Please have a seat today. Well, good morning, church
family. For those of you who don't know
me, my name is Fred Kai, and together with my wife Julia, Oh,
she's not here right now. OK.
And our four children, Jonathan, Karis, Chloe and Timothy.
We live in Japan as missionaries.
And so we are currently on our stateside assignment and it's
our time of rest from the field. And so it's been a wonderful
privilege just to to have been here for the past several months
just to have worship with you guys and fellowship with you
all. And it's an awesome privilege
today to bring the word of God, Bring a message from the word of
God today. So if you have a copy of God's
Word, please open it up to Acts chapter 12 and 13.
I'll read the text and then I'll open this up in the word of
prayer from Acts chapter 12, starting with verse 24 to 13.
Three, the word of Lord says. But the word of God increased
and multiplied, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem
when they had completed their service, bringing with them
John, whose other name was Mark. Now there were in the church at
Antioch prophets and teachers Barnabas, Simeon who is called
Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manayan, a lifelong friend of
Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. They were worshipping the Lord
and fasting, when they were wishing the Lord in fasting.
Excuse me? The Holy Spirit said, set apart
for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called
them. Then after fasting and praying,
they laid their hands on them and set them off.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father God, thank you
for your holy word. Thank you that your church is
built on the foundation of your holy word.
Then when Peter said to Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of
God, you said on this rock, on Peter's confession, I will build
my church. So Lord, thank you for your word
today. I pray, Lord, that it would be
beneficial for us to hear. Lord, may your Holy Spirit move
among us just like it did in the early church, and tell us how we
ought to live as a church for your glory among the nations.
In Christ's name we pray, Amen. So we are jumping straight into
the middle of the book of Acts today.
Acts is written by Luke as a second volume to the Gospel of
Luke and if you read it before you might know that it's about
the apostles ministry after Jesus resurrection and through
that through their work establishing and the spreading
of the early church. So here's the the context, the
story up until now, roughly, OK, the risen Jesus who has
conquered sin and death. He commissions his disciples and
like the victorious king that he is, he sends them out.
He says they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea
and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
But they won't do it alone. He promises to give them the
Holy Spirit, to be with them and to empower them for that work.
And so Peter, in the power of the Holy Spirit, he preaches a
sermon in Jerusalem, just as Jesus said, and 3000 people are
saved and added to the church, and then the church grows to
5000. They suffer some relatively
minor persecution up until this point, but then Stephen, a
servant of the church is arrested and martyred for
preaching the gospel. And then so after that, that
brought about a severe persecution, it broke out
against the church in Jerusalem. And that persecution scatters
the church throughout Judea and Samaria, just as Jesus said.
And then Saul, one of the main persecutors who approved it,
says he approved of Stevens execution.
He gets knocked off his horse and he gets blinded by Jesus on
his way to Damascus to persecute more Christians.
And so Saul, he is blind as a bat.
He gets saved. His physical, his physical eyes
and his spiritual eyes get opened and Jesus commissions him
to take the gospel to the Gentiles, IE to the ends of the
earth, just as Jesus said. And so Saul immediately starts
preaching the gospel where he is.
And the once persecutor gets persecuted, Saul partners up
with another faithful disciple named Barnabas.
And Barnabas takes Saul to Antioch in Syria, where they
are, where there are Christians and a church is established
there. And it is there because
Christians escape there after Stevens martyrdom.
OK, so this is where we are today in this text.
Barnabas and Saul are members and leaders serving in this
church in Antioch. All right, so let's start with
the exposition of text and then I'll leave that into application
starting with verse 24 of chapter 12, which says, but the
Lord but the word of God increased and multiplied.
So I want you to notice the word but in the beginning of this
verse, but indicates a contrast to something, right?
In spite of something, in spite of this, the word of God
increased and multiplied. In spite of what?
Well, just before this we saw that Herod had killed James the
apostle. He's the second martyr in the
book of Acts, but he's the first apostle to get killed.
And then he puts Peter in prison and puts him on death row too.
It says that in verse one that Herod laid violent hands on
those who belong to the church. And then you come to a verse
like verse 24 and you ask how, how, how can the word of God
increase and multiply in this hostile environment?
It's like saying vegetables and crops are flourishing in Death
Valley. I'll tell you how God, there's
no other explanation. It is God who takes Saul from a
persecutor of the church to turn him into a missionary of the
church. It is God who breaks Peter out
of maximum security prison on death row.
It is God who strikes Herod dead for stealing glory from God.
And it's God who can make His word increase and multiply under
severe persecution. Verse 25 and Barnabas and Saul
returned from Jerusalem and when they had completed their
service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.
It's a little bit of context. Barnabas and Saul just came back
from kind of a short term mission trip.
There was a great famine throughout the Roman Empire and
the Church of Antioch sent relief, most likely money to the
church in Jerusalem. So they sent Barnabas and Saul
to bring them this aid. They complete their mission and
bring back with them John Mark to Antioch.
And this John Mark would later continue to go on mission with
Paul and Barnabas. OK, next verse one.
Now that we're in the church in Antioch, prophets and teachers,
Barnabas Simeon, who is called Naguer, Lucchius of Cyrene,
Manayan, a lifelong friend of Tere the Tetrarch and Saul, we
see that in this church there were prophets and teachers and
among them are Barnabas and Saul.
So Barnabas and Saul are, are active members and active
leaders in this local church. And besides them, we we don't
really know much about the other brothers mentioned except that
they kind of seem to come from diverse backgrounds.
So look here after Barnabas. The first one mentioned is
Simeon, who is called Niger. You can probably guess what his
skin color is. Before it became a derogatory
term, Niger simply just meant dark or black.
OK, this is kind of like the word Negro in Spanish.
He was probably of African origin according to
commentaries. And then there's Lucius of
Cyrene. Cyrene is modern day Libya in
North Africa. Next is an interesting one.
Manayan, A lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, the same
Herod who beheaded John the Baptist.
Can't imagine what people might say.
You have a member, a leader of your church who was associated
with an enemy of Jesus, and we should say, yes, that's what the
Gospel does. Who he is now is not who he was.
Praise Jesus. Let's not forgot about, let's
not forget about Saul, right? He was a scholar, trained under
the law, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a former persecutor
of the church who approved of the killing of Stephen.
And then there's Barnabas. He seemed to be a wealthy man in
Acts chapter 4. He had a field and he sold it
and gave all the money to the church.
So you have two Africans, a friend of a corrupt king, a
former persecutor, and a wealthy man.
What diversity? This is not man made mandated
DEI. This is gospel.
God brought DEI. It doesn't matter who you are,
doesn't matter who you were, the gospel can save anyone.
Period. Verse 2A while they were
worshipping the Lord and fasting.
I want to, I want you to notice the two present participle verbs
in the sentence worshipping and fasting.
OK. This shows us that these
disciplines were a a normal part of their life in the church.
The word worshipping here is only used two other times in the
Greek. According to the Greek lexicon,
it means to perform religious rites to render formal service.
In other words, this is their normal corporate gathering
church service, just like we're doing today.
And they were fasting. There's no indication that they
were fasting for some special occasion.
It is also in the present participle OK.
That means that it was a it was as normal for them to fast
corporately as it was normal for them to gather for Sunday
worship. And fasting usually includes
prayer. They go hand in hand and that's
as later shown in in verse three that they were praying, fasting
and praying. So while the church was
practicing the normal disciplines of the corporate
gathered body, something incredible happened.
Verse 2B, the Holy Spirit said, let me just camp here for a bit
because it's easy to gloss over these words, right?
Can we just be just utterly amazed for a moment that God the
Holy Spirit would speak? We don't know how He spoke.
Was it an audible voice or a voice in everyone's head?
Was it a voice from heaven, or did He speak through a person?
Was it a strong, commanding voice, or was it a low, gentle
voice? We don't know because it doesn't
say. But He spoke and that's just
simply amazing. I would have loved to have been
there to hear the voice of God. What did he say?
He said set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work
to which I have called them earlier.
We saw in verse one, right, the list of prophets and teachers in
the Antioch church. These are likely their church
leaders, qualified elders of the church, among whom are Barnabas
and Saul. So the Holy Spirit chooses elder
qualified men to send as missionaries.
And it's not like they were always this way.
Barnabas and Saul, right? They weren't elder qualified
when they got saved. We know Barnabas got saved near
the beginning of the early church in Acts 4 when he sold
his field and gave his money to the church.
That was something like 17 to 18 years ago.
And then Saul was saved on the Damascus Rd. some 13 years ago.
So 13 and 17 years of being in the church, serving in the
church, being transplanted to new churches because of
persecution, and then moving to Antioch together to serve there
because there was a need, and then becoming elders of that
church. Sure, you can say, well, Saul
was called by Jesus to be a missionary when he was saved in
Acts 9. So.
So that was what God was going to do all along, right?
But why did God have to wait so long, over a decade, almost 2
decades before sending him out, before sending them both out?
Because spiritual maturity and raising up leaders takes time.
To be sure, I do believe God could make someone qualified to
lead in an instant if you wanted to.
But more often than not God raises up people slowly, takes
his time. Verse 3, the last verse.
Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them
and sent them off. Then, meaning after hearing the
Holy Spirit's Commission and then what did they do?
They fasted and prayed some more.
I'm inclined to think that the church was praying and
considering what the Holy Spirit told them to do, probably
praying for Barnabas and Saul. Now they have a more of a focus
of their fasting and praying and they laid their hands on them.
They laid their hands on them. We don't see much of the laying
on of hands today, but you know, maybe except in the case of
ordaining a pastor or before someone goes on missions, just
like in this passage. What?
What does it mean though? Well, it's a symbolic act.
Just like baptism and Lord's Supper are symbols pointing to
something, laying on of hands is a symbol for the church.
There are many instances of the laying on of hands in the Bible
with many different meanings, many different meanings.
Not just this one that I'm about to share, but in this case, the
Antioch churches, the Antioch church laying their hands on
Barnabas and Saul. It's like the church is saying,
we support you, Barnabas and Saul.
We send you out to do what the Lord has called you to do.
Our hands are on you physically and in spirit after you leave
this place to care for you and whatever needs come your way.
We commit to do our part for you in the Lord as you do yours for
the Lord. In other words, we will be your
home and ascending church. Application.
I have 7 points of exhortation. I know same style as Pastor
Matt. That's how you know I was raised
in this church. Application #1 The blood of
martyrs is the seed of the church.
The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.
This quote is attributed to an early church father in the 2nd
century named Tertullian. In the first 3 centuries of
church history, during which a Tertullian lived, was marked by
severe persecution. Christians were fed alive to
lions, they were beaten, they were whipped, sawn in half, put
to death by the sword, and burned at the stake.
The Roman emperor Nero used to tie Christians to a pole, dip
them in oil and set them on fire.
And use them as St. lights at night.
And you may think that things have changed since then, but in
the country where we used to live, I won't name it here, but
you can ask me afterwards. When the church was very young,
some 70 years ago, the church and Christian institutions were
banned and closed by the government.
All missionaries were expelled, pastors and believers were
arrested and imprisoned without trial, or they were sent to
labor camps to work as slaves. Some were tortured, publicly
humiliated and executed. Others were forced to renounce
their faith. The remaining Christians went
underground in secret House churches.
A lot of that is happening again today as we speak.
We heard of Christians in Nigeria this year alone, over
7000 have been killed. They are systematically being
killed in Nigeria. And you might be, you look at
this and you might be tempted to think, wow, that's got to be the
end of the church, right? That's got to set Christianity
back years, decades. But those persecutors of the
church never read the book of Acts.
They don't know church history. They thought they could blow out
the fire of the gospel, but the harder they blew, the faster the
fire spread. For 2000 years, history has been
filled with martyrs whose blood soaked the soil to fertilize the
seed of the gospel. God's Word cannot be stopped.
Amen. So I pray you be encouraged,
Christian, no matter how hard it may be to stand up for your
faith, no matter what risk your job, your academic grades, or
even your life, when you stand firm for the gospel, God's Word
will not return empty. No sacrifice for Christ will be
unseen. Not a hair on your head will
perish, and not one drop of blood will be wasted.
Application #2 Ministry is a team effort and an opportunity
to disciple others to come alongside us.
We saw this with Barnabas and Saul taking John Mark along with
them. You know that Angel saying a
cord of three strands is not easily broken, right?
That's from Ecclesiastes. This verse usually is used to
refer to our need for community or used to emphasize a strong
marriage right where the three strands being God, the husband
and the wife. It is also true when we seek to
serve God in the church. This example, we see this
example throughout the whole New Testament.
Jesus ministered with 12 disciples.
He sent 72 out on mission, 2 by 2, Even Barnabas and Saul, they
were already seasoned leaders of the church.
They bring along John Marked to go with them.
When we serve together with others and bring them along, it
models what discipleship and community looks like.
It's an opportunity to pour into someone or be poured into by
someone, all while serving the needs of the body.
So brothers, next time you go out on a church errand, take
another brother with you. Sisters, next time you go and
meet a friend to share the gospel with them, take another
sister with you. God has given you your brothers
and sisters to you to serve him together.
Partnering together is also one of our strong values as a as a
missionary team in Japan. We don't we don't do ministry
alone if we can help it. We always try to bring other
people along with us, whether it's a teammate or a local
Japanese Christian. It's an opportunity to say, hey,
I need your help. I think we can do this Better
Together than if I was just by myself.
I'm trying to befriend this guy to share the gospel with him, so
let's try to be friends with him together.
Point #3 A healthy church has a plurality of elders.
A healthy church has a plurality of leaders and elders.
And for us at CSPC, well, no, I guess not CSP up this day.
But the point is, this point is especially important as we are
forming a new church together. We live in a day and age when
there are many different flavors of church.
Some churches only have one leader or pastor.
Some have multiple leaders at multiple levels and some believe
it or not, have no leaders whatsoever.
And yet again and again, the example in the Bible that we see
is that the local church has a plurality of elders.
This is not just one of many church model.
I believe this is the consistent model in the early church as we
see here in the Antioch church. They have 5 leaders listed.
Perhaps God wants us to see what a healthy model of a church
looks like. There are many reasons for
having a plurality of elders. Here are the reasons that are
most important. Most important according to 9
Marks, which is a ministry that's a big proponent of the
plurality of elders listed. A.
Through EA Biblical accountability, the elders help
to keep and maintain. The elders help to keep the main
teaching pastor in check to live, teach and lead faithfully.
They keep any one elder from abuse of power lording over the
congregation. B Shared wisdom.
Instead of just one man's thoughts and decisions, multiple
counselors add to the wisdom to make the most important
decisions in the church. C Balance and gifts.
No one man has all the gifts necessary to build up the
church. Multiple lead, multiple elders,
bring multiple giftings to the table to compliment the pastors.
D Burden sharing. One man cannot effectively
shoulder all the burdens of shepherding needy sheep.
He will be stretched and pulled in all directions and people
will fall through the cracks. Many hands make light work E.
It sets an example for the church.
It shows that the work of ministry is not just for the
elite or just those who are being paid or have gone to
seminary, lay elders, those who are not being paid by the church
or have an Mdiv. They set an example of spiritual
maturity for people who work ordinary jobs just like they do.
Application #4 The gospel saves indiscriminately, so we preach
it indiscriminately. The gospel saves
indiscriminately, so we preach it indiscriminately.
In the book Compelling the Compelling Community by Mark
Dever and Jamie Jamie Dunlop, they make the case that that if
the church community is not supernatural, it doesn't work.
OK by work they mean fulfill God's plans for community.
So then what's God's plan for community?
And it's this to display the manifold wisdom of God according
to Ephesians 310. Meaning if we gather for and if
what unites us are man centered reasons like race, like culture
or ethnicity or socio and economic status or common
interest, that tends to, not always, but it tends to show the
world. That is not the power of the
gospel that unites us, it's our human preferences.
It's our human wisdom on display, not God's manifold
wisdom. But if it's the gospel that
unites us, then God's wisdom is glorified and on display in the
local church. There's no other reason why this
community is gathered than because they are all saved by
Jesus. So what does that mean for us
practically? Well, no.
No drastic change in the church is necessary, I think.
But it starts with you, individual Christian.
Simply preach the gospel indiscriminately as God gives
you the opportunity. Maybe God leads you to share
with that Indian Co worker of yours.
Maybe you need to reach out to your white classmate who sit
next to you. Maybe God put your Hispanic
neighbor on your heart. When we preach the gospel to
whosoever, then we show the world that it's the power of God
that saves and not human wisdom. 5 Corporate fasting and prayer
are a normal part of worship. Corporate fasting and prayer is
a normal part of worship. Fasting often feels like a lost
discipline, doesn't it? Especially in in American church
today. But Jesus expected his disciples
to fast when when Jesus taught about it on the Sermon on the
Mount in Matthew 6, he says when you fast, when you fast, not if
you fast. But more important that than
that we should fast is why we should fast.
We fast to say in essence we desire God.
We need God more than we desire or need food.
We're saying that we're saying what Jesus said when he fasted.
Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that
comes from the mouth of God. Fasting is 1 means of grace to
draw near to God. We see in the church in Antioch
that the whole church was fasting together during
corporate worship, regular worship service.
Now, how often did they fast? Was it once a week, once a
month, once a year? How long did they fast?
Was it just a meal or for several days?
You know it doesn't, it doesn't say.
So I think it's up to each church and each individual
Christian to decide. But our church practice it
corporately once a year on Good Friday.
So I encourage you, brothers and sisters, follow in the biblical
example set for you, if you are physically able, participate in
corporate fasting and make it a regular discipline in your life
to seek the face of God through fasting.
Number six, God calls out qualified people for specific
work through the church. God calls out qualified people
for specific work through the church.
So if the Holy Spirit was indeed audible at at the church in
Antioch and throughout the the early church is not the typical
pattern today. Just because someone claims that
God said something to them doesn't mean it's true.
Just ask any girl who was told by a guy, God called me to marry
you. So how does God speak today?
Well, after the biblical Canon was finished, God primarily
speaks through his word, the Bible.
OK, and through the Holy Spirit, working through the church,
through the leaders and elders, through the congregation,
applying His Word to your life. This is especially true when in
a calling to ministry. If so, it's your job church to
assess who is qualified for ministry, whether an elder, a
Deacon, or a missionary. You are the one to watch
carefully over their lives and say, we can see her doing this
overseas among an unreached people group.
We can see him shepherd our church because we've watched him
shepherd his own family. Church, you are God's training
ground to raise up leaders, servants, and missionaries.
You are God's eyes to discern whether a brother or sister is
qualified to serve. And you are God's mouthpiece to
call out qualified people for Christian ministry #7 Last
point. A healthy church sends out and
supports their own missionaries. The healthy Church sends out and
supports their own missionaries. You know, Julia and I are are
usually called by people as IMB missionaries.
So you have a you have an IMB missionary who's speaking at
church today. OK.
And that's not wrong to say. And when we go to other
churches, they say we have IMB missionaries.
Friend Julia here. That's not wrong to say.
We are technically officially employed by the IMB.
But we also firmly believe that it's ultimately not the sending
organization that sends out missionaries, It's the local
church. It's the local church because
God's primary vehicle to reach the nation's with the gospel is
the local church. Let me read you the full context
of the verse I referenced earlier about the manifold
wisdom of God from Ephesians 37 to 11, says Paul says of this
gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's
grace, which was given to me by the working of His power to me,
though I am the very least of all the Saints.
This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ and to bring to life for everyone what is the
plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all
things, so that through the Church the manifold wisdom of
God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in
the heavenly places. This was according to the
eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our
Lord. So God's manifold, multifaceted,
like a sparkling diamond wisdom in the gospel is made known to
the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places through His
Bride, the Church. And this has always been part of
God's plan from eternity's past. So church, you have an amazing,
you have an amazing privilege and role to raise up, send out
and continually support missionaries like us.
It's God's plan, His plan A, to use you as the means to reach
the nations with the gospel. So be encouraged and be
challenged. Brothers and sisters, let's
pray.