Grace Community Church, Arlington, TX

Last week we looked at Paul’s conversion. This week we want to look at his mission.Let’s pick up the story of his mission in Acts 13.

Notice the diversity in this church leadership.Barnabas, who was earlier described as a Levite from Cyprus (4:36). Secondly, there was Simeon (a Hebrew name) called Niger (‘black’) who was presumably a black African.
The third leader, Lucius of Cyrene, definitely from North Africa.Fourthly, there was Manaen, who is called in the Greek the syntrophos of Herod the tetrarch, that is, of Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. The one who had John the Baptist beheaded. The Word may mean that Manean was “brought up with him” in a general way or more particularly that he was his foster brother or intimate friend.
The fifth church leader was Saul, who of course came from Tarsus in Cilicia.These five men made up the leadership team of the church in Antioch.

This was a Worship gathering. As they drew near to God, He also let them in on what was on His heart. And what was on His heart was the mission. A seek and save mission.Spend some long uninterrupted times of worship with the Lord. He will speak to you.

They were fasting. Jesus has taught the disciples, “when you fast”, not “If you fast”. Fasting is part of the normal life of a follower of Jesus. Fasting is the negative action, refraining from preparing and eating food, and Worship is the positive action, seeking the Lord. It is a time for focus on the Lord without all that goes along with preparing and eating and fellowshipping around food.

The Holy Spirit said to them
We aren’t told how He spoke to them. Maybe it was through the prophets. But the point is that He spoke to the early church to guide them specifically in their mission. Don’t we need that same guidance today?

Notice that the call was clear, but the land and the people they were to go to was not. So, the response to this call required an adventurous step of faith.

Some of you have heard the call, but don’t have specifics yet. That is exactly where Barnabas and Saul were at that point. Don’t think you have to have it all figured out before you begin to make a move.

Now they fast and pray some more about this Word from the Holy Spirit and then they laid their hands on them and sent them on their way, trusting the Holy Spirit to lead and guide them.There is no evidence that Barnabas and Saul volunteered for missionary service; they were sent by the Spirit through the church.

Still today it is the responsibility of every local church (esp of its leaders) to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, in order to discover whom He may be gifting and calling.

God has made it clear to us as a church that we are to focus our missionary efforts on the unreached parts of the world. The places that the gospel has not gone before.And He has guided us so supernaturally.

Still today it is the responsibility of every local church (esp of its leaders) to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, in order to discover whom He may be gifting and calling.

God has made it clear to us as a church that we are to focus our missionary efforts on the unreached parts of the world. The places that the gospel hasnot gone before.And He has guided us so supernaturally.

Now, let’s see how God leads them in this mission.

When the workers get to Paphos on Cyprus something happens that gives us another forceful demonstration that God's missionary heart will not be frustrated. In Paphos, Sergius Paulus the governor (or proconsul) tries to hear the Word of God. Verse 7: He was "a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. "

These missionaries are absolute nobodies in the Roman World. They have no human authority. They have no political standing. They are unknowns. But they are called by God, sent by God, and now it is God that, against all odds, has gotten them a hearing on their first mission with the governor of the whole island of Cyprus.

But, Elymas Gets in the Way. But just as the word is about to be spoken to Sergius Paulus, Bar-Jesus (which means “son of salvation”) who was called Elymas, the magician (or spiritist or witch doctor or shaman) in his court, gets in the way.That shouldn’t surprise us. We should expect that the devil is going to try to do something to stop the progress of the gospel.

Here you have demonic forces at work. Paul discerns that and calls him not the son of salvation but the son of the devil.He recognizes that what is going on right then is spiritual warfare. And he takes authority over the powers of darkness.

You too will face spiritual warfare as your reach out to neighbors and co-workers and classmates. Don’t be surprised by it. Expect it and be prepared to confront it.

-Have prayer support from some others on a daily basis.-Walk in holiness and purity
-Spend time in the Word of God on a daily basis.
-Remember that greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Remember, big God and little devil. Do not be afraid. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

In verse 10 it becomes even clearer what E1ymas is doing. Pau1 says to him,

Now two wonderful things come out of this.The first is that God has straight paths. He is still the pursuing God seeking and saving the lost.

The second thing to see is that Elymas does not succeed in his attempt to make the straight path crooked. He would like to block or derail the path of salvation. But it will not happen.

God took the very effort of Elymas to make crooked the path of God and hinder the faith of Sergius Paulus, and he not only overcame it; he took it in his hand and used it to bring the governor to faith. What the devil meant for evil, God will now turn for good.

God has straight paths that lead to faith; He is still sending us "to seek and to save the lost." He is not aloof or passive or indecisive. He is never in the maintenance mode, coasting or drifting. He is sending, pursuing, searching, saving. And he calls us to join Him.
The Word for us today is, don't think maintenance; think mission!!

The other thing is that there will, of course, be people and situations that make crooked the straight paths of the Lord. There will always be hindrances. There will be Elymases.But the point again and again is this: God is bigger than all of that. He can turn what seems to be a huge setback and actually use it to bring about the expansion of His kingdom.

And all of this is happening just during Paul’s first missionary journey. He and Barnabas plant some churches in Asia minor, what we know as Turkey today.

But Paul has a second missionary journey. Starting from Jerusalem and then accompanied by Silas and later joined by Timothy and Luke, Paul revisited the churches established in Asia Minor before receiving a vision to proceed to Macedonia. That journey saw the spread of the gospel into Europe, with significant stops in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth.

Then there is Paul’s third missionary journey. Paul revisits the churches in Asia Minor and spends considerable time in Ephesus, where he focuses on preaching and discipleship. His efforts in Ephesus lead to a significant number of conversions, impacting the local idol-making trade and inciting a riot. The journey concludes with Paul’s return to Jerusalem, where he is arrested.

His ministry, from his conversion to his martyrdom in Rome spans approximately three decades (AD 34-67). Within these years, Paul’s missionary activities, coupled with his extensive letter-writing, laid the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith.

The great apostle’s epistles to the churches he founded or visited form a crucial part of the New Testament, offering insight into the theological foundations of Christianity. These letters addressed doctrinal issues, moral guidance, and the challenges of living a Christian life in a non-Christian world.

The missionary journeys of Paul and his subsequent letters to the early churches constitute a foundational era in Christian history. Through his travels, teachings, and epistles, Paul not only spreads the gospel across the Mediterranean but also laid the theological and ethical groundwork for Christian faith and practice.

And it all began at a little church in Antioch.

May we become more and more like the church in Antioch in the days to come.

May We become more and more a worshipping community that hears the voice of God.

And may God speak to us and continue to send forth more and more of us onto His seek and save mission on the earth.