THE MISSIONARY’S CALL

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 21, 2022 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: December 21, 2022 from Acts 12:25-13:1-3

Theme: God commissions faithful servants—through the leading of His church—to the ministry of spreading His gospel.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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We come to a new division in our study of the Book of Acts. And it’s a vitally important one; because it introduces us to the greatest and most adventurous enterprise in all of human history—the spread of the gospel around the world through God-appointed missions.

At the very beginning of this book—in Acts 1:8—the Lord Jesus told His disciples,

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

And that’s what happened. Chapters 1-7 of the Book of Acts told us about that witness as it was declared in Jerusalem. Chapters 8-12 told us about that witness as it then spread outward to the neighboring regions of Judea and Samaria. And now, in Chapters 13-28, we’re told the story of how the witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ spread to the remotest parts of the earth.

This also marks the beginning of the ministry of Saul of Tarsus—whose name, by 13:9, is changed to Paul. Just as Peter was the main figure of Acts 1-12, Paul now becomes the main figure of Acts 13-28. This also marks the beginning of Paul’s first missionary journey—which begins at 13:4 and is declared ‘completed’ in 14:26.

And the beginning of this great missionary work—as it’s described to us in the last verse of Chapter 12 and the first three verses of Chapter 13—is very important. The beginning of all great works of God is important to consider. And in this beginning story, we see some of the basic elements that would constitute the call to this great work.

Luke tells us;

And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away (Acts 12:25-13:3).

What a great ‘beginning’ story this is! It shows us how God Himself commissions faithful servants—through the leading of His church—to the ministry of spreading His gospel. It truly is His work—through His church—from beginning to end.

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Now; the story of the beginning of this particular missionary call—and really, the setting of the tone for the whole missionary endeavor from then on—began back at the end of Acts 11. That was at the time when some Jewish believers in Jerusalem had taken a daring step, and had proclaimed the message of the gospel to Greeks in the Syrian city of Antioch. Many believed, and a church of Gentile believers grew. The devoted servant of Christ named Barnabas had heard about it, and had gone up to see what was happening. And when he saw, he went to get Saul from Tarsus; and brought him into the work. (It’s really an amazing thing to think about; isn’t it? Missions from Jerusalem went only so far as to the Gentile city of Antioch; setting down the basics of the message. But from Antioch, the work of declaring that message through missions then spread around the world!)

While these men—Barnabas and Saul—were ministering in Antioch, a prophet named Agabus was led by God to announce that there would be a great famine. The Gentile believers in Antioch decided that they wanted to minister to their Jewish brothers and sisters in the regions of Judea. And so, they gathered what they could and sent relief to the Jewish believers through the trusted hands of Barnabas and Saul.

That’s the background for the end of Acts 12. And that’s where we find the first characteristic of the beginnings of missions; that …

1. GOD SENDS MISSIONARIES WHO HAVE A PROVEN RECORD OF FAITHFULNESS (12:25).

Acts 12:25 tells us, “And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry …” The amount of time that Barnabas and Saul were away was about two years. And it would have been a troublesome two years. During that time, King Herod Agrippa I had begun to viciously persecute the church. He had murdered the apostle James; and had even sought to execute the apostle Peter. Agrippa had died the horrible death we read about in Acts 12. But somehow in it all, Barnabas and Saul were able to carry on their ministry of love to the Jewish believers. In fact, we’re told that they “finished” it. They had proven diligent and faithful in God’s work—even in troubling times.

Acts 12:25 also tells us about someone they felt led to bring back to Antioch with them from Jerusalem; “… and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.” We read about John Mark’s mother’s house in Acts 12. That was where the disciples were gathered to pray for Peter when Herod had arrested him. It was where Peter went as soon as the angel had released him from jail. John Mark’s family must have been an important one in the early Jerusalem church. What’s more, we’re told in Colossians 4:10 that Mark was the cousin of Barnabas. God would eventually use John Mark to write one of the four Gospels—the one that recorded for us the gospel as Peter preached it.

The lesson for us to learn in this is that—even before they were called to the mission field by God—Barnabas and Saul had already proven themselves to be faithful and trustworthy servants in the Lord’s cause. They even clearly had a desire to bring others into that work and expand its reach. As the Lord Jesus had said in Luke 16:10;

“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10).

Let’s learn a lesson from this. The best way for us to prepare for great tasks that God may call us to later is to prove ourselves faithful in the lesser works He gives us in the present. We should never look at any task from the Lord as a small thing. It may be just the thing that God uses to train us for the next step in His work.

Another characteristic of the beginnings of missions that we see in this passage is that …

2. GOD DRAWS HIS MISSIONARIES FROM WITHIN A CONTEXT OF GODLY CHURCH LIFE (13:1).

At the beginning of Chapter 13, Luke tells us, “Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers …” This may mean that they were men who were leaders in the church who had the gift of prophecy—much like Agabus. But more likely, it means that they were men who had the gift of preaching as it would be associated with the ministry of teaching—perhaps serving in the capacity of elders. It’s wonderful to see how the church in Antioch had grown to the point where it had good, solid, spiritual leadership that ministered to the church body as a whole.

Luke gives us their names; “Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.” And just consider what remarkable men these were:

• Barnabas is a man that we already know. He had been introduced to us when he first made an outstanding donation to the ministry of others in Acts 4. He was also the one who first drew Saul of Tarsus into the church family in Acts 9. And in Acts 11, he was a key instrument that God used to help build up the church in Antioch. As we read on, of course, we see that his role becomes even more significant in the spread of the gospel.

• A man named Simon is also mentioned. He had a Jewish name. But he was also called by the name Niger—which is Latin for ‘dark-skinned’. In the early church, ethnic distinctions didn’t matter; and this man was an honored and esteemed leader of equal standing in the early gathering of the believers in Jesus. His presence in the leadership team would have welcomed many others to enter in and worship Jesus—the Savior of all humankind.
• A third man was Lucius of Cyrene. He should not be confused with the man named Luke who wrote the Book of Acts. And what’s more, we’re told that he was from the region that the man came from who carried our Lord’s cross (Matthew 27:32). Some scholars believe that he may have been among those who first came to share the gospel with Greek-speaking Jewish people in Antioch back in 11:20; which would have meant that he would have already proven to be a man with a missionary’s heart.
• A fourth man in the group was Manaen. And we’re told something particularly remarkable about him. He was “brought up with Herod the tetrarch”. This would have been a reference to the same King Herod that had beheaded John the Baptist, and that had mocked our Lord at His trial and had turned Him over to Pilate. To say that Manaen was “brought up” with Herod would mean that he was raised within the royal family in a way that was in very close association with the notorious King Herod. You couldn’t find a pair of young friends who had ended up going in more dramatically different places of life than these two. What a powerful witness Manaen’s conversion must have been! His presence demonstrates that a man’s past or background was not held against him in the church; and that there was no resentment on the part of the church for a man’s upbringing. He was a man whose life demonstrated the grace of God!
• And of course, a fifth leader was Saul. His presence in this group shows how quickly the former persecutor of the church had come to be recognized for his transformed life and genuine calling from God.

Note that it was from among this group—from within the context of a godly church of people with genuinely transformed lives—that God called out His missionaries. Many today disregard what they call ‘organized religion’ (by which, they usually mean God’s institution of the local church). They believe that they can minister in Christ’s name apart from it and without any accountability to it. But this shows us that—from the very beginning—missions was a work of God’s church family as led by godly church leaders. God’s way of doing world missions is as a ministry of the local church.

But that doesn’t mean that missions is—ultimately—instituted by and is under the sole authority of church leaders. Another important characteristic we can see is that …

3. TRUE MISSIONARIES ARE SENT AT THE CALL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (13:2).

We’re told in verse 2; “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’”

Notice that the church and its leaders were in the sort of ‘yielded’ frame of mind toward the Holy Spirit that would make it possible for them to hear from Him. We’re told that they were ‘ministering to the Lord’; which may have meant that they were faithfully going about their duties as elders within the church—fulfilling the tasks of preaching and teaching. But more likely, it was describing how attentive they were to the Lord Himself; and how they were presenting themselves to Him in worship and in prayer–actively seeking His will in a personal and dependent way. And we’re also told that they were ‘fasting’; which would indicate that they were earnest and sacrificial in how they sought the Lord’s will. It may have been that they were seeing the need for others in the regions around them to hear the message of God’s love through Jesus; and it so caused their hearts to yearn for the gospel to spread that they prayed with fasting.

But do you also notice that they didn’t immediately go out in their own wisdom or on their own power to spread the gospel? They first yielded themselves to God and waited for His call. Jesus once told His disciples;

“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38).

At the beginning of Acts—in 1:4-5—He told His disciples to wait before going out as His witnesses until they had been given the Holy Spirit. The fact that these church leaders ‘ministered to the Lord’ and ‘fasted’ suggests that they were waiting for His orders from the Holy Spirit before they went out further into the world. And that’s when we’re told, “the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’” The Holy Spirit had His appointed ‘harvest laborers’ already in mind. They were the first and the last men of the list of five—one a long-time servant of the church, and the other a dynamic new worker.

We should be grateful that the church waited on God for the Holy Spirit’s specific call; because, by God’s grace, this missionary team made history!

And finally, notice one more characteristic of the beginnings of missions …

4. GOD COMMISSIONS HIS MISSIONARIES UNDER THE BLESSINGS AND SUPPORT OF THE LOCAL CHURCH’S LEADERSHIP (13:3).

Barnabas and Saul, upon hearing the Spirit’s call, didn’t immediately rise up and run out the door as if on their own authority. We’re told in verse 3, “Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.”

This was no ordinary missionary call. This was clearly something issued to the church, through its leaders, by the Holy Spirit, in a very direct way. The response was to fast and pray further over the clear call of God; and then, to lay hands on the missionaries and send them out authoritatively. The laying on of hands of this group of church leaders didn’t confer any special spiritual power to Barnabas and Saul. Their calling was not based on the laying on of hands. Rather, what the laying on of hands did was to officially confirm that the church leadership recognized the calling of the Holy Spirit; and it allowed the two missionaries to be sent with the full blessings, prayers, and support of the local church. And it’s interesting that we’re not told where they were to be sent—which may be why the church fasted and prayed further.

But we can be sure that the divine hand that points out the call to His appointed servants through His church will always be faithful to carry, guide, and provide for them in their work—if they will simply obey His call, and if the local church will pray and support them.

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So; here at the very beginning of ‘missions’, we see four important characteristics: (1) the importance of proven character and ministry faithfulness; (2) the context of godly, dependent church life; (3) the clear call of the Holy Spirit; and (4) the authorized commission of the local church leadership.

This was what the beginnings of the great gospel missions enterprise was like. And God has used it to change the world.

AE