On a Mission

SERMON: 2013-08-04--ac13104--on-a-mission SOURCE DURATION: 00:38:02.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The entire provided transcript segment is continuous sermon material, moving from an initial anecdote and principle setting (common sense vs. Spirit) to a detailed pastoral application concerning contemporary social issues and concluding with theological exposition. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Well, I left you two weeks ago as I recall with a homework assignment. How many of you remember that? I don't even dare ask you how many of you did your homework assignment. The question you will recall, clearly you don't, but the question was, "Why did Saul and Barnabas, when they began their missionary journey, start by going to Cyprus?" Now do you remember? You know, you really know how to discourage a preacher. Very good. See, Hardeen did her homework, let's give her a hand, come on. The answer that I'm looking for is twofold, Hardeen mentioned the first one, and that is that Barnabas was a Levite from the island of Cyprus. Very important, we'll talk about that in a few moments. Secondly, the church in Antioch was established by itinerant preachers from, among other places, Cyprus, who first proclaimed the gospel to the Greeks in Antioch. So there was a natural connection between Antioch and Cyprus. And so Paul and Barnabas, still called Saul then, begin their missionary journey by employing the natural connections that they have in order to facilitate the mission that God has entrusted to them. And there's a very important principle in there that I want to begin with this morning, and that principle is this, while it is true that God will sometimes direct us supernaturally with his Holy Spirit, it is equally true that the bulk of the decisions that you and I end up making in life, God expects us to use our sanctified common sense. And notice I say "sanctified common sense." And it's important to understand this principle because in my experience, at least, there are two extreme errors that God's people very readily slide into. The first is to deny that the Holy Spirit ever speaks to believers, and you've heard people like that, they believe that God stopped speaking to his people in the New Testament, and when the canon of scripture was closed, that was the end of special revelation, and their argument will be God has given you common sense and a good brain to use, and so that's what you use for making decisions. Then on the other extreme, there are those who, having received the revelation of God's Holy Spirit, knowing what it is like to be led by the Spirit, they become almost addicted to waiting for supernatural revelation, and unless they are very clear that God is speaking to them, they refuse to take action. I call that producing the paralysis of analysis, the paralysis of analysis. "Lord, do you want me to put on green socks or black socks? Do you want me to go up the stairs on the left side of the stairs where the handrail is, or do you want me to go up on the other side of the stairs where the handrail is not?" Now understand, there may be times when the Holy Spirit is trying to get your attention and every little decision matters. But generally speaking, both extremes are wrong. It is true that God, by His Holy Spirit, will come to the believer by times, and He will give us very specific revelation, as He did to the church here at Antioch when Saul and Barnabas were being prepared to launch into mission. I shared with you two weeks ago that my call to this church in late 1984, I came here in July 16 of 1985, was preceded six or seven years earlier by what can only be described as a revelation from the Holy Spirit that God was calling me not only to this community, but to this church. Without having been sent, it is equally true that most of the decisions that you and I end up making, we end up making in the light of sanctified common sense. Like Paul and Barnabas being sent out on this mission, we don't read any specifics about where they should go. They avail themselves of natural relationships, natural connections, and that is what they step into. And even as I tell you the story of the revelation that I received in terms of coming to this community, most of the very important, some of the most important decisions of my life that I've had to make, I have been clear as mud, and I've had to step out by faith. And I think back to two important decisions. One was to marry Michelle, or no one. The other was whether to accept a call to the first church that I pastored. Pray as I might, clarity as I might seek, the heavens were silent. And I had to come to a place where I said, "Okay, Lord, you know that I'm committed to you. I want to obey you in these matters. If you want me to step into this, then I trust that you are opening the doors and I will continue to walk through the open doors. If you don't want me to go that way, then close the doors, and I'm happy to be able to report more than 40 years later that both of those very important decisions clearly had gone in it even though there was no brilliant revelation from heaven." And my wife sits there and she sighs with relief and she says, "Well, I'm really glad to know that it was a good decision that you made back then." Do you understand what I'm saying? There will be moments of revelation, but the details of working out that revelation is often the product of simply using prayer, consultation with each other, the reading and the study of Scripture so that by faith we step into places that God is calling us to go because the other alternative you see produces the paralysis that I talked about earlier where you can't move unless you feel God is directing you. And if you find yourself in that kind of place in life and you've prayed about it and you've consulted others on it and you've honestly yielded your life to God, then step into what it is that you believe God has for you and ask him to close doors and open doors according to his will and you will discover after the fact that God's in it because your life is committed and yielded to God. Does that make sense? Do you find that helpful at all? Or do you just live by your own wits and by your own insight and you totally ignore the fact that you are God's and that God might just have a plan and purpose for your life that he is interested in directing? Now let me add this to it. Most of what we need to know in order to direct our lives is already contained for us in the pages of Scripture. And so don't ask God to give you more revelation if you aren't already studying, reading, or obeying the revelation that he has given you in the pages of Scripture. God, as I've often said, is extremely patient with our weakness. He is equally impatient with our rebellion and with our disobedience. So first lesson we learn from this passage is that while God will sometimes lead his people supernaturally to step into his purposes, equally he will let us use our sanctified common sense to figure out what this looks like in terms of obeying his purposes for our lives. One thing then that I want us to notice in this particular passage is that they start their mission in Jewish synagogues. Notice verse 5, "When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues." If you look at the map, then Salamis is a seaport on the eastern end. You can see there on the island of Cyprus. They start off in Antioch. They go to Seleucia, which is the seaport for Antioch, and they go to Salamis. And there they proclaim the word of God in a Jewish synagogue. Salamis is a port city, and it was home to a large Jewish community. In fact, in AD 116 to 117, there was a huge Jewish rebellion there. Hundreds of thousands of people, I think Greeks and Romans included, were killed. And I believe, if my memory serves me correctly, eventually the Jews were banished from the island of Cyprus. But at this particular point in time, there are enough Jews on the island to have multiple synagogues, which of course are their collective places of worship in the absence of the temple, which shortly thereafter would be destroyed in Jerusalem. So why the Jewish synagogues? Two reasons, both of which are very important. The first is that they share together a cultural affinity. Part of the difficulty that missionaries have had historically is to bridge the language and the cultural gap. And you know, I mentioned Jeremy and Katrina, they're going to do mission work, Lord willing, a year and a half from now, up in northern India, but they're spending a year and a half just preparing culturally and linguistically for the kind of work that they have to do. Well, Saul and Barnabas, in going to the synagogue in Antioch, didn't have that issue because these were their people. They not only spoke the same secondary language of Greek, but their mother tongue was the same and they understood each other. So they have a cultural affinity, but even more important than that, the Jews are God's covenant people. That is to say, they are the ones to whom the promise of the gospel has been made and for whom it is fulfilled. Listen to how Paul puts it in Romans 9, 4, and 5, Paul says concerning the Jews, theirs is the adoption of sons, theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. Then he goes on to say, theirs are the patriarchs. Who are the patriarchs? Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom God made the promises. From them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised. Amen. So the gospel is a fulfillment of the promises that God has made historically to the Jewish people. And so it's only fair and natural that they should be the ones who get first crack at the bat of embracing Jesus and embracing the promises of the gospel. And for that reason, everywhere Paul goes, in Barnabas initially, on their missionary journey, they always begin in the local synagogue and they proclaim Christ there until the Jews reject the gospel and then they take it to the Gentiles. And there is a good example of that later on in Acts chapter 13, as their missionary journey continues, they leave Cyprus, they go up to the mainland, which now is Turkey, and they're in a city called Pisidian, Antioch. It's another Antioch, but it's in a different location. What happens there is they run into a wholesale rejection of the gospel. It's talked about in Acts chapter 13, the verses 44 to 48, "On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city," this is Pisidian, Antioch, "gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly. We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you rejected and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life," this is serious business folks, "we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us. I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." God always begins with his own people. When his own people reject it, he takes it to the Gentiles. And so scripture talks about the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled. In fact, let me show you a couple of other passages, we'll just read them very quickly, where he outlines the theology behind this principle of to the Jew first and then to the Gentile, and why God has chosen to do it this way. We read from the book of Romans, Romans chapter, I'm waiting for the verse to come up, Romans chapter 11, the verses 11 and 12, "Again I ask, did they," that is the Jewish people, "stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?" And he says, "Not at all, rather because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious." That's a fascinating verse, keep that up for a moment. God is saying, "I'm bypassing the Jews because they have rejected me, but I am blessing the Gentiles in the hope that when the Gentiles see what God is doing among you, the Gentiles, they will become jealous and they will reconsider whether or not they want to belong to Jesus." And then verse 12, "But if their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring?" And then to explain that further, he says this, "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in and so all Israel will be saved, all Israel will be saved." And if you read these verses, in the context of those chapters in the Book of Romans, he uses the analogy of an olive tree. And he says, "Israel was the original olive tree because they rebelled against God, rejected Jesus, their branches were cut off, and the Gentiles who were not part of that original tree were implanted in the olive tree." But he says, "If it is possible for the Gentile branches to be implanted, how much more readily will the original branches be planted back into that tree?" And that's the reason many evangelical Christians today believe that as the world history moves to its conclusions, there will be a revival among the people of Israel so that both Jew and Gentile will come into the fullness of the kingdom of God. Only time will tell if that is a correct interpretation of the phrase, "All Israel will be saved." But I'll tell you, practically speaking, what this means for you and me is that if we have been brought up in the context of the covenant, if we have been brought up with the knowledge of Scripture, if we have been brought up with the knowledge of Jesus, if we have been brought up with the knowledge of the biblical truths of the gospel, we have first dibs on the blessings of God. But if and when we choose to ignore those blessings, God is not going to strive forever with those in His covenant who reject Him. Instead, He will cut those branches off and He'll go to the highways and the byways and He will gather the lost and the least and He will bring them into His kingdom because He says, "My house, it shall be filled." What an incredible responsibility for those of us who grow up with the knowledge of the gospel. So Paul and Barnabas, they begin by preaching in the synagogue for all the reasons that I have just spelled out and then as their journey continues, they eventually come to the city of Paphos. Now Paphos, here's the map, first of all, here's the Scripture, Acts 13 verse 6. They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos and then Paphos, you will see, is on the southwest corner of Cyprus. It is the capital city of Cyprus. It is the seat of government, not only, but it is the Mediterranean center of the worship of Aphrodite. Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty. She eventually was absorbed into the Roman pantheon of gods and you may also know her under the name of Venus and she was made famous by a statue. You've likely seen it. It's the half naked lady without any arms. How many of you think you have seen Venus de Milo? She was found in the 1820s in one of the Greek islands and there was a tug of war between the French and the Greeks as to who was going to own her and in transporting her she lost her arms. That's how she lost her arms and ever since then there's been a debate about what she did with her arms in the original statue and speculation is that in her left hand she in fact held an apple, the apple being the sign of the most beautiful woman in the world. So Paphos was a city steeped in the worship of Aphrodite. It was a love nest. It was a place filled with sexual immorality but it is here that the action really begins to heat up and in the time that remains let me just quickly walk you through what happens when they get to this particular city. The first thing we note is that the head of government, the head honcho if you will, turns out to be a seeker after the gospel. Verse 7, "Sergius Paulus the proconsul, an intelligent man sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God." Now the proconsul is the highest ranking government official on the island of Cyprus and the fact that he demonstrates an interest in the gospel is rather fascinating for two reasons. Number one in scripture and in history typically government officials aren't too anxious to meet up with Jesus, you know that? Because Jesus has an alternate kingdom and they will have to let go of their kingdom. I mean on a minor level every last one of us experiences that when we're confronted by the lordship of Jesus, isn't that true? Who's going to be the boss, Jesus or us? Well it's bad enough with the little that we have but you can imagine when you have the power that these people had that was a serious surrender to make. Not only that but this is important because as you can imagine people in positions of authority and power have a great deal of influence. You can see that years later for good or for evil when the emperor Constantine becomes a Christian and persecution ceases in the Roman Empire and Christianity becomes the state religion. Now you can argue as many people do that that was a bad thing and in some ways it was but at the very least it really changed the picture. When people in authority pledge their allegiance to Jesus the people under them benefit from that kind of decision. And so it's not surprising then that earlier on in the book of Acts when Ananias came to the apostle Paul with his mission, it included this, "This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel." Earlier on when Jesus sent out his disciples he said they're going to drag you in front of councils, they're going to drag you in front of kings and the purpose is to declare the authority of Jesus to the powers of this world because sooner or later every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and people have to make the choice. Will they bow before Jesus or will they not? And come the final day the judgment is going to be based on what they have done with the message of Jesus. So here's Sergius Paulus, he is a seeker after truth which is a fascinating thing. Second thing I want us to notice here just very quickly is that they meet up with a Jewish, of all things, a Jewish false prophet. Verses 6 and 7, "They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and a false prophet named Bar-Jesus who was an attendant of the proconsul Sergius Paulus, his name is Bar-Jesus." Bar in Hebrew means "son of" and so perhaps all that signifies is that his father was named Jesus or Jeshua or Joshua which is a very common Hebrew name and he was the son of or some interpreters think he might in fact have pretended to be a Christian and that he was a follower of the Lord Jesus because Bar can also imply that kind of meaning. The reality is however that he was not a true follower of Jesus, he was as crooked and as twisted as any false prophet can be. But what's significant about the story for our purposes this morning is that he is an attendant, now listen carefully, he is an attendant to Sergius Paulus. That is to say he is hovering around the seat of authority. Now I ask you where else in scripture do you find that biblical pattern of false prophets, magicians or astrologers surrounding the seat of power? Well think back to Egypt, what did Moses run into when he came to Pharaoh? It was all the magicians who were at Pharaoh's right hand. Carry this story on further, you come to the history of Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar who were his wise men and his advisors, it was the astrologers and the soothsayers. Move history forward and time and time again you will find that political powers surround themselves with spiritual power. Back in the days of the Tsar in Russia, there was an incredibly powerful spiritual priest who was as black as black could be, his name was Rasputin, and if you ever want to read a fascinating history, study up on him. But to bring it even closer to home, Nancy Reagan who remembers after her husband was almost killed by John Hinckley, she turned to the dark side, engaged the services of a medium or an astrologer by the name of Joan Quigley and made virtually no decisions without first consulting the stars to see if her husband was going to be safe. She said, and it's a rough quote that I'm giving you now, she says you have no idea of the terror of your husband facing crowds on an ongoing basis without any assurance that somebody else is not going to poke a shot at him. That's why she turned to Ms. Quigley. Why this teaming up of religious figures with political figures, a very important principle that you need to understand because worldly power or power on Earth is always a reflection of heavenly power. And just as God in his wisdom to build his kingdom will pick men and women who meet his heart and dow them with the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that they can exercise authority on his behalf so the evil one, the devil himself in building his kingdom under the sovereign permission of God to be sure picks his people in the world and he endows them with supernatural wisdom and power so that they can build their empires in contradiction to the purposes of God. That's why political figures historically are always surrounded by spiritual powers who invoke the blessing of the gods, if you will, who will invoke the dark side to give direction and wisdom to political figures so that their purposes could be established and don't ever think that's just a bunch of hocus pocus. When the Bible talks about magicians, it's not talking about illusionists. It's not talking about a sleight of hand or some magical trick. No, it is talking about people who are tuned into darkness and who serve as channels for the forces of darkness so that the political leaders of the world will know, will know how to direct the affairs of their nations in such a way as to satisfy the purposes of the nation. Do you know, here's an interesting question for you, do you know who was the longest reigning prime minister in the history of this country, anybody know? William Lyon Mackenzie King. He was by far the longest reigning prime minister. You know why? Well, one reason, it is said, is that he never made a decision that he didn't have to make and so he stayed out of a lot of trouble. But more than that, he was in constant communication with the forces of darkness. He had a whole occult system to the point where his cats and dogs served as mediums to get the message from the other side. So it's not surprising now, is it, that when Saul and Barnabas come to preach the gospel to Sergius Paulus who is seeking after truth, who does he run into? He runs into Bar-Jesus. And Bar-Jesus does everything he can to keep the kingdom of God from coming. And don't you for one moment believe that that only happened historically in the book of Acts? It happens today and it continues to happen today that whenever God's people seek to advance the purposes of the kingdom, particularly when God's people seek to enter into positions of influence, authority, and power, all hell takes note and all hell seeks to produce a backlash against the purposes of God. And I'll end with this illustration and then we'll leave it here for this morning. The other day I was driving in my car, usually my car radio is tuned to UCB Canada, but this particular day, it was after all the power failures and stuff, I was listening to CJBQ to see how extensive the power outages were and how long it would take for power to come back on. And I happened to be listening, as I recall, to the call-in show. I don't know this dude at all. What's his name? Say it again. All right, Brooker? I see a lot of you know him. The topic that morning, and I'm going to close with this, but the topic that morning was the situation with Trinity Western University in Langley, BC and their intentions of opening a law school. How many of you are familiar with that story? It's been in the news just the last couple of days because, here's the information, the Canadian Bar Association and the Council of Canadian Law Deans have just hired high-profile lawyer Clayton Ruby to oppose their request for establishing a law school. And the reason Clayton Ruby is taking this on is because of what he calls an inherently homophobic covenant to which students at Trinity Western must adhere. The covenant states this, all staff, students and faculty must agree not to engage in, quote, sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman, unquote. And Ruby's concern and that of the law societies that he is representing is that lawyers graduating from the proposed program will have received their training in ethics and rights in an environment that does not agree with Canadian laws. Now put that in your pipe and smoke at it. You may recall people tried the same thing 10 years ago when they wanted to establish a teacher's college. And that, as I recall, went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ended up ruling in favor, but folks, we live in a society where the forces of darkness are increasing in prevalence and in power. And the way they minimize the power and the privilege of God's people is by robbing you of your rights piece by piece in the name of God knows what. But when the church falls asleep, you wake up one day and all your rights are gone and you have to bow to the gods of this age. And the challenge for you and me is to be filled with the Spirit, to know where the battles lie today and what it means to challenge the authority of hell. And as time goes on, Lord willing, and we come back to this, hopefully at some point after my vacation, we're going to see that this leads to a power encounter between the Apostle Paul and Bar-Jesus. And guess who is the winner at the end of the day? It is not the devil, but it is Jesus who is the Son of the living God before whom every [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:37:59.600; remove through 00:38:02.000] knee will bow for the glory of God. [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:38:02.000; resume after this marked segment]