Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Why do some people hear the gospel and believe it, while other people do not?

Maybe they don’t come right out and say it, but they keep right on living as though God isn’t real or at least as though God doesn’t actually judge sinners.

Why do some people seem to soften over time, as they hear the gospel again and again, as the content of the gospel rattles around in their head, while others seem to harden?

They don’t want to talk about Jesus or church or the Bible at all, and when you bring it up, they get openly hostile.

Today we’re going to read a passage in which God judges one sinner and saves another.

Our Scripture today is a small portion of the historical narrative which Luke compiled in order to tell the story of God’s unfolding plan of salvation, but it’s a pivotal portion and a profound one.

Acts 13 is both an illustration (our text today) and an explanation (v13-52) of God’s explicit judgment of Israel, through which He brought about the salvation of a great multitude from every tribe and tongue and nation.

This is one of those iceberg passages in the Bible… you see a bit on the surface, but there‘s nearly a whole continent down there if you take a minute to look at it.

I want to say up front that most Sundays I feel that there is so much more within and under and beside the text than we can possibly consider at one time.

This is especially true today.

So, it’s generally true that we should use a good bit of the content of a sermon as a conversation starter, and not a conversation resolution.

“what do you think he meant when he said…?”

or “do you see that in the text?” or “how does this apply to me and you right now?”

Well, with this hodgepodge of an introduction in mind, let’s read together about the first missionary journey of Saul/Paul, when he and Barnabas went to Cyprus and proclaimed the gospel.

Scripture Reading

Acts 13:1–12 (ESV)

1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

2 While they were worshiping [or “ministering to” or “serving”] 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.

5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.

And they had John [that is John Mark (12:25)] to assist them.

6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.

7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and 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?

11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.”

Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

Main Point

God judges and saves through the person and work of Jesus Christ, triumphing over all opposition, and the gospel announces both.

Message

1) Church Leaders Sent Out

A. A strong group of church leaders

v1 tells us that there were “prophets and teachers” in the “church at Antioch.”

Luke has already shown his reader that Barnabas and Saul/Paul made “teaching” their main duty in planting the church in Antioch and in discipling the Christians there (Acts 11:25-26).

The word “prophet,” in the broadest sense, means someone who speaks the word of God.

Certainly there were “prophets” who spoke divine revelation (even telling the future) during the time of the Apostles… and, of course, at various points during the OT (Acts 11:27, 15:32, 19:6, 21:9-10; cf.

Deut.

34:10; Judges 6:8; 1 Sam.

3:20).

We are to understand that these “prophets and teachers” made up the leadership of the church in Antioch.

Such are the responsibilities (speaking the word of God and teaching the people to live in accordance with it) these are the responsibilities of church leaders (i.e., pastors or elders or overseers) throughout the New Testament.

v1 also tells us that the leadership of Antioch was a pretty diverse bunch.

There was “Barnabas,” a Jewish “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36), who new Saul/Paul since his earliest days as a Christian (Acts 9:26-28).

There was also “Simeon,” who “was called Niger,” which means black or dark.

This was likely a reference to the color of his skin, which would mean that Simeon was probably African.

Then there was “Lucius,” who was from “Cyrene,” which is modern Libya in North Africa and had an Arab culture and language.

Lucius may well have been one of the “men of Cyprus and Cyrene” who first brought the gospel to Antioch (Acts 11:20).

Then “Manaen,” who was “a lifelong friend” (or “childhood friend”) of “Herod the tetrarch” (or Herod Antipas; the uncle of the Herod who died in Acts 12 [Lk.

3:1, 9:7-9]).

This probably means that Manaen was at least somewhat wealthy and powerful in the Roman world… something of an aristocrat.

And, then, finally, there was “Saul.”

Saul/Paul was a Jew’s Jew, a Pharisee who gave his whole life to serving God with full devotion (Phil.

3:4-6).

Saul had a personal encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ, who commissioned him to evangelistic ministry among the Gentiles (Acts 9:1-19).

And Saul was the kind of man who “immediately” after his conversion began “proclaiming Jesus” as the Christ, saying “He is the Son of God” in the synagogues (Acts 9:19-20).

B. Some leaders were sent out

v2 says that while the church was “worshiping” or “ministering to” or “serving” the Lord, the “Holy Spirit” spoke a word to them… probably through one of the “prophets and teachers” mentioned above (v1).

The divine word was a “calling” to gospel ministry elsewhere.

The Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (v2).

And the church - the congregation of Christians in Antioch - prayed for them, “laid their hands on them” (which is a gesture of commissioning), and “sent them off” (v3).

Let me just take a moment to demystify something that many people talk about today… more in superstitious jargon than in biblical terms.

Who sent out Barnabas and Saul as missionaries from Antioch?

Was it the Holy Spirit?

Or was it the church in Antioch?

Yes!

It was both!

How was God’s “calling” on Barnabas and Saul announced?

Was it a feeling Barnabas had one night, while praying by himself?

Did Saul tell everyone one Sunday that he and Barnabas were being called by God to another church or ministry?

No! The calling of God was public, clear to the whole church, and affirmed by the church who was sending out these men.

This is not to say that a church member or a church pastor can never do anything without the affirmation of the whole congregation, but it is to say that we ought not throw around a phrase like, “the Lord is calling me,” when what we really mean is “I want to do this” or “I want to go there.”

Let’s not any one of us presume to speak for God… let’s let Him speak for Himself, and let’s do our best to live according to the principles and instructions He’s laid out for us in His word.

If we think we ought to do this thing or that thing, let’s not use the trump card, “The Lord told me.”

That way we can avoid blaming God for our foolish decisions, and we can actually benefit from the messier and more rewarding conversations about how best to apply biblical principles in our particular circumstances.

At any rate, Barnabas and Saul (two of Antioch’s best, no doubt) were sent out for ministry away from Antioch… so that others might hear and believe the gospel, and so that others might grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ among new churches in other places.

C. Why are the first missionaries going out from a Gentile church?

There is one more thing about these opening 3 verses that should strike us… and it will be increasingly profound as we continue walking through Acts 13… and down through to the end of the whole book of Acts.

Antioch was the first Gentile Christian church; and it was from Antioch (not Jerusalem or Judea or Samaria) that the first Christian missionaries were “sent off” (v3) or “sent out” (v4).

It is as though Luke is emphasizing the failure on the part of the first century Jews to be the witnesses in the world that God had commissioned them to be.

Israel, after all, was supposed to be the nation/people through whom the whole world would be “blessed” by God (Gen.

12:1-4, 18:18, 22:18, 26:4).

Indeed, the whole world was blessed through the “offspring” of Abraham, but that “offspring” through whom blessing came was Christ (Gal.

3:8, 16), and not Israel.

Let’s now consider what these first commissioned missionaries did.

What is the missionary task?

And what can we learn from their example?

2) Christian Missionaries

A. They began in the synagogues

v4 says that Saul and Barnabas traveled “down to Seleucia,” which was a port city just West of Antioch, “and from there they sailed to Cyprus,” about 60 miles away.

Cyprus was Barnabas’s home (Acts 4:36), and there had been gospel witnesses there already.

Luke told us in chapter 11 that “those who were scattered [from Jerusalem] because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch” (Acts 11:19), but these were “speaking the word to no one except Jews” (11:19).

Saul/Paul’s and Barnabas’s gospel ministry in Cyprus started with the Jews, but they fully intended to cast the net wider… even among the Gentiles.

v5 tells us that they first “arrived as Salamis,” which was on the East coast of Cyprus, and it was here that the missionary work began.

Two things are important to note here:

First, Luke says almost nothing about Saul/Paul’s and Barnabas’s ministry in all of Cyprus.

Luke gives incredible detail about something that happened in Paphos, which was the capital city on the West coast of Cyprus, but the only thing he tells us about all of their ministry “through [the rest of] the whole island” (v6) was that Saul and Barnabas started preaching in “the synagogues of the Jews” (v5).

This was Saul/Paul’s method of operation, to preach first to the Jews in the synagogues (which sometimes also included some Greeks) and then to preach to the Gentiles everywhere else.

But this pattern also displays (throughout the Gospels and Acts) a constant refrain of Israel’s rejection of the gospel and opposition to Christ… and this will be all the clearer as our passage unfolds.

The second thing I want to highlight here is that missionary efforts (according to the Bible) are definitionally focused on gospel proclamation and teaching.

B. Christian missions is word-work

What did Saul/Paul and Barnabas do when they arrived in Salamis?