Turning to the Gentiles: When God’s Word Finds Willing Hearts

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to justify your own decisions? We’re remarkably skilled at making choices based on emotion and then constructing perfectly logical explanations afterward. Modern behavioral scientists recently conducted experiments confirming what many suspected: nearly everyone, regardless of whether they consider themselves rational or emotional, makes decisions from the heart first and rationalizes them second.

I find it fascinating—and a bit amusing—when modern science finally catches up to what Scripture declared millennia ago. Almost 3,000 years before these experiments, Proverbs 16:2 warned us: “All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the Lord weighs the motives.” We’re experts at justifying ourselves, at making our actions seem reasonable in our own eyes. But God looks deeper. He sees what’s really driving us.

This truth becomes especially relevant when we encounter God’s Word and find parts that challenge us, that don’t align with what feels right to us. Do we submit to Scripture’s authority, or do we make ourselves the final judge? In Acts 13:44-52, we witness a stark contrast between those who truly submit to God’s authority and those who only pretend to.

The Ancient Wisdom We Keep Rediscovering

The behavioral scientists weren’t the first to discover this truth about human nature. Proverbs 21:2 says essentially the same thing: “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.” When you observe our culture today—the political battles, the religious conflicts, the endless arguments on social media—this principle is constantly at work. What seems right to us feels right to us. And when what seems right to me contradicts what seems right to you, conflict erupts.

But here’s the problem: the heart is deceitfully wicked. Sometimes we don’t even realize we’re justifying ourselves. I think about King David, a man after God’s own heart, who managed to rationalize his horrific actions with Bathshea and Uriah. If David could deceive himself so thoroughly, what makes us think we’re immune?

The world tells us to follow our hearts, to trust our feelings, to do what seems right to us. But Scripture calls us to something radically different: taking the locus of authority from our own hearts and placing it under God’s Word. This is the fundamental division we see playing out in Acts 13.

Two Responses to One Message

When Paul and Barnabas came to Pisidian Antioch, they went straight to the synagogue. This made perfect sense strategically. Where else would you find people most eager to hear about the fulfillment of promises made in Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms? These were people who gathered every Sabbath to hear God’s Word read and explained. Surely they would be the most receptive audience.

And initially, they were interested. The next Sabbath, nearly the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jewish leaders saw the crowds, something shifted. Verse 45 tells us they “were filled with jealousy and began contradicting what was spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming.”

Here’s what strikes me: the religious establishment, the people who should have been most prepared to recognize their Messiah, became hostile. Meanwhile, the Gentiles—the outsiders, the ones who weren’t part of the covenant community—“began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”

The Dangerous Heart of Self-Justification

Why did the Jewish leaders reject the very message they should have embraced? Because they had made themselves the final authority. They weren’t truly under God’s Word—they were using God’s Word to serve their own purposes, their own power structures, their own sense of identity and importance.

I don’t want to live like a Pharisee. I don’t want to be someone who is externally religious but whose heart is far from the Lord. I don’t want to come to God’s Word and judge it based on what I think, based on modern standards or personal preferences.

Before I became a Christian, I had all sorts of ideas that seemed perfectly reasonable to me. I wasn’t trying to be wrong—everything I believed felt justified. But when I started reading Scripture, God showed me that some things I thought were right were actually wicked. And some things I thought were harsh and judgmental were actually His righteous standards. The revelation was humbling: God was right, and I was wrong.

This is the choice every person faces when they encounter God’s Word. Will we submit to it, or will we judge it?

When Truth Spreads Despite Opposition

Notice what happened in Pisidian Antioch. Despite the opposition, despite the jealousy and blasphemy from religious leaders, “the word of the Lord continued to spread through the whole region.” Paul and Barnabas responded to the rejection with a sobering declaration: “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.”

God’s plan doesn’t fail when people reject His Word. The message simply goes to those with willing hearts. The Gentiles weren’t theologically trained. They didn’t have the religious pedigree. But they had something more important: hearts willing to receive the truth.

The believers didn’t just privately enjoy their newfound faith. It spread. This has always been God’s plan—not for His people to hoard truth in prayer closets, but to know God, be known by Him, and make Him known to the ends of the earth.

The Cost of Following Truth

Of course, the Jewish leaders didn’t simply agree to disagree. They “incited the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.” When you refuse to compromise God’s Word, when you won’t bend truth to make people comfortable, there’s often a cost.

Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet and moved on to Iconium. They didn’t stop preaching. They didn’t soften the message. They continued bearing witness to what God had commanded them to proclaim.

And the believers in Pisidian Antioch? Despite watching their spiritual fathers driven out of the city, despite the persecution that had begun, the text tells us they “were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” Not momentary happiness. Not fleeting emotion. Continual joy in the midst of opposition.

Examining Our Own Hearts

This brings us to the critical question: When you examine your own life—your prayer habits, your Bible reading, your actual relationship with the Lord—are you truly submitting to God’s authority, or are you picking and choosing?

It’s so easy to take the parts of Scripture we like and dismiss the rest. “Oh, that’s probably outdated. Maybe God changed His mind on this. We don’t really have to do that part.” But that’s not submission. That’s making ourselves the final authority.

Do You Take God at His Word?

When Scripture says something that contradicts your feelings, your culture, or your preferences, what do you do? Do you have a humble spirit that trembles at God’s Word and says, “God, You are God, and I am not”?

Are You Oriented Under Divine Authority?

True freedom isn’t found in following every whim and impulse. It’s found in surrendering to the One who made us, who saved us, who knows what’s truly best for us. Are you living as God’s servant, ready to go when He says go, stay when He says stay, do what He commands?

What Is Your Response to Persecution?

When living under God’s authority brings opposition—when people mock your beliefs, when you’re called old-fashioned or foolish—do you compromise, or do you remain filled with joy like those disciples in Pisidian Antioch?

The Better Way

The world might call you a fool for submitting to “a dusty old book.” But here’s the thing: if you trust the scientists, just wait—they’ll catch up eventually. It took them 3,000 years to confirm what Proverbs said about our hearts. God’s Word is true. It’s living. It’s active. It reveals everything we need for life and godliness.

The Book of Ecclesiastes, written 3,000 years ago, warns us about chasing the wind—pursuing satisfaction through possessions, pleasures, and power. We’re still foolishly living as if our eyes can see enough, our ears can hear enough, our appetites can finally be satisfied. But they can’t. That’s the lie.

Jesus offers us something different: life, and life more abundantly. Not through us taking authority for ourselves, picking and choosing from God’s Word like a buffet. But through orienting ourselves under the authority of the true and living God, operating as His children, His ambassadors on this earth He made.

The Invitation

If you’re still following the whims of your heart, I have good news: today you can humble yourself and submit to God. You can say, “God, I don’t want to be a slave to my own flesh anymore. I want to look to Your Word, believe what You say is true, and live like it.”

And if you’re already doing this, I want to encourage you. Sometimes submission to God’s Word results in persecution, just like it did for Paul and Barnabas. Sometimes people don’t like it. Sometimes there’s a cost. But if we’re truly submitting to God’s Word, if we know that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, proving our salvation is secure, then we’re no longer working to be justified—we’ve been justified freely by His amazing grace.

You have an inheritance in His everlasting kingdom that can never be taken away. And like those disciples in Pisidian Antioch, you can be continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit, regardless of the opposition you face.

God’s Word goes forth and finds willing hearts. Even when people reject it, it continues to spread to those ready to receive it. The question is: Are you willing? Will you submit to Scripture’s authority, or will you continue judging it by your own standards?

The choice is yours. But choose wisely—the Lord weighs the hearts.

Listen to the full sermon here: Turning to the Gentiles – Acts 13:44-52

Preached January 25, 2026 at Howell Bible Church