In the sermon titled 'The Work of the Gospel Through a Local Church,' Trent Moody emphasizes the essential role of the local church, exemplified by the church in Antioch, in advancing the gospel. The sermon references Acts 12:25 through 13:12, where the Holy Spirit instructs the church to separate Barnabas and Saul (Paul) for a specific mission, highlighting the importance of God's calling and local church commissioning. The church leaders in Antioch, through prayer and fasting, lay hands on Barnabas and Saul, sending them out, showcasing the structured, prayerful approach to missions. The sermon underscores the significance of the local church in believers' lives, not just as an organized institution but as a pivotal entity for spiritual growth, edification, and gospel propagation. The opposition faced during gospel work is acknowledged, with the encounter between Paul and the sorcerer Bar-Jesus illustrating the spiritual battles inherent in missions. Despite opposition, believers are assured of triumph in Christ, as every effort diffuses the knowledge of Christ, fulfilling God's purpose, whether through salvation or hardening of hearts. The ultimate aim is the glory of God, surpassing even the salvation of souls.

Well, we will pick up with the last verse of chapter 12, and then we will be reading down through chapter 13 down to verse 12 of that chapter as well. So chapter 12 verse 25, and thus says the word of the Lord. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark. Now In the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menaen who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

And then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. And when they arrived at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. Now when they had gone through the island of Patvos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the procounsel, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man.

The man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elimus the sorcerer, for so his name is translated, withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. And then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time." And immediately a dark mist fell on him and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. And then the procounsel believed when he saw what had been done being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father we thank you that you have brought us to this text this morning. Father, here before me are your sheep. Lord, I pray that you would shepherd them today, that your word would would come to them in such a way Lord that they too even as this procounsel was astonished at the teaching of the Lord not the teacher of the Lord the teaching of the Lord may you oh God and your word be exalted today Lord would you instruct your people today Help us Lord to know how we should live. Give us the boldness and the zeal Lord as these men had to proclaim the Word of God to all creatures, every tribe and tongue.

And Lord we do this for your glory and your honor and we ask it in Jesus name, amen. You may be seated. So this morning I entitled the message, the work of the gospel through a local church. And the reason I did so was there in verse 2 of chapter 13. The Holy Spirit made this statement and he says, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

The Holy Spirit of God had called these men to a work, the work of the gospel through a local church. Now it's important to note that this is that. It is a local church that we're reading about. The book of Acts is so wonderful and instructive for us and it helps us to understand how the Holy Spirit was working through local churches and through the spread of the gospel the Apostles taking the Word of God and many other disciples taking the Word as they were scattered because of persecution which we have spoken about and because of other things because of the famine was spreading people there was all kinds of upheaval that was going on, not only naturally and physically, but also spiritually. And God was doing something in the life of the church and in the life of local churches.

And I want us to really focus in part on that theme today is the work of the gospel through a local church, this local church of Antioch. It seems obvious and it really is but I don't want the the obviousness of this to not be significant in your thinking. We do not need to think over it because what is given to us here is something that has been inspired by the living God so that we would have a better understanding of how the church operates, a local church operates in the world. So I don't want us to neglect this most important institution of our day, the local church. As we think about this local church and the life of all of its members and even of you who attend regularly, I want you to understand the significance of this local church not only in your life but also in this community.

It is a significant institution that God has created. You know there are many professing Christians who minimize this most glorious institution that God has created, God created the church and formed the church to be a blessing to the people and to edifier to build up the people of God. It's extremely significant. You know the relationship with your wife as close as that is, the closest relationship that you'll have on this earth is still but temporary. But the relationship that you have with the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ will last throughout eternity.

You will be my brothers and sisters throughout eternity." And I am thankful for that as I look across this sea of faces that I'm looking at. You are significant in my life and I'm thankful for that. And I just pray that this morning we can see the importance of that and see just how God was working through a local church to accomplish something in the communities in which he was wanting to accomplish. He was wanting to take the gospel. We know specifically He was wanting to take the gospel to the Gentile world because so often the Jews were rejecting the gospel.

And Paul, we know, was the apostle to the Gentiles. He was going to take the gospel to the Gentile world. But there are those who see the church, going back to this theme here of the church, who see the church as just an organized institution to somehow bind the conscience of its adherents and hold them to certain social and moral norms. I do not want us to consider the church in that way. That is something that many people believe.

They believe that it is some sort of a crutch or some sort of an institution that just sort of binds your conscience and keeps you within some limits and does not let you to express the freedom that you have in Christ and nothing could be further from the truth. But these types of people only participate on their own terms. They determine that the local church is something that they will use based upon what they believe and they feel no sense of obligation other than certain holidays or special occasions when they're going through some trial or some difficulty in their life. But then there are those who hold the idea of I do not need the local church because I'm a part of the universal church. Now this is true we are a part of the universal church but nothing could be further from the truth to think that a Christian does not need the local church.

The local church is significant in the life of a believer. And so Christ being the head of the universal church and also the head of every local church, there is a blatant abdication of any commitment of these types of people who think this way to the local church so plainly seen throughout the New Testament, we see God working in locations and in those locations he builds up local churches for the edification of his people, for you. This church is here for your good and for the glory of God. But these types of people think and feel totally free to enjoy a church service online or on TV or maybe on a golf course or on a fishing boat somewhere and they do not understand the importance that God has put into the very fabric of the local church for the good of that believer. They feel that perhaps they have advanced beyond or to a higher level of spirituality than the rest of us who are bound by the local church.

They do not want to be under the bondage of commitment, of a covenant, but brothers and sisters we are here a part of this local church because it is what God has designed. And I want you to know that we and God has never intended it for us to be an island to ourselves. We are not independent Christians. We are Christians which are and make up the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. Jesus Christ is the groom.

And so these type people often think about if they don't like the sermon they can change the channel, find a new website, find another preacher who more fits their likings and they rely more upon private interpretation. Then there are others who appreciate the weekly church services but really are not connected to the people of the church. They don't have these relationships that go beyond the hour or two hours that they're in the church service. And then finally, which probably is not finally, but because there are many more types and subtypes of different beliefs about the church and about religion, about professors of Christianity, But for our purposes this morning, I'll say finally because we are those people who are a confessional covenant keeping members of a local church. Now the reason I'm bringing so much attention to this understanding of the local church is because I want to show you what God is doing in this passage of Scripture to help us to understand the importance of God working through a local church even in the lives of apostles and prophets and teachers for the spread of the gospel throughout the world.

I want you to understand that a Bible-believing covenant Christian, they know and love each other, they know their elders, They're actively involved in each other's lives and they strive to live out that faith in obedience to the Word of God under the authority of God's Word, under the jurisdictional authority of the local church. And this is the situation that we find here in Antioch and brothers and sisters I am so pleased to say for the vast majority of us this is the situation that we have in this local church as well. People who love the Word of God, who love each other, who are active in each other's lives for the good of each other, for the glory of God, and for the advancement of his kingdom. I'm encouraged. So one of the orders and authorities of the local church is that they would be orderly in the sense in the way in which they carry out the gospel.

So I want us to first look at this in the last verse of chapter 12 verse 25 and then down through chapter 13 verse 5 at this first point listed there in your outline. The work of the gospel will not be done well without God's calling and local church commissioning. And this is what we see, this is one of the things that has fascinated me about the book of Acts as I've grown and read the Bible more and heard men preach upon this subject of the local church and the life of missions and the life of spreading of the gospel. It has been greatly encouraging and informative and instructive for my soul and how I want to live out my faith in the local church. So as Christians, something that we need to understand that God understand is that God did not design us or call us to be mavericks or free spirits when it comes to the work of the gospel.

One of the things that I'm very thankful for are men who feel called to street evangelism and preaching upon the streets to see souls brought into the kingdom and saved. One of the things though that discourages me about, I'll say some, I'll say many of that I have personally met but not all, okay, don't hear me making a blanket statement, but many of those that I have personally interacted with have been the type of people who are not connected to a local church. And so what I wonder about is, is what is the goal of these people? What is the end goal for them as they are proclaiming the gospel and they're proclaiming for people to come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and if that person does receive the gospel and believe it seems natural that the next step would be you need to find a Bible believing church and that lost person who was just saved says where do you go to church and they say well about that. I don't have a local church.

What a disconnect from what God is actually trying to do. Between proclaiming the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring people into a relationship with Jesus Christ to save them from their sins, but God by his grace does not leave us at that starting point. He actually wants to bring us into a local church for the edification and the building up of the body of Christ so that you will be discipled and that you would grow into the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that is a place at which I think there can be a failure or a lack of foresight and understanding. So as we proclaim the gospel on the streets let us make sure that we are faithful Christians in the local church as well because it is very important.

So God again God did not put us here to invent ways for us to advance his kingdom and to grow his church, but rather by his word, he gives us instruction. He gives us precepts and principles and practices that we can look at and understand. How is it that God wants us to do this great work of taking the gospel to all the world? He tells us what to do. He lays it out for us.

Jesus himself said, I will build my church. He did not leave it for us to necessarily build his church but we enter into that work that Jesus Christ is doing. He's wanting us to participate in him building the church and so it only makes sense as a contractor, it would only make sense that a subcontractor would come to me and say, how do you want this done? Where are the blueprints that you want us to use to build this house? And that is much what God has done for us in giving us the Word of God, the very blueprint for us to understand how he wants his church to function in this world.

And so it's so important that we understand this, but I want us to see first within this the work of the gospel will not be done well without God's calling. And I want to, there's two points to this point, and so The first part of that point will be it's not going to be done well without God's calling. Look with me in Acts chapter 12 verse 25, Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark. Now this points us back to Acts chapter 11. The callings of God are often for very specific reasons.

Now in this case it was very very specific. In Acts 11, 29, and 30 we read this, then the disciples each according to his ability determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. In this specific case the calling was one in which the disciples had come together they saw a need there was a great famine and they wanted to send relief financial relief to the believers at Jerusalem and so they sent Paul and or Saul in Barnabas as mentioned here, they sent him and by the way it's okay if I say Paul, it's the same person but I do get confused sometimes in this text specifically because we're gonna see that his name is not changed but he will be called Paul from here on out although it's not a changing of the name, it's his name, it's his Greek name, it's Paul. So Paul, Saul, we'll say both throughout and don't throw anything at me for doing so.

He is here going with Barnabas for the relief of the church. And it's interesting because to me, and I want you to somewhat be astounded at these things, maybe it's not too astounding as the gospel itself is, but this is part of it. Notice what it says, that when they had fulfilled their ministry, their service, they had fulfilled this work in which God had called them to do. How did he call them to do it? He called them to do it through that local church, through that body of believers.

They saw what needed to be done and in a sense it was a calling to go they had a compassion and they saw a need to fulfill a ministry and to fulfill a relief for other brothers and sisters in Christ specifically this ministry was to other believers And that is a very legitimate calling of ministry to help relieve brothers and sisters who are in need. And we need to understand that and recognize that. That's not a lesser work. It's a good work when you care for the body of Christ. In fact, that's what we're doing here this morning.

I'm hoping to care for your souls in a very practical way as we proclaim the Word of God to you. This calling again was very specific by the church. It was for the purpose of relieving them. The calling also can be for specific seasons. We noticed here in verse 12 that they had fulfilled their ministry.

They had accomplished the task. That part of their ministry was done. They did it. And so now we find them in chapter 13. It says this, and now the church, which is at Antioch, that's not insignificant this local church at Antioch and there were there certain prophets and teachers And so we see in this that God is bringing us into this next phase of ministry specifically for Barnabas and Paul.

God had something, this work that he wanted them to do, this work for Paul and Barnabas. It would be different in that for what the former work was going to be. And so we were brought to this in two ways and I want to kind of lay this out it's a little bit lengthy but I want to I want to bring to you two ways in which God is bringing them into this next work that he has for them, this work that the Holy Spirit has called them to do. First in this work, he is doing this through the leaders of the church. This church at Antioch had leaders, they had prophets and they had teachers.

If you'll notice in Ephesians chapter 4, we'll read that in just a moment, in Ephesians chapter 4 we know that pastor teachers are really the same work and the same person, same office if you will, and here they had teachers in this church and they had prophets and they were there to help and to lead that church into understanding the fullness of what God had for that local church. And so we read again, now in the church which is at Antioch, God here had provided for the spiritual need and the direction of this local church. He was wanting to provide for their care the care of their souls. That's what God is doing here this morning for you. He's providing for the care of your soul.

He's wanting to feed you this morning. He's wanting to give you an understanding in how the local church works to accomplish the spread of the gospel. That's one of our primary works. That's one of the primary things that we do is to think about the spread of the gospel. And that's what he's going to do.

In Ephesians 4, as I said, verse 11, the Bible says, and he gave some, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Why? For the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting." Let me pause there just for a moment. Did you recognize that terminology there? He's wanting to bring us to the knowledge of the Son of God.

He's wanting us to be a perfect or a complete mature man, he's wanting us to be built up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's a tall order. Wow, what a work that needs to be done through the ministry and the calling of God's people and leaders within the church. But not only that, he's doing that in verse 14 that we should no longer be children. God does not want you to remain an adolescent in the faith and certainly not a milk drinking Christian.

He wants you to be a meat eater. He wants you to to go beyond where you are that you should no longer be children. Why? Because spiritual children are tossed to and fro and they're carried about with every wind of doctrine. They're unstable.

They don't know, it's like my little granddaughter was walking yesterday. Man, she's getting good at walking but every now and then it's like whoa you know and she has to catch her balance and that's the way children are and that's the way spiritual children are they will be unstable at times in their doctrine but notice what else he says Carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness and of deceitful plotting. This has direct relation to this very passage that we're preaching. What is it that this bar Jesus was doing? Paul said and called him, oh, full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight way of the Lord." Thank God Paul and Barnabas were not children in the faith.

They were established. They were built up in the doctrine of Christ. That's what I want all of us to be. I want us to all be built up in the doctrine of Christ that we would mature, that we would come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That it doesn't matter when any man comes against us with trickery and cunning craftiness and deceitful plotting and when they when they speak lies it's not going to cause us to stumble.

This is important because guess what We go out from here and we take the gospel from here and we come in contact with those as we'll look at in just a minute who come against the church and oppose you in your gospel work. If you're a child you're going to be tossed to and fro and not know what to do. And so this passage is very important for the building up of the body of Christ so that we will be mature believers and understanding the importance of the local church in doing that very thing. Listen, a person who is this island unto themselves as a Christian, all they hear are their own thoughts regarding the Word of God. And they gather for themselves teachers, the only kind that they like.

When you're in a local church, your pastor is going to say things to you sometimes that you don't like. I don't know if you've experienced that here. It's true. Not that we're always right, because sometimes my pastor says things I don't like. How about that?

That's the beauty of plurality of elders. So that's what God is doing in the local church. Now I believe it's worth noting that these men were not being called into the ministry but they were being called to a specific ministry. They had already been called, God had already called Paul and he told him you're going to go to the Gentiles. He told Ananias that you're this man you're gonna show him I'm gonna show him how much he must suffer for my sake and he's gonna go to Gentiles and the Kings and he's he's gonna go to the Jews as well and that's what he did.

So the difference being this that these men were already functioning in the capacity of prophets and teachers. Now They were being called into a specific ministry or a specific work or act of service that God wanted them to do. It was something beyond what they were just doing in the local church. Guess what? That happens in a local church.

There are times in which God calls people to go beyond or outside of the local church to minister and to do work. There are some people who are sent out to start churches. There are other people who are sent out to take the gospel and to go into foreign lands even to start churches. That happens. Praise God that it happens or the church would never grow.

But in doing this throughout the history of the church and even until now God will often lay things upon the heart of his people to go and to fulfill some act or some work of ministry. Sometimes it's different than what they are currently doing. Here they were working in the locality of this local church in Antioch and God's getting ready to send them all around the world, all over the place, a big missionary journey if you will. And so he does this and he's given to the church these prophets and teachers. Now the two were not necessarily identical though the higher gift of prophecy commonly included the lower gift of teaching it kind of function together oftentimes I've heard some people say oh that he's a good teacher or oh he's a good preacher those two things actually function much together that it there is an act of proclaiming you're heralding the truth but if you're not teaching what good is it If you're just shouting for shouting sake, you need to be saying something when you're saying something, right?

You need to have some substance to it and that's this teaching aspect of it but the prophecy here was very specific in that it did include direct message from God. It says here it came from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit said to them and we'll look at that. So we have five men listed here and real quickly I just want to look at these men. We know Barnabas, I'm not going to spend much time there.

He's the son of encouragement. He's the man that the Apostles said, this is a son of encouragement. That's glorious. I love Barnabas. We have Simon who is given this little name at the end of Niger.

What does it mean? It means black. I mean, it seems like there's two possible reasons that I've read anyway from commentators. One, he was darker skinned, and the other, he had jet black hair. I leaned towards he was darker skinned, and guess what?

It mattered not how dark his skin was, but it was more about the character of this man and the love of God within this man. So apparently it isn't wrong to not be color blind so long as you do not judge a person based upon the color of their skin but rather their character. God gave people color because he loves and appreciates the variety of people in beauty and instead of the vitriol of people because of that diversity and beauty. And so let's be done with the whole idea of saying we have to be colorblind. How can you be?

You don't walk around with your eyes closed, but appreciate the beauty that God has created. That's what we need to do. You don't judge people based upon the color of their skin or their hair or the lack thereof. Okay? So if you brothers say amen to that.

Thank you. So we move on from there to Lucius. Some people think that this was Luke. Some people believe because he was of Cyrene this was the man that actually carried the cross of Christ. I don't know.

I don't think it was Luke. I lean towards this man is Lucius of Cyrene. We'll leave it there because that's what the text actually says and so I'm not it doesn't matter if we go into great detail about who this man was. Next we have Menaean. This is interesting literally the foster brother of Herod.

He was raised up it says here had been brought up with Herod the tetriarch. That again is fascinating to me and is encouraging because you know faith is often the richest among the poor but occasionally there are those who are poor in spirit who are rich and who have received the grace of the kingdom of God in their heart and that seems to be what has happened here with this man he was raised up and you know much like Moses he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin esteeming the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward." You know the faith of God works throughout all society. It doesn't matter what your economic status is, the grace of God will go there and I praise God for it. So we find lastly, interesting, lastly Saul is mentioned. Why?

Well it seems as at this point he was not seen as prominent among the prophets and teachers or even the apostles but God would soon use this in his life and turn this man into the most prominent among them not because in his from his own testimony not because he was better than them but the grace of God was actively working in him to such a degree we owe most of the New Testament to the Apostle Paul. Praise God for the work of God in this man's life and it doesn't seem like he had a problem being named last. How about you? Are we seeking for position or are we seeking to go forward for the kingdom of God? That should be our desire.

Let us work the work while it is day. Let us do the work that God has put before us. God calls according to his own purposes, he raises men up and he humbles men according to his own purpose and plan and we can rejoice in that. But what these men were doing is the important part. These men were separating themselves unto God.

Look in verse 2, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, MacArthur says, Serving in leadership in the church is an act of worship to God and consisted of offering spiritual sacrifices to him including prayer and oversight of the flock plus preaching and teaching the Word of God. When We are actively working and serving the body of Christ when we're preaching the word, when we're working in other forms, when we're proclaiming the gospel, when we're taking relief to the poor. We are actually ministering unto God. It is an act of service to God. I don't ever want you to minimize whatever it is that you're doing, but think about it.

Does that astonish you that it says that? It astonished me the first time I was really looking into that, and it says that here they were, these men, and they ministered to the Lord. What does the Lord have need of? Does he need me to serve him in some way? It's not based upon his need, but it's based upon the privilege that we have and knowing this, that when you've done it to the least of these my brethren you've done it to me.

As you serve, as you do little things unnoticed in this church or in the midst of this local assembly you are ministering unto God himself when you do it with the heart of service. So be encouraged and be astonished at this brothers and sisters. We see that these men were serving God through fasting. Our brother Paul Carrington is going to be bringing a message this afternoon on that very topic so I'm not going to go into much depth and I'll leave the heavy lifting to him but I would say this is interesting to me that in our day we don't see a whole lot of fasting for spiritual reasons. Now hey if you want to do some intermittent fasting and lose weight, now there you go you'll hear all about fasting all over the internet.

But when you hear about fasting in the scriptures it's not about physical advancement or physical gain or loss. It is more about spiritual gain. When we fast and we neglect the very yearnings of our stomach, we fast so that we can draw closer to God and God actually was doing a work and I find it significant that right here these leaders of the church, these prophets and these teachers, they were ministering to the Lord, they were doing their normal function in the local church, and they were fasting. And that is the point at which the calling of God came. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "'Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul "'for the work which I have called them.'" We're not told exactly how the Holy Spirit spoke.

We're just told that He spoke. We're told what He said but not how He said it, in what form did it come. Was it through their mind and intellect? Was it audible? We're not told, it doesn't matter, but we know this, they all understood it.

It was not questioned about what the Holy Spirit was desiring to do. So he's separating these men he's calling them aside to do a work. God calls different people at different times to different works and remember this the callings are not just something that is haphazard but it is something that is embraced by the local church. It is something that is agreed upon. It's not, again, it goes back to this independent mindset as Christians that I can just go do my thing.

Now you're actually in covenant with a local body and God is establishing his order within the local church. He's showing that right here that this calling of God came through the leadership of this local church. So regarding Saul and Barnabas, we're not told here what the work was, but it was known to them what it was. He just says he's calling them, I'm calling them to this work, separate me, separate to me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Now this may have been something that God had laid upon their heart previously, but now was the time.

I know that's happened in my own life before. There's things that I believe that I needed to go do and it seemed as if I was in a holding pattern. What was that about? I don't know. Maybe God had something to teach me.

I had growing to do. Some reason. But then he made it known. He made it known through the body of the local church. He made it known to God's people, he made it known to those who would be doing the work, he made it known to those who would be laying the hands upon them doing the work.

In Acts 9, 15 we read this, but the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. Also in the book of Galatians, Paul writes in chapter 2, but on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcision had been committed to me as the gospel for circumcision was to Peter, for he who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me towards the Gentiles. Paul understood his calling, he understood his work that God had called him to do. And he was going about to do it. But again, their calling, this was their calling and thus they said about the work but not yet.

We have a space here between verse 2 and verse 3. The Holy Spirit said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I called them. What else needs to be said? What else needs to be done? Well, I don't know, but verse 3 tells us they did something else.

Even though they had a word from the Holy Spirit, it says, then having fasted and prayed they laid hands on them and sent them away. I'm not saying it's a long period of time but these leaders of the church, these prophets and teachers had received the word of the Holy Spirit to separate these two men, but their next step was we need to continue to fast and we need to continue to pray before we send them out on their way. They also needed to lay their hands upon them. What does that mean? What was going on here?

And that's where we come to this point. Not only is the work of the gospel most successful through the callings of God, but also through the commissioning of the church. The first commission of Saul and Barnabas was in Acts 11 when they were sent to take care of this need at Jerusalem, this need because of the famine. But now There's another need, there's something else God is wanting to do. It would be easy to read over it and not mark this statement out as significant, but brothers and sisters, I don't want to do that.

I want us to see what God's doing. This statement says, and laid hands on them, they sent them away, but not without fasting and prayer. How often do we set about the work of ministry without fasting and prayer? The Bible says do it, let's just go do it. The Holy Spirit said, do it, but they fasted and prayed.

I think there's something for us to learn there. This is important because we're gonna see the meaning of it again in the missionary travels of Paul. One man said the symbolic sense signifies this laying on of hands, the affirmation, the support, and identification with someone and his ministry. When these men, these local church leaders were laying their hands upon Barnabas and Saul, they were acknowledging, they were affirming the calling of God on these men for the work to which he had given them. They were putting themselves with them in the work in the sense, And I believe that's what we see taking place here in the Church of Antioch.

Her leaders were acting as the sending church of these missionaries to go and establish local churches. They were working together for this. And I believe again that we need to get this settled into our mind because it shows us, listen, even among the Apostle Paul, he was a man under authority. Did you ever think about Paul being a man under authority? I mean just a loose reading of the book of Acts in the New Testament you think man he's just going he's doing his thing he's like going He's got a vision and he's going to accomplish it.

You read over this and so did I for many years. Paul was sent by the local church of Antioch to accomplish the great work that the Holy Spirit had called him to do. There is no man or woman who is not under authority. When you rebel against authority that God has established in your life, you are asking for trouble. You are asking that the hand of the Lord not be with you in a good way.

When you are submitted to the authority of the local church specifically in this jurisdiction that we're talking about this morning, great things are accomplished for the glory of God and for the gospel. They didn't just do their own thing. These men not only were they called by God, but after that clear calling of God, the men of that church, the leaders of this local church, laid hands on them to send them upon their way. They were all in agreement. This is what God wants you to do.

And they went. They went. Another proof of this is seen in this. Once Paul and Barnabas had finished preaching the gospel in their circuit, where did they go? Did they just keep wandering around indefinitely?

No. Look with me and turn over to Acts 14 verses 21 through 28. I want to read this to you because it's significant. Acts 14, 21 through 28. And this is what it says in verse 21, and when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch.

Now this Antioch is not the Antioch that we're talking about, it's another. There's two Antiochs, So don't get confused by that and you'll see the difference here in just a moment. Verse 22, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, there it is again, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. And after they had passed through Passidia, they came to Pamphylia and now in verse 25, now when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Adelaea, from there, verse 26, there, from there they sailed to Antioch, the Antioch that we're talking about in chapter 13 where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work to which they had completed And now when they had come and gathered the church together, who?

Who did they gather? They gathered the local church together. They gathered those people who had sent them. They gathered together and listen to what they did. They reported all that God had done with them.

We would call that a missionary report. They gathered the church together and they said, let us tell you what God has done. He has established many churches. They appointed elders. Did you see that?

They didn't just go out street preaching. They went out making disciples and establishing local churches and establishing leadership in those churches. It wasn't a willy-nilly missionary society. This was something that the local church had to commission these men to do. They laid their hands upon them to do it.

They did it with the blessing of God and more churches, local churches, were established. And That is the order in which God lays an abundant blessing upon the work and the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When it's done apart from that, we see foolishness being sent out into other countries. I wonder sometimes the harm that has been done through people who have been sent out to supposedly be missionaries and they have never truly established local churches because they're not even a part of a local church. They're a part of a society or some institution that is not the local church and they have no local accountability with their pastors and elders who know them and love them.

You can go to school now and you can become a missionary and you can be sent out and you've never even had a local church. What is that about? And you can just kind of go do your thing and send in your report to this group that's not a local church and continue to be supported. I think we've got this upside down and backwards. I think we need to change the way missions are done.

We need to raise up godly men who are elder qualified and we need to send them out to plant local churches so that they can be built up and raise up godly men, elder qualified, so that they can plant local churches. This is the way that God works throughout his scriptures. I'm not making this up. I'm trying to show you by reason and clarity and walking through the word with you that this is what they did. Now I've spent a lot of time on that because it's important.

And I want to show you what happens when you do this. That's important too. The work of the gospel will not be without opposition. The work of the gospel will not be without opposition. In fact, expect it.

Expect there to be someone when you take the gospel of Jesus Christ into this lost dark world that there's going to be someone who comes into your face and says, get out of here, or they say, I wish you were dead, or I wish it would have happened to you. Saw a ridiculous, dark clip, a video clip of a man. They were sitting there having a prayer vigil like we did the other night in Wake Forest and this this dark man came up and started playing his guitar about hoping that you would die and when you cry out to us we will not hear you. You think you're not going into a dark world? These people want you dead.

They crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. A servant shall not be above his master. We need to expect the opposition. We need to expect that when we receive a call from the Holy Spirit of God to minister the gospel of God into this dark world it will not be smooth sailing. No, in fact it nearly guarantees you that you will have someone to resist you And in fact when they do resist you, you can actually say I must be doing the work of the Lord.

There was one passage, I meant to look it up and I forget exactly where it is, one of you kids will probably pop it off like that, but Paul had made a statement that there was much opposition in the city and that the door had opened wide the door of the gospel. Both of those things were true at the same time. Great opposition and a wide open door. Brothers and sisters that's what we look for. When you know you're on the right track when you've got great opposition to what you're doing and also an open door to proclaim the gospel and that's the glorious work of the gospel.

It is also we need to understand and expect that opposition. Gospel, listen, gospel work is opposed work. Gospel work is hard work. It's not for the faint of heart, it's not for the soft and sensitive. Gospel work is for the hardy and for the courageous.

It has always been so and it will increasingly be so. If you want to enter into gospel service you better make sure that you have a gospel spine because you're going to be on mission to take back ground from the devil. He does not give up ground without a fight. But brothers and sisters we are not left to our own devices. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10 says this, finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand, to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities and against powers and against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith with which you were able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, and for me that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

Expect opposition. Now let's see how it comes quickly. Verse 6, now when they had gone through the Isle of Patmos they found a certain sorcerer. How did they find him? Did they find him or did he find them?

They found him and we know something about him. We know a lot about him. They found a sorcerer, they found a false prophet, they found a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus or son of Jesus or son of Joshua which ironically which is not irony because it's providential but it means son of God is deliverance or God is salvation. Sometimes names don't match men. Here he is, this bar Jesus, this supposed son of Jehovah saves or Jehovah delivers, who was with this procounsel, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man.

And so we understand right off the bat, we need to understand our opposition. You need to understand that when opposition comes against you in preaching the gospel, that this opposition is going to be much like these things here. They may be sorcerers, they most certainly will be false prophets, and they will be wrong in what they are proclaiming. You can go on down there and hear that he sought to turn him away from the Word of God. Know your enemy.

Know your enemy. Here they are preaching the gospel to this Sergius Paul as a prudent man who actually had a desire to want to hear something. I don't know if you've ever been in a gospel encounter and with multiple people and every now and then you'll have somebody who wants to hear what you're saying and almost certainly you'll have somebody else there who does not want them to hear what you're saying. That's what's happening. This is not a one-time thing.

The idea here is that they're constantly trying to tell them the word and he's constantly opposing. This man seemed willing to hear what they had to say. Look at what it says. This man called for, he called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. What is that about?

That's God doing a work in his heart even before his salvation. He's drawing him to himself. He had a desire to hear the Word of God. That's not a natural desire. He's working.

And as Paul and Barnabas are seeking to be faithful witnesses of the gospel, this sorcerer, this Elimus, he withstood them seeking to turn the procounsel away from the faith. This idea of withstood means to resist, to oppose, to rebel, to set yourself against something and to make a stand. Man are we seeing this happen today. So many people are not content with letting people have a memorial service, but they want to withstand you or not content with you proclaiming a gospel of peace they want to withstand you they want to be in your face they want to be there with words and with actions and with intimidation they want to withstand that's what this man is doing he's with standing and opposing them and what they are doing And he was seeking to turn them, this again the idea is to mislead, to cause to turn away from a belief, to turn them away so that he would continue in a state of unbelief. This man was so actively opposed to Saul and Barnabas, his goal was to oppose the preaching and to turn this man away from the faith, he had him, Bargesus had Sergius Paulus under his sway.

Even though Sergius Paulus was elevated in rank within the government, Bargesus had sway over him. He didn't want to give that up. No doubt it probably brought financial gain to him or who knows what in influence position power is often the case but I want you to notice something how he confronted the opposition at this point it's important to understand the distinction here there's two types of opposition you have one the person of people who are ignorant and and deceived they they believe a lie they're under the sway of the evil one, their eyes are blinded, they need to be rescued from type two. Type two, the second man who is in opposition here, he is the deceiver. He's the false prophet.

He's the sorcerer. He's the one seeking to turn people away from the truth. He's the one leading ministry. They have an understanding of what is going on. In fact, they see what you're trying to do and they try to stop you from doing it.

That's the dangerous type. That's the type Paul is dealing with here. And as he deals with him, he holds nothing back. But note this, Note what it says, then Saul who also was called Paul, verse 9, filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't go out there in your flesh.

They will rile you up, make you do something stupid, post a video. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit and he looked intently at him. And what follows could easily be seen as hate speech. He would have been in real trouble in our day. But look at what he says.

Oh, full of all deceit. Notice all, he keeps saying all. Oh, full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil. He says your name may be Bar Jesus, but you're Bar Satan is what you are. You're a son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness.

Will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? How often we encounter people like the first ones I mentioned and we interact with them like Paul does with the second one. And what I mean by that it might not have been clear. We go out to preach the gospel to that first type, that type that I mentioned was deceived and they're blinded to things and they're confused about things. They're actually reachable but in our arrogance because we're not filled with the Holy Spirit, we go and interact with them as if they're like Bar-Jesus.

You get my drift? We are bringing the gospel of peace. We need to be very careful. You noticed everything that they did was with prayer and fasting and full of the Holy Spirit. I believe that Paul had clear understanding of what was going on.

He was full of the Holy Spirit and he recognized that this man was full of all fraud and deceit and evil and resisting righteousness and trying to pervert the straight way of the Lord and he spoke very pointedly to this man, and he spoke judgment upon this man, and now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you, you shall be blind not seeing the sun for a time, and immediately a darkness fell upon his eyes. What is your aim? Here's a little application for us. What is your aim in preaching the gospel? Are you going to try going out to try to prove yourself right to feed your own pride?

Are you going out to rescue the lost from their sin? Let's be careful that our aim in preaching the gospel is to rescue sinners and not just to blast them with our wit. I pray that God would give me a heart of compassion for the lost. They've been taken captive. You used to be.

We need to be gentle. We need to be loving. We need to be consistent. We need to be unbending, but not ugly. We need to speak the truth in love, but then every now and then you're gonna deal with somebody like this, and you better be sure, You better be sure what you're saying.

So, there's so much here. I'm sorry. Lastly and quickly, the work of the gospel will not be without triumph. It will not be without triumph. Then the procounsel believed when he saw what had been done being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

What an amazing statement. He believed. That is an amazing statement. You should be astonished at that statement. Why are we not astonished at the Word of God when it says something like this?

A dead man believed. Dead men don't believe. Living men believe God had created life in this man and he believed. That is an astonishing statement. Every one of you were dead in your sins and trespasses and God gave you life.

He turned the light on you in your heart and soul and you believe the gospel which was the greatest miracle. It's amazing to think how God did this and he believed and there was a means to that end when he saw what had been done when he being astonished at the teaching of the Lord. He saw the power of God at work in Paul and Barnabas not only through their preaching but also through their judgment upon this man this false prophet and he was astonished and he believed and it was the work of God. Now I say this that it we will always go forth in triumph and this is what I mean by that. You can look at this passage and say well it was only 50% triumph.

You've got one man who Paul judged and you got another man who believed. You got one man who rejected the same gospel and you got one man who believed the gospel. How was that triumphant? Sometimes I go and preach and no one believes. How is that triumphant?

Well let me tell you in 2nd Corinthians 2 14 through 16 write it down underline it memorize it. Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. We will always be triumphant. Listen, here's why. This is one of the most encouraging texts because God always leads us in triumph and here's the quote again, and through us Christ, through us, diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place.

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. Remember, our job is to be the fragrance of Christ wherever we go. We triumph in Christ when we diffuse the fragrance of Christ everywhere we go. When we do that we're always triumphant. To the one we may be an aroma of death leading to death, verse 16 says, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life and Paul in his great wisdom and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and said this and who is sufficient for these things.

Do you realize your triumphant when you're faithful to the gospel even if no one believes? Because as our brother read this morning, the word of God will not return void. It will accomplish that for which I sent it. And the purpose for some may be like Bar-Jesus and the purpose of others may be like Sergius Paulus. Some will be hardened by the gospel and some will be made alive by the gospel.

And so we are always led in triumph brothers and sisters. Let us go out from this place and let us diffuse the fragrance of Christ into everyone that we meet and we will always be triumphant in Christ. That is the beauty of what the promises of God are for the local church when they do the work of the ministry and the way in which God has called them to do it. We are triumphant in this. It is our business to be that aroma of Christ.

Remember this, that the preaching of the gospel is for the saving of sinners, but even more it is about the diffusing of the knowledge of God in every place. The glory of God is our great aim even over the salvation of sinners. Aim high brothers and sisters. Aim for the glory of God to fill the earth like the waters cover the sea. Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven we thank you for the word. Oh God, help us to be this fragrance of Christ everywhere we go. Lord, may Christ be glorified in it all. I pray, oh God, that all of these things that were said in your word today and everything that was said in accordance with your will that would be beneficial for your saints that you have built us up today that you've encouraged us and I pray Lord there was astonishment in our hearts at the glorious nature of your word Lord I pray that you would use these words to shepherd your dear people, bless them and keep them, and make them always victorious in Christ. Amen.