“People God Uses”
Acts 12:25-13:3
November 11, 2007
“People God Uses” – Even as I gave this message that name, I had this thought: God uses whomever He pleases! He used contrary kings and evil empires. He used murderers like David and doubters like Moses, confused people like Samson, liars like Abraham. He used a talking donkey, even (Numbers 22). And He uses people like each of us. Amazing…amazing grace!
Table Talk
o When you think of “people God uses”, who comes to mind? Why?
o What are some characteristics of “people God uses”?
We go back two weeks to get the context for this message. Remember, last week we looked at events related to the “mother church” in Jerusalem, the significance of that being that Luke, the writer, wants his readers to know that, even though the gospel is radiating outward from the Jerusalem center, and most of the rest of the book will focus on Paul’s missions to non-Jews, God is still at work on the homefront there. Two weeks ago, we looked at the incredible differences that the gospel made in the lives of the non-Jews at Antioch, and we ended by seeing how their commitment to Christ led to their sacrificial giving to their famine-impoverished brothers and sisters in Christ. It was Barnabas and Saul, we read in the last verse of chapter 11, who were deputized to take this gift to the Jerusalem church. This wasn’t the last traveling that this pair was destined to do…
Today’s text represents a turning point in the book of Acts. From now on Saul, who’d soon become Paul, is the chief figure, his missionary journeys taking center stage. These events take place in A.D. 46-48, fifteen to twenty years following the resurrection and ascension of Christ.
Remember that the chapter/verse divisions were not inspired by God. For our understanding, I found this online from Daniel Fuller: “The present chapter divisions in our Bibles were invented in 1205 by Stephen Langton, a professor in Paris (he later became Archbishop of Canterbury), who put these into a Vulgate edition of the Bible...It was Robert Stephanus, a Parisian book printer, whose versification of the Bible has prevailed to the present…through Stephanus the versification of the Old Testament found its way into the Hebrew Bible printed first in 1571.” Neither man always made the best call, though their has proven immensely helpful. But today’s text is one case in which, had I been doing the work, I’d have done it differently, and thus we begin with the last verse of chapter 12, and continue from there. READ TEXT, PRAY
People God uses are
I. Servants - :25
“completed their service”
John Mark is the cousin of Barnabas, and his mother Mary was a very prominent woman in the early church. We suggested last Sunday that it was likely Mary’s home where the church was gathered to pray for Peter’s release, and it’s also likely that this is where Paul and Barnabas stayed during their time in Jerusalem. We are left to surmise that what likely happened during their stay was that John Mark’s character and testimony commended him to them, and thus when the two leave Jerusalem to head back to Antioch, there is John Mark, journeying along with them.
Pretty good trade, if you look at it that way; the church at Jerusalem received much-needed financial help from their Gentile brothers and sisters in Antioch; the Antioch church received John Mark, an able and educated individual who knew the apostles’ teaching and could communicate it well.
But the point I want to emphasize here, as we consider the kinds of people God delights to use, is that these men, Saul and Barnabas, had already successfully served the Lord, completing the mission given to them by the church at Antioch. They were trustworthy; they’d established credentials of service. They had a track record; they’d served the church effectively. Now and again, you’ll find an individual in church who wants to lead, who pines for a position of influence, but who has not shown himself willing to serve others. We’re reminded by Christ that the emblem of the Christian worker is not the scepter, nor the gavel, but the towel, the equipment of one who’d stoop to wash the feet of his fellow believers. Such men were Saul and Barnabas.
Prophets and teachers were part of the very foundation of the early church. Prophecy involved both the forthtelling of a message from God, and the foretelling, at times, of events yet to come, revealed by God. In this age, prior to the establishment of the canon of Scripture, the Word of God came through the mouths of inspired prophets; the prophet would speak in response to a very direct word from the Holy Spirit. The more “mundane” task of the two, teaching, had the most lasting effect, though, as the teacher would take the prophecies given, connect them with Old Testament Scriptures, and nourish the fledgling church thereby. Both ministries were needed.
We’ve already been introduced to Barnabas, whose real name was Joseph, but who earned the nickname “Barnabas”—“son of encouragement”—due to the gift he had for lifting up others and encouraging them in their lives and relationships with God. We know nothing of Lucius and Manaen save this verse, but it is an interesting sidelight that Manaen, perhaps the foster-brother of Herod Antipas (mentioned in this verse) should be a Christian leader, while this Herod was instrumental in the death of John Baptist and the trial of the Lord. Luke, in the gospel that bears his name, shows much interest in the family of Herod; it’s likely that he got his information from this insider named Manaen.
Simeon, named here, may well have been the Simon of Cyrene compelled to carry the cross of Christ. “Niger” means “black”. It’s interesting that he was called “the black”; that’s a little awkward, but I’m pretty sure that this wasn’t first-century racism going on! This was a multi-cultural church from the get-go; lots of ethnic diversity is reflected in the men named here, and I don’t think it’s either an accident that this was the case in leadership in the Antioch church, nor an accident that Luke chooses to mention it. This was a world fellowship ready to launch a world church!
We can note a parallel between Pentecost and the events of these verses. On the day of Pentecost, the apostles were gathered together to pray, and the Holy Spirit showed up. Here, the leaders of the Antioch church are named; they are in prayer; the Spirit shows up again, this time giving specific direction to these leaders and this church.
:2-3 - There are some questions about the text that aren’t answered right here:
o How did the Spirit make His will clear?
o What “work” was it that the Spirit had prepared for them?
o Who did “they” refer to?
o What is the significance of “laying hands” on the two?
Let’s see if we can find answers; with this in mind, we continue:
II. Worshippers - :2
“worshipping the Lord”
“Worshipping the Lord, and fasting” – What picture comes to your mind when I say, “worshipping the Lord”? Hands in the air, singing “Forever” or “Above All” or “Amazing Grace”, right? The word for “worshipping” in the Greek comes from a Greek root word, leitourgos, that entailed working in service to God, as well as prayer; it’s the word from which we get our word “liturgy”. The first sense in Luke’s mind, I believe, was the sense of priestly service, the breaking of bread and prayers, mentioned in Acts 2 as very important elements of the church in Jerusalem. Worship of God is bound up, not only in ascribing worth to God in a verbal way (such as singing or otherwise praising God), but in work done in the name of Jesus, and for the sake of Him. Work for the Lord without worship of the Lord, as Kent Hughes points out, leads to “legalistic, self-centered service”. Worship, though, without work leads to a form of godliness without the power of God. “Let’s just praise the Lord” was a nice chorus, but let’s not “just praise the Lord!”
“Fasting” – Gives evidence of what Harrison called an “atmosphere of urgent desire”. Only one fast, the day of Atonement, was called for in the Old Testament, but pious Jews had adopted the practice of abstaining from food twice a week, and it seems like this was something that the new Christian community carried over into Christian faith, not as a rule, but as a discipline. Fasting is linked with both prayer and worship, because it is never an end in itself, something we undertake merely for the sake of doing it, to gain benefits just from the fasting alone. No, it is, as Stott describes it, “a negative action (abstention from food and other distractions) for the sake of a positive one (worshipping or praying).” Fasting isn’t given all that much attention in the New Testament; it’s recent resurgence as a Christian practice is commendable so long as the N.T. emphasis—or lack thereof—is not missed. Fasting, if not undertaken carefully, can lead in the opposite direction than intended; it can even produce a sense of spiritual superiority among its practitioners if care isn’t taken. That said, there is something to be said for the coming away from the normal concerns of the body to focus upon God alone in prayer. Saul and Barnabas were among those who were fasting and worshipping God, a critical component of people God uses.
III. Sensitive to the Holy Spirit - :2
“the Holy Spirit said”
It is reasonable to expect, given the mention of prophets, that the word of the Holy Spirit was given by one of these prophets, forthtelling God’s message of commission. But let’s not miss a key doctrinal truth buried in this verse: the Holy Spirit “said”, indicating personality. Those who envision the Holy Spirit merely as “the Force” or something have to deal with wording such as this that suggests far more than a mere presence or force.
And when the Holy Spirit spoke, these men listened, and the church listened, and acted upon His leading. And if we are not sensitive to the leading of the Spirit, we will go astray as a church.
IV. Willing to do whatever - :2
“the work”
Notice how specific the Lord’s instructions are—not! There’s no detailed plan here; there’s no mention of missions to the Gentiles, no grand plan laid out for their future. It’s simply “the work”. There is something reminiscent of God’s call of Abram here. In Genesis 12, God told Abram, “Go to the land I will show you”. Here, there is little detail given; it’s “the work to which I’ve called these guys.” It’s not a matter of them signing up for a ministry to their liking, which will in some way benefit them with million-dollar salaries, multi-million dollar homes, and leased Bentleys; it’s a matter of them going wherever God directed them. Paul wrote later that he had learned how to live with much, and in poverty. Yeah, he had to, because it was certainly an adventurous ride that Saul was set apart for!
V. Called - :2
“called them”
The two had an inner call that the church was recognizing now, and releasing them to act upon. The church, according to LJ Ogilvie, was “to recognize what the Spirit had accomplished in creating the desire and clarifying the direction.” God had specifically called these two men for this particular work for this particular time in this particular place. But might I suggest that now, with the completion of the canon of Scripture, each of us as Christ’s followers has been called by God to be set apart to Him for service in some way?
• “Called” to be His own people (Romans 8, 9)
• “Called” to be saints (I Corinthians 1)
• “Called” to peace (I Corinthians 7)
• “Called” to live in the liberty of God’s grace (Galatians 5)
• Created, and thus called, to do good works (Ephesians 2)
• “Called” to live in unity (Ephesians 4)
• “Called” to holiness (I Thessalonians 4)
• “Called” to suffer, if necessary, in His name (I Peter 2)
• And in the Great Commission, we are all called to make disciples (Matthew 28)
God calls us as individuals, yes, but there is a tremendous corollary to this truth, one we see in verse 3:
VI. Connected to the church - :3
“they laid their hands…sent them”
From other passages in Scripture (Acts 14:27, 15:4-30), it seems clear that the “they” referred to in this passage is the entire congregation. The entire church was engaged in sending out these two, and in hearing their report when they returned.
In laying hands on these men, the church wasn’t giving them anything that they didn’t have. Rather, they were publicly identifying themselves with the men; the mission that Barnabas and Saul would undertake was their mission; Barnabas and Saul were their representatives. Missions and obedience were high priorities in the life of this church, and their willingness to send away two of their best and brightest indicates this. And as we begin soon to speak more frequently of our role in the world here at Red Oak, as we move missions more into the forefront of what we’re about, there’s something you’re going to hear from me over and over, so let’s say it now so we get it down clearly: the work of world missions is not the work of missionaries; it is the work of the church. That’s what was happening here: the whole church was involved, even though only two, at this point, went out as “missionaries”. You have a role to play, and so do I.
So ultimately, who sent the missionaries, the Holy Spirit or the church at Antioch? Yes. Stott rightly suggests that this balance is a corrective to unhealthy extremes. The importance of the church’s involvement cannot be overstressed in our culture particularly, where we have this individualistic, do-my-thing-with-Jesus mindset that views the church as a nice add-on, but ultimately subservient to my own experience of God. The Christian who effectively says, “it’s my call to make, me and the Holy Spirit”, who doesn’t take the church into account in the making of decisions that impact the church, or that involve the work of the Lord, is out-of-bounds Scripturally. On the other hand, the church that operates like a business, relegating the Holy Spirit to a ceremonial role, almost, is surely wrong as well.
This is an essential missing link, I believe, in our understanding of Christian faith: the church in America has a very poor ecclesiology (doctrine of the church). We’d rather be cowboys and do our own thing—and some of that gets us into significant trouble, whether it’s unaccountable televangelists who live lifestyles of the rich and famous, justifying their greed in the name of Jesus, or individual Christians, acting as if “me and Jesus” are all that matters.
A church that makes its decisions regarding ministry without the leadership of the Holy Spirit, arrived at through prayer, the Word, and seeking the will of God, will surely go astray. It is still appropriate today for the church to be sensitive to the calling of God, to the work of the Holy Spirit, in choosing those who would be sent in ministry venues and ventures. It’s more than a person volunteering for the work of God, although that spirit is one to be encouraged, and one to take into account when considering God’s leading. But the bottom line is that the local church has a key role in the choosing and sending of workers, as does the Holy Spirit.
And so God chooses and begins to use these men who are sensitive to the Spirit, servants who worship Him, abandon themselves to His will, and are connected vitally to the body of Christ, the church. And folks, he’s still interested in using people like that today, right here in Marietta and Powder Springs and Austell, in Kennesaw and Woodstock and Acworth, in Bolivia and Central America and Papua New Guinea.
Table Talk
o How does our American obsession with the “cult of the individual” manifest itself in church?
o How would you use today’s passage to answer someone who manifests that attitude?
