2 and in their ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, `Separate ye to me both Barnabas and Saul to the work to which I have called them,'
to which I was placed a preacher and an apostle, and a teacher of nations,
and when God was well pleased -- having separated me from the womb of my mother, and having called `me' through His grace --
And the Lord said unto him, `Be going on, because a choice vessel to Me is this one, to bear My name before nations and kings -- the sons also of Israel;
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, having been separated to the good news of God --
and thence did sail to Antioch, whence they had been given by the grace of God for the work that they fulfilled;
And the Spirit said to Philip, `Go near, and be joined to this chariot;'
Defraud not one another, except by consent for a time, that ye may be free for fasting and prayer, and again may come together, that the Adversary may not tempt you because of your incontinence;
in laboriousness and painfulness, in watchings many times, in hunger and thirst, in fastings many times, in cold and nakedness;
for He who did work with Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, did work also in me in regard to the nations, and having known the grace that was given to me, James, and Cephas, and John, who were esteemed to be pillars, a right hand of fellowship they did give to me, and to Barnabas, that we to the nations, and they to the circumcision `may go',
of which I became a ministrant, according to the gift of the grace of God that was given to me, according to the working of His power;
and say to Archippus, `See to the ministration that thou didst receive in the Lord, that thou mayest fulfil it.'
and the things that thou didst hear from me through many witnesses, these things be committing to stedfast men, who shall be sufficient also others to teach;
And thou -- watch in all things; suffer evil; do the work of one proclaiming good news; of thy ministration make full assurance,
and no one to himself doth take the honour, but he who is called by God, as also Aaron:
And after these things, the Lord did appoint also other seventy, and sent them by twos before his face, to every city and place whither he himself was about to come,
And Elkanah goeth to Ramath, unto his house, and the youth hath been serving Jehovah, `in' the presence of Eli the priest;
And he putteth before the ark of Jehovah, of the Levites, ministers, even to make mention of, and to thank, and to give praise to Jehovah, God of Israel,
And he leaveth there before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, for Asaph and for his brethren, to minister before the ark continually, according to the matter of a day in its day, both Obed-Edom and their brethren, sixty and eight, and Obed-Edom son of Jeduthun, and Hosah for gatekeepers, and Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests, before the tabernacle of Jehovah, in a high place that `is' in Gibeon, to cause to ascend burnt-offerings to Jehovah, on the altar of burnt-offering continually, morning and evening, and for all that is written in the law of Jehovah, that He charged on Israel. And with them `are' Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest of those chosen, who were defined by name, to give thanks to Jehovah, for to the age `is' His kindness, and with them -- Heman and Jeduthun -- `are' trumpets and cymbals for those sounding, and instruments of the song of God, and the sons of Jeduthun `are' at the gate. And all the people go, each to his house, and David turneth round to bless his house.
and I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek `by' prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
`And when ye may fast, be ye not as the hypocrites, of sour countenances, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men fasting; verily I say to you, that they have their reward.
Then come to him do the disciples of John, saying, `Wherefore do we and the Pharisees fast much, and thy disciples fast not?' And Jesus said to them, `Can the sons of the bride-chamber mourn, so long as the bridegroom is with them? but days shall come when the bridegroom may be taken from them, and then they shall fast.
beseech ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he may put forth workmen to His harvest.'
and she `is' a widow of about eighty-four years, who did depart not from the temple, with fasts and supplications serving, night and day,
and Aaron hath waved the Levites -- a wave-offering before Jehovah, from the sons of Israel, and they have been -- for doing the service of Jehovah. `And the Levites lay their hands on the head of the bullocks, and make thou the one a sin-offering, and the one a burnt-offering to Jehovah, to atone for the Levites, and thou hast caused the Levites to stand before Aaron, and before his sons, and hast waved them -- a wave-offering to Jehovah; and thou hast separated the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel, and the Levites have become Mine;
and we to prayer, and to the ministration of the word, will give ourselves continually.'
And Peter thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, `Lo, three men do seek thee;
then having fasted, and having prayed, and having laid the hands on them, they sent `them' away.
and having gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, having gone toward Mysia, they were trying to go on toward Bithynia, and the Spirit did not suffer them,
and how shall they preach, if they may not be sent? according as it hath been written, `How beautiful the feet of those proclaiming good tidings of peace, of those proclaiming good tidings of the good things!'
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Acts 13
Commentary on Acts 13 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 13
We have not yet met with any things concerning the spreading of the gospel to the Gentiles which bears any proportion to the largeness of that commission, "Go, and disciple all nations.' The door was opened in the baptizing of Cornelius and his friends; but since then we had the gospel preached to the Jews only, ch. 11:19. It should seem as if the light which began to shine upon the Gentile world had withdrawn itself. But here in this chapter that work, that great good work, is revived in the midst of the years; and though the Jews shall still have the first offer of the gospel made to them, yet, upon their refusal, the Gentiles shall have their share of the offer of it. Here is,
Act 13:1-3
We have here a divine warrant and commission to Barnabas and Saul to go and preach the gospel among the Gentiles, and their ordination to that service by the imposition of hands, with fasting and prayer.
Act 13:4-13
In these verses we have,
Act 13:14-41
Perga in Pamphylia was a noted place, especially for a temple there erected to the goddess Diana, yet nothing at all is related of what Paul and Barnabas did there, only that thither they came (v. 13), and thence they departed, v. 14. But the history of the apostles' travels, as that of Christ's, passes by many things worthy to have been recorded, because, if all had been written, the world could not have contained the books. But the next place we find them in is another Antioch, said to be in Pisidia, to distinguish it from that Antioch in Syria from which they were sent out. Pisidia was a province of the Lesser Asia, bordering upon Pamphylia; this Antioch, it is likely, was the metropolis of it. Abundance of Jews lived there, and to them the gospel was to be first preached; and Paul's sermon to them is what we have in these verses, which, it is likely, is the substance of what was preached by the apostles generally to the Jews in all places; for in dealing with them the proper way was to show them how the New Testament, which they would have them to receive, exactly agreed with the Old Testament, which they not only received, but were zealous for. We have here,
Act 13:42-52
The design of this story being to vindicate the apostles, especially Paul (as he doth himself at large, Rom. 11), from the reflections of the Jews upon him for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, it is here observed that he proceeded therein with all the caution imaginable, and upon due consideration, of which we have here an instance.