Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19980208.htm

ACTS: THE LOCAL CHURCH AS GOD'S AGENCY FOR DISCIPLING MEN
Part XXVIII: God's WAY Of Leading Believers Into His Sanctioned Ministry Assignments
(Acts 13:1-3; 11:22-30)
  1. Introduction
    1. Jesus commanded Christian Church believers to make disciples of all nations in Matthew 28:19-20.
    2. Accordingly, a number of groups today seek to pressure individuals to go to the mission field or preach or get more active in fulfilling the Great Commission than merely functioning as they are in the local church.
    3. However, Acts 16:6-7 shows that there are times when God does not want a specific believer to minister the Gospel in a specific area! Thus, we cannot dictate to others their need to be in a specific endeavor!
    4. Acts 13:1-3, in light Acts 11 shows that there is a clear pattern to the Lord's leading of specific believers in how and where and when they are to fulfill His properly sanctioned ministry assignments (as follows):
  2. God's WAY Of Leading Believers Into His Sanctioned Ministry Assignments, Acts 13:1-3; 11:22-30.
    1. When God set Saul and Barnabas apart for missionary service, He led the recognized, functioning leaders of the organized Church of which they were a part to know this service was His will, Acts 13:1-2:
      1. Acts 13:1 notes that the organized church at Antioch had recognized prophets and teachers as leaders.
      2. While these leaders were active in service and worship, the Holy Spirit told them of His will for them to set apart Saul and Barnabas for the missionary work to which He had already assigned them, Acts 13:2.
    2. When God set Saul and Barnabas apart for missionary service, He did so within the context of a clearly established and ever-developing series of preparatory precedents in their experience:
      1. The Holy Spirit indicated to the Antioch leaders that both Saul and Barnabas had already been called of the Lord to such an endeavor, Acts 13:2. We know that in Saul's case, this calling had occurred at his conversion years before in Acts 9:6, 11-16, so this ministry was not a surprise to Saul and Barnabas.
      2. Not only had God already called the men so that they would not be surprised at this leading, but the experiences God had let them have had clearly prepared them for this latest call to missionary work:
        1. Back when the Church of Antioch was a fledgling ministry, the organized Church of Jerusalem had officially sent their representative, Barnabas up to the Antioch group to establish it, Acts 11:20-24.
        2. Barnabas had used this Jerusalem authority to send for Saul at Tarsus to come and strengthen the Antioch Church with Saul's knowledgeable teaching, Acts 11:25-26.
        3. Then, when the prophet, Agabus predicted the famine in Jerusalem, the Antioch Church had sent Saul and Barnabas with an offering collection as a gift to the Jerusalem saints, Acts 11:28-30.
        4. Thus, beginning with the initial efforts of the Jerusalem Church in sending Barnabas to Antioch, extending to the duo of Barnabas and Saul ministering to develop the new body until both in turn had been sent out as emissaries to Jerusalem believers, the pattern of experiential precedence had been set for God to sanction their going out again. This time, they were sent to do more than strengthen a new work; they would start new works and establish them. This time they would bear more than a gift of money for believers; they would bear the gift of the saving Gospel for the unsaved!
    3. When God set Saul and Barnabas apart for missionary service, He used a clearly established historical chain-of-command to validate His assignment of them:
      1. The spiritual leaders of the Antioch Church were used of God to initiate the missionary thrust, 13:1-2.
      2. These leaders did not have an upstart authority, but one that had risen out of deep historical roots:
        1. The Antioch church leaders had been established through Barnabas' authority, Acts 11:20-26.
        2. Barnabas had served this way under the authority of the Jerusalem Apostles, Acts 11:22 with 15:2.
        3. These apostles in turn bore the authority of the Head of the Church, Jesus, Jn. 20:22f; Mtt. 16:18-19.
        4. Thus, the chain-of-command behind the missionary thrust of Acts 13 came from a recognized and credible human chain-of-command leadership stretching back to the Lord Himself!
Lesson: (1) God does NOT assign people to ministry thrusts by bowling them over with sudden, dictatorial, guilt! (2) Rather, He uses (a) clear, repeated and gently developing PRECEDENTS and (b) the HISTORICALLY credible, (c) LOCAL CHURCH leaders to signify such leading to be His will.

Application: We must heed God's clear, repeated, developing experiential indicators and the advice of sanctioned local church leaders above any personal pressures to get into a specific ministry thrust.