The Gospel Mission

Tonight, we continue working through the book of Acts. We have seen the Holy Spirit working through the newly established church of the New Testament. We have seen God grow his church through the proclamation of the good news of Jesus and tonight is no different.

In our passage we find proclamation, persecution and perseverance.

My hope for us tonight is that we would be equipped and encouraged by the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. They are going to face a lot. But as we read and work through this passage if you are a follower of Christ, I hope that you would be encouraged by the gospel of Jesus and the you would be compelled to go… to be a missionary yourself… maybe the Lord is calling you to go and vocationally and serve in foreign or domestic missions if so… give yourself to that calling… For most it is for us to give ourselves to God’s use of us… as missionaries… our obedience to his work through us at our jobs, in our homes, to our neighbors….

Maybe you’re a skeptic… my hope for you is that you would see and hear this gospel of Jesus… that you would see how freeing it is… that you would see the devotion of the early church, the faithfulness of God and that you would begin following Jesus… even tonight…

In every scene we are faced with the Word being proclaimed and the choice between belief and unbelief… and in this work we see the missionaries suffer due to their proclamation…

Main idea: As the church sends and missionaries are faithful to proclaim,

God gives boldness to continue even in persecution.

Passage: Acts 13:1-14:28

1. Commission leads to opposition and belief (13:1-12)

• God calls and the church sends… (1-3)

Our sections begin with the church gathered together worshipping the Lord and fasting… it is at this very time that the Holy Spirit speaks… Now we aren’t given specifics on how the HS has spoken to the church, but here is what we know… he calls the church to set apart Paul and Barnabas for the work to which they have been called!

A truth we must not skip over is the truth that God calls missionaries to action. We are all called to live missionally yes… but God calls some of his followers to the mission field, foreign and domestic. The church at Antioch was to set them apart yes, but for what – the calling God had on their lives…

Out of obedience the church does just that and it is here we find a beautiful example of the church existing at it is supposed to… sending…

A theologian once said, “It’s not the size of the church that matters. Rather, how the church sends…”

The church at Antioch is the beginning of a missional force that still continues today… churches being the epicenter of sending missionaries to the ends of the earth for the sake of the good news of Jesus!

We find here not only the obedience of the church but a beautiful model of how a church sends…

-Called and set apart… Firstly the missionaries are called by God… God, with his sovereign hand calls his people and equips his people for certain ministries (reminds us of Jesus’ body parts analogy in the gospels…)

-Prayed for… the church wisely prays for the missionaries, seeking God’s guidance and blessing over the missionaries as they embark on their gospel journey…

-Sent out… They then send the missionaries out… the most important part! We cannot be a church that hoards… we have to be a church that sends…!

• God silences the opposition… (9-11)

Though the church prays for and sends the missionaries this doesn’t mean that everything will be smooth… we have to remember that the gospel that is being carried then and now is a radical gospel… it exalts God and humbles man… as the passage we begins we see the apostles face their first opposition (definitely not the last) after being sent out and arriving in Salamis…

As Paul, Barnabas and John Mark are proclaiming the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, they are met by opposition… a magician…

The magician is false prophet who was with the proconsul (governor) who sought to hear the word of God!

However, the magician didn’t want that… he knew the great power that the one true God had… he was seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith… he wanted to be focus… he wanted to be the one the proconsul went to…

But God and the apostles would not settle for this showing of self-righteousness…

Paul, rebukes the magician’s sinful heart and judges him… Paul does this through the “fill[ing] of the Holy Spirit… and because God is involved when Paul curses the magician with blindness – immediately the magician is blind…

You see, the opposition that comes against the Lord and his plan is humbled… crushed… left no more! Nothing and no one stand in the way of the work of the Lord… this should really give us confidence!

• God’s work brings fruit… (12)

The magician is not the only one impacted by the miracle just performed… The work of God through Paul and Barnabas astounds the proconsul… so much that he believes… now this doesn’t explicitly say that he turned from his sin and believed in Jesus, he may have just believed in what he saw the apostles do… but regardless… we see the work of the Lord spurning others into belief!

We learn that though opposition comes… God will bring about fruit from the labors of his missionaries…

You and I are missionaries… we can be encouraged

2. Proclamation of God’s faithfulness leads to rejection and rejoicing (13:13-52)

• God’s faithfulness culminates in Jesus… (13-41)

At the next stop in the missionaries’ journey in Antioch in Pisidia, Paul preaches a sermon on God’s faithfulness that culminates in Jesus…

Paul captures his audience by reminding them that they are men of Israel who fear God as he begins to speak about the work of God…

Paul begins with the OT faithfulness of God… (13-25)

He speaks reminding the audience that God has led them out of Egypt… gave them the promise land… gave them a king… sent prophets! This was to serve as a reminder that this work of God did not just start… rather the good news they are going to tell them has been in the works from the very beginning!

Paul highlights that God has been faithful in every aspect saying in v23… Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

This is where Paul gets to the proclamation of Jesus… the story of the good news of the gospel of Jesus…

All that God has accomplished in history finds its culmination in Jesus… (26-31)

Paul uses OT scriptures to ground who Jesus is and what Jesus has done…

Paul cites Psalm 2:7, Isaiah 53:3, and Psalm 16:10… knowing that these followers of God knew the Scriptures… Paul is saying this Jesus is the Messiah… the one who we have all been waiting for!

(32-33) They bring the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus…

Paul proclaims to all gathered, (38-39) through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes Is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses…

You see the message of salvation has been given, it is Jesus that brings forgiveness of sins and freedom from bondage…

This great truth of the gospel leads to a response from those gathered…

• Gospel proclamation leads to a response… (42-52)

The two responses we see here are rejection from the Jews and rejoicing from the gentiles…

Jews reject…Even after the warning from the book of Jonah, the Jews were filled with jealousy and they rejected that which Paul was speaking… and though they did the Lord’s plan was still fulfilled (as spoken in Isaiah 49:6)…

The apostle turned to the gentiles meaning, the gospel was going to the gentiles!

We’ve said this the last few weeks, but this was great news! The gospel is available to these who are not ethnically Jewish… meaning the door is open for you and I!

Gentiles rejoice… (48) when the gentiles head the good news of Jesus they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed…

3. God’s Word and work leads to suffering and sustaining (14:1-28)

• Stoned, yet the Lord sustains… (1-7; 19-23)

Twice in our section of the apostles travels we find the threat of stoning… in vv1-7 and 19-23…

In the first section, we find the jealous and unbelieving Jews were enraged that both gentiles and Jews were had believed… (1)

Thus, they stirred up the gentiles and poisoned their minds against the missionaries…

However, in like fashion for a sold-out missionary how do they respond?

(3) they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord…

But it wasn’t just them speaking on their own was it? No…

(3) the Lord bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands….

The Lord doesn’t just send missionaries on their own… he accompanies them with his own power!

But again, the missionaries found themselves face to face-to-face with the vengeful Jews… except this time stoning wasn’t just a threat… it was a reality (19)

“they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead…”

Church this isn’t exaggerated… this isn’t a typo… this is what persecution looks like….

Often, we misunderstand the persecution of the Bible… Paul was stoned to the point that the Jews thought he was dead…

But what happens? (20-22)

The church gathers around him… he gets up… he walks back into the city (the same city that just stoned him) and he preaches the gospel making disciples…

He goes back… after all he has face and here are his words… “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God…” UNREAL…

Paul finishes up his time here by appointing a plurality of elders in all the churches they have established…

What do we learn church?

Those whom God calls, God enables to face the trials and persevere. It is through the perseverance that God grows his church!

Our hearts ought to sing, “come what may for the glory of God!”

• God accompanies his Word and humble servants… (8-18)

We also see God honor his humble servants…

After the apostles escape to Lystra, they meet a crippled man who has heard the preached word and has faith to be made well… God heals the cripple through the apostles and after seeing what has happened, the crowds attribute all that has happened to the apostles… they even want to make a sacrifice to them…

However, the humble missionaries… basically say no way… (14-18)

They challenge the people and remind them who the living God is that made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that was in them…

It was this very God who always left a witness in the world… whether it was the rains, fruitful seasons, satisfied hearts, food and gladness… and even these two who are his witnesses…

The apostles are painting a picture that all that has been done is by the hand of the Lord! The apostles aren’t responsible, the Lord is! He deserves the credit, the praise and the honor!

• Commended for the work… (24-28)

As our section ends the missionaries find themselves back in Antioch, the church that sent them out.

Here they were commended, celebrated, admired for the great work the Lord had done through them!

The apostles share with the others all that God had done with them and how he opened a door of faith to the Gentiles…

The church honors the missionaries for their work, but Paul helps us to remember in his second letter to Timothy that it is God who will reward the faithful saying, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

Application… the question now is what do we do?

1. Believe in the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ… it is holding the forgiveness of sin, the freedom from bondage! All this through Jesus Christ… would you trust him tonight? Devote your life to following him…

2. Take the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ… These passages, this book is filled with mission! Tonight, should drive us to be a part of the work the Lord is still doing in the lives of people today!

3. Trust the Holy Spirit in the work… as we go, as we engage, as we share… we can trust that the Holy Spirit not only empowers us to go but he is paving the way! He is working preparing hearts beforehand… knowing he is going with us should push us to go and to go boldly!

Would you pray with me?