Devotional Readings

Paul’s Complete Speech – Acts 13

Acts contains many speeches delivering the message  of Faith.

In Acts 13 we see a comprehensive account given by Paul
Note who this message was given to and how it was received..
Act 13:16    Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.
Act 13:38    Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

Act 13:41    Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.

Act 13:42    And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.

Act 13:43    Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

Act 13:44    And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.

Act 13:48    And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

Act 13:49    And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.

Act 13:50    But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.

Act 13:51    But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.

Matthew 10:14   (KJV)

14  And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

Matthew 10:14 Gill

And whosoever shall not receive you,…. Into their houses, and refuse to entertain them and provide for them in a friendly manner;

nor hear your words, slight their salutations, make no account of, but despise their good wishes for their welfare; and also treat with contempt the doctrines of the Gospel preached by them; and either would not attend on their ministry, or if they did, give no credit to what they should say, but deride and reject them.

When ye depart out of that house, or city; to another house, or to another city, being obliged to remove, through their contemptuous rejection of them:

shake off the dust of your feet. So Paul and Barnabas did at Antioch in Pisidia, when the Jews contradicted and blasphemed the Gospel preached by them, raised a persecution against them, and expelled them out of their coasts, Act 13:51 which ceremony was ordered by Christ to be observed even to the cities of Judea, that should despise and reject the ministry of his apostles; and that either to show that they did not come to them with worldly views, with any design to amass riches and wealth to themselves, for they would not so much as carry away with them the dust on their feet, but it was purely with a view to their welfare, both spiritual and temporal; or to testify that they had been among them, and that that very dust they shook off their feet would rise up in judgment against them, and declare that the Gospel had been preached among them, and they had rejected it, which will be an aggravation of their condemnation; or rather to observe to them, that such was their wickedness, that even the dust of their country was infected thereby, and therefore they shook it off, as though it defiled them, as the dust of an Heathen country was thought by the Jews to do; so that by this action they signified that they would have nothing more to do with them, or say to them, and that they looked upon them as impure and unholy, as any Heathen city or country. There seems to be an allusion to some maxims and customs of the Jews, with respect to the dust of Heathen countries.

“On account of six doubts, they say (u), they burn the first offering, for a doubt of a field in which a grave might be, and for a doubt עפר הבא מארץ העמים, “of the dust which comes from the land of the Gentiles”, &c.”

On which Bartenora has this note;

“all dust which comes from the land of the Gentiles, is reckoned by us as the rottenness of a dead carcass; and of these two, “the land of the Gentiles”, and a field in which is a grave, it is decreed that they “defile” by touching, and by carrying.”

Again (w),

“the dust of a field in which is a grave, and the dust without the land (of Israel) which comes along with an herb, are unclean.”

Upon which Maimonides makes this remark,

“that the dust of a field that has a grave in it, and the dust which is without the land of Israel, defile by touching and carrying; or if, when it hangs at the end of an herb, when they root it out of the dust of such a field, it is unclean.”

Hence they would not suffer herbs to be brought out of an Heathen country into the land of Israel, lest dust should be brought along with them.

“A Misnic doctor teaches (x), that they do not bring herbs from without the land (of Israel into it), but our Rabbins permit it; what difference is there between them? Says R. Jeremiah, they take care of their dust; that is the difference between them.”

On that clause, “they take care of their dust”, the gloss is,

“lest there should be brought with it מגוש ארץ העמים, “any of the dust of the land of the Gentiles”, which defiles in the tent, and pollutes the purity of the land of Israel.”

(u) Misn. Taharot, c. 4. sect. 5. Vid. c. 5. 1. & Maimon & Bartenora in ib. (w) Misn. Oholot. c. 17. sect. 5. (x) T. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 12. 1.

Act 13:1 📝 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Act 13:2    As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

Act 13:3    And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

Act 13:4    So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.

Act 13:5    And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister.

Act 13:6    And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus:

Act 13:7    Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God.

Act 13:8    But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.

Act 13:9    Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him,

Act 13:10    And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

Act 13:11    And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.

Act 13:12    Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.

Act 13:13    Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.

Act 13:14    But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.

Act 13:15    And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

Act 13:16    Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.

Act 13:17    The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it.

Act 13:18    And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.

Act 13:19    And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.

Act 13:20    And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.

Act 13:21    And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.

Act 13:22    And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

Act 13:23    Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:

Act 13:24    When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

Act 13:25    And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.

Act 13:26    Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.

Act 13:27    For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.

Act 13:28    And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.

Act 13:29    And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.

Act 13:30    But God raised him from the dead:

Act 13:31    And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.

Act 13:32    And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,

Act 13:33    God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.

Act 13:34    And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.

Act 13:35    Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Act 13:36    For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:

Act 13:37    But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.

Act 13:38    Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

Act 13:39    And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Act 13:40    Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;

Act 13:41    Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.

Act 13:42    And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.

Act 13:43    Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

Act 13:44    And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.

Act 13:45    But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

Act 13:46    Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

Act 13:47    For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

Act 13:48    And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

Act 13:49    And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.

Act 13:50    But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.

Act 13:51    But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.

Act 13:52    And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.

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