Spirit-Empowered Commission

The Churches Pivotal Moment (Acts 13:1)

In Webster's Dictionary, the definition of pivotal includes “very important; critical.” A moment is described as “a precise point in time.” Pivotal moments are big moments and little moments of clarity that provide us with new perspectives and opportunities to change our lives.

Opening up your first pay-check is a pivotal moment, especially when you see how much the state of Illinois taxes you. Feeling the freedom and responsibility driving alone for the first time can be a pivotal moment in your life. Graduating High School and college, getting married, having children are all pivotal moments as well. Not all pivotal moments are as sentimental.

Many of us today would say that our nation is in a pivotal moment in its history. Tucker Carlson of Fox News made the observation that the election on Tuesday was more about two systems of government than it was Republican and Democrat. On the right side is the republic and the left side is woke socialism.

He was not over stating the significance of the election or the leftist agenda. He goes on to explain Biden and company have made it clear that they want to stack the Supreme Court, create new liberal states that would favor them in the Senate, and advance the cultural Marxist agenda.

If that is the case, which I’m inclined to believe, then yes, we as nation we are at a pivotal moment. Will we hang on to the republic or is there enough momentum to move our nation in the same direction as Canada and Europe? It’s a Pivotal moment.

What about the American church?

I think the church in America is standing at a pivotal moment. When we are recorded in church history and our future brothers and sisters in Christ (our great great grandchildren) read of the 2020 election, will they see a church who responds to adversity with pouting, blaming, fear-mongering, and violence? Or will they see us accept God’s sovereign will, proclaim Jesus is Lord, and get to work advancing God’s kingdom among Republicans, Democrats, and everyone in between? Are we going to be known as the people of Trump or the people of Christ? Will be be known just as Conservative Americans or will our citizenship in heaven be reflected? This is a Pivotal moment. Maybe God has given us this moment in order for us to gain more clarity to our calling and our purpose in life. Maybe today is God is giving us an opportunity to fix our hearts once again on joyfully advancing His kingdom by making much of Jesus in the church, community, and home.

God gave the church in Antioch a pivotal moment. For a young church, it had experienced several highs and lows. The gospel came with power and the Gentiles were saved miraculously. Then persecution raged against them killing James and imprisoning Peter. The church responds valiantly by praying for Peter’s release, and God hears their prayer and delivers him miraculously. God also kills Herod and opens the door for more for his word to flourish and add more people to the church.

In Acts 13:1, Luke records leaders of the church in Antioch gathered together worshiping and fasting. You have Barnabas and Paul along with Simeon who was called Niger. This was likely the same Simeon that carried Jesus’s cross. There is also Lucius and Manaen, who probably represent home grown disciples in the Antioch church. It is likely that the Antioch church as a whole was gathered with these men for a time of worship. Luke, however, is signaling the leaders of the church by naming them in the text. Why?

I think he is naming them because the leaders recognize the church is at pivotal moment. They might be burdened with a feeling of uncertainty. What are we to do now? Saul and Barnabas have been teaching and discipling the church for a year. Elders and leaders are in place. Luke says that teachers and Prophets were ministering in verse 1. The Antioch church was in tact and organized. It was ready to move forward, and the leadership is wondering what does God want them to do.

At this point, you might ask, “How do you draw that conclusion from two verses?

Praying & Fasting

What clues me in that the church may have been looking for direction is the emphasis on praying and fasting.

There are several reasons to fast; bereavement, distress, penitence, seeking God’s intervention, and so on. Prayer and fasting coupled together often signal a need for guidance.

In the book of Judges, the whole Israelite army camps against the tribe of Benjamin because of what happened to a Levite’s concubine Judges 20. Before they went up against their brothers they

Judges 20:26–27 HCSB

The whole Israelite army went to Bethel where they wept and sat before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. Then the Israelites inquired of the Lord. In those days, the ark of the covenant of God was there,

Moses fasted for forty days and nights on the mountain as he waited for the Lord to given Him the Law (Deuteronomy 9:9). When Daniel knows that Jeremiah’s prophecy of a seventy-year exile is coming to an end he

Daniel 9:3 HCSB

So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

He then prays for the nation seeking God’s direction. Fasting and praying are what God’s people do when they are not sure what He wants them to do.

What is it about fasting and praying that provokes God to move, to answer your prayer, to bring clarity in your pivotal moment?

Both fasting and praying expresses to God a heart that believes that man does not live on bread alone but by every word of God (Deuteronomy 8:3). Fasting forsakes the satisfaction of this world for the delighting in the world to come.

Fasting in the bible involved not eating food for a time. Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights from food and water in the desert. Fasting from food creates hunger pains in your body. Hunger is humbling. Physical hunger as an act of worship expresses your dependency on God’s sufficiency. Instead of feeding you face you are praying and asking God to feed your soul with the Bread of Life. Fasting is a consecration, sacrifice of your comfort, rejecting the pride of this life. It gets your soul ready to be in the presence of God by slaying your pride, which opens your heart to receive his instruction.

I say proper fasting because there is an improper way to fast. God rebuked Israel because their fast was fake.

Isaiah 58:3–5 HCSB

“Why have we fasted, but You have not seen? We have denied ourselves, but You haven’t noticed!” “Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast, and oppress all your workers. You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high. Will the fast I choose be like this: A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?

They fasted out of religious duty, religious pride. Instead of readying their heart to hear from God, they harden it with contention and strife that lashed out with violence toward their neighbor.

This was not the fast that was happening at Antioch. Acts 13:1 says they were worshiping the Lord. The word for worship can mean to render service, ‘to minister, ‘to offer worship, ‘to wait upon. This verb means to serve, with the implication of more formal or regular service. It means to render special formal service. They were blessing the Lord. You bless the Lord by loving him with all your mind, heart, soul, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself.

The church was gathered like we are today in some respects. They sang songs and prayed prayers that acknowledge that God is Lord of all and Jesus is the sovereign king who is mighty to save. They confessed their sins and thanked God for his deliverance and sustaining grace. Then they asked God for his wisdom and direction as to where did he want the church to minister next and the boldness to move in obedience. Their worship was amplified by their fasting, a physical expression of their utter dependence on God’s grace for guidance.

God hears their prayers and accepts their worship. The Holy Spirit answer them

Acts 13:2 HCSB

As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to.”

The Holy Spirit commissions the Antioch Church to set Saul and Barnabas apart to do mission work. God desires to advance His Kingdom in the hearts of every nation, tribe, and tongue. He has shown that the Gentiles belong in the church in Chapter 11-12. In Chapters’ 13-14, he commissions two missionaries (Saul & Barnabas) to joyfully advance the kingdom of God by making much of Jesus among the nations. The Holy Spirit teaches us this morning that

God commissions missionaries to joyfully advance His kingdom through His church.

Essentially, God’s answer to the church in their pivotal moment was nothing has changed. The plan is the same. Joyfully advance the kingdom of God by making much of Jesus among the nations.

Isaiah 12:4 HCSB

and on that day you will say: “Give thanks to Yahweh; proclaim His name! Celebrate His works among the peoples. Declare that His name is exalted.

Isaiah 52:7 HCSB

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

The Psalmist says,

Psalm 67:4 HCSB

Let the nations rejoice and shout for joy, for You judge the peoples with fairness and lead the nations on earth. Selah

Jesu tells us

Matthew 24:14 HCSB

This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.

A commission is an instruction, command, or duty given to a person or group of people. In this case, the commission is a command by God to set certain people aside to go out from the local church to advance the kingdom among unreached people groups. We call these people missionaries. Barnabas and Paul become the church’s first missionaries commissioned by the Spirit to advance the gospel and plant churches. The rest of Acts 13-14 report their missionary journey.

When God’s calls his children into the mission field,

What does His Spirit-Empowered commission look like?

Four Components to a Spirit-Empowered Commission (Acts 13:2-3)

A Divine Commission (Acts 13:2)

Acts 13:2 HCSB

As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to.”

John Piper wrote a book called “Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.” He wrote the book to try to correct a false teaching in the church that says pastors are more or less like CEO’s and the church is to be run like according to business model. I was moved by his opening paragraph in chapter 1. Listen to what he says:

“WE PASTORS are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ. Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness (Matt. 18:3); there is no professional tenderheartedness (Eph. 4:32); there is no professional panting after God (Ps. 42:1).

But our first business is to pant after God in prayer. Our business is to weep over our sins (James 4:9). Is there professional weeping? Our business is to strain forward to the holiness of Christ and the prize of the upward call of God (Phil. 3:14); to pummel our bodies and subdue them lest we be cast away (1 Cor. 9:27); to deny ourselves and take up the blood-spattered cross daily (Luke 9:23). How do you carry a cross professionally? We have been crucified with Christ; yet now we live by faith in the one who loved us and gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20). What is professional faith?”

What can be said of pastors can be said of missionaries as well. Missions is not professional vocation but a divine calling by God for the purpose of making his name great. In verse 2, as they were fasting and praying and worshiping God, the Spirit spoke, probably through the prophets and said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to.” God took the initiative. God sets people apart to do his work. Just as God takes the initiative to save people, just like he did Paul in Acts 9, He also takes the same initiative to commission people for the task of missions.

The verb “to set apart” means to set aside a person for a particular task or function. It means to select one person out of a group for a purpose. What is the purpose? It’s to fulfill God’s calling. The verb calling means to urgently invite someone to accept responsibilities for a particular task, implying a new relationship to the one who does the calling. It means to call in a legal or official sense. God sets people apart of missions and calls them to give their life to make Jesus’ name known among the nations.

Personal Commission (Acts 13:2)

It’s not only a divine commission, but it is a personal one as well. You will notice that only Paul and Barnabas was chosen to go and plant churches. Not everyone is meant to be a missionary. God gifts the church with

Ephesians 4:11–12 HCSB

And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ,

Many of these gifts to the church must remain in the body to ensure the church matures in Christ. As the church matures in Christ, God chooses to take some of those people and call them to be missionaries.

Adoniram Judson

When Adoniram Judson graduated from college and seminary he received a call from a fashionable church in Boston to become its assistant pastor. Everyone congratulated him. His mother and sister rejoiced that he could live at home with them and do his life work, but Judson shook his head.

“My work is not here,” he said. “God is calling me beyond the seas. To stay here, even to serve God in His ministry, I feel would be only partial obedience, and I could not be happy in that.” Adoniram Judson

Although it cost him a great struggle he left mother and sister to follow the heavenly call. The church in Boston still stands, rich and strong, but Judson’s churches in Burma had fifty thousand converts, and the influence of his consecrated life is felt around the world.

Corporate Commission (Acts 13:3)

Though God takes the initiative to call his people and equip them to go, the church still cooperates with God an sends them.

Acts 13:3 HCSB

Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off.

The tense of the verb ‘I have called’ suggests that God had already made the decision, and it was the church’s responsibility to carry out his will. The church fasts and prays for God’s guidance. These were two very important brothers in the Lord. They spent a year teaching and discipling brothers and sisters. they raised up elders to shepherd (Act 14:23) and deacons to serve. This was an important calling, so they marked it with fasting and praying.

The church gathered around Paul and Barnabas and laid hands on them. One commentator notes, The ‘laying on of hands’ was an act of commissioning. It expressed both a blessing and identification with the two in the work to which God had called them and released the two to their new service.

This is a formal occasion for the church. we recognize that God is taking some of our fruit in ministry and sharing it with others, for the joy of others. We make sure the missionaries are edified and equipped to do the work. we support them financially and with prayer. We give them respite when they come home and send them off encouraged to keeping moving God’s kingdom forward.

Suffering Commission (Acts 13:3)

The church sends them off. Don’t miss the pivotal moment in these five words. They were sent away no knowing of they would ever come back to Antioch.

Paul opens his second letter to the Corinthians church

2 Corinthians 1:6 HCSB

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is experienced in your endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer.

What Paul is getting at in this text is that the sufferings and hardships a pastor or missionary experiences are designed by God to bring salvation and comfort to his people. Missions will bring affliction to you comfort and your life. God has ordained that affliction to help you minister and validate the gospel. That makes missions a suffering commission.

When Adoniram Judson wrote a letter to his future father-in-law asking for her hand in marriage. Listen to what he says regarding missions.

“I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world ? Whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life? Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death? Can you consent to all this, for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall resound to her Saviour from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?”

His biography notes His wife, Ann did go through many hardships while on the mission field. She had 3 pregnancies: The first ended in a miscarriage while moving from India to Burma; her second child, Roger, was born in 1815 and died at 8 months of age; her third child, Maria, lived only 6 months after Ann herself died in 1826 of smallpox. Adoniram Judson himself lost 2 wives and 6 of 13 children on the mission field. Ann, and Adoniram, suffered through many other trials while serving as missionaries. Ann, herself, suffered hardships and died, but she died “for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home,” as Judson wrote above. They left their homes and their family to spread the glory of God to an unreached people group. 

As you follow Acts 13-14, God leads Paul and Barnabas to plant churches in Iconium, Lystra, and moved the gospel toward Pisidia and Pamphylia. Paul and Barnabas make their way to Perga and then down to Attalia. They suffered immensely in their calling. Thy were insulted in Antioch. Paul was almost stoned to death in Iconium.

What do we do now?

Pray & Fast

Have you ever thought about fasting on Sunday mornings for the purpose of worship? How do you prepare for worship on Sunday mornings? How do you get your soul ready to hear from God?

Have you ever considered maybe the reason why we are not seeing our nation repent or experiencing revival is because God’s people refuse to voluntarily give up some of their comfort for the sake of the gospel? We have more than enough food in our stores and cupboards. We have almost 30 restaurants in Litchfield. All of us in this church can get food anywhere anytime. Are we really telling the Lord we can’t give up one or tow or three meals in a day or a week for our soul’s sake, or the sake of our neighbors and nation?

Wayne Grudem makes a powerful observation about the Western church, which is our church. He says,

“Most Western Christians do not fast, but, if we were willing to fast more regularly—even for one or two meals—we might be surprised how much more spiritual power and strength we would have in our lives and in our churches.” Wayne A. Grudem

Do you want to experience more power and strength in your walk with God? Do you want to see your prayers answered and see your community changed of the gospel? Do you want God to intervene for our nation? Fast and pray. It is one of the most powerful things you can do for our pivotal moment.

John Wesley wrote in his journal in 1756 about time when the king of Britain called for a day of solemn prayer and fasting because the French were ready to invade. Wesley writes,

“The fast day was a glorious day, such as London has scarce seen since the Restoration. Every church in the city was more than full, and a solemn seriousness sat on every face. Surely God heareth prayer, and there will yet be a lengthening of our tranquillity.” John Wesley

Did God hear his people in Britain when they fasted and prayed?

Wesley writes a short time later,

“Humility was turned into national rejoicing for the threatened invasion by the French was averted.” John Wesley

Church, the time is pivotal. This is our moment. Its time to fast and pray. It’s time to humble ourselves before the Lord, like the church in Antioch, and Wesley in London, and ask God to give us clarity and guidance. What clarity and guidance should we fast and pray for?

What sin is keeping me from better fellowship with You?

What can I do to help FBCL fulfill the the vision ad mission you have given us?

What can I do to strengthen my family?

Pray and fast for our community. Beg God for revival and to see the fruit of our work in conversions.

Pray and fast for our state and nation. Beg God to bring give us a spirit of repentance.

Who in this church is being called to be set apart for mission work?