Acts 13:42-52: A Paradigm-Shifting Passage

Acts 13:42-52: A Paradigm-Shifting Passage

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Acts, and today the next passage we come to is Acts 13:42-52. It says,

42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And 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. 44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let me just say at the outset here that this passage in Acts 13 is one that rocked my world. It helped me see God as I had never seen him before. Some of you may have seen the Narnia movie where a little girl named Lucy goes into a wardrobe at a relative’s house and discovers, as she pushes past the coats, that the wardrobe is, in fact, a portal into another world—a beautiful and magical world called Narnia. And that’s sort of how I felt when I studied this passage for the first time as a freshman in college and recognized its implications and compared it with other passages in the Bible. It opened up a whole new world to me and helped me see truths about God—glorious truths—that I had never seen before. No joke: it almost felt like I was saved all over again—even though, technically, that’s not possible. But that’s what it felt like. That’s how revolutionary this constellation of spiritual discoveries was in my life—and, for those here who haven’t yet discovered these things—I hope they can be that for you as well this morning. I hope that, by the end of this message, you also will see God as you’ve never seen him before. So, jumping to a different movie now, I’ll be Morpheus, you can be Neo—and let’s journey through this passage together. Just be advised, though, that by examining this passage, you are taking the red pill. 

Now, you may remember that last week we looked at Paul’s sermon in verses 13-41 of this chapter. Paul visits the city of Antioch in the region of Pisidia, goes to the synagogue, and—as was customary for visiting rabbis—is invited to share with the congregation anything he desires to share. So he gets up there and, beginning with Abraham, explains to his Jewish audience how Jesus is the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament. He walks through Israel’s history, pointing out all of the ways in which God had shown goodness and grace to the Israelites. Yet, Paul explains, the climactic example of God’s goodness and grace is when he sent a Savior to his people in the person of Jesus. As the Old Testament prophets predicted, Jesus came to this earth as a human and was eventually crucified on a cross. Yet he wasn’t a criminal. Instead, the reason he allowed himself to be crucified was to pay for our sins. Our sins cried out for God’s judgment. But in an act of unimaginable and incomparable love, Jesus endured that judgment on our behalf. Then, just as the prophets had predicted, Jesus rose from the dead so that he’s now able to save everyone who puts their trust in him. So that’s what’s just happened in Acts 13. Paul preaches this message about Jesus in the synagogue in Antioch.

The story then continues in verses 42-43: 42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And 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. So, initially, the Jews respond very well to Paul’s message. They can’t wait to hear him teach again. 

But…things unfortunately go downhill surprisingly quickly. Look at verses 44-45: 44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. So what happened here that turned the majority of the Jews against Paul so quickly? Well, when the Jews saw the Gentiles—those who aren’t Jews—also showing interest in the gospel, a kind of nationalistic zeal came over the Jews. Verse 45 describes it as “jealously.” They were jealous for their unique identity as God’s chosen people and didn’t want the Gentiles to have any part of that. They looked down on the Gentiles and considered them unworthy to share in their privileged access to God or to be a part of God’s family. 

And because the Jews respond that way, something very ironic happens. They don’t exclude the Gentiles from God’s family—they end up excluding themselves from God’s family by rejecting the gospel. We see that in verses 46-47: 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” So Paul tells the Jews that it was appropriate for him to share the gospel with them first—since Jews are indeed God’s chosen people and have priority in God’s plan for the spread of the gospel. However, since the Jews have rejected it, Paul says he’s now turning his focus chiefly to the Gentiles and quotes Isaiah 49:6 to support that approach. This verse from Isaiah shows us that God intended the whole time for the message of his salvation to be proclaimed to everyone—“to the [very] ends of the earth.” The door is open for anyone and everyone. 

We then come to the verse at the very heart of this passage, verse 48: “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” So notice what’s happened in this passage as a whole. The group you might assume would receive the gospel (the Jews) ends up rejecting it, while the group you might assume would reject the gospel (the Gentiles) ends up receiving it. And that’s the way things so often work. People who externally seem like they have it all together are often so full of self-righteousness that they can’t bring themselves to humbly admit their need for a Savior, while those who have more obvious struggles and shortcomings in their lives are often able to see their sin and their desperate spiritual need and, as a result, trust Jesus to do for them what they know they can never do for themselves. So that’s one important aspect of this passage. 

However, there’s something else as well—something we see specifically in the verse I just read—verse 48. Let me read it again: “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” Did you hear that? “As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” Take a moment and just do your best to set aside any theological agenda or presuppositions you have. Obviously, we’re not capable of doing that perfectly, but try to do it to the best of your ability. Don’t read anything into this verse, but just let the verse itself speak to you. It’s actually not a difficult verse at all. The grammar is very simple. “As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” Notice that it doesn’t say that people believed and, on the basis of that belief, were appointed to eternal life. No, it’s the opposite, isn’t it? Their belief doesn’t lead to their appointment; their appointment leads to their belief. You can look at other translations as well, and they basically say the same thing. The NIV states that “…all who were appointed for eternal life believed.” NASB: “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” King James: “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” 

So the main idea of this passage that I’d like to spend the rest of our time focusing on this morning is that all who are sovereignly appointed to eternal life will voluntarily choose to believe. All who are sovereignly appointed to eternal life will voluntarily choose to believe. Welcome to Narnia.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this verse was a huge discovery for me. It teaches a doctrine that’s controversial in some circles—a doctrine known as predestination—which is the idea that God sovereignly predestines certain people to be saved. As a freshman in college, I researched that teaching. I first read a book in which different scholars were arguing for different positions on the issue. Some arguments were in favor of predestination, while others were against it. And as I read the book, I catalogued all of the Bible verses that those scholars—on both sides of the issue—were citing. I then spent several months slowly going through those verses one at a time—with John MacArthur’s Calvinistic commentary supporting predestination in one hand and John Wesley’s Arminian commentary opposing predestination in the other hand. And as I went through the various verses, I kept meticulous notes about my conclusions regarding all of them. And what I discovered to be the most decisive verse in the whole Bible on the subject of predestination was—can you guess? Acts 13:48. After reading John Wesley’s comments on the verse, I expanded my study to other Arminian commentaries and couldn’t find a single one that had anything close to a satisfying interpretation that didn’t involve predestination. So my conclusion is that there just isn’t any other way to interpret this verse other than that God sovereignly appoints certain individuals to eternal life with the result that they believe. 

Now, of course, this isn’t the only verse in the Bible that teaches predestination. There are literally dozens of others. Yet I do believe Acts 13:48 is the most decisive of them all. But just to demonstrate that there are other verses in the Bible that teach this, let me take you to what I believe is the second most decisive verse in the Bible—actually an entire passage: Romans 9:6-21. Since this is such a significant cross-reference and since you kind of have walk through Romans 9 in order to really feel the weight of it, we’re going to spend a decent amount of time here. 

In Romans 9, Paul’s explaining how it is that God’s promises to Israel haven’t failed even though the majority of the Israelites aren’t saved. And he begins his explanation by stating in verse 6, “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.” In other words, not every ethnic Israelite is a true Israelite. There are a lot of people who are biologically descended from Abraham and who are ethnically part of the Israelite nation but who actually aren’t true Israelites in their hearts. They don’t have hearts that trust in God or want to follow God. And that makes them not true Israelites. 

It’s similar to the way we might describe someone who lives in Pittsburgh but doesn’t really do many of the things most people would expect a loyal Pittsburgher to do. Let’s say they’re a big Baltimore Ravens fan and they’ve never stepped foot in a Primanti Brothers restaurant and they have no clue whatsoever about Pittsburgh’s history as a producer of steel. So, even though someone like that might technically live in Pittsburgh, I’m pretty sure most people in the city would say that they’re not a true Pittsburgher. And in a similar way, Paul’s distinguishing between an ethnic Israelite and a true Israelite with the implication that only true Israelites are the legitimate recipients of God’s promise. So the point is God hasn’t broken his promise to Israel because only the true Israelites—the ones who have put their faith in Jesus—are legitimate recipients of God’s promise.

But here’s the provocative part. The reason many ethnic Israelites aren’t true Israelites, Paul says, is ultimately because God hasn’t chosen them to be true Israelites. Let that sink in. Yes, they’ve rejected their Messiah. Yes, they have no interest in following God. Those things make it appropriate to say that they’re not true Israelites. But the ultimate reason they’re not included among the true Israelites is because God hasn’t chosen them to be a part of the true Israel. Paul illustrates this in verses 7-13 by going back into Israel’s history and pointing out how God chose Isaac above Ishmael. Even though both Isaac and Ishmael were biologically descended from Abraham, God chose Isaac above Ishmael as the recipient of his promise and as the son who would experience God’s redemptive blessings. Not only that, but God did the same thing with Isaac’s two children, Jacob and Esau. He chose one over the other—Jacob over Esau.

And Paul goes out of his way to emphasize that God’s choice wasn’t based on anything good or bad in either of these men. Verse 11 states that God made his choice “though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls.” In other words, God’s choice was made on the basis of nothing but his own sovereign will. It’s not like God looked down and saw that Jacob was a little more deserving of salvation than Esau. No, God chose Jacob for salvation and not Esau before either of them were even born and on the basis of nothing but his own sovereign will. And if you’re sitting there right now thinking that that’s a little hard to swallow, I think you’re right. But that’s what Paul says here. And as we’ll see, he’s going to say that even more clearly in the subsequent verses. 

Look at verses 14-15: 14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” In other words, God has the right to choose those to whom he extends mercy. It’s his decision to make. A lot of times, we assume that just because God’s shown mercy to some, he’s somehow obligated to show mercy to all. And yet, that’s just not the case. 

You might compare it to the President of the United States deciding who, if anyone, he’s going to pardon. Let’s say 1,000 convicted prisoners all write letters to the president asking for a pardon. And let’s assume, for the sake of illustration, that all of these prisoners are guilty of the crimes they’ve been convicted of. So does the president owe a pardon to any of these prisoners? Of course not. They all deserve to be in prison. They’ve committed crimes. The president doesn’t have to pardon any of them. And if he does choose to pardon some of them but not others, he has every right do that as well. He wouldn’t be unjust for pardoning 100 instead of the full 1,000. 

And in the same way, God doesn’t have to show mercy to anyone. Mercy, by definition, is undeserved. God doesn’t have to extend it to even a single individual on the face of this earth. He could send everybody to hell, and that would be a just and righteous thing. That’s what we deserve. And so, when you think about it, the truly astonishing and provocative idea isn’t that God would choose to show mercy to some and pass over others. Rather, it’s that he would show mercy to anyone at all. That’s the question we should be asking. “Why does God show mercy to anyone?” So, the decision of whether to extend or withhold mercy is God’s decision. As he says in verse 15, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

Then Paul continues in verses 16-18: 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. So here again, God has the right to show mercy selectively—“on whomever he wills” as verse 18 states. We don’t have time to really dig into God’s interactions with Pharaoh in the book of Exodus that Paul alludes to in these verses, but suffice it to say that Pharaoh is another illustration of this principle. 

Moving on to verse 19: “You will say to me then, ‘Why does he [God] still find fault? For who can resist his will?’” So let’s look at this objection Paul anticipates. When I read this objection, it confirms for me that we’ve been interpreting things correctly so far. If your interpretation of verses 6-18 doesn’t naturally raise the potential objection of verse 19, then you’re not interpreting things correctly. The objection raised in verse 19 should naturally follow from a proper understanding the preceding verses. And I believe the interpretation I’ve been suggesting for verses 6-18 does naturally raise the objection Paul states in verse 19. And that objection is basically this: If God is the one who ultimately chooses who’s going to be saved and who’s not, then how in the world can he still hold people accountable for not being saved? Is that really fair? That’s basically what Paul’s asking in verse 19. 

But look at his response in verses 20-21: 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? Wow. That’s heavy. Paul’s basically saying, “Who do you think you are to ask that question?” Who are we as creatures to think that we have any right at all to act as a judge over our Creator? And not only do we not have that right, who are we to think we even have that intellectual ability? 

It would be kind of like my two-year-old son Luke questioning how fair my rules for the house are. His brain isn’t anywhere near developed enough to properly evaluate the fairness of those rules. And that’s the case infinitely more so with us and God. Who are we to presume that we can sit as a judge over him? And honestly, it really shouldn’t surprise us that there are some things about God that we just can’t understand. You might compare it to an ant looking up at a human. When an ant stands on top of his anthill and looks up at a human, that ant can’t even begin to comprehend the thoughts or the nature of that human. He has no clue about the thoughts or nature of the human he’s looking at. And that’s just one finite creature trying to figure out another. How much less are we, as finite creatures, able to comprehend the being and the ways of the infinite God? So why would we be surprised if there are some things about God and the way he operates that we can’t understand?  

So, bringing it back to Acts 13:48 now, we find essentially the same truth being taught—that the people who believe are those who have been sovereignly appointed by God to eternal life. However, this passage in Acts 13 also teaches human responsibility as well. It teaches—or at least clearly implies—that we’re responsible for our actions and decisions. First of all, we see this in the simple fact that this verse says these people “believed.” God didn’t believe for them. They believed—and were responsible for doing so. Also, back in verse 46, notice how the Jews who rejected the gospel bore full responsibility for that decision. Paul says that they “judge[d] [them]selves unworthy of eternal life.” It was their doing. They brought everything that was coming to them on themselves. So we can conclude that two paradoxical truths are taught in this passage: God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. 

And even though these two truths at first might seem contradictory, I do believe there’s ultimately a way to reconcile them. I do believe there’s a way in which God can choose who’s saved and who’s not and, at the same time, justly punish those who aren’t saved. I don’t understand it, but any being that you and I could understand completely wouldn’t be worthy of being called “God,” now would he? God is sovereign in salvation, and he holds people responsible for the choices they make. Both truths are taught in Scripture, so I simply believe them both. 

It’s similar in many ways to the Trinity. Every true Christian believes in the Trinity, which is the teaching that God is three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and yet that he’s also one God. And those two truths would seem to contradict each other. How can God be three and one? Nobody in 2,000 years of church history has been able to comprehensively answer that question. Yet we recognize that as the teaching of Scripture. In various places, Scripture refers to the Father as God, the Son as God, and the Holy Spirit as God. Yet it also says very clearly that there’s only one God. How can we reconcile those things? We don’t know. But we believe them both because Scripture clearly teaches both. We just chalk it up to the fact that God’s infinitely more complex than we can understand. 

And I believe we should approach this issue of the sovereignty of God the same way. Rather than trying to explain away what Acts 13 teaches, I believe we should just accept what it teaches and humbly acknowledge that the ways of God are beyond our comprehension. There is a way in which God can determine who is and isn’t saved and at the same time punish people for not being saved. Perhaps in heaven, we’ll understand that. But for now, we just believe both of those things since we see both of them taught in the Bible. 

However, having said all of that and having come to that conclusion, we’re not done. So far, all of this has been very intellectual and philosophical. And that’s a good place to start but a terrible place to end. It’s good and necessary to start with a rigorous examination of Scripture to see what it teaches about these things and to spend a good amount of time thinking that through. But…it would be a tragedy to stop with that—because understand that these truths about God have been revealed to us not merely to stimulate contemplation in our minds but to inspire worship in our hearts. That’s the purpose of all theology. If your theologizing doesn’t grab ahold of your heart and lift you into the worship of our glorious God, you’re not doing it right. 

The truths we encounter in Acts 13 about God’s sovereign appointment of certain individuals to salvation lead us to an entirely different way of thinking than what we naturally have—a God-centered way of thinking rather than a man-centered one. We’re talking about a shift in our whole mental paradigm. And that shift has two main features I’d like to highlight. First, a shift to a God who’s really God. In Acts 13, we see a God who’s God not in name only but in reality. After all, ultimately, for God to be sovereign in salvation really just means that he’s God. And what a glorious God he is.

Then, second, not only do we see a God who’s really God, we also see grace that’s really grace. I can tell you right now that I never truly understood God’s grace until I embraced these revolutionary teachings about God’s sovereignty. Yet once I embraced these things, it opened the door for me to see God and to see his grace as I had never seen it before. And that’s what I meant when I said earlier that Acts 13 rocked my world and opened my eyes to Narnia. For the first time, I understood the biblical concept of grace. 

How incredible to think that, before time began, God chose me not because of anything good or worthy he saw in me but solely because of his grace. I deserved nothing but eternal judgment for my sins—yet God, in his grace, sovereignly chose me to be among those he would rescue. Not only that, but we understand from all of this that every good thing we enjoy is a product of God’s grace. Salvation in its entirety—from beginning to end—is a gift of the grace of God. Even my faith in God is a gift of his grace. I couldn’t even believe until God graciously enabled me and led me to do so. God’s grace, dear friends, is amazing—more amazing than I could have ever imagined. 

And let me tell you: that makes me so grateful. You know, I remember as a kid playing different Mario games. I played these games on a Super Nintendo, so that tells you how long ago it was. And usually on these Mario games, there were bonus levels you could unlock by doing different things. And that’s kind of the way I see these teachings from Acts 13 and Romans 9 functioning. These passages and the many other passages in the Bible that talk about God’s sovereignty should unlock new levels of gratitude toward God for his grace. We see even more clearly that salvation isn’t something we’ve earned for ourselves through our merit or gained for ourselves through our wisdom—being wise enough to put our faith in Jesus. Rather, salvation is truly a gracious gift of God through and through. And once the reality of that grace really sinks in and gets ahold of your heart, it produces within you the most profound gratitude. And you rejoice as you marvel at how amazing this grace really is.