The Journey Begins (Acts 13:1-12)

The reason on we are doing this short series from Acts is that we want to clarify our calling as a church so that when we church plant we know what sort of church we want to reproduce.  Our task if to define—what are our core values as a church, refine—how can we live out these core values better, and, replicate—we want to take what we do and do it somewhere else.

We have seen that the central calling of the church is to display the beauty of Jesus.  This is best done as a diverse people love each other well in the name of Christ, when we act as a house of prayer for all nations, and when we actively remember and share the beautiful message of the cross and resurrection (we will be exploring that more in a couple of weeks).

We are beginning a journey, so why not look at another journey?  The journey we are going to examine is called Paul’s first missionary journey, and it begins in a place called Antioch. 

We are going to state four things:

-          We don’t send missionaries, we relocate them.

-          We should seek for diversity in our leadership.

-          We must be willing to pay the price of church planting

-          We are to be more than open to signs and wonders.

We don’t send missionaries, we relocate them

Antioch was about four hundred and eighty kilometers north of Jerusalem (Belfast is three hundred and seventy kilometers).  It was on a strategic trade route.  Antioch is a key church in the book of Acts.  It was a sending church.  From here a number of missionary journeys were commissioned, including Paul’s first missionary journey—which we are going to look at over the next while.

Ten years earlier, in A.D. 36, Stephen had been stoned to death in Jerusalem.  At that time persecution erupted in Jerusalem and all but the apostles were scattered.  God used this scattering to spread the good news.  Everywhere the people went they spoke about Jesus. 

But as they dispersed from Jerusalem they spoke only to fellow Jews.  It wasn’t until some of these Jewish Christians arrived in Antioch that they started sharing the gospel with Greek speaking non-Jews (Gentiles).  The people who did this were men from Cyprus and Cyrene. 

When the church in Jerusalem heard that Gentiles were becoming Christians they sent another person from Cyrus, Barnabas, to Antioch to check out what was happening.  Barnabas saw that this was a genuine work of God and was delighted.  He then went to Tarsus, to look for Saul, and they came back to Antioch and taught in the church for a year.  It was in Antioch that the believers were first called Christians—the significance of this may have been that now people were seeing that they were not simply a sect of Judaism.

See how the ordinary people who were scattered spread the gospel all the way to Antioch.  One church leader said, about the church he served, ‘we don’t send missionaries, we relocate them.’  Wherever you are home or abroad you are called to pray for and take opportunities to speak about Jesus.

We should seek diversity in our leadership

In our church constitution it is for the elders to agree on people they believe should join the eldership team and then nominate such men to be voted on by the membership.  Will you pray for this?

When we look at the leaders of Antioch—the teachers and prophets—we see that God has included people from a diversity of backgrounds.  Barnabas is mentioned first, probably because he was the leader.  Then there is Simeon called Niger.  Simeon is a Jewish name, and Niger is Latin for ‘black’, indicating that he was likely from Africa.  Lucius was from Cyrene (which was in north Africa).  Then we have a really interesting man, Manaen is a Jewish name, and ‘he had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch’—which means that he had been a close childhood friend, or even a foster brother, of the man we witnessed beheading John the Baptist and who had died seven years earlier.  Then there is Paul, who was still called Saul at this stage.  Saul was not actually named Paul when he was converted.  He changed his name to Paul when he got immersed in work among non-Jews.  It was a part of being willing to be all things to all people, and not have his Jewish name be a barrier to those he was trying to reach.

Now we should never appoint a person to a position on the basis of the colour of their skin.  We want to simply appoint those who have been called to serve in various roles.  But this passage shows God’s values diversity in leadership.  I am so conscious that all our elders are white.  I need to point out that we have asked two men who are not white to consider eldership, but both felt that was not what God was calling them to at this time.  Please pray that God would bless us with a diverse leadership that might display God’s desire to show the world a church truly diverse people.

We must be willing to pay the price of church planting

The leaders were worshipping the Lord and fasting when the Holy Spirit said to them, ‘set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the task I have called them.’  The Holy Spirit calls the Antiochians to release those two men who had been teaching them over the last year.  That can’t have been easy.  They are losing their two strongest leaders.

The truth is that mission is costly to any sending church.  When Grosvenor Road Baptist sent out a significant number of its members to plant a church in Ballycullen their pastor, John Samuel, initially wondered if they would ever recover as a church.  But God is good and Grosvenor flourishes still.  We have to be realistic about the cost church planting might have on us.  That cost might include us being willing to relocate to a new church fellowship.  Pray if that is what God is calling you to do!

The Holy Spirit speaks of the work to which I have called them.  The truth is that God has called all of you to different works.  ‘For you are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do’ (Eph. 2:10).  The writer to the Hebrews tells us not to give up meeting together because we are called to meet with each other to spur one another on to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24-25).  Are we daily asking God to show us the love and good deeds He is calling us to do? 

We are to be more than open to signs and wonders

Earlier in Acts (4:29-30) the church was under pressure and they cried out together, ‘Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great courage.  Stretch out your hand to heal and preform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus’.  John Piper comments, ‘the needs of the world today are so great and the present experience of the church is so weak, that we should long for the very thing they longed for … They cried for boldness in their witness; they cried for God’s hand to be stretched forth in healing; and they cried for God to preform signs and wonders.  They were not just “open” to signs and wonders.  They were desperate for them.  They prayed for them to come.’     

Notice that the church not only heard the Holy Speak as they fasted and prayed, they fasted and prayed as they send Barnabas and Paul on this first great missionary journey.  These missionaries were both sent by the church and sent out by the Holy Spirit.  As a church we need to keep in step with the Spirit.

They sailed to Cyrus, where Barnabas was from.  He must have known many people there, and it would have been a joy to return with the message of Jesus.  But as many of you know, sometimes the hardest people to speak about your faith to are your won people.

Writing in the 1930s, H. V. Norton, who was following the journeys of Paul says, ‘the beauty of Cyrus is a perfect blend of mountains and plain, and hills that slope down to deserted bays half-screened by olive trees.  The crisp insistence of the cicada and the sound of the waves make a perpetual duet in the heat.’  

They began their work among the Jews.  Having gone through the whole island they came upon a magician, a Jewish false-prophet called Bar-Jesus.

This false-prophet was with the proconsul—the highest-ranking Roman official on the island.  The proconsul wanted to hear the word of God.  Now the magician, who was called Elymus, was threatened by this.  If the proconsul became a Christian he would no longer want a demonic magician.  Not for the only time in Acts does someone oppose the gospel because it threatens their self-interest.  Filled with the Holy Spirit Paul rebukes the magician and he becomes blind for a while.  God cared too much for the gospel and the life of the proconsul to have this magician oppose him.

Notice the role this miracle of God has in the proconsul’s faith.  The miracle played a role in opening his heart.  ‘Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord’ (12).  ‘Throughout Acts, miracles have a significant role in bring unbelievers to faith’ (ESV Study Bible).

The word alone converts many people.  The word is sometimes accompanied by miracles in converting people.  But miracles alone will convert no one because they must be accompanied by the Word.  We must be faithful in speaking about Jesus, and we should pray that He will perform signs and wonders if that will be a help to the mission.

Conclusion

We are at the beginning of a journey.  The membership has unanimously voted to become a church planting church and to partner with Baptist Missions in doing this.  Can I encourage all of you to hand your lives over to Jesus, show this commitment in baptism, and commit yourself to the membership of this church?

We are called to show the beauty of Jesus as a diverse people love each other well in Christ.  Can I ask you to pray to God that this might also be seen in our leadership?

They worshipped and fasted, and the Holy Spirit spoke to them.  Can I challenge you to deepen your prayer life that we might hear more clearly from the Holy Spirit?  We, and in particular our leaders, must listen well to God in order that as a church we keep in step with the Spirit.  I want to particularly ask you to come to our new prayer gatherings, which is happening this Wednesday.

God willing, we are going to plant a church.  That will cost us.  Ask the Holy Spirit if He is calling you to be one of the people who gets the privilege of being involved in the founding of something with such significance.

Finally, we are entirely dependent of God.  We must pray.  We must pray.  We must pray.  We must trust the gospel to change people’s lives.  We are entirely dependent on Him to break stone cold hearts and reach an into a dark and wicked generation.  We should not only be open to signs and wonders, we should seek them, as we long for God to vindicate His name.

 Amen.