A Calling and Its Signs

Introduction

Background

The Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Well, you know the rest of the story. God created man in His image, and that man marred the image of God created them in when Adam and Eve sinned.

Well, from that time, God judged the world in the days of Noah with a great flood, and afterward made the promise that He would never flood the Earth again. Fast-forward to Genesis 12, and God makes a covenant with Abraham that his descendants would be God’s chosen people. For the next 4,000 years, God kept His promise to the descendants of Abraham we know as the nation Israel.

God also promised that through the seed of Abraham, that the entire world would be blessed. In the Old Testament and in the four gospel accounts, we see the salvation of the Gentile world sprinkled into God’s plan of redemption…but now, as we saw in Chapter 11, God has officially moved His salvation from the Jews to the whole world.

This does not mean that Israel is not God’s chosen nation, it simply means that God has made the Christian Church a part of His plan. As the Apostle Paul puts it in Romans 11, we have been grafted into God’s plans for the Jews.

What Paul does is compare God’s salvation to an olive tree, and says that God has taken the wild olive branches that are the Gentiles, and He has planted them in the tree of His salvation.

Context

Chapter 13 picks up where chapter 11 ends, with the establishment of the Gentile church, the establishment of Christianity. There, in the last section of Chapter 11, we see Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem to deliver a gift of relief given by Antioch to the Jerusalem church.

Chapters 13 and 14 go together, and they give an account of Paul’s first missionary journey and feature six different cities in which Paul ministered. We begin Acts 13 in Antioch, and we will end Acts 14 in Antioch.

Now, if you’ll turn back to Acts 11 and look in v. 26, it says this, “And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”

This is important, because the central hub of faith in Jesus has moved from Jerusalem to Antioch, and from Antioch, all the churches that are going to be considered the early church are established under the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Still today, when we look at the operation of our church, we turn to the writings of Paul to determine the practice and structure of our churches.

Peter was the Apostle to the Jews, Paul is the Apostle to the Gentiles…and both of them minister to both crowds.

So, here we are in Acts 13, and we see the commissioning of Paul and Barnabas as missionaries.

The Reality of a Calling

Now, today we are on the subject of a calling. It’s obvious that Paul and Barnabas, just like Peter, James, and John, received a calling to work for the Lord.

Look there in v. 2

Acts 13:2 NKJV

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

There are some today who believe that God doesn’t call people into the ministry, but He does.

I remember the day that God called me like it was yesterday

I was saved at the age of 15 in the summer between my Sophomore and Junior year of high school. My birthday is in September so I turned 16 not long after that, and I remember I was driving my dad’s 2001 Tacoma down Highway 188, coming back home from somewhere that I wasn’t supposed to be.

I remember driving home and I am crying, and it’s like I hear the voice of God saying, “Dylan, I thought you were a Christian, why are you still living like this?” I didn’t have an answer…but then God spoke again and said, “You are going to be set apart for the work of the ministry.”

I went to church that Sunday and made it public that God was calling me to serve Him as my full-time vocation…and the rest is history.

Where we are in the church today is we have a shortage of pastors. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I am or am close to being the youngest pastor in Lawrence county and it’s not even close.

Either God is no longer calling people to pastor, which I find hard to believe, or people are not listening to God when He calls. Either way, the results are not good.

This church has experienced that first hand…what used to be a 9-month average to find a pastor has now turned into an 18-month average to find a pastor, and the simple reason is there aren’t many available, and the ones that are available don’t always fit the context of the church.

It’s not a secret that we eventually die and people can’t do what they used to when they were younger, so what we need are more young men to enter into the ministry, and I believe that we will have some surrender to ministry right here from our church, amen?

So, today we are talking about the calling, but not just for ministers, but we are talking about the calling given to every Christian to do the work of the Lord.

I. A Calling and Its Signs

Acts 12:25 NKJV

And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.

First Sign, Salvation

Obviously, the first place you have to begin if you say that you are called by God for ministry, is you need to be saved.

John Mark

Now, there in the last phrase of v. 25, we are introduced again to John Mark. This John Mark is the author of the book or Mark, and served under Paul, Barnabas, and Peter…and Mark is believed to have been there in garden when Jesus was arrested. I believe this because of Mark 14, where Mark gives an account of an anonymous young man…I believe that man was Mark.

We also see Mark in chapter 12, because they were all at his house praying the night that Peter was released from prison. So, Mark has been around for some time.

Paul

We also see Saul in there, the man we know as Paul. Scholars believe the reason he goes by both, even after his conversion, is because his name is actually Saul Paulus…Saul being his Jewish name, Paulus being his Roman name because he was a Roman citizen.

Paul will go on to write almost all of the New Testament following the book of Acts, and it is the authority of the church even still.

Barnabas

Barnabas is not an Apostle of Christ or one of the twelve, but he is very influential in the early church. His name means “Son of Encouragement”. Barnabas is the cousin of John Mark, and when John Mark desserts the missionary journey here in chapter 13, Barnabas defends him from Paul.

All three of these men have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, where they have placed their faith in Him…that’s sign number one.

Second Sign, Faithful Service

Acts 13:1 NKJV

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Now we have some additional characters here, and they make up the staff there at the church of Antioch.

v. 1 says that they were prophets and teachers.

We know Barnabas…

But then we see Simeon who was called Niger. The name Niger is Latin for “Black”. Obviously, Simeon was a black man and was from Africa.

We also see Lucius of Cyrene…Lucius is thought to be a founding member of the Antioch church and was also from Northern Africa.

Finally, other than Paul, we have Manaen, the close friend or relative of Herod the tetrarch, also know as Herod Antipas, the same Herod that beheaded John the Baptist.

Diversity in the Body

Boy, what a diverse crowd. This is the staff of Antioch church, and they are all accepted, and they are all co-laborers with Christ, and even though they were from different places and different backgrounds, they faithfully served together.

The Bible says that they were serving as teachers and prophets.

Faithful Service Unites / The Purpose of Sunday School

There is nothing in the church that will unite people like faithful service to the Lord.

When you are faithful to serve in a church, you’ll have fellowship and communion with people that you would never talk to otherwise.

In fact, that’s the purpose of our version of small groups we call Sunday School. Sunday School is made to be more than just a place to go and sit together and read from a book we ordered. It’s really something designed for us to partner in ministry over. It’s something designed for us to fellowship over. It’s something designed for us to serve Christ together.

If you’re a Sunday School teacher, I want you to know that you have an important role. I pray that we have such an effective small group ministry here that you as a teacher become a shepherd to your class.

I pray that you as a teacher share in my work with those in your class. That’s the only way to do it. Otherwise, it just turns into a legalistic ritual that we do every Sunday.

Just like some of you look forward to church every Sunday morning, our teachers ought to make Sunday School something that our people look forward to every Sunday.

I can promote and preach on small groups and Sunday School all I want to, but until our people, until you as the body of Christ, show up ready to intercede for one another, to work with one another, and to love one another, our Sunday School ministry will be on life support.

A major sign that we, and by we I mean all Christians, are being used by God, a major sign that a young man or woman is being called by God is in their service to the body of Christ.

A person who says that they are called, but never serves, doesn’t understand what it means to be called by God for His service.

In God’s Kingdom, in order to lead, you have to serve…there is no other way.

So, there is the sign of salvation, there is the sign of faithful service, now we are going to sign three

Third Sign, Holy Spirit Confirmation

Acts 13:2 NKJV

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Now look at what they were doing when they were called by the Holy Spirit…

It says they were called “as they ministered to the Lord”.

The word translated “ministered” literally means “to serve”. More specifically, it means to “serve at one’s own cost.”

Now, considering the context of this passage, we know they were gathered in a worship service. When the Bible says, “as they ministered to the Lord”, it means that these men were worshipping Jesus and fasting.

They were in service, in a mode of worship towards Jesus because they were praying, singing, and fasting.

Here is what fasting is:

Fasting is setting aside activities or food and replacing it with prayer

Now, I know all kind of health fad people use intermittent fasting, which is not eating during certain points of the day…

but what this church was doing was corporately abstaining from food and replacing meal times with times of prayer and seeking the face of God.

So, they were worshipping and they were fasting, but I don’t want to gloss over this truth that Holy Spirit confirmation comes as we faithfully serve God.

Remember, the second sign of a calling is faithful service…here is what Kent Hughes says about v. 2

Acts—The Church Afire The Commission of the Church Militant (Vv. 1–3)

Worship and service go together and should never be separated. If we try to work for the Lord without worshiping him, we will settle for legalistic, self-centered service. And if we worship and never work, we will end up with a form of godliness but no power.

While this entire church was in humble service to God, He revealed His will to them by way of the Holy Spirit.

Fourth Sign, Church Affirmation

Look again in v. 2

Acts 13:2 NKJV

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

What you need to see is that The Holy Spirit communicated this calling to the church leaders.

The Holy Spirit’s Call

Now, God already called Paul to the ministry of the Gentiles before this moment.

Acts 9:15 NKJV

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.

God has already set Paul apart for the ministry, but now God is communicating that calling to the church.

When a man is confirmed to the ministry of preaching or to the office of pastor or deacon by the church leaders, we need to know that God was the one that called him first.

When a woman is called to the ministry of service, to minister to children, to other women, or to missions, we need to understand that God was the one that called her first.

Now, in that process, when it is time for that calling to come to fruition, there will be a confirmation by the Holy Spirit, there will be a calling to that specified role.

On the flip side, we have some folks here faithfully serving on the finance committee, on the building committee, so on and so forth, and that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve been called to it…what it means that the church has assigned them there and they are in faithful service to God through that ministry of service.

I’ll give an example:

I know people who have a great burden to do missions, but God has not called them to the mission field per say. God has not called them to go and live in a foreign nation…but at the same time, they may lead or administrate mission trips.

They are faithful servants of God that aren’t necessarily called as a missionary, but are called to serve missionaries through the local church.

In my own personal life, I already shared with you that at the age of 16 I knew God set me apart for ministry, but then God didn’t call me to call me to an office of ministry until I was 29, and I came here to pastor.

When I was serving in my role as a student minister, I told the pastor that God was calling me to the office of pastor, and he just said, “obviously”.

He didn’t call me to it, God did. But what the church leadership did is affirm that calling.

In the same way:

Shawn Oliver didn’t know at the time that he was being tested and considered to serve in the office deacon, but these older men were watching him for a long time.

These men who were already deacons recognized God’s call on Shawn’s life.

Now, Shawn was set apart by God, was confirmed by the Holy Spirit, and was then affirmed by the pastor, the deacons, and then the church when we took a vote.

The same worked for Ferrell, Jim, Joey, Mark, and these other ordained men.

But not everyone gets this kind of calling in their life. Some people get the wrong idea that if they are not a pastor or a deacon that God isn’t calling them to do anything, but He is.

Ephesians 2:10 NKJV

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

That is, that God has set apart work for every believer.

To understand what God is calling you to do, here are some things for you to begin doing today.

Have a Desire to Know God

Have a desire to know God.

The Greek word for this desire to learn is ἀρετή (ah-reh-tay). It literally means “moral excellence”.

Well, what is the way that we become morally excellent? We become morally excellent when our life is consumed with knowing God on a personal level.

We get to know God personally when we pray, worship, and read in His Word.

Ephesians 5:18–19 NKJV

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Jesus says the path to holiness is found in God’s word.

John 17:17 NKJV

Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

That word sanctify means “to make Holy”

Obey the Things of God

Have a Desire to Know God

Obey the Things of God

The Biblical term for this is knowledge. And when the Bible uses this word translated as knowledge, it is solely talking about “experiential knowledge”.

That is, we get insight into God’s calling on our life when we gain experience in our service to Him.

You see, when we have that desire to know God, then we begin to trust Him with our time, our money, and our efforts. When we develop trust in Him, also called faith or belief, then we are willing a ready to obey Him.

Continue Obeying Him in Hope

We need a desire to know Him personally

We need to obey what He commands

We continue in that obedience, expecting that He will continue to use us.

Romans 15:13 NKJV

Now may the God of hope (expectation) fill you with all joy and peace in believing (trust), that you may abound in hope (expectation) by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, Who is it that confirms the calling? It’s the Holy Spirit…Paul says that when we develop trust in God by obeying Him, then we can have an expectation that God will use us by the Power of the Holy Spirit…that God will confirm His calling in our lives by His Holy Spirit…

and then, and only then, will it be affirmed by your faithful servanthood to the local church.

God has something prepared for you to do, and if you want Him to reveal that calling, then get busy knowing Him and obeying Him

Read with me now in v. 3

Acts 13:3 NKJV

Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

This is the church affirming the calling of Paul and Barnabas.

What the church is doing when they sent these men off, is they are saying, “We affirm this calling, and we are behind you 100%”.

In effect, Paul and Barnabas are now an extension of the mission and purpose of the church there at Antioch, set apart by God, for the work of His ministry.

Conclusion

God has set you apart today for a certain task…will you begin to embrace that?

It doesn’t come quickly, and it doesn’t come without sacrifice…it can only come from a dedication to the things of God and a continued obedience to do what He has asked you to do.