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to Acts chapter 13 for our Bible
reading. Acts chapter 13, and we're going
to read from verse 1 of the chapter. As I mentioned in the Lord's
Day, this being the last Tuesday night of the month, we want to
devote as much time as possible to prayer, praying especially
for the mission in November time with the Reverend Fletcher. But
tonight we can also remember the meetings with the boys and
girls It commenced tonight in Kilmorey Court and then next
week also in the open air meetings and so please remember those
also. Tonight when we come to prayer but we're praying with
the mission in mind that the Lord might come and visit us
with a very special time of blessing and right up to that time when
the mission commences that he'll come and visit us here and revive
our hearts and strengthen our souls and help us to be stirred
up in our hearts so we might be up and doing this time of
special evangelism, special ministry, that the Lord will touch our
own hearts and as we wait before him tonight, that the Lord will
come and bless us here in the time of prayer. Before we get
to prayer though, we want to read some verses from Acts chapter
13, make a few comments on them and then we'll get straight down
to our time of prayer. Let's read from verse 1. Now
there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets
and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon It was called Niger, and
Lucius of Cyrene, and Mannaean, which had been brought up with
Herod the Tertiary and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord,
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul,
for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had
fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them
away. So they had been sent forth by
the Holy Ghost, departed on to Seleucia, and from thence they
sailed to Cyprus. And when they were at Salamis,
they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews,
and they had also John to their minister. And when he had gone
through the isle unto Paphos, he found a certain sorcerer,
a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, which was
with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man,
who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word
of God. But Elymas, the sorcerer, for
so is his name by interpretation withstood them, seeking to turn
away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who is also called
Paul, fell with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said,
O fool of all subtlety and all mischief, thy child of the devil,
thy enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert
the right ways of the Lord? And, lo, behold, the hand of
the Lord is upon thee, And thou shalt be blind, not seeing the
sun for a season. And immediately there fell on
him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw
what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of
the Lord. Amen. We'll finish at verse 12,
and we trust that God will bless His word to our hearts. The formation
of the church at Antioch is recorded for us in Acts chapter 11. It
was a church in many ways that was formed out of the labors
of persecuted Christians who upon the death of Stephen had
to flee from Jerusalem and they travelled as far as Phoenicia
and Cyprus and Antioch and they did so preaching the word of
God. And as those believers, and it
didn't involve the apostles, the apostles stayed in Jerusalem,
but as those believers were travelling through those various areas,
those various towns, preaching the word, and the thought there
is that they were just testifying of the word of God and gossiping
the gospel, the Lord was pleased to move and precious souls were
saved. And a church in Antioch was formed.
It became a very strong church because Saul, or Paul as he became
known, came down with Barnabas and for some time they stayed
there and taught the saints in that particular city. In Acts
chapter 13 we are told something of the make up of the church
at Antioch and if you look there at verse 1 you will discover
it was made up of men like Barnabas and Simeon and it was called
Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Mannaean which had been brought
up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. Now the church at Antioch
was made up of a group of people who had very different personalities. He came from very different backgrounds. In fact, some of them came from
different places altogether. And yet with all of that diversity
in the church, there was a tremendous spirit of unity. There's nothing
to suggest here that this was a church at variance with itself. Rather, these believers were
together. They were one in Christ, of course. It was that unity
because of their position in the Saviour. But not only that,
it's clear from verse 2 that they met together and they ministered
unto the Lord. The idea there is that they spent
time in prayer. Verse 2 also makes mention of
the fact that they fasted. And the focus of that verse and
the theme of those phrases is the fact that here were people
who were worshipping the Lord together, waiting upon the Lord. willing to walk in the ways of
God and longing together for the furtherance of the gospel.
There was a very good and a very pleasant situation within the
church at Antioch. And therefore God sent a blessing.
Of course that's in line with what we have in Psalm 133, how
good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity. And then we read later on in
that Psalm, it's there that the Lord commands the blessing. And
I suppose in many ways that's what makes the church at Antioch
a model church. And there are characteristics
here that ought to be seen in every congregation. We ought
to come together as we worship the Lord, as we wait upon the
Lord in prayer with that sense of unity, with a desire to keep
that bond of peace and also to know the Lord's presence amongst
us as we wait before him and as we seek his face in prayer.
And therefore this church at Antioch in that sense was a model
church. But it wasn't only a model church
in that sense, it was also a model church in regard to its evangelism. Or the evangelism that emerged
from this church. When you read Acts chapter 13,
when you read Acts chapter 11, but also Acts chapter 13, it's
clear that the church in Antioch had a burden for souls. They
had an interest in the lost. And of course that's what interests
us tonight. I think these verses are extremely
simple and yet for all of their simplicity they are extremely
powerful. And I want to draw your attention
really to what we have there in verses 2 and 3 and 4. And I want to draw some very
simple lessons as we come to prayer tonight, not wanting to
take up too much time considering this passage, maybe we'll come
back to it another time, but just drawing your thoughts and
your mind to some very important matters. Notice with me first
of all that the Spirit of God always leads the church of Christ
forward in God's work. The focus of these verses, especially
verse 2, is the intervention of the Spirit of God in the life
of this church. Especially in that area where
it directs, or where the Spirit of God directs and leads the
church, to send men out as missionaries to the lost. Look at verse 2.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said,
Separate thee Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have
called them. Now the work in focus there is
undoubtedly the work of God. The work of seeing the kingdom
of God extended. The church of Jesus Christ built
up. And you'll notice that it's the Spirit of God who is leading
the church forward in that particular business. Now we might speak
of this as special evangelism. These men being sent out as missionaries
to other parts of the world. And I use the phrase special
evangelism in the sense that we understand that this was something
that not the whole church was involved in because it was only
Paul and Barnabas or Saul and Barnabas who were set apart.
The other disciples were going to stay in Antioch They were
going to labour for the Lord there, but Barnabas and Saul
were going to be sent forth as what we might term missionaries
to foreign fields. But the point still stands that
this was a time of particular evangelism, a time of special
labour for the Lord, a time of concentrated effort whereby the
gospel would be spread and the kingdom of God would be extended
and that time was directed by the Spirit of God. In other words,
this was God's will for the church. Believer, it is still God's word
for the church tonight that we go out and seek to win the loss
to Jesus Christ. That's what the Spirit directs
the church to do. It's interesting when you read
of Christ's commission to the disciples before he ascended
back to heaven. He told them to go out into all
the world and preach the gospel. They were to commence at Jerusalem
and then Samaria and then the uttermost parts of the world.
And what you have in the book of Acts is really the outworking
of that commission. You have the disciples starting
off in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. and from Jerusalem
then they begin to spread out. And whenever Stephen was stoned
to death and these believers who were being persecuted left
Jerusalem and went to these other areas, right into Antioch itself,
there was the fulfilling of that great commission. And now we
find that from Antioch Paul and Barnabas are being sent even
further still. And in the book of Acts you have
the unfolding or the outworking or the developing of the great
commission of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is always God's
will for us. That's always the way the Spirit
directs the church. Whether we think of missionaries
who go to the foreign field, and that's always a need. Or
whether we think of missions at home, whether it's with the
boys and girls across the street, or whether it's in a church or
a hall or a tent or wherever. It's the will of God that we
be busy seeking to win the loss to Christ. That's what's happening
here. The Spirit of God directs the
church to send Barnabas and Saul on this gospel mission and on
this missionary endeavour. And surely it ought to be our
desire to be led of the Spirit in this very same way. to throw
our hearts and our whole strength into this particular matter.
A gospel mission is not just held and meetings advertised
and we just expect people to come in. We've got to be busy.
We've got to do what we can to draw and encourage and invite
others to come in under the sound of God's word and that undoubtedly
is God's will for us. That's how the Spirit leads how
the Spirit directs that the Church of Christ might go forward in
the work of God. And then you'll notice also from
this passage that the preaching of the Word is essential for
the furtherance of God's work. If you look at verse 5, it says
that when they were at Salamis, they preached the Word of God. Verse 7, the deputy of the country,
he wanted to hear the Word of God. Verse 12, He was astonished
at the doctrine of the Lord. Now there are two things there.
There is the pre-eminence of the Word. Whenever these apostles
Saul and Barnabas went forth as missionaries, they went with
the purpose of presenting the Word of God. They did not go
to those areas and to those islands, to Cyprus, with the thought of
presenting their own theory. or coming with some social plan
for development or some other kind of thing that was going
to impact upon the people in that kind of way. They went with
the Word of God. The Word of God was preeminent
in their heart, preeminent in their mind. This was their chief
desire, that they might be enabled by the Lord to present the Word
of the Living God. Of course, that's what Paul tells
Timothy. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 and 2, having outlined
the dark nature of the last days, the days of apostasy and perilous
times, he then tells Timothy, but Timothy, you preach the word.
You preach the word. And that's the church's business.
The word of God must be preeminent. But not only is there the preeminence
of the word, there's also there the preeminence of preaching,
or the priority of preaching. They were to go and preach the
word in verse 5. Now we mentioned in chapter 11
in verse 20 that the believers who were persecuted, they went
preaching the Lord Jesus. Now there are two different words
there in the original. The one in chapter 11 has the
idea of just in conversation, just meeting people and conversing
with them. and in that way conveying the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, just gossiping, that's really
the thought behind the word. Just as they travelled and went
from place to place they gossiped out the word of God, they spread
the news of Christ and it's called their preaching. In chapter 13
a different word is used and it has the idea of declaring
in a more public way, in a more outspoken way, I suppose the
way that we're familiar with in our regular services. That's
the thought here. The preaching of the word of
God. And that's how God's work is
advanced. That's the means that God has
chosen. We read in Corinthians that it has pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That's
why in many of our pulpits we have the statement we preach
Christ crucified. Because the church must be a
preaching church. That's why we call weeks of gospel
missions, not to engage in some kind of entertainment program,
but that we might engage in a preaching program with the Word of God
being pre-eminent and the message of Christ taking priority. That's how God advances his work.
That's why it's important to have gospel missions. That's
why it's important in our regular Sunday services. That's why it's
important in our children's meetings and all of those other services
that we have that the Word of God is presented and set before
the people. Because that's the means that
God has been pleased to use. The means that God has been pleased
to appoint and ordain for the furtherance of his work. The Church of Christ has taken
the greatest possible strides forward under the preaching of
the Word. That happened throughout the
book of Acts. It happens right through to this very day. Then
the last thing that I want you to notice is that the preaching
of God's Word will be attended to with the power of God in salvation. You'll notice that there was
one man converted here in this opening part of this missionary
journey. One man, the deputy of the country. There was Elymas the sorcerer,
he tried to put him off, he tried to turn him away from the faith,
verse 8. But the Lord moved in his heart and even though Paul
had to stop and deal with the sorcerer and called him a child
of the devil and full of all subtlety and mystique, even though
all of that takes place, the deputy of the land is converted. He believes, that mentioned there
in verse 12, then the deputy when he saw what was done believed
being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. There was preaching
and as a result of the preaching a soul was saved. Whenever we
think of gospel missions, and this has been much in my mind
these last number of days especially, whenever we think of gospel missions
we have it in our mind that we love to see the Lord do mighty
things and many, many people being saved. And sometimes when
that doesn't happen The devil will put into our minds the thought
that God hasn't really answered prayer, that God hasn't really
worked, that God hasn't fulfilled his promise. I don't believe
that for a moment. You will notice there that Paul
and Barnabas preached, if you look at verse 5, when they were
at Salamis they preached the word of God in the synagogues
of the Jews and they had also drawn to their minister. It doesn't
record there that any people, anybody was saved. They just
preached the word. And when they come into the other
part of the island, this man, this deputy, he asks to hear
the word of God, and it seems that he's the only one who asks
to hear the word of God. But God's at work. That's the
point. God is at work. Even though there's
not the hundreds and thousands coming to be saved, even though
there's not the movement that there was on the day of Pentecost,
God was still working. Souls were still being saved.
The Gospel was still prospering. There was fruit following the
preaching of the Word. And God is always at work. God
is always at work. That's something I fear we lose
sight of, especially in the regular ministry. whether it be in the
Lord's day, in the morning or evening time, or in the youth
fellowship, or the children's meeting, or Sunday school classes,
or wherever there happens to be the preaching and setting
forth of God's word, if things are not happening outwardly,
we can begin to imagine that God is not working. Sometimes
we can imagine that God will only work when he sends revival.
Believer, that's not true. God is always at work, even though
we may not see him, even though we may not be able to perceive
the fact that God is working. God is always working. And even
here on this opening part of this particular missionary journey,
God was at work and God was fulfilling his own divine purpose. And let's never lose sight of
that. Perhaps we think and perhaps you have felt that God's not
working and unseen by us, God is dealing with hearts. Unseen
by us, God is convicting of sin. Unseen by us, God is saving souls. If you turn with me to Job chapter
23 and verse 9, there's a statement there that ought to encourage
our hearts. Job chapter 23 and verse 9. Remember Job's situation, he
was in dire straits because of his circumstances, not understanding
what was taking place but accepting the sovereignty of God, realising
that his Redeemer liveth. And he says in verse 9 of that
chapter, well we'll read from verse 8, Behold I go forward
but he is not there, and backward but I cannot perceive him, on
the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth
himself on the right hand that I cannot see him. Notice where
God is working. Job cannot see this. He cannot
perceive. He cannot behold. That's what
he says in verse 8 and verse 9. And yet he has this confidence
on the left hand where he doth work. And that verb translated
there, doth work, is in a sense that suggests a continual working. Notice where the Lord is working.
He's working on the left hand. I'm left handed so I can say
this. The left hand, it's side is always the awkward side, the
weak side. That's how it's perceived. And yet that's where God's working.
Job couldn't see it. He couldn't perceive it. But
he knew that God was at work. And that's what was happening
in this missionary journey. God was working in that man's
heart, that deputy's heart. So when Paul and Barnabas came,
that man asked to hear the Word of God. Believer, that's what
we need to pray for. That the Lord will work and that
the preaching of His Word will be attended to by the power of
God in salvation. And then the glory will all be
his. So Isaiah 55 and verse 11 speaks
of, it says, his word shall not return unto him void. It will accomplish that which
he has sent. It will prosper in the thing that he has sent.
It will prosper in the thing that he pleases. The Lord will
bless his word. It's God's will that we desire
the work of God to go forward. That's all that I And it's God's
means that the preaching of the word is used in the furtherance
of his work. And in the preaching of God's
word, God is pleased to work. Therefore tonight when we come
to pray, we can come with boldness, we can come with confidence.
We're not coming to ascertain is it God's will to preach in
a mission. We're not coming to ascertain
Is it God's will that the gospel is preached? We're coming simply
to pray that God will bless that Word, that preaching of the Word,
in a powerful fashion, and that souls will be saved. And even
right up to the mission time, that in the months between now
and then, that we will see the Lord at work, and that hearts
will be prepared And that when God's servant comes to preach,
there will be people who will come desiring to hear the Word
of God. Of course, there will be those
like the sorcerer here who will oppose it. The devil will certainly
oppose it. But our God is greater than the
devil. And let's pray that God will move in a very particular
way. And right up to that time, the
Lord will move through the ordinary, if I use that phrase, the regular
ministry, that the Lord will move in a mighty way and prepare
the ground for this time of special gospel preaching. I trust the
Lord will bless His word to our hearts.
Antioch - a model church
| Sermon ID | 819071053591 |
| Duration | 24:56 |
| Date | |
| Category | Prayer Meeting |
| Bible Text | Acts 13:2-4 |
| Language | English |
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