Acts 13

Last week I had the opportunity to teach at our young adults bible study. We've been going through the book of Acts, chapter by chapter. I ended up being asked to do chapter 13, the same day as the bible study -which is good, because it didn't give me any time to mess around-. As I studied Chapter 13 I learned so many things I never knew before, and I fell in love with the chapter and the book. Acts should be read as a whole, because it is the story of the early church, and it should be studied verse by verse; the book is chocked full of huge things, often packed into single versus! For example, it often says things like "When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos" pause... wait, how big is this island? well if you look up the island of Cyprus, you will find that it's about 140 miles long, by 68 miles wide... thats huge! and it would take a long time to go through it, as it's filled with mountains, lakes, forests and even snow in the winter! (The book of Acts often says places and names, but rarely tells you the distances they traveled) 

As I read chapter 13, the world of Paul and Barnabas came to life to me; I am a very visual person, and as I read I can't help but imagine what their adventure was like. The journey starts with the church in Antioch, a big happening city full of gentiles. we see a "crew" of teachers and prophets and quite plainly, just good friends: Barnabas, Simeon who they called Niger (Niger is latin for black or dark, so he was probably black), Lucius of Cyrene (He's from north Africa!), Manaen (an old friend of the guy who was incharge of Jesus during his final hours) and we also have Saul (who hasn't changed his name to Paul yet)... What an odd bunch! its cool because it shows the diversity of believers. 

If your going to skip ahead and read Chapter 13, you need to backtrack a bit and study Paul and Barnabas. You will find that Barnabas is the guy who introduced Paul to the other believers (nobody except Barnabas would trust Paul, because he persecuted the church and killed christians). So when you come to 13 you already have a sense of Barnabas and Paul's close friendship. During their missions trip they led a high up Roman official to Christ, drove off a magician, planted lots of churches, and along with many other events the chapter ends with them getting kicked out of a city and walking away, full of joy and the Holy spirit :) Saul changes his name to Paul (the name Saul is Hebrew, Paul is Greek), so we see Paul's heart turn towards the Gentiles, his original calling. 

I always used to look at Paul as a guy I wanted to be like, but now I can see I am a lot more like Barnabas, a piece maker. Though I will always desire the fire and authority of Paul in his speaking, he's just a gnarly guy! I would recommend giving it a read, are you a Barnabas or a Paul? both are essential, and together they make a great team.