INTRODUCTION / LEAD IN
I wonder if you’ve read The Lord of the Rings. In the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo Baggins throws a party. Then, he suddenly vanishes! Gandalf the wizard knows how he’s done it: Bilbo has a ring with very special power, a ring that is gradually gaining control over him. With some difficulty, Gandalf persuades Bilbo to give it up. He then tasks Frodo Baggins with destroying it. Frodo sets off with a few companions: Sam, Merry and Pippin. The four of them walk for quite a while. Then Pippin comments:
‘The road goes on for ever … but I can’t without a rest. It is high time for lunch.’
Pippin’s remark gets Frodo thinking and he quotes a poem:
‘The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.’
The companions chat a bit about it and Frodo mentions something Bilbo Baggins told him:
‘It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door … You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.’
At this point, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin don’t know what lies ahead. They had stepped out onto a road and it was going to lead them into some extraordinary adventures.
Last week we started on a new series, looking at Saul, or Paul, as he was also known. Last week, we looked at Acts 9. Saul had been persecuting Christians. Those Christians were saying that Jesus had risen; Jesus was Lord. Now, Jesus appeared to Saul. In a moment, Saul woke up to the fact that the Christians were right and he was wrong. He did an about-turn. He accepted Jesus as Lord. He was baptized, washing away his sins. He was SAVED.
God told a man called Ananias to go to Saul. He told Ananias, ‘Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles.’ In the past, God had revealed himself mainly to Jews. Now, he was going to reach out to people who are not Jews, people the Jews called Gentiles.
In the following chapters we see God putting his intention into practice. He sends Peter to Cornelius, a Roman. Acts 10, 11 and 12 are mostly about Peter but Saul is mentioned. He goes with Barnabas to Antioch. Then the church in Antioch decides to send a gift to the church in Jerusalem and they send it through Saul and Barnabas. Acts 12 ends by telling us: ‘And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service…’
In Acts 9, Paul was SAVED.
In Acts 12, we find him SERVING.
In Acts 13, something new is about to happen. At the start of Acts 13, various leaders of the church in Antioch – this is Antioch in Syria – are worshipping the Lord and fasting. The Holy Spirit tells them, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Barnabas and Saul would be SENT. They will set out and, like Frodo Baggins, the road ahead of them will be full of adventures.
Acts 13 is 52 verses long. I didn’t think we could read all of it so I asked Jo to read three passages from it. I think these passages point to three things we can learn about mission:
1. Mission is the task of the church
2. People we rely on aren’t always reliable
3. People who should give support may be hostile
The first thing we can learn about mission from Acts 13, and I think the most important lesson today, is that mission IS THE TASK OF THE CHURCH.
In verses 1-3 the leaders of the church in Antioch were worshipping God and fasting.
In verse 2 we read, ‘the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”‘ The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart ... Barnabas and Saul.’ It wasn’t an instruction TO Barnabas and Saul. It was an instruction to the church in Antioch about how they were to use Barnabas and Saul. God gives his instruction about mission TO THE CHURCH. He was calling the church in Antioch to be involved in mission by setting apart two people – quite possibly their two best people.
This is something we – as in 21st century churches in Europe – need to hear. To a large extent we have forgotten God’s calling on us. If I was to ask you, ‘Think of a mission organization’, I expect you’d think of BMS or Interserve or YWAM or some organization like that. I don’t think most of us would immediately say, ‘The church.’ The rise of mission organizations has left some of us thinking that mission is their department, not ours.
But God tasked THE CHURCH with mission. Paul wrote, in his letter to the Ephesians that it was God’s plan ‘that THROUGH THE CHURCH the manifold wisdom of god might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places’ [Ephesians 3:10]. Paul wrote this is in the context of his ministry to the Gentiles.
One commentator [Klyne Snodgrass / NIV Application Commentary] wrote, ‘This description of the church’s role has no equivalent elsewhere in Paul or in the New Testament ... The church’s very existence and conduct are making known how great God’s plan of salvation is – both to people and to the powers. THIS GIVES AN UNPARALLELED IMPORTANCE TO THE CHURCH.’
We need to get it just how important the church is in God’s purpose in mission. Mission isn’t something to be delegated to BMS or Interserve or YWAM. Mission isn’t something to be left to individuals as they feel called. Mission is the responsibility of the church. Mission is OUR responsibility.
We may also note in passing that because mission is, first and foremost, the church’s responsibility, the church has to accept the cost.
When people go on mission, there’s a cost to them and a cost for their families who they leave behind. But we need to recognize that when the church sets aside some of their best people for mission there is a cost to the church. But the church can’t shy away from it. Mission is the church’s responsibility.
But if we – the church – balk at the cost of setting aside our best people for mission, we need to remember that God loves a generous giver [2 Corinthians 9:7]. There IS a cost to mission. But when we give in God’s service, God loves us! That’s worth having! I don’t believe those sending or those going will ever lose out if they are sending or going in response to God’s call.
We’ll now move on to verses 13-15. But first I’ll fill you in on what happens in between. [MAP]
Saul and Barnabas get on a ship and head for Cyprus. On Cyprus, they meet Sergius Paulus, the proconsul – effectively the governor of Cyprus. Sergius Paulus wants to know about the gospel but when Saul and Barnabas meet him, he’s with a sorcerer called Elymas. Elymas tries to put him off. Saul condemns Elymas; he becomes blind, and Sergius Paulus comes to faith.
This then takes us to verses 13-15. Verse 13 says: ‘Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem…’
A second thing we can learn about mission in this passage is that people leave. This verse simply tells us that ‘John left them.’ But two chapters on, we find that Barnabas wanted to take John Mark on another trip but Paul didn’t agree. Luke writes, ‘Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia’ [Acts 15:38]. I assume that Paul thinks John is unreliable.
One incident doesn’t establish a principle. But this isn’t the only place that Paul found people leaving him. He tells Timothy that someone called Demas had deserted him [2 Timothy 4:10]. Soon after that he says that on some occasion, EVERYONE deserted him! [2 Timothy 4:16]. When we were on holiday in France recently, we met an American family whom God had called as missionaries to France. As soon as they came to France, someone who was already there left. In Azerbaijan, we found that people would sometimes head off somewhere during the summer. Whatever tasks there were to do, we had to do them. So, verses 13-15 remind us that people leave. It happens in mission and it happens in ministry. Let’s not be too shocked when it does.
We’ll now move on to verses 42-52 but I’ll first fill you in on what happens before that. [MAP]
Paul and Barnabas go on from Cyprus to what is now Turkey. After travelling a bit, they end up in another city called Antioch. This Antioch in what is now Turkey is sometimes called Pisidian Antioch to distinguish it from Antioch in Syria. Paul goes to a synagogue and is invited to share a word of encouragement. Remember, he’s a distinguished rabbi. So, he tells the people in the synagogue about Jesus. God had sent a messiah, as he had promised. ‘But’, Paul told them, ‘those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers condemned him and had him executed’ Then Paul adds, ‘But God raised him from the dead.’
Many of the people in Antioch were enthusiastic to hear more. But when we get near to the end of the chapter, we read, ‘But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.’
That gives us our third thing to learn. If we go out on mission some people won’t like us. Some people liked what Paul said and wanted to hear more. But others reviled him. It doesn’t say ‘they didn’t like what Paul SAID.’ It says that they reviled HIM. That’s the nature of things. In fact, Jesus said that if that ISN’T what’s happening, something is wrong. He said, ‘Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets’ [Luke 6:26]. It’s a simple lesson. Go out, speak for Jesus, and some people won’t like YOU. Shrug your shoulders. Be worried if that ISN’T happening!
I’ve suggested three things we can learn from this passage. Here they are again. Mission is the task of the church – our task, in other words. People may leave. People may not like us.
I haven’t given mission a very good sell, have I? Are we still up for it?
I hope so! We have a great example in Jesus. HE accepted the call to mission and entered our world. HIS disciples left him. And people didn’t like HIM. In fact, they disliked him so much that they put him to death. But Jesus wants people to be saved. So, he accepted the cost of mission. I hope we will feel the same way.
I started this talk with The Lord of the Rings and Frodo recalling Bilbo Baggins giving him some advice. Bilbo told him, ‘It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door … You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.’ Wise words – and a good description of mission.
When Jesus calls us to send or to go, we don’t know what lies ahead. There will be adventures and challenges. That’s the nature of mission. But if Jesus calls, we can be sure that he will be with us. And we can be sure that our sending or our going will be very much worth it.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus. Thank you for what we have learned today. Thank you for the reminder that mission isn’t primarily something for missionary societies or individuals. Mission is a task you give to CHURCHES. Thank you for the warnings, that people we rely on may leave, and that some people won’t like us. We pray that we will follow your example in accepting the cost. We pray that we, like the church in Antioch, will be sensitive to the leading of your Holy Spirit. We pray that we may be willing, as you call, to set people apart or go ourselves. We ask this in your name, Amen.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 10.30 a.m. service, 3rd September 2023..
