True Prophets and False Prophets

[0:00] We're in Acts chapter 13 today, going from verse 1 to verse 12. Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word.

[0:24] Heavenly Father, we have gathered around your Word and around your table again, because we are your people.

[0:41] You are our Lord, our King, our God. We worship you. We want to hear you speak to us in your Word.

[0:54] Amen. Address us. Bring conviction by your Spirit. And as we incline our ears, our hearts to you, we pray that you would make us a church that exemplifies the truth that we find in this passage.

[1:24] A church that has a heart toward reaching the lost. A heart to go to the end of the earth.

[1:35] A church where missionaries are set apart and sent out for your glory. For the glory of the name of your Son, Jesus.

[1:49] We pray that you would do that mighty work among us even as we go, as we hear. Use me, Lord. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight.

[2:09] Oh, Lord, our rock and redeemer. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Acts chapter 13, verses 1 to 12.

[2:24] Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Nigel, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

[2:43] 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. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

[2:59] So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews and they had John to assist them.

[3:16] 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. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

[3:37] But Elimas the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 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?

[4:08] 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.

[4:24] Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. This is God's holy and authoritative word.

[4:36] Far from being of Western religion or white man's religion that it's frequently made out to be nowadays, Christianity from its very inception has been a multi-ethnic and trans-regional movement.

[4:54] The entire Gospel of Luke has a general movement toward Jerusalem, where Jesus dies on the cross and is raised from the dead for the salvation of all those who put their faith in him.

[5:08] And the entire book of Acts, which is Luke's sequel, has a movement away from Jerusalem, outward from Jerusalem to Samaria and to the end of the earth. And we have seen the Gospel spread in Jerusalem and in Samaria, and starting in chapter 13, in earnest we begin to see the mission go forward among the Gentiles to the end of the earth.

[5:32] And at first, the Gospel of Jesus, as we know, took hold primarily in Asia, Africa, and Europe, reaching Jews, Samaritans, Romans, Greeks, Armenians, Copts, Ethiopians, Indians, Berbers, Syrians, and Persians.

[5:49] But then, it spread out even further west and east, reaching the Vandals, the Celts, the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Slavs, Turks, Russians, and Chinese.

[6:03] Obviously, it has continued to spread even beyond that, taking hold in North and South America. Just 100 years ago, the countries with the largest population of Christians were in the order.

[6:18] U.S., Russia, Germany, France, and Britain. But today, it's, again, in order, U.S., Brazil, Russia, China, and Mexico.

[6:37] Just in 100 years. the gravitational center of Christianity has moved all across the earth, and the gospel has flourished in every single continent, so that one can truly say that there is no such thing as a particular Christian culture or Christian civilization.

[6:58] In fact, there has already been multiple Christian cultures and Christian civilizations. civilizations. Why is this the case? Well, one, because our God is the God of all peoples.

[7:14] And just, not, He's not just for one people group. And two, because Christianity has been, from the beginning, a missionary religion. That's what we see here in Acts chapter 13.

[7:28] This passage teaches us that missionaries are sent out by the Holy Spirit to the end of the earth to proclaim the Word of Christ. And we learn several important things about Christian missionaries.

[7:40] They are, one, sent by the Spirit, two, set apart by the church, three, opposed by the devil, four, filled with the Spirit, and five, focused on the Word.

[7:54] So first, let's look at this in order that missionaries are sent by the Spirit. Look how, look at how Luke emphasizes the initiating role of the Holy Spirit throughout this passage. It says in verse 2 that while the church at Antioch 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.

[8:18] The Spirit of God is speaking directly. The triune God reigns over the church and the Lord Jesus is King over His church and for this reason it is His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that provides the initial impetus for this commissioning of Barnabas and Saul for mission.

[8:35] There's a conceptual connection between the Holy Spirit and His command to set apart for Him Barnabas and Saul. The word holy itself means set apart, consecrated.

[8:49] So then Barnabas and Saul are being set apart for the work of God who is set apart. when you go to weddings, usually the first two rows of seats have a sign that says they are reserved.

[9:05] You may have noticed that there is no such sign on the first two rows in our church. You guys can move up whenever you like. That is not part of the sermon. But, I lost my place.

[9:19] Sorry. You have seats reserved at weddings because they are seats that are set apart. They are consecrated. It is reserved for family members of the bride and the groom.

[9:33] And similarly, Barnabas and Saul have been set apart. Meaning, they are to be set aside for a special purpose, for God's missionary purpose in this case.

[9:45] this is an important point. Because it is not the church or a missions agency or a spiritual mentor that calls people into ministry.

[10:00] It is the spirit of God who calls people into ministry. Some Christian denominations use the language of search and call to refer to local churches hiring their ministers.

[10:13] So, they form a search committee, they start interviewing candidates, they search for ministers, and then when they find someone that they like, they call them. But, strictly speaking, it is not the church that calls a minister.

[10:26] It is God who calls them. Set apart for me, says the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. That means, at the very least, that it is incumbent upon missionaries and other Christian laborers to do God's will.

[10:45] God's will. They serve the church, yes. And they evangelize for the sake of the lost, yes. But their Lord, their commander, is not other people.

[10:58] It's not an agency. It's God. It is their delight and privilege to carry out the will of their master. And this is a liberating truth, especially when various people, agencies, institutions, and cultural forces, say and demand conflicting things of us.

[11:21] God's labors are not like politicians who must carry out the will of their voting constituency. We sure can listen and learn from what other people have to say, but ultimately, the Christian laborer must obey the word of God and the spirit of God.

[11:37] They are sent by the spirit. But this doesn't mean that every Christian missionary or minister is a freelancer that is unaccountable to any other group of people. The Holy Spirit calls and sends, but it is the church that sets apart Barnabas and Saul for their missionary work.

[11:59] Look at what the Holy Spirit says in verse 2. Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. the Holy Spirit commands the church to set them apart, to consecrate them, to dedicate them to this mission.

[12:16] It's not the called missionary alone who has a role to play. The local church has a role to play in the sending out of missionaries. Why do I say that this is the role of the local church?

[12:30] Verse 1 says, Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

[12:44] It is the local church, a gathering of God's people in the city of Antioch that while they were worshiping and fasting, together they received this revelation, this instruction from the Lord.

[12:57] This short verse, verse 1, tells us a number of things about the church at Antioch. One, it's a local church. It's not the universal church all over the world. It's a church at Antioch.

[13:09] It's the local church. Barnabas and Saul are not sent off by a separate group or agency. They are sent off by the local church itself. Nor are they sent off to Jerusalem to get approval from the apostolic headquarters or to be sent out by them.

[13:25] Or to use a modern day analogy, they are not sent to Rome to get to papal headquarters. They are not sent to Louisville to get denominational headquarters.

[13:36] No, it's the local church that sends them. Two, the gifts of the Spirit were functioning in this local church. There were prophets and teachers among them, though this verse doesn't mention all of the five-fold ministries listed in Ephesians 4.11, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the teachers, and the pastors.

[13:56] We can tell from chapters 12 and 13 that in fact all of those gifts were functioning in this church at Antioch. And prophets and teachers are explicitly mentioned as serving in the church.

[14:08] Prophets receive and communicate what God reveals to them, what the Holy Spirit wants of them to a specific group of people at a particular time. That's what prophets do.

[14:19] Teachers, on the other hand, expound and proclaim the timeless Word of God, stuarting the apostolic deposit of the Gospel, which is for all people at all times. And these two gifts complement each other.

[14:33] Both are necessary. Prophets ensure that the church is open to new insights and initiatives of the Holy Spirit. Teachers ensure that the church is always grounded in the unchanging, universal, and authoritative Word of God.

[14:52] This doesn't necessarily imply that prophets and teachers are different people. It seems here that Peter, Paul, and Barnabas all functioned both as prophets and teachers and apostles, in fact.

[15:05] And the important takeaway is that all of these gifts were functioning within this local church. Third, we see that this church was not defined by ethnicity, race, or socioeconomic class, but by their common commitment to the Lord Jesus.

[15:23] Christians. We know this because verse 1 gives us a portrait of a very diverse church. We already know Barnabas and Saul pretty well. That's why Luke doesn't give us another introduction of who they are.

[15:37] And Barnabas was a Jew from the tribe of Levi. He was originally a native of Cyprus, but he had most recently lived in Jerusalem, which is where we first encountered him in Acts 4. Saul, as we know, is a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named after King Saul.

[15:54] He was from Tarsus. And then in this church also there was Simeon who was called Niger, and the word Niger means dark complexion or black. So Simeon may have had African origin.

[16:09] Lucius of Cyrene is also mentioned, and Cyrene was in North Africa. And lastly, Manan, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch. Herod the Tetrarch is not Herod Agrippa that just killed Apostle James in the previous chapter.

[16:24] This is Herod Antipas who is the one ruling at the time of Jesus' ministry that you see throughout the Gospels. And this man was a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, which means he was likely a member of the nobility with access to the royal court, a very prominent member of society, a high-ranking socioeconomic class.

[16:48] All of these men had diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, but those things were not brought together. They were not brought together by common interests or common hobbies other than their common commitment to the Lord Jesus.

[17:06] Four, this was a local church that regularly prayed and fasted. Note that the prophetic revelations of the Holy Spirit in verse 2 is bracketed by mentions of prayer and fasting.

[17:17] Verse 2, the Holy Spirit spoke to them while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting. And then verse 4, after prayer and fasting, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

[17:29] To pray is to speak with God in the context of our relationship with Him. To fast is to abstain from food and drinks and sometimes other things that ordinarily occupy our time in order to give ourselves more fully to prayer, to discern God's will.

[17:45] It's our way of declaring that we need God. We need the bread of God more than even food to sustain us. This church was attentive to God, was receptive to the voice of the Holy Spirit because they prayed and fasted.

[18:03] And it's this prayerful, Christ-united, Spirit-empowered local church that set apart Barnabas and saw for this particular missionary work that the Spirit of God had called them to.

[18:18] After fasting and praying, it says in verse 3 that they lay their hands on them and sent them off. In the book of Acts, the laying on of hands often is associated with the impartation of the Holy Spirit's power. It is probably for that reason that the church in Antioch lays their hands on them in this moment and sends them off.

[18:35] Just like in Acts chapter 6, verse 6, when the 12 apostles appointed the seven to take charge of the distribution of food to widows, they lay their hands on them to authorize their role in the church.

[18:48] So this shows that the church in Antioch is officially commissioning Saul and Barnabas for and publicly recognizing their role as missionaries being sent off.

[19:00] And they're investing in them with the authority that they need to discharge their duties. And this is why it's only after this official commissioning by the church at Antioch that Barnabas starts being called an apostle.

[19:15] In Acts 14, verse 14, he is called an apostle. The word apostle comes from the Greek word apostello. Sounds similar, which means to send. And that's very similar to a word that we often use, maybe more often use, the word missionary, which comes from the Latin word missio.

[19:33] They mean the same thing. They both mean someone who is sent out. And though it's the, I prefer to use the term missionary in our context because using the term apostle can cause confusion because people can confuse someone who is called an apostle with the twelve or with other foundational apostles who are commissioned directly by the risen Lord himself, which none of the apostles or missionaries nowadays are like that.

[20:02] However, there are modern day lowercase a apostles who are missionaries sent out to proclaim or assist in the proclamation of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

[20:17] I add the phrase to proclaim or to assist in the proclamation of the gospel because that's what some missionaries in fact do. For example, my friend Joyce Lynn who was a seminary friend of mine was a pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship.

[20:35] She flew planes to remote villages that are parts of the world that are difficult to access to supply missionaries who are proclaiming the gospel. She died in May 2020 last year while transporting food and COVID rapid test kits and school supplies to a village in Papua because her plane crashed.

[20:58] She wasn't the primary evangelist or teacher but she was a missionary. She was called the missionary pilot. She was sent out by the church to discharge her duties.

[21:10] This is very similar to the way Epaphroditus is called an apostle in Philippians 2.25. Epaphroditus was not a traditional preaching missionary whether he was sent out by the Philippian church to minister to Paul and his temporal needs because Paul was a preaching missionary.

[21:30] but Epaphroditus was an authorized representative of the Philippian church who delivered to Paul their letter and the supplies a care package for him while he was in prison.

[21:43] And so because of that role the ESV translates the word apostle as messenger. He calls Epaphroditus a messenger but it's the exact same word that is used throughout the New Testament it's the apostle.

[21:56] So missionaries are those who proclaim the gospel who are sent out by the church to proclaim the gospel to assist in the proclamation of the gospel. So because of that by definition being an apostle or being a missionary involves a kind of travel.

[22:12] It entails a change in geographic locale. Verses 4 to 5 tell us that Paul and Barnabas assisted by John traveled 16 miles to Seleucia where they got on a ship to sail 62 miles to Cyprus and then arrived at Salamis and then later they traveled to Paphas which is another 112 miles away from Salamis.

[22:35] All that to say it is the church's role to set apart missionaries and send them out from their congregation. I'm focusing on this because we as a church are walking through this right now.

[22:48] We're trying to learn about how we can send out missionaries from our midst. And I think setting apart missionaries as a local church at the very least involves assessing and affirming their missionary call and in preparing and dedicating them for that call.

[23:05] Remember that the Holy Spirit commanded the church to set apart the missionaries. Assessment is necessary because some people romanticize traveling to exotic places as missionaries without understanding the price and the persecution that missions work entails.

[23:22] the church needs to ensure that what motivates these missionaries are God's call and not their own fancy. The church needs to make sure that they are suited for the task that they are being sent out for.

[23:37] If they're going to be primary teachers then they better be scripturally competent and theologically equipped. They better have a strong personal walk with Jesus.

[23:49] Robust spiritual disciplines because switching your locale doesn't automatically make you a more devout Christian. A Christian that does not read his or her Bible or pray here at home is not all of a sudden going to start doing that just because they were sent out abroad.

[24:08] Note that Barnabas and Saul have already proven their worth by this time. Barnabas had a proven record of proclaiming the Lord Jesus. He was already recognized by the apostles for his godliness in chapter 4.

[24:20] In Acts 11 verse 24 he described Barnabas as a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And that's why the Jerusalem church sent him out in the first place to Antioch to minister to the new converts there.

[24:33] Similarly after his conversion Saul it says in Acts 9 19 to 20 for some days was with the disciples at Damascus and immediately proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue.

[24:44] Saul loses no time he knows that he is called to proclaim the gospel and right there where he was in Damascus where he was converted he starts proclaiming the Lord Jesus and then he does this in Arabia according to Galatians 1 16 to 18 and then he goes to Jerusalem to do the same thing in Acts 9 26 to 29 and then presumably he's doing the same thing in Tarsus which is where Barnabas finds him and recruits him for this ministry work in Antioch they're not sending there's I mean there's no expendable member in the church but to use the term today they're not sending expendable people they're not they're sending their very best the most faithful men and women that's what the church should do it appears to me that God has called some of us as missionaries and that means in the coming months and years we will have to do the hard work of setting them apart and sending them off to set apart for missionary work necessarily means that we may not use them for other work it means that we lose them at least for a time from our local congregation it means we will miss their contribution to our church we will miss their personality their character their gifts but that hard work is necessary because there are people in the world who have not heard the gospel of

[26:19] Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus has commanded us to go to the end of the earth in 3 John 5 to 8 apostle John commends believers who are actually supporting these missionaries who are visiting them and then sending them off and he says this you will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God for they have gone out for the sake of the name accepting nothing from the Gentiles therefore we ought to support people like workers for the truth John is saying here that instead of expecting missionaries that we send off to be supported by the people that they are ministering to that we should support them furnish their needs pay their expenses because missionaries are ministering and they're usually going to areas where there are not other established churches and that's why missionary work is often a lonely work that's why in the early church their mode of operation is always to send out teams in this case

[27:38] Barnabas Saul and John Mark who is assisting them so that missionaries go as extensions of the sending church assuming that they're not joining an existing church where they're going and they will need the church's financial support emotional support spiritual support they need the church's prayer isn't it amazing 3 John 5 says we ought to send them off in a manner worthy of God what a call we ought to give them a send off worthy of God why because they are God's workers because the Holy Spirit called them because they are Christ's representatives because remember that's the Lord that they serve that's the Lord that they represent if we were hosting and sending off the king himself would we be sparing in our expenses would we treat him like a beggar we must not shirk our responsibility as a church to set apart and send missionaries because churches have sometimes not done this sometimes missionaries are not sent they just go but that's not the way it should be it's the church's responsibility to set apart the missionaries for the service of

[29:21] God third a missionary that is sent by God and set apart by the church will undoubtedly be opposed by the devil that's my third point please follow along as I read verses 6 to 8 when they had gone through the whole island as far as pathos they came upon a certain magician a Jewish false prophet named Bar Jesus he was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus a man of intelligence who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God but Elemus the magician for that is the meaning of his name opposed them seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith just as Peter confronted Simon the magician in chapter 8 Barnabas and Saul encounter Elemus the magician here in chapter 13 like Simon Elemus was not a magician in the sense of someone who uses sleight of hand or illusions to entertain people like Daniel that's totally fine activity

[30:22] Simon the magician and Elemus the magician are sorcerers they're men who practice witchcraft they're people who are associated with the occult who traverse in the realm of evil spirits and demons who call down curses on people who use incantations and he is described here as a Jewish false prophet named Bar Jesus he was a Jew but evidently not a faithful Jew because he is described as a false prophet unlike the true prophets of the Lord in the church at Antioch who received the command of the Holy Spirit this Elemus is a false prophet who opposes the voice of the Spirit the Word of God Elemus was with the proconsul it says which implies that he served as an advisor a of the

[31:22] Roman province was appointed by the Roman senate and the proconsul himself was interested in what Saul and Barnabas were proclaiming all throughout the region however Elemus the magician opposed them he was contradicting what they were saying he was undermining what they were saying he was trying to discredit Saul and Barnabas they stood in the way and he tried actively to turn the proconsul away from the faith I wonder why I mean obviously he is the representative of the devil that's why he's called the son of the devil but probably also because the limousine magician was well aware that if the proconsul were to come to faith in the Lord Jesus and to pledge allegiance to him that would be the end of his career this is a good reminder of the fact that the gospel of Jesus is disruptive it disrupts families

[32:27] Christians in other cultures are often disowned by their own family members after their conversion it disrupts careers witches and sorcerers lose their jobs imams and Buddhist monks and Hindu gurus and atheist philosophers lose their credibility people who make and sell idols pendants talismans lose their profit it's no wonder then that missionaries are opposed missionaries are making forays into enemy territory the spiritual forces of evil will oppose them that is guaranteed we should be prepared for it we should prepare the missionaries that we set apart in sand for it we should pray for them for God's protection over them that they might be fortified with the armor of

[33:30] God in order to counter Satan and the evil spirits under his command we must be filled with the Holy Spirit that's my fourth point it says in verses 9 to 11 but Saul was also called Paul filled with the Holy Spirit looked intently at him 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 path of the Lord 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 missed the darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand these verses are full of ironic contrasts Elimas Aramaic name is Bar Jesus which means son of Jesus and Jesus means Yehovah is savior but instead Saul calls him you son of the devil Bar

[34:30] Jesus true allegiance is not the Lord but the devil he is not the son of Jesus he does not resemble Jesus he is a son of the devil unlike John the Baptist who made straight the path of the Lord Elimas makes crooked the straight paths of the Lord furthermore Saul he says is filled with the Holy Spirit but that contrasts with Elimas who is full of all deceit and villainy and therefore Saul pronounces God's judgment of Elimas and he struck with temporary blindness unable to see the sun for a time and darkness fell upon him and that's ironic also because according to the eastern bible dictionary Elimas the name is derived from the arabic word Elim which means aware or knowing Elimas his name indicates that he knows and sees things that other people do not he's the magician but here he is punished with blindness becoming unaware of even his immediate surroundings not able to see what other people see and note that

[35:43] Saul doesn't try to out debate Elimas he relies on the power of the Holy Spirit to smite him and he knew what to do in this situation because he was filled with the Holy Spirit he was attentive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit he knew he was familiar with the voice of the Spirit only those who are full of the Spirit can become those who are full of deceit and villainy it's a bit jarring to see the phrase the hand of the Lord is upon you here to refer to God's judgment of Elimas in Luke 1 66 Luke used the exact same phrase to refer to John the Baptist saying the hand of the Lord was with him and Luke also used that same language in Acts 11 21 to say that the hand of the Lord was with those who preached the Lord Jesus to the Hellenists at Antioch the only difference in the expression is the preposition in those two occasions the hand of the Lord was with them but here the hand of the Lord is upon

[36:44] Elimas that's a fearful thing if you follow the Lord you are going with the spirit of the Lord then the hand of the Lord empowers you and pushes the Lord if you are following the course of this world going with the evil spirit then the hand of the Lord the immovable hand of the Lord stands in your way it's kind of a side point but note here also that when Luke that this is where Luke starts to use Saul's Roman name Paul to refer to him it says in verse 9 but Saul was also called Paul this shows that Saul did not change his name to Paul he just had multiple names he had his Jewish name Saul and then he had his Roman name Paul maybe Luke is reflecting Paul's actual practice this might be when

[37:44] Paul started using the name Paul for himself in all of his letters Paul refers to himself as Paul not Saul refusing to use the name that he had taken from the first Israelite king instead taking on the name that means small or humble a Roman name that his Gentile audience that he was ministering to would relate to finally missionaries are focused on the word Luke ends this account in verse 12 by telling us that then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord this is a similar reaction as the one that Jesus' onlookers had in Mark 1 27 and 28 when Jesus was teaching it says that they were amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying what is this a new teaching with authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him in a similar way people realize that that when what

[38:55] Paul was preaching was not just a mere teaching without power and authority but that it was a teaching that had authority and power and he was astonished by it when he saw how Elemus was struck with blindness these miraculous signs and wonders serve to authenticate the gospel message and that relationship is important God does not perform signs and wonders through his people just to show off or to entertain people in scripture the signs always signify something they point to something namely to the gospel to the person and work of Jesus Christ signs and wonders are impressive and often especially in cases of healing they do much good to improve the conditions and the lives of people but still in and of themselves these signs and wonders save nobody Romans 1 16 says it is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes this is why missionaries are either proclaiming the word or assisting or enabling the proclamation of the word note this emphasis throughout the passage what did

[40:17] Paul and Barnabas do when they arrived at Salamis in verse 5 they proclaim the word of God why did the proconsul summon Saul and Barnabas to come to him he says in verse 7 to hear the word of God this is what our life and ministry should be about Jesus is the son of God and son of man who lived the perfect life of righteousness and yet he died the death of sinners on the cross and he was raised from the dead to give us eternal life and Jesus did this because it was the only way to save us there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved in the name of Jesus he received the punishment that we deserve for our treason against God there was no path between us and God no way for us to return to God we had dishonored him disavowed him disbelieved him we were living in sinful rebellion against him we burned we had burned all the bridges but God sent his only son

[41:24] Jesus to be the pathway for us to be restored to right relationship with God and because of that it is our missionary task to point people to this pathway that is Jesus we are in this sense guides someone tells you what your calling is why you live what you do tell them I'm a guide I'm an escort that leads people to the way points people to the way there is the way of salvation there is Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world there is the crucified Lord Jesus who was raised for my justification let us never lose sight of that and mistake ourselves to be the attraction or the destination we are handmaidens servants messengers lackeys errand boys that's what missionaries are missionaries are sent out by the

[42:56] Holy Spirit to the end of the earth to proclaim the word of Christ God we pray that you will raise up missionaries from our midst to go to the end of the earth to unreached peoples who have no way of hearing the gospel to proclaim your word to plant churches to baptize to teach God we pray even that you would raise up teams of missionaries for our midst make us ascending outpost for your namesake amen preferably to mall sorry to from 1 night to to to and

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