We Have Lift Off!
Acts 13:1-12
Growing up in central Florida provided a unique opportunity. As a child and even in to my teen years I have fond memories of taking the 2 hour car ride on Interstate 4 from Tampa on the west coast of Florida to Cape Canaveral on the East Coast of Florida to visit the NASA Space Center. I was fascinated with everything that had to do with space travel. Seeing the space suits, moon buggy, space capsules and even the meal packs the astronauts ate - it all captivated my imagination. Each time I went I would come home with a souvenir model that I would painstakingly glue together and apply the stickers to.
Countless times back at home I can remember watching this fascinating event happen live on TV. After watching the shuttle blast off on TV, I would run outside into our front yard and look almost due east into the clear blue Florida sky. After a few moments I would see in the distance a trail of smoke ascending into the sky. The astronauts were launched off on their mission.
Well this morning we're going to consider another mission that was launched, a mission that carried a more valuable cargo than any NASA mission that has ever been launched. The contents of the payload had the potential to save the entire human race - it was the very gospel of Jesus Christ. What we will study today is when the very first missionaries were commissioned and were launched out by the church - the church in Antioch.
1Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
4So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
We have lift off! The mission is launched by the church in Antioch. This is the first time the church has proactively been on mission to spread the gospel to all nations. Previously, the church's spread from Jerusalem outward into those Acts 1:8 concentric circles Jesus described was REactive. They were reacting to persecution. It was the ravaging of the church in Jerusalem following Stephen's martyrdom that forced many Christians to flee. But they didn't go quietly, they went preaching the gospel. Luke even noted in Acts 11:19 that this church in Antioch was planted as a direct result of the Jerusalem persecution. But here, for the first time, we see the church being proactive. They are taking the initiative to purposefully commission missionaries from their midst.
This morning as we zero in on this text we will notice three characteristics about those who go on mission; three characteristics about these missionaries. Now this text is not comprehensive in it's scope of missionary sending and going - we're not going to say EVERYTHING there is to say about sending missionaries, but we do learn some foundational principles for a church on mission and the missionaries they commission. Three characteristics we notice in these missionaries. First.
I. SENT By The Church
they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
As I said before, this is the first instance of planned overseas missions carried out by representatives of a specific church begun by a deliberate church decision. We've seen people go forward on mission, we've seen people even go cross-cultural, going from one place to another. Here is the first example of a church by deliberate choice setting aside missionaries. This is a missionary-sending church. But from the text we notice a few characteristics of this missionary sending church. First, there was a...
A. Supremacy of the WORD
In this church in Antioch there was a supremacy of the word, a priority on the word of God. The Word of God, the teaching of the word of God - the preaching of the word of God was primary in this church. Notice verse 1 says, Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers...
Luke starts here. A gospel focused, evangelical missionary sending church will be a church that places a supremacy on the teaching and preaching of the Word. Before talking about the missionaries that were sent or the way they were commissioned, or where they were sent, Luke sets up the description of this church as a place where there were several gifted prophets and teachers.
Teacher and prophet are in a sense overlapping roles, both centered on proclaiming the truths of God's Word. The prophet may be more of a preacher and the teacher would be one that gives more systematic instruction of the truths handed down by the apostles.
Five men are mentioned as being in that teaching/preaching role in the church in Antioch, two of which will be commissioned to serve as missionaries to Cyprus. The first one was Barnabas. We've encountered him several time in Acts. A Levite, a Jew. A rich man, a very caring man, an encourager, generous, supportive, a leader in the church. And importantly, he's a native of Cyprus, which is where they will be going to.
Simeon who is also called Niger. If you have an ESV Bible you've got a footnote by the name Niger. It's a Latin word that means black or dark. It's possible that he's also from Cyrene like Lucius, the next man mentioned. Cyrene is in northern Africa. Now at this time in history, most of the people in North Africa would have been more of a Mediterranean, dark complexion. So there seems to be a deliberate point here that Simeon is called Niger. This is likely the first black missionary in the history of the church.
We then have Lucius of Cyrene, and then Manean, who was a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, the Herod we saw who was struck down by an angel of God last week. And then finally, the fifth man we see preaching and teaching in the church was Saul of Tarsus, also known as Paul.
This was an incredibly ethnically diverse congregation, as reflected by their pastors. But I think more important than their ethnic diversity was the fact that this missionary sending church placed a supremacy on the word. They were a grounded, well taught and instructed church. But notice secondly, this church had a...
B. Sensitivity in their WORSHIP
2While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, he spoke, he communicated. Fasting is always an indication that a person or a people are seeking the direction of the Lord; they're seeking understanding and insight. And they came together on their Sunday morning worship service together with an expectancy that God would in fact speak. While they're worshiping the Lord together, during their corporate worship of God as a people, the Holy Spirit spoke to them. Do you see the sensitivity this church had to the voice of the Holy Spirit while they were gathered together in public worship?
Last week I emphasized the fact that in the New Testament, prayer is not just a private discipline but it is principally a corporate, involved church practice. That a church should pray together. In the same way, our worship of God is not principally a private act - though you should certainly worship God in private. It is primarily a corporate act, where the people of God come together to give praise and worship to God together. By the same token, hearing the voice of the Spirit speak to you and confirm his will for you is not principally a private thing, but it is a corporate thing.
Why would God's primary means of speaking to us through His Spirit be in the corporate gathering? Because here we have people who can affirm that word from God; here we have people who can attest to that, who can say, "My spirit bears witness with your spirit that this is the word from the Lord."
I've said this before but it bears repeating. The professing Christian who claims they can live their Christian life outside the ongoing active community of the church finds no basis for that in the Bible. "I go to church on the lake, or I go to church in the deer stand, or I go to church in my living room." There's no indication whatsoever that first century Christians thought they could live their Christian lives outside the community of believers that have covenanted together, known as the local church.
And here in Antioch we see it is with the church gathered, while they are worshiping God, in the midst of their fasting - which indicates their heart of expectancy was tuned and ready to hear from God - it was then that the Holy Spirit speaks to them and gives them a clear word.
I wonder if we come together in worship with that expectation? Expecting that when we gather with our church family every Sunday morning, the Holy Spirit is present and He will speak to us, instruct us, counsel us, comfort us or convict us. That's the language of the Holy Spirit - he's the teacher, the counselor, the comforter and the convicter.
This missionary sending church placed a supremacy on the word, they had a sensitivity in their worship, but thirdly:
C. Submission in their WILL
the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
The Holy Spirit spoke to them, and they obeyed the voice of the Spirit and submitted themselves to His call.
Now you may say, "How did they know this? Was it communicated to everyone at the same time in their conscience?" I think more than likely one of the five pastors mentioned before, perhaps one of the prophets, came forward and communicated this word, and the rest of the church, in step with the Holy Spirit affirmed this word from the Lord. That word was that Barnabas and Saul, 2/5ths of the pastoral staff, would be leaving to go on the mission field. And they submitted their will to the call of God as indicated by their laying on of hands and sending them off.
Now if I would have been in that church meeting, and if I was not walking in step with the Spirit but was walking in the flesh, I may have protested a bit. I mean Barnabas and Saul, they're our two best guys. Send Lucius out. Don't send Barnabas out. I mean that guy is so gifted, he's such an encourager, he's a tremendous asset to our church. And besides that, he's wealthy, he's a generous giver. Our church budget will be significantly affected if he leaves. Don't send him out.
And Saul - he's a tremendously gifted teacher; I mean he's going to write half of the New Testament. Let's not send him out, let's send out Manean. That's how the flesh would respond to this - let's keep the brightest and the best here for ourselves.
I told you at the beginning of this year as we began this emphasis on missions as a church that my prayer was that God would call the brightest and the best from among us and would send them to the far reaches of the globe to take the gospel to the unreached and unengaged.
The mission field is not the place where we send men who can't hack it as pastors in the US. The mission field is where we send our brightest and best. That's the mentality of the church in Antioch. Why? Because that's who God called by his Spirit to this mission.
I want to introduce you this morning to two such people, Brian and Stephanie. They are from Chattanooga and have been called to overseas missions in South Asia. I can't tell you their last name, or the country they're going to because of the high security of that location. They've gone through the process of being affirmed by their home church and then being appointed by the IMB to take the gospel to a very dark and difficult part of the world. Welcome them as they come up.
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So we see these first missionaries that were called by God and commissioned were SENT by the Church. We must not downplay the role of the local church in affirming and commissioning missionaries.
Now today we have missions agencies that serve an invaluable role in the process of affirming the call and preparing for the field, but missionaries are principally sent out and commissioned by local churches. Secondly, they
II. SPOKE The Word
When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They set out on this mission to Cyprus. Antioch was a city on the River, about 16 miles inland. They set sail from Antioch and traveled to the next port, Seleucia. Then they traveled about 60 miles by boat to Cyprus. Cyprus was a large island. It's about 140 miles from Chattanooga to Nashville, that's how long the island of Cyprus was, and it was about 60 miles wide. So a big island. They start their mission at one major city, Salamis, and travel across the whole island to the capital city of Cyprus, Paphos. And their reason for being on the island of Cyprus was to speak the word of God. These men were skilled teachers of the word.
Now certainly, when we think about mission work in our day we know there are all kinds of roles and responsibilities that are employed in our strategies to reach people. Even at our missions conference in February we had IMB missionaries who were logistics managers. Their job is to make sure that people on the field had the resources they needed to fulfill the mission. We had agricultural specialists that helped villages and people groups produce more food on the land where they lived. But the primary responsibility of ANY missionary on the field is to communicate & proclaim the Word of God.
I would argue, and the book of Acts supports this, I would argue that whatever else missionaries might do, if they are not aiming at teaching the word of God, they are not missionaries. They may be doing very good things. Good things as Christians we would want to support in the name of Christian love and charity. But we will continue to see in the book of Acts that the emphasis and priority was on teaching the Word. Now this may take place in all sorts of different strategies and approaches, but the aim is to speak the word of God to those who have not heard.
You know, in this city of Chattanooga there are churches on just about every street corner. There are a half-dozen Christian radio stations on the FM dial. People in our city have an abundant access to the gospel. But there are still many around the world that have a very limited access or absolutely no access to the gospel message. These first missionaries went – to those who have not heard – and this is our emphasis in missions. To take the word of God to those who have never heard. These missionaries were SENT by the church; they SPOKE the word. But finally, they
III. SAFEGUARDED The Truth
stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord
These missionaries get to Paphos and they encounter two very different men. They meet a man named Bar-Jesus who was called Elymas. The prefix of his name (BAR) is the Aramaic word for son. Barnabas is the son of encouragement. Bar-Jesus means the son of Jesus. Jesus was an incredibly common name among Jewish men. In our western culture we don’t typically name our children Jesus because of the reverence given to the name. But Jesus was a very common name in their culture, there were lots of people named Jesus.
So this was the son of a completely different Jesus. He was a Jewish false prophet, a magician. Now he wasn’t the type of magician that we would think of, you know pulling a bunny out of his hat or flowers out of his sleeve. Those are illusionists who perform sleight of hand tricks. This is what we might call black magic or the occult. And it shows us another episode of supernatural conflict in the spiritual realm that was happening in the early church. We already saw it with Simon the magician who wanted to purchase the power to impart the Spirit of God to kind of add it to his repertoire. We will also see it chapter 19 with the seven sons of Sceva. This is the spiritual opposition to the gospel taking place in the human realm; this is spiritual warfare going on here. Now Bar-Jesus seems to be a type of counselor in the entourage of the governor here.
So you have on the one hand this false prophet, magician named Bar-Jesus. On the other hand you have this Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulas. He’s a Roman, an important magistrate. He’s the Roman Governor and the head of state in the province of Cyprus. So he’s a man of significant influence, an very important Roman official.
Now when Paul sees that Bar-Jesus, this false prophet, is seeking to turn Sergius Paulus from receiving Christ, he gives him a blistering rebuke. If you didn’t see this in the Bible you might think, “This shouldn’t be in the Bible.” But it is in the Bible, so it should be. Paul gives this rebuke in the power of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, Luke says he has this look about him, he looks “intently” at Bar-Jesus. He gave him “the look.”
You know my mom had “the look.” If we were in a public place and I was acting the fool, she didn’t have to say a word. All she had to do was give me the look. Some of you can identify with that. Paul gives Bar-Jesus the look just before blistering him with this rebuke. In his rebuke he identifies Bar-Jesus in three ways.
First he says, “You are a son of the devil.” Do you see the irony here? His name is Bar-Jesus, & Paul calls him “you son of the devil.” Bar-Jesus means son of salvation. But Paul says, no, no, no you are just the opposite. You’re the son of the devil because you’re leading them away from the truth.
Second, he says you’re an enemy of ALL righteousness. He doesn’t say, “You’re mistaken. You’re misguided. You’ve got some erroneous beliefs. He says you’re an enemy of ALL righteousness.
Thirdly, he says “You’re full of all deceit and villainy.” You’re not telling the truth. You’re looking out for your own interests.
Then he asks him this question: “Will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?” In other words, we are seeking to lead people down the right path, down the straight and narrow path of the Lord, and you’re coming in confusing the situation making the plain and straight paths crooked. You’re bringing in confusion and deception. There is a way that leads to life and there is a way that leads to destruction. Bar-Jesus, you’re leading people to their destruction.
And then Paul issues a temporary judgment upon him, a mist and darkness, a temporary blindness given to him no doubt so that he can contemplate what he has done and repent. Notice two things about this rebuke.
A. The NECESSITY of the rebuke
full of all deceit and villainy Sometimes a rebuke is necessary. Sometimes a firm, sharp, even blistering rebuke is a necessary and appropriate response to falsehood. If a pastor, or an evangelist, or a missionary, never speaks in this way, then either he is in a much rosier life situation than Paul, or he does not have the Spirit-inspired guts that Paul had. There is a time and a place to safeguard the flock and to speak in this language, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy.” Let me ask you, do you have a category that there may be an occasion to speak in such a way? Or do you not think that eternal souls would demand such a stinging rebuke. There's a necessity of the rebuke, but also notice...
B. The NARROWNESS of the rebuke
Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence… sought to hear the word of God
By narrowness of the rebuke I mean this: Paul speaks to Bar-Jesus in a completely different way than he speaks with Sergius-Paulus. Now in the grand scheme of things, there are only two categories of people: lost and saved; converted and unconverted; born again or enslaved to sin.
And if you have NOT been born of the Spirit and born into the family of God, then you are not a child of God but you still remain a child of the devil. Sergius Paulus, when he summoned Paul and Barnabas, he was not yet saved, not yet converted, so he too was still a child of the devil. But Paul didn’t call him a child of the devil, even though positionally, that’s what he was. My point is this – we don’t speak to everyone in the same tone, with the same words or the same intensity.
Some people have one speed. Perhaps it’s mamby-pamby, never any righteous indignation, never any emotion or passion. For others they’ve got one speed and it’s only intense, only harsh rebuke. Paul here approaches both of these men, both of whom are unbelievers, and he speaks to them in different ways.
So there are two great errors that Christians can find themselves in. 1) that they would never speak this way with such a sharp rebuke, or 2) that they would always speak this way. Paul and Barnabas had the wisdom to know that though they both were in need of a Savior, they were spoken to in different ways.
But I think the point of Luke recording this interaction is to show again as he has many times already, the Word of God wins. The word has victory over evil and darkness. Notice verse 12: Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
What was it that ultimately led to the conversion of the Sergius Paulus? It was not the supernatural display of power when Paul rebuked Bar-Jesus and he was blinded. What led to the conversion of Sergius Paulus was that he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. What was the teaching of the Lord? It was the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ.
But what we learn from this encounter with Bar-Jesus is that there will be opposition to the gospel, there will be opposition to the missionary endeavors of the church. There will be difficulties and roadblocks and hardships that we encounter as we seek to fulfill the missions mandate that has been laid before us. At this time I’d like to invite up another missionary couple – Mike and Laura.
They also have been called to serve the Lord in a difficult, hard to reach location of the world. They are in Southeast Asia. And again, like Brian and Stephanie, I’m not going to give you their last names or their specific country since this is being recorded and they are in a secure location in the world. You welcome them as they come.
Opposition to the gospel must be expected. If we are faithful to be a church on mission, if we faithfully proclaim the gospel, opposition is a given. That’s true on a church level – and that’s true on an individual level.
Do you want me to tell you how to never be considered a fool by someone else? Never share your faith.
Do you want me to tell you how to never be rejected in the culture? Never stand for righteousness on a social issue.
Do you want me to tell you how to never be taken advantage of? Never reach out to extend help to the needy.
Do you want me to tell you how to never fail in Christian ministry? Never step out in faith to attempt something that only God can do.
Do you want me to tell you how to never have your heart broken? Never give it away in real relationships of encouragement and love.
Difficulties, hardships, failures, oppositions – they are a given in Christian missions, they are a given in Christian ministry. If you seriously follow Christ and seriously desire to serve him you will be open to an array of sorrows that is unknown to the average Christian in this life.
But you will also open yourself up to a vast array of joys and triumphs and treasures that are also unknown to the average Christian in this life.
We have lift off. The church in Antioch blasts off Paul and Barnabas into the orbit of missionary service. And in so doing they serve as a shining example to us, here at LVBC. The example being that what it means to be a church on mission is not just being on mission in the daily life we have here in Chattanooga. But being a church on mission means being sensitive to the Spirit’s call of people here that can be flung out into the far reaches of the planet to take the payload of the gospel to those who have never heard it.
Last Thought: The CRITICAL nature of the mission DEMANDS that we give our best to see it accomplished.
