The Mission That Gives Life Meaning | Acts 13 | August 2, 2026

We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

And uh we have some extra copies.

If you would like one to uh follow along, raise your hand up real high and we'll we'll drop one off at your own.

Anybody at all?

We've got um 52.

I said that right, 52 verses.

Uh there were a couple things that shocked me when I came back, by the way.

Um I was really glad, for instance, that that that you all still study through books of the Bible.

That's awesome, that's amazing.

And then and I was really glad not to see a thermometer on the wall.

That was awesome.

Somebody say amen on that.

Yeah.

And um, but I was kind of like when I went to preaching prep meeting on Tuesday, it was like, wait a minute, I get the chapter with 52 verses in it.

I'm the guy that's been off for three months.

I haven't, I this is so pray for me that we actually I'll pray for you that we get that we that we get through this uh together as as quickly as we can.

I'm gonna call this the mission that gives life meaning.

That's gonna be the title of the sermon today.

And we're gonna get back to the book of Acts.

This is a bit of a pivot in the book of Acts.

This is where we move away from the uh birth of the church and a lot of focus on Peter.

And this time we're gonna move a little bit more into some of the actually the first recorded sermon of the Apostle Paul.

And yes, it happens to be the longest sermon of the Apostle Paul.

So as we uh begin to read this, I'll make a few comments on the way, and then we'll just summarize it up uh before we come to the Lord's table together.

We pray along with me before we read.

Our Father, as we uh gather this day to worship you and study your word, may we be reminded of what is true, may we be compelled by what is good, and may we be moved by what is beautiful about the gospel of Jesus.

Give us a clearer vision of your truth, greater faith in your power, and a more confident assurance of your love for us.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

Okay, so uh Luke summarizes uh, I'll take two steps, two verses backwards into verse uh uh chapter 12, so that we can really make it a 54-verse sermon, okay?

Um but the word of the Lord continued to grow and be multiplied.

Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.

So they're returning to where they're returning to Antioch.

Um, this is Syrian Antioch.

There are actually about a dozen cities named Antioch around the Mediterranean, and we'll see two of them today.

But that's what's happening.

And Luke keeps doing a bunch of these little summary statements like this one, where the word of the Lord continued to grow and be multiplied.

That's because people were doing what Jesus called them to do: to share the gospel with others.

And uh really beautiful.

And so they go back to Antioch, which is kind of their hometown.

And um, let me put it up on the screen for you.

This today's missionary journey is the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul.

And we'll track with this a little bit.

I'll try to point out a few things as we do.

Uh, Syrian Antioch is over here.

It's not Antioch, Tennessee.

It's Antioch right here.

And Seleucia is there.

We're about to read about that as well.

And this is the Isle of Cyprus, uh, the happy island, the beautiful island, the flourishing island it was called.

Um one of its bishops was named Macarias, the word that means uh means blessed or happy.

So this is really a beautiful place to be.

And this is where uh Barnabas, actually, it's his home uh island, if you will, his hometown is there, so it's really cool.

Um there were an Antioch, first one of chapter 13, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers.

That's good, because sometimes we need guidance and instruction.

And you want to have a little bit of both.

And in any church, I think you while titles themselves aren't as quite as important to us, functions are, and that's what we have here.

We have people who profit who speak for the Lord on behalf of the Lord, teachers who explain the word of the Lord.

That's a really good thing to have.

And I love the combination of people that we see here in verse one.

It actually reminds me of the combination of people we have at the village chapel in pastoral ministry and teaching ministry, in the sense that we are diverse.

We're all focused on teaching God's word, but we're a little bit different in how we present it and the emphasis we might put on it.

Well, here are the five that are listed here.

Barnabas, uh son of the father, his name is, or son of encouragement rather, and Simeon, who was called Niger, and yes, that means black.

It does mean that, and he may indeed have been from North Africa.

This may even be the guy that helped Jesus carry the cross as Jesus traveled from Jerusalem up in up to Mount up to Golgotha to be crucified, and there was a man named Simon.

Simeon is another version of the same name.

Some people think this is the same guy.

I don't know for sure, but it might be.

Lucius of Cyrene was there as well.

Cyrene would be North Africa as well.

And Minaan, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul Herod the Tetrarch would be Herod Antipas.

You've heard us mention all of these different Herods over the years.

There's quite a dynasty of them.

It flows from Herod the Great, who was the one that you would have heard of.

He was the king when Jesus was born.

Jesus was actually born somewhere around 5 or 6 BC, because Dionysius Exegewus, who did the Western calendar for us, didn't know that Herod the Great had died in what we now call 4 BC.

So for Jesus to be two years old, he would have had to be born in 5 or 6 BC.

Herod Antipas, one of his sons, as the Tetrarch.

That was his title.

Herod the Great was called the King.

And so here's Herod Antipas being mentioned here.

And this fella, Menaean, had been brought up with Herod.

In other words, a childhood buddy, a pal, a schoolyard friend of Herod Antipas is among the leaders in the church in Syrian Antioch.

Oh, Jesus can do amazing things when he gets a hold of somebody.

And this collection of five actually is quite strange.

There are folk from inside of Israel, outside of Israel, from different backgrounds, different walks.

You know, you have Saul and you have Barnabas, and you we've we've we've talked about this over the years as well.

Sometimes you need a Barnabas to encourage you.

Other times you need a Paul to kind of prod you along and clear things up for you, you know?

And so I love this combination of leaders in Syria and the Antioch, and it certainly helps to explain why the Christian church takes root there so deeply and bears so much fruit there.

While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, notice that's the context.

The Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

I love this.

When you want to hear from God, it's the best context is worship.

You're focused not on hearing from God necessarily, but you're focused on worshiping God.

You're fixated on Him, and He speaks to you.

Now, sometimes He you I'm reading the Bible and something jumps off the page at me, and so that, but that's a form of worship, isn't it?

Reading His Word, studying His Word, meditating on His Word.

But it's so important that the Holy Spirit, and I don't know what this sounded like.

I don't know if there was a mighty rushing wind and a voice from, you know, we don't know the answer to that.

I think there are probably a whole bunch of you know Pentecostal churches that might say they know that, but he did say clearly enough, set apart for me, and then he spoke two names in particular, Barnabas is all, for the work to which I have called them.

There's divine prerogative, not only in the fact that it's the Holy Spirit who's called them, but it's also the Holy Spirit who initiated the idea of setting them apart in the first place.

So the whole idea of missions really goes back to Acts chapter 1, verse 8, when Jesus says he's going to send us out from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.

Acts 1:8

But here the Holy Spirit also saying the same kind of thing.

I need to send them out.

When they had fasted and prayed, laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

That's beautiful.

They fasted, they prayed, they laid their hands on them, they sent them out.

Actually, the word there is they released them.

Because in the very next verse, so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, that's actually a different Greek word.

And that is more specifically sending.

He's the sort of origin source of this mission.

The church releases them, the Holy Spirit sends them.

They went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

So if we look at our map, and those of you that are watching online won't be able to see my little dancing green dot here up on the screen, but look to the right, and you'll see the little um uh couple of white uh letters there, and it's that's Antioch to Seleucia, about 15, 16 miles.

And then they're gonna head to Cyprus, the island, which is right here.

And that's about 50 miles for them, maybe a little bit more than that, to be on board ship and to make it to Cyprus.

Verse uh four.

Being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus, Barnabas' home.

When they reached Salamis, that city on the eastern edge of Cyprus, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they also had John as their helper.

So John Mark, who is, as far as we can tell, related to Barnabas.

Some say nephew.

Um, and he's along with Saul now, still called Saul, and with Barnabas on this first missions trip from uh Syria and Antioch.

So they get the Salamis, they proclaim the word of God, they go first to the synagogues, that's smart.

Those are people that are monotheists, they believe in one God instead of many gods, so it begins with them.

They're also uh of Jewish background themselves, so that makes sense too.

So they connect with them right there.

And they also had John as their helper.

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, that's about 90 miles across, and that's on the western side of the uh island there that you can see on the map.

They found a magician, a Jewish false prophet, whose name was Bar Jesus.

What a strange name.

I listened to a little bit of country music while we were on sabbatical.

Anybody?

We have any country music fans here?

Wow, it's a Nashville church.

I don't see any hands up.

Man, we better do a little bit of homework around here.

Know a little bit about there's a song about a bar named Jesus that's quite popular right now.

And it's about people looking for solace, comfort, not in alcohol, but in Jesus.

It's a really interesting song.

I had to look it up because I saw this guy's name.

Bar means son of.

This guy is named Son of Jesus.

Jesus meaning God is salvation.

Yahushua.

Yahshua.

It's the same name that we read in the Old Testament, Joshua, which basically means God is salvation.

He's the son of God of salvation, and yet he's a magician.

He's actually fighting against the salvation that's on offer through Jesus.

Watch this.

And he was with this Bar Jesus guy, was with the Pro-Consul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence.

What an interesting resume that is.

He was a smart guy.

Not a wise guy, like a wise guy in the mob or anything, but a smart, very smart man, intelligent man.

And this guy, this magician, Bar Jesus, had worked his way into a relationship with the pro-consul, Sergius Paulus.

And this man summoned Barnabas, Sergius Paulus did, summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

So he's the complete opposite of Bar-Jesus, isn't he?

He's interested in hearing from the word of God.

Bar Jesus is not.

Elemus, the magician, for so his name is translated, so Elemus, uh, was opposing them, seeking to turn the pro-council away from the faith.

And who is your Elemus?

Who is my, who is it that turns us away from the Lord?

Sometimes in my own life, as I look back over the years, I've had to weigh and evaluate and assess some of the people, places, props in my life.

And some of them had needed to go for me to be able to walk with Jesus and to walk faithfully with Jesus.

Elemus is trying to steer Sergius Paulus away from hearing the gospel.

But Saul, verse 9, who was also known as Paul, everybody, big sigh of relief there.

We've now moved from Saul to Paul.

Saul is his Hebrew name.

And Paul is not a different name, it's simply the Roman or Latin version of the same name.

He's actually quite wisely doing this as he goes into Gentile territory throughout the Roman Empire.

He wants to connect, he wants to relate.

He doesn't want his name to be some kind of a you know barrier.

So Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit.

And by the way, we believe here at the village chapel in one baptism of the Holy Spirit, but many fillings of the Holy Spirit.

This isn't the first time Paul's been filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's not, we read of Peter, the Apostle Peter being filled by the Holy Spirit multiple times in the book of Acts.

So here he is, and he fixes his gaze on this guy, uh Bar Jesus, Elemus, and with righteous anger he says this You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straightways of the Lord?

Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you.

You will be blind and not see the sun for a time.

And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.

And some of you are thinking, Paul, please calm down.

That's not very southern nice of you, is it, to do that kind of thing.

Oh, but you have to understand what the burning passion in Paul's heart is.

You say, He is preaching the gospel, and people need the Lord.

People need to hear the gospel.

And so for Paul, this guy's interference was a great uh problem.

And so he speaks this way and literally causes this guy to become blind in a mist of darkness that fell on him.

And he went about seeking those.

It's interesting to me too, because when the Lord Jesus in Acts chapter 9, when the Lord Jesus appeared to Paul or to Saul on the road to Damascus, what was the net result of Jesus having appeared to him in that bright shining light?

Acts 9 · chapter mention

What happened to Saul, then Saul?

He was blinded by the light.

And he had to be held by the hand and walked around.

And maybe he knew, I don't know this, I'm speculating.

Maybe he knew that a season of that physical blindness would do this guy some good.

It seemed to have done Saul some good as well.

What happened with the Sergius Paulus fellow, verse 12?

The proconsul believed.

There's two different results.

One is fighting against God, the other is saying, I believe.

What caused him to believe?

When he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.

So here, folks, is your recipe for evangelism: words and deeds.

Words and deeds.

John Stott famously put that little couplet that will pair together, and it's so true.

We need to preach the gospel in both word and deed.

Paul and his companions put out the sea from Paphos.

They came to Perga.

I think that's about uh 300 miles actually up there on the map that you can see.

So they're going to mainland now in Pamphylia.

But John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

We don't really know why John Mark left them there.

Um people speculate that he got sick.

Other people speculate that he's just the trip over the sea was made him just crazy.

There's lots of different speculations on it.

Why did he leave?

It seemed to have caused a split because the next time Paul and Barnabas decide to go out, Barnabas wants to take John Mark with him again, and Paul doesn't want him to come because he saw him as a quitter.

And so two missionary teams went out instead of one.

And um, yet it did cause a little bit of a rift.

Later, all of that seems to have been healed up between Paul and John Mark as we read through the epistles of Paul.

But going on from Perga, they arrived at Poseidian Antioch.

Now that's that's like a hundred miles inland.

And why did they go there?

There's some great archaeological um uh information.

Matter of fact, Joyce Alfrey shared this with us, that um Ben Witherton, Ben Witherington uh put together in an article that Sergius Paulus, who's got uh a name before that, uh Lucius Sergius Paulus, and that he actually is from um um Pisidian Antioch here.

And so he may have sent a letter along with Paul and Barnabas and John Mark, a letter saying to, and remember, he's like the governor of that island, Cyprus.

And for him to send a letter of endorsement home to, if this is indeed his home, that's an amazing entree for Paul and for the gospel as well.

So they went from Perga, they went to Poseidon Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and they sat down after reading the law, and the prophets, the synagogue officials sent to them saying, Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.

Now, folks, that's what I call slow pitch softball.

For anybody who shares the gospel.

If I ever sit down on a plane and somebody sees me reading my Bible or wants to talk to me and figures out that somehow or another finds out that I'm a pastor, and they say, What is it you believe?

That's the same kind of thing this is.

Slow-pitch softball.

Somebody who asks you what you believe and why.

So if you have some word of exhortation for the people, say it.

Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said, and this is his first sermon, and I'll read this through a little bit quickly.

You hang with me and keep your eyes on the page so that it sinks in a little bit better.

Men of Israel and you who fear God.

Remember, he's in a synagogue, he's often going to the synagogues first.

Men of Israel and you who fear God.

God fearers would be, uh could be Gentiles who are now believers in one God instead of a pantheon of gods.

Listen, the God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers, made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

And with an uplifted arm, he led them out from it.

For a period of about 40 years, he put up with them in the wilderness.

I love that way, that that said.

God put up with them in the wilderness.

That's interesting.

When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land as an inheritance, all of which took about 450 years.

Some of you are doing the math, you know that they were in Egypt for 400 years, you know they were in the wilderness for 40 years.

How do we get to 450?

How about 10 years to take the land, to take possession of the land?

Doesn't that make a little bit of sense?

After these things, he, God, gave them judges until Samuel the prophet when they asked for a king.

God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years.

After he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, concerning whom he also testified and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will.

Oh, there's a resume right there.

Underline that.

That's a very desirable resume, even though we know David goes on to fall multiple times in many different ways.

But his heart was inclined toward God.

What a great way to be re remembered.

23.

From the descendants of this man according to a promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus.

After John had proclaimed before him coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

That's John the Baptist.

And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, What do you suppose that I am?

This is John the Baptist talking.

I'm not he, in other words, I'm not the Messiah, but behold, one is coming after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.

Brethren, sons of Abraham's family, and those among you who fear God, to us, the message of this salvation has been sent.

For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, recognizing neither him nor the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning him.

There are seven, I'll give you a little highlights magazine if you're over 40, 50 years of age or whatever.

You've been to the dentist, you know you're supposed to find three or four squirrels in that drawing in the highlights magazine in the dentist's office, right?

Look for seventh.

I'm not going to stop and point him out.

We don't have time.

But I'm going to tell you there's at least seven fulfillment issues here.

Though they found no ground for putting him to death, they asked Pilate that he be executed.

When they carried out all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb.

But God raised him from the dead.

I love verse 30.

But God raised him from the dead.

Just, man, that's worth sticking on your mirror, putting inside your car.

Just remind yourself every now and then why?

Because this is what uniquely qualifies Jesus to be our Savior.

And this is why the resurrection is in every single one of the sermons in the book of Acts.

It's at least casually mentioned or referred to.

24 sermons.

Verse 30.

Yeah, that's really, really, really powerful.

31.

And for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now his witnesses to the people.

In other words, they're still alive.

You could talk to them if you want to.

They've seen Jesus alive.

Okay.

We preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers.

Definite reach back to Old Testament in that sort of thing.

That God has fulfilled this promise to our children and that he raised up Jesus.

As it is also written in the second Psalm, you are my son.

Today I have begotten you.

That's from Psalm 2.

And as for the fact that he raised him, that God raised Jesus up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, he has spoken in this way, Isaiah, I think it's 55, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.

Therefore, he also says in another Psalm, this is Psalm 16, you will not allow your holy one to undergo decay.

Do you see what Paul's doing here?

In the synagogue, all these guys know the Old Testament.

He's connecting dot after dot after dot after dot to Jesus.

And saying, Jesus is the one in whom all of this is fulfilled, so beautiful, so powerful.

David, after he had served the purposes of God in his own generation, fell asleep, verse 36.

He was laid among his fathers and went, underwent decay.

But he whom God raised did not undergo decay.

Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through him, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, through him, everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses.

In other words, you would not be able to live a perfect life and obey the law completely.

You won't be able to be freed from the law of Moses.

Well then how can we be set free?

Through him you can be set free.

That's what he's saying, right?

Therefore, take heed, verse 40 says, so that the things spoken of you and the prophets may not come upon you.

Behold, you scoffers, marvel, and perish, for I'm accomplishing a work in your days, a work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.

As Paul, and this is the this is it, you know, Luke taking back over here, as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath.

In other words, come back, come back to our synagogue.

Revival is kind of breaking out here, isn't it?

There's a curiosity about Christianity and about the gospel.

And then when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who's speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

So Paul and Barnabas literally are saying, just like the book of Galatians, written, which I'm now recording that for the Timeless Truth podcast to be to be aired later.

But the but the book of Galatians is all about Paul saying, don't forget the gospel.

Don't forget, you've been set free by Christ.

Don't fall back into bondage again of law following.

Um and so so uh the the apostle Paul here says, you you want to continue in the grace of God, verse 44.

The next Sabbath, nearly a whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord.

You see how, man, word is getting out, it's good news, it's drawing everybody in.

It's a compelling message.

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and they were blaspheming.

Okay.

That's man, we we have a completely different response to them.

Between these religious folks, where you expect to see faith, instead of these pagans, these Gentiles, some of these, and yes, some of the Jews that were in that synagogue, but a mixed group, they're excited, they want to hear.

But these religious experts, these guys with all the seminary degrees, nah, they're not interested.

As a matter of fact, they're angry.

Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first.

Since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

Wow, that's a little bit of you almost can hear the mic drop, and but there weren't microphones back then.

For so the Lord has commanded us, this is Isaiah 49, and I've placed you as a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.

See, Jewish people didn't think of the Gentiles that way.

They thought they were the only chosen ones.

And you, for him to say, Isaiah's claiming that you could be a light for the Gentiles, that would have offended them.

When the Gentiles heard this, though, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life, believed.

See, they're the who wouldn't want that crowd.

And the and the religious people are the I don't want anyone to have that crowd.

Maybe you knew some people like that when you were growing up.

Some legalist type people.

Maybe you grew up in a legalistic church and they just wanted to make sure everybody was as uh cantankerous and grumpy-faced as they were.

And that if anybody was resting in the grace of God, they wanted to find a way to spoil it.

Yeah.

Well, a summary statement by Luke the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region.

But the Jews incited the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, so sort of the elite folks, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district, and then but they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.

And the disciples were continually complaining about being victim.

No, the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Awesome.

That's the end of chapter 13.

We'll pick up the rest of the first missionary journey when we get to uh next week when we get to chapter 14.

You can see up a little bit closer what's happening here uh in terms of their travels, and I'll just want to just you know kind of uh focus in a little bit on it just for a second.

But yeah, they go here here's where they began, Antioch, and here's the Syria, uh the Pisidian Antioch, where they end here in chapter 13.

Now in chapter 14, they'll run down this way and take that leg before they go all the way back.

The whole trip, round trip without a Waymo.

1400 miles, land and sea.

And by the way, the sea part, not Royal Caribbean cruise.

Rickety old wooden boat put together with a bunch of bent boards and pitch or tar.

And these guys are eager and excited about going.

Well, the lot the mission that gives life meaning is our overall theme, and I want to just quickly uh summarize where I think it fits here.

Um, here with Barnabas and Paul and John Mark II, we might say, we see that they have a calling.

It's in verses one and two.

The source of the calling is mentioned, the scope of the calling is is also uh mentioned, and the significance of the calling.

If we were taking notes and trying to get all of that in, I'd I'd look for that.

The source.

Well, if if we're curious about our calling in life, our meaning in life, what's what we're what's our purpose in life, where do you think we ought to look?

And I I think chapters like this help us.

Now, the book of Acts is more descriptive than it is prescriptive.

So it this chapter is not sort of the lesson in how you can discern God's will for your lesson.

The intent of the chapter.

The intent of the chapter is to describe to us this first missionary journey that went out, how the gospel begins to move west.

And I love it that it happened on that map there, but I really love it that it also came over here to Nashville, Tennessee, and that's why we're sitting here.

Um that's a really good thing for all of us.

What was it about that though?

The source of the calling?

Well, it was divine, that's why.

Um, and I know you're sitting there, somebody going, Yeah, I wish the Lord would speak to me sometimes like that.

Matter of fact, I remember when I asked for Kim's hand in marriage, her parents, I said, Hey, I'd like to marry Kim.

What do y'all think?

And um, and her dad essentially said no three times, I asked.

And on the on the last time, Kim had a little conversation with him.

You know, the captain in the Navy and the hundred-pound, you know, little 20-year-old that she was, or whatever.

And she says, What do you want?

A three by five card from God?

And he said, That would be nice.

And we don't get three by five cards from God, do we?

No, we don't.

Um, but we can still discern what the will of God is for our lives.

In a very general sense, when we look at the book of Acts, it's in verse 8 of chapter 1.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth.

And folks, that map and where we live are part of that remotest part of the earth, to the ends of the scope of our calling is massive.

The significance of our calling is that we need to help people figure out who they are, why they're alive, and is there a God?

And does that God love them?

And the good news we have with the gospel that we carry around with us, whether we're going to the Isle of Cyprus, the city and Antioch, or we're just going to green hills, okay?

Or Franklin, whatever.

The good news of the gospel is what we have.

And it's a God who's actually paying attention, who actually calls us to himself, draws us to himself, and wants us to be his sons and daughters in a beautiful way.

And then it's not just to come and get stuff.

No, it's a he's sending us out as well.

Um, and he and he wants us to go out and preach the uh the gospel and share the good news with others.

It's about your ontology, not just your biography, not just your story.

I know there's a lot of emphasis today on what's your story and all that sort of thing, and that's fine.

Um, but you're who you are ontologically is way more important.

What kind of being are you?

And you are now, according to the Apostle Paul, who would later write this we are ambassadors for Christ.

As though God was making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

That's the mess, that's sort of another way of saying the essence of the gospel.

God wants us to be reconciled to him.

He doesn't want there to be a barrier between other any of your friends, your family members, anybody you work with, whatever.

He doesn't want there to be a barrier between you and him at all.

He is in it to reconcile us.

The question is, will we share the good news of this great gospel?

Paul Tripp, some of you are familiar with him from some of the books we've quoted before.

He said, I wonder what an army we could be if we took our calling seriously.

Ah, the variety of choices that God has made for us to position us in certain places to be part of what he's doing.

We don't like calling.

We like faithfulness, we lack seriousness, we lack willingness, we lack perseverance.

Yeah, because sometimes the going gets tough out there.

Sometimes the boat seems rickety and creaky and like it's gonna go down.

Whether you're the disciples on the Sea of Galilee in Mark chapter 4, or you're the Apostle Paul and Barnabas and John Mark in a ship trying to get from Paphos up to Perga in the Pamphylia region.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Sometimes it gets like a bumpy ride for us, right?

But Paul's right, Paul Tripp is right here, saying that we are, we've all been placed strategically where we are for the purpose of God's calling on our lives.

Now, there's also here a commission, and I really like this as well.

The mission that gives life meaning includes calling, but it also includes this commission.

Verse three, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

This reminds us of the importance of a community of faith, a church like this, that you're a part of what you might call your home church.

And in that one verse, four actions: fasting, praying, laying on of hands, sending, or really releasing, I think is the better translation, English translation of that verb there.

You see, these are people who together exercise spiritual disciplines and commitment and they worship God, they seek to hear from God, they're ready to surrender everything to God, and they're ready to move when God says move.

They're also ready to remain silent when God says remain silent.

But the fact is they're attentive to the Lord in all of it, and they're attentive together.

See, I need you.

You need each other.

We all need each other to be able to, because when I'm listening to the Lord, so often my ambitions or my anxieties, either one, get in the way, and I don't quite clearly understand what God's will might be in any given moment.

So I'm so glad to have the word, obviously, but to also have the community of faith where I can go to my friends who are on, they're they're partners in mission with me.

They commissioned Paul and Barnabas to go.

They sent out with this church, local church in Syrian Antioch, saying, Go and yes, and amen.

And you go with our full support.

Being a part of the local church really matters in this world where so many of you have friends, and so do I, and family members, who have, as we might say, deconstructed.

Well, partly that's because they got de-attached.

And when you get de-attached, you start to lose sight of the beauty and the majesty and the holiness of who God is and our great need for God.

And you're not reminded of the things that matter, and pretty soon your faith just begins to fade and fade away.

So we need a commission.

Our friend Christopher Wright says, mission is not ours, it's God's.

It is not so much the case that God has a mission for his church in the world, but that God has a church for his mission in the world.

Mission was not made for the church, the church was made for mission.

God's mission.

See, it's not Lord, you know, that Syrian Antioch church, they weren't going, Lord, we see that Paul, that Paul or Saul here at the time, we see that Saul is a really gifted orator, so let's get him a book deal and send him out on a real big promo tour.

And, you know, it's not about chasing his dreams unless your dreams are the same dreams that the Lord Jesus has.

And so when we get with the Lord, when we pray, when we fast together as a community, when we're exercising those spiritual disciplines, either as individuals, but more hopefully we're doing that in a group, we hear from God more clearly.

And so we are co-missioned out into the world to do this.

Third, a compelling message, the mission that gives life meaning, a calling from God, not just an ambition or an urge of mine.

Um, a co-mission that is that I have a group of people to speak into my life, and they release me to be involved in mission for God.

They confirm and affirm that's what you should do.

And that's a beautiful thing.

Helps keep us accountable, but a compelling message too.

And we just heard it, didn't we?

We read through the Apostle Paul's sermon that he offered in Poseidon Antioch there about how the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, and how for all of history, it's very much modeled a little bit after Stephen's uh sermon in Acts chapter 7, I think it is.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

And it's just amazing how the rehearsing the history of how God has been in pursuit of a people he can call his own, just continues to say, this is the kind of God the God of the Bible is.

And so if you happen to be a person who's looking for meaning in your life and you're not finding meaning, even though you've made, you've acquired much, you've achieved much, you've got all kinds of things going on, and yet you still find yourself going, there's got to be more.

There's gotta be more.

I mean, there's a whole lot of wealthy celebrities that are in Betty Ford clinics, you know, over the years.

Because all the fame and fortune, wealth and all that stuff just didn't satisfy them.

And if you're looking for that kind of satisfaction, I'm gonna tell you, you watch these guys.

These guys are at peace later when they're sitting in a in a cell, in a prison cell, and at midnight they break into an a cappella hymn sing.

It's awesome.

But their compelling message is that this God of the Bible has been in pursuit of a people he can call his own for years and years and years, and still is in that same business as he is today as well.

Our compelling message is that in Christ, the oldest promises in the world have been kept.

Yeah, I love that.

And then Paul caps it off in verse 38 and 39 with that declare declaration that really is an invitation.

Look at 38 and 39.

He doesn't say to them, hey, you guys, try harder.

No, no, he doesn't say that.

He's really saying, believe the great news of the resurrected Christ and be set free.

So why are we so timid?

Why are we so shy when we have this compelling message of the gospel?

I know some of you have heard that old line that's attributed to St.

Francis: preach the gospel at times, use words if necessary.

Well, here's one from St.

Thomas.

None of us are that holy.

Words are indeed necessary.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you're just gonna rest on the, I'm just gonna live my life, let my life speak.

You need to talk to your wife a little bit more.

You need to get to know some of your friends a little bit better and let them tell you what your life actually looks like, okay?

I mean, that's just not that's not gonna fly.

So, St.

Francis, lots of respect and everything, but man, we need words.

The resurrection of Jesus was a kind of, and which is a central part of Paul's messages and the entire book of Acts, as we know, uh, was a kind of nuclear explosion which sent out the radioactive cloud.

Not lethal, though, but life-giving.

The mission of the church is simply the continuing communication of that joy.

Joy in the Lord.

How did our chapter end?

The disciples were continually filled with what?

Joy and with the Holy Spirit.

And this is after they got run out of town.

And it's gonna happen over and over again in the book of Acts.

They're gonna get people throwing stones at them, they're gonna try to kill them, they're gonna run them out of town, and yet they're rejoicing and they're singing and they're praising the Lord.

How do you keep that kind of thing down?

You don't.

They have a proper confidence in the Holy Spirit, and that's the last thing I that's my four points I wanted to make today.

The mission that gives life meaning includes a proper confidence in the Holy Spirit.

See, I don't just I don't just pump myself up and tell them, hey, you know, Coach, Coach Jim, you know, you can do it, boy, get back up there.

You know, no, it's not that.

Our proper confidence when we are weak, when we have been betrayed, when we have things haven't gone our way.

Our proper confidence is not in ourselves to be able to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.

The only proper confidence that you can have is the proper confidence that you find when you put your trust, your hope, and your confidence in the one who got up from the dead.

That's why I think this gospel is such good news, you see.

So we need to have a proper confidence in him.

Martin Lloyd Jones, the Holy Spirit is not given that we may have wonderful experiences, marvelous sensations within us.

That's certainly a part of the work of the Spirit, but it's not the primary object.

Primary object is that the Lord may be known.

The goal of missions is joyful worship.

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.

Worship is.

Missions exist because worship doesn't.

Ultimate uh worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.

When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.

It's a temporary necessity, but worship abides forever.

So true.

So sum it up this way: Jesus didn't just set us free from something, he set us free for something.

You got that?

Just let that sink in a little bit, maybe over lunch.

Did he set us free from our sins?

Yes, he did.

Did he set us free from the penalty of our sins?

Yes, he did.

Did he set us free from the power of sin?

Yes, he did.

And while they will gratefully set us free from the presence of sin.

But he has also set us free for something.

And that's what I think Acts 13 and the rest of the book of Acts is going to remind us of.

The Holy Spirit calls, equips, and empowers us to rise and face the task unfinished.

Why is it unfinished?

Because the map, the globe, that map was just the Roman Empire, basically, the Mediterranean area.

Paul will write later in Acts, he's, or rather, in the book of Romans, that he's hoping to get to go to Spain.

You know, he wants to keep going further west, you know.

Whether he made it or not, we don't know.

But there's a big world.

There are a lot of people that need to hear.

I'm so grateful for a church like this that wants to reach the world.

Proper confidence for witness is not generated by us, it is received by us from the Holy Spirit.

And see, that's what that's what empowers the Apostle Paul to be able to stand back up after everyone has run him out of town and go, in some cases, go right back into town and preach the gospel again.

In other cases, move on to the next town, following the lead of the Holy Spirit.

Now, I guess here's the question for us here.

To whom might the Holy Spirit be sending you to speak of Jesus this week?

And you read a chapter like this, and you go, man, that's cool.

That's that's great history of the church.

I really enjoy that.

Really like the fact that, you know, the Apostle Paul was ready to go, and Barnabas, you know, it's Paul, Barnabas, and John, Mark, that's P, B, and J.

So that's the first mention of that, right?

What an awesome thing, you know, that they got out there and and and that they did what they did.

But you know what?

If they hadn't done what they did and the countless number of others that we don't even know their names down through the ages who've done that, we wouldn't be sitting here today.

We wouldn't know that there's a God who loves us enough to come on a rescue mission to save us.

You have friends and family members.

Would you close your eyes with me just for a moment?

I want to invite the Lord to put on our hearts right now one or two people.

Could be a family member in your own household, could be a coworker, a friend.

And Holy Spirit, I'm just gonna ask you to this week create some opportunities for us.

Um, some slow-pitched softball stuff where somebody either asks us a question or where we hear a related conversation, and now that we're awake, evangelistically speaking, we might actually, prompted by you, Holy Spirit, we might actually ask them a question that might lead to a greater discussion about your great love for them.

Use us in any way you would, Lord.

We're here, we're yours.

Um, and we thank you that that you have given us even the opportunity and the dignity to be able to be involved with you and on your mission, uh, Lord.

We're grateful for that.

But I pray that that would actually happen this week for some of our folk here and those who are watching along with us online.

In Jesus' name, we pray this.

Amen and amen.