Paul’s First Missionary Journey
Missionary journeys form a fundamental part of evangelism in Christianity. Christians treat missions as blessed journeys that individuals that they undertake to preach the Gospel and attract more individuals to Christianity. Apostle Paul was a renowned evangelist that took multiple missionary journeys to proclaim God’s word. His journeys were met with both adversity and success, depending on the regions where he preached. On his first journey, Apostle Paul met any obstacles and hostility from Jews. At the beginning of his journey, Paul did not fathom that at some point, he would get stoned to death for preaching the Gospel. However, as he continued his journey, he deduced that traditions and human beliefs hinder individuals from the truth.
Paul’s Journey
Apostle Paul’s journey starts from Antioch, where the original church that commissioned them existed. Paul travels in the company of both Barnabas and Mark to go and preach the Gospel. The journey of the three apostles begins at Selucia, where they sail down to Salamis in Cyprus, where the mission begins. Cyprus was the typical place to commence the mission since Barnabas originated from the little island that bordered the Mediterranean Sea. Additionally, the small island already had Christians who lived within the state; thus, it would present a fundamental starting point for the mission (Burkiewicz 2017: 20). The trio continued preaching from Selucia to Paphos on foot. Paphos was a town that existed on the other side of the Island of Cyprus. In Paphos, Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark went to preach to the Island’s Governor, a Roman official named Sergius Paulus (Burkiewicz 2017: 20). Apostle Paul faced serious Position from BarJesus, a false prophet that resided in the town and commanded a lot of power. -Elymas- persuaded the governor against meeting with the Apostles. Apostle Paul made Elymas blind for a time because of dissuading the governor from meeting with the trio. The action of turning Elymas blind influenced the Proconsul to accept the Gospel and become born again. Apostle Paul successfully converted Sergius Paulus making Cyprus the first Roman State ruled by a Roman official who was a Christian (Burkiewicz 2017: 21). Despite the affluence, ApostleApostle had stumbled upon a crucial phenomenon. A Jew had openly opposed the preaching of the Gospel while a non-Jew welcomed the Gospel and received a conversion to Christianity. The incident foreshadowed the incidents to follow during the missionary journey.
The conversion of the governor increased the number of Christians in Paphos at the extent of angering Jewish leaders. Apostle Paul had diverted his attention from preaching to Jews in the Synagogues, but he also preached to Gentiles after rejection from Jews (Burkiewicz 2017: 21). Cypriot Jews captured Apostle Paul, tied him to a post, and whipped him according to Cypriotic Jewish culture (Burkiewicz 2017: 21). St. Mark left Paphos and returned to Jerusalem, leaving Apostle Paula and Barnabas to continue with the mission without him. The whipping of Apostle Paul in Paphos by Cypriotic Jews shows that culture played a crucial role in influencing the actions of the individuals. Jews wished that the Gospel should be taught in the synagogues to Jews. Preaching to Gentiles completely disrespected their tradition since Jews believed that true Christians had to be circumcised, an action that the gentiles viewed as barbaric.
After the events in Paphos, St. Mark went back to Jerusalem when they arrived in Pamphilia in Perga. Barnabas and Paul continued with their mission to Pisidian Antioch, at which point Paul takes on the name Paul instead of “Saul.” St. Luke also starts referring to Paul first when talking about the apostles. Before the events at Pathos, St. Luke referred to the apostles with Barnabas as the first name showing that Barnabas was in charge of the mission. Post Pathos, St. Luke refers to the Apostles using “Paul” instead of “Saul” and uses Paul’s name first when talking to about the two Apostles. The change in writing shows that the ApostleApostle Paul took over the leadership of the missionary Journey from Barnabas. On Sabbath, Apostle Paul entered the Synagogue and gave out a sermon.
The Sermon that Paul gave at Antioch was not his first Sermon; thus, he was conversant with communication to masses. The very structure of the Sermon exalts the primary reason why the Sermon given at Antioch invoked tremendous approval in the Synagogue that the Apostles were asked to return the next Sabbath to give a sermon. The speech was explicitly divided into three parts that addressed typical issues in Antioch as well as Christianity. The first part of the Sermon contained the greetings and the opening remarks showing the first target audience (Mutavhatsindi, 2017: 4). The first part of the Sermon targeted devout Christians since it referred to them as Israelites. The statement meant that Apostle Paul talked to the Jews that were the owners of the Synagogue first before any other individuals. Paul reminded them about the salvation that Jesus brought and how He was a fulfillment of God’s descendant from David. The ApostleApostle also reminded the Jews of how God had brought Jesus as promised and the role He played in bringing salvation to humankind. Lastly, Paul warned them of the consequences of refusing the salvation brought by Jesus. The warning given was because of the hostility that he had received at the beginning of his journey. Jews were highly against the Salvation that Jesus brought into the world.
Further analysis shows that Acts 13:38-39 encapsulated the primary doctrine that Paul wanted to pass at the Synagogue. Paul talked about salvation, justification, and its relationship to the Laws of Moses. Paul outlines that the only way individuals can receive the forgiveness of sin and justification is through Jesus Christ. Thus, individuals have to learn how to believe in Jesus as part of Christianity and not the laws of Moses. Moreover, the speech followed a similar outline to the speech that Stephen gave (Mutavhatsindi, 2017: 4). The first part was greetings, the second part recounts the various things that God has done, and lastly, the speech ends through a warning. Both Stephen and Paul use the word Israelites three times in their speech. The speech talks about the history of the Israelites. However, the general purpose of the two speeches differs. Apostle Paul talks about the faithfulness of God, while Stephen talks about the rebellious behaviour of the Israelites (Mutavhatsindi, 2017: 4). Nonetheless, both speeches acknowledged that Jews did not follow the true salvation of Christ by primarily focusing on the laws of Moses.
The following Sabbath, the size of the congregation, increased since the whole town gathered to hear the teachings of Apostle Paul. The Jewish leaders were filled with envy the moment they saw the large crowd that had gathered to hear God’s word. They tried to deter individuals from listening to Paul and abused the Apostles. In response to their behaviours, Paul and Barnabas scorned them and told them that they were going to preach to the gentiles since the Jews had refused to accept God’s word. Staunch Jews found it abominable for the apostles to declare that they were going to teach God’s word to the Gentiles. When the Gentiles heard the proclamation, they were overjoyed and openly received God’s word. The repentance and acceptance of the Gentiles caused the word of God to spread throughout Pisidian Antioch (Mutavhatsindi, 2017: 5). However, the Jewish leaders incited the local population against Paul and Barnabas, forcing them to flee the city. After the escape, the Apostles went to Iconium to continue preaching God’s word.
In Iconium, Paul and Barnabas continued to preach a similar gospel to the one in Pisidian Antioch. The message received a similar reaction to the one in Pisidian Antioch. The Jews there rallied the Gentiles against the sermons causing a division between the Gentiles. Some Gentiles listened and sided with the Jews, while others followed Paul’s teachings. The rallies led to the developments of a plan to stone the apostles; hence, the missionaries fled the town. The two apostles came to Lystra and healed a Lame man that could not walk. The town was astonished and started praising and worshipping the two Apostles thinking that they were gods. The missionaries tried hard to cancel the thought that they were gods, but still, the two found it hard