Acts 13:1-12 How Can I Be Sent on Mission for God?

Now we find Saul and Barnabas at the church in Antioch along with some other prophets and teachers that are building the church at Antioch. The Gospel is starting to gain ground and folks are getting saved. They are worshipping and praying with the new converts teaching them what it looks like to worship and serve God.

What were they all doing when Saul and Barnabas are chosen to go on mission? They were worshipping the Lord and fasting.

Who chose Saul and Barnabas to go on mission from Antioch? The Holy Spirit

We want so badly to be used by God but we don’t want to put in the work on the front end to be chosen. We want to do things for God but we want to pick when and where we worship Him and how we serve Him. We want so badly for God to send us somewhere but the truth of the matter is that if God did call us and try to send us the majority of the Christians in the world today would not go. God would have to send them a text or run a TV show because they are too busy with everything else in the world to hear Him when He calls. We are too distracted for our own good.

Saul and Barnabas started out worshipping before they ever started teaching. It all started from a personal relationship with God. They worshipped first, then they submitted, and then they were used by God. We often times want to put the cart before the horse. So Saul and Barnabas are sent by the Holy Spirit and the first place they stop is in the Jewish Synagogue.

Cyprus where Saul and Barnabas went is modern day Turkey by the way and is the island that Barnabas is from. When they land the first place they go is to the local church, or what we would consider the church in todays world…the synagogue and they start preaching the Word of God.

Wait they are preaching I thought they were on mission for God….I thought God was gonna use them for something why are they preaching….

3. What exactly do we think God is gonna use us for when we are called by Him?

4. What is the job that we were all given?

Our mission is the same as the mission Paul was given to go and make disciples of all nations…to go and tell the world the good news about Jesus…folks the job hasn’t changed the mission is still the same mission that we were given in the beginning.

So Saul and Barnabas meet a Jewish sorcerer a false prophet known as Bar-Jesus which means in Hebrew son of Jesus….he also has another name Elymas which means magician or sorcerer….Luke makes it clear by using both names that this guy is a false prophet….he is not a man of God at all.

5. Is there gonna be opposition to the Gospel message?

6. Who is greater the God or the world?

7. Why don’t we continue to share the Gospel even in the face of opposition?

This guy Bar-Jesus is like any other individual that gets a little power….he is scared to lose what he has. Now notice in verse 9…this is where Saul’s name changes to Paul. His name did not actually change he just started using his Roman name Paulos…which is Paul.

Paul calls Bar-Jesus out for what he is and tells him that he is about to be punished by God…notice though that Paul is not acting on his own he is being lead by the Holy Spirit. We often times keep silent and just try our best not to cause waves or to be confrontational….when something or someone is trying to interfere with the Gospel message we should be brave and bold speaking the truth about Jesus…..Paul is not timid he just calls it what it is…..

So this guy gets blinded but the governor becomes a believer…What Paul and Barnabas are doing is being done on behalf of the Gospel not for themselves. They are not trying to win favor with the governor for personal gain. When we are working for God and not for us when we follow Him and the prompting of the Holy Spirit…..the Gospel will go forward and folks will be saved.

Paul and Barnabas were not trying to do what they were doing for them or so that they would be looked upon with favor by anyone. They were not proclaiming the message of God so that their story would be recorded in Scripture…they were doing what they were doing in service to God and the advancement of the Gospel message and God’s Kingdom.

Paul and Barnabas are sent by the Holy Spirit on the first missionary journey to carry the Gospel message to the Gentiles…they are not doing what they are doing so that they find favor with people….in fact they are calling out hypocrisy and sin…they are standing at odds with local tradition and Jewish teachings….they are not making friends they are making disciples.

This is the start of the first missionary journey of Paul….notice that this beginning came while Paul was worshiping God and fasting…It all started while Paul and Barnabas were in church….they were sent together….

So what’s the take away…

This is not a competition to see who can win more souls for the Lord.

Paul and Barnabas went together but they did not always agree.

We cannot be doing what we are doing for God so that we gain favor with people or with God.

It’s not about the what it’s bout they why.

If we want to be sent on mission for God it starts in church, then submission and obedience, and then we can be sent.