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Acts 13:1-4
13:1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,1 Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
[1] 13:1
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Invite you to open your bibles to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. If you have children, you you understand this pretty well, but, sometimes you could be talking to your child and they're looking at you. They might be nodding their head, but they are not listening to you in the slightest. Or even times when they do hear you, especially when they're very young and they hear you, they just don't do whatever you ask of them.
Joel Brooks:I can remember Caroline when, she was probably almost 2, maybe a little one and a half or so. And, she got a pen and she drew all over her arm. Permanent ink pen. And, we didn't, you know, punish her or anything because you don't know. You you don't know as a child that you're not supposed to do that.
Joel Brooks:And so we sat Caroline down and said, Caroline, from now on, do look at me look at me in the eye. Okay. You do not do that anymore. Yes, daddy. And I remember one time hearing this screaming coming out of her room.
Joel Brooks:The shouting of, No, No. And and I went in her room, and there was Caroline with a pen drawing all over herself going, no. No. She's knowing it was wrong. And and I looked at her, and she put the pen down, and she started spanking herself.
Joel Brooks:And and it's like she she knew what I'd asked. She knew it was wrong, and yet she just she didn't have the power. It it was I was I was a little worried. I was expecting her head to start spinning around, but it's it's like she didn't have the power to obey. What we're gonna look at tonight is hearing from the Lord and not just actually getting a new word, hearing from him clearly, but then being equipped and given the power to obey what we seem as some see as something very difficult.
Joel Brooks:So when I begin reading Acts chapter 13, we're only gonna read the first three verses or four verses. Now they were in the church in Antioch, prophets and teachers. Barnabas and Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a member of the court of Herod, the tetrarch, and Saul. 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. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Joel Brooks:So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. And from there, they sailed to Cyprus. Pray with me. God, we pray that you would honor the very reading of your word, that even now the the resistance that we have, and we all have resistance to it, would, through the power of your spirit, begin crumbling down. We we've read a lot of things this week.
Joel Brooks:The Lord, this is your word. And so give our minds and our hearts, the ability to hear from you. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your word remain and may it changes. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:It would be hard to overstate the significance of the words that we just read. Acts 13 is a not just a life changing or church changing event. It is a world changing event that we just read. It's not an exaggeration. If this church at Antioch cannot committed themselves to worshiping and fasting and God had not spoken to them and and commissioned these people out, then the world as we know it would be totally different.
Joel Brooks:For 1, we wouldn't have 13 letters in our new testament from Paul because he wrote those letters on his missionary journeys. We wouldn't have the globalization of Christianity. We wouldn't have a over a 1000000000 people who call themselves Christians because this is the 1st organized missionary effort by the church. And so what we're seeing here is a world changing event, and it's one that took place in a gathering much smaller than this. Last week, we looked at the church of Antioch where they were first called Christians and, and how this church was exploding in growth.
Joel Brooks:Actually, three times in chapter 11 alone, Luke makes a point to say how they're growing and that there's a great number. You know, verse 21 says, and a great number who believe turns to the Lord. Verse 24, and a great many people were added to the Lord. Verse 26, and for a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people. And so you get this picture of it's just mushrooming, and it's just growing exponentially this new young church.
Joel Brooks:This new young church. And God's also also had given this church some amazing leaders. You have Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manion, and Saul, a very solid diverse group of leaders. They represent 4 different racial groups coming from 3 different continents in this church. And so it's a church personally that I'd love to be a part of.
Joel Brooks:You would probably love to be part of a church like this in which, you know, it's growing, it's diverse, it's got amazing teachers and leaders. But now they're at this point where they're asking, where do we go from here? Now that you've started this work, now that you've grown this work, what's next? You know, have they, have they arrived as a church and they're simply supposed to, you know, maybe circle their wagons and kind of, protect the movement that God has started with them. I'm sure there was a temptation for them to do so because they've got to be thinking this is a great spot.
Joel Brooks:I mean, we're in a needy city, we're in an influential city. You know, God is growing us. We're having an impact. We're making a difference here. Let's just focus on ourselves and what we're doing here.
Joel Brooks:There had to be that temptation. But thankfully, through a time of worship, a time of fasting and praying, God moved them to do something different. He directed them to be part of that first missionary movement and to actually send 2 of their best out. When they send out Saul or Paul and and Barnabas, God is asking them to to send away their 2 best people. I mean, churches simply don't do that.
Joel Brooks:They don't send out the very best, the people who do everything. These people were indispensable, and God says, you think they're indispensable, but I want you to dispense of them. I want you to get rid of the people who you need to commission them out. It had to be hard to do. And once again, this is all of a work of the holy spirit during a time of worshiping and fasting.
Joel Brooks:And notice that it was God spoke to the church. It wasn't just Barnabas going, you know, I feel I personally, I feel called to do this, which is usually how the missionary, you know, missionary finds themselves overseas or something. It starts with the personal calling. Here, it seems to be a corporate calling. While they were all committed to doing this, God shows them to do to set aside these 2 people who they would never have normally set aside to do this work.
Joel Brooks:I've been a part of a group that did that one time. I was part of University Christian Fellowship, there was a a young man. He had just graduated. He already had a job lined up. And just during a time of of of worship, a time of praying, I really felt like I was supposed to go up to this person and say, you know what?
Joel Brooks:You're not supposed to take the job. You're supposed to go on the mission field. And, so I thought, what what I do? I think this is of the the spirit. So I went to this person and said, you're not supposed to take the job that you have lined up instead.
Joel Brooks:I I want you to give 2 years of your life, and I want you to go to Peru. And so we got a group of people together, and we prayed about this, and God confirmed it. He says, you're right. He had not planned it, had not thought of it, but now God was saying, no, you're gonna spend 2 years of your life in Peru, and he went. And I had the privilege of going about a year and a half later after he'd done this pioneering work in the mountains of Peru and sitting in a room and having about 70 pastors and their wives all crammed in together.
Joel Brooks:People who he had led to know the Lord. People who are now starting little house church movements. And I got to teach from sunup to sundown just, for 4 days in a row. And just to see that happen, I didn't come up with that idea. This young man didn't come up with that idea.
Joel Brooks:God just pressed it on us during a time of worshiping and a time of prayer. That's what God does here. Set aside 2 of your best. Now, there was not any scripture that they could go to to confirm this. You know, there was nothing that, you know, they could open up to Revelation, you know, 13.
Joel Brooks:Well, Revelation wasn't written there, just just written yet. Just imagine, okay, Revelation 13. And it says, you know, therefore, you shall send Paul and you shall send, Barnabas. That's not there. And, actually, most of the big decisions and the little decisions that you're gonna make in life in which needs God's guidance are not going to be found in the Bible.
Joel Brooks:You're not gonna find that scripture or that verse that says you were supposed to have 4 kids and no more. I mean, you're you're not gonna find that. You you find god's general will revealed, but you don't find his specific will. And so when you go to scripture, you know things like you're supposed to give to the poor. It's it's all in scripture.
Joel Brooks:But who do you give to? Do you give to Jimmy Hale? Do you give to Jesse's place? Do you give to the the person who hits you up for money on the street? Do you give to the local homeless shelter?
Joel Brooks:Who who do you give to? And then how much? Do do you give the $5 that you have in your wallet, or do you pay for a kid's tuition to go to school? Those aren't mentioned. You're not gonna find the chapter.
Joel Brooks:You're not gonna find the verse that says that. You're given us a general will. You're given a general will about you're supposed to marry a believer, but it doesn't give you the name of who. Who is it? You know, those are things we have to seek the Lord about.
Joel Brooks:And they sought the Lord through this time of worship and this time of fasting to get that specific direction for god's general will in which they knew they were supposed to make disciples of all men, but how? Well, this is how. Set aside these 2 people and you send them out. Well, let's take a closer look at verse 2. It says, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the holy spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work in which I've called them.
Joel Brooks:Now the word that is used here for worshiping is not the normal word that's used for worshiping throughout the New Testament. It means something a lot different. It's it's the only time it's ever used in Acts. I'm not really a Greek scholar. I can read a little bit of Greek, but even I couldn't miss this when you're starting to do a little word study.
Joel Brooks:This is the only time it's used in the word of Acts. It's, it's a rare word that's only used a few times in the Bible. In the old testament, it's used to describe a priest as they render service to the Lord. It often is translated ministering. Outside of the bible, it's used to describe people who are do doing a public service without pay.
Joel Brooks:That's a public service without pay, and here is translated as worshiping. But it think of an old testament priest and how they worshiped. They did things like they made sacrifices. They served the people. They interceded for, for the people before God.
Joel Brooks:It was a very active serving role. That's the word that's used here. This is much more than just singing or much more than adoration. And so when Luke uses this loaded word here, the only time he uses this in in acts, what he's saying is don't think that people around just kinda singing songs and fasting. God says this.
Joel Brooks:This is a very active service. These people came ready to worship. They came ready to give. They came ready to serve one another. They they came ready to encourage, came ready to sing, to serve, to give, ready to edify, ready to intercede through prayer.
Joel Brooks:These were active worshipers serving. There would be a time of very concentrated fervent prayer here. And that's the worship that's described here. So it's it's not just the casual joyful singing that typically defines, worship in churches today. This was still joyful, but it was labor.
Joel Brooks:It was a a joyful labor before the lord. So we need to understand that worship, although it is a time of adoration, it can also be a time of very concentrated effort and service. And when we seek actively and intensely the Lord. So the church here, they they accompany this unique word for worship with fasting. Now, I have to, I'm just gonna go ahead and confess something.
Joel Brooks:I didn't think I was gonna confess it, but I just, you know, you have to confess this. My study days are Tuesday and Wednesday is usually when I'm really studying the text. And, and so Tuesday when I'm digging into this text, I had McDonald's for breakfast and I had Sonic for lunch, which is possibly the worst I've eaten in years. And I'm studying all about the benefits of fasting, and I was like, I just feel sick. I'm eating Tums actually as as I'm studying fasting.
Joel Brooks:I was able to fast fast later, and it's amazing just how much sharper your mind is when it's not, you know, clogged up full of grease and fat. But studying fasting, praying through fasting was such a beneficial time, and I wanna give you just a few reasons as to why we fast. I don't know how how many I can give you. We're we're gonna hit this on the fly. I've got a bunch.
Joel Brooks:I think I'll narrow it down to 3 or 4. First, fasting shows who you really who you really long for or who you really hunger for. Fasting shows who you really hunger for. Some of you might have read John Piper's book, Hunger for God. I think it's it's probably in his top three books that he has written.
Joel Brooks:But he says this, the greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison, but is apple pie. It's not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but it is the endless nibbling at the table of the world. Let me read that again. The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison, but is apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but is the endless nibbling at the table of the world.
Joel Brooks:It reminds me of Jesus's words in Luke 16 16 in which he he told about a great banquet. He says this is what the this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. There's there's a great banquet. Luke 4 14 he says, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servants out to say to those who have been invited, come everything now is ready.
Joel Brooks:But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, I have bought a field and I must go examine it. Please have me excused. Another said, I have bought 5, yoke of oxen, and I need to go see them. Please excuse me.
Joel Brooks:And another said, I'm married. I can't come, which is my favorite. You know, there's, I mean, it's like, I mean, all of them are ridiculous. Who buys a field that you haven't looked at? Who buys oxen that you haven't tested?
Joel Brooks:The master of the house became angry and said to his servant, Go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city, bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame. Bring in the people who will appreciate the feast that I'm going to put out. None of these men who were invited shall taste my banquet. So when Jesus is describing the things that keep people from feasting on him, coming to that feast, he doesn't describe any great sin. He doesn't describe some great evil.
Joel Brooks:It's not, you know, the devil's the one who's gonna keep you away from the banquet. In the end, it's just land. It's just an oxen. It's just a woman. That's it.
Joel Brooks:Keeping you away. That's usually God's gifts that hold our attention and keep our gaze away from him. It's usually not something like, you know, internet porn. It's usually not drugs. I've never once in all my years met somebody who said, like, you know, I just don't feel close to Lord.
Joel Brooks:Why? I'm worshiping the devil on the side, you know. It's just there's nothing huge like that. It's always these good little things that vie for your time, that take up your energies, that that that woo you away from your real lover. It's the need to fill every bit of your day with some form of entertainment, and so you just kinda push out God that that chronic need to always check your Facebook or to always check your emails or always check your phone.
Joel Brooks:That's a disease that drowns out the Word of God. Here, Jesus is saying, come to me. Come appreciate me. Hear me. You know, Paul, he he said that we are to pray without ceasing.
Joel Brooks:When somebody looks at you, what can they say that you do without ceasing? What, what is it that you do without ceasing? What takes up, you know, what if you have come home and you have 2 or 3 minutes of free time before you have to rush out the door and you immediately go and you check Facebook? If you have 30 seconds of free time, it's angry birds. You know, whatever it is, all those little moments, that they consume you.
Joel Brooks:And what you're what you're doing is you're nibbling on junk food that the world offers. And you're not listening to what the Lord has to give. Now there's nothing wrong with Facebook or angry birds or or whatever. Those are gifts. They're good things.
Joel Brooks:Just like oxen, just like land, just like a spouse. Good things. Don't let those good things take you away from god. Don't let them so occupy your mind, so occupy every free thought that there's no longer that ability to pray without ceasing. What is it that you do without ceasing?
Joel Brooks:What are you nibbling at? I said this before, but I mean, I've met people who think if they don't check their email, puppies are gonna explode all over the world. You know, it's just like they they they have they have to check their email 20 times a day. Fasting is is when we put aside food, put aside maybe some of these small things that have become big things in our lives, We tell God, we're hungry for you. We're hungry for you, and we want to be filled by you.
Joel Brooks:Let me tell you, fasting not only shows God that you hunger for him, but fasting actually creates in you a hunger as well. When you do fast from those things, it's remarkable the appetite that God gives you for him. 2nd, fasting more than anything else, at least for me more than anything else, it shows what controls me. It shows what controls me and it helps break me free of those things. Paul says in 1st Corinthians 6 that he will not be mastered by anything.
Joel Brooks:Fasting to me reveals what is mastering me. I'm often controlled or mastered by food, and I'm not aware of that until I fast. And I realized just how much I really want food and how often I think about food. And so we fast to show what controls us. You know, we we use food as a way of, trying to think how I could say this, of covering over for a multitude of our sins that are buried deep within us.
Joel Brooks:For example, if you find yourselves getting edgy or just kind of like lashing out at people, you often say, I'm sorry. I just I just need to eat. The reason I'm lashing out like this is I forgot breakfast. That's why I'm I'm so bitter and mean right now. When you're depressed, you go to eat.
Joel Brooks:It's, you know, there are big huge tubs of cookie dough would not exist if it wasn't for depression. It's it's it's what people go to or shopping or something like that when they're depressed. I can remember working. I had a horrible job when I was at Beeson Divinity School. I worked in a warehouse.
Joel Brooks:I was a delivery boy and I can remember thinking, if I could just make it to lunch, everything will be okay. If I could once I eat, everything will be fine. Food was controlling me. Food is what I went to to feel better. And fasting changes all that, throws a wrench in it.
Joel Brooks:When you're sitting at your desk and you're like, I can't 30 more minutes is lunch. And then finally remember, wait, I'm fasting. Crud. I mean, like, crud. It's like, what do I do?
Joel Brooks:I mean, I've been looking forward to this this all morning. I just kept thinking if I could just eat and then what what do you do now? Where where do you go to be satisfied or comforted? You go to the lord. Will you find the fellowship of god to be enough to satisfy you?
Joel Brooks:Yes. It's hard. I confess, I break more fast than I keep. I do. I, I will fast and around like 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock.
Joel Brooks:I'm like, oh, you know, it's really, it's kind of like 24 hours since I last I mean, I will rationalize and I and I and I I break it and and and I'll eat because it's hard, and and food has a control of me. For you, it might be something else that really controls you. 3rd, fasting is a desperate cry to the Lord. It's a plea for his help. When you fast, what you're doing is you're saying, God, I have no strength, but yours, No strength, but yours.
Joel Brooks:God, I'm gonna make myself weaker in order that you might be stronger. That's That's what fasting tells. I mean, one of my favorite passages is in 2nd chronicles 20, and it's when the Israelites are about to go to war. They're all surrounded by people. And the king, he does what is the dumbest military strategy he could do.
Joel Brooks:He says, Everybody, all the entire army, you have to fast. So your army is about to go to battle. He's like, you can't eat anything. Make yourselves weak. And then he gets the singers or the professional worshipers, and he says, now y'all get up and y'all lead us into battle.
Joel Brooks:I I mean, there's no offense to our worship team. But I mean, if if I was going into battle, I would not say y'all fast for a few days and then y'all lead us into war. But then God delivered them, because they deliberately made themselves weak to show that God is strong. And as they worship, they celebrated his strength even before the deliverance. It's what fasting does.
Joel Brooks:It's what, you know, if if you struggle taking a Sabbath, you probably also struggle with fasting because it's the same thing. Sabbath is when we fast from work. It's when we back away and we say, once again, god, I'm trusting and I'm saying that I'm not everything I have is not because I've worked so hard for it. And everything that I I do is not because I'm really good at it and I can make it work. Ultimately, it's you.
Joel Brooks:It's your strength. It's your grace. And so you fast from work. We fast for the lord's return, number 4. Jesus said, as long as he is with us, he told the disciples this or the Pharisees that when they asked, why don't your disciples fast?
Joel Brooks:He said, why should they fast when the bridegroom is with them? But when the bridegroom is taken away, they will fast. And fasting is a way we say, lord, we yearn for you to return. We long for it. Finally, fasting opens us up for god's guidance.
Joel Brooks:That's what we see here. Not only opens us up for his guidance, but then empowers us to obey and to do it. What Paul and Barnabas do after this is remarkable. Our first, the word of the lord they get is something they would never have come up with, not something they would have longed to do or the church of Antioch would long to do. Send out your best, but that was the command, and then they were given the power to obey it.
Joel Brooks:And then, man, the power that comes when they're sent is unbelievable. So fasting opens us up for God's guidance and his power. But let me let me address the big why we fast. These are the little whys, and there's a temptation that you're gonna leave here and think, okay. I'm gonna fast, and that's kind of how a stronghold got into doing what I want.
Joel Brooks:He's gonna make him move. And that's not fasting is about the gospel, and you need it. Fasting is about Jesus. When you fast, remember Jesus's words that he said in John 6 when he says, I am the bread of life. Said your your fathers, they ate manna in the wilderness.
Joel Brooks:So they they were given a gift by God and they ate this, and you know what happened to them? They still died. So if you trust in a gift, just as gifts, so that's what's occupying your time is that's what you're always filling yourself with. You're still gonna die. And he says, but I am the true bread that's come down from heaven.
Joel Brooks:It says, if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And then he says, and the bread that I give is my flesh. Saying, I'm going to die. I am going to offer myself so that you might be satisfied. And so the reason that you can fast and then be filled with God's presence is because of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Because you know what you deserve because of your sins. You deserve to fast and to be miserable. You deserve to fast and to perish in your sins. But Jesus, up on the cross, he hungered and he thirsted because God's presence left in a way that he and that he can no longer feel his father's presence. And said he only felt his wrath, which is what we deserve.
Joel Brooks:And because of that, Christ can say, I am the bread of life. Come feast on me. And you'll be filled in a way that you cannot imagine. Pray with me. Lord.
Joel Brooks:I thank you that you offer yourself to us. You say, come eat of me. Feast on me. Like we read earlier from Isaiah 55 and as we, we heard prayed, how, how, what a shame it is, What a shame it is that we go to so many other things, that we spend our money and our time on what does not satisfy. So God, I pray that we would, be drawn to you.
Joel Brooks:So through the power of your spirit, awaken up our dead hearts, our dead longings and desires. And may we see you as the bread of life, the one who satisfies. And God, I pray for us as a church that we would be active worshipers, ministers, and our church will be marked and defined by seeking intensely your presence and open to your direction. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.