Grace & Truth Church
Acts of Jesus through the Holy Spirit - wk 14
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- Acts 13It’s been a couple of weeks since we have talked about the book of Acts, so let’s have a quick reminder of where we are at. The Book of Acts paints a picture for us of Jesus continuing His work through the Holy Spirit. We have been watching as God’s gift of the Holy Spirit has gradually moved, spread and expanded from a small group of believers to making its way through the whole world. First, Jesus’ Apostles waited for the Holy Spirit until it fell on them. Later it fell on the Jewish believers, then the Samaritans, or half-Jewish believers, and finally to the Gentiles.This was a very big deal for the early church. We look back today it it makes perfect sense. God loves and wants a relationship with everyone. You don’t have to follow the rites and rituals of the Jewish Church before qualifying to become a Christian. We can even see that blueprint throughout the Old Testament, but this was a monumental moment of change for what was seen as a sect of Judaism.Now, with this newest development in God’s plan pushing momentum in this direction, Paul and Barnabas begin their missionary journey and they go out into the world to tell everyone the Good News that salvation is found in Jesus. Antioch is where we last saw them preaching, and today we will follow them to Cyprus and another city called Antioch. Before we dive in, let’s pray.PrayActs 13 begins by telling us how the church in Antioch sent Barnabas and Paul on their missionary journey. We talked about this church a few weeks ago. It was Christianity’s first major move into the Gentile world. In many ways, Antioch was the ancient world’s equivalent of Las Vegas today. It was occupied by people of all sorts of backgrounds and even had it’s own tag line like, “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”In the first three verses of chapter 13 we get to peek in this church’s window. They are worshipping God and fasting. The Holy Spirit is guiding them. Then they lay hands on Barnabas and Paul and send them off on their mission.Here is a map of the journey they will take. In this chapter they start in Antioch, go to Cyprus, and finally to Antioch in Pisidia.For today, I am going to summarize this chapter and give you a bit of a synopsis of what is going on. As usual, there are plenty of interesting things to study and I do hope that you find some time to do that, but I really want to zoom in and focus on one common thing that God is doing in this chapter. So, to quickly summarize the events of this chapter, Paul and Barnabas head to Cyprus. While they are traveling and preaching through the island they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus.You can read this story in verses 6-12, and I highly encourage it. I would also read it in conjunction with Acts 8:9-25 because their encounter with Bar-Jesus is very similar to Peter’s encounter with Simon the Sorcerer. In this story, the missionaries are in Paphos when thee proconsul calls for them because he wanted to hear the word of God. This sorcerer was one of his attendant’s and didn’t want that to happen so he tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.That’s when Paul calls him a son of the devil, full of deceit and trickery. He is spiritually blind, so Paul pronounced a curse on him. You may remember, spiritual blindness is something that Paul is familiar with. When he was spiritually blind, God hit him with some physical blindness and it led to his conversion. Maybe that is the hope here, because this sorcerer gets physically blinded. After this evil influence is removed from the conversation, the proconsul is amazed at the teaching about God and believes.Next, the missionaries jump in a boat and head up to Perga. They continue North and find themselves in Pisidian Antioch. They were in the synagogue on the Sabbath and, for whatever reason, the leaders gave them the opportunity to speak. So Paul preaches a powerful message to everyone. You can read this speech from verse 16 to 41. I would encourage you to read this next to chapter 7, because Paul’s speech sounds a lot like Stephen’s testimony before he was stoned.You probably remember that Paul was there when Stephen was stoned. Maybe Stephen’s speech was the seed that was placed in Paul’s mind that eventually led him to believe in Jesus. Maybe later he was impressed with Stephen’s style of preaching. Or maybe he simply knows that this was the best way to reach a devout Jew. Whatever the case, it was a great speech and the people wanted him to come back the next week and share again.That’s what he does. This time nearly the entire city was there to hear what Paul had to say. This made the Jews jealous and they started contradicting him. That’s when Paul makes a powerful declaration and solidifies something that they were already doing. When they would enter a town they would go to the synagogue and preach to the Jewish people first, then when the Jewish people rejected him he would turn to an exclusively Gentile witness. Here is what Paul and Barnabas said to the Antioch Jewish leaders…
Acts 13:46–47 NIV 46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”It’s worth noting that he was quoting from Isaiah 49 here. Next they get kicked out of town and head to Iconium. That’s the summary of what happens in chapter 13.Now, I want to back up and focus on the common thread we see throughout this chapter. It is the same thread that is driving this whole study of the Book of Acts. It is the Acts of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. In this chapter, the Holy Spirit is mentioned 4 times. So to make things simple, we can focus on these 4 moments to see how the Holy Spirit is guiding the disciples in this chapter and let these examples teach us how to be led by the Holy Spirit.This chapter starts by listing prophets and teachers in the Antioch church, the Holy Spirit gave them specific directions…Acts 13:2–3 NIV 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.This is written so casual and nonchalant. For example, today churches have technology that allows them to send a message to you during worship. In big churches, when you sign your kid in to kid’s church you are usually given a number. If something happens and you need to come get your kid they will pop up that number on the bottom of the screen. Smaller churches may have ushers who will come find you and tap you on the shoulder during service and ask you to go with them.To me, that is how this reads, but it is God sending the message. They are worshipping when they hear the Holy Spirit come over the loud speakers, “Barnabas and Saul, come to the front please. Barnabas and Saul.” It is amazing to me that we have a God who is that personal. He is so intimate and involved with us that He literally walks with us. He is so invested in His people and the commencement of His Church that He interacted with the people He calls His children in such personal and perceptible ways.God still speaks to us today. What I believe this example teaches us is that in order to hear what He is saying, we must be open to His direction…The Holy Spirit guides us when we put ourselves in a posture of openness to His direction.We can see this when we look at what they were doing when God spoke to them. Verse 2 says they were worshipping the Lord and fasting. They weren’t eating so that they would not be distracted from worshipping God. They were wholly focused on worship. What does that word mean? Here is the Greek word that is used to describe their worship. (lee tur hee air oh)Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) 3310 λειτουργέω3310 λειτουργέω (leitourgeō): serve, minister by sharing or partaking
So they were wholly and completely focused on serving and ministering to God and each other. They weren’t praying randomly, they were praying in order to serve God and minister to His desires. They were waiting expectantly for Him to answer. Just as the Apostles waited expectantly for God to send the Holy Spirit. Just as the believers expected God to give them boldness to proclaim the Gospel. The church in Antioch was open to God’s direction, wherever it may take them. They were expecting to be sent, and that’s exactly what God does in verse 4…Acts 13:3–4 NIV 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. 4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.In agreement with the Holy Spirit, the believers lay hands on the missionary’s and send them off. Barnabas and Paul give us our second thought with their response…The Holy Spirit guides us when we put ourselves in a posture of readiness to act on His guidance.They didn’t hesitate. When God said “Go” they went! They didn’t wrap up their projects in Antioch first or anything like that. It also wasn’t like they weren’t making a difference in Antioch. You may remember from chapter 11 that they were making a huge difference there and a large number of people were being saved.I wonder if people in the early church were ever comfortable? Or if they ever allowed themselves to be comfortable? I wonder that because I think that is one of the greatest enemies to action. Like, you know you need to take the trash out, but you’ve had a long day and just want to sit down on the couch for a minute. Suddenly an encouraging word pops into your head to say to someone, but you don’t want to look stupid. Maybe you are like me and talking to strangers is just uncomfortable.This week at work a lady pulled into the gas station behind us and her car was smoking a little. I thought, “I wonder if she knows her car is smoking.” While I was trying to convince myself to do the uncomfortable thing and talk to her, Chris walks around the truck and says, “That ladies car is on fire! Should we tell her?” Chris has a way of making things seem much bigger. For some reason though, all I could say was, “uuuhhh?”We always have to be ready to act. Always ready to be uncomfortable. I bet jumping in a boat two thousand years ago and confronting people who wanted to kill you for talking about Jesus was not very comfortable. I have a difficult time talking to other Christians about disagreeable subjects because it’s not comfortable. I bet confronting evil sorcerers was uncomfortable, but that’s exactly what Paul did…Acts 13:9–10 NIV 9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10 “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?The Holy Spirit gave Paul the strength to stand up against the opposition to Jesus Christ. Elymas, or Bar-Jesus, was trying to stop the Good News from spreading to the proconsul, but because Paul was open to God’s direction and ready to act on that guidance, the Holy Spirit gave him the strength he needed to stand against evil…The Holy Spirit guides us with strength from the Lord.Paul actually has a beautiful prayer for the church in Ephesus for them to have strength from God through the Holy Spirit. I encourage you to write this reference down, circle, highlight, or underline it in your bible, or however you normally note important passages, because when you are feeling discouraged or week this is a powerful prayer to pray!Ephesians 3:16–21 NIV 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.You are filled with the same Holy Spirit that strengthens you in your inner being. You are filled with the same Holy Spirit that gave Paul strength to stand against the ancient evil that tried to stop the spread of the Good News of Jesus. You are filled with the same Holy Spirit that spoke to the church in Antioch, Paul, and Barnabas, and guided them on missionary journeys to proclaim the Gospel. The same Holy Spirit that gives you strength will also give you the joy that can only come from God…The Holy Spirit guides us through persecution with joy.After Paul and Barnabas preached in the synagogue and upset the Jewish leaders, the Jewish leaders stirred up trouble for them…Acts 13:49–50 NIV 49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50 But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.Talk about a major blow to the gut! Almost the entire city showed up to hear the Gospel! The people are anxious to hear the Good News! Then the very people who asked you to teach force you to leave. Worse, they don’t just tell you to leave or threaten you. They slink around in the shadows like little gross little snakes and they whisper things in the ears of the people who want to hear the Good News. They turn them against you and they participate with the Jewish leaders in kicking you out.How do the Christians respond? Not just Paul and Barnabas, but the people who heard the Gospel and believed…Acts 13:51–52 NIV 51 So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.They shook the dust off their feet as a warning. This is something Jesus also said to do. He said in Matthew 10:14 “14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.” This was a Jewish gesture of scorn and disassociation. Here it was directed against the city’s magistrates and the Jewish leaders. In a way, it was like saying, “God is done with you!” Jesus said that on the day of Judgement it would be more bearable for Sodom and Gamorah!So the image drawn here is that Paul and Barnabas are being persecuted, but they are filled with joy. The city faces severe judgement, but the disciples living there are filled with joy! Why? Because God fills His people with Joy through the Holy Spirit!I know that they aren’t the only ones who could tell stories of the joy that the Holy Spirit filled them with. I’m sure you all have stories you could tell. There have been moments in my life that I could describe as rock bottom, horrible, painful, desperate moments, but God filled me with an unexplainable joy through the Holy Spirit.Those stories are encouraging to people, especially people who are going through similar circumstances. Never be afraid to share those stories with someone else. I know it isn’t fun to think about rough times, but you never know when someone needs to hear the Gospel through your testimony of God’s joy.Pray
