The Opposition We Face

Acts 13:44-52

It can be aggravating if you run into strong opposition when you have a job to do, or a goal you wish to accomplish.  It is even worse if the opposition gets ugly and personal. At times, it can even get dangerous. If our work is for the Lord, though, we need to stay encouraged and keep on.  Paul and his companion Barnabas were facing just such opposition as we see in today’s passage from the Book of Acts. Let’s see how they handled some strong opposition to their work.

In our passage today Paul and Barnabas were in the city of Antioch. In the New Testament there are two cities named Antioch mentioned. One was near western Syria, near the Mediterranean coast.  The other was in west central Asia Minor (present day Turkey), in the province of Pisidia, which is the Antioch from our Scripture today.  Paul and Barnabas came there on their first missionary journey where they visited Cyprus and parts of central Turkey.

Paul followed a similar pattern in each city he visited when spreading the Gospel.  When coming into a city, the first thing he did was search out a Jewish synagogue. Most synagogues at this time had a custom of allowing visitors to speak any message they might have to the congregation.  Paul and Barnabas took advantage of this custom wherever they traveled, and would go through the Old Testament Scriptures, showing the Jews how Jesus Christ was the promised Jewish Messiah, urging them to put their faith and trust in Him.  In each location there was always a few who would believe, and many who showed some interest, inviting them back to speak the next week. However, in each synagogue, there were some who immediately became quite hostile, and vehemently opposed them and the Word of God.

As our passage opens, Paul and Barnabas have been invited back a second week to speak at the synagogue in Antioch.  The hostile Jews who did not believe their message about Jesus, were jealous (vs. 44-45). They were especially angry when they learned that some Gentiles were also coming to faith in Jesus.  In their anger, they didn’t just ask them to leave and not come back. They got violent. This was red-hot anger, shouting, and blasphemy that was occurring as Paul spoke.

When this happened, as it usually did in each location they went, Paul then turned to give the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles. First he would go to the Jews (vs. 46), and when they rejected the message, then he went to the Gentiles. As Paul did so, he quoted from the prophet Isaiah to those who opposed him (Isaiah 49:6), telling them that God had wanted all along for the Jews to share His message of salvation with Gentiles.  God had never planned salvation as an exclusive possession of the Jews. He had wished that through the Jewish people all of the world, all of the Gentiles, would come to know Him (Genesis 12:3). The prophets all proclaimed this. Wherever Paul preached, in Asia Minor, in Greece, and later in Rome, some Jewish people came to faith and helped spread the message of Jesus.  Most did not, and many actively opposed the Gospel being preached, especially to the Gentiles (vs. 49).

When they saw the strong opposition being leveled against them, and that they could possibly be beaten up or worse, Paul and Barnabas left town.  As they left, though, they did an old custom that the Jewish people had done for ages whenever they had to pass through a Gentile area, and that was to shake the dust off of their feet (vs. 51).  Shaking the dust off was a symbolic way of cleansing from contamination of those who did not truly worship God. This was to show them that they were rejecting God.

Paul and Barnabas were not to blame if the message of Jesus was rejected. They had faithfully presented it. We, too, are to be a light to unbelievers (Matthew 5:14-16).  We are to lead others to Jesus and glorify Him with our conduct and testimony, as the Apostles did, not fearing the opposition that may come, as we see it did to Paul wherever he went.  God will bless our faithfulness.