Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 12:24

"But the word of God grew and multiplied." — Acts 12:24 (ASV)

Luke’s third panel on the Christian mission within the Jewish world ends with a summary statement comparable to the summaries that conclude the two preceding panels (cf. 6:7; 9:31). In its context, v.24 contrasts the progress of the Gospel to the awful end of the church’s persecutor Herod Agrippa I. More broadly, it implies that though in the remainder of Acts Luke’s attention will be focused on the advances of the Gospel to Gentiles, within the Jewish world “the word of God continued to increase and spread.” In other words, God was still at work on behalf of the Jerusalem church and its ministry and was still concerned for his ancient people Israel. Part II. The Christian Mission to the Gentile World (12:25–28:31) In the Nazareth pericope , Luke set the main themes for all that follows in Luke-Acts. Two features of particular relevance stand out in those verses. (1) Luke presents Jesus’ reading of Isa 61 as ending in mid-sentence at Isa 61:2a, thereby emphasizing grace (“to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”) without sounding the note of judgment (“and the day of vengeance of our God”). The omission of the judgment theme underscores the fact that the period of the Gospel is a time characterized by grace, when the offer of deliverance is freely extended. To such a message of salvation, the residents of Nazareth responded positively. They failed to see any other implication in a message of free grace than God’s messianic blessings poured out on Israel. So they spoke well of Jesus and commented favorably about his “gracious words” . (2) Next, Luke shows Jesus as indicating that the blessings of the Messianic Age were not intended for Israel alone but were for Gentiles as well— with the blessings of God’s grace extending even to a Phoenician widow and a Syrian leper. Here was a repudiation of the Jewish concept of exclusive election. Jesus’ townsmen were furious, drove Jesus out of the synagogue, and tried to kill him. Jesus’ own earthly ministry was, of course, limited almost entirely to Jews. Luke’s gospel depicts only one healing of a centurion’s servant (7:1–10) and two brief contacts with Samaritans (9:52–55; 17:11–19). Moreover, it even omits the story about the Syro-Phoenician woman of Mk 7:24–30 (cf. Matthew 15:21–28), though it contains several intimations of a later inclusion of Gentiles (cf. Lk 2:30-32; 3:6; 11:31; 13:29; 14:16–24). Also, in the first half of Acts, Luke has presented the Jerusalem church’s ministry as focused primarily on the Jewish world, with such outreaches as Samaria, Caesarea, and Syrian Antioch being understood in some ways as exceptional. In effect, then, Luke has reserved for Paul the mission to the Gentiles that Jesus saw as inherent in Isa 61. Now as Luke turns to a portrayal of how the Gospel advanced among the Gentiles, he also concludes his two-volume work by explicating Jesus’ promise of the universal extension of God’s grace. This he does (1) by building on what Jesus accomplished in his earthly ministry, death, and resurrection, as presented in his gospel, and (2) by paralleling in its Gentile advances many features of the extension of God’s grace within the Jewish world, as presented in the first half of Acts. Pane l4—The First Missionary Journey and the Jerusalem Council (12:25–16:5) Luke’s fourth panel, the first of his three on the Christian mission to the Gentile world, embodies both Paul’s first missionary journey and the Jerusalem Council. It concludes by telling how believers in Syria, Cilicia, and Galatia received the decisions of the council. Luke presents his material more thematically than geographically. Therefore, before closing with the summary in 16:5, he draws together several matters: (1) a report of events on the first missionary journey that led up to the Jerusalem Council; (2) an account of the debate and decisions reached at the council; and (3) a precis of how those decisions were received in areas of Gentile outreach. In his first missionary journey, Paul began a radically new policy for proclaiming the Gospel and making converts: namely, he approaches the Gentile world apart from any prior commitments to Judaism on the part of the converts or any Jewish stance on the part of the missioners; on their part, the Gentile Christians express their faith in Jesus apart from a Jewish lifestyle and distinctive Jewish practices (cf. 14:27b; 15:3). For the early church with its Jewish roots, such a policy was revolutionary. It had enormous significance and many implications for the Christian movement that required a full discussion and decision at the Jerusalem Council.