One of the best and most
effective ways to go about developing a working knowledge of Scripture is to
break it down into parts. For example,
the Old Testament is made up of the Law, the historical books, poetry, and the
prophets. The New Testament has gospels,
history, epistles, and prophecy. When we
choose to go even further, we need something for remembering the context of
particular books of the Bible. At first
we get a theme for each book, a one or two sentence statement that sums up the
gist of the book. From there we go on to
make outlines of each book. These are
brief and concise divisions that help us to develop an overall flow and picture
of the individual books of the Bible. Then,
for those who really want to crank things up, we can take to remembering
specific verses from God’s Word. Now, why
am I talking about the process that so many use to remember the content of
Scripture as a means of introducing our text today? Well, it’s because no matter how many
outlines of the book of Acts I either look at or create myself, just about
every single one has a division starting in chapter 13 that carries through the
end of the book.
I
want to remind you one more time of the theme of the book of Acts. Yes, I’ve said over and over that Acts is a
picture of the early church in the decades after Jesus’ death, resurrection,
and ascension, but that’s not the theme.
The theme for the book of Acts comes directly out of the first chapter
of the book, verse 8 to be exact. Jesus
told the apostles as they were gathered together immediately before his
ascension that, “[they would] receive power when the Holy Spirit [had] come upon [them],
and [they] would be [his] witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the end of the earth.”
Well, the first seven chapters of the book are all about the apostles
(and the rest of the church) being his witnesses in Jerusalem, the place where
they were already located. Then,
chapters 8-12 are all about people who are his witnesses in Judea and
Samaria. We have seen that over the past
several weeks through the ministries of people like Philip and Peter, and the
conversion of Saul and the ministry that he began. Well, beginning here in Acts 13, we see the
beginning of the church witnessing to the ends of the earth.
Now,
up until this point, we’ve looked at every word contained in the book of
Acts. However, over the next few weeks,
we’re not going to be looking at every word, but we’re going to be jumping
around a bit. We’ll glance in on Paul’s
journeys to one location, we’ll see his struggles and his pains, and then we’ll
jump to another place and see something entirely different. Many times, we’re going to be looking very
quickly at Paul’s labors in areas where he penned one of his epistles that are
included in the New Testament. So, Paul
will be our primary character over the next few weeks, with Barnabas, Peter,
and Mark all being examined as well. But
all of that will come over the next few weeks and months. Our focus for today, however, is on the
church as it existed and worked just prior to the beginning of this great
effort to take the gospel out into the world and literally to the end of the
earth. Our focus is on the view that the
church had of itself at this time and how that view relates to the one that we
take of ourselves today.
We
noted a few weeks ago that it was in Antioch where the people of the church
were first called Christians. Well, I
can think of no better place to have a picture of the church at this that time than
in Antioch (and good thing because that’s where Luke points us). We’re told that the church in Antioch had
amongst their membership some who were called “prophets and teachers”. Now, forgetting the actual words and titles
for a second, I want you to notice something, both of these are plural
words. There was Barnabas, Simeon,
Lucius, Manaen, and Saul. There was a
group of men, whom we know from historical records that I don’t have time to
get into today, that came from various backgrounds in their upbringing. Some of these men were of a different race
than others. Some of them came from
different religious backgrounds and different regions. However, they all were used in the
proclaiming of God’s Word to the end of the earth.
At
the end of our text last Sunday, I read the last verse of chapter 12 and never
even made mention to it because it seemed to not have much to do with our
text. Acts 12:25 says, “And
Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their
service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.” Now, it may not seem like it because it
really doesn’t come across in the text, but there is a considerable amount of
time that passed since the last time we saw Paul. During that time, we’ve seen Peter’s numerous
ministries to various people in various places.
We’ve seen James killed and Peter rescued from facing the same
fate. We’ve seen the church change as it
existed at the time of our text today.
You see, it’s also been some time since the church first started. It’s been a few decades since Jesus ascended
into the heavens to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. In actuality, the church has now reached a
pretty comfortable place. They’re now in
Antioch, a region that is not hostile towards Christians. Many of the rulers in the area around them
that are against Christianity have passed and more tolerant governors are in
place. As we mentioned earlier, they
even had a nice little contingent of leaders in the church made up of people
from several different walks of life. Plus,
we’ve already said that they had a large congregation. By our modern definition of the church, they
would be a successful church.
However,
a church ought to never be measured as “successful” based on any factors that
have to do with numbers, size, or anything along those lines. What makes a church successful is what they
are doing in terms of growing God’s kingdom and proclaiming His Word. What we find when we look at the church in
Antioch is anything but contentment.
What we find is the preparation and equipping of folks to take the Word
out into the world. We see that there
was a time of preparation and even an ordaining and commissioning of Barnabas
and Saul as missionaries and evangelists, people specifically tasked with
taking God’s Word out into the world. Now,
I want to say just very quickly here that you don’t have to be ordained or
commission to proclaim God’s Word. You
don’t have to be a pastor, a missionary, or even an officer in your own church
to speak with people about Jesus. That’s
not what is being talked about here at all.
What we see here is that the church is praying and fasting and asking a
special blessing upon these two men, Saul and Barnabas, as they prepare to
leave the friendly confines of their church community and take the gospel out
into places that might be less receptive of it.
So,
Paul and Barnabas went. They went out
into the surrounding regions to share the gospel. The first place we’re told that they went to was
Cyprus. Now, we’ll see Paul in all sorts
of places as we go throughout, and we’ll see him encounter all sorts of
opposition and hardships. Well, the very
first place that he goes, Cyprus, he found opposition in the form of this man
known as Bar-Jesus. Now, I’m not going
to dissect this encounter between Paul and Barnabas and Bar-Jesus because it’s
pretty straightforward. Bar-Jesus was
trying to thwart Paul and Barnabas’ efforts and as a result ended up being
blind for a time. This is a classical
battle of evil (or as Paul called him, “son of the devil, enemy of all
righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy”) vs. good. This is a battle of God vs. Satan and God
comes away victorious.
Now,
that’s really nothing new in Scripture and it’s nothing that we won’t see
repeated numerous times again. However,
I don’t want to focus upon the battle here.
I don’t want to focus upon the actual events as they unfolded here, but
on the fact that they happened at all.
You see, this battle of God vs. Satan would have never come about had
Paul and Barnabas not gone. This battle
wouldn’t have happened had these two men just remained in their very successful
church in Antioch that was enjoying a time of prosperity. You see, we can think of a thousand excuses
why not to engage ourselves in missions and evangelism: I’m not really suited for that type of work;
that’s the pastor’s job; it’s dangerous; I’m just too busy with what I have
going on right now; I’m not knowledgeable enough of Scripture to lead people to
Christ. Well, I hear all those reasons
and to a certain extent I’m sympathetic to them and understand the
hesitations. However, I don’t really
view them as reasons for our not engaging in missions. Sure, I don’t expect someone who isn’t gifted
from God in the area of evangelism to open up a community outreach center, but
I do expect them to witness to the people that are around them in their daily
lives.
As
I said earlier, we’re going to see Paul in some really difficult
situations. We’re going to see him in
some really difficult places. As I
mentioned, that’s the reason why I included the entirety of the rest of the
book of Acts in the reading for today even though I am only looking at the
first part of chapter 13. Paul and
Barnabas left a safe and comfortable place and went out into the unknown. They didn’t go because of business
opportunities. They didn’t go because
they had a strategic plan for turning other parts of the world into
Antioch. They went simply because they
were called to go. Just like Abraham
when God told him to go and gave no direction, Paul and Barnabas went, and they
went in search of people to proclaim the gospel to.
Now,
very briefly I want to put this question to us today. None of us think twice about evangelism and
outreach when it comes to foreign missions.
When we just hear that title, we think of people going out in search of
the lost and leading them to Jesus.
However, our understanding of missions and the mission field shouldn’t
be limited to somewhere over there. The
reality of it is that mission trips are difficult. They’re increasingly expensive, tedious to
plan, and many folks will only take a couple (if any) in their lifetime. Well, if we’re only thinking about seeking
out the lost when it comes to being somewhere else, then that means that we’re
only thinking about seeking out the lost for at most a few weeks out of our
entire lives. The question I have
is: Why are we not seeking out the lost
right here? Why is it that we view the
mission field as some else that we have to take a plane or boat to get to? I had a seminary professor who refused to use
the term mission trip. He did so because
he viewed a trip to the grocery store as a trip with a chance of encountering
someone who was lost and in need of being shown Christ. Paul and Barnabas knew the importance of not
just being stagnant in their faiths.
They knew that the gospel needed to go to the end of the earth. Well, how is the gospel every going to reach
the end of the earth, when we only proclaim it somewhere else and not where we
find ourselves. Yes, this text is about
going, and I think that that is an important aspect of missions. But remember, there is also a great need for
those of us who stay where we are. We
are to seek out the lost and dying (literally dying of separation with Christ)
in our own backyard. Glory be to God; in
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment