You Had Your Chance
Pastor Don Carpenter
The Gospel On Tour / Acts 13:42–52
The appetite of Americans for Mexican food increased dramatically in the 1990s, to the point that in 1996 it was a $1.6 billion market. The market for salsa and refried beans and the like began to grow when small companies like El Paso Chile in Texas marketed an authentic-style Mexican food that even a native of Mexico City could love. Then several large American companies, such as Pillsbury, saw the potential in the market and began to buy out smaller companies and market Mexican-style food on a much larger scale. But what they labeled Mexican food was really a watered-down version of the original to suit American tastes.
“Heat must be carefully rationed at Old El Paso [the Pillsbury brand],” writes Glenn Collins in the New York Times. “ ‘Forty percent of those on the East Coast want salsa as mild as it can be,’ said Dr. Bernadette Piacek-Llanes, vice president of research and development for Pillsbury Specialty Brands. So Old El Paso, like Pace, has introduced mild, ‘cool salsa’ products.”
Industry experts call these products gringo food, and it is clearly catching on. “About the only thing missing from the boom is Mexicans,” writes Collins. “There are no Mexicans on Pillsbury’s 10-member Old El Paso development team; its leader was born in India.”
Bob Messenger, editor of the industry publication Food Processing, says that the “gringo-ization of Mexican food will continue. In 20 years, you won’t even recognize what they’ll be calling Mexican food.”
In business there’s nothing wrong with watering down a strong flavor, but the same impulse leads to disaster in our faith. Like the inauthentic gringo style of Mexican food, there is a gringo gospel that is simply not the real thing. The hot, offensive themes—such as the cross and the blood of Christ—are taken out, and a comfortable, people-pleasing substitute is found. The false gospel may be soothing to the taste, but it is powerless to save. The gospel will always be an offense to sinful humankind.
As we continue our series “The Gospel on Tour” we will discover over and over that the first missionaries did not dilute the heat of the Gospel. They kept the spice of a Jesus Only truth and the heat of a Turn or Burn theology. Not only did these missionaries preach that Jesus is the only way, but they also drove home the point that now is the time. To say not yet is to say no for now. Paul and Barnabas were clear that once you hear the truth, it is your responsibility to respond to that truth. If you leave tonight without responding to the preaching you hear, remember what was said about the Jews in Antioch of Pisidia could be said about you… “You Had Your Chance.
You Had Your Chance When You Heard The Gospel .
Acts 13:42 KJV
And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
• The Jews did not ask the missionaries to return.
• The Gentiles and proselytes did.
According to Josephus, many Gentiles attended synagogues with great interest. Even as late as the fourth century, the Christian preacher John Chrysostom complains that Gentiles—in this case Christians—were still attending synagogue services. Those who were interested in Judaism but unattracted to circumcision might well find Paul’s message appealing.1
1 Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 13:42–43.
Acts 13:43 KJV
Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
The missionaries told their followers to continue in the grace of God.
The last expression may not mean that they were converted; rather, they had become open to the grace of God working in their hearts, and they were now being urged to continue along that path.
1 Ajith Fernando, Acts, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998), 388.
• The very fact that men were relating OT scriptures to the events of Jesus caused a huge stir. The preaching of God’s Word gets attention!
Romans 10:17 KJV
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Acts 13:44 KJV
And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
You Had Your Chance When You Heard The Warning.
Acts 13:40–42 KJV
Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;
Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.
And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
Blinded By Envy
Acts 13:45 KJV
But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.
James 3:14 KJV
But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
The Jews were intent on keeping their privileges to themselves. From the beginning, the Christians saw their privileges as something to be shared. As has been said, ‘The Jews saw the Gentiles as straw to be burned; Jesus saw them as a harvest to be reaped for God.’ And similarly his Church must have a vision of a world for Christ.1
1 William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, 3rd ed. fully rev. and updated., The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), 125.
Missed Eternal Life Because of Unbelief
Acts 13:46–47 KJV
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.
Isaiah 49:6 KJV
And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, That thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
God’s Word Brings Life
Gentiles Believed like the Bible said they would.
Acts 13:48 KJV
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.
13:48 designated for eternal life Luke (the narrator) could mean that the individuals whom God intended to believe did, or this could be a broad reference that, according to God’s plan, the gospel reached the Gentiles in this region (compare Eph 1:5 and note). Either way, Luke is stating that despite opposition, God’s intended purposes are accomplished1
1 John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016),
13:48–49. Because the Jewish people believed that they were predestined for salvation by virtue of descent from Abraham, the idea that many Gentiles had been “ordained to eternal life” (KJV) could be offensive—but was exactly what Isaiah 49:6 implied (see Acts 13:47).1
1 Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 13:48–49.
Acts 13:49 KJV
And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.
A Resistance Mounted
Acts 13:50 KJV
But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.
Ancient sources report that many prominent women were interested in Judaism (partly because their wealth gave them leisure to consider it, partly because they, unlike men, did not have to face circumcision if they became serious about it); these women in turn could influence their powerful husbands. Local aristocracies made up a fraction of the population but held great wealth and most of the political power; from them came decurions for the local councils, and their opposition could drive someone out of town. But their authority was only local, and by going to Iconium Paul and Barnabas move out of their jurisdiction.1
1 Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 13:50.
The one thing that infuriated the Jews was that any of God’s privileges could be for the uncircumcised Gentiles. So they took action. At this time, the Jewish religion had a special attraction for women. In nothing was the ancient world more lax than in sexual morality. Family life was rapidly breaking down, and the worst sufferers were women. The Jewish religion preached a purity of ethic and cleanness of life. Round the synagogues gathered many women, often of high social position, who found in this teaching just what they longed for. Many of these women became converts to Judaism; still more were God-fearers. The Jews persuaded them to encourage their husbands, who were often men in in?uential positions, to take steps against the Christian preachers. The inevitable result was persecution. Antioch became unsafe for Paul and Barnabas, and they had to go.1
1 William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, 3rd ed. fully rev. and updated., The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), 124–125.
So The Missionaries Moved On… and that’s O.K.
Acts 13:51–52 KJV
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.
And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.
Matthew 10:14 KJV
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
Revelation 3:7 KJV
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 7:24 PM July 15, 2021.