Acts 14:26

And thence sailed to Antioch - See the note at Acts 11:19.

From whence they had been recommended ... - Where they had been appointed to this missionary tour by the church, Acts 13:1.

To the grace of God - His favor and protection had been implored for them in their perilous undertaking.

For the work which they fulfilled - This shows conclusively:

(1) That they had accomplished fully the work which was originally contemplated. It was strictly a missionary tour among the Gentiles. It was an important and hazardous enterprise, and was the first in which the church formally engaged. Hence, so much importance is attached to it, and so faithful a record of it is preserved.

(2) It shows that the act by which they were set apart to this Acts 13:1 was not an ordination to the ministerial office. It was an appointment to a missionary tour.

(3) It shows that the act was not an appointment to the apostleship. Paul was an apostle before by the express appointment of the Saviour; and Barnabas was never an apostle in the original and proper sense of the term. It was a designation to a temporary work, which was now fulfilled.

We may remark, also, in regard to this missionary tour:

(1) That the work of missions is one which early engaged the attention of Christians.

(2) It entered into their plans, and was one in which the church was deeply interested.

(3) The work of missions is attended with danger. People are now no less hostile to the gospel than they were in Lystra and Iconium.

(4) Missionaries should be sustained by the prayers of the church. And,

(5) In the conduct of Paul and Barnabas we have an example for missionaries in founding churches, and in regard to their own trials and persecutions. If they were persecuted, missionaries may be now; and if the grace of Christ was sufficient to sustain them, it is not the less sufficient to sustain those of our own times amidst all the dangers attending the preaching of the cross in pagan lands.