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REALITIES OF THE MINISTRY ACTS 13:4-12
One of the things that I love about the Bible is its brute honesty.
The Bible is completely truthful about the nature of God, the nature of Satan, the nature of men, and the nature of the world.
God paints a realistic picture about life.
God never glosses over the sins of men or the struggles of life.
In other words, God is completely honest about the fallen world that we live in and the fallen nature of men.
I believe that Christians who can handle life best are those who see the reality of life.
They realize that man has fallen and the world that they live in is not perfect.
But there is a trend today among many evangelicals that want to paint a fantasy world in which we escape the trials and tribulations of life.
They teach that becoming a Christian takes away all our problems and if those problems have not diminished or vanished completely, then it is because of the lack of faith on our part.
But I warn you from my own experience and even more importantly from the Word of God that serving Christ is not easy.
If you are going to perform ministry for the Lord then expect difficulty.
You should expect to be opposed.
The enemy is not going to lie down and give up.
His objective is to fight against the things of God.
This is why Paul reminds us that the spiritual life is warfare.
Many of us are familiar with Murphy’s Law.
Law #1: Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Law #2: Everything takes longer than you think.
Law #3: If anything can go wrong, it will!
You see it does not matter who you are (rich or poor, male or female, black or white, Christian or not) you will encounter hardship.
The only time that troubles will cease is when you are in the grave, but if you are unbeliever the Bible says that your troubles are only beginning.
I say all this because the church today is being sold a bad bill of goods which simply put “Accept Christ and everything will be fine!”
It sounds good but is not true.
Let me ask you a question, “Have you ever had trouble as a Christian.”
There are many Christians who are fighting diseases, battling family problems, and in the economy that we are in are financially strapped with very tight budgets because of unemployment.
No matter who you are as a Christian and what level of ministry you are involved in accepting Christ is no guarantee against calamity.
Friends will forsake us, families will fail us, and heartaches are a regular part of life.
There have been great men and women of God who had experienced all kinds of sorrows for serving the Lord.
Imagine if they aimed lower rather than higher, then they would have not been used as mightily as they were for the Kingdom of God.
You see what makes the greatest difference in this war is our conduct and attitude.
It is how we perceive things which will either help us to attempt great things for God or not.
I believe it was William Carey who said, “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.”
He said this in a sermon at the Baptist Association meeting in Northampton, England on May 30, 1792.
In this sermon he was urging his Baptist colleagues to enter the missionary enterprise.
I believe that this was the heart of the church at Antioch when they embarked on reaching the world for Christ.
They saw themselves as fountains from which God’s grace flowed rather than reservoirs from which God’s grace was held.
Folks, how do we see our church and the ministry that God has called us? Are we willing to expect great things from God and attempt great things for God? Are we fountains or reservoirs?
It is my prayer that this sermon will stir us to be fountains from which God’s grace flows rather than reservoirs from which God’s grace is held.
Luke, in chapters 13 and 14, provides us with great information about the realities of ministry and the struggles that the early church had in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In our passage this morning, I want to give you three realities that you will encounter when doing ministry for the Lord.
There will be openness to the gospel, there will be an opposition to the gospel, and there will be obedience to the gospel.
First,
THE OPENNESS TO THE GOSPEL – 4-7
Let me review with you a minute about what is going on in this chapter.
This book takes a drastic turn at this point.
Acts is no longer focused on Peter and the church at Jerusalem.
The shift has been made to Paul and the church at Antioch.
So this church is on mission of reaching the world for Christ.
God is fulfilling the commission that he issued to the apostles in Acts 1:8, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
So the church is on mission of reaching the world for Christ.
Imagine if this church did not expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.
Imagine for a moment what the church would look like.
But thank God they expected great things from God and attempted great things for God.
So the church was Spirit-filled because the Spirit directed them to set aside Barnabas and Saul for reaching the Gentiles with the gospel.
The church fasts and prays for them and lays their hands on them before sending them off.
Now notice what Luke wrote at the beginning of verse 4, they were “sent out by the Holy Spirit.”
I want to make a very important observation here.
It is the Spirit that does the sending of individuals for the work of ministry.
In other words, God takes the initiative of choosing people for the work of the ministry.
The church had nothing to do with it.
Yet, the church plays a part in the sending.
Well, what is that?
It is to let them go.
Here is the idea being presented here: the Spirit is doing the sending, but the church is to cut the cord and let them go.
In other words, we are to let them go with our love and support for the work of the ministry.
Let me illustrate this with the life of Lazarus.
Remember he was in the grave for four days.
Jesus calls him forth and he is raised from the dead.
What did the people do that were there that day.
Nothing, except to unwrap him and let him go.
This is what is happening in the church as the Spirit is sending Barnabas and Saul to reach the Gentiles with the gospel.
So Barnabas and Saul leave the church at Antioch and make the fifteen mile trek down to the port of Seleucia.
There they board a ship and head for the island of Cyprus, which is about a 130 mile voyage.
This island was regarded by the ancient world like we regard Hawaii.
William Barclay calls it the “Happy Isle” because its climate is perfect and its resources are abundant.
For many people it was a place in the sun or a “Fantasy Island.”
So they pull into the seaport of Salamis.
It had a large Jewish population there.
So Barnabas and Saul began their ministry in the synagogue preaching to the Jews and witnessing to the God-fearing Gentiles that had gathered there.
Luke puts a little side note that John Mark was assisting them.
The word here for assist literally means an “underrower.”
In other words, he was doing whatever these two men directed him to do.
They travel through the whole island and make the 100 mile journey to the other side and arrive at the city of Paphos.
This is where there spiritual warfare kicks in.
This is where they encounter some trouble for preaching the gospel.
The city was known for its temple and worship of Venus, the goddess of love.
The Greeks identified her with Aphrodite, who according to legend had been born of the sea foam along the nearby coast.
So you can see that they encountered a false religion that captivated the hearts of many of its citizens.
Except there was one, Sergius Paulus, who was discontent with the religion of the Romans and desired something different.
Paulus was a Roman proconsul (governor) and a very intelligent man.
Like most people of that time who were superstitious, he had a part of his entourage a magician named Bar-Jesus in verse 6 and Elymas in verse 8.
In other words, he was somewhat like Cornelius in that he was seeking the truth.
He wanted to know more about the gospel that Barnabas and Saul were preaching.
Folks, one of the things that you can expect in doing ministry is that not all people are closed to the gospel.
In fact, in my personal experience most people are open to hear what you say even if they do not respond with faith.
So let me encourage you to be willing to share with those who will listen and never jump to the conclusion that they will never hear what I have got to say.
There is an openness to the gospel, next there will be
THE OPPOSITION TO THE GOSPEL – 8-11
Notice that in these verses, there was a major battle that ensues.
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