Antioch, a Sending Church (Acts 12:24-13:3) [2025-11-2]

Please have a seat today. Well, good morning, church

family. For those of you who don't know

me, my name is Fred Kai, and together with my wife Julia, Oh,

she's not here right now. OK.

And our four children, Jonathan, Karis, Chloe and Timothy.

We live in Japan as missionaries.

And so we are currently on our stateside assignment and it's

our time of rest from the field. And so it's been a wonderful

privilege just to to have been here for the past several months

just to have worship with you guys and fellowship with you

all. And it's an awesome privilege

today to bring the word of God, Bring a message from the word of

God today. So if you have a copy of God's

Word, please open it up to Acts chapter 12 and 13.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

I'll read the text and then I'll open this up in the word of

prayer from Acts chapter 12, starting with verse 24 to 13.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

Three, the word of Lord says. But the word of God increased

and multiplied, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem

when they had completed their service, bringing with them

John, whose other name was Mark. Now there were in the church at

Antioch prophets and teachers Barnabas, Simeon who is called

Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manayan, a lifelong friend of

Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. They were worshipping the Lord

and fasting, when they were wishing the Lord in fasting.

Excuse me? 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 set them off.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father God, thank you

for your holy word. Thank you that your church is

built on the foundation of your holy word.

Then when Peter said to Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of

God, you said on this rock, on Peter's confession, I will build

my church. So Lord, thank you for your word

today. I pray, Lord, that it would be

beneficial for us to hear. Lord, may your Holy Spirit move

among us just like it did in the early church, and tell us how we

ought to live as a church for your glory among the nations.

In Christ's name we pray, Amen. So we are jumping straight into

the middle of the book of Acts today.

Acts is written by Luke as a second volume to the Gospel of

Luke and if you read it before you might know that it's about

the apostles ministry after Jesus resurrection and through

that through their work establishing and the spreading

of the early church. So here's the the context, the

story up until now, roughly, OK, the risen Jesus who has

conquered sin and death. He commissions his disciples and

like the victorious king that he is, he sends them out.

He says they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea

and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

But they won't do it alone. He promises to give them the

Holy Spirit, to be with them and to empower them for that work.

And so Peter, in the power of the Holy Spirit, he preaches a

sermon in Jerusalem, just as Jesus said, and 3000 people are

saved and added to the church, and then the church grows to

5000. They suffer some relatively

minor persecution up until this point, but then Stephen, a

servant of the church is arrested and martyred for

preaching the gospel. And then so after that, that

brought about a severe persecution, it broke out

against the church in Jerusalem. And that persecution scatters

the church throughout Judea and Samaria, just as Jesus said.

And then Saul, one of the main persecutors who approved it,

says he approved of Stevens execution.

He gets knocked off his horse and he gets blinded by Jesus on

his way to Damascus to persecute more Christians.

And so Saul, he is blind as a bat.

He gets saved. His physical, his physical eyes

and his spiritual eyes get opened and Jesus commissions him

to take the gospel to the Gentiles, IE to the ends of the

earth, just as Jesus said. And so Saul immediately starts

preaching the gospel where he is.

And the once persecutor gets persecuted, Saul partners up

with another faithful disciple named Barnabas.

And Barnabas takes Saul to Antioch in Syria, where they

are, where there are Christians and a church is established

there. And it is there because

Christians escape there after Stevens martyrdom.

OK, so this is where we are today in this text.

Barnabas and Saul are members and leaders serving in this

church in Antioch. All right, so let's start with

the exposition of text and then I'll leave that into application

starting with verse 24 of chapter 12, which says, but the

Lord but the word of God increased and multiplied.

So I want you to notice the word but in the beginning of this

verse, but indicates a contrast to something, right?

In spite of something, in spite of this, the word of God

increased and multiplied. In spite of what?

Well, just before this we saw that Herod had killed James the

apostle. He's the second martyr in the

book of Acts, but he's the first apostle to get killed.

And then he puts Peter in prison and puts him on death row too.

It says that in verse one that Herod laid violent hands on

those who belong to the church. And then you come to a verse

like verse 24 and you ask how, how, how can the word of God

increase and multiply in this hostile environment?

It's like saying vegetables and crops are flourishing in Death

Valley. I'll tell you how God, there's

no other explanation. It is God who takes Saul from a

persecutor of the church to turn him into a missionary of the

church. It is God who breaks Peter out

of maximum security prison on death row.

It is God who strikes Herod dead for stealing glory from God.

And it's God who can make His word increase and multiply under

severe persecution. Verse 25 and Barnabas and Saul

returned from Jerusalem and when they had completed their

service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

It's a little bit of context. Barnabas and Saul just came back

from kind of a short term mission trip.

There was a great famine throughout the Roman Empire and

the Church of Antioch sent relief, most likely money to the

church in Jerusalem. So they sent Barnabas and Saul

to bring them this aid. They complete their mission and

bring back with them John Mark to Antioch.

And this John Mark would later continue to go on mission with

Paul and Barnabas. OK, next verse one.

Now that we're in the church in Antioch, prophets and teachers,

Barnabas Simeon, who is called Naguer, Lucchius of Cyrene,

Manayan, a lifelong friend of Tere the Tetrarch and Saul, we

see that in this church there were prophets and teachers and

among them are Barnabas and Saul.

So Barnabas and Saul are, are active members and active

leaders in this local church. And besides them, we we don't

really know much about the other brothers mentioned except that

they kind of seem to come from diverse backgrounds.

So look here after Barnabas. The first one mentioned is

Simeon, who is called Niger. You can probably guess what his

skin color is. Before it became a derogatory

term, Niger simply just meant dark or black.

OK, this is kind of like the word Negro in Spanish.

He was probably of African origin according to

commentaries. And then there's Lucius of

Cyrene. Cyrene is modern day Libya in

North Africa. Next is an interesting one.

Manayan, A lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, the same

Herod who beheaded John the Baptist.

Can't imagine what people might say.

You have a member, a leader of your church who was associated

with an enemy of Jesus, and we should say, yes, that's what the

Gospel does. Who he is now is not who he was.

Praise Jesus. Let's not forgot about, let's

not forget about Saul, right? He was a scholar, trained under

the law, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a former persecutor

of the church who approved of the killing of Stephen.

And then there's Barnabas. He seemed to be a wealthy man in

Acts chapter 4. He had a field and he sold it

Acts 4 · chapter mention

and gave all the money to the church.

So you have two Africans, a friend of a corrupt king, a

former persecutor, and a wealthy man.

What diversity? This is not man made mandated

DEI. This is gospel.

God brought DEI. It doesn't matter who you are,

doesn't matter who you were, the gospel can save anyone.

Period. Verse 2A while they were

worshipping the Lord and fasting.

I want to, I want you to notice the two present participle verbs

in the sentence worshipping and fasting.

OK. This shows us that these

disciplines were a a normal part of their life in the church.

The word worshipping here is only used two other times in the

Greek. According to the Greek lexicon,

it means to perform religious rites to render formal service.

In other words, this is their normal corporate gathering

church service, just like we're doing today.

And they were fasting. There's no indication that they

were fasting for some special occasion.

It is also in the present participle OK.

That means that it was a it was as normal for them to fast

corporately as it was normal for them to gather for Sunday

worship. And fasting usually includes

prayer. They go hand in hand and that's

as later shown in in verse three that they were praying, fasting

and praying. So while the church was

practicing the normal disciplines of the corporate

gathered body, something incredible happened.

Verse 2B, the Holy Spirit said, let me just camp here for a bit

because it's easy to gloss over these words, right?

Can we just be just utterly amazed for a moment that God the

Holy Spirit would speak? We don't know how He spoke.

Was it an audible voice or a voice in everyone's head?

Was it a voice from heaven, or did He speak through a person?

Was it a strong, commanding voice, or was it a low, gentle

voice? We don't know because it doesn't

say. But He spoke and that's just

simply amazing. I would have loved to have been

there to hear the voice of God. What did he say?

He said set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work

to which I have called them earlier.

We saw in verse one, right, the list of prophets and teachers in

the Antioch church. These are likely their church

leaders, qualified elders of the church, among whom are Barnabas

and Saul. So the Holy Spirit chooses elder

qualified men to send as missionaries.

And it's not like they were always this way.

Barnabas and Saul, right? They weren't elder qualified

when they got saved. We know Barnabas got saved near

the beginning of the early church in Acts 4 when he sold

his field and gave his money to the church.

That was something like 17 to 18 years ago.

And then Saul was saved on the Damascus Rd. some 13 years ago.

So 13 and 17 years of being in the church, serving in the

church, being transplanted to new churches because of

persecution, and then moving to Antioch together to serve there

because there was a need, and then becoming elders of that

church. Sure, you can say, well, Saul

was called by Jesus to be a missionary when he was saved in

Acts 9. So.

So that was what God was going to do all along, right?

But why did God have to wait so long, over a decade, almost 2

decades before sending him out, before sending them both out?

Because spiritual maturity and raising up leaders takes time.

To be sure, I do believe God could make someone qualified to

lead in an instant if you wanted to.

But more often than not God raises up people slowly, takes

his time. Verse 3, the last verse.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them

and sent them off. Then, meaning after hearing the

Holy Spirit's Commission and then what did they do?

They fasted and prayed some more.

I'm inclined to think that the church was praying and

considering what the Holy Spirit told them to do, probably

praying for Barnabas and Saul. Now they have a more of a focus

of their fasting and praying and they laid their hands on them.

They laid their hands on them. We don't see much of the laying

on of hands today, but you know, maybe except in the case of

ordaining a pastor or before someone goes on missions, just

like in this passage. What?

What does it mean though? Well, it's a symbolic act.

Just like baptism and Lord's Supper are symbols pointing to

something, laying on of hands is a symbol for the church.

There are many instances of the laying on of hands in the Bible

with many different meanings, many different meanings.

Not just this one that I'm about to share, but in this case, the

Antioch churches, the Antioch church laying their hands on

Barnabas and Saul. It's like the church is saying,

we support you, Barnabas and Saul.

We send you out to do what the Lord has called you to do.

Our hands are on you physically and in spirit after you leave

this place to care for you and whatever needs come your way.

We commit to do our part for you in the Lord as you do yours for

the Lord. In other words, we will be your

home and ascending church. Application.

I have 7 points of exhortation. I know same style as Pastor

Matt. That's how you know I was raised

in this church. Application #1 The blood of

martyrs is the seed of the church.

The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.

This quote is attributed to an early church father in the 2nd

century named Tertullian. In the first 3 centuries of

church history, during which a Tertullian lived, was marked by

severe persecution. Christians were fed alive to

lions, they were beaten, they were whipped, sawn in half, put

to death by the sword, and burned at the stake.

The Roman emperor Nero used to tie Christians to a pole, dip

them in oil and set them on fire.

And use them as St. lights at night.

And you may think that things have changed since then, but in

the country where we used to live, I won't name it here, but

you can ask me afterwards. When the church was very young,

some 70 years ago, the church and Christian institutions were

banned and closed by the government.

All missionaries were expelled, pastors and believers were

arrested and imprisoned without trial, or they were sent to

labor camps to work as slaves. Some were tortured, publicly

humiliated and executed. Others were forced to renounce

their faith. The remaining Christians went

underground in secret House churches.

A lot of that is happening again today as we speak.

We heard of Christians in Nigeria this year alone, over

7000 have been killed. They are systematically being

killed in Nigeria. And you might be, you look at

this and you might be tempted to think, wow, that's got to be the

end of the church, right? That's got to set Christianity

back years, decades. But those persecutors of the

church never read the book of Acts.

They don't know church history. They thought they could blow out

the fire of the gospel, but the harder they blew, the faster the

fire spread. For 2000 years, history has been

filled with martyrs whose blood soaked the soil to fertilize the

seed of the gospel. God's Word cannot be stopped.

Amen. So I pray you be encouraged,

Christian, no matter how hard it may be to stand up for your

faith, no matter what risk your job, your academic grades, or

even your life, when you stand firm for the gospel, God's Word

will not return empty. No sacrifice for Christ will be

unseen. Not a hair on your head will

perish, and not one drop of blood will be wasted.

Application #2 Ministry is a team effort and an opportunity

to disciple others to come alongside us.

We saw this with Barnabas and Saul taking John Mark along with

them. You know that Angel saying a

cord of three strands is not easily broken, right?

That's from Ecclesiastes. This verse usually is used to

refer to our need for community or used to emphasize a strong

marriage right where the three strands being God, the husband

and the wife. It is also true when we seek to

serve God in the church. This example, we see this

example throughout the whole New Testament.

Jesus ministered with 12 disciples.

He sent 72 out on mission, 2 by 2, Even Barnabas and Saul, they

were already seasoned leaders of the church.

They bring along John Marked to go with them.

When we serve together with others and bring them along, it

models what discipleship and community looks like.

It's an opportunity to pour into someone or be poured into by

someone, all while serving the needs of the body.

So brothers, next time you go out on a church errand, take

another brother with you. Sisters, next time you go and

meet a friend to share the gospel with them, take another

sister with you. God has given you your brothers

and sisters to you to serve him together.

Partnering together is also one of our strong values as a as a

missionary team in Japan. We don't we don't do ministry

alone if we can help it. We always try to bring other

people along with us, whether it's a teammate or a local

Japanese Christian. It's an opportunity to say, hey,

I need your help. I think we can do this Better

Together than if I was just by myself.

I'm trying to befriend this guy to share the gospel with him, so

let's try to be friends with him together.

Point #3 A healthy church has a plurality of elders.

A healthy church has a plurality of leaders and elders.

And for us at CSPC, well, no, I guess not CSP up this day.

But the point is, this point is especially important as we are

forming a new church together. We live in a day and age when

there are many different flavors of church.

Some churches only have one leader or pastor.

Some have multiple leaders at multiple levels and some believe

it or not, have no leaders whatsoever.

And yet again and again, the example in the Bible that we see

is that the local church has a plurality of elders.

This is not just one of many church model.

I believe this is the consistent model in the early church as we

see here in the Antioch church. They have 5 leaders listed.

Perhaps God wants us to see what a healthy model of a church

looks like. There are many reasons for

having a plurality of elders. Here are the reasons that are

most important. Most important according to 9

Marks, which is a ministry that's a big proponent of the

plurality of elders listed. A.

Through EA Biblical accountability, the elders help

to keep and maintain. The elders help to keep the main

teaching pastor in check to live, teach and lead faithfully.

They keep any one elder from abuse of power lording over the

congregation. B Shared wisdom.

Instead of just one man's thoughts and decisions, multiple

counselors add to the wisdom to make the most important

decisions in the church. C Balance and gifts.

No one man has all the gifts necessary to build up the

church. Multiple lead, multiple elders,

bring multiple giftings to the table to compliment the pastors.

D Burden sharing. One man cannot effectively

shoulder all the burdens of shepherding needy sheep.

He will be stretched and pulled in all directions and people

will fall through the cracks. Many hands make light work E.

It sets an example for the church.

It shows that the work of ministry is not just for the

elite or just those who are being paid or have gone to

seminary, lay elders, those who are not being paid by the church

or have an Mdiv. They set an example of spiritual

maturity for people who work ordinary jobs just like they do.

Application #4 The gospel saves indiscriminately, so we preach

it indiscriminately. The gospel saves

indiscriminately, so we preach it indiscriminately.

In the book Compelling the Compelling Community by Mark

Dever and Jamie Jamie Dunlop, they make the case that that if

the church community is not supernatural, it doesn't work.

OK by work they mean fulfill God's plans for community.

So then what's God's plan for community?

And it's this to display the manifold wisdom of God according

to Ephesians 310. Meaning if we gather for and if

what unites us are man centered reasons like race, like culture

or ethnicity or socio and economic status or common

interest, that tends to, not always, but it tends to show the

world. That is not the power of the

gospel that unites us, it's our human preferences.

It's our human wisdom on display, not God's manifold

wisdom. But if it's the gospel that

unites us, then God's wisdom is glorified and on display in the

local church. There's no other reason why this

community is gathered than because they are all saved by

Jesus. So what does that mean for us

practically? Well, no.

No drastic change in the church is necessary, I think.

But it starts with you, individual Christian.

Simply preach the gospel indiscriminately as God gives

you the opportunity. Maybe God leads you to share

with that Indian Co worker of yours.

Maybe you need to reach out to your white classmate who sit

next to you. Maybe God put your Hispanic

neighbor on your heart. When we preach the gospel to

whosoever, then we show the world that it's the power of God

that saves and not human wisdom. 5 Corporate fasting and prayer

are a normal part of worship. Corporate fasting and prayer is

a normal part of worship. Fasting often feels like a lost

discipline, doesn't it? Especially in in American church

today. But Jesus expected his disciples

to fast when when Jesus taught about it on the Sermon on the

Mount in Matthew 6, he says when you fast, when you fast, not if

you fast. But more important that than

that we should fast is why we should fast.

We fast to say in essence we desire God.

We need God more than we desire or need food.

We're saying that we're saying what Jesus said when he fasted.

Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that

comes from the mouth of God. Fasting is 1 means of grace to

draw near to God. We see in the church in Antioch

that the whole church was fasting together during

corporate worship, regular worship service.

Now, how often did they fast? Was it once a week, once a

month, once a year? How long did they fast?

Was it just a meal or for several days?

You know it doesn't, it doesn't say.

So I think it's up to each church and each individual

Christian to decide. But our church practice it

corporately once a year on Good Friday.

So I encourage you, brothers and sisters, follow in the biblical

example set for you, if you are physically able, participate in

corporate fasting and make it a regular discipline in your life

to seek the face of God through fasting.

Number six, God calls out qualified people for specific

work through the church. God calls out qualified people

for specific work through the church.

So if the Holy Spirit was indeed audible at at the church in

Antioch and throughout the the early church is not the typical

pattern today. Just because someone claims that

God said something to them doesn't mean it's true.

Just ask any girl who was told by a guy, God called me to marry

you. So how does God speak today?

Well, after the biblical Canon was finished, God primarily

speaks through his word, the Bible.

OK, and through the Holy Spirit, working through the church,

through the leaders and elders, through the congregation,

applying His Word to your life. This is especially true when in

a calling to ministry. If so, it's your job church to

assess who is qualified for ministry, whether an elder, a

Deacon, or a missionary. You are the one to watch

carefully over their lives and say, we can see her doing this

overseas among an unreached people group.

We can see him shepherd our church because we've watched him

shepherd his own family. Church, you are God's training

ground to raise up leaders, servants, and missionaries.

You are God's eyes to discern whether a brother or sister is

qualified to serve. And you are God's mouthpiece to

call out qualified people for Christian ministry #7 Last

point. A healthy church sends out and

supports their own missionaries. The healthy Church sends out and

supports their own missionaries. You know, Julia and I are are

usually called by people as IMB missionaries.

So you have a you have an IMB missionary who's speaking at

church today. OK.

And that's not wrong to say. And when we go to other

churches, they say we have IMB missionaries.

Friend Julia here. That's not wrong to say.

We are technically officially employed by the IMB.

But we also firmly believe that it's ultimately not the sending

organization that sends out missionaries, It's the local

church. It's the local church because

God's primary vehicle to reach the nation's with the gospel is

the local church. Let me read you the full context

of the verse I referenced earlier about the manifold

wisdom of God from Ephesians 37 to 11, says Paul says of this

gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's

grace, which was given to me by the working of His power to me,

though I am the very least of all the Saints.

This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable

riches of Christ and to bring to life for everyone what is the

plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all

things, so that through the Church the manifold wisdom of

God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in

the heavenly places. This was according to the

eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our

Lord. So God's manifold, multifaceted,

like a sparkling diamond wisdom in the gospel is made known to

the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places through His

Bride, the Church. And this has always been part of

God's plan from eternity's past. So church, you have an amazing,

you have an amazing privilege and role to raise up, send out

and continually support missionaries like us.

It's God's plan, His plan A, to use you as the means to reach

the nations with the gospel. So be encouraged and be

challenged. Brothers and sisters, let's

pray.