STUDY SEVENTEEN: PAUL AND BARNABAS – ACTS 13:1 – 52

© Rosemary Bardsley 2026

For some time, Barnabas has deliberately encouraged Saul.

From these verses in Acts, review the history of Saul:
7:58, 8:1

8:26 – 30

11:22 – 26

11:30

12:25

Acts 13 begins with a report of how the church at Antioch was directed by the Holy Spirit to set apart Barnabas and Saul, where Barnabas and Saul for the work of mission (verses 1 – 4). (Barnabas and Saul, along with others, were recognized as teachers and prophets.) Their first mission trip is reported in Acts 13 and 14.

Notes: [1] In Acts 14:4 &14 both Barnabas and Paul are called ‘apostles’. Barnabas was not one of the Twelve (the faithful eleven appointed by Christ, plus Matthias appointed to replace Judas in Acts 1); nor was he, like Saul, appointed directly by the risen, exalted Christ. It is likely that, having been sent out by the church in Antioch, he is seen as an ‘apostle’ – one who, like contemporary missionaries, was sent out by a local church. The word ‘apostle’ literally means ‘one who is sent’. The word ‘missionary’ comes from the Latin – missio mittere – to send; the word ‘apostle’ is from the Greek – apostello – I send.

[2] From Acts 13:4 to the end of Acts, Luke’s reports are focused on Saul, who from 13:9 onwards he calls by his Greek name – ‘Paul’. ‘Saul’ was his Hebrew name. There was no actual ‘name change’ – both names were his names before and after his conversion.

A. CYPRUS – ACTS 13:4 – 12

Read 13:4 – 12. Answer these questions:
Having arrived at Salamis, on Cyprus, where did Saul and Barnabas preach the word of God?

Who was with them?

From verses 6 to 8, describe the two men they met after travelling the island, and coming to Paphos:
Bar-Jesus:

Sergius Paulus:

Read verses 9 – 11. Suggest how Paul knew the truth about Elymas and what would happen to him:

Think of the three facts about the proconsul reported in verses 7, 8 and 12. What two factors over-powered Elymas’ deliberate attempts to prevent the proconsul believing in Jesus Christ?

Luke has not told us very much about what happened on Cyprus – only four main facts:

[1] That they preached the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. Luke does not tell us how the Jews responded to the message. As we continue through Acts we will see that this was Paul’s regular practice when arriving in a new town or city – that he would first take the good news about Jesus Christ to the Jews in that place, and only after that preach to the Gentiles.

[2] That they travelled through the whole island. We can assume that this included preaching wherever they went, but Luke does not report that.

[3] They met BarJesus (Elymas – sorcerer). Luke describes him as ‘a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet’. Both of these – ‘sorcerer’ and ‘false prophet’ were contrary to God’s laws for his covenant people (see Deuteronomy 18:9 – 14, and 13:1 – 5). Like the false prophets defined in Deuteronomy, Elymas, tried to stop the proconsul from believing the word of God, opposing Paul and Barnabas as they spoke. Paul, ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’, was enabled by the Holy Spirit to see the truth about Elymas – that he was ‘a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right …full of all kinds of deceit and trickery …perverting the right ways of the Lord …’ Paul announced that God’s hand was against Elymas, who would become blind for a time – and that happened immediately.

What happened here is in some ways similar to other Scripture texts, in its very bold exposure of error and its instantly fulfilled prediction.

What is similar in these verses?
Jesus, speaking to some Jews in John 8:38 – 47:

Peter, to Ananias in Acts 5:3 – 5:

[Both Jesus and the apostles were quite public in their exposure of false-teaching; they were not bothered at all by being seen as ‘judgemental’ or ‘discriminatory’ or ‘unloving’ or ‘divisive’. As far as Jesus and the apostles were concerned, God’s truth was the most important thing, more important than ‘love’. Without God’s truth we do not know what ‘love’ is, nor do we know that God values ‘love’. Without God’s truth, any unity is, of necessity, based on the ‘lowest common denominator’ – that amount of truth upon which everyone is happy to agree, which means a lot of God’s truth is discarded. Note that the large majority of the New Testament letters were written to correct false teaching that had already entered the church. See these studies for detailed comment.]

[4] Their visit to the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, who sent for them because he wanted to hear the word of God. Elymas tried to turn him away from the faith, but his actions actually resulted in the proconsul believing the gospel when he saw Elymas’ instant blindness, following Paul’s exposure of his wickedness. The conversion of the proconsul is the only reported ‘result’ of their mission on Cyprus.

B. PISIDIAN ANTIOCH – ACTS 13:13 – 52

Paul and Barnabas moved into the territory that we now know as Turkey. Nothing is reported of their time in Perga, except that from there John Mark left them to return to Jerusalem. Moving on to Antioch in Psidia, they went to the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath, where they were asked if they had any message of encouragement for the people. (This kind of invitation to speak was a normal practice in synagogues.)

B.1 What Paul preached – 13:16 – 41
Paul addressed his message in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch to ‘Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God’ (verse 16), and ‘brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles’. This tells us that there were both Jews by birth and Gentiles who had converted to Judaism in the synagogue. Paul’s message included:

[1] Reference to God’s involvement in the history of Israel (verses 17 – 22).

Read verses 17 – 22. How did Paul describe God’s involvement in …
Israel’s origin?

Their long sojourn in Egypt?

Their escape from Egypt?

Their 40 years in the desert?

Their entry into the land of Canaan?

The leadership of the Israelites?

Did you notice that Paul’s focus was not the history of the people of Israel, but what God did – how they owed everything to God right from the very beginning of their history, a history through which God brought his purpose for them to pass, regardless of their compliance or agreement.

[2] The coming of the Saviour, Jesus, the promised descendant of David, whose coming was announced by John the Baptist (verses 23 – 25).

Having talked about God’s involvement in Israel’s history up to the time of David (whom all Jews knew was the ancestor of the promised Messiah) Paul jumps over the history after David to directly focus on God’s fulfilment of his promise in the coming of the Saviour, Jesus. He referred to John the Baptist’s affirmation that he himself was not the promised One, who was coming after him and whose sandals he was unworthy to untie.

Check these references to John the Baptist’s words:
Matthew 3:3, 11, 12
Mark 1:2 – 8
Luke 3:3 – 6,15 – 17
John 1:19 – 34

[3] How the failure of the people and leaders of Jerusalem to recognize Jesus fulfilled God’s purpose (verses 26 – 29).

The message of salvation (centred on Jesus the Saviour) was sent to the Jews (verse 26), but they did not recognize Jesus. Instead, they rejected him, condemned him without proper grounds, and asked Pilate to have him executed. In doing this, they did not realise that they were fulfilling what had been predicted in the Old Testament.

What did Paul say about this fulfilment of prophecy?
Verse 27:

Verse 29:

[4] The resurrection of Jesus (verses 30 – 37).

Paul included nothing about the life and teaching of Jesus, only a little about his death, but much more about his resurrection. Perhaps this is because without Jesus’ resurrection, his death is nothing more than any other human death.

What did Paul say about Jesus’ resurrection?
Verse 30:

Verse 31:

Verse 32, 33:

Verse 34:

Verse 36, 37:

Paul understood that God’s raising Jesus from death is just as much a part of the ‘good news’ (verse 32), and just as much a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (verse 33), as his death was. In both the death and resurrection of Jesus God was working his purpose out. Quoting from the Psalms and Isaiah, Paul taught that the resurrection identified Jesus as God’s Son (verse 33, Psalm 2:7), the promised descendant of David (verse 34, Isaiah 55:3), and God’s ‘Holy One’ (verse 35 – 37, Psalm 16:10).

[5] The good news – confirmed by God raising up Jesus – is that through Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed; through him everyone who believes is justified (verses 38, 39). Paul gave this justification (acquittal) maximum application – ‘justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses’ (verse 39). Note that Paul explains justification at length in Romans and Galatians. See these studies on justification for more detailed comment.

[6] A warning against unbelief (verses 40, 41).

Paul warned his hearers against a disbelief similar to the disbelief which Habakkuk had spoken of to his generation (see Habakkuk 1:5). God does things that seem impossible to believe – whether it is using the Babylonians to accomplish his purpose (Habakkuk 1:6), or providing forgiveness of sins (justification/acquittal) through the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of his Son. Jesus’ contemporaries had, for the most part, had not recognized him, denied his resurrection and did not believe that salvation – forgiveness of sins/justification – was given freely by God (by grace, apart from works) to everyone who believed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. [We will see the same rejection of Jesus Christ, the same unbelief, as we read about Paul’s mission trips.]

B.2 The response to Paul’s message – Acts 13:42 – 45

Read the verses. Answer these questions:
What was the initial response – verse 42?

Who followed Paul and Barnabas to talk further about what he had said – verse 43?

What does Luke say that suggests that some of these people came to faith in Jesus Christ – verse 43?

What happened on the following Sabbath – verse 44?

How did ‘the Jews’ react – verse 45?

The initial response to Paul’s message in the synagogue was an invitation to speak again on the next Sabbath. Also part of the initial response, some from the synagogue, both Jews and Gentile converts to Judaism, followed Paul and Barnabas to talk further about his message. It seems quite clear that some of these believed what Paul had said, and were by that belief in Jesus Christ, saved. Paul and Barnabas ‘urged them to continue in the grace of God’ (verse 43), that is, to live every day relating to God in and through Jesus Christ, trusting in him alone for forgiveness and justification, and never again to relate to God on the basis of personal keeping of the Law.

So impacted were these people, these new believers, that it seems they spread the word about the good news; as a result ‘almost the whole city’ turned up at the synagogue ‘to hear the word of the Lord’ (verse 44).

But not everyone was happy about that. The reaction of ‘the Jews’ when they saw the crowds was ‘they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying’ – verse 45. They were indignant that a message of free salvation was being preached to the Gentiles, so indignant that they actively contradicted what Paul was saying; so indignant that they actually blasphemed (according to the Greek text). [The NASV reads ‘they were filled with jealousy, and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming’.] In contradicting Paul’s message about Jesus Christ, they denied the deity of Christ, they denied God’s affirmation that Jesus was his Son by raising him from the dead, and they denied the Holy Spirit’s testimony about Christ. The warning that Paul had given them on the previous Sabbath (verse 41) had fallen on deaf ears, and the ‘perish’ contained in the warning would fall on them unless they changed their minds and believed in Jesus Christ.

B.3 How Paul and Barnabas responded – 13:46, 47
Paul and Barnabas were not silenced by the Jews’ opposition. They spoke of the necessity of preaching ‘the word of God’ (the gospel of Jesus Christ) to the Jews first, but, given the Jews rejection of the message and of the eternal life it promised, they would now preach that message to the Gentiles.

Paul’s reference in verse 47 to Isaiah 49:6 has three levels of meaning: To take the light of God to the Gentiles had, originally, been God’s commission to Israel, his servant, but they had failed. Ultimately, it is Jesus, the one true Israelite, who is the light for the Gentiles. The third level is the one that Paul and Barnabas refer to here – that, in fulfilling their commission to preach Christ to the Gentiles, they are bringing God’s light to the Gentiles, they are taking his salvation to the ends of the earth.

The opposite of light, the absence of light, is darkness. God is light; the absence of God is darkness.

What do these texts say about the light of God’s truth replacing the darkness of unbelief?
Isaiah 9:1, 2:

Isaiah 42:6, 7:

Isaiah 60:1 – 3:

Matthew 6:23b:

John 3:17 – 21:

John 8:12:

John 12:46:

Acts 26:18:

2Corinthians 4:4 – 6:

Ephesians 5:8:

Colossians 1:13:

1Peter 2:9:

1John 1:5

Paul and Barnabas were commissioned to take the light of Christ into the darkness.

B.4 Further reactions – Acts 13:48 – 52
[1] The Gentiles rejoiced, and honoured (the Greek word is often translated ‘glorified’) the word of God. Luke reports that ‘all who were appointed for eternal life believed’ – verse 48. This statement raises the issue of predestination/election, which we will not address here. Sufficient to say that, regardless of what we might believe about predestination from God’s perspective, these people who were saved were, from the human perspective, saved because of a number of human factors:

Paul and Barnabas were sent out by the church in Antioch to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.

Paul and Barnabas obeyed that commission, which they understood as God’s commission: they went.

Paul and Barnabas preached the true message.

The people involved heard the message, and obeyed its command to believe in Jesus Christ, confessing him as Lord.

Paul, who wrote much about predestination and election, did not exclude the necessary human element in salvation. He wrote forcefully of this necessary human element in Romans 10:9 – 17.

Read Romans 10:9 – 17. List the human elements involved in a person getting saved:

[2] Verse 49 – ‘the word of God spread through the whole region’.

[3] Opposition and expulsion – verses 50, 51.

Read verses 50 and 51.
What did the Jews do?

Who did they use?

How did Paul and Barnabas respond?

[4] The believers left behind in Pisidian Antioch – verse 52. The new believers, here called ‘disciples’, ‘were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit’.
Despite all the trouble stirred up by the Jews, and despite the expulsion of Paul and Barnabas, so great is the salvation that they had received in receiving Christ, that they were characterised by joy. Peter spoke of such joy in 1Peter 1:6 – 9, where, despite their trials and suffering, Peter’s readers were ‘filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy’ because of the salvation they had in Christ Jesus.

The word translated ‘were filled’ is from the verb pleroo, and is in the Imperfect Tense, which reports an on-going action. These believers’ joy was a consistent characteristic of their lives.

The same verb applies to both their joy, and to the on-going, life-impacting presence of the Holy Spirit (similar to the ‘full of the Spirit’ required of the deacons appointed in Acts 6), not a one-off being ‘filled’ in the sense of being empowered to do something. These new believers were already being impacted by the transforming work of the indwelling Spirit.

What do these verses say about this inner, life-changing work of the Spirit?
2Corinthians 3:18:

Galatians 5:22, 23: