Thursday, May 15th - Acts 13

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I’ve been excited about sharing some thoughts about Acts 13, because I had an “aha!” moment as I took a more detailed look at some of the circumstances surrounding Paul and Barnabas’ call to the mission field. Check this out…

INSIGHTS

First of all, let’s remember what is happening to this point in Antioch. In chapter 11 we read that some out-of-town evangelists, from Cyprus and Africa, effectively reached “a great number” of gentiles with the gospel. Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to check it out. Not only did he give the movement his stamp of approval, but he then went and fetched Paul from Tarsus, and brought him to Antioch for a year, during which time “great numbers of people” became Christians.

Do you see what an international movement this is? Cyprus, Africa, Jerusalem, Tarsus…no locals are listed. among the leaders. And, it continues in chapter 13, when an incredibly important leadership meeting is taking place. “Prophets and teachers” (not elders) from Cyprus, Africa, Galilee and Tarsus. An authoritative call from God comes out of this meeting, which ends with the Holy Spirit sending Paul and Barnabas out into the world with the gospel.

In many ways, Antioch reminds me of EVBC. Something wonderful has happened in Gilbert, as it had in Antioch. “A great number” have come to believe. But now, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, men are being sent beyond the thrill of the local success, and into a dangerous world that is both thirsty for and and antagonistic to the gospel. Huge highs and lows were on the horizon for Paul and Barnabas. They will take some very hard knocks along the way. They will also be used by God to completely change the world!

First stop, Barnabas’ home turf, Cyprus. The preaching begins, and so do the attacks. The same blindness Paul experienced in chapter 9 comes upon Bar-Jesus, the sorcerer who tried to defy the true gospel. Sergius Paulus, a key city leader, was “amazed at the teaching,” and believed. Yes, it seems like the Antioch experience can translate to other places!

Second stop, Pisidian Antioch (the other Antioch). Paul preaches another solid message (a synopsis of the Old Testament from Moses to David, John the Baptist to Jesus, from the cross to the resurrection), finishing with the glorious promise of the gospel: “through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.”

“As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue…” They had done their job. Like Acts 2, there is no altar call, no solicitation to join the club…just a proclamation of the truth. They were truly functioning like the “salt of the earth”, because the people had become thirsty…for more of their teaching! They were invited back to next week’s meeting, and people wanted to hear them every day between now and then! A week later “almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.”

But crowds are easy. It’s one thing to have a big audience, but people actually becoming Christians is something else. A key phrase from verse 48 clarifies the divine perspective: “All who were appointed for eternal life believed.”

CHALLENGES

1. Are we ready for a fresh ministry from God that comes from someplace different than our own? Do we have it within us to be led by people who are very different than us? Ethnically? Socially? Economically?

2. That prayer meeting that launched Paul and Barnabas…do you have a prayer meeting like that? If God was to send you into a new ministry, how would he tell you? Do you have the appropriate contexts with other brothers and sisters where you wait on the Lord together, like they did?

3. What if Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, because they were enjoying the huge movement of God there so much that they didn’t want to miss it? What if we at EVBC cling to the Gilbert campus experience so tightly that revivals like Pisidian Antioch are denied to other cities? Are you ready, willing and able to go?

It’s on now…Saul is now Paul (v. 9), and we will now follow his adventure for the next 15 chapters! Tomorrow, the rest of their initial journey, and their return to the mother church to celebrate!

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