Handling the Pearls
*There was a technical glitch in recording this sermon so the audio is not available. Below is the sermon transcript.
Introduction
In reading through our text for today I immediately thought of protests. Have you noticed—I’m sure you have—that we live in the age of protests? Most recently:
The professor’s death at UNC-CH: protest inviting David Hogg
Maui fires: protests about climate change
TN legislature’s refusal to pass more gun control laws: protests
Heartbeat abortion laws in states upheld in courts: protests
Pro-women anti-trans legislation (even in NC): protests
Protests have been common in the US since the early 20th century with people rising up about temperance and women’s suffrage. A similar culture of protests was revived around the war in Vietnam and civil rights. These were infrequent but intense moments in our national history—they involved us all or have impacted us all.
However, now on TikTok and Twitter (or “X” as it is called) we find micro-protests all the time—angry activists up in metaphorical arms for whatever is grieving them; venting and crying and complaining.
Whereas protesting was an organized public costly effort spearheaded by those who were truly aggrieved, now it is more often than not a trivial super-emotional outburst of a person who also happens to own a smartphone, high speed internet, a large screen TV and a subscription to Hulu.
Now, there are things worth protesting but those things are getting lost in our trivial culture of micro-protests that exists today. Still, despite what is likely the growing ineffectiveness of protests in general, they are very common.
Indeed, nothing is out of bounds for a protest—these days especially Christianity and the church. In our cultural moment, protests against Christianity and the church are becoming more and more common—especially regarding the biblical views certain of social issues: abuse, abortion, LGBTQ, trafficking, marriage, citizenship, and so forth.
Proposition
Now, this is simply our moment—and it is no moment to despair or be fearful as a Christian. If our study of the book of Acts has shown us anything it is that there is no opposition to the Lord and His gospel that is effective against Him and the growth of the kingdom.
With our message in our cultural moment what we require is wisdom. Right? In growing the kingdom of God, we are to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves—it has always been this way and in our age of rampant micro-protests it is crucial for us to hold on to that framework.
In our text for today, Acts 13:42-52, we find familiar things and something new.
We have already seen the apostles opposed by the Jews; preeminently among them, Saul. We will encounter this in our text; this is nothing new. We’ve also seen Jew and Gentile converts; we will see this in our text also—nothing new.
What is new is a guidance on how to handle those who respond to the gospel message: those who embrace it as well as those who protest it. Neither is altogether new as Jesus gave His disciples instructions on this as they began their mission: Matthew 10:11-14:
And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.
Wisdom in our mission of kingdom building requires we tailor our responses to hospitality (on the one hand) and to hostility (on the other). In our text, we will see both of these. The question our text answers is:
How do we respond to those who respond to the gospel?
We ignore the foolish
We invest in the faithful
Transition
READ Acts 13:42-52.
PRAY.
There are two distinct groups here: the faithful is presented first and then Luke shows us the fool. Let’s consider each one on its own starting a bit out of order with the fool.
Main Point A
What does it say and mean?
[Text: Acts 13:45-47, 50-51
[Point Statement: In order to build the kingdom of God in our culture filled with micro-protests, we must ignore the fool.
Let me say at the outset there is a very high bar for us to reach in order to do this.
Our mission is gospel proclamation to the world and we must take that seriously and labor with endurance. Yet, there are times when we cease from that labor in a particular instance and move on—let’s see how the apostle Paul did it.
13:45, 50
When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and were contradicting what Paul was speaking—reviling….50And the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.
This protest consists in five (5) parts building upon each other—they paint a picture of more than resistance but outright rejection.
#1: the Jews filled themselves with jealousy over the assembled crowds
The Jews looked around at the crowd and rather than being filled with the Holy Spirit and thanksgiving that so many have come to hear the good news, they fill themselves with jealousy.
“Who are these uncircumcised Gentiles and why are they here—in our synagogue? These pagans are unworthy and unclean!” Jealousy.
#2: were actively contradicting what Paul was speaking—the Greek word here is “anti-speaking.”
The Jews were anti-speaking (“contradicting” ESV) with Paul and Barnabas—they were arguing the opposite of what Paul presented.
Jesus as the prophesied Messiah? They spoke against it.
Jesus’ perfect life of covenantal obedience to God’s law? They spoke against it.
Jesus’ substitution for the sins of God’s people? They spoke against it.
Jesus’ resurrection and appearance to the 500+? They spoke against it.
No openness. No consideration to what Paul and Barnabas preached the Sabbath day before. No searching of the Scriptures.
Nothing but point-by-point anti-speak.
#3: reviling.
The ESV adds a subject after that verb, “him” so that it appears they were reviling Paul. Being hateful towards the messenger is well-used tactic.
However, in the Greek there is no word, “him.” The NASB (closely mirroring the Greek) reads this way:
But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming.
They may have been reviling Paul but they were also blaspheming the words spoken by Paul; the “word of the Lord” in verse 44.
It is one thing to be reviled as a messenger, right?
But, to revile the message is different: this is about the gospel and the work of the Spirit. This is far more serious than simply not liking Paul or making fun of Barnabas. Their anti-speaking included blasphemy against the Lord.
#4: [From verse 50] the Jews eventually incited or stirred up non-religious, political leaders against the missionaries.
Verse 49 tells us when Paul and Barnabas turned to the Gentiles, “the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the region.”
This was intolerable to the Jews so they used another tactic: political power.
Now, why on earth would they bother people who had nothing to do with the gospel, the kingdom of God, the law of Moses or the dispute between these Jews and Paul?
Disputing and trying to discredit Paul wasn’t enough; their jealousy required more.
Blaspheming Christ and the prophetic witness to Him as the Messiah wasn’t enough; their jealousy required more.
In their jealous folly, they got the earthly political powers involved to silence these missionaries.
#5: [Lastly, then] they successfully incited enough powerful people such that they were able to stir up persecution that ensured they were driven away.
“Devout women of high standing and leading men”—not religious leaders—exercised their connections in league with the Jews to have these Christian missionaries tossed out of town. Why?
Did they inciting an uprising against the government of Antioch? No.
Were they causing trouble in the marketplace harming the economy and local merchants? No.
Were they even street preaching against Roman or Greek gods? No.
They were preaching and it smelled like death so the Jews used whatever power was at their disposal to shut them up.
In these five actions we see the progress of folly:
Jealousy to “anti-speaking” to blaspheming to getting powerful political people involved to get them tossed out of town.
These actions aren’t coming from people who are apathetic, confused or even a little resistant—as Paul will say to them, they have judged themselves unworthy of salvation and are proving it by their actions.
In these next two verses, we see how Paul and Barnabas respond.
They had two related responses: (1) to turn away from the Jews to the Gentiles and then (2) ultimately to leave the city. 13:46, 51
46Yet Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly [to the opposing Jews] saying, “To you, first, it was necessary to speak the word of God; since you have rejected it and have judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning away from you unto the Gentiles….51but [Paul and Barnabas] shook off the dust from their feet against them and they went to Iconium.
Response #1: turn away from the Jews to the Gentiles
Paul and Barnabas were undeterred from speaking the word of God despite the point-by-point disagreements by the Jews—they spoke “boldly.”
But, at one point, due to the steadfast and growing opposition, their proclamation changed.
#1: they said to the Jews they had their chance to repent and believe; God sent Paul and Barnabas to them first; they are the covenant people of God.
God had honored His covenant with Abraham to send messengers to the lost tribes of Israel—this was their chance.
#2: the Jews rejected it because they judged themselves to be unworthy of eternal life.
Eternal life was not worth their consideration; that message was beneath them so they rejected it.
This is where some of the blasphemy creeps in: all that God had prophesied for 1000’s of years and all that the Spirit had done since Pentecost amounted to basically nothing in the minds of the Jews; an unworthy effort.
So Paul simply tells them in words what they are telling him in their actions: “You have judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life.”
How could Paul come to such a clear conclusion?
By their anti-speaking and blasphemy, Paul asserts that they have placed eternal life out of their own reach—so much so that he will not be renewing his call to them.
#3: [therefore] the missionaries proclaim they are rejecting the Jews.
This is a striking response—one we have not yet seen in Acts.
Rather than revive or review their argument for faith in Christ and try again, they reject those who have rejected Christ.
Paul and Barnabas do no more than agree with the anti-speaking Jews. They wanted nothing to do with Christ and so Paul obliged.
He doesn’t make a blanket statement that they will no longer go to any Jews but rather those who reject the message, Paul will reject.
The missionaries then determined that it was not beneath the Gentiles and so they turned their backs on these Jews and turned to the Gentiles. Verse 47 citing Isaiah 49:6:
For thus the Lord has commanded us, “I have made you a light to the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Response #2: eventually was to leave town
Having turned to the Gentiles, verse 49 reads, “And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region.” This was intolerable to the Jews so they worked hard to get rid of the missionaries.
So, how did the missionaries respond to this? Did Paul and Barnabas grovel and plead? No. Did they seek legal recourse? No. Did they have a flash mob in the town square? No. Did they run and hide? No.
51[the] shook off the dust from their feet against them and they went to Iconium.
They did the ancient rite of rejection: shaking the dust off their shoes.
Just as the Jews judge themselves unworthy of eternal life, Paul judges the dust upon which those Jews walked unworthy to be on the bottom of his shoes.
What does it matter?
There are two points of application here. A longer one, first.
First, how do we respond to those who actively reject the gospel? Not just resist but actively reject? We reject them and ignore them. Why? Among the reasons, Proverbs 13:20:
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
There is a kind of voluntary enslavement the church seeks at the hands of fools who reject the gospel: we keep going back for more and we suffer harm as a result.
We go back again and again to those who actively reject Christ thinking that’s what we should do—except, that’s not at all what Paul did to this group of Jews: he rejected and ignored them because they showed themselves to be fools.
Proverbs 1:7 and 15:5:
…fools despise wisdom and instruction… A fool despises his father’s instruction.
When it became clear to Paul the Jews’ interests had nothing to do with the kingdom of God, he no longer subjected himself to such an audience: he ignored them and moved on.
But for the church to reject and ignore fools feels counter to our whole reason for being, right? The Great Commission is a mission into the territory of fools—sinners living blindly for the flesh. And, this mission is hard and demands perseverance; we don’t just reject people when it gets tough, right?
There is a moment when we must reject and ignore part of our mission field.
Now, let’s be clear on this because this is our last response to those who reject us. Keep Paul’s process in mind; he didn’t just flee at the first sight of trouble:
He went where unbelievers were; the Great Commission doesn’t us limit to whom we go—Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8 are clear on that.
When he arrived, he went into the places where the people would be; for him, the synagogues but also the market places and theaters.
He proclaimed the full gospel: Jesus Christ is God’s sent Messiah to save His people from the condemnation of their sins—repent and believe the gospel and by the power of the Holy Spirit you will become children of God.
He never shrank back from the full gospel message no matter the audience.
He stayed in a place for a time long enough to disseminate the gospel to the largest group possible even in opposition—like at Ephesus, three months in the synagogue until they rejected him; he stayed two more years in the town.
He kept preaching where he was wanted and needed by the saints.
This is Paul’s process; it must be ours. Then, we have this event in Antioch. Two compelling things happened that indicated this wasn’t just resistance, it was rejection:
The Jews engaged in anti-speaking: point-by-point to disinform, discredit, distract, and dispute—all things to contradict his preaching.
They blasphemed the word of God, maybe the Spirit Himself: they called the gospel nonsense and the God of the gospel the devil.
Why should he stay and try to reason with such people?
If you got into an argument with someone about a candidate in an upcoming election (hypothetically) and that person not only ran down your candidate but began to tear apart and mock the party platform point-by-point, disparage and belittle famous historical figures of the party and call any who held to the party imbeciles—would you still engage such a person about politics?
Now, the stakes are higher when it comes to faith but our actions are the same.
Like Paul, when we run into steadfast, vehement, detailed, demeaning, blaspheming opposition to the gospel and God, we reject and ignore.
Think of it, beloved, we have the message of life that by the power of the Holy Spirit brings about freedom from sin, wrath and condemnation and initiates the beginning of true human community and flourishing that lasts to eternity!
It is a message anchored in the eternal plan of a God who so loved us that He sent His only Son; of a Son who so loved the Father and us that He came willingly with the purpose of suffering and dying that we might be raised; of the Spirit who by His mercy and grace makes us partakers of all of this because He loves the Father, the Son and us.
Beloved, if someone who hears this turns on it and us and mocks the gospel and the God of the gospel saying it is all beneath him: reject him, ignore him and move on—don’t spill any more pearls for him to step on and shatter.
In your moving on, pray that one will come after you who will share the same message and meet a very different result.
Second, a shorter point: did the political opposition to the missionaries feel familiar?
For the Jews to go outside the synagogue and into the political arena to leverage power against them is one of our enemy’s main tactics against the gospel.
He knows what we proclaim is true
He knows he is doomed and in the end he will be the chief of fools.
He knows he cannot put up valid and compelling arguments against the gospel because to do so is only to present falsehood, deceit and suffering.
So he does with us what he did with Jesus: stir up opposition to the church from outside the church. Engage those with the power of the sword or influence against those whose only power is declaration and persuasion—make it illegal to not bake a cake or arrange flowers; censor or mock us on social media; silence us in school board meetings; legislate sin into law; make Christian doctrine “hate speech” and so on.
There are times when the church is no match for this—we are shamed, isolated, persecuted and killed. But all of that is only the process of seeding the kingdom of God in other places—our enemy knows this, too.
Beloved, it is by no means wrong to work in our culture to influence it with biblical principles: Christian artists, politicians, teachers—you are essential salt and light in our culture keeping it from total degradation.
But as long as our enemy lives, he will seek to use the powers of the world against us—this is not a bug of his process, it is a feature of it.
It isn’t worth our time to rail at all of this. Oppose it, work to overcome it, “vote the bums out” but in the end, remember what the apostle Paul did in the face of this: he moved on.
Transition
The unfortunate duty of the church, at times, is to reject and ignore those who steadfastly reject the gospel. It feels contrary to our mission yet it is a fact of the fallenness of this world.
But the gospel doesn’t just smell like death—it is also the aroma of life to those who are being saved. In our next point, we consider how to respond to those who come to faith.
Main Point B
What does it say and mean?
[Text: Acts 13:42-44, 47-49, 52
[Point Statement: In order to continue to build the kingdom of God in our culture we must invest in the faithful.
13:42-44
42As they went out, the people implored that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
Back in verses 40-41, Paul exhorted them to believe in the Lord Jesus and warned them not to let this pass by.
There was a profound response to Paul’s sermon; two wonderful things happened:
#1: some of the Jews and Gentile converts to Judaism implored the missionaries to return the following Sabbath to tell them more (preacher’s dream!)—they found life in the word of God and they wanted more.
#2: This is because, secondly, many “followed” that is, came to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
To say they “followed Paul and Barnabas” is simply to say they heard and received the missionaries’ teaching—they believed what they heard.
And, it was to them the missionaries encouraged “continue in the grace of God.” (We’ll come back to that.)
We don’t know how the week after the Sabbath went—whether Paul and Barnabas were invited into homes (likely) or the converts were sharing what they heard, but the next Sabbath Luke tells us “almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord” (another preacher’s dream!).
13:47-49
In verse 47, the good news continued.
Not only were the missionaries encouraging the Jews and proselytes who converted, he proclaims it was always the will of God that the Gentiles hear the words of salvation.
From Isaiah he proclaims:
I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.
13:48-49, 52 we witness the beautiful responses of faith:
And when the Gentiles heard, they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. 49The word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region….52And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
These responses come naturally from those whom the Lord has appointed to eternal life—there aren’t only those who resist and reject out there
There are also those whose lives are ready to be regenerated and revived by the word of the Lord.
Verse 49 says the word of the Lord spread. This is part of our response to those who receive the word: we tell more people—conversions are inspiring, aren’t they? They should lead us to more evangelism.
What does it matter?
Let’s consider two ways to invest in the faithful.
First, in verse 48, Luke tells us those whom God had appointed to eternal life believed and came to faith as a result of Paul’s preaching.
Why must we invest in the faithful? God has appointed some to eternal life—there are those in the midst of each crowd of humans whom God had chosen from eternity to come to faith and when they do, they must be discipled in the faith.
Because election is sure, discipleship must be sure.
The goal of the Great Commission is to make disciples—conversion is only the beginning. The poorest example of a disciple is right at the beginning of his walk with the Lord. By that I mean, the more time that passes when a person is growing as a disciple, the better resemblance that person has to Christ.
This is like newborns:
When they are born, they might be mistaken for prunes. But, usually, if you look closely, you’ll see some resemblance of a parent in there: eyes, dimples, smile.
But over time as the baby grows, he takes on more and more of his parents’ likeness and, after even more time, their character.
In an analogous way, a disciple of Christ resembles Him a little at first but then through discipling more and more—we, as the church, must be engaging each other to spur on this process.
Because God’s election of people is sure, the church offers means of investment:
This is why we strongly encourage the saints not to forsake the public gathering of the church—online church isn’t church, it’s spectating.
Sometimes it can’t be helped (travel, illness, etc.) but it should not be the solution we choose thinking by it we can grow strong as disciples.
This is also why we offer Sunday school, Bible studies and Life Group—these are more means by which saints can invest themselves in their own faith and in the faith of each other.
We must take seriously the election of God to eternal life. Since He has chosen us by His mere good pleasure, it is our privilege and our duty to make good of His election. In other words, He has made us sons and daughters by His eternal grace, shouldn’t we honor this love by working hard to become the best sons and daughters we can?
In this way, we are keeping the pearls clean.
Second, back in verse 43, Luke tells us Paul and Barnabas had “urged them to continue in the grace of God.”
That’s an interesting turn of phrase, “continue in the grace.” If grace is freely given by God how do we continue in it? We can get some help from what Jude wrote in his book in verse 21:
… keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
“Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy…” There is a way for us to live that allows us to wait and be ready for the mercy of God. In John 5, we read a story that illustrates this.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda…In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
The pool was known for healing so the invalids would congregate on its banks hoping that when the water was stirred they could get in first and be healed.
The man was there and he was ready. Then Jesus came and did what the man hoped the pool would do: healed him.
If the man was not at the pool, he would’ve missed Jesus; he would’ve missed the healing—for him to be at the pool was to put himself in a position to receive grace and mercy from the Lord. To stay away from the pool meant he did not have access to grace and mercy.
When Paul exhorts the saints to continue in the grace of God, he means that we must stay near and in those means where God delivers His grace. The grace of God is like a stream: always running, never emptying—but to live in a manner that denies us access to the stream, means we lose access to the flow of grace.
Now, a saint can never isolate himself from the grace of God fully, but by our choices and behavior we can severely limit that access.
If we live in disobedience to God’s word, we limit that access
If we are prayerless, we limit that access
If we isolate ourselves from the church, we limit that access.
Where do we find the stream of God’s grace? Corporate worship. Acts 2:42:
Fellowship: God has made it so that being with other saints multiplies the joy of salvation—I only have so much and I need more so God works it that when I am with you I get more grace.
Prayer: joining with each other in prayer (and this also happens privately, for sure), we access the throne room called what? “Throne of grace;” Hebrews 4:16:
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Apostles’ teaching: the proclamation of the promises of God; the instruction of the law of God; the means of the Spirit bring conviction of sin and the encouragement of obedience.
Sacraments: the water that brings us into the fellowship of grace; the Supper that reminds us of the basis of our union with Christ while also supplying more grace.
This is the stream of God’s grace—corporate worship: faithfully sitting in this stream each Lord’s Day will give us access to what we need moment by moment from the Lord.