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the hands o f bishops, presbytery, or council laid upon them to ordain them for the work, but they had “ the hand of the Lord with them.” Here we have the great secret o f success in missions and in all Chris tian work, to have the hand o f the Lord with us; that is far more important than to have the' hands o f men upon us. The outcome o f the hand o f the Lord being with them was “a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.” This will be the usual result when the hand o f the Lord is with us (cf. v. 24; ch. 2:47; 4:4; 5:14; 6 :7 ; 9:31, 35, 42),. W e would do well to ask why the gospel does not make the same headway today that it did then. Is it because the hand o f the Lord is not with us? Why is the hand o f the Lord not with us? The answer to this question is found in part at least, in Acts 2 :42; 6 :4 ; 1:8; 8:4. The faith o f these young converts in Antioch was genuine, as proved by its effect, they “turned unto the Lord.” What is meant by turning unto the Lord is indicated by 1 Thess. 1:9; Acts 26.:18, 20. W e have in verses 19 to 21 a very clear setting forth o f God’s part, the worker’s part, and the convert’s part in repentance and conversion: the workers preached the Word, the Lord Jesus; the Lord blessed the W ord thus preached, His hand was with them; those converted believed the message and turned unto the' Lord. We see here also the relation between faith and repentance, believing the truth about Jesus leads to repentance from sin unto Himself, the turning from sin, the turning unto the Lord Jesus. Jesus Himself was the real worker in this work; it was “the hand o f the Lord” that was with them, and it is evident from verse 20 that the Lord meant is the Lord Jesus. All through the Acts o f the Apostles the Risen Lord is the real worker. The Acts are not so much the Acts o f the Apostles as the Acts o f the Risen Lord Himself. Three times in two verses Jesus is spoken o f as Lord. This title in the Old Testament is used only o f Jehovah, God, and it shows very clearly how Jesus occupied the same position in
not the apostles (cf. ch. 8 :1), but the rank and file o f the church. God, by His provi dence, had led them on step by step: first, Jews, then Samaritans, then Jewish prose lytes, but here at|last genuine Gentiles. v. 20. "And some of them were {But there were some o f them), men of Cyprus, which {who) when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians {Greeks also), preaching the Lord Jesus.” This was the first real foreign missionary work. While the Grecians had had the Gospel preached to them before, they were Grecian Jews; these were out and out, genuine Gentiles. It is to be noted that the first missionaries to the heathen were just ordi nary lay Christians who had gotten so full o f the truth as it is in Jesus that they could no longer follow the slow lead o f the authorities in the church, but were forced to break the bonds o f Jewish prejudice and narrowness and speak out to the perishing Gentiles. That the movement was o f God was apparent from the result, and it soon carried the whole church with it. •The word for “preaching” in verse 20 is not the same at all as the word for “preaching” in verse 19: the word translated “preach ing” in verse 20 means “ announcing the glad tidings.” These glad, or good tid ings which they announced, are summed up in three words, “the Lord Jesus.” They did not expend their strength in attacking heathen superstitions and immoral prac tices, or bad government, they simply told the good news o f salvation in Jesus Christ. They told the good.news o f how He had died for their sins and thus made perfect atonement for them, and the good news that He had risen again and was a living Saviour and able to save to the uttermost all that came to God through Him (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Heb. 7:25). v. 21. “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord {and a great number that believed turned unto the Lord).’’ There is no proof that these men who did the preaching of the W ord and concerning the Lord Jesus had ever had
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