was changed upon his conversion. A closer reading of Acts shows that was not the case. It seems more related to his ministry success with the Gentiles.

We also no longer see the priority of Barnabas in the book of Acts. The shift and name change is so blatant that you wonder if Luke changed sources for the rest of Acts (Luke has already told us that both volumes – the gospel of Luke and Acts – were done as a research effort comparing the best of sources available). From now on it is no longer Barnabas and Saul but rather Paul and Barnabas. As I shared in a sermon on Barnabas a few months ago, the willingness of Barnabas to take second place to Paul and allow Paul to come into the fullness of ministry is one of Barnabas’ great moments.

We’re also told that John Mark decided to leave the missionary journey and return to Jerusalem. Per usual, Luke is preparing us for a future event, which we will find in Acts 15.

A Kinder Gentler Sermon (13:16-41)

The sermon that follows shows a similar pattern to other sermons in the book of Acts – a retelling of Jewish history in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus. His audience at the outer court of the synagogue (where Jew and Gentile could gather) was a mix of Jewish leaders and Gentile God-fearers. The preaching is much more tactical than confrontational here. The person of David is given high prominence, so as to establish common ground with the Jewish leaders (13:20b-23, 32-36). The thesis is that David was a great leader, but he died and the promise given to him has been fulfilled in Jesus who is alive.

Encore (13:42-52)

The gathered group invites Paul and Barnabas back the next Sabbath to share more. But the audience for the second sharing is much larger (“the whole town turned out”). The Jews come to the second gathering to heckle. Paul, seeing their resistance, tells them that they will present the gospel to the
Gentiles then. The Gentiles are excited to hear that, but the Jewish leaders start a propaganda campaign to discredit them and eventually Paul and Barnabas are forced to leave. They take Jesus quite literally and “shake the dust off their feet.” They leave Pisidia Antioch full of the joy and the spirit of the Lord, even though their ministry there has abruptly ended.
One of the things about being the 21st century USAmerican church is that we are having to learn to witness to our faith when reactions to that witness can be defensive and even hostile. We grew up when the church and the Christian faith were both dominant and well-received. You couldn’t be elected to public office without a faith connection. Due to a further secularization of American society, the public disgrace of Christian leaders, and the huge damage created by extremist religions in the world, enthusiastic evangelistic witness is regarded with suspicion. This requires a wiser form of witness than in the past two generations. We will need to build authentic relationships with people and earn the right to be heard. And even when we do, positive results will not necessarily be the case. The safety net with which we were raised, has been removed. The society in which we now live more and more resembles the Roman empire and the hazards of witnessing to that society more and more resemble the early Church.