Acts 13, we're going to be taking
up where we left off in Acts 13, verse 2-5. And you should
have a new outline. The missional work of the Spirit,
verses 2-11 is what we'll deal with tonight. The new outline
will now launch us into the nature of the evangelical work to which
the church is called and commissioned by the Spirit of God. So last
week, and for the last couple of weeks, we looked at the attributes
of the Spirit of God with regards to how extensive He engages in
the work of the church. And now we're going to look at
the specific details of that for today. And so if you have
your Bibles open to Acts 13, we'll pray and we'll get at certain
critical questions around verses two through 11. Father, we come
to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way,
the truth and the life apart from which no man can approach
you and successfully stand. We thank you for all that he
means, all that he did, all that he is. for those of us who are
believers and for your elect all around the world. And we
thank you for your spirit who makes Christ a reality in our
life, brings us into union with you through him. We ask, Father,
as we study your word tonight, that you would give us the ability
to focus and to peer deeply into your truth, understand its implications
and align ourselves with what your word has revealed to us
is the way you work. Grant us the ability to submit
to your word that we might prosper in our way because we are doing
it your way. We ask, therefore, for the forgiveness
of our sins and the purging of our conscience and the confidence
to approach your throne of grace, not on our merits, but the merits
of Jesus Christ, who is our only hope for glory. And we again
ask that you open our eyes, that we might behold wonderful things
out of your law. Speak to our souls. Grant direction
to your people individually and collectively as your ministers
seek to Explain your word to men and women all around the
world bless the church worldwide We pray in Jesus name. Amen alright,
so the the idea tonight that we're going to be approaching
is the missional work of the Spirit of God the missional work
of the Spirit of God, which is really taken from verses 2 and
through verse four, and I want to read those two verses, and
then we're going to work through our outline to consider a number
of things around the work of the ministry. I was talking with
someone a bit earlier about how do you how do you respond to
people who raise the question frequently? How do I know that
I'm called to ministry? It's amazing how particularly
in the West, you will hear people contemplating that question,
raising that question. How do I know I'm called to ministry?
And, and, or they may say it in the emphatic form. I know
I'm called to ministry. Um, very frequently I hear from
people who just assume they're called to ministry. They just
assume it, take that position. And then they, they go about
to try to make that happen. And they'll use their own unique
approaches, their own ideas, their own sort of manner of affirming
what they think is a call to the ministry. And yet it doesn't
dawn on them frequently that in order for you to even be close
to the ballpark of being called to the ministry is a need for
you to understand first things first around the way God works. The assumption that anyone can
say I'm called to the ministry is absurd. It's an absurd notion,
and yet it dominates the world of religion. As our Lord said
in the Old Testament, these prophets have ran, but I did not send
them. These prophets have run. They've
ran. They have run in the name of
preaching and evangelism and prophesying and and being called
to ministry, but I did not send them. And so what I wanna do
tonight is basically call our attention to, and hopefully by
the Spirit's help, make us sensitive to the order and the process
by which legitimate calling and sending takes place. And so verses
two through four of Acts 13 says this, and as they ministered
to the Lord and fasted, The Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas
and Saul for the work where unto I have called them. And when
they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they
sent them away. Verse four. So they being sent
forth by the Holy Ghost departed unto Seleucia. And from this,
they sailed to Cyprus. Thus is the reading of God's
word. I could read it all the way through verse 11, but I want
to build my basic point and argument just through our development
of our points under point number one in your outline. We actually
dealt with this a while back being divinely commissioned and
sent. is biblical apostolicity, being divinely commissioned,
divinely commissioned, that means ordained, that means appointed,
that means qualified, and then dispatched. Being divinely commissioned
and sent is what we call biblical apostolicity, that is, the church
is called to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
So there's a real sense in which the whole church is sent into
the world by virtue of the mandate that Christ gave in Matthew chapter
28, 19, and 20, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel,
right? So there's a sense in which the whole church's mission
and mindset is to spread the gospel. In that sense, we all
have an apostolic calling. Now you'll notice up on the board,
there are three words under the concept sent to minister. The
first word is apostello, and it's a verb, and it simply means
to be sent. And you can see how closely the
word is related to our noun, apostle, right? So an apostle
is really one who is sent. And yet there's another word
that I'm going to show you in our Text and it's the Greek word
Apollo, which also is translated sent Although that's not a really
good translation. I'll explain that in a more in
a moment And then there's another word that's used for sending
to ek pimple Which means also to send if we were to break these
words down phonetically and look at their their basic prefix ek
means out of a car means away from and So whatever the verb
is, what it's doing is pushing away, sending away, releasing
away. That's how the idea is to be
understood. Something is going from you.
When you send something or release something, it departs from where
you are. That's how you send something.
So this is the idea that set forth in verse three, verse 4
listen to verse 3 and when they had fasted and prayed and laid
their hands on them what they sent them away you see that now
watch verse 4 so they being what sent forth by the Holy Ghost
departed unto Seleucia and from thence they sailed to Cyprus
so verses 3 & 4 talks about sending doesn't it now if one is not
aware of the distinctions between of the original language, you
would tend to think that both words in verse three and four
mean the same thing. And then you would be probably
confounded if you are sensitive, or you may be inclined to draw
a conclusion that may or may not be right. In verse three,
they were sent forth, that is Barnabas and Paul, by the church. Look at it again. And as they
ministered to the Lord, Verse two, and as they ministered to
the Lord, that's the whole church. That's what we saw in verse one.
Now there were in the church that was at what? Antioch. So
Antioch is ground zero. So the context is the what? Church. Now they were in the church at
Antioch and there was in Antioch certain prophets and teachers
as Barnabas, Simeon, Niger, Lucius, many of them, and also Saul with
them. Uh, and so the men that were
in verse one are described as being part of the church in verse
two says, and as they minister to the Lord, we talked about
that. That is, they yielded religious service to God. They served God
Coram, Dave Dale, from a vertical standpoint, they did their prayers. They did their ministry. They
did their service as unto the Lord. And as they ministered
to the Lord and fasted, the Holy ghost spoke saying, separate
me Barnabas and Saul. So in verse Two, what you have
is a separation, right? The Spirit of God said what?
Separate me, Barnabas and Saul. So I'll talk about that in a
little bit, but the person that has commanded the separation
is the Spirit of God. Now, so the Spirit of God is
speaking collectively to the church. And what he says to the
church is, I want Barnabas and Saul. You guys got that? So,
so contextually, the church is the body of Christ. The spirit
is speaking into the body, taking two men out of the whole. So
the church is the body of Christ and the spirit of God is taking
two men out of that body politic and separating them to a work
that he's calling them to do. Now, ladies and gentlemen, in
its rawest form, That's what it means to be prepared to go
to ministry. First and foremost, therefore,
then, if we were to develop verse one and two carefully, what we
would assert, and this is true in ecclesiology and it's true
in our missional paradigm as well, that for a man or a woman
or a people or a person to be serious about being sent to minister,
they first must be part of the body of Christ. They must first
be in the church. You are not being sent by God,
the Holy Spirit, apart from the church or outside of the church.
It's not happening. Because the spirit of God is
working through the instrumentality of the church, first and foremost,
to prepare men to go. So when people come and say,
I think the Lord is calling me to ministry, you can ask certain
questions like this. Well, are you part of a local
church? Are you part of a vital gospel
ministry where the word of God is taken seriously and the evidence
of the spirit of God is present in that work? Otherwise, the
question that you're raising in terms of, I think the Lord
is calling me to ministry, may be purely subjective and rooted
in your own ambitions to be somebody. Are you guys following me so
far? So I'm just laying the foundation to help you address the question
when you run across the mavericks and some of our more gifted people
who feel like God is calling them to do something. You can
answer them emphatically around the question of, I'm trying to
determine whether the Lord is calling me to ministry. Are you
committed to a local church? Do you have a good standing in
the church where the leadership of the church knows you? Does
the leadership have the kind of supervisory oversight in your
life that they can commend you to a work? Or are you just kind
of loosey-goosey, like marbles running around in a jar, just
doing your own thing? Because if the latter is true,
you can be sure the Spirit of God is not calling you to a work.
You're doing your own thing. And God will never bless that.
Because he never operates against his own rules. So you need to
know that because some people will swear God's calling them
to work and they have no prerequisite foundation by which to affirm
even a contemplation of that calling. When you go through
the word of God, what you will find very clearly is that God
always works through his institution to further his purposes and his
causes. There's a uniqueness to one aspect
of God's calling that took place, I would say twice in ministry. The first is when God called
Moses. When God called Moses, he called
him apostolically to go into Egypt and bring the church out.
But if I were arguing for those who are being called of God,
necessarily having their origin in the church, I would say that
Moses was first in the church, for he was a part of the body
of Israel as a nation when they went into Egypt. And then God
excised him for a season and took him into the wilderness
to prepare him to go back and get his people. Am I making some
sense there? The second unique and exclusive
calling of an individual along those lines would be our Lord
Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ would be
the only other person with the exception of Moses, for which
he would not have to say, men had to affirm my calling. But
I would also argue that while men did not affirm the calling
of Jesus Christ, he was still of the body politic. For he was
still in the church, his mother and father were in the church.
He grew up in the church and then God anointed him and set
him apart to be an apostle for the New Testament church. Am
I making some sense? In other words, Jesus did not come from
the outside of God's normative institution by which the ministry
is taking place. This is very important for you
to know. I say this both from my study of the word of God.
I say this also from my own calling into ministry, but I also say
this from observation. Because after 30 years in the
church and in Christ, I still see multitudes of people starting
their own ministries, having absolutely no biblical foundation
for what they do. And they want you to affirm what
they're doing, though they are in stark rebellion against the
process and methodology that God uses. And for me, it's not
even a struggle because having observed this over and over and
over again, what I know is that individual is about to create
a train wreck. Because you cannot prosper in
the things of God, not doing it God's way. You can never prosper. Oh, you may have the gift of
gab and may be able to communicate and win people over with your,
with your rhetorical skills, or even some esoteric sense of
knowledge that you may have, but you'll be like the fellow
we're gonna be dealing with in Acts chapter 13 here shortly,
of which when Paul and Barnabas went to the Gentiles, he had
to deliver some brethren from this sorcerer. Now we'll deal
with that a little bit later on. So an individual who feels
as if they're being called to ministry, I tell them frequently
when they're asking the question, you know, what should I do? I
say, you better make sure you cover all the bases, cross all
the T's, dot all the I's, and make sure that you are doing
it God's way. Because if you are not, when
you aspire to the ministry and someone says you are a preacher,
you and I are going to be enemies. You and I are gonna be enemies.
I say this to pastors. If you're not God's servant,
in truth, you and I are enemies. Because I know that you are not
being guided by the spirit of God and therefore you cannot
be gathering people unto Christ because you're doing your own
thing. Am I making some sense, ladies and gentlemen? And I tell
them plainly, you and I will be enemies. Because unless the
Lord builds a house, the laborerman labors in vain. So what I'm about
to do is show you from the scriptures that it is critical for us to
understand the distinctions and the priority and the structure
by which missional work is done as a consequence of the aid and
abetment and affirmation of God. We learned already that the third
person of the blessed triune Godhead, the spirit of God is
a person, haven't we? He literally spoke articulately
to separate Barnabas and Saul, separate them unto me. And so
they were picked out of the other men exclusively to this work. It's a powerful concept, this
idea of being separated because the word actually means to be
marked out. It means to set boundaries around
and it means to exclude them from the rest. The term means
to be marked out, set boundaries around and to exclude them from
the rest. The way that we can understand
this is in Romans chapter 1 verse 1. Look at Romans chapter 1 verse
1 for a moment. Here's how Paul says it. Because
this is exactly what he experienced. How do we know that we are called
to ministry? We are separated by God the Holy
Spirit. out of the context of having
been nurtured in a sound gospel church or denomination that is
true to God's word, having been prepared for ministry and receiving
the specific boundaries, marking out and separation of the spirit
of God. Listen to what it says in Romans
chapter one, one, are you there? So Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ
called an apostle. Do you see that? If your translation
says to be, disregard that. called an apostle. That's his
description. That's his office. Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, a sent one, right? An ambassador,
an envoy for God, a spokesman for God, called an apostle. What's
the next word? Separated unto the what? Gospel
of God. That's right. Now watch how Paul
explains it subjectively. What he has just done is stated
his office as an apostle. Galatians chapter 1 verse 15
says this in Galatians 1 15 now Paul explains the involved intentionality
on the part of God to prepare a man for the ministry and I
in Galatians chapter 1 we read over in verse 3rd verse 15 watch
this this is what Paul says in affirming his apostolic calling
he says but when it pleased God Watch this, who separated me,
same word, from my mother's womb. Do you see that? Now if I were
to take time to bore you with the Greek language, the word
there would have again meant to set boundaries around, to
mark off and to set apart. What Paul was saying is God has
set boundaries around him from the time he was born. and marked
him out to be an apostle. Paul understood over time how
that when he reflected upon his life, everything that he was
engaged in was preparing him for that ministry. And yet that
ministry did not take place until he came into the church. became
a part of the church, was ministering with the church, and then was
called by the Holy Ghost out of the church to do work for
the church. You guys follow that logic? Remember,
he was on the outside persecuting it. Then God saved him and brought
him on the inside. When he brought Paul on the inside,
Paul became friends with the believers, did he not? And when
he became friends with the believers from Acts 9 to Acts 13, he began
to co-labor with them in communicating the gospel to the Jews without
having obtained any kind of distinct office. He was just a Christian.
He was just a brother in Christ. He was laboring with Barnabas
as teachers in the word of God. Now, this is the other thing
that I say. An individual may have the gift of teaching. But
to have the gift of teaching doesn't mean that you qualify
for the office of pastorate. That a gift is different than
an office. That a man or woman may have
the ability to communicate biblical truth, but that communication
as a gift does not necessarily qualify you to the office of
a pastor, elder, or deacon. Am I making some sense? Those
are distinct roles. And so a person may feel compelled
to think that they have a possibility of entering into the offices
of the church just because they can teach. It may very well be
that in God's providence and in your behavior, your life does
not allow you to be qualified to be in leadership. You may
have messed your life up in such a way inadvertently and yet God
was sovereign over it that you do not have any right to occupy
the office of a pastor or an elder or deacon. Since, and this
is a real foregone conclusion today, the office of pastor,
the office of elder, and the office of deacon requires meeting
biblical qualifications. Today, every Tom, Dick, and Harry
can be a pastor. Him, his wife, and his cat. And
yet the Bible is very clear on the qualifications of the office.
And because people are not willing to submit to God, they are not
willing to come under the scrutiny of biblical examination to determine
whether or not you fit the criterion for even being considered to
the office of pastor or elder or deacon. Am I making some sense?
And too many times churches that are not governed by the spirit
of God raise up people and put them in offices who don't meet
the prerequisites. That's a train wreck ready to
happen. Are you guys following me? Why
do I say that? Because God does not have to break his rules to
accomplish his goals. And so you'll see that Paul was
in the church for a small season, not seeking to aspire to do anything,
but share the gospel. He did not crave for, or long
for, or pursue being an apostle. He was called. So he was in a
collective of men, six men, as we saw, and the Spirit of God
distinctly said, separate me, mark out for me, put yellow tape
around these two dudes. Watch this, they're mine. Are
you guys hearing me? The Holy Ghost made it so clear
to the church, I want Paul, And I want Barnabas for the work
to which I have called them to do. Now I'm going to show you
something in the original language that's going to help you comprehend
this. The authority of the church is the resident Christ by his
spirit telling us what we are to do, marked out by the clarity
of scripture. The authority in the church is
the resident Christ by his spirit I will build my church and the
gates of hell will not prevail against it and he speaks Specifically
to his church those who are his obedient churches through his
word So that by his word and by his providence we begin to
discover the will of God Particularly in the area of the gifts and
calling of people to preach and to teach am I making some sense
so far? so that people don't just rush up to teach and because
they want to. This is the work of God. And
so in our text, you'll have, or in your outline, you'll have
some distinctions that I want you to grasp now. So under point
number one, we saw being divinely commissioned and sent is biblical
apostolicity. And then point number two is
released by the church. Do you guys see that? Released
by the church, but sent by the spirit. You guys see that? released by the church, sent
by the spirit. What are you saying, pastor?
The church does not send apostles. The Holy Ghost does. The church
releases the officers. The Holy Spirit sends them. And
so in your outline, you'll notice the word Apollo, right? under
the first concept of released by the church. Appaloosan is
your word. You see that in your outline?
The word is translated what? Loosed. Do you guys see that?
Loosed, loosed. That's our word, appaloo. And
it means to loose. It means to release. It means
to let go. All of these terms, to loose,
release, to let go, has a passive, implication of submission to
a prior Authority, I want you to get get that when the church
as Acts chapter 13 verse 3 is putting it is Sending Paul and
Barnabas. They're not really sending them.
They're releasing them Because the Holy Spirit has already commissioned
them I want you to hear that again. I want you to see that
again. I wish that our translators would have been a little bit
more technical here, simply because of the confusion that goes on
with the work. But in verse two, rather verse three, and when
they had fasted and prayed, you guys see that, right? And laid
their hands on them. Now, why are they fasting and
praying and laying their hands on them? Because they are wrestling
with, not in a bad way, the clear commissioning of the spirit of
God upon the life of Paul and Barnabas. They are submitting
to the Spirit of God. They have heard the Spirit clearly
speak to the church. These two men are marked out
for a work to which I am calling them. They are not wrestling
as to whether or not they are going to let them go. They're
gonna let them go. What they are doing is praying
and covering all the necessary basis so that when they let these
men go, they will have let them go with the blessings of the
church. and a clear conscious that the
men have all they need for what they must do. So when we talk
about, and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands
on them, they sent, see the word sent? You can translate that,
they released them. They released them. And I'm gonna
show you that in your Bibles right now. Go with me in your
Bible to Acts chapter four, verse 21. Let me show you how it's
used. These same words, Acts chapter four, verse 21. In Acts
chapter 4, this is the time when Peter and James and John were
accosted by the leaders of the church, and they were threatening
them. And it says over in verse 17 of Acts 4, but that it spread
no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them
that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they
called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach
in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and
said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you more than to God, you make that judgment.
See, they're being threatened by the authorities, right? Watch
this now. Verse 20, for we cannot but speak the things which we
have heard and seen. Verse 21, watch this now. So
when they had further threatened them, what's the next line? They
let them go. That's our same word. So when
they have further threatened them, they what? Let them go.
It's a passive submission to an authority. In other words,
the leaders of the church are not commissioning these guys.
They're letting them go. Why are they letting them go?
Because they have no right to hold them. They have to let them
go. Why are they letting Barnabas
and Paul go? Because they have no right to
hold them. They've got to let them go. Why must they let them
go? Because the Spirit of God is
now sending them forth. Next time this word is used is
in Acts chapter 4 verse 23. Notice what it says. And being
what? And being what? That's the point. They released
them. They released them. They can't
hold them bound because they have no authority to hold them
bound. These are apostles. They've already been sent by
Jesus. All these people could do was what? Let them go. So
there's a difference between letting someone go and sending
someone. There's a difference between
relinquishing your right to hold them because a greater authority
demands that you let them go because they are separated unto
another word than for you to commission them and for you to
send them forth. That's totally different. That's
the next word we're going to look at in a moment. But I want
you to go to Acts chapter 5 verse 40 and mark it again. Acts 540. So in Acts 4, what we notice
is a false authority tried to bind the apostles, right? But
because they did not have authority to bind them, they had to what?
Let them go. That's our word, affolio, okay?
They had to loose them. In Acts chapter 5, verse 40,
notice what it says. This is fundamentally the same
situation. This is where the rulers, once
again, are wanting to charge the apostles with blasphemy and
that this time Gamaliel is speaking to the leadership saying, you
know, if this thing be of God, brethren, you better be very
careful about what you're doing. And here's what we read over
in verse 40. And to him, that is Gamaliel, they agreed. And
when they had called the apostles and what? Beaten them, they commanded
that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, but what did
they do? Let them go. They had no authority. They have
no rule. no influence over these men because
they're not the spirit of God. They have to let these men go.
So this is quite fascinating because again, you and I are
understanding in the early, early chapters of Acts that two authorities
are opposing each other, right? The false authority of the Old
Testament church over against the new authority of the New
Testament church. The apostles are the new authority, are they
not? Jesus has already told them go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel. Is that true? So now if Christ has authorized
them to go Peter James and John being the early apostles, can
anyone stop them? If Christ has authorized them
to go can any authority on earth stop them? Remember what we've
seen they have been put in prison two or three times and what has
God done? Let them go Why because they
have been commissioned to go And they're not going as a consequence
of the permission of men. They're going as a consequence
of men capitulating to a greater authority, demanding that they
let them go. Do you guys see that? Very, very
important for you to see. I think one more that I want
us to deal with, and then we'll move on to understanding this
word a little bit more. Acts chapter 15, verse 30. I
wanna do a couple, Acts 15 verse 30. So I want to make sure that
as we are understanding the authority and influence and ministry of
the Spirit of God in the life of the church, that you and I
get our theology right about missions and about calling and
about ministry so that we can help people understand when they
are doing it themselves or when they are actually being called
of God. So this is in Acts chapter 15 where the apostles Um, have
now convened around how to relate to the Gentiles and how to help
the Gentiles express faith in Christ. So they made some conclusions
in verse 29 and in verse 30 it says, so when they were dismissed,
that is Barnabas and Paul, they came to Antioch and when they
had gathered the multitude together, they delivered unto them the
epistles. I'm in Acts chapter 15, I should
be at verse 30. So notice not, that's where I'm
at. Okay, so when they came unto, oh, here it is, verse 36. So
when they were what? Dismissed. Sorry, that's our
word. They had come to Jerusalem, they had talked through the issues,
and now they're dismissed to go back to Antioch. They had
come to Jerusalem, worked through the gospel. This is where we're
going. We're in Acts 13. This is where
we're going. And Peter and James and Barnabas are saying to the
Jewish brethren, hey, God has worked mightily to bring about
the salvation of the Gentiles in our ministry. And when the
apostles had heard all that they said, they finally what? Let
them go. Why? Because their ministry is
in Antioch where God had sent them. So even the Jerusalem church,
has no authority over Paul and Barnabas, because the Holy Ghost
has said, these men are going to the Gentiles. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? This is very critical. One more
place that I want you to see, that's Acts chapter 17, verse
9. Acts 17, 9. Now this word, Apolluo,
in your text is Apollusan, is also translated in the Gospel
of Matthew, chapter 19, where Jesus talks about if a man put
away his wife, The word is translated to divorce, but literally it
simply means to lose or to release. So think about this in the context
of covenant, that when a man or woman divorces, what they
are doing is releasing that other person from being bound to the
contract. Are you guys following that?
When a man or a woman divorces, they are loosening themselves
from being bound to the contract, are loosening the other person.
For instance, in the Old Testament, it wasn't the common practice
that women divorce men, particularly in Judaism, it was in Rome. They
could do just what we do in our culture today. Men and women
divorce equally today. You guys know that. But in Jewry,
women were never found divorcing their husbands, just like women
were never found marrying their husbands. It was always the man
marrying the woman. The biblical order was kept.
So as a rule, women didn't just go out and divorce their husbands.
Their husbands had to release their wives. And the only way
they could release them is with the authority of divorce. Meaning
they had to follow all of the requisites of the process of
divorce that was set up in Israel, by which they determined whether
or not there's a legitimate reason for which they could let them
go. Otherwise they could not what?
Let them go. So I'll say it like this. You
can only let someone go when you are submitting to a process
of authority. Are you hearing that? When you
are submitting to a process of authority, you don't have the
authority to send them away. You only have the right if you
are submitting to a process of authority that meets all of the
qualifications to let them go. Are you hearing that? Very important. The nuance is very important.
The man that is divorcing is submitting to the authority of
scripture so that the outcome in his submission to authority
of scripture is to let her go, to release her, literally to
lose her. So in Acts chapter 17, notice
how it's used in verse nine, where the apostle Paul is dealing
with another set of troubles. verse 6 this is verse 5 but the
Jews which believe not move with envy took them certain lewd fellows
of the baser sort and gather the company and set them all
about set all the city in an uproar and assaulted the house
of Jason that was keeping the apostles and sought to bring
them out to the people when they had found them not they drew
Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city saying
these have These that have turned the world upside down are come
hither also, whom Jason had received, and these all do contrary to
the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one
Jesus. Verse eight, and they troubled
the people and the rulers of the city when they had heard
these things. These are accusations being raised
by Jewish men against the apostles who are staying with Jason. They
apprehend all of them and bring them to the magistrates to punish
them. Now, if they have proper authority,
they could punish them. But because they do not have
proper authority, what's going to be the outcome of this accostment? They're going to let them go.
Look at what it says over in verse 9. And when they had taken
money from them, this is what we call crooked, wicked governments.
This is how you pervert justice. Thou shalt not take a bribe to
pervert justice. An unjust balance is an abomination
to the Lord. The scales of justice must be
equal. You cannot execute any kind of
judiciary on the basis of how much money you can give the leaders. And yet they took money, verse
nine, and they let them go. You guys see that? They let them
go. So what's happening in Acts chapter 13 is that the church
is letting them go. but the Holy Ghost is what? Sending
them. Now let's work with that one in your outline as well.
Down at the bottom part, point number two, released by the church,
but what? Sent by the Spirit. So in that particular usage of
the word, the Greek word is ek pimpo, ek pimpo. And it means to send out. And it means to send out with
a sense of authority and commissioning. It means to actually dispatch.
That means you actually have authority over the persons that
you're sending. Well, we clearly see that alluded
to in Acts 13 too, right? Separate unto me Barnabas and
Saul for the work to which I have called them." That's an authoritative
command with a clear objective, and that is to send them out,
right? He has authority, dude. You know how when you're working
at dispatch, and you send trucks here, and you send trucks there,
and you send people here, you send people there? The Holy Ghost
is the authoritative dispatcher of the people of God. He has
the authority to send. You guys are following that,
right? Now let's use some scripture examples to see this. In my outline,
I have Acts chapter 17, verse 10. This is quite interesting.
Look at Acts chapter 17, verse 10. Since we were already there
in verse nine, we saw that they had to release the apostles,
right? Then in verse 10, it says, and the brethren immediately
did what? Sent away, that's our word, Paul
and Silas. So one group had to release them.
The other group had the right to do what? Send them away. That's
the usage of the term. It's used again in Matthew's
gospel, chapter 14, verse 10, and I want you to see it there
too. Watch this, watch the authority factor behind being sent. In Matthew's gospel, chapter
14, and you'll know this if I'm correct, you'll know the account
here of this particular usage of our word. In Matthew's gospel,
chapter 14, verse 10, Um, this is where, uh, John the
Baptist is going to be beheaded. He's in prison, right? He's under
the influence and authority of Herod. And what we are told is
over in verse nine, and the King was sorry. Nevertheless, for
his own sake, his oath sake, and then which sat with him at
meat, he commanded it to be given her. What was given to her? The
head of John the Baptist on a charter, right? Verse 10, here's our word. And he sent and what? beheaded
John the Baptist. Now, what did he do? An authority
sent an executioner who was commissioned by the king to go out and take
John and cut his head off. So in the same fashion, the spirit
of God is the authority who is sending out the apostles, not
to kill people, but to preach the gospel. You guys see that
pattern there. It's important for us to understand
it. Then I'll use one more, and then we'll go back and deal with
what I call the first missionary Journey, it's used again in Matthew's
gospel chapter 22 verse 7 and I want you to see it there, too Yes, this is a beautiful account
that you and I have worked through plenty times This is what we
call Old Testament eschatology. This is the end of the Jewish
dispensation and the stewardship of Israel with the gospel and
it's going to be transferred to the church and this is what
Jesus says in verses 1 and all the way through verse seven.
And you'll see our word in verse seven. And Jesus answered and
spake unto them by parables and said, the kingdom of heaven is
like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.
Who was the king in our context? The father. He made a marriage
for his son. Who was the son? Jesus. What
is the covenant paradigm? Father, son, father, son. Remember,
there's only three covenant paradigms in scripture. Father, son, king,
servant, what? Husband, wife. So you see that
the father is the first point of apostolic action. It's the
father who sent the son, it's the son and the father who sends
the Holy Ghost, it's the Holy Ghost who sends the servants
in the church. You guys follow that logic? Very
important. Now notice what it says in verse
two, and he sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden
to the wedding and they would not come. Who is verse three
describing? Israel and its rebellion to God's
authority to go call people to the feast. By way of application,
that's us, the church, who refuses to do the work of the ministry.
By way of application, that's every Christian who is not involved
collectively, if not personally, in the task of reaching sinners
for Christ that they might be brought into the wedding feast.
Are you guys hearing me? Watch what it says. Again, he sent
forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden. Behold,
I have prepared my dinner, my ox, and my fatlings are killed,
and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage. But they
made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another
to his merchandise. And the remnant took his servants,
and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king
heard thereof, he was what? Angry. Here it is. And he sent
forth his what? So this is the king now dispatching
his armies. In this account, it's giving
an illustration of the analogy of a king whose desire is to
have his son happy. And the subjects of his kingdom
are to participate in cooperation of bringing all the people to
the feast for his son. And they take light of what the
king is saying. That's fundamentally what goes on in the evangelical
church today. Not understanding that the primary objective is
for God's elect to be brought in through the preaching of the
gospel. And actually, it is a very serious thing when we fail to
understand that mandate. Because some here are just completely
disregarding the king's mandate. Others are taking it lightly.
May we who are under the hearing of the word of God, do neither
of those two. Do neither of those two. For
if we do, we can expect God to be angry with us too. What it
would imply is that you and I have no regard for the happiness of
the son. Nor do we have any regard for
the delight of the father For whom he made everything That
he might at last enjoy his son's happiness for having a bride
without spot and blemish in a feast of joy and felicitude as a consequence
of obedient servants being sent to call people to the wedding
feast You guys hear the analogy, right? That's what we are working
through even in our account. Ultimately, apostles sent by
God, church consents. Apostles sent by God, church
consents. All we do is what? Consent. That's
all we do. We don't, we don't, we don't,
we don't send, we consent. And so in the Matthew's account
here, we see that the servants go out with his armies and destroy
those miserable, destroy those murderers and burn their cities. So that's the last example that
I wanna use. Luke four also has it as well with regards to commissioning. Go back to our account now. Let
me sum this up and then expose you to the first thing that takes
place in the work of Paul and Barnabas in the ministry. Um,
we are looking at verses three through five, three through five. And as they minister to the Lord,
remember that's our, our Greek term liturgy off. And it has
to do with all of the sacerdotal or the religious components as
was the case in the old Testament where the priests ministered
to God. So the apostles ministered to God in preparation to minister
to the people. As I've said it before, you can't
minister to people until you have received from God to minister
to people. And so without a vertical relationship with God, a horizontal
relationship is gonna be fruitless. Without a vertical relationship
to God, and notice the impact of their ministering to the Lord.
God speaks to him, doesn't he? They're praying and studying
and fasting and preparing. They don't know for what, but
they know that there's work to be done. And they're waiting
on the Lord. That's another term for ministering.
It means to wait on the Lord. Then God speaks, and now we're
about to move, aren't we? We're getting ready to move,
ladies and gentlemen, into Gentile land. And we're moving into Gentile
land as a consequence of the authority of the spirit of God,
working through men who are inside the church already. who are going
to go with the blessing of the church, but with the authority
of Christ. That's what we're talking about.
Well, this is what we're talking about. That way we don't get
things turned upside down. And so it reads over in verse
four, and after they laid their hands on them and sent them away,
so being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, they departed unto Seleucia,
and from this they sailed to Cyprus. Now, what I want you
to do is just mark with me visually. Can you pull up the map for me,
sister? You guys have a map in your outline, and I just want
you to see the first missionary journey visually, and I'm going
to show you the verses that lead from chapter 13 to chapter 14,
verse 26, where this excursion takes place. There should be
a map up there. There it is. And I don't know
if you can scroll it over. You probably can't, but if in
your outline, I wish I had my flasher. I'll show you that the
way this works is there are five, one, two, three, four, five,
six, six words in our text. So I'm going to start at chapter
13, verse four, and notice what it says in verse four. So they
being sent forth by the Holy ghost, they departed unto what
Solution. And from this, they sail to Cyprus.
I need you to keep the map up. We already got that. So keep
the map up there. So I want to show you guys visually
what's going on. When we get back to the map,
I'm going to show you that the apostles are sent. Paul and Barnabas
are sent from Antioch Do you guys see Antioch, the far right
hand over there? This is called Antioch of Syria.
Now Syria is right above Palestine. You can see Jerusalem down further
south. You guys see that way down there?
We'll get back there in a moment. Jerusalem is where the first
council takes place in Acts 15. But first they start from Antioch. And when they go from Antioch,
the first place they go to is what? Seleucia. Now Seleucia
is right down the road, isn't it? It's not far away. Why? Because
Seleucia is a seaport from which they're going to launch out on
a boat. So they're getting ready to go
right down to the port like we would go to the port of Oakland
or the port of San Francisco. They're going right down to the
port because the work that they have to first do is on the little
island of what? Cyprus. Do you guys see that? So we're going from Seleucia
to Cyprus because Solomus is in Cyprus, isn't it? You guys
see Solomon's there. So now if you'll notice your
Bible says in 13 for so they being sent forth by the Holy
Ghost departed unto Seleucia and from this they sell to what
Cyprus. So you guys see the excursion
right there on the coast. They jump on a ship and they
go to Cyprus. And if I were to deal with the
scale of the miles, this is something like 50 to 75 miles of a journey
on a boat that didn't have motors. So it took a little while to
get there but not a long time. 75 miles journey. You guys see
the picture? So then from there what we read
next time is of the term pathos in verse 13 of your Bible over
in pathos. It says now when Paul and his
company loosed from pathos, well we loosed from pathos because
pathos is still on the island of what? So what they did was
on the island of Cyprus is they did ministry on the island of
Cyprus, which we're gonna deal with from verses four all the
way to verse 13. And on that island is where we're
gonna deal with the battle of false prophets over against God's
elect on this island. There's gonna be a fascinating
insight into how the enemy works everywhere God's elect are to
keep them blinded from the truth of the gospel. But because God
has declared, blessed are the feet of them that proclaim good
tidings, that publishes peace upon the mountains, God is going
to send his servants to illuminate the minds and the hearts of those
who are his elect to expose these false prophets and thwart them
in their purpose. Which is another remarkable implication.
Are you ready for this? False prophets are everywhere.
They're everywhere. Even on the islands. But it's
gonna be interesting as we work through who these false prophets
are, because these are gonna be people that we know. But from
Paphos, the next thing we hear in verse 14 is this, but when
they departed from Perga, they came unto Antioch in Pisidia,
and they went into the synagogue on the seventh day and sat down.
So do you notice what that means? That means they took a boat from
Paphos and went all the way up to the Antioch that's in Asia
Minor. You guys see that? They took
a journey all the way up. So now from Cyprus all the way
to Perga, which we have in our text, that would have been about
another 75 miles. That journey would have led them
there. So now they take a ship from Antioch in Syria to Cyprus,
a little island, and from Cyprus, from Salamis and Paphos, they
go up to Perga, and then they go to Iconium in the Antioch
that's in Asia. You guys see that, right? That's
where they're gonna be doing a significant amount of work.
And then the next time we read about where they go is in verse
51 of our same chapter. Verse 51 tells us these words,
but they, let me see here, verse 50. Yes, but they shook off the
dust of their feet against the Jews who were there stirring
up trouble. And they came unto what? Iconium. Now you see Iconium in Antioch?
So what happens is when they travel from Cyprus and they get
back to land up in upper Asia, we call this Asia Minor, this
is the area when they do their second missionary journey. They're
gonna be establishing churches like Ephesus. And the churches
of the seven churches of Asia Minor that we talked about in
our study, the church at Colossi, the church at Philippi, you're
gonna see all those churches that get established in the second
missionary journey. But from Acts chapter 13 to Acts
15, the first journey is almost a full circle from Antioch in
Syria to Antioch in Asia, and then back again to Antioch. You
guys follow that? And we know that because Acts
chapter 14 verse 26 will tell us that. Look at Acts 14, 26.
So I'm going to start in Acts chapter
14, verse 24. And after they had passed through
Pisidia, and you guys see Pisidia is still in the regions of Antioch,
isn't it? after they had passed through
Perga, Atilia, Lystra, Pisidia, actually it will be Atilia, Perga,
and then Pisidia being in the regions of Antioch, all those
little dots there mean that they spent a lot of time there preaching
the gospel and not without trouble, not without trouble. We read
now over in verse 21, and after they had passed throughout Pisidia,
they came to Pamphylia and when they had preached the word in
Perga, they went down to Atilia. You guys see the vision now,
right? and this they sailed to Antioch from whence they had
been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they
fulfilled. Mark this then. They go from
Antioch to Antioch and back to Antioch, right? They go from
Antioch proper in Syria to Antioch in Asia. They do work in Asia
and they come back to Antioch. And when they get back to Antioch,
guess what they've got to do? They've got to go and give an
account to the Jerusalem brethren in Acts chapter 15 and say to
them how God has wrought mightily through Paul and Barnabas to
establish gospel churches among the Gentiles. But it wasn't without
great opposition from the Jews. You guys got the vision with
me? So now when we go to work in Acts 13 and peel back all
of the layers, you'll have a vision, won't you? They went upwards
north and they went westward, northwestward. And then they
came back again. I don't know how long that first
journey took, but what we are about to do now while we have
20 minutes is go back to our text and deal with the wonderful,
but the arduous task preaching the gospel so our next point
our consideration is the gospel of liberation you guys see that
in your outline the gospel of liberation and that will put
us my sister at point number three the gospel of liberation
this too is an important thought around gospel ministry so if
I am if I'm a servant of God and I've been called by Christ
And I've been equipped by Christ. Remember what I said earlier?
Gifting and offices are what? Two different things. Is that
what I said? Yeah, and I mean that. Gifting
and offices are two different things. And this is where you
and I have to be careful, because we may be gifted, but if we're
not careful, we may not be qualified. You guys follow that? See, and
what's so important about understanding that distinction is this. Just
because a person has a gift doesn't mean they necessarily have a
calling. Just because a person has a gift doesn't mean they
necessarily have a calling. Because a calling necessarily
requires character. A calling requires character. Because gospel ministry is a
re-presentation of the person Christ. Let me say it again. Gospel ministry is a re-presentation
of the character of Christ. If we are actually doing the
gospel by the endorsement and enablement of the Spirit of God,
Christ is represented. There is a re-presentation of
the person of Christ vividly, both in the communication of
the ministers and in the character of the ministers. Fascinating. What this means to me is that
when we take our six brothers in Acts 13, 1, and then we're
talking about, and in the church at Antioch were teachers and
prophets, right? Teachers and prophets, teachers and prophets,
teachers and prophets, teachers and prophets, teachers and prophets.
Watch this now. These are people who are occupying
gifts. And obviously the prophets are
occupying the gift of prophecy. But only two men are set apart
to be apostles. So by inference, I will draw
out from that, that God had determined which men met the necessary qualifications
to be a vehicle of representation. Representation. I'm putting emphasis
on the concept of representation by re-presenting Christ. Which means, because the Spirit
of God knows what's in front of these men and the opposition
that they're about to deal with, He knows that they have to have
the proper character to deal with the conflict that's about
to take place. Because in ministry, if you don't have character,
you will be crushed under the assault of the adversary. Are you hearing me? In ministry,
if you don't have character, you will be crushed under the
assault of the adversary. Two things, he will bring you
into captivity to his agenda, which means you don't have divine
authority. The reason why I took the time to make a distinction
between being sent by the authoritative commissioning of the Spirit of
God versus being released by the church, the reason I made
that distinction is so that you know that those who are authentically
sent by God are empowered by God to endure the opposition
that comes after them because that's part of the re-presentation
of Christ. Christ is re-present in the life
of the apostles over against the opposition that would distort
and distract people from Jesus. After all, that's exactly what
Jesus went through, didn't he? Everything that the apostles
are going through now, Jesus went through, didn't he? And
did not Jesus say, this is exactly what you fellas are gonna go
through. But don't even begin to go until I send the third
person. Now, when I send the third person,
he will prepare you fully. He will lead you, guide you.
He will open your eyes. He will give you understanding.
He will hold you by the hand. He will empower you. He will
reveal my glory to you. He will feel you. Didn't we cover
all those categories from A to Z, didn't we? He will feel you
and so qualify you to represent Christ to people in a manner
that brings about salvation. So like when we get into the
next six verses here, you're going to see the power of the
gospel, not only liberate lost sinners, that's my next point,
But you're going to see how it demolishes the deceptive practices
of false prophets who keep God's elect blinded to the truth. So let's work with this a little
bit. Loosening the lost. Loosening the lost. Acts chapter
13, verse 7. Loosening the lost. So here's
what it says over in verse 7. I'm going to start at verse 6.
And when they had gone through the isle into Pappas, now we know
we're on an island, right? They found a certain what? Sorcerer. He was a true prophet. Is that
what your Bible says? Right. He was a pseudo prophet.
He was a false prophet. A Jew. Oh, that's interesting. A Jew. You find them everywhere. You find these Christians everywhere.
Watch this. Whose name was Bar Jesus. Did
he have the package going on or what? Did he have the package
going on or what? He called himself a prophet.
He was a false prophet. And he bore the name son of Jesus.
You know what that means? That means that he was of Jesus.
That's what the idea bar Jesus means. To be of Jesus. To be
a product of Jesus' ministry. He had alleged that he knew Jesus.
That Jesus now becomes a means of affirming his authority. And
he had hoodwinked everybody on the island. But the text tells
us he was a what? Sorcerer. The Greek word there
is magi, and it just means someone who works tricks, who deceives
by tricanery, hoodwinking people by techniques, mesmerizing them
as we had learned earlier about other sorcerers, deceiving people
because they are ignorant of the methodology and the tricks
that people use to cause you to think that they are some great
one because they can pull off rabbit tricks. This is what the
sorcerer did, but he did it in Jesus' name. Isn't that audacious? What I love about the text is
it's setting up the drama of the battle of the gospel where
light penetrates into darkness and the darkness cannot overcome
it. But it also teaches this, that God's elect are always in
danger everywhere in the world until they are scooped up by
the gospel and brought out of those strongholds. So someone
answer the question for me. Why would God send Paul and Barnabas
to this little island of Cyprus? because he has an elect people
there. Are you guys hearing me? Because
he has an elect people there of whom without the preaching
of the gospel, they will never be released by these false teachings
and false doctrines that are dominating the whole island.
Let's look at the experience. Go back to our outline, that
15 minutes here. Let's look at our PowerPoint.
and deal with their propositions under the gospel of liberation,
the first journey. Point number three, loosening
the loss. Is that not fundamentally what we call the role of Messiah
to liberate men and women? Is that not fundamentally the
gospel? Is the gospel fundamentally liberating men and women from
darkness, from bondage, from being trapped by sin and damnation
and hell? Is that not the role? Right.
And so if we don't think in terms of that being the ultimate effect
of gospel preaching, then we're not thinking in terms of the
urgency of the preaching of the gospel so that souls might be
saved. In other words, you may be looking at people too casually
who are still outside of Christ and not have the same kind of
understanding that the Spirit of God has with regards to what
they need. They are slaves of sin. They are in bondage to error. And left that way, ostensibly,
they will what? Perish. And what's remarkable
is the members of the church, which is the body of Christ,
are the instrumental means, not the essential, not the effectual
means, the instrumental means by which these people are liberated.
How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall he preach unless he
is authoritatively set by the Spirit of God? Which means what
liberates men and women from darkness is the proclamation
of the gospel. Is that true? Watch how this
works then. Loosening the loss. Proposition
is very clear. Psalm one, Psalm 61, one through
three, where Jesus says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon
me. He has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the poor, to
set the captives free, the opening the eyes of the blind, the proclaiming
of the year of the Lord and the vengeance of our God. All that's
laid out in Isaiah 61, one through three. These are the hallmarks
of the ministry of Messiah, right? And they are our job too. So
we echo with Jesus, the words in John chapter eight, whosoever
the son shall set free shall be what? Free indeed. Free indeed. So liberation is the impact that
the gospel is to make in people's lives. Freeing them from bondage. When I use Psalm 1, Psalm 1 is
simply the character qualifications essential to the ministry task.
What do I mean by that? Blessed is the man that walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law
of the Lord. And in his law, he does what?
Meditate day and night. And he will be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water whose fruit never withers Uh who leaves
never wither his fruit never dries up and he bears fruit continually
unto god In its season so that individual really is describing
The lord jesus christ Psalm 1 is about christ You guys
understand that i'm getting ready to teach a uh, uh, a wednesday
daytime bible study for the summer This is from our older people
who say, pastor, I don't like coming out at night. My eyes
are too bad. Would you start some in the daytime? So we're
going through the Psalms for the summer and we'll be starting
with Psalm one and going through selected Psalms for the whole
of the summer. Enjoying the rich, rich theological and messianic
truth of Psalms. Hearing the voice of our master
in the Psalms and Psalm one is a resume of the King. I know
you thought that was about you. We've been preaching this for
years. People love to take someone and say, this is the believer.
I wish it was, but you know, you don't meditate on the word
of God day and night. And neither does our fruit always
stay healthy and full. We do go through seasons. Don't
we go through seasons? Some seasons we're dry, not dead
dry. Do you understand there's a difference
between being dead and dry? Lord don't let me die, but I
don't mind going through seasons. Jesus didn't go through seasons
because he is his way. He is the life, is he not? And
so he does not go through dry seasons, and so that's a picture
of the resume of the great king in Psalm 2. The Lord has set
his king on this holy hill of Zion, and that king is Jesus
Christ. And you and I are a byproduct of that. The fruit on that tree,
that's you and me. You like that? The fruit on that
tree is you and me. So he bears the fruit of believers
who then do what he does. So you can take someone and attach
it to John 15. I am the true vine, you are the branches. Every
branch in me that bears fruit, God purges it so it can bear
more fruit. And see, Paul and Barnabas are an example of the
fruit bearing ministry of the true vine. You guys see that,
right? Here's the thing that must take place. We must understand
that sinners have to be liberated, extricated, delivered from, rescued
from bondage, but it also begins with what? Hunger. What I might
infer in Acts chapter 13 is this, that where Paul and Barnabas
are being led by the spirit to go is a people that the spirit
of God has already created in their soul a hunger for the truth.
Now watch this. When your God's elect, and you
don't know the gospel yet, and you're under false teaching and
false doctrine, He at some point of divine providence will awaken
your soul to hunger for the truth. That will begin to be the divine
initiation of disappointment with where you're at. I said
divine initiation, where God starts troubling your soul because
you know what you're hearing is not authentic, is not true,
is not from God. Something's wrong here. Right. And so in your soul, you are
crying out. You don't know what you're crying
out for. You don't know to whom you're crying out, but your soul
is crying out. And what you don't know is that
God created that hunger because a man can't hunger after God
unless God places it in him. Blessed is he that hungers in
thirst after righteousness. Verily, he shall be fulfilled.
Am I making some sense? So God has to create a hunger
in you as a consequence of eating that cotton candy so long. Cotton candy. It's sweet to the
taste, but has no nutritional value. You're sick and dying
under it over time because it has no real spiritual content
to it. No protein, no carbs. It doesn't
build muscles. It keeps you feet and weak. In
fact, it will create an addictive behavior pattern where all you're
doing is going back after it as a fix every Sunday and making
no ground. I'm making some sense. Am I not
right? Because it's not the gospel.
It's just religion. It's just religion. It's just
religion. But these brothers are coming
because they're being sent, and they're going to be preaching
a gospel so superior to that junk this sorcerer is communicating
that it's getting ready to change the whole atmosphere. So first
we have the mindset of loosening the law. Secondly, we have those
who are lost being the subject, being hungry for the truth. I'll
come back here next week and deal with Job 33 verses 14 through
29 to show you what I mean by that. Job gives us a vivid illustration
of how God brings a soul into a place of hunger, even to the
point of almost dying. And then what God does is sends
a messenger to him and reveals to him the glory of God and the
righteousness of God. And he causes that man to hunger
for God. And he extracts from that man
a confession of sin and a need for God's glory. And that man
enters into a relationship with the true and the living God.
And he's brought up off of his sick bed. And as Job says, these
are the ways of God. This is how God works everywhere.
And finally, once he creates that hunger, God sends a what?
That's right. Romans 10, 17, we quoted it.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. So go
back to our text and watch this. Got five minutes. And when they
had gone through the Isle of Pappas, they came and found a
certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bart Jesus,
which was the deputy of the country, Sergius, which was with the deputy
of the country, Sergius Paulus. Who is Sergius Paulus? He's God's
elect who has a strategically official position in this small
island, but he has inadvertently hooked up with a crook. Now Sergius
Paulus is the deputy. That means he has some authority
over things. Now notice what the crook does.
The crook is looking for all politicians to hoodwink because
the politicians have the access to the people's resources. So
this crook is looking for the politician to actually hoodwink
the politician and go into cahoots with the politician. Here we
have the paradigm of religion and politics again. Political
beast one, political beast two. You guys see the paradigm? Only
this time, Sergius Paulus happens to be what kind of a man? A prudent
man who called for Barnabas and Saul. You guys heard that? Lord, help! I heard your servants
are on the island now. Would you send them over? Cause
I got a feeling that this cat that's hanging on my tails is
not right. I got a feeling that this guy
who calls himself the son of Jesus and his hoodwinking people
everywhere is not right. I heard your servants are on
the island. Would you bring them? This is
amazing. He desired to hear the word of God, which by implications
mean, He was not hearing it. He was not hearing it. He called
for the apostles because he wanted to hear the word. See, this is
what I was saying earlier. God's elect can be deceived,
but not ultimately. They can be deceived temporarily
because of ignorance. Ignorance that's upon them by
lack of experience or because of sinfulness. When I say ignorance
by lack of experience, until God teaches us, we don't know.
And so, because we don't know, we're vulnerable to lies. And
we will go a long ways with liars and never be satisfied. But as
soon as some light is cast upon our soul, where we can make a
break with the liar, that's what Sergei Paulus is doing. He's
wanting to make a break with the liar. He cries out because
he hears that the servants of God are on the island. Verse
eight. But Elimas, the sorcerer, do you see that? For so his name
by interpretation is withstood them. Ah, that becomes the drama. Do you understand what that means?
That means that Paul and Barnabas did not simply have one conversation
with Sergius Paulus and Sergius Paulus break away from The sorcerer. The sorcerer fought like hell
to oppose the apostles. He gave them a vigorous fight. Are you hearing me? This is what
I meant earlier about the character essential to the task. And in
fact, in this account, little Mark is with them. You remember
Mark, John Mark? He's with them to be their minister.
This is back in the earlier part. He's with them. In fact, it'll
tell us that. He's there and he's seen all of this war going
on. Because unfortunately, gospel ministry is a warfare. And when
they come out of this particular assignment and they start heading
back, guess where Mark is going? He's going home. Do you know
why? He's not ready for this battle.
But Paul was ready for the battle because he understood this is
about liberating souls from hell. The mindset has to be appropriate.
Ladies and gentlemen, only got one or two minutes. This is very
important. The mindset has to be the mind of Christ. Unless
we are thinking like Christ, we will diminish the urgency
of the mandate that God gives us, which at the same time, we
will diminish the significance of the crossword that Christ
accomplished. which at the same time we will
also diminish the value of eternity bound souls who need to hear
the cross work of Christ. If we are not thinking like Christ
in terms of the urgency of reaching souls, we will devalue God's
objective, devalue the cross and devalue those eternity bound
souls. It would be like having the ability to hold souls over
hell in our own hands. And because of our casualness
about it, let some of them from time to time slip into hell.
Because we are not careful enough in terms of what our calling
is to make sure men and women understand the gospel. Are you
hearing me? We're not careful enough. And so it's very easy
to default from the ministry of the gospel to playing church.
And when once you play church, you are allowing eternity bound
souls to fall into hell. Because playing church hardens
hearts. It doesn't soften hearts. It
hardens hearts. If Paul and Barnabas were playing
church, they would fancy associating with Simon the sorcerer. See,
but when you're really God's servants, one of the ways you
know that a man is a servant of God is you're not gonna see
him associating with false prophets. He's not gonna endorse their
ministry just to get him a platform. He's not gonna be with them just
to advance his agenda because if he's advancing in his agenda,
he's doing the same thing They're doing he may be a little bit
more theologically orthodox, but his character is corrupt
Are you hearing what I'm saying? The Paul and Barnabas are coming
to preach to Sergius Paulus the Word of God and they're being
withstood which means you see the antithesis The antithesis
is not only healthy it's essential Are you hearing me? It's essential
that we mark out those who are false prophets and false teachers
and expose them for the unfruitful works of darkness in which they
engage because they are destroying. So, so I'm gonna read this, these
three verses in closing prayer, and then we'll come back and
deal with the impact of apostolic authority over the emissaries
of the devil. Verse eight, but Elimus the sorcerer
for so his name is by interpretation, which stood them seeking to turn
away the deputy from the what? Oh, he's a devil, is he not?
To turn away the deputy from the faith. To turn him away. Verse nine, then Saul, who is
also called Paul, filled. Remember we dealt with that word,
plural, filled. So now what is the Holy Ghost
doing? Rushing in. The Holy Ghost is rushing in,
is he not? Rushing in and topping Paul off. Bubbling over. Remember,
it's over now. He's over the top. Then Paul,
filled with the Holy Ghost, now deals with this man. This is
quite interesting. So it says he was filled with the Holy Ghost,
set his eyes on him. I love it. I love it. Go ahead
on, Luke. He locked in on him like a heat-seeking missile.
Honed in on him and stayed there. Locked in. Ready to go to war
with this man. Why? Because the commission,
he took serious. The cross, he took serious. The
eternity bound nature of Paulus Sergius, he took serious. He
took this man's soul serious. He locked in on him. Verse 10,
verse 10. And said, oh, full of all subtlety
and all mischief. See, you couldn't get a job preaching
at a church talking like that today. I love it, I love it. Full of all subtlety that is
deceptiveness Tricanery and all mischief that means your motive
is not right your child of the devil. I love it Calling him
for what he was You are an enemy of righteousness in fact all
righteousness You see it you're an enemy of
all righteousness and This is a great opportunity. I'm going
to leave it right here to ask ourselves, do we love God enough
to tell the truth about false prophets and false teachers?
Because one of the things I have observed over the 30 years of
being in Christ is one of the, one of the faults of the church
is their love of false prophets. love of false prophets. And when
we stand and declare them to be false and wicked and ungodly
like that, you even shake up the ostensible sheep because
of their love of the false prophets. This is this goes to show you
how much of an impact false prophets can make on your soul. They can
actually have enrolled into your heart that you know not of until
they are confronted with and exposed by true ministers of
God. simply because our character is not right, and we're not committed
to the glory of God, the glory of the cross, and the eternity
bound nature of the souls of men. And Paul exposes God for
who he really was. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for this time. Thank you for my brothers and sisters. As we go our way,
give us traveling mercy, prepare us to worship you on Sunday as
we ought to, and help us, oh Lord, to understand the big picture
of the work to which the spirit of God has called his servants
to preach and proclaim your word with boldness and in the fullness
of your spirit with the objective of delivering eternity bound
souls. We all know many people in our own life who are captives,
slaves in bondage and in captivity of all sorts of things, including
false religion of which we ask so God that you would be so gracious
to send someone with the gospel, which is the power of God and
the salvation, to deliver them, if not sending us. Give us traveling
mercies, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.