Acts 12:17-25

17 The death of James and the escape of Peter mark a crisis in the history of the kingdom proclamation. The power in Jerusalem passes out of the hands of the apostles into the hands of James, the Lord's brother. Note that Peter does not ask them to report to the rest of the apostles, but to James and the brethren. Henceforth these have the controlling voice in Jerusalem. The death of James broke the ranks of the apostles. Now there were only eleven. Peter was compelled to flee and John does not seem to have taken an active part.

It is most significant that the leadership now falls upon one who was never commissioned by the Lord, but held his place and wielded his influence on the ground of a close physical relationship to the Lord. While He was yet on earth none of his brothers or sisters believed in

Him. Our Lord made light of such physical ties. To those who told Him that His mother and brothers wished to speak to Him He said "My mother and My brethren are these who are hearing the word of God and doing it" (Luk_8:21). But the believers in Jerusalem have drifted away from spiritual realities and give the Lord's own brother the place which He gave to the apostles. James early had a high place among the Jerusalem saints. Paul makes special mention of him when he went up to Jerusalem (Gal_1:19). This is in marked contrast to the course of Paul, which is characterized by the gradual elimination of the physical and a strong tendency toward the spiritual.

20 Josephus' account of Herod's death agrees with this in all its main features, though he does not seem to know of the reason for the flattery, nor does he ascribe the disease to a messenger of the Lord. In accepting divine honors Herod becomes a type of the great dictator of the end time, who will set himself up, saying that he is God, and will be slain by the Lord Himself.

24 The death of Herod seems to have stopped the persecution of the apostles.

25 Barnabas and Saul were commissioned to bring succor to the poor (Act_11:30). The manuscripts vary greatly as to whether they return out of, or from, or into Jerusalem, or into

Antioch.

2 The severance of Barnabas and Saul by the spirit is the prelude to an entirely new departure in the book of Acts. The commission entrusted to the twelve apostles has been attempted and their testimony rejected. They went to the limits of the land of Israel. Beyond this they dld not venture. Jerusalem, in Judea, now gives place to Antioch, outside the land. The message now goes to the dispersion among the nations and to the proselytes and even to the nations themselves, and continues until it becomes manifest that the Jews outside the land refuse the Messiah, even as those in the land have done. This ministry is carried on by an entirely new set of apostles. The twelve have no part in it. Saul, or Paul, as he is now called, takes the place of Peter in this new apostolic group.

2 The choice of Barnabas and Saul by the spirit is in marked contrast with the choice of James, the brother of our Lord, by the flesh. He leads the apostasy of the pentecostal believers, who insisted on circumcision and law keeping. He was the author of decrees, which were concerned only with the flesh. This new departure takes us in the opposite direction. Saul was chosen by the spirit and led by the spirit until, at length, in his epistles, he gives the flesh no place at all.

6 Sergius Paul was the first individual among the nations who heard the evangel, without first becoming a proselyte of Judaism. Hence his case is typical. Bar-Jesus stands for the Jewish dispersion, who always resisted every attempt to proclaim the evangel to the nations. Seldom, indeed, do we find Paul performing any judgment miracle, but here he blinds the sorcerer for a season. This is the judgment which has befallen Israel during the present administration of God's grace. Israel, in part, has become calloused until the full complement of the nations may be entering (Rom_11:25). Throughout Paul's missionary journeys, when he turned from the unbelieving Jews to the nations, the Jews became jealous and sought to turn the gentiles against him. They became blind spiritually, as Bar-Jesus became physically.

The spiritual tendency we have observed is emphasized by the change of Saul's name to Paul. The name Saul suggested the first king in Israel, who was chosen by the people because of his physical superiority, well suited to Paul before he was called by Christ, and in accord with the trend of affairs in Jerusalem, but not at all in harmony with his present ministry. It is usually derived from the Latin, meaning little, but it may also be derived from the root pau, in Greek, which means an interval, the ending, of course taking the masculine form rather than the feminine of the ordinary Greek term. Saul is Hebrew; Paul is Greek.. This change of name coincides with his new commission. This signification is most appropriate to his special ministries, which fill in the interval during which Israel is thrust aside. It is brought in for the first time at the precise point when this doom is pronounced on Bar-Jesus. It marks the beginning of God's new departure, which brings blessing to the nations through Israel's apostasy. It was given when the first real gentile believed, for all before Sergius Paul were proselytes of Judaism, like Cornelius. And it is the more remarkable that the first convert under these new conditions was also named Paul, because he inaugurates that new form of God's activities which is well pictured there by the blessed believing gentile and a blinded unbelieving Jew. Before Saul's severance, blessing could not flow except through a Jew. Samaria could not receive the spirit except through Peter and John (Act_8:14), and the proselyte Cornelius needed the mediacy of the chief of the apostles ere he was blessed with this gift. But now an alien, having no connection with Judaism, believes and is blessed, while a Jew, a son of the covenant, is blinded. This new principle now governs God's dealings, introducing a new dispensation, and gathers force until it is fulfilled at the close of the book.