Praying through Acts- Chapter 13

Acts 12:25 NKJV

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

Tonight we will continue praying through the book of Acts. We will focus on chapter 13.

From this point forward in the book of Acts, Luke spends most of his time focusing on the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Up until now, the emphasis was on the church in Jerusalem.

But Jesus made a promise— you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

God never fails to fulfill a promise. Therefore, the church went forward to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Acts 1 - promise of power

Acts 2 - received power

Acts 3- exercised power

Acts 4 - prayed for more power

Acts 5- people lied and God displayed His power

Acts 6- conflict arose and God used people of power to help the church

Acts 7- Stephen reminded them of God’s power in history

Acts 8- walked in power to spread Gospel in Samaria

Acts 9- Saul was converted through an encounter with God’s power

Acts 10- the power of God fell on the Gentiles as Peter preached

Acts 11- Peter defended Gentiles receiving power

Acts 12- the church prayed and Peter was released from prison

Now the focus turns to Paul, who went to much of the then known world to tell about Jesus.

We are familiar with the concept of missionaries. My entire life I have heard missionaries tell of going to new places to tell others about Jesus.

However, the idea of being a missionary was new to the early church. We must remember, for the first decade, the church was Jewish.

Jewish men and women came to accept Christ as their Savior. However, they kept many of their Jewish customs. One of their ways was to avoid Gentiles, non-Jewish people, at all cost.

Think of how hard it was for them to go to Gentile regions for the first time?

How could they fulfill this plan of God? Through prayer. They prayed, and God sent His power.

As followers of Christ, He wants to take us to new places in Him. We are not exempt from doing all we can for God, just because He has not called to serve as missionaries in Central America or Africa.

In fact, every Christian is a missionary. We have to pray and trust God to give us the power to spread the good news.

We can learn how to do this by look at what they did in Acts 13— they were [Prophetic People], [Powerful People], and [Proclaiming People].

Let’s begin

1. Prophetic People

Acts 13:1–3 NKJV

1 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. 2 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.” 3 Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

What is a prophetic person?

The best way I can describe the prophetic is this, knowing something we otherwise could not know.

We read the various names of prophets and teachers.

Teachers study and explain what they’ve learned.

Prophetic people hear from God and explain what they’ve heard.

Before this time of prayer and fasting, Barnabas and Paul were not on people’s radar. They were two men amongst many followers of Christ.

But through prayer, God gave someone a prophetic word, I want to use Barnabas and Paul, separate them and pray for them.

No one came to that prayer meeting with the purpose of calling Paul and Barnabas to mission’s work. Such insight came through a prophetic word.

People of prayer can be people prophetic.

What do I mean?

There are times in life when God will give us direction at the right time. We might pray and God give us revelation about a subject or situation.

Prophetic people listen to God and are not afraid to share what He told them.

When we endeavor to do something for God we’ve never done, it is important to pray. As we pray, God will direct us and speak to us, showing and telling us what He wants from us.

2. Powerful People

Acts 13:8–12 NKJV

8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? 11 And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.” And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

The crowd laid their hands of Barnabas and Paul , trusting God to give them the necessary power to fulfill their assignment.

Remember, the word power denotes something we could not do on our own. God gives supernatural power to His church when they pray.

When Barnabas and Paul arrived at their first place of ministry, the governor of the region wanted to meet them. However, he had a spiritual adviser, who was actually a false prophet.

The false prophet, Elymas, stood in the way of Barnabas and Paul. The demon in him did not want the governor to hear what the men of God had to say.

Notice, Paul was not intimidated by the demonic force. Why? Because as a person of prayer, he was ready to demonstrate supernatural power.

He called the man a son of the devil, full of deceit, and fraud. He declared judgment on the demonic man because he wanted to stop the work of God.

The Kingdom of God came into contact with the Kingdom of Darkness, guess who won?

Though Satan has power, we must remember, his power is limited. Therefore, when we pray, God send His Spirit to enable us to do what we could not on our own.

Paul did not exercise his authority. Instead, he displayed the power that comes through prayer.

People of prayer do not need to be intimidated by the enemy. God has the power and He gives His power to us.

Through the Holy Spirit, we can to into uncharted territory, knowing God will speak to us prophetically and powerfully.

3. Proclaiming People

Acts 13:14 NKJV

14 But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down.

From there, Paul went to a synagogue in a new community. There both Jew and converted Gentiles in the crowd. Paul preached a simple message with one desired outcome— Jesus is the Messiah and God raised Him from the dead.

Paul proclaimed the word, by going through various examples to prove that it has always been a part of God’s plan include both Jew and Gentile in the Kingdom of God.

Proclaiming this truth took great boldness. Remember, Jews were taught from childhood to avoid Gentiles, for they were deemed unclean.

Now, Jesus has made the way for them to receive spiritual cleansing, and the response to the message was mixed. The converted Gentiles who converted to Judaism wanted to hear more.

The next week, Paul began to preach about Jesus once again.

Acts 13:45–46 NKJV

45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.

The Jewish leaders grew jealous and came against Paul. But as a person of prayer, he could not help but proclaim the truth about Jesus.

Notice that Paul and Barnabas were bold. They explained, God has come to save you FIRST, but you have rejected the message, so we will focus all of our attention to the Gentiles.

It is hard to imagine the scene, two Jewish men preaching to a crowd of heathen Gentiles. But the gospel has power to break down barriers!

Many of the Gentiles believed and the Jews wanted to kick Paul and Barnabas out of town.

Acts 13:51–52 NKJV

51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

They left town and shook the dust off their feet. That seems insignificant, but it was highly offensive. Whenever a Jew would come home from a Gentile country, they would kick the dust off their shoes, ridding themselves of the unclean filth of the Gentiles.

Now, Paul and Barnabas look to religious people who really don’t know God. Through their actions they showed, you are as unclean as the Gentiles and you need God’s help!

But God responded and sent joy and the Holy Spirit!

People of prayer stand for truth and are not ashamed to talk about Jesus.

Close:

God used Paul and Barnabas to go into unfamiliar territory. They were not intimidated because they had a direct line to God through prayer!

As followers of Christ, God wants us to do all we can for Him. His instructions to take the gospel to the entire world is still the same.

Though most of us will never leave the country to share Jesus, we have a mission field right here.

Our family need Jesus.

Our community needs Jesus.

And God wants us to take Jesus to them.

Therefore, we must pray God to speak to us prophetically!

We must pray for God to use us powerfully!

And we must proclaim the truth about Jesus to everyone!

There is uncharted territory for us. I can say as a pastor, we are in uncharted territory in having church post-Covid. I told Bekah the other day, the hard part right now is we remember what it was like before 2020.

But God allowed the world to go through a shaking to get our attention. We have to pray, for prayer is the ONLY way forward.

God will use us and our church as we continue to pray!