Preaching With Power Series

PREACHING WITH POWER

Text: Acts 13:4-12

Introduction

1. Illustration: “If I had 300 men who feared nothing but God, hated nothing but sin, and were determined to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and him crucified, I would set the world on fire.” (John Wesley).

2. In a NT church, everyone is a minister, everyone is an evangelist, and everyone is preacher.

3. “And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:15-16).

4. Now, as we go into all the world, we need to preach the word with power. How do we do that? Through the power of the Holy Spirit.

5. Read Acts 13:4-12

Transition: First, we must be…

I. Led By the Spirit (4-5).

A. Sent Out by the Holy Spirit

1. After being hand-picked by the Holy Spirit through fasting and prayer, Saul and Barnabas set out on their first missionary journey. Luke tells us in v. 4, “So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit. They went down to the seaport of Seleucia and then sailed for the island of Cyprus.”

a. The key factor in this entire section is the Holy Spirit.

b. He led them, directed them, empowered them, and acted in their behalf.

c. The first place the Holy Spirit led them to is the island of Cyprus, which was about 100 miles southwest of Antioch.

d. They got there by going to the seaport of Seleucia, which was a few miles from Antioch.

e. Why Cyprus? Cyprus was where Barnabas was from, and he would be familiar with the area, and they would have been familiar with him.

f. Another reason Cyprus was a good staring place was the Greek speaking Jews had already begun telling people about the Lord there, and some of the members of the Antioch church were from there.

g. So, it made great sense to start the mission there.

h. You see, the Holy Spirit really knows what he’s doing.

2. The first thing that Luke tells us they did in Cyprus is, “There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogues and preached the word of God. John Mark went with them as their assistant.”

a. The first town they went to in Cyprus was the town of Salamis. Salamis was the leading city on the island and was the seat of the government.

b. There are two things that we should keep in mind about Paul on his missionary journey’s. First, he always went to where the people were.

c. Since Salamis was the seat of the government it was most likely a place that had a large population, which presented a good number of people to preach the Gospel to.

d. Second, Paul always went to the Jewish people first. He would find the most influential synagogue and he would go there and preach about Jesus.

e. This goes on for a long time, until Paul gets fed up with the Jews lack of faith and decides to focus completely on the Gentiles.

f. The reason he went to the synagogue first was simple; he was known as a highly educated Pharisee who had learned under the famous Rabbi Gamaliel.

g. These credentials would give him an open door to preach there, until he gained a reputation for bringing a radical message about Christ.

h. We should pay close attention to content of their message; they preached the word of God!

i. They didn’t go and tell people their opinion or tell these people what they wanted to hear. Rather, they told them what they needed to hear, the word of God, and the way of salvation through faith.

j. We need to tell people that salvation comes by grace, through faith in Christ!

k. But we need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit.

B. He Will Teach You

1. Illustration: N T Wright, the famous New Testament scholar talks about the task of Christians in the world. He says, "Many say, 'Oh yes, the Holy Spirit came in his place to live in us.' Yes, but for what purpose? The Holy Spirit came to empower us to be God's life in the world. We are to do the work of God in the world. We are to be God to the world. And we cannot do that alone. The church is God's redemptive community in the world. Without you, and without you joined with God's other children, God's work will not be done. He will not do it without us. He will not do it for us."

2. The Holy Spirit will teach us how to do the work, but he will not do the work for us.