Saturday Acts 13:1-3

Barnabas and Saul are called to missions.

Click here for an online Bible. Acts 13:1-3

Luke begins his account of the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. Gentiles had already accepted the gospel, but here is the first instance of a church intentionally sending people out to spread the gospel to the Gentiles of the world.

Barnabas and Saul had spent a considerable amount of time already in Antioch teaching the people about Christ. But there were other leaders as well. Luke mentions five leaders here. He calls them teachers and prophets. He probably does not mean two groups of people, but that these leaders were teachers who were also prophets. Maybe a better way to describe them would be prophetic teachers. They were inspired by God in their teaching.

There is some debate about the use of “they” in verses 2 and 3. Is Luke referring to only the leaders or to the whole church in Antioch? I think the best argument is that verse 2 is referring to the leaders while verse 3 is the whole church. The prophetic teachers were fasting and ministering to the Lord. The Holy Spirit revealed His mission for Barnabas and Saul to the leaders. The leaders told the whole church of their revelation and the whole church then fasted, prayed, and sent the two on their mission.

Some things to note: The Holy Spirit revealed His will when they were fasting. This implies that they were expectant about hearing from God. We should expect to hear from God. He does not hide.

The church was willing to lose important leaders for the larger mission. We have to release people for ministry even if it seems to hurt our areas of ministry.

The leaders led and the people followed their lead.