ACTS: Knowing the Right Thing to Do

 Scripture: Acts 13:2 These gathered one day for prayer and fasting and during their time received a message from the Holy Spirit,

 

 

Acts 13 opens with the beginning of missionary work by the church. The disciples were told by Jesus, “You are to concentrate on telling people about Me once you have received the power of the Holy Spirit, and you will take My message to people in Jerusalem, and on to Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the world." (Acts 1:8 EBV) That statement is now becoming a reality almost 15 years later in the town of Antioch.

 

Acts 13:1 The church in Antioch had a variety of prophets and teachers; Barnabas, Simeon (Niger), Lucius from Cyrene, Manaen who was close friends with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 These gathered one day for prayer and fasting and during their time received a message from the Holy Spirit, "I am calling Barnabas and Saul to a special work, let them go." 3 They continued to pray and when they came to the end of their time together, they laid their hands upon Barnabas and Saul and sent them on their way.

 

As is often the case, we do not have a lot of information about the calling, we only know that the men were spending time in prayer and fasting. I think we would like to know more details, like how long do you need to spend time in prayer before the Holy Spirit speaks these things to you? Or how many hours does a person need to fast in order to get the attention of God?

 

They were not looking to start a worldwide mission agency; they were just praying; just spending some time with Jesus speaking their hearts and listening to anything the Spirit might have to say to them. There is nothing magical or formulaic about prayer. God speaking to us in specifics comes when God chooses to speak. He asks us to pray, not to get results, but to spend time with Him. When the results come, it is not because we did the right thing, or said the right word. It is because God decides to work in our life.

 

He calls us to be faithful in prayer, to spend time with Him, to grow in our closeness with Him and sometimes He speaks to some of us. In the prayer meeting in Antioch the leaders laid hands on Barnabas and Saul and sent them on their way. We do not even know if they knew where they were to go. But they left Antioch and headed out to obey the calling.

 

We might assume Barnabas, Saul, and John, had some discussions along the way to the coast, wondering where they might be going. Barnabas, who grew up on the island of Cyprus might have suggested they go there. Or they might have had a strong and clear word from the Spirit to go to Cyprus. They might have arrived at the coastal town of Seleucia and decided to pick a ship that was setting sail and go wherever it went. The leading of God is mysterious and cannot be narrowed down to one form of communication. You might know the leading of the Lord because you read a certain passage of Scripture, or felt a certain urge to do something, or your conversations with others have led you in a particular direction. And only you can know what you believe God is leading you to do. It is not something for others to know “for” you.

 

4 Following the leading of the Holy Spirit, they traveled to Seleucia and found a ship going to Cyprus. 5 They got off the boat in Salamis and went to a synagogue and began sharing about the good news of Jesus Christ. They had taken John along with them.

 

They did have a pattern of operation to begin their journey. They visited synagogues on the Sabbath day. They knew the message they had been called to share; it was the good news of God sending to the earth the Messiah. And they wanted all Jews to know that God had fulfilled His promises to Abraham and Moses and David. They continued to share wherever they went, and I am sure they encountered many experiences. Luke tells us of one such time in the town of Paphos.

 

6 They went around the island visiting one synagogue after another until they had come to Paphos. In this town they encountered a magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He worked with an intelligent proconsul, Sergius Paulus, who wanted to hear what Barnaba and Saul had to say. The magician, also called Elymas, sought to get in the way, wanting to keep the proconsul from becoming a believer. 9 Saul, who was also known as Paul, intently looked at Elymas, 10 saying, "All I see in you is deception and lies. You are a son of the devil and in opposition to everything that is righteous. You need to stop twisting the ways of the Lord. 11 "The Lord will blind you and you will not see the sun for a period of time." Immediately Elymas was blinded as if a mist of darkness came upon him so that he needed others to lead him around by the hand. 12 When the proconsul saw this happen, he believed in the words of Paul and became amazed by the word of the Lord.

 

Magic has been around for thousands of years. Some have said it is just an illusion, an act done by someone who knows the secret sleight of hand movements. Others believe that magic has a power of its own and by learning the art of magic you might perform acts that others cannot. We do not know about the magic of this false prophet; we only know that he was using his magic to win over the local proconsul to his way of thinking and he felt deeply threatened when Barnabas and Saul arrived. They were teaching something new, and they were backing it up with a powerful magic that Bar-Jesus had never seen.

 

Paul confronts him directly, calling him contentious, deceptive, and even a child of satan. To Paul, this magician was standing in the way of the grace of God coming into the life of Sergius Paulus. Paul even prophesied that the magician would be blinded for a time. When it instantly happened, the miracle caused the proconsul to believe in the power of God and the message of Jesus Christ.

 

You do not know how many times in my life I wished I could speak words like that and have the opposition be put in their place so that others would come to follow Jesus. But, alas, I am not able to do that very well. And truth be told, I do not always know what is an evil influence or what is a difference of opinion. Even the Scripture tells us that the devil “puts on an appearance of being an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14)

 

This lack of knowing, this ongoing struggle to do the right thing, say the right words, always leads me back to prayer and to the Scriptures. Discernment is the ability to know right from wrong, good from evil. It is a quality I often lack and have to put my trust in the Holy Spirit and His working in me so that I might be able to tell the difference. Often, I do not know the truth until much time has passed.

 

From the island of Cyprus, Paul and Barnabas and John, set off to the mainland, the area we now call southern Turkey. In Perga, John was done with the missionary journey, but Paul and Barnabas felt a need to continue going from town to town to speak the message of Jesus to the any in the synagogues who would listen.

For us today, I would want us to seek two things this coming week.

First, a time of prayer, alone or with others where we can spend some time with Jesus, talking and listening to what He might be saying to us.

Second, a request of the Holy Spirit that we as individuals and as a church might always know the way forward, the guidance of the Holy Spirit so that we might do the right thing for the glory of God in our community.

Pastor Edd