Being Sent Out

Introduction

If you have your Bible, then I would invite you to turn to Acts 13:1-3. (READ)

We started our journey in going through the book of Acts back in May 2021. We took our summer break from this book, and addressed different topics for our Christian life. Now, as we begin our school year, we will return to this wonderful book of the Bible.

A lot has happened ever since I last preached on Acts. So, I thought it would be helpful to give you a general overview of this book, highlight key themes, and how we got to Acts 13.

This is for those of you who need a refresher or a reminder of this book.

OR this is for those of you who have recently been attending OBC. If you have the time, then you could go to our church website to listen to the sermons on Acts.

To understand the story and plot of Acts, it is essential to understand the background of this book that we’ve been learning.

Illustration

Big Idea

Context

Who was the author of the book of Acts?

Now, we must remember that Acts did not randomly pop out of nowhere out of a vacuum. Someone wrote this divinely inspired book. And Luke was the author of this book. He’s a historian and physician. He’s same the author who wrote the gospel of Luke.

And we can know that it’s Luke because of the internal evidence. In the gospel of Luke and Acts, both introduce the book by addressing this man by the name of Theophilus, who was the recipient of Luke’s writings and might have been a Roman Official.

So, Luke’s gospel was his 1st volume work and Acts was his 2nd volume. Sometimes, Luke’s writings are referred to as “Luke-Acts.”

What is the book of Acts all about?

In a nutshell, the book of Acts is all about being a witness for Christ after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. Jesus summarized this idea from Acts 1:8 when He said this to His Apostles: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The book of Acts tells the epic story of the origin and growth of the Christian church from the time of Christ’s ascension to Paul’s final imprisonment.

By being a witness for Christ, the key theme in Acts is to demonstrate how the gospel - the message of salvation from sin and eternal damnation - spreads from Jerusalem to the surrounding areas of the Mediterranean Sea and eventually to the ends of the world.

It began with the Apostles of Jesus Christ. These Jewish believers were proclaiming the gospel to the Jews, to the Samaritans (half-Jews and half-Gentiles), and to the Gentiles (non-Jews).

Sometimes, many of the listeners repented of their sins and placed their faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

Sometimes, many of the listeners - particularly the religious leaders and the Jewish authorities - opposed the Apostles and persecuted them for preaching Christ.

Despite the oppositions and persecutions, God’s people continually to boldly and unashamedly preached the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And God continued to grow His church in the midst of trials and hardships to strengthen and refine His church.

The Apostle Peter opened the doors to the Gentile world when he preached the gospel to Cornelius and his family in Acts 10. So, another key theme in Acts is that the gospel is not only for the Jews, but is also for the Gentiles as well.

As Christians, we are part of the story of Acts. While we do not have Acts 29, we are part of the continuation of Acts whereby we continue the Great Commission that Christ has given to the early church, which is to make disciples of all nations. That’s one of the purposes and the mission of the church: to evangelize to the lost.

The overarching outline of Acts is rather simple.

In Acts 1-12, Luke generally focuses on the ministry of the Apostle Peter in the ancient Palestinian region (aka. In the land of Israel).

Acts 13 is a good spot to pick ourselves back up because it is a turning point in Acts.

In Acts 13-28, Luke turns our focus from Peter to the ministry of the Apostle Paul as he becomes a missionary and preaches the gospel to those who have not heard wherever the Holy Spirit led him, and eventually stands on trial before the governing authorities from Acts 21 and onwards.

Now, the question that we should consider from this text is this: how did the Apostle Paul become a missionary?

Obviously, the Holy Spirit appointed him to proclaim the gospel to the Gentile world, but there are events and situations that led up to this point in Acts 13.

So, to begin thinking biblically through that question, I have four lessons we can learn from this passage alone of how Saul (and Barnabas) were sent out.

1. Active Local Church

When I say, “active,” what I mean is that there’s vibrance, health and energy in the local church. Saul, who’s also called Paul, was part of an active and established church in Antioch.

a. An Established Church

Luke described how the church in Antioch was established in Acts 11, and it was the 1st Christian Church. Barnabas and Saul spent a whole year teaching the new believers in Antioch what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

It’s uncertain how long this church has been established, but it seems long enough for the church to be running healthily with godly leaders set in place and ready to send our missionaries into the mission field.

A church that is not well established and struggling with many internal problems should be careful of sending missionaries out in the field.

The next thing we see about the church at Antioch is that it’s a…

b. A Teaching Church

In this church, there were prophets and teachers. And depending on your Bible translation, there may be a colon right after teachers, giving us a list of five men: Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul.

Who were the prophets and teachers? What were their roles in the early church?

Let’s talk about the prophets. You might think of a prophet as a fortune teller or someone who predicts the future.

In the Bible, prophets were those who received divine revelation from God and spoke for God. They’re responsible for declaring God’s will to God’s people.

In the Old Testament, when the Israelites were living in sin and rebellion, the role of the prophets was to declare God’s message of impending judgment upon His people, and call them to repentance of their idolatry and disobedience.

Sometimes, the prophets in the Old Testament also revealed future events, such as the birth of Jesus, the exile of the remnant of Israel, and the restoration of Israel.

In the New Testament, the role of the prophets should have the same function as that of the Old Testament. At the end of chapter 11, you have Agabus, who was one of the prophets, prophesying about the great famine.

“They may receive revelation from the Lord and give spontaneous words to the church as a way to encourage, instruct, strengthen, and warn the church.”

Furthermore, prophets (along with the apostles) were the foundation of the church (cf. Ephesians 2:20). They were needed to be fore-speakers of God until there’s no longer a need for prophets after the completion of Scripture.

There’s no more need for prophets (and apostles) to add new revelations to Scripture. Church history demonstrates this understanding that the addition of the books of the Bible has ceased.

Now, we have elders/pastors/teachers who’re to be heralds of this divine revelation: the Bible. We have the teachings of the Apostles and Prophets written for us in the Bible. We do our best not to go beyond what is written in the holy Scriptures.

Now, let’s consider the teachers. They’re responsible for actively teaching and instructing the church with the Word of God. The church throughout history needs teachers because they’re Christ’s gifts for the church.

For instance, pastors are also teachers. Ephesians 4:11 tells us about the pastor-teacher position.

One of the qualifications of an elder/overseer/pastor is that he’s able to teach, which is to competently teach the Bible and sound doctrine.

At the same time, be wary of wanting to be teachers. This can apply to being teachers of anything in the church (e.g. Sunday school, Bible studies). Not many should be teachers. James says that those who teach will be judged with greater strictness. They’ll be held accountable even more.

If you know the famous line from the Spide-Man movie, Uncle Ben said this to Peter Parker: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

And being a teacher of the Bible comes with great responsibility in knowing how to handle the word of truth accurately. With great responsibility comes a great expectation from God.

If you desire to be a teacher of God’s Word in a fitting context, then you should be discipled and trained to know how to study the Bible, understand the big picture of the Bible, and know how to teach it to others.

However, when there is a solid Bible teacher who can interpret and teach the Word accurately, the church is blessed.

The next thing we see about the church at Antioch is that it’s a…

c. A Multiethnic Church

What you notice is that five Greek names are given by Luke. You should know that these people did not come from the same ethnicity. It’s a mixture of Jewish and Gentile Christians.

Barnabas was a Greek-Speaking Jew who was born in Cyprus.

Simeon was most likely the same person who carried Jesus’ cross, and he was from Cyrene. He was also called Niger, which means black in Latin. And Lucius was also from Cyrene. Both were from the Northern part of Africa.

We don’t know too much about Manaen. We don’t know where he lives, but with the little information given to us by Luke, he’s a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch.

Your Bible translation may say that Manaen was brought up with Herod. So, it is also possible that Manaen was raised inside Herod’s household.

Herod the Tetrarch was the same Herod found in the gospels. He’s the same guy who got John the Baptist beheaded. Unfortunately, he’s not the one who repented and turned to Christ.

But it is encouraging to see someone from Herod’s household becoming a follower of Jesus and becoming one of the leaders in the church of Antioch. How he came to faith and who led him to Christ are unknown, but Manaen chose a walk a different path than that of Herod.

Finally, we have Saul, who’s also called Paul, a Jew who was raised in Tarsus.

Surely, these men were from diverse, ethnic backgrounds yet they are committed to serving the local church in Antioch, which leads us to the fourth thing we notice about this church…

d. A Plurality Of Godly Church Leaders

Notice that it doesn’t say prophet or teacher in the singular. Both positions are in the plural form. A church shouldn’t operate or governed by a singular spiritual leader.

Whenever it is possible, the church should be governed by the plurality of biblically qualified elders according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 where they give sound doctrine, provide oversight in the church and the ministries within, and shepherd/pastor the church.

I’ll point out that the plurality of elders is a biblical teaching.

It was brought up in Acts 11:30 whereby the church in Antioch sent relief to the church in Jerusalem during the great famine. Specifically, they’re sent to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

And the church should have biblically qualified deacons according to 1 Timothy 3 where they are to serve and meet the physical and tangible needs of the church.

And we see that not only did this church have prophets and teachers, but that it was a…

e. A Worshipping And Praying Church

Don’t you love that? It was a church that was committed to worshipping God by ministering and fasting. And these leaders were demonstrating that spiritual discipline in their own lives. They were focusing on God as they were serving Him and teaching the truth in the church. Their focus on worshipping and praying to God should drive the church leaders to be less dependent upon their own wisdom and strength, and to be more dependent upon the LORD.

So, it was the context and backdrop of a healthy and active church that led to the appointment of Saul and Barnabas to the mission field.

2. Appointed By The Holy Spirit

a. The Holy Spirit Has A Purpose, Task & Function For The Appointment.

The Holy Spirit is the 3rd Person of the Godhead. He is a divine Person, equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature in the divine essence.

Biblical mission work does not derive from humanitarian aid. The idea of mission does not come from the world nor from ourselves.

True mission work derives from God’s sovereign work. As Jim Boice once said,

“If mission work is to be successful, it is going to have to be the Lord’s work.”

And the Holy Spirit is sovereign over the church and He is sovereign over mission. And Spirit is the one who uses us as His instrument to accomplish the Great Commission.

So, in the context of worship (perhaps a worship service like ours?), the Holy Spirit called Barnabas and Saul for a special work of ministry.

Now, I don’t know if the Holy Spirit spoke audibly to the church, to the five men, or just Barnabas and Paul. Most likely, the Holy Spirit spoke to the prophets to have this message from God directed to the church and the five men.

Right now, the Holy Spirit doesn’t indicate what specific work that they’ll do, but we will learn what they’ll do as we move through this chapter.

Now, why Barnabas and Saul?

First, both of them worked together in teaching and discipling the Christians in the church of Antioch for at least one year.

Second, because of that experience, they’re qualified not only to preach the gospel to other nations, but to plant biblical churches, and to train and appoint elders in those local churches (according to Acts 14:23).

Acts: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Spiritual Mission)

Spiritual men with effective spiritual ministry [in the local church] will see God extend their spiritual mission. God chooses for further ministry those already actively serving Him. He is not likely to take idle Christians down from the shelf, dust them off, and entrust them with important work. Saul and Barnabas were deeply involved in ministering to the Lord when their call to further service came. God chose experienced, proven men for the vitally important mission to the Gentiles.

Just because these men were called by the Holy Spirit to go out on a mission, it’s important for the leaders of the church in Antioch to spend time discerning this calling, which leads to the 3rd point...

3. Acumen Of The Leaders

If you don’t know the word, acumen, it means the skill in making correct decisions and judgments. It’s another word for discernment.

It is important that when believers sense God’s calling to a particular ministry, they should take time to discern.

There are two thing that these men did to discern God’s call to ministry: Fasting And Praying. They are means of discernment

We learned that they were already fasting during a time of worship. Fasting means abstaining from food for a limited time.

I think all of us may fast without knowing it. For my family, we eat dinner at about 6 PM, put our kids to sleep, and eventually go to sleep. While we’re sleeping for however long, we do not eat until breakfast.

The word, “breakfast,” just means breaking your fast because you’ve abstained from food during the night.

Biblically, fasting has a purpose. One of the purposes is seeking for God’s guidance with the church family. It seems like they spent some time praying and fasting and discerning God’s will for Barnabas and Saul to make sure that it was indeed God’s appointment.

Acts: An Expositional Commentary A Power or a Person

If we did not know that the Holy Spirit would go with us, we would not dare to do Christian work. We would be paralyzed even from attempting it. By definition missionaries go where the gospel has not been heard, and where the gospel has not been heard life is dark and the opposition is strong. Frequently, antagonism to the God of the Bible is intense and expressed in violent hatred. How would anybody dare to tackle such work unless the Holy Spirit is with him and working in him to bless the message? If we know God is with us, we can be bold to go anywhere at all.

Furthermore, if you think about it, the church in Antioch was so healthy and doctrinally solid, especially with these two men in leadership position. God was calling the two of the best men that the church probably ever had.

If they become missionaries, then from a human perspective, there are shoes that need to be filled.

Perhaps if we were in their shoes, we may feel anxious and worried that we lost two solid men in the church.

However, the church of Antioch understood that their mission is not to be comfortable and maintain their religious club.

The mission of the church is to make disciples, reach the lost, and spread the supremacy of the glory of Christ to the ends of the world so that God’s glory will fill the whole world.

Plus, Antioch was in a healthy state with solid biblical leaders, so they can afford to send Barnabas and Saul out into mission field.

What’s encouraging is that those two men would return to Antioch on furlough to give their mission report, and the church still remained healthy.

So, having discerned the Lord’s calling through fasting and praying, we arrive to the final lesson...

4. Affirmation By The Leaders

This is equally an important piece to sending a missionary out into the mission field. Not only were Barnabas and Saul appointed and called by God to the mission field, the church leaders participated in this call by affirmation. And they affirmed the men by laying their hands on them AND sending them off.

The idea of laying on of hands is a practice in the NT. Sometimes, laying on of hands conveys an idea of having a sick person prayed for and asking God for healing.

In this case, the laying on of hands conveys the idea of commissioning an individual for service in the church. This was a practice in church history, especially when a pastor was installed in the local church, and it should continue to be a practice in the local church.

The laying on of hands by the leaders on these men also demonstrated unity in their upcoming mission in fulfilling a specific task that God has given them.

Having done so, the church sent them away. The Greek word literally means to release them and let them go. Barnabas and Saul were sent simulatenously by the church and by the Holy Spirit (as we’ll see in verse 4).

Application/Conclusion

So, we have learned about the backdrop of calling to the mission field. Saul and Barnabas were in an Active Church. They then were appointed by the Holy Spirit, and then went through an acumen by the leaders and eventually affirmed by them for mission.

This should be the NT pattern for sending out missionaries.

Unfortunately, some “self-appointed” missionaries think that they can be missionaries only because they felt God called them apart from the affirmation of the church.

Let me make this absolutely clear: There is no biblical teaching as a “self-appointed missionary.”

If one is not actively involved in serving in the local church, be a member in good standing, submitting oneself under the leadership of the church, and not receiving the affirmation by the church, then this individual has no business being in the mission field.

Every missionary should be sent by the local church. Even the great Apostle Paul understood this NT pattern.

So, if you ever encounter someone who’s a missionary, you can ask this individual, “Which local church sent you?”

Broadly speaking, while not everyone is called to the mission field in another country and while some are specially commissioned by God to do so, every Christian should still function like a missionary where you are to proclaim the gospel to those who have not heard.

GOSPEL EXPLANATION

Some of you may feel that God’s calling to a special ministry is reserved for pastors and missionaries. While I think they are indeed a high-calling from God, nonetheless, God still calls to dedicate your life to serving Him in your life and vocation.

If you are a Christian who’s a blue collar worker, you may feel like your career is less valuable in comparison to a white collar worker. You may feel that God must be calling you to a higher career in order for your vocation to be deemed as valuable in God’s sight.

Let me encourage you that your calling from God in the blue collar environment is no less in value in comparison to a Christian who’s a white collar worker.

The reason I say that is because there are lost people in every area of the industry that needs ambassadors for Christ. By God’s providence, He sent you to be in that place for a reason.

So, what might God be calling you to do? Well, the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:24 that “in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.”

In other words, be content with what God has given you to do and be faithful in being a light of the world in that environment.

If God calls you somewhere else, then He may bring that opportunity to you through someone or specific circumstances.

As Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”

OTHERS:

What is God currently calling me to do in my specific situation in life as a follower of Jesus? (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:17-24)

How can a Christian discern God’s calling for their lives/vocation, especially to the mission field?

Here’s a story of my calling to pastoral ministry.

I was studying SFU, and I think I was in my 2-3rd year. I was reading my Bible, and somehow I had some sort strong compulsion and desire to teach whatever I’m reading.

In my head, I asked myself, “Is God calling me to pastoral ministry?”

By a call, I do not mean a hearing a voice from heaven. Spurgeon defined a call as an intense and all-absorbing desire.

However, I tried to suppress that call to pastoral ministry because I understood the high-calling and the unique challenges of a pastor.

So, that desire did not go away, so I spent at least two years praying about it and seeking counsel from other godly men in my life. I needed to be sure that it was indeed God’s calling for me to be a pastor. If it is God’s calling, then I will trust that He will lead me through the intense challenges and battles in ministry.

Martyn Lloyd Jones once said this: “I would say that the only man who is called to preach is the man who cannot do anything else, in the sense that he is not satisfied with anything else. This call to preach is so put upon him, and such pressure comes to bear upon him that he says, “I can do nothing else, I must preach.”

To put it another way, if you men believe that you can pursue other careers, then pursue them and refrain/stay away from pastoral ministry.