Acts 13

This is Paul's first mission after spending three years in Damascus. Actually, by this time, Paul has probably been doing missionary work for about ten years, but now he is called on a specific mission. Once again, we find the leaders of the church fasting and praying before calling Barnabas and Paul and laying their hands on their heads to ordain them. They start their mission in Antioch and eventually it will end in Rome, a total distance of 1400 miles.

It says that they eventually make their way to Antioch of Pisidia. There are about 16 cities named Antioch at this time. To reach this Antioch, they would have had to walk 100 miles climbing into the mountains where the region of Pisidia is. The main street of the ancient Antioch still exists.

Verses 15-41 contain one of the most complete discourses by Paul in the scriptures. Like Stephen and Peter, he traces the history of the Jews and shows by scripture how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies that are in them. Paul's preaching draws large crowds, nearly the whole city comes out to hear him. But the Jews become envious and openly oppose them. Like what is being done in other cities, Paul and Barnabas turn from the Jews and take the gospel directly to the gentiles.

Joseph Smith said this about this principle: "After the chosen family had rejected Christ and his proposals, the heralds of salvation said to them, 'Lo, we turn unto the Gentiles.' And the Gentiles received the covenant and were grafted in from whence the chosen family (or Jews) were broken off. This is a powerful illustration. It is as if the kingdom of God is a tree and the branches are the House of Israel, or the Jews. Because they reject the gospel, the Jewish branches of the tree are broken off and the Lord grafts Gentile branches into the tree to replace the unfruitful Jewish branches.