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Acts 12:25-13:3  THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES SENT TO  GENTILES  

Introduction:

	In our text last Sunday it was said that the word of God continued to grow and multiply.  That is, the number of Christians grew and multiplied.  Unsaved people continued to hear the word of God and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
	In our text today God makes preparations for many more unsaved people to hear the word of God and get saved.  He instructed the church at Antioch of Syria to send out the first Christian missionaries to Gentiles.  

I.  The return of Barnabas and Saul from Jerusalem

	V. 25 “And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry...”  The last time that Barnabas and Saul were mentioned in Scripture they were sent from Antioch to Jerusalem to carry money and supplies to help the Judean Christians in time of drought.  Certain prophets of God had come to Antioch  who prophesied that a great drought would come upon the land.  Apparently they said that the Jerusalem area would be hardest hit because the church at Antioch of Syria took up a special offering for the saints in Judea and sent that offering to Jerusalem by Barnabas and Saul.  
	In our text Luke said that Barnabas and Saul “fulfilled their ministry.”  That is, they finished their mission  of delivering the special offering from Antioch to Jerusalem and turning it over to the Jerusalem church.  When they finished their mission, they returned to Antioch and to the church which had sent them to Jerusalem.  
	(V. 25), “...and took with them John, whose surname was Mark.”  When they returned from Jerusalem, they brought with them John Mark.  John Mark was a nephew of Barnabas.  He is the same John Mark who later wrote the Book of Mark which is in the New Testament.  

II.  Certain leaders who were in the church at Antioch

      V. 1, “Now there were in the church at Antioch certain prophets and teachers...”  Back in chapter 11, verse 27 Luke had said that a group of prophets had come to Antioch from Jerusalem.  This may or may not be that same group of prophets and teachers.  
	Luke proceeds to give us the name of three of the prophets and teachers who were at that time in the church at Antioch. (V. 2), “...Barnabas, and Symeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.”  The first of those prophets and teachers whom Luke names is Barnabas.  Barnabas was a good man.  At Jerusalem when about 3000 Jews who were from other parts of the world got saved and joined the Jerusalem church, they needed financial assistance until they could find work there at Jerusalem.  At that time Barnabas owned property at Jerusalem and he sold his property and gave the entire amount of the sale to help feed the needy.  That is the kind of man that Barnabas was.  He was not selfish.  He was willing to sacrifice in order to help the cause of Christ and in order to help the people of Christ.  
	Barnabas was also a man who had previously been very closely associated with Saul of Tarsus.  Barnabas was the man who had vouched for Saul at Jerusalem persuading them that Saul was no longer a persecutor of Christians, but had really become a Christian and was not a threat.  He was also the man who had gone to Tarsus to persuade Saul to come to Antioch to help him teach Bible truth to the new Christians there at Antioch.  
	The second of those prophets and teachers whom Luke named in the church at Antioch was Symeon who was commonly called “Niger.”  The name, Symeon, which his parents had given to him was a Jewish name indicating that he was of the Hebrew blood line.  The name, “Niger,” by which he was known among his friends and acquaintances, means “black.”  Being of the Hebrew bloodline, he was not a black skinned person.  He was a white man, but he was called by a name which means “black.”  This indicates that he had lived among black people.  He may have formerly been a Jewish merchant who had lived in Nigeria among the black people of that nation.  Or perhaps he lived in a black community right there in Antioch.  Either way he was a man who was right at home dealing with black people, black Gentile people, but Gentiles never-the-less.   
	The third man among those prophets and teachers whom Luke named as being in the church at Antioch was Lucius of the city of Cyrene.  Cyrene was a city located on the northern seacoast of Africa.  This city was in Africa, but was inhabited almost exclusively by Greeks.  A few Jews, of course, were there.  Jewish merchants were in every city of any size in every nation.  The Jewish name, Lucius, indicates that this man was of Jewish blood.  But he was a Christian Jew.  He had probably gone to Cyrene when Saul of Tarsus made havoc of the church at Jerusalem or perhaps shortly after Saul had been converted.  At any rate he had lived among Greek people when he was in Cyrene.  
  	Back in Acts 11:19 Luke said that the members of the church at Antioch had  preached the gospel only to Jews until certain brethren came to them from Cyrene.  These brethren from Cyrene preached the gospel to the Greeks who were living in Antioch.  It seems very likely that Lucius was one of those men from Cyrene who was preaching the gospel to the Greeks.   He had formerly lived among Greeks of Cyrene and felt at home among them.  
	The fourth man among those prophets and teachers at Antioch whom Luke named was Manaen.  Luke says that Manaen had been brought up as a youngster with Herod the tetrarch, who became king over all of Israel.  This means that he had been in the best of schools.  But the main point is that he had been brought up with Gentiles.  Herod the tetrarch was a Gentile.  Manaen, too, would feel right at home among Gentiles.    

III.  The kind of membership in the church at Antioch as contrasted with the church at Jerusalem

	The church at Jerusalem was the older church.  It was the first church.  It was the church to which Jesus had given the Great Commission instructing it to carry the gospel into all the world.  It would seem that the Jerusalem church would be the church which the Lord would choose to send out the first missionaries to the Gentiles.  But it wasn’t.  
	The Jerusalem church was at that time still made up exclusively of Jews or proselyte Jews.   They were Christians, but they were Jewish Christians.  They ere Jewish Christians who had little or nothing to do with Gentile people.  They did not even have anything to do with Samaritans, who were half-breeds with Jewish blood in them.  They were still hung up on their prejudices against Gentiles --- all Gentiles.  
 	It is true that the brethren of the church at Jerusalem had, indeed made a great change in their attitude toward Gentiles.  This change came after the experience of the Apostle Peter involving the household of Cornelius at Caesarea.  Peter had informed  them that the Lord had given him specific instructions to preach the gospel to Gentile family of Cornelius.  The church at Jerusalem believed the Apostle Peter and accepted the fact that God wanted the gospel to be preached to Gentiles.  had come to accept that.  They had even accepted the fact that the church at Antioch was now preaching the gospel to Gentiles Greeks and had a sizable number of Gentile converts in their membership.  They accepted that and had even sent Barnabas to Antioch to help teach and train those Gentile converts.  But that does not mean that they were ready to send out missionaries who would go out to preach and teach almost exclusively among Gentile people.  They simply could not put their heart in it.  They simply were not ready to support missionaries to go out to preach to Gentiles.  
	But the church at Antioch was ready.  They had teachers like Simeon who was called “Niger,” who would not hesitate to go to blacks and preach the gospel to them.   So Simeon would not be hesitant to lay his hands on men from that church who would go out to preach to Gentiles.  The church at Antioch had teachers like Lucius of Cyrene, who had lived among the Greeks in Cyrene and he did not hesitate to preach the gospel to Greeks there in Antioch.  He would not hesitate to lay hands on a missionary who would go out to preach the gospel to Greeks and to other Gentiles out in foreign lands.  The church at Antioch had Saul of Tarsus as one of their teachers.  He had been one of their chief teachers.  The church at Antioch even had Gentile members.  So the entire membership would not be hesitant to send out missionaries to preach to Gentiles. 
	Yet not only did the church at Antioch have teachers and members who would not hesitate to lay hands on missionaries to send them out to preach to Gentiles, but they had men like Saul and Barnabas who would not hesitate to preach to Gentiles.  Saul had been brought up at the city of Tarsus.  There he had dealt with Gentiles every day of his life.  He would not hesitate to go out to a Gentile world and to preach the gospel to any man no matter what his race might be.  So the church at Antioch would not hesitate to send out the men who had been their chief teacher.  
	Finally, there was Barnabas, who had as close a tie to Saul of Tarsus as it was humanly possible outside of being blood brothers.  He had every confidence in Saul of Tarsus.  If Saul of Tarsus would preach to Gentiles, Barnabas would preach to Gentiles.  In fact he and Saul of Tarsus had worked together for one full year there at Antioch preaching to the gospel to the Jews and Gentiles and then teaching the new converts who were both Jews and Gentiles.  
	So this whole church would be whole heartedly behind the two men whom God had chosen to go out to preach the gospel to the Gentile world.  

IV.  Barnabas and Saul endorsed to do mission work among the Gentiles

   	V. 2-3, “And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.  Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” 
	Right in the midst of one of their worship services, the Lord let it be known to the church that He wanted this church to endorse these two particular men, Barnabas and Saul, to go out and do the work that He had called them to do.  I do not know if God spoke to them audibly or if He used one of the prophets who were in this church to give them this instruction.  But there is one thing for sure.  This church knew beyond any shadow of doubt that God had called these two men to do mission work.  
	The church did not hesitate to do what God instructed them to do.  They laid their hands upon the two men whom God had named and they got behind them to pray for them and to support them in what way they could.  

V.   Some worthwhile things to take note of

	It is worthy of note that God did not call upon Barnabas and Saul to go out all on their own to attempt to do mission work.  God does not approve of a missionary going out doing free-lance mission work without a sponsoring church.  A lot of men have tried it and I would not question their motives, but that is not God’s way of doing mission work and we ought not have any part in that kind of mission work.  If a man is worthy of your support then let him be sent out by a local New Testament church.  If he is not a church-sent missionary he had no right to ask you for your support.  
	Another thing which we should note is that it was a high honor which God bestowed on the Antioch church to select that church to be the sponsoring church for the missionaries whom He had called.  Let me point out to you that this church, the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church,  had that kind of honor when He called upon Bro. Robert Myers to do mission work in the state of Maryland.  He gave this church, the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church the high honor of being the sponsoring church for Bro. Myres.  If a missionary is God’s man doing God’s work it is an honor be his sponsoring church.  Perhaps God will honor this church again by allowing her to be the sponsoring church for  one  His missionaries.  Let up pray that He will. 
	Let me say this.  There is no need to be concerned about whether or not this church is financially able to send a missionary out.  If it is God’s will for this church to sponsor the man ---- if God leads this church to do the sponsoring, then God will enable this church to take a leading role in helping him financially and God will encourage other churches to help us to support him.   
	In the meantime, let us remember that the Antioch church did not furnish all of the financial support for Paul and Barnabas during all the years that they were on the field of labor.   They probably carried the full load all by themselves at first.  But later other churches joined in helping to carry the financial load.  
	So while we wait to see if God will honor this church by allowing her to again be the sponsoring church for one or more of His missionaries, let us recognized that at least God is honoring us now by enabling us to help support missionaries which other churches have sent out.  
	There is one other vital thing which I want you to note.  God is in constant need for men who surrender to the task of preaching and teaching His word.  As older missionaries die out or retire because of sickness or old age, new men are needed.  He wants some preachers to pastor churches, but He wants some to be missionaries and to establish churches.  Let us pray that God might see fit to once again honor this church by calling someone from the midst of this church to preach His word.  

Conclusion:

	Every lost soul needs to be saved where they are people in our community or in some community in the distant parts of the world.  If you are lost you most definitely need to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and put your trust in Him to save your soul whether anybody else does or not.  
	Every church of the Lord Jesus Christ needs to be faithful to preach the gospel to its own neighborhood and to support mission work to the far reaches of the world.   May we ever do more to reach the lost whether near or far.  
	Every person whom God calls to preach needs to surrender to that call just as soon as he is certain that God had called him to the ministry.  I am not trying to persuade anybody to preach.  I am just trying to get every man to be submissive to the call of God when and if He calls you.