Our story today begins and ends at the church in Antioch
What Happens:
- The church elders are praying when God asks for Barnabas and Saul to be sent on a “work” that God had prepared.
- Barnabas, Saul and a third man (John Mark) leave for a 4-10 month missionary journey.
Nine cities are specifically mentioned as locations on their journey, four have signicant stories attached:
*1. Paphos (on the island of Cyprus)* - Barnabas and Saul are asked to tell the gospel to Proconsul Sergius Paulus, ruler of the island. In his audience chamber, they are opposed by a sorcerer and false-prophet named Bar-Jesus. Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit and stikes Bar-Jesus blind.
2. Pisidian Antioch (central Turkey) - Paul preaches a sermon that is recorded by Luke. The people beg him to return the following week and a huge crowd shows up to hear. Many believe, but efforts are made to stir up opposition against them and they are forced to leave.
3. Iconium (Southeast of Pisidian Antioch) - Paul and Barnabas have immediate success, but are also immediately opposed. This city has intense conflict from the begging, escalating to a plot to kill them.
4. Lystra (Further Southeast) - Paul heals a man crippled from birth. The people believe they are Roman gods and try to offer sacrifice to them. No church is recorded as starting, and Paul’s opponents catch him and successfully stone him and leave him for dead.
Paul’s stoning is the dramatic climax of the story. After his stoning:
1. He preaches in nearby Derbe, then makes a return journey through all the cities they had visited on the way here strengthening and encouraging the new believers and appointing elders over churches.
2. The story ends with Paul and Barnabas giving a report to the same group that sent them out at the beginning.
5 Lessons from Paul’s Epic Quest:
1. Life-change happens when God calls and we respond.
2 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.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. —Acts 13:2-3
2. Life-change happens when Christ becomes king.
16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:
“Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. —Acts 13:16-23
3. Following Christ means following a crucified king.
21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. —Acts 14:21-22
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. —John 15:18
This is because following Jesus compells us to tell the truth.
9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. —Acts 13:9-12
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. —Matthew 16:24-25
4. God will confront our sin and weakness as we follow him.
There are two major events that bookend this journey:
- A religious false-teacher being struck blind.
- An innocent Christian being stoned for his faith.
Both of these events are straight from Saul’s past.
5. God uses our scars to strengthen and encourage others.
27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. —Acts 14:27