Of the New Testament there are five books which may be termed historical, viz., the four Gospels and the Acts, and one which is prophetical, the Revelations or Apocalypse. So far the New Testament has features in common with the Old. The remaining twenty-one books, however, are of a character peculiar to themselves, being epistolary communications from apostles to individuals, to assemblies, to a class of believers, or to saints in general. Turning now to the Acts, the only inspired church history that we have, and the earliest account of the spread of Christian truth that we possess, written by Luke, an eye-witness of some of the facts which he has recorded (Acts 16:10, 40; 20:5; 21:25; 27-28:3110And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. (Acts 16:10)
40And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed. (Acts 16:40)
5These going before tarried for us at Troas. (Acts 20:5)
25As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication. (Acts 21:25)), we find compressed into a very small bulk an outline of the chief features of the work in Palestine and outside of it, during the first twenty-eight years from the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost.
It is clear that we have not a full account of all that went on. It is a journal or diary giving the events of each day, or each week, as they passed before the writer’s eye, or were related to him by those who took part in them. Yet there is a plan, a method in the book, presenting to us a careful selection of facts, by which the character of the work then carried on may be readily understood. Had Luke desired it, he might, we must be well assured, have written a much more detailed account of the rise and spread of that most interesting work by which people of all classes, nationalities, and intellectual powers were turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. For confining ourselves for the moment to the labors of St. Paul, whose companion for some years he clearly was, how much was there of interest in the active life of the great apostle of the Gentiles which the historian must have known, or could easily have procured from the prisoner at Rome during his enforced cessation from active missionary enterprise, whilst awaiting the issue of his appeal to the Emperor Nero! From the little that we do know, we can surmise that very much has been left unrecorded.
The history, however, bears on its face no mark of having been written in haste, nor do we gather from it that the writer was intruded upon ere he had finished his labors, obliged from some interruption, to lay down his pen at the moment, with the intention of taking it up again on the first favorable opportunity. Perusing the book we surely rise up with the belief that we have all that Luke, guided by the Holy Ghost, was intended to give. It is not a mere fragment of a history. It is not a syllabus for an elaborate work on an extended scale. It is complete as it is. It is all that he wrote, and all the history that he was intended, by the Spirit, to add to the pages of Sacred Writ. From Jerusalem to Rome, from the metropolis of Judaea to the metropolis of the Roman earth the historian conducts us, and then leaves us. We learn how the work commenced in Jerusalem. We learn that it had extended to Rome. But how or when it got there we know not. On this point, as on many others in which Luke could have enlightened us, he is carefully reticent. “My Church,” as the Lord calls it, did not exist before the day of Pentecost. There was, however, an assembly in Rome before Paul first journeyed thither along the Appian Way: and in the house of Priscilla and Aquila, Christians met for worship ere Paul had reached Jerusalem for the last time previous to his voyage to Rome (Rom. 16:33Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: (Romans 16:3)). Much then, of interest, which he has left unsaid, Luke could surely have told us. Yet he has done his work, written his inspired history in the way of all others most calculated to benefit God’s saints. For, whilst narrating facts, he recounts them in such a way as to furnish us with the characteristic features of the work to which he calls our attention.
And now, confining ourselves to the narratives of the missionary journeys of the apostle Paul, we must see that, whereas that energetic servant and traveler goes over a great deal of his ground more than once, the historian rarely details to us anything which happened in a place in a subsequent visit, if he has dilated on the work carried on there during a previous one. Twice was Paul in Greece (16-18; 20:2, 4), twice also was he at Lystra and Derbe (14; 16:1, 4); but what took place on the occasion of his second visit to these districts, with the exception of a short account of Timothy’s admission to the traveling party of his father in the faith, is buried in forgetfulness, as far as men are concerned, though written, we well know, in the book of God’s remembrance forever. Again, on two separate occasions, the apostles traversed the regions of Phrygia and Galatia (16:6; 18:23); and, although we know that in the latter province there was an extensive and most interesting work, several assemblies having been formed there (Gal. 1:2; 3:2, 4; 4:13, 152And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: (Galatians 1:2)
2This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? (Galatians 3:2)
4Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. (Galatians 3:4)
13Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. (Galatians 4:13)
15Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. (Galatians 4:15)), the historian passes it over in silence, and acquaints us only with this fact, that Paul, when he revisited those provinces, did it in an inverse order, On his first visit he went into Phrygia before Galatia, for he approached them from Lystra in Lycaonia. On the second he traversed Galatia before he entered Phrygia, having journeyed there from Antioch, in Syria. Then of his labors round about to Illyricum we have not a syllable from Luke, though Paul had traveled over these parts before Luke’s history was finished, if, indeed, it had been begun, for our only informant of this portion of the apostle’s labors is the traveler himself, who just mentions it in his letter to the Romans (15:19). Since then it is evident that it was not the historian’s intention to give us a full account of the apostle’s labors, for of his travels after the termination of his first imprisonment we have not a word from Luke, and only learn of them from notices in the epistles (2 Tim. 4:2020Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick. (2 Timothy 4:20); Titus 3:1212When I shall send Artemas unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me to Nicopolis: for I have determined there to winter. (Titus 3:12)), and yet, the evangelist was with him to almost, if not quite, the close of his life. What, it may be asked, was Luke’s design in writing, as he has done, his account of Paul’s missionary journeys? An answer to this may be found if the characteristics of these journeys are pointed out.
The journeys are three in number, related respectively in 13-14; 15:36-18:22, and 18:23-21:15, having features, some of which are common to all, but some peculiar to each of these missionary tours.
Of features in common the following may be specified:—
On each journey Paul starts from Antioch, in Syria, never from Jerusalem (13:1; 15:36; 18:33), though Jerusalem was dear to his heart, and, as occasion offered, he visited it. God’s work among the Gentiles, however, had for its starting place that city in which the gospel had been first preached to Greeks by Hellenistic Jews (11:20). The importance of this was afterward seen; since Gentiles, though indebted to those who had been Jews for their first acquaintance with the glad tidings of salvation, were never to be subordinated to Jerusalem. They stood upon equal, common, nay, the same, ground as Christians in Judea, being members with them of the body of Christ. Hence the Spirit of God selected a center on earth from which that work should spread, and He chose Antioch, on the banks of the Orontes. From thence the apostles Barnabas and Saul started at first; from thence, too, Paul, with his companions, went forth on his subsequent tours. Thus the Gentiles to whom he went had nothing to do directly with Jerusalem, and Jewish customs; and the habits of Christians in the holy city were never the rule for Gentile converts, nor the model to which they were to be conformed. Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, started forth each time from Jerusalem (8:14, 25; 9:32; 11:2). Paul each time began from Antioch, and returned thither twice. What his purpose was in his third journey we cannot state, for, that tour was never concluded, his arrest at Jerusalem upset all his plans, and certainly prevented his return to Antioch. But whilst the freedom of Gentile converts from Jewish ways and Judaizing practices was thus provided for, it is instructive to remark that the uniform plan of Paul was to seek out, first of all, those of his own countrymen in the cities whither he went. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek was his invariable rule. If the former rejected the offer of grace, he left them and turned to the Gentiles. God’s joy in saving souls was not to be curtailed because the Jews rejected the salvation (8:46; 18: 6, 7; 19:9). Fence he taught in the synagogues, wherever there was one, till the Jews could bear the word no longer. At Salamis there were several synagogues (13: 5). Elsewhere very generally there was only one (8:14; 14:1; 17: 1, 10, 17; 18:4, 19). At some places, as Philippi, and, perhaps, at Lystra, Derbe, Amphipolis, and Apollonia, there was none. Yet, at Philippi, he sought out the place for prayer, whither the Jews resorted, and spoke unto the women whom he met there (16:13). Thus earnestly and persistently did he seek to win them to Christ, and though they were, for the most part, his bitterest foes, divine love in him was active towards them.
A third feature common to the three journeys is Paul’s care for the saints. With a heart that yearned over sinners, as his first Epistle to the Thessalonians discloses (1 Thess. 2:1,81For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain: (1 Thessalonians 2:1)
8So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. (1 Thessalonians 2:8)), he also thought of the saints, and provided for their welfare (14:21-23; 15:36, 41; 18:23; 20:2, 7-11, 17-36). His desire for such, that epistle (1 Thess. 2:9-129For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. 10Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: 11As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, 12That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:9‑12)), and others fully demonstrate. In each of these features, common to all the journeys, and indicative of the principle on which the work in general was carried on, there are characteristics peculiar to each of Paul’s missionary travels.
Very soon after Paul was converted he commenced working for the Lord, by preaching and teaching. The synagogues at Damascus, for there were several in that city, were visited by the convert, and the truth, that Jesus is God’s Son, was preached to the congregations assembled within their walls (9:20-22). At Jerusalem, too, he labored (9:29), and probably in Syria and Cilicia (Gal. 1:2121Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; (Galatians 1:21); Acts 15:4141And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. (Acts 15:41)), before Barnabas brought him to Antioch. Barnabas, too, was no untried servant before he went down to survey the work on the banks of the Orontes. Hence the appointment of these two for the mission work, narrated in Acts 13, was not their first attempt at laboring in the word. Paul, ere this, had preached the faith which once he destroyed. Yet it was a call of no ordinary kind, and one peculiar to them. The glad tidings of grace had reached Antioch through human channels, whose names are to us unknown, but led surely of the Spirit in what they did, and blessed greatly in their simple, yet earnest work of acquainting the Greeks around them with the grace of which all could be partakers (11:21). But a time had come when the gospel was to spread abroad, far and wide, and the instruments chosen for that service were Barnabas and Paul. Accordingly, one marked feature of this, the first of the three missionary journeys, of which Luke gives details, is the action of the Holy Ghost in selecting and sending forth these two workmen, commissioned by Himself, to commence, and to carry out the work to which He had called them. They departed on their travels, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. A Divine Person was on earth directing the spreading abroad of God’s truth. One discerns in the work at Antioch, and in the setting apart of these two men for aggressive missionary enterprise, the care of the Spirit of God. He led, undoubtedly, these Hellenistic Jews to evangelize Greeks at Antioch. A happy service it must have been. Something, too, so new for the believers to embark in, to be allowed to tell to many other nations of the saving grace of God, in which they, too, could share, no longer to be as dogs under the table, but to enjoy equal, common rights with the most favored of men upon earth, how the heart of those earnest Christians must have swelled within them as they witnessed Greek after Greek bow to God’s testimony, and drink for himself of living water, never more to thirst! A great number, we read, believed. The work was extensive, genuine, and abiding. Earnest laborers spoke to hearts made ready to receive the message. The hand of the Lord, too, was with these men, from whom rivers of living water were flowing out in fertilizing, streams. Tidings of this reaching Jerusalem, Barnabas himself, a Hellenistic or foreign Jew, a native of Cyprus, was sent by the Church to look into the work. Fresh workmen were now required to carry on what these hearty Christians of Cyprus and Cyrene had commenced. Exhortation was needed. This Barnabas could give and he gave it. But more was wanted. Conversions, in great numbers, had taken place. The believers then required teaching, and such as Barnabas evidently felt he could not supply single handed, so he went to Tarsus for Saul, and brought him to Antioch, and there, for a whole year, they taught much people. Thus, to the ordinary work of evangelization, there was added exhortation, and there was introduced, in addition, what is called teaching. Conversion, exhortation, teaching, all these are recognized as requisite in such a work. Barnabas was pre-eminently, it would seem, an exhorter, but Paul was a teacher. Whilst the quondam Levite was alone at Antioch, exhortation seems to have been the character of the work; when Saul appeared, teaching was its distinguishing feature. What happy days these must have been—a halcyon time for all concerned! But souls elsewhere had need of salvation, and the Spirit was about to manifest His care for such.
Barnabas, then, and Saul are nominated for this work; called to it by the Holy Ghost. We have seen what simple hearted men can do in the way of evangelistic service, and how the Lord owned their work, yet for the service now to be undertaken men were chosen who could not only tell of God’s saving grace, but could minister to believers as well. Their journey, then, was undertaken by divine authority, and souls were to be evangelized, churches planted, and believers built up by men fitted for such a work, and specially selected by the Spirit of God. How carefully did the Spirit keep the direction of the work in His own hands. The instruments were both chosen and commissioned by Himself. Besides telling us this, that the work was set on foot by divine authority, Luke gives us a sample of the gospel which they proclaimed. Often must Paul have preached the good tidings of grace. It was nothing new to him to set it forth. Yet till he started on this journey we have no opportunity of learning how he presented it. But now, conducting his readers, as it were, to Antioch in Pisidia, after tracing thither the steps of these two apostles (14:4, 14) Luke admits us to the privilege of becoming acquainted with an evangelistic address given by Saul of Tarsus to the congregation assembled in the synagogue on the Sabbath-day. And this is the only one of its kind delivered by Paul, of which the historian has preserved the account. The company was a mixed one, composed of Jews and proselytes—children of the stock of Abraham, and men who feared God. At Jerusalem Peter had preached, but he had for his audience those who were concerned in the judicial murder of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s audience at Antioch in Pisidia stood on different ground. Hence to them he could speak of the fullest grace, without having to charge on them the sin of crucifying the Lord, the position of Paul’s audience being more like that of souls in general, the position of Peter’s being peculiar. Compare Peter’s words in 2:23, 3:14-17, 4:10, 5:30, with Paul’s in 13:27. What, then, was the character of the message delivered by him on that day? The burden of it was this: God was a giver. He had given to Israel rulers; He had given them promises, which He had now fulfilled; and would give to Israel the sure mercies of David, made sure because to be fulfilled to them in the One who was risen from the dead. And so free, so full was God’s grace, that forgiveness of sins was now preached through the Lord Jesus, and justification, too, from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. A full, a rich, a precious message indeed, and many felt it to be so, for they asked to have it repeated. For we should read the passage, “And as they went out they besought that these words might be spoken to them on the next Sabbath” (13:42), the general request of the congregation thus witnessing to the character of the message, which suited all classes. We see, then, surely the propriety of the historian introducing into his account of the first journey a sample of the apostle’s way of preaching that glad tidings of which he was made a minister (Col. 1:2323If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; (Colossians 1:23)).
Another feature of this journey should he noticed. At Antioch, addressing those who knew the Scriptures or had access to them, Paul refers to them; but at times he had people to speak to—pure barbarians, ignorant barbarians—who knew nothing of the Old Testament volume. How would he deal with such? On what common ground could he meet such? Of this likewise Luke informs us, as he narrates the brief discourse to the multitude at the gates of the city of Lystra.
The God of grace was the God of creation, the living God, who displayed Himself in creation as a giver to men upon earth of rain and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness. Thus, whether in the synagogue, or surrounded by a crowd of ignorant idolaters who thought to offer sacrifices to him and Barnabas, he proclaimed the living God as One who gave to His creatures—a thought to many surely so new, but so bright—God in the activity of His grace had given His Son to die for sinners, and was now giving everlasting life, and pardon, and peace to all who believed on the Lord. Such was the character of God which they set forth, a message capable of adaptation to every class and condition of men upon earth.
The second journey was undertaken by Paul without Barnabas, for reasons into which we need not here enter. The work, commenced by divine authority, was carried on under divine directions. This was the special characteristic of the second journey, which, commencing from Antioch in Syria, was continued through Asia Minor to Greece, and subsequently to Jerusalem. On this tour Paul was to be brought into contact with educated Greeks, in places which had become famous for mental activity, as Athens and Corinth. The Greeks, he wrote to the Corinthians, seek after wisdom; the activity of man’s mind was thought much of by them. On this tour, then, the guidance of the Spirit is specially demonstrated. Human wisdom did not direct the apostle, for he was subject to divine guidance. Traversing Asia Minor, he desired to enter the province of Asia, but the Holy Ghost forbade him; seeking to turn aside to Bithynia, the Spirit of Jesus would not suffer them to go there: neither to the right hand nor to the left could they turn, so they had to journey straight on to Troas. Clearly divine guidance was manifested. Paul’s mind would have led him to evangelize still in Asia, the Holy Ghost’s purpose, however, was to lead him into Europe. The plan, then, of the work, and the development of it, were both of God. And when they arrived at Troas, Paul understood the reason and the wisdom of his being diverted from his purpose. The time had arrived to carry the gospel into Greece, and a vision appeared to him of a man of Macedonia entreating his assistance. Thus were they directed. Reaching Philippi, there was work to be done in the prison; but to evangelize the gaoler, one of those whom the Father had given to His Son, Paul and Silas must be imprisoned. In a way surely never expected, the Lord worked in that chief town of the province of Macedonia Prima. To Thessalonica, the capital of the second division of Macedonia, to Berea, and to Athens the apostle traveled, and finally reached Corinth. Laboring for a time with apparently little success, the Lord Jesus by night in a vision comforted him, and acquainted him with His purpose of grace towards souls in that licentious city; and thus again divinely directed, the apostle remains and meets with great success. How plain was it that in this work human wisdom had no place! Had Paul acted in accordance with his own thoughts, he would not then have crossed the straits which separates Asia from Europe, and the work at Thessalonica, Philippi, and Corinth would have been postponed. What he was not then allowed to do, he accomplished on his third circuit. Where he had not thought of going he was guided by the Holy Ghost, who always in the Acts directs the work, whilst the Lord cheers His servant in the midst of discouragements. How needful is divine direction and superintendence, when even an apostle could be wholly at fault!
Another feature in connection with this journey is the character of the only address of which Luke has preserved any account. For a purely evangelistic discourse by the great apostle of the Gentiles we should turn to Acts 13; for his manner of reasoning with ignorant heathen we should read his few words at Lystra. At Athens, on the Areopagus, how different is the tenor of his discourse from either of the two just mentioned! On this occasion he is more on his defense; but seizing an opportunity from the inscription on an altar he had met with, he announced to them The Unknown God, and demonstrated the insensate folly of even the most intellectual of mankind. The Greeks called themselves “Offspring of God.” This, in a way, was true, for Adam was the son of God. But how then could they worship stocks and stones as their gods? The boast of their poets, Aratus and Cleanthes, demonstrated the folly of their practice. If human wisdom could be at fault as to the work of the Lord, it was indeed a blind guide to lead its possessor into the knowledge of God. The tenor, then, of this discourse, is in perfect harmony with the special characteristic of St. Paul’s second journey.
From Antioch he started a third time to visit the churches and evangelize souls. Re-visiting scenes of former labor in Asia and in Europe, the historian directs our attention chiefly to the work at Ephesus. A special feature of this circuit is the divine witness borne to the work. Paul worked miracles through divine power. Ephesus was a chief center of idolatries. The inhabitants prided themselves on their city being the temple keeper (νεωκόρος) of the goddess Diana, or Artemis. On this journey then, the apostle was brought in a very marked way face to face with idolatry, and God bore witness to His servant, accrediting his teaching and apostolic commission by the works which Paul was permitted to do. He ministered the Holy Ghost to believers at Ephesus, and God wrought special miracles by him. Virtue could flow to others through handkerchiefs and aprons carried to the sick from his person, and the name of Jesus, when used by him against evil spirits, was found to be a word of power. This was especially demonstrated on one eventful occasion, when two of the sons of Sceva, a Jew and chief of the priests, attempted to exorcise demons by virtue of their name. For “The evil spirit leaped on them and overcame both of them,” as the most ancient authorities have delivered to us, and from the mouth of his wretched victim the demon proclaimed his knowledge of Jesus and his acquaintance of Paul. Jesus, as his Master, he knew, with Paul, as servant of that Master, he was fully acquainted,—but who were they? Now such wonders wrought in Ephesus impressed men with fear! There in the very center of idolatry, within the city devoted to Artemis, that which no heathen, no idolater could do, that which these Jews were not permitted to effect, Paul could and did by the name of the lowly Nazarene. Thus to minister the Spirit to believers, to heal the sick though at a distance from him, and to cast out devils by the name of Jesus, and to raise the dead as he did at Troas (20: 9), for Eutychus was taken up dead—these works of divine power attested the apostle’s divine commission, as one entrusted with a message from God to man. The importance, and the significance of such attestations, especially at Ephesus, cannot surely for one moment be doubted.
But who was Paul, who wrought these mighty works, and with whom the evil spirit was well acquainted? He was a man of like passions with those around him, made of the same blood, and partaker of the same nature. He was mighty when energized by the Spirit, though a weak dependent creature in himself. Bold for the Lord before the world (19:30), he felt all the weakness of a creature when he looked at himself or his surroundings (Acts 20:1919Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: (Acts 20:19); 1 Cor. 2:33And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. (1 Corinthians 2:3); 2 Cor. 1:8-108For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: 9But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 10Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; (2 Corinthians 1:8‑10)). He was powerful when dependent and obedient, and in nothing behind the chiefest apostles, though he was nothing; and, though able to cast out devils, and to heal the sick, and to raise the dead, he could neither shelter himself from persecution or death, nor raise up a companion to health for his own comfort (Phil. 2:2727For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. (Philippians 2:27)). And during that very journey when his power seemed the greatest, he felt his own weakness, despairing even of life. He had done wonders before (13:11; 14:3, 8; 16:18), but these wrought in the third journey were of a special character, confirming his divine commission and the truth he proclaimed, as the miracles wrought by the Lord Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem attested in the most marked way the reality of His claim to be Jehovah. In Jehovah’s house the Lord Jesus healed the blind and the lame. In the city of Artemis, the Ephesian Diana, Paul worked miracles by the power of the one true God, and in the name of His Son Jesus. Of the character, then, of the works done by this true servant of Christ, Luke particularly informs us; but of his discourses when disputing with the Jews in the synagogue at Ephesus, or in the school of Tyrannus in the same city, we have no description, any more than we have of his exhortations to disciples in Greece, or of his sermon on that memorable night at Troas. The only one that Luke gives us is the apostle’s valedictory address to the elders of Ephesus assembled to meet him at Miletus.
On the first journey we were introduced to a sample of his evangelistic addresses. On this, the third journey, we have Paul’s own review of his labors at Ephesus. In it the general tenor of his preaching is sketched out (vv. 20-24, 25-27), and his general bearing in that city is described (vv. 19, 31, 33-35). This, then, was no ideal sketch of what an apostle ought to be and to do, but the simple, unvarnished outline of his labors and practices, with all of which his audiences must have been well acquainted. With the words of the Lord Jesus, unrecorded elsewhere— “It is more profitable to give than to receive”—Paul’s affecting address ended. A fitting conclusion indeed. The Master had fully exemplified the truth of His own words. His servant in measure had done the same. But the work commenced by Paul and Barnabas was not to drop because Paul might depart; so he commended the elders to their unfailing resource—God, and the word of His grace. The chief human instrument might vanish from the scene, but the work was not his—it was God’s. The distinctive features of these several journeys proclaim it; Paul in his closing words asserts it. A divine work had been begun, the continuance of which depended not on the preservation on earth of the first workmen, but on the unchanging purpose of God, and on the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost.
And further, the suitability of the word to meet all classes had been amply demonstrated. Jews and Greeks, ignorant and educated men, worshippers of Jehovah and worshippers of idols, alike attest its saving power. Cities most famed for the cultivation of the human intellect and philosophical speculations, great centers of commerce, as well as rural and outlying districts, had heard the word, and from their midst the number of believers had been augmented. An Areopagite at Athens and the city chamberlain of Corinth were enrolled as converts. The jailer at Philippi and Lydia of Thyatira confessed the Lord Jesus.
God had worked. This, Luke’s account of his journeys forcibly impresses on his readers. By divine authority this great movement commenced, under divine direction it was carried on, and it was borne witness to by works of divine power. Paul has, we all know, left the earth; but the work has not stopped, for its Energizer and Director abides here still.