Christ is Life Podcast

Again today, though, we continue our message series. We're picking back up where we left off the last time we left off in chapter 12, verse 24 it seems weird to be picking up in 25 and it's the last verse of this chapter, but it really is the thing that kind of pulls us back in and to this section that Paul was in and had taken kind of a pause or pushed a pause button to talk about a different situation with Peter and some things that were going on with him. And so let's just jump right in and see what Luke says in this very last verse of chapter 12, he says, When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them, John, also called mark. Now, again, if we're picking this up and you forgot where we were, you're going, what? What mission? What was it that they were on? And you have to go back to chapter 11, even though this is in chapter 12, because, like I said, Paul's kind of, I mean, Luke's. Luke's kind of talked about this, and then he switched gears and mentioned some things that were going on with Peter, and now he's coming back to this. And what he's referring to is how the church had spread into this area called Antioch, and the early church was growing. This was the Greeks. These were the those who were Gentiles. And so it was a big deal that people were putting their faith and trust in Trust in Jesus. And so the church at Jerusalem found out about this and said, Hey, Barnabas, we we need you to go check this out. What's really going on in Antioch. And so Barnabas goes and and he sees that they had received the Holy Spirit and that things were were going well. And he
was encouraged by that. And
so he stayed there and continued to disciple the church and help them grow in their faith, and shared the gospel with other people. And the church was growing, and it became pretty big. It was too much for him to handle, and so he leaves, and he goes to get Saul, who we know was in Tarsus at the time, and he brings Saul back to help him, and they spent an entire year discipling the church together, helping them understand their their new life in Christ, how the spirit now works in them and through them. But then we learned at the very end of Chapter 11 how there were some prophets, under the power, inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who prophesied that there was a famine coming, and as a result of that, it moved the hearts of those in the church to give financially to those that would be impacted by the famine. And then they sent that financial gift with Barnabas and Paul, so this is the mission that they had been on. They went to the church in Jerusalem to give the financial gift. And now they were returning to the church at Antioch. And Luke tells us that they took with them, John, who was also called Mark. This is the same mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark. He was not one of the 12 Disciples, but he was close to Peter. Got his information from him, who was one of the 12 Disciples to write our gospel. You may also
remember that it was at his mother's
house that the church had gathered to pray when Peter was in jail and was miraculously, or escaped miraculously from jail through the angel that came to rescue him there. And now we're being told that he's come back to Antioch with them now that they're there. We pick up in verse 13, and he tells us what happened, more about what was going on. He says, Now in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers, and he lists their names, Barnabas and Simeon called Niger Lucius of Cyrene Manion, who was who had been brought, he says, up with Herod, the tetrarch, and Saul. Now, before we move on, we need to just highlight the people that Luke makes sure he's careful to mention here who were these prophets and teachers, because we see a lot about the early church. We see a lot about this church at Antioch here, Barnabas, we know was a Hellenistic Jew. He was from the island of Cyprus. He spoke Greek. He was Jewish, but he lived in a Hellenized culture. Simeon called Niger, meant that he was dark complexion, that he was from Africa. This was a black man who was in the church. He's making sure we know about that. Lucius of Cyrene was also from north, Northern Africa and part of the Arabic speaking world. And then Manny, and this is an interesting one, because Luke can search this parenthetical remark here to say, hey, in case you don't know who that is, this guy had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch. Now, you may not remember who Herod the tetrarch is, but some of you do. He's the guy that was responsible for beheading John the Baptist, and so this guy was childhood friends with Herod and grew up in this evil kind of regime. Meant that he was part of the socially elite. He was a part of a high political class, and had connections with a lot of people. And then he finishes up and says, of course, Saul was there who we know. Was a Jewish Pharisee, studied under the rabbi, famous rabbi, Gamaliel, who and Saul, was responsible for persecuting the church, and then, then had become a Christian and was now a leader and apostle. And so when you look at these names, and you learn a little bit more about who these people are, you begin to see what was going on at the Church of Antioch. This was a very diverse culture of people. You have a Cypriot, Hellenized Jew, a black man from Africa, a Cyrene from Northern Africa, a childhood friend of Herod the tetrarch, and a former Pharisee who was responsible for persecuting the church. And so what we see is that the Church of Jesus Christ is a multicultural, multi racial,
multi ethnic
and multi class church. Anyone who says yes to Jesus gets incorporated into the family of God and becomes part of his church. The church is made up of people from different cultures and races and ethnicities and social and economic classes. What does this say to us today? It says to us as the church today that we need to be open to the Spirit leading us into these kind of relationships. If the church is church is multicultural, then are we looking for Jesus to lead us the spirit into multicultural relationships, multiracial relationships, multi ethnic relationships, people of different social classes, socio economic statuses. The Spirit who dwells in us will lead us into these kind of diverse relationships and welcome all people from all different walks of life into our community of faith. Luke goes on and says, while they were worshiping the Lord, excuse me, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me. Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them so, after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The first thing that I want you to notice here is that Luke says the Holy Spirit said, and then he lists out what the Holy Spirit says. In other words, the Holy Spirit speaks. The Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, God who dwells in you, speaks, and He speaks to you. He speaks to you through his word. He speaks to you in your spirit. He speaks to you through other people and through the situations and circumstances that you are going through. And so when we recognize that people are writing down the things that the Spirit said to them, then we need to recognize, oh, the Holy Spirit speaks. Is he speaking to me? Am I missing the things that? Am I open? Am I available? Am I listening for what the Holy Spirit is saying? I don't think when he writes the sentence here, he says, there was this open, audible voice, and he said, set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul. It's just through conversations with other people, what he laid on their heart. This was the next step that the Lord was leading them in, because they were listening for what the Holy Spirit said. What did he say? Well, he said to set apart. Make sure you set these guys apart, Barnabas and Saul. What for the work which I have called them. These were two members of the church. They were leaders in the church, and his instructions, the Holy Spirit was to set them apart to go proclaim the good news about Jesus to other parts of the world. We don't necessarily see that right here, but this is the first of Paul's three missionary journeys that he will go on, led by the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit to share Jesus with those who don't know him yet. And on this first missionary journey, he and Barnabas and John Mark will travel roughly 1000 miles
to a number of cities
in the first century. I mean, think about traveling 1000
miles through this culture and all that that would take to share Jesus with these people who lived in these various cities. And as they went, they would plant new churches. They would disciple the people that were there. We get many of the letters in our Bibles, in the New Testament, Galatians and Ephesians and Colossians, and all of these letters that are written by Paul to the churches that he would plant, or relationships that he would build through these missionary journeys, and that we're going to read about
all throughout the rest of Acts.
And so it's going, it's sharing,
it's planting church. Was discipling people, and the Holy Spirit was at work in these things to still be teaching us today. So what do we see here? Well, if this was part of life in the early church, if part of the early church life in the Spirit meant that he would say things to the church like set certain people apart, to send them away from this church, to go into other areas where people haven't yet said to Jesus, then he will be doing the same thing. Even still today, the Holy Spirit still asks his local churches, works in his local churches
and says, Set these
people apart to go, to leave the community that they're living in now, to leave your local church and go into these areas to share the gospel with people throughout the world who don't yet know him. And so if this is the kind of thing that the Spirit does, then what's our response to that? Jesus, Holy Spirit, I'm open and I'm available. I'm listening for what you have to say, and if it's me, if it's me and my family that you're wanting to send to these other parts of the world to make sure that no one misses the grace of God I'm listening break my heart for the lost, provide the way for me to be able to go and all the things to fall into the place to make that happen. We've mentioned this before, but this is not the kind of thing that goes, Oh man, I hope he doesn't send me. Hope he doesn't send me. Don't send me. I don't want to go. I don't
want to be open and listen to say,
then you're going to miss out on the abundant life that
Jesus created you, because he's not going to send you, and you're not going to go over there and just absolutely hate it and go, I hate being here. I got to go tell all these people about Jesus over here. I'd rather be at home in my recliner and in, you know, Tyler, Texas, and living life there. Got to be here telling people about
Jesus, no,
if it's you, he's going to put it on your heart. You're going to get excited. You can't not go. And some of you maybe that's even been the case, and he's laid that on your heart, but you've kind of gone, I don't know, Ken, Is it really me? And you just kind of closed him off, and maybe even through just seeing what is the Holy Spirit's doing here, he's brought you here today. You're listening to this online today
because he's reminding you This
is a work that I want to set you apart to go be a part of and do. And so we stay open to that, and we get the church involved. Why? Because of what we see here in verse three. Because the next thing you would see after the Spirit said that they had fasted. So after they had fasted and prayed, this
was the church, right? They placed
their hands on them
and they sent them off,
the placing of hands, the laying on of hands by the church before sending that
them out is a
way of acknowledging we're in this with you. I know the Holy Spirit said to set you apart, and you're the ones that are physically going to be going but guess what? We're the church. We're in this together with you. We're in it with you. We're going to be praying for you. We're going to be on our hands and knees praying for you. We're praying for the areas that you're going to visit and the people that you'll share the gospel with. We're going to financially give to fund the missionary journey that you're going on. If you tell us you need us there, we're coming. We're coming for a week or two weeks or three weeks or a month, for however long you need us. We may not be called to go all the time, but we'll go and help with certain things that are going on, and come back. We're available. We're the church. You're our brothers. You're our sisters. We're on this mission together, so we're going to pray over you, and we're going to send you out as part of us. I don't have time to go into a lot of detail for sake of time, I've mentioned them already, but there's a couple in our church who we see this same thing go through. They've shared in a number of Sunday schools their story and and how the Lord laid it on their heart. They said, Hey, set me apart. I see the way you work in and through people to reach people. So, so I'm available. Send me if that's your will, and it compelled them. This is my calling on your life and and he even went to school to to get his degree. Is he became a doctor. He became a surgeon not to make a lot of money and to have a comfortable life and to buy a lot of things here, he became a surgeon so that he could use his skills to do surgery on people in third world countries to meet their needs and make their lives better, so that they would be open to sharing the gospel with them, so that they could come to know Jesus and have their lives transformed and changed forever. And the church lays hands on them, and they sent them out. And they're, they're supporting them and and we're supporting them, and we're helping meet their needs. And we're, we're sharing. In God's glory for what it is that he's doing. And we have reports of people coming to know Jesus. They're being discipled, and then those people are being sent out into other cultures to share the good news. And we as their church get to be a part of that. Along with them. Some of you are more directly involved than others, but this
is one of the things that the Spirit does
when we're living life in the Spirit, when we're trusting on him to be
our guide and empowering us. This
is what we saw in the early church. But
listen this, this kind of thing
doesn't happen without opposition. You will face opposition. We will face opposition, and that's what we see eventually. The next thing he says is the two of them sent on their way by the Holy Spirit. Notice that language, that's the Holy Spirit's that doing the sending. He's the guide. Went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed
the Word of God in the Jewish synagogues.
John, he just mentions that John was with them as their helper. The thing I just want to highlight quickly is that when they got there, notice what they did. They proclaimed
the Word of God.
They shared the gospel. A lot of us when, when we're living our lives as Christians, will go, I just want to live a good life. I want to trust the Holy Spirit, to have good character, and other people to see Christ in me and and I'll serve and meet people's needs, and in be a really good person and serve them. And all those things are important. But what we're told here is that as they go, they shared the gospel.
No doubt that they were meeting people's
needs and loving them and serving them, but
it's the gospel message that changes people's lives. It's the message of Jesus, having died on the cross for their sins and rising from the dead, that they can find forgiveness and eternal life in him, in that alone, in their response to that that will make them new creations in Christ, receive the abundant life in Him, be guaranteed of that, and enter into this mission with them. And so you and I, as we're led by the Spirit in our own relationships, pay attention to how he wants to use us, not just to love people, not just to live our lives well. And they go, Oh, he's such a good person. They're such a great Christian, but to share
the gospel so that they, too,
can come to know the salvation that we experience each and every day. Verse six, they goes on and says that they traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named bar Jesus, who was an attendant of the Proconsul Sergius Paulus, the proconsul, an intelligent man sent for Barnabas
and Saul because he
wanted to hear the Word of God. This, this person that Luke introduces us to now and tells us about is, is a leader, think, kind of like a governor of an area or something. And so he's, he's a leader, and he's
described as an intelligent man. He's
smart, but the Greek word means much more than just smart. He's wise, he's of good sense, he's he's open to learning new truths and what these things are about. And so evidently, he had, he had learned a little bit about the gospel, heard something, and wanted to hear more about that from them. And so. So we're told that he sent for them, but then we're also introduced to this other guy, this Jewish sorcerer, this false prophet named bar Jesus. We're going to learn more about him, but he's the one we're
going to see who
provides the opposition. Let's,
let's look at it. Verse eight, it
says, But Elymas, that's who he
was, is named as well. Elymas, the sorcerer. The parenthetical Mark tells
us that, for that is what his name
means. Opposed them,
opposed them, and tried to turn the Proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, You are a
child of the devil, an
enemy of everything that is right. You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Well, you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord. So the first thing that we see is that Elymas, the sorcerer, opposed them. This is the opposition when, when you go, when you're open to the Holy Spirit leading you to share your faith with other people, there will be
opposition. There will
be opposition that you face whenever you're sharing. But also listen,
he was opposing who
he was opposing the guy who was open to learning more about the gospel. If there are some of you here who haven't said yet to Jesus, you're kind of exploring this whole thing out, trying to figure out who Jesus really is, what this whole Christianity thing is all about, notice, there will be people. There is an enemy who will oppose
you, who. Wants to keep you
from recognizing the truth about who Jesus is.
He doesn't want you to come to know Jesus, because he knows that life is found in Him. He knows that forgiveness is found. He knows that's what you were ultimately created for, and his role is to steal, kill and destroy, make sure
that that doesn't happen.
Saul. We also
recognize that he was called Paul.
We know that many of us who have been involved in the church for a long time, we'll call him that. But up until this point, he's been called
Saul. But now he's going
to switch, because Saul is much
more involved in really
reaching the Gentiles, which was what he said he would do the Holy Spirit, right?
He's going to be the one that I'm going to use
to reach the Gentiles. And
this was his Gentile, you know, name, his Roman name was, was Paul. And so from here on out, we'll see him referred to as Paul. Notice that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. That doesn't mean the Holy Spirit came to dwell in him. The Holy Spirit came to dwell in him the moment he said yes to Jesus. Being filled by the spirit means he was being controlled. He was living life in the Spirit, depending upon the spirit. And so he was able to recognize from the Holy Spirit who Elymas really was. Look what he says about him, harsh words,
man, you're a child of the devil.
You're an enemy, an enemy of everything that is right, you're full of all kinds of what deceit. You're full of trickery. You're full of perverting the right ways of the Lord. So we get insight, more insight, as to how the enemy works. You want to know how the enemy works to disrupt you from coming to know Jesus in the first place from opposing you. He's going to lie to you, he's going to try to trick you, he's going to deceive you. He's going to pervert the right ways of the Lord. Sometimes that's going to be obvious. Sometimes it's going to be just little subtle things that he's going to pervert. But these are the things that he's going to be doing to keep you from coming to know Jesus.
But even after we come to know Jesus
and we have life in him, he knows that he can't pull you away from Jesus's grip and his
arm in the union. So now his goal
is to what keep you from experiencing the life that you have. You have abundant life, you have peace, you have assurance, you have joy. Well, I'm going to
deceive them. I'm going to trick them into thinking
that they don't have life, they don't
have peace, they don't have joy. They're going to feel like that, and then they're going to believe their feelings over the truth of God, and they'll never experience
what they have in Christ. We've
got to pay attention to these things and recognize the lies that deceive, the trickery. Know the
truth. If we want to experience what we have
in Christ, we can walk our entire lives with things being true and in access to them, but never really experience them, because we don't recognize the trickery, the deceit and the lies. And so let's be aware of those things, as Paul is calling them out by the power of the Holy Spirit, and now he kind of casts judgment on him from the things that we're seeing. Verse 11, now the hand of the Lord
is against you. Watch this. You are going
to be blind for a time, not even
able to see the light of the sun.
And immediately, mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. And when the Proconsul saw what had happened. He believed for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. Now, do not skip over what I just read last
I mean, how amazing would
it be to see the Apostle Paul show up and go, You know what? You're a child of the devil. You're an enemy of God. Now you're going to be blind and actually see that happen power. But what we're told is, while that may have gotten attention, that ultimately he came to believe in Jesus. Why? Because he was amazed at
the what
teaching, the teaching about the Lord,
he's like, yeah, that whole thing
that he did about causing him to be blind, that was Wow. But this teaching, are you kidding me? You're telling me that the God of the universe left the glory and the riches of heaven he was born, he took on an additional nature, like he was born into this world, fully God and fully man, with the sole intention, out of his love for His creation, to take their sins upon him, nail them to
the cross,
suffer on the cross and die so that people could be forgiven and know eternal life and be in a relationship with him. That's truly amazing. He couldn't get over it. This is true. I can be forgiven. Jesus came to die for me. I can have life and joy and peace and eternal life in him. Sign me up for that.
Notice that there was
a response required. Tired,
even though Jesus accomplished all of this that was necessary on the cross for you and for me, and if you never put your faith and trust in Jesus, there's a response. He came to believe in Ephesians. It says, When you believe, the moment you believe, the moment you receive the gift, you're completely forgiven, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you. You're transformed into a new creation in Christ. So maybe that's what the Holy Spirit is saying to you today. This is the truth, the amazing teaching about Jesus and who he is. And it requires your response to believe, to put your faith and trust in Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no man comes to the Father except through him.
What do we learn? Well, we learn that
if again, you never put your faith and
trust in Jesus, what's required here, who he is, what this is all about. But what about those of us who have said yes to Jesus, Holy Spirit does dwell in us. What's the application we saw? A number of things. I'm gonna boil it down to one and just focus on it. Life in the spirit means that you and I are sent out on mission.
We've talked about this already.
In one way, sometimes the Holy Spirit will
say to the church, to the local church,
set apart for me, John and Bill, Joe and Susie for the work of the ministry I've called them to I'm sending them across the world to an unreached
people group to share the gospel with
them somewhere, and
if that's you, you need to be open to that. You need to let us know, as your church, we need to help you take those next steps. We want to support you, encourage you, pray for you, whatever that looks like.
Let's explore that together.
Don't ignore that. If the Holy
Spirit is laying that on your heart today.
But that's not all it is, because that's not all that we've seen all throughout the first 12 chapters, 13 and a half chapters of the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit came in them. Life in the spirit means that you're sent out on mission anywhere and everywhere you go. And so if you're not being set apart to go somewhere
on the other side of the world
to be involved in his mission work,
then you're being set apart to be a
part of it in some way, in the context within which you live right here in this
community. And he's
gifted you in certain ways, and he's given you a certain personality and a number of other ways that the Holy Spirit works in and
through to be on mission with
him, to share the gospel with other people in our community who don't yet
know You.
This is life in the Spirit with the church we gather together as his church, and then he sends us out as the church on mission with Him in His Kingdom.
Work wherever that may be, whatever that looks like.
Sometimes, as we make ourselves available to that and we're we're aware of that. We get to see the fruit that's produced in and through some of us in the church. In that regard, we
don't always see what God's doing,
but sometimes we do. For
example, I've seen the Holy Spirit at work in and through one of our members who shows up every single Sunday, who's one of the teachers
in our community, and
she's aware that her mission field are those students that she engages with at the high school that she teaches
with, so much so
that before the year ever even starts, she'll get on social media and post to everyone that she knows, hey, We're entering into a new school year, I have 137
students, so I need 137
people to commit to praying for each one of these students to know that they have someone behind the scenes in the church praying for them if they don't know Jesus or that if they do that, he's working in ways in their
life. And so people will volunteer, and they'll go,
Well, you have student number 83 and they'll be able to know that people are praying for them. But she doesn't stop there. She goes, Listen. I know the next thing that's really important for people to listen to me and listen to the gospel is building relationships with them. And so I can't approach this job that the Lord's given me in a way where I just show up and make sure I shove content content down their face and then they leave. One day, I've got to be about building relationships. And so, Holy Spirit, I'm open to how you want to use me to help make sure that these students know that I really do care about them, that you do care about them, because they don't all have that in the different homes that they go in. And so she's very intense. Emotional about the Holy Spirit works in her and through her to highlight
the things that she sees in them, to
know that they are loved, that they're special, that she cares about them, she serves them in ways to make sure of that, and she has a unique special relationship with a number of students because of that aspect.
But it's not just about the way you love somebody
and care about somebody. You got to share the gospel with them. They have to know, they have to know how to respond to that. And so he goes, you know, maybe I can't really teach this in the classroom, but you know what I could do? I could invite people to a Bible study before school. They could meet in my room. School hadn't started yet. And so if they were to come learn about Jesus, they could come learn about Jesus. And so once a week, she's opening her door, and people are showing up, and they're studying God's word, and she's sharing the gospel with unbelievers, and students are coming to know Jesus and having their life transformed and changed.
I've seen her invite them here and into biblical
community on Wednesday nights and on Sunday mornings, because she understands that she's part of the church, and the Holy Spirit dwells in her, and she doesn't just gather for worship every Sunday, the spirit sends her out as the church on mission, and that's her mission field, and people's lives are being transformed and changed because she understands that is part of the church. Jesus is on mission through her, by the power of the Holy Spirit. I could go on a number of examples. I know some of you are in business and you have clients, and I could go on about the way that you build relationships with them. You don't just serve them and go, I'm going to do a good job for them, and that's all so I can make money and have a good job. It's I'm going to build relationships. I'm a serve. I'm going to love and look for ways outside of my client relationships or or the people that you work with, the relationships you establish with those inviting them into community, looking for ways to share the gospel with them. I see it in our students. I know of students who understand that that's their mission field. They go. I know I've got to be at school, but this is the environment where I'm going to be around people who don't know Jesus. Could even be my teachers and my principals and adults in there. So I'm open, I'm available. Send me to build relationships, to love, to serve people and to share the gospel and invite them into these things, because you're part of the church, and you get that. So the real question is, is if, if we're being sent out on mission every single Sunday to anyone and everyone. What does that look like for you? What? Who's your mission field? Your stay at home mom, and your mission field is other moms. You're building relationships with him, and you gather around the park. You go Holy Spirit. How do you want to use this to make sure that
we're leveraging those things
so that we can share the gospel with those who don't yet know Jesus. It could be anything and everything, but you and I
have to sit still,
focus on Jesus, make ourselves available, recognize the truth that He sends us out on mission, and ask the question, what does that look like for me? What does it look like to partner with you and your mission work? In my context, the Holy Spirit will speak to you. We already covered that he will empower you to be able to carry that out, and you leave the results up to him, and he gets all the glory in what ways is the spirit setting you apart for the work of the ministry that he's calling you to in the same way he did with Barnabas and Paul? Let's pray.