How God Leads Us Series

Acts 13 - How God Leads Us - 5/21/17

Turn with me this morning to Acts 13. We have been going through this transitional book, taking us from the ministry of Jesus to the establishment of the church. We see in the Great Commission, Jesus tells his disciples to take the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. We see in Acts chapter 2, the gospel shared in Jerusalem on Pentecost as Peter preaches to the Jews; in Acts 8 the gospel goes to the Samaritans; in Acts 10 the gospel goes to god-fearing Gentiles; and now in Acts 13 we see the gospel being taken throughout the Gentile regions of Asia Minor, the land we know today as Turkey.

We were introduced to Saul, who later is known as Paul the Apostle, in Acts 7 when he is there giving assent to the death of Stephen, the martyr. Today, as we come to Acts 13, we see Paul stepping up to become the apostle who starts churches all across Turkey. And the first thing we want to look at in this chapter is

• The Making of an Apostle. What lessons do we learn from the way God works in Paul’s life? Let’s begin by reading in chapter 13, starting at verse 1. Read 13:1-12 - Pray

Today we are going to look at two key ideas in this chapter: The making of an apostle and the preaching of an apostle. We are going to look at How God leads us and How God speaks through us. This morning we want to look at is How God leads us: the making of an apostle, and the first lesson we learn from Paul is this:

*Wait on God’s Timing - We see Paul had to wait for quite some time until he begins to function as the apostle that God has called him to be. Back in chapter 9, we see that God has placed a call upon God’s life. Paul meets Christ on the road to Damascus and ends up going to the house of Ananias. There God says about Paul in Acts 9:15 - “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. But even though God has made his plans clear, quite some time passes before Paul is ready to be used as the apostle to the Gentiles. We know that after his conversion, Paul goes out to the desert of Arabia and is personally trained by Christ. Even though he was trained to be a rabbi by the famous Gamaliel, even though Paul is a Pharisee of the Pharisees and knows the law inside out, yet he prepares for his new ministry by traveling into the desert in Arabia and being retrained. Where do I find that? Galatians 1. Check it out for yourself.

Three years later Paul goes to Jerusalem and meets the disciples, who are afraid of him and think it is a trick. Barnabas - encourager that he is - brings Paul to the disciples and convinces them that Paul’s faith is real, and they accept Paul. But when the Grecian Jews try to kill Paul, the brothers send him back to Tarsus. Acts 9:30. Paul goes back home until Acts 11, when men from Cyprus come to Antioch and start the church there. Barnabas comes to check out the new church, encourages them, and goes to Tarsus to bring Paul to teach the people. Paul spends a year at Antioch teaching there, and then in chapter 11, verse 30, we see Paul takes a short term mission trip to bring an offering to the church at Jerusalem to help them prepare for the coming famine. So that brings us to chapter 13 - several YEARS after his conversion and call, and it is just NOW that Paul is finally ready to begin the ministry that God had planned for him.

Were all those years wasted years? Not at all! But Paul reminds us that we need to wait on God’s timing. In Exodus, the Jews are crying out to God, and FINALLY God sends Moses. Why doesn’t God respond sooner? It wasn’t time yet! When Moses come to Pharaoh, says let my people go, God delivers the plagues, and Moses leads the Jews out of Israel, Exodus tells us that the deliverance comes on “THE VERY DAY” that the 430 years of bondage were fulfilled. Exodus 12:41 - At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions left Egypt. God’s timing is always perfect. They were crying out to God for deliverance, but it wasn’t God’s timing. Even though God had predicted 430 years before that He WOULD deliver them, He was waiting for the exactly right timing.