Acts 13, verse 1. Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menaion, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, They proclaimed the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had John to assist them. Amen. So, to be set apart is to be separated from the group. The idea of separation is common enough to us, but the one that we're interested in is that which is done by God. can set us apart from themselves. So if a certain group doesn't like us, they can exclude us from their company. People can set themselves apart from others. They can walk away and not look back. But the most important ways in which you can be set apart or separated are of a spiritual type. So here, Paul and Barnabas are selected by the Holy Spirit to be set apart. He has a very special job for them to do. So leaving the other believers behind, they embark on this mission of evangelism. Now Paul and Barnabas, you might remember, had been up to Jerusalem on a charity mission. And so their job being done, they went back down to Antioch, which is over on the coast. And among the congregation were these prophets and teachers. And it was a real mixed bag of people. They're from different parts of the world and different backgrounds. There was a Simeon who had this other name, a Latin name, Niger or Niger. You can probably work out that means black. So perhaps from Africa. Then there was Menaen. Now, Manet, he'd been friends with Herod the Tetrarch. There's several Herods, but this is Herod Antipas. This is the one who killed John the Baptist. This is the one who was sort of involved with the death of Jesus. His involvement was quite minimal, but the church did hold him partly responsible. And so here's Menaen, who's been friends with Herod since they were boys, and I'm curious as to when Maniam was converted and whether he inherited, you know, spoken about this. But here he is now with his brothers in Christ, including the one who'd been the chief persecutor, Paul. Well, this was an unusual time. The Holy Spirit here is working in unusual ways, and we see an example of that here. The congregation, at the time, they were fasting, and it was either a short period of complete abstinence from food, maybe drink as well, or an extended period of eating less. But in any case, it was an expression of earnestness, which they wanted to show God. In the middle of the worship, the Holy Spirit speaks into the mind of one of the prophets. I'm quite happy if you stay, you know, it doesn't put me off. The noise, yeah, it doesn't bother me. Yeah, so the Holy Spirit speaks into the mind of one of the prophets. Maybe he spoke to more than one, you know, to sort of confirm the message. But anyway, the message was shared with people and the Holy Spirit, he said, well, they've instructed us to set Barnabas and Saul apart for a special task. So the church carries on to fast and praise for the two apostles, and they no doubt ask that the Lord bless them, you know, look after them, empower their gospel message, so they place their hands on the apostles to identify themselves with them, and then they wave them off. In a few weeks' time, when we come back to Act, we'll start to look at all the exploits of Paul and Barnabas. But I'd like us to focus today on this idea of being set apart. Paul, because he went on to author much of the New Testament, it so happens that it's in him that we find the best example of the variety of ways in which God can set someone apart. So I'm going to consider a few of these today. So the first one that we look at is that Paul was set apart before Beth, before he was born. Paul himself would say that God had marked him out for something special before he was even born. Galatians 1 and verse 15, Paul says to them, But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, and he goes on. But God had set him apart before he was born. It could be translated as, from my mother's womb, separated from my mother's womb. It's a figure of speech. And it expresses his belief that God has been working in him as far back as that. Now this is an unborn child. Remember, he's born into this Jewish family, raised under the Mosaic law, trained as a Pharisee, and he was motivated to defend his religion by hunting down the followers of Jesus Christ. Paul believes that God was working all things together for his good, all the while knowing that this Paul would become one of his great enemies, one of the greatest enemies that the church would meet. That's what the grace of God looks like. Committing himself to us, even though he knows what sins we'll go on to do. So Paul here is knowingly using a term found in the Jewish Scriptures. So Isaiah, first of all, says of himself in Isaiah 49 and verse 1, Isaiah says of himself, Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. So Isaiah was also convinced that God works in his elect people before they can speak, before they can understand anything, before their little tiny human bodies are even fully formed. Now you might remember what happened when a pregnant Mary and a pregnant Elizabeth met one day. This was maybe around the year 5 BC or thereabouts. And if you remember that, you won't find this idea so unusual. Mary has gone to visit Elizabeth. She's in the early stages of pregnancy, but Elizabeth's in the later stages. Mary walks in and just says hello to Elizabeth. And Elizabeth feels her baby jump inside her. Now, We know babies jump inside the mother's womb. That happens all the time, and it's a lovely thing to see, but this is different, because at that very second, Elizabeth is filled, is flooded with the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit gives her an insight into what's happening. She knows that her baby, who'd become known as John the Baptist, It reacted to the presence of Jesus in the room, the unborn Jesus. Now, I can't tell you what was happening exactly, but it's clear that God, the Holy Spirit, was already at work in the unborn children. Another example from the Scriptures, which probably inspired Paul to use this term, setting apart, is from Jeremiah. And it's the first chapter of Jeremiah, and the fifth verse. God says to him, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you, I appointed you a prophet to the nations. before I formed you in the womb." Now that sounds like Jeremiah is trying to stretch it back even further to when he was utterly unrecognizable as a human. And Saul and these prophets are trying to convey that God has always been with them. There's never been a time when they have been alive before birth or afterwards when God was not there. Paul would later say there's a sense in which God was setting him apart much earlier even than that. Because when he writes to the church at Ephesus, he talked about God knowing him when there wasn't even a universe. The truth is, friends, that if you're a child of God today, there's never been a time when God has not been thinking about you with an attitude of love. He determined to love you before He even began to make the world. He showed His love towards you in making His own son a victim instead of you. He looked on you in love while you were in your mother's womb. He continued to love you when you came forth from your mother's womb, speaking lies. He revealed His love for you when the Holy Spirit came to deliver you. And we know that His love for you will never end. So, Paul, an example of one who was set apart before birth. Paul, it is said, is also being set apart in conversion, in being converted. There was a setting apart. What did God do? Well, at His conversion, God took Paul from one group and placed him somewhere else. Saul belonged to that largest set of people that the Bible sometimes calls the world. And like all people, Saul was born into that group. What is funny, really, is that Saul thought he was already part of a separated special group, separated from the world. He believed that as a Jew, he was part of a race which God had set apart, marking it out from the rest of humanity, marking it out as special. And he was partly right. He was partly right. The Lord had chosen to use one nation as an example of how He shows favor to those He wants to show favor to. He told the nation what He was going to do with them and the Mosaic law was the instrument He used to mark them as different. It was their Sabbaths, it was their circumcision, it was their dietary laws which marked them as different. But friends, the favor that God showed towards Israel was just setting the stage for His ultimate purpose to redeem people through Christ from every corner of the world. As God increased His revelations towards man, more of His saving purpose was made known. For Saul, it was only when he was converted that he understood. He understood it was necessary for him to be taken outside the camp and be identified with Jesus Christ. When God converts us, He puts His mark on us, the scriptures say. He puts His mark on us. It shows us, and it shows others maybe, that we now belong to Him. We're not part of the world anymore. Just as the world are said to have a mark on them. We don't see it, do we? But the world is said to have a mark on them, which it calls the mark of the beast. And in the same way, we who've been set apart are also said to have a mark on our foreheads and our hands. But this is the mark of God. Now, like I say, these marks are not tattoos or anything else, obviously, but it's a way of describing that God knows who we belong to. He knows who are his children and who are not. Well, as we think about this idea of being set apart, it'll be useful, I think, to mention some of the words that we commonly use, but which are associated with it. Now, when we are set apart by God, He dedicates us for His service. Now, something which is dedicated to God's use is called in the Bible, holy. That could be a person, it could be an object. but it's dedicated to the Lord's use. What you do to something to make it holy is you sanctify it. Right, so there's another word we use a lot. When God saves us, he sanctifies us and this action makes us holy unto the Lord. Another word we use is saint. Now the words saint and sanctify are related. So a saint is someone who's been sanctified so that they are holy. It should be clear to Christians that they are saints. We are all saints. And it shouldn't be a title for an elite group in the church, maybe made up of people who wrote one of the Gospels, or people in history who've behaved so well, they deserve the title of saint. Like Saint Augustine. Well, we are all saints, friends. You, like Paul, have been set apart from this world. However, I've noticed that you are all still here. So, this setting apart apparently is not about being transported to a different location. So, An example of how that works to reinforce this would be maybe the Passover, so that you remember that at the time of the Passover, when the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt, God's people were told to paint the door frames of their front doors with animal's blood. And that was God's chosen method of marking those households. So those households were set apart from the rest of the population of Egypt so that when that killing angel came, he'd see who'd been set apart by God and he'd leave them alone. The houses and the people inside them were not transported to another part of the African continent. They were set apart, but they weren't removed from where they were. And so for now, this is the same for us. We have the blood of Christ painted on the doorposts of our hearts. And God knows every one of us, and the angels know every one of us. They know who are His. There'll be a great judgment day at the end. And because we've been marked, we'll be safe. Because we've been marked, we'll be safe. Well, even though I'm telling you that you've been set apart by God, marked, if you like, with a permanent marker, we need to make sure our lives reflect that, as I often encourage you. Listen to what Paul says when he writes to the Corinthian congregation one day. Now what Paul does frequently is he, you think he's quoting from the Old Testament. He's stealing a bit from here, there, and everywhere in the Old Testament, stitching them together, and composing a new statement fitting for his situation. And he does that, and he loves to do that. And he says here, this is one of them in 2 Corinthians in chapter six. And in verse 17, and so this is the Lord speaking to his people. The Lord says, therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Separation. So, we have to find a way, friends, to rest in Christ, We must do that at the same time that we are striving, making strenuous efforts to obey Him and to not sin. So the third type of setting apart I want to look at, using Paul again, is being set apart for the gospel. Paul had also been set apart for the Gospel. And so the very first verse in the book of Romans, Paul introduces himself and says, Paul, a servant of Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God. Set apart. So using that idea of being marked, God had marked him for a particular job. There were plenty of capable people in Antioch and elsewhere at that time. But Paul had marked out Paul and Barnabas. God had marked out Paul and Barnabas. Well you look in verse 2 of chapter 13 there and it records this message given by the Holy Spirit. So it tells us that the purpose of being set apart was for a particular job he'd chosen for them. The Holy Spirit didn't set apart the rest of them. They were left behind. What are we to make of this? Does it tell us anything about God's attitude to those people? That they were left behind? Did he like Paul better? So just so we're clear on this, God loved those others as much as He loved Paul and Barnabas. He just simply had different jobs for them to do. I've mentioned to you in the past, as an example, the role of evangelists. I was suggesting to you that although certain people in the Bible and in our day have been called to be evangelists, And some have a capability in that area. The job of evangelism belongs to all of us. The job of evangelism belongs to all of us. So, even though some people don't have a gift, or some people might have a gift for evangelism that maybe you don't have. They might have a confidence that you don't have. And some of them do it on a full-time basis. Nevertheless, God still calls you to witness to others, even if you might not be strongly gifted for it. So, we look at this event now, we see God's chosen these two people for a missionary project. And off they go. But the people back in Antioch were still expected to bear witness to Jesus and then crucify. Paul may have been set apart for the gospel in a special way. But friends, you too have been set apart for the gospel. The principles of the gospel should be really at the center of your life. I mean that the gospel, well, it explains to you what God has done in redeeming his people. The gospel is the good news by which you were saved from sin. The gospel is something you should want to read about and listen about regularly. The gospel is such an amazing and powerful message, you should try and tell people whenever you can. The gospel is about love, which should be reflected in our relationships, spouses, fathers and children, mothers and children and so on. We should see that love there. In fact, the earthly marriage is to be a reflection of the love within the relationship between the church and Christ himself. Paul would later say that this gospel which we hear and receive is what we base our assurance of salvation on. It was so much at the heart of his new identity as a believer that he said, woe unto me, he said, woe unto me if I don't evangelize, he says. Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. And if you go to an older Bible, maybe the Wycliffe Bible, which is difficult to read, but you'll see there it's saying, woe unto me if I don't evangelize. It's the same thing. Now for those like Paul who've been given a gift to be able to witness, God expects more. He's equipped Paul more than he's equipped you. So we expect more from Paul. That is true. But for those who are not like Paul, like us here, God expects something. Let's say God hasn't called you to be a pastor. He still expects you to behave in a pastoral way towards the brethren. You may not feel particularly gifted in hospitality, but when the time comes, you'll step up, you will do what you can. I'd like to draw your attention to one more point we can find in verse 3. Because it says there that they sent them off. The church sent them. Now, I do believe that this principles should be the norm for churches even today. That is, it should be the brethren who commit people to these roles in churches. Let's say we have someone in our congregation who has a burden for a mission, right? And they're itching to take the gospel out. They may have a particular group of people they want to target. They may have a particular country that they have a burden about. And the brethren happen to have seen this individual evangelizing in the local area and watched and they've acknowledged that they seem to have a gift for that sort of task. And so, when the enthusiasm and the talent of that individual comes together with the recognition by the church, the congregation, that's when the church can send them Now I've met fellows who evangelize enthusiastically. Some of them have little business cards with the name of their missionary organization on. Sometimes the name of the missionary organization is their name, their own name. And I've asked them a few times where they're based, where they worship, and They seem reluctant to answer and it turns out that no church has sent them at all. They've set themselves up as evangelists. They've appointed themselves as missionaries. They've sent themselves. There are always exceptions to rules. I found making sweeping statements always comes back to bite me because someone will find an exception. So I'll avoid making sweeping statements. I will say this. Pastors should be chosen by the congregation. Missionaries should be sent out with the blessing of the congregation. Elders and deacons and women in various roles should be committed to the Lord in prayer by the congregation. Well, Paul and Barnabas made it. They were headed to Cyprus. They arrived. What did they do? They did what the Holy Spirit sent them to do. Verse 5, they proclaimed the Word of God. They went into the synagogues. And they told him about the exciting events of Christ's life, and his death, and his resurrection, and the redemption which he accomplished. Paul had been set apart for the gospel, and the gospel was what he preached. Like Paul, you have been set apart If you've been saved by the grace of God, it's not so that you can just live a happier life and bide your time until your reward comes. You've been consecrated to Him. You've been sanctified for His use. You may not have been set apart for the gospel in the same way Paul was, or some other person, but you have been set apart for it. So worship the Lord, friends. Pray without ceasing. Love the brethren. Bear witness for Christ. I said earlier that In being set apart by God, you're still left in this world. I said that you're not removed from it. So, in this body, this body of the natural man in this world, of the natural man, we have difficulties. We've got sin all over the place. We've got sin inside us. The Lord has set a date when He will return. And that separation which we strive for now, through obedience, in our war against the world and the flesh and the devil, will be taken to a high, high level. Because there will be, friends, a separation like you've never experienced before. Then, We'll be separated from our sinful bodies and we'll be in the presence of God with sinless bodies, new bodies. And there'll also be a physical separation from the world. The word we have here for set apart, that's the same word that's used in Revelation. Not in Revelation, sorry, in Mark. It's the same word used to describe the separation that will take place at the judgment. Separation, setting apart. Those who've had their sins forgiven, those who belong to Christ, will be set apart from the rest of mankind. They'll be taken somewhere else. And we'll finally achieve a state of absolute separation from everything that is sinful. We will be set apart by God in its highest sense. living together in a permanent state of happiness, made perfect by the presence of the One who, by His grace, set us apart from eternity and predestined us to eternal life. Praise His holy name. Amen.