Semikkah7

03/22/2021 – Day 309 – Acts 13 – 14 / 1 of 2 – Chapter 13-

I don’t pray nearly as much as I should before these posts but on a relative scale, this reading was up there. I don’t know how this is going to come out, but I sense that I will lean largely on Matthew Henry’s commentary. I read all of his commentary on these two chapters, which takes about two to three times it does for the associated Scripture section. So, if I put it in quotes, unless I note it, it comes from Matthew’s commentary. Chapter 13 will start with more short fyi bullets and a section from my word’s , not Matthew’s. I don’t know that I will continue with this practice, but I will reference Matthew’s commentary with the specific bible verse(s) coverage. I will leave it to y’all to have a Bible nearby for lookup if needed. Ok, let’s get started:

• A general note – I become more and more convinced that it is good to have 1) maps and 2) timelines within easy reach as you read , reflect and pray on these verses, be they the Scripture itself, or the commentary companion.
• In around 13:14 , Paul and Barnabas arrive in Antioch, in Pisidia. This is Antioch on the border of “Galatia” , not the Antioch in Syria which is off the Mediterranean just a few short nautical miles from the northeastern coast of Cypress. The towns mentioned: Iconinium; Lystra; and Derbe are on or near the eastern border of Galatia of the time.
• Right from the top – 13:1 ; “Manaen, a person of some quality, as it should seem, for he was brought up with Herod, the tetrarch, with his comrade and intimate, which gave him a fair prospect of preferment at court, and yet for Christ’s sake, he quitted all the hopes of it. It is better to be a fellow-sufferer with a saint than a fellow-persecutor with a tetrarch. ” (Jimmy note – Well put Matthew!)
• 3:8: “Satan is in a special manner busy with great men and men of power, to keep them from being religious; because he knows that their example, whether good or bad, will have an influence upon many.” (Jimmy note – I won’t be praying for Biden, at least for that reason, for he is not in power, not really)
• 3:14 – “The first day of the week they observed among themselves as a Christian sabbath; but, if they will meet the Jews, it must be on the seventhy-day sabbath… Though they were strangers, yet they were admitted into teh synagogue, and to sit down there. Care should be taken in places of public worship that strangers be accommodated, even the poorest.”
• 3:15 – “The bare reading of the scriptures in the public assemblies is not sufficient, but they should be expounded, and the people exhorted out of them. Those that preside, and have power, in public assemblies, should provide for a word of exhortation from a strange minister may be of great use to the people. These were more noble, more generous, than the rulers of the synagogues generally were. (Jimmy note: Rest assured that Paul was well aware of this!)”
• 3:30 – “That he rose again from the dead. This was the great truth that was to be preached; for it is the main pillar, by while the whole fabric of the gospel is supported. First, He rose by consent: God raised him from the dead. Secondly, There was sufficent proof of his having risen . (v31) He was seen many days. They came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are his witnesses unto the people. (Jimmy note – Paul notes many specific names in his gospel writings. So many, if they were false, the word would have been denied by that person and the falsehood spread around the community.) Thirdly, The resurrection of Christ was the performance of the promise. It was not only true news, but good news…. Fourthly, The resurrection of Christ ws the great proof of his being the Son of God, and confirms what was written in the second Psalm. He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead. When he was first raised up out of obscurity, God declared concerning him by a voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son (Matt. iii 17), which has a plain reference to that in the Second Psalm, Thou art my Son. Now all which was declared at Christ’s baptism and again at his transfiguration, was undeniably proved by his resurrection….” Fifthly, His being raised the third day, so as not to see corruption, and to a heavenly life, so as no more to return to corruption, further confirms his being the Messiah promised…”
• vs 42: “The Gentiles were as willing to hear the gospel as those Jews were to get out of the hearing of it… What we have heard we should desire to hear again, that it may take deep root in us, and the nail that is driven may be clenched. It aggravates the bad disposition of the Jews that the Gentiles desired to hear that often which they were not willing to hear once.”
• vs 46: ” In one sense we must all judge ourselves unworthy of everlasting life, for there is nothing in us by which we can pretent to merit it, but here the meaning is, “You make it to appear that you are not meant for eternal life. You do, in effect, pass this judgment upon yourselves, and out of your own mouth you shall be judged, you will not have it by Christ, by whom alone it is to be had, and so shall your doom be, you shall not have it at all.”