Gentile Gladness – Acts 13:42-48

The things that make us smile, reveal the kind of hearts that we have.

If we laugh at dirty jokes, then it means that our hearts have some dirty corners.

We have a choice about the kinds of things that we enjoy.

And as Proverbs 13:20 says, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”

That verse isn’t just talking about traveling with someone, but with joining him intellectually.

Not only do the things that we smile and laugh at reveal our character, so do the things that make us glad.

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they were GLAD.”

At what were those Gentiles so felicitous?

Once in a while Paul and Barnabas had the opportunity to preach several times in the same synagogue, but not on this occasion.

As we have seen Paul got the privilege to declare before the Jews of Antioch that Jesus is the Saviour.

But as he went on he apparently saw that much of his audience was turning hostile,

So he changed gears and moved from exposition to the most dire of Biblical warnings:

“Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets.”

When he finished there was a mass exodus.

The apostles were left with a handful of God-stirred souls from both the Jews and the proselytes.

Then after a week of personal evangelism, the city was buzzing with spiritual excitement.

The next sabbath, either at the door to the synagogue, or at the city amphitheater, or on one of the main streets, nearly the whole city was gathered to hear more of the Lord Jesus.

But when Paul tried to exhort them to trust Christ, the Jews began to contradict and blaspheme.

They tried to answer every scripture that Paul preached, failing miserably in the process.

Then it appears to me that they started calling the Lord’s apostles false prophets and heretics.

It is one of the tactics of false prophets and heretics to call everyone else heretics.

Paul and Barnabas were telling the Gentile crowd that they didn’t have to become Jewish proselytes in order to enjoy the Lord’s salvation.

As far as the Jews were concerned, there couldn’t be higher heresy than this.

“Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said,

It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”

In this response Paul referred back to a sermon which was preached by Moses in Deuteronomy 32.

He had been talking about one of the many occasions when Israel turned from the Lord:

“And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.

They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.”

This is a common Biblical theme, and even the Lord Jesus used it.

Matthew 21: “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.”

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad.”

The heathen of Antioch had long been struggling for peace of heart and conscience.

They had their heathen religions flowing back into ancient history.

Then came the Jews with their stories about Jehovah, and some had become curious about this.

Then they had the Grecian and old Roman foolishness, and finally came Emperor worship.

But here were two men of God telling them that no man was outside the realm of the grace of God.

It wasn’t so much that these doctrines harmonized with their ancient philosophies,

Because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit God.

But the Holy Spirit plucked the cords of their hearts.

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad.”

This gladness is the work of the Holy Spirit of God.

This is perhaps a response to the prayers in addition to the labours of the apostles.

It’s a response to the prayers of the saints in that other Antioch so many miles to the east.

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and GLORIFIED the word of the Lord.”

When I was in high school, I had an English teacher who glorified the Word of the Lord.

This was not a Christian high school, and I have very serious doubts that this teacher was a Christian.

But long with Shakespeare, Milton, Browning and others, she praised the beauty of the King James Bible.

I doubt that any of the praise given to the Word by these people was that kind of praise.

I suppose that some of those people might have delighted that the Jews were rebuked by their own scriptures.

They might have gloried in the face that the Bible said that they had a stake in the things of the Lord.

In other words they may have been happy that Paul said that they had a right to hear the scriptures just did any son of Abraham.

But I don’t think that is what the Holy Spirit was referring to in this statement.

There is no higher glory that any person can ever give to the Bible than in believing, receiving and doing what it says.

There is a sense in which this verse says the same thing three times:

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”

“And when the Gentiles heard this THEY BELIEVED, and they glorified the word of the Lord by RESPONDING TO IT: and as many as were ordained to eternal life BELIEVED.”

Whenever we hear the Word of God and refuse to respond to it we bring shame to the Lord and to ourselves.

The Jews desecrated and debased the Word of the Lord by their response to the Gospel.

But many of the Gentiles brought glory to the Word by receiving it.

“And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”

I had to laugh as I reviewed my commentaries on the last part of this verse.

Several of those commentaries came with one of the Bible study programs that I use;

They are not Bible helps that I would go out to buy if I had the money,

But I have them and so I consult them every now and then.

I discovered that there are three lines of thought about this verse:

There are men like John Wesley who say that this has nothing to do with sovereign election to salvation.

Then there are others like John Gill who say that it very clearly declares election.

And then there are some who say that this verse implies sovereign election.

It might surprise you to guess where I stand on these three.

I agree with the commentary Jamieson, Fausset and Brown which makes this unequivocal statement:

“And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed –

A very remarkable statement, which cannot, without force, be interpreted of anything lower than this,

That a divine ordination to eternal life is the cause, not the effect, of any man’s believing.”

While agreeing with that statement, I need to point out that the word “ordain” is not “prognosko.”

It is not the same as “to foreordain”

It is not the word in I Peter 1:20: “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.”

It is not the word in Romans 8:29: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

It is not “prognosko” as in I Peter 1:2: “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”

This is the word “tasso” and it simply means to “put in order” or “set apart” as we use the word when speaking about the ordination of a man to the ministry.

I am told that “tasso” is a military word, as when a general orders his men into a certain formation in order to defend a position or to attack another position.

This is not the word “elect” or “predestinate.”

I need everyone to indicate that you understand what I just told you.

I need you to realize that you shouldn’t lead other people to believe that it is the same word as “elect.”

It is not the word “eklektos” ( ek-lek-tos’ ).

I need you all to nod your heads.

Okay, if the word “ordain” isn’t the same as “elect” or “predestinate” then what is it?

Notice that the people who were ordained in this verse were passive in that ordination.

They didn’t make themselves ordained.

Someone set them in order; someone put them in line for eternal life.

And Who was it that did that?

Was it the mayor or governor of Antioch?

Was it the ruler of the synagogue?

Was it Paul or Barnabas?

We could create and then completely exhaust a long list.

It was the Lord Who ordained these people to eternal life.

And even though this word may not be “elect” it is clearly referring to election – God’s sovereign choice of certain people in Antioch to receive eternal life.

This verse teaches that Jehovah put certain people in order, or in a line, to receive eternal life.

And those people who were set apart for eternal life believed the gospel.

It wasn’t their faith which set them in line to receive the grace of God.

It was the grace of God which set them in line to receive and thus to believe.

These believers were glad to hear the Word of God;

They glorified the Word of God by fulling receiving it.

And they grabbed that which the Lord had in store for them by believing Him.