ACTS 13:1-12THE PROCONSUL(03.07.2016)

ACTS 13:1-12

1Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. 2While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. 4So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them.6When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus.7He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. 8But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11And now listen--the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand. 12When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.

DIVERSITY

The prophets and teachers named in verse one are a culturally diverse bunch for such a small number of people.

  • Barnabas was a Jew originally from Cyprus but he was based in the church at Jerusalem.
  • Simeon is a Jewish name but he was called ‘Niger’, meaning that he was black, and therefore he was probably of African descent.
  • Lucius was from Cyrene, which was in North Africa (present-day Libya).
  • Manaen was a Jewish name, and he was a foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, since he was from the court of Herod.
  • Saul, the highly educated Jew from Tarsus is mentioned last.
  • John is also mentioned in verse 5 as being with them to assist them.

The church in Antioch had a culturally diverse leadership totally in keeping with the cultural diversity of the population of the city.

  • If any church is not to exclude people, then it must include them not just in membership, but in leadership too.

It is also important to note that the Holy Spirit called for the church at Antioch to release their best leaders for the work to which he called them.

  • The Christian community at Antioch was not jealously holding onto its leaders but, as we will see later, it had to be the Holy Spirit who set them apart and then sent them out.

DEEDS AND WORDS

12When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.

Signs and wonders were what converted Sergius Paulus – not mere words alone.

  • If our evangelism consists only of words that are devoid of the power of the Holy Spirit, then we are not only wasting everyone’s time, but we may also actually be working against God, instead of for him.
  • True evangelism in the power of the Holy Spirit is our strategic response to the work of the Holy Spirit.
  • True evangelism in the power of the Holy Spirit will always change people’s lives through what God does and says.

MATTHEW 9:37,38

37Then Jesus said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest."

If what you do in a harvest field is reap, why is the vast majority of evangelism based on sowing?

Sergius Paulus was ‘an intelligent man’ and that means that he was well-educated, and that he was a man who was able to think deeplyand to think with great wisdom.

  • He was a provincial governor historically from “a family which rendered distinguished service to the empire in the first and second centuries.”
  • He was no simpleton that would be easily impressed only by signs and wonders that were actually common place in those days.

Sergius Paulus believed firstly because he “saw what had happened” and secondly because he “was astonished at the teaching about the Lord”.

  • Both of these aspects are essential, and preaching without the power of the Holy Spirit will never produce a lasting impact nor a genuine conversion.
  • There are many, many voices speaking and shouting in our world today.
  • We need to remember that any preaching, teaching, witnessing or anything that we do will just be another voice among the multitude of voices if it is not accompanied by, and delivered in, the power of the Holy Spirit.
  • True evangelism is never a mere exchange of views, it is never just a sharing of beliefs, it is never just a giving ofour opinion to other people.
  • True evangelism always changes people’s lives.
  • Our whole driving force in true evangelism is that people should meet Jesus who is still doing acts of kindness today.

MYTHBUSTERS

In verse nine we are told that Saul “was also called Paul”, and from this moment on this is the name used in Acts (except later when he himself relates the story of his own conversion).

As a Jew he would have proudly borne the name of Israel’s first king, Saul, who like him was from the tribe of Benjamin.

Roman citizens had three names: a praenomen, a nomen, and a cognomen.

  • The apostle’s first two names are not mentioned in the New Testament.
  • Paul (in Greek: Paulos, meaning “little”) was his Roman cognomen, and inscriptions show that often the cognomen of Jews often sounded like their Jewish name, as is the case here.
  • As Paul entered the Gentile phase of his ministry, he would have gone by his Roman name – his cognomen.
  • In a Jewish context he was known as Saul; in a Gentile context he was known as Paul.
  • Thus, the idea that Saulchanged his nameto Paul after his conversion is quite wrong.

SET APART AND SENT OUT

It was while the church at Antioch was worshipping and fasting, that the Holy Spirit said that he wanted Barnabas and Saul set apart for a particular task.

After the church had fasted and laid hands on Barnabas and Saul, they were sent out by the Holy Spiritto go to Cyprus.

This highlights a most important truth that we need to grasp.

You will remember that I said recently that worship is a unique and personal encounter with God.

WORSHIP – THAT UNIQUE AND PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH GOD IS THE ONLY WAY THAT ANYONE SHOULD EVER BE SENT OUT ANYWHERE.

  • Only God can send people out.
  • Only in worship will God send a person out.

In every Scriptural account of a person or people being sent out anywhere, it was always God who sent and he alwayssent the person out in their act of worship.

It was nevera human being that sent anyone out anywhere for any reason.

Let’s get some examples todemonstrate this very important truth…

ABRAM

GENESIS 12:1

1Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.”

MOSES

EXODUS 3:1-4

1Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." 4When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!"

ISAIAH

ISAIAH 6:1,5,8

1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 5And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" 8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"

JESUS’ DISCIPLES

MATTHEW 28:16,17

16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped him…

SAUL

ACTS 9:1-5

1Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" 5He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

It is God alone who sends anyone out anywhere and it will always be from that place of worship.

God never sends out from a distance.

ISRAEL AND GENTILES

Christ’s command to go into all the world was given to his Jewish disciples, but not to Gentile disciples.

Let me explain.

All through the old covenant days, Israel had been the apple of God’s eye to whom the nations of the world could come and join with order to learn of YHWH and his ways from Israel.

  • Aliens and strangers could join Israel by fulfilling the required conditions and so becoming a real part of God’s people.
  • Israel was intended to have been a magnet to the nations, drawing people physically and spiritually to join with God’s own people and so to be treated exactly the same as God’s own people.
  • These incomers were subject to exactly the same requirements as true Israelites, and their joys and sorrows were the same too.

Here are just two old covenant Scriptures:

LEVITICUS 19:33,34

When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

2 CHRONICLES 30:25

The whole assembly of Judah, the priests and the Levites, and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the resident aliens who came out of the land of Israel, and the resident aliens who lived in Judah, rejoiced.

But something extraordinary happened on that mountain top when the risen Jesus met with his disciples.

MATTHEW 28:16-20

16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

In this passage from Matthew 28, Jesus turned Israel’s history completely on its head.

  • Jesus sent his Jewish disciples out to the nations, instead of how it had been when YHWH was calling the nations to come to Israel.
  • No longer wasIsrael to be a magnet for God; drawing the nations to them.
  • Instead, Jesus sent them out to the nations.
  • This was a radical departure from the old covenant ways.
  • The true Israel of God no longer heard God call to the nations, “Come to Israel”.
  • The true Israel of God heard Jesus say to Israel, “Go to the nations.”

But Jesus onlysaid that to his own Jewish disciples who had followed him faithfully; he never said it to Gentiles, and neither did the apostle Paul.

Israel no longer draws people to God by drawing them to herself.

There has been a massive shift of role.

  • The result of that shift is that Israel today is indeed still a magnet to the nations, but not in the way that God had originally intended.
  • Instead, what has happened is that, in the world’s eyes, Israel has become a land, rather than a people.
  • Israel has become a tourist attraction, instead of being the revelation of Messiah.
  • Israel is all about the Holy Land nowadays, not the holy people.

The God of Israel has been overshadowed by the people of Israel and especially by the land of Israel.

  • The travel agents and many Christians say, “Come and walk where Jesus walked! Come see the holy places.”
  • But that is not the way it was meant to be.
  • No!
  • It was meant to be: “Come and meet Jesus.Come pay the cost of being one with him.”

The magnet that was Israel has had its poles reversed!

  • Instead of drawing people to themselves as the nation of YHWH, they are themselves now to go to the nations.

So, then, how often did Paul, who Jesus sent as the apostle to the Gentiles, quote this so-called ‘Great Commission’ to the Gentiles in his writings?

  • Interestingly enough, he never did.

Well, ok then, how often did Paul refer to it in some way, perhaps even with just a brief reference?

  • Interestingly enough, he never did.

Ok, ok, but how often did Paul speak about sending Gentiles out in the style of the ‘Great Commission’?

  • Interestingly enough, he never did.

Does this not cause us as Gentile Christians to stop and think for a while?

Christ’s own apostle to the Gentiles seemingly completely ignored this so-called ‘Great Commission’.

  • Why?

Because God’s consistent call to the Gentile church in the New Testament is to build community.

More than that, it is a call to build to build community in which Jesus himself dwells and is made manifest.

  • The calling of God that had originally been on Israel has now been transferred to the Gentiles – for a season.

But the writings of Paul go even further than calling Gentile Christians to be a community in which Christ is seen and known.

As Gentiles, we seem to have totally missed that we should be ambassadors for Christ in whichever kind of community that we find ourselves a part of, whether that is at home, work, school, play or church.

  • We are not ambassadors for a church, nor for a neighbourhood, nor for a denomination, nor a particular theological point of view.

We are to be Christ-centered in the communities in which we find ourselves moment by moment and day by day.

The calling of God that was once on Israel is now on the Gentiles.

GOD’S CALLING TO CITY GATES

Be Christ-like in your families, with your wives, with your husbands, with your children, with your parents and with all your relatives.

Be Christ-like when you are gathered together as saints – whether there are three of you or whether there are three thousand of you.

Be Christ-like wherever and whenever you find yourselves – whether at work, whether at leisure, whether at the pub, whether doing the shopping, whether dealing with your children, or whatever you are doing.

God’s highest calling to us as Christians at City Gates is our lives together that are marked by sacrificial love for one another.