Saul and Barnabas were called and sent out by the Holy Spirit and went to the town of Salamis which was the largest city on the eastern side of the island of Cyprus. They went there to take the word of God to one of the largest populations of Jews giving them first chance to accept the Messiah, Jesus. They preached the word of God in the Jewish synagogue there. Following some time there, they traveled from town to town across the entire island and came to the town of Paphos. They met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus (which means son of Jesus in Aramaic; Jesus means “Yahweh is salvation”) who had become as a counselor or advisor to the governor, Sergius Paulus. Governor Paulus was an intelligent man and seemed to want to continually learn. The governor invited Saul to visit him so he could hear the word of God. Notice the Bible now uses Elymas for the sorcerer Bar-Jesus. Elymas is his name in Greek. Elymas tried to prevent Saul from coming to the governor so he would not believe in Saul’s teachings. I imagine he was worried he would loose his very comfortable position with the governor should that happen.
In the next verse we see the first time scripture refers to Saul as “also known as Paul.” From now on the man Saul, will be called Paul. Paul was a man filled with the Holy Spirit and looked Elymas right in the eyes and called him the opposite of what his name meant (son of Jesus) by saying he was a child of the devil who was filled with deceit and fraud. Paul asked him if he would ever stop perverting the ways of the Lord. Paul then called out to Elymas telling him the Lord laid his hand of punishment upon him and he will become blind. Instantly, mist and darkness came over his eyes and he began groping to find someone’s hand so he could be led around. When the governor saw what Paul had done in the name of the Lord, he became a believer.
Paul and the other travelers left Paphos for Pamphylia and the port town of Pisidia. At that point John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia. Barnabas held a higher position than Paul because he was actually a delegate from the mother church in Jerusalem. We will see him allow Paul to take the front on this journey and let him lead. Having most likely let the leaders of the synagogue know they were there, they attended services at the synagogue on the Sabbath. After the usual two readings from the Old Testament; one from the Law and one from the Prophets, they were invited to share a message of encouragement for the people.
Paul began by presenting things of the Messiah claimed in the Old Testament. One - the coming of the Messiah, Two-His rejection, crucifixion and His resurrection from the dead, and Three- what all that means and how it impacted them. Paul began by addressing the crowd as “Men of Israel “ meaning the Jews and “God fearing Gentiles” of course addressing the Gentiles. Paul went on to describe the history of their ancestors journey being led out of Egypt by God through Moses. He recounted their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, followed by God destroying seven nations in Canaan giving that land to Israel. That journey took a total of 450 years. Then God gave them judges to rule over them until the people began begging for a king and God made Saul king. Saul was son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin and reigned for forty years. After that, God replaced Saul with David as king. God spoke of David as follows; “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.”
Paul went on to say, “And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel!” Paul spoke of John the Baptist and his teaching that all the people of Israel needed to repent of their sins, turn to God and be baptized. He reminded them what John the Baptist said near the end of his ministry, “Do you think I am the Messiah? No I am not! But he is coming soon - and I am not even worthy to be his slave and untie the sandals on his feet.”
Paul re-addressed the crowd as “Brothers - you sons of Abraham, and also you God fearing Gentiles” He said to them, “this message of salvation has been sent to us!” He explained how the people of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the one foretold by the prophets but rather condemned Him. By doing what they did, they fulfilled what the prophets foretold and those words are part of what is read every Sabbath. (like Peter and Stephen, Paul also blamed them for the killing of Jesus) Paul continued by saying the leaders in Jerusalem had no legal reason to execute Jesus but they demanded Pilate do it anyway. He explained how when their actions fulfilled the teaching of the prophets, Jesus was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb. But God raised Jesus from the dead and over many days, He appeared to the ones who had traveled with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. Those who traveled with Jesus are now witnesses to the people of Israel telling them all Jesus did.
With all that being said, Paul spoke saying, “And now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our ancestors, and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. “ (it is thought that this time Jesus being raised means His being exalted. This is supported by the fact when speaking of Jesus being raised from the dead , it states “raised from the dead”)
Paul went on to quote Psalm 2 verse 7 (the same words are given in Hebrews 1:3 and others) This is a confusing verse as it is given two ways. First In the New American Standard Bible and the King James Bible; “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “Thou are My Son, Today I have begotten Thee.” However, the NLT, NIV reads; “I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my Son, today I have become your Father.” The Father is speaking of Jesus and of the day Jesus was begotten by the Father. Both ways the verses are shown reflect Jesus as THE Son of God. If we look at the verse with begotten in it we know Scripture called Jesus of the only begotten Son of God. God had only one Son who was begotten of the Father.
For God promised to raise Him from the dead not leaving Him to rot in the grave. Another Psalm declares “You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.” Acts 36 clarifies the fact that the psalm is not talking about David because after David died and was buried with his ancestors, his body decayed. The psalm (Psalm 16:10b) is telling us about another person who God raised from the dead and whose body did not decay, namely Christ.
Paul addressed the listeners again calling them, “Brothers” telling them they had come to proclaim the Good News that through Jesus there is forgiveness for their sins. They were told everyone who believes in Him is made right with God which is something the Law of Moses could never do. The Law of Moses was what they lived by but there was no forgiveness of sin in it. The Law pointed to the need of a Savior which is Jesus. Paul again brought up the words given to the prophets; “Be Careful! Don’t let the prophets’ words apply to you. For they said, “Look you mockers, be amazed and die! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.”
When Paul finished, the people begged him to return the following week and speak to them of these things again. Many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas who urged them to rely on the grace of God. They returned the following week and almost the entire city came to hear them preach the word of the Lord. As we have read many times, the Jews response to the large crowds was the same. When the Jews saw the huge crowds, they became jealous so they slandered Paul and argued against everything he said. The Jews, of course, rejected Paul’s teaching as they did with Jesus, and anyone else who proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah who is the way to be made right with God. Instead of a debate or searching for the truth, they lied and bullied to get their way. Paul and Barnabas responded to their tactics by saying, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. For the Lord gave us this command when He said, “I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corner of he earth.” Why did they first need to offer the word of the lord to the Jews? Because scripture had to be fulfilled. The coming of the earthly kingdom of the Lord depended on how the Jewish people responded to Christ’s coming and only when Israel rejected the Good News could Paul become the teacher of he Gospel to the Gentiles. The promises of the Messiah and prophesies are all based in the Old Testament and are Jewish in origin and therefore the first effort in sharing the Gospel was reserved for the Jews.
When the Gentiles heard that, they were very glad and gave thanks to the Lord for His message and for all who were chosen to receive eternal life. With that, the Lord's message spread across the region.
The Jews were all the more angry and used their influence to reach high ranking religious women and leaders of the city to stop Paul. They gathered a mob to attack Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town. As a sign of rejection, Paul and Barnabas shook the dust from their feet and went to the town of Iconium. The believers were filled with joy and full of the Holy Spirit.