Set Apart (Acts 13:1-3)

​Saul had now become an established leader in the Christian church. It was a kind of roundabout journey that he had, with what had taken place in his life after his conversion, whether he was living in Damascus, Jerusalem, Tarsus or Antioch. Although he had been very diligent in his service for Jesus and made many contributions to the progress of the gospel, his main years of service were still ahead of him. Luke describes here an important step in how Saul moved from a static ministry in one location to an itinerant ministry in numerous places.

A leader in Antioch

It looks as if this group of five individuals named by Luke were the leaders in the church in Antioch. Since no other information is given we cannot say whether there was also another group similar to what we call a kirk session or whether this group functioned as the kirk session.

Who were these men? We know about Barnabas and Saul, but not about the other three, which is a reminder that usually church leaders get forgotten. Probably, none of them actually came from Antioch. Barnabas had been sent to Antioch by the church in Jerusalem to help the new congregation become established, and later he had enlisted Saul from Tarsus to help him in the task of teaching the growing church in Antioch. The other three leaders could have been among the Christians who were forced to leave Jerusalem when the persecution connected to Stephen took place under Saul’s instigation. Luke elsewhere in this book mentions those who had to flee from Jerusalem and who eventually reached Antioch where they began to witness to Gentiles.

Each of those men had a story of grace to tell. Niger probably means that Simeon was a black person from Africa. Lucian was from North Africa. The only one whose conversion we know anything about is Saul. But it would be interesting to know how a friend of Herod’s had become a follower of the true King. What we can tell from the list is that social class should not be a barrier to service and that former persecutors are welcome into the leadership of the church after conversion.

The way the names are listed suggests that it was done according to age. Barnabas, who is mentioned first, was an experienced believer who had a prominent place in the church from its early days, so it is not surprising that he is mentioned first. Saul was likely the most recently converted. We know that he was the most gifted of the individuals and we should observe that his friend Luke was guided to mention him last in the list. Moreover, by the time Luke wrote this account the dispute between Barnabas and Saul had occurred, but subsequent failures did not prevent the name of Barnabas being held in high regard.

Luke describes them as possessing two spiritual gifts – they were prophets and teachers. I doubt if he means that some were prophets and others were teachers, although that suggestion is possible. We may wonder what is the difference between the activities because a prophet normally is a teacher. The usual explanation is that prophecy refers to a direct action of the Holy Spirit in a person’s mind so that an individual can make an accurate statement about a matter, whether to do with doctrine or practice. There were many such individuals in the early church, with some women regarded as prophetesses (such as the daughters of Philip).

The presence of such prophets was evidence that the age of the Spirit had come. Joel, for example, had predicted that when the Spirit would be poured out, it would be common for men and women to have this gift. I suspect it happened at different levels in church life, and women would have been given this role to help them in relationship with one another. The point is that the presence of such people was evidence that a new era had come in the kingdom of God and we should expect accounts of the kingdom to show growth, which is what happens here.

We may wonder why the church in Antioch had five teachers. The probably answer is that the church was so large that the persons connected to it met in different places throughout the city. They did not have denominations in those days, so there was only one church in each place, meeting in different places if necessary. One way to think about it is to imagine if there was only one church in Inverness. There is not a building in Inverness that could hold all the local Christians at the one time for a service, so there would need to be different meetings around the city. And that would require a number of teachers.

The obvious detail about this group of five leaders is their harmony and devotion to prayer. We can see their devotion in the way that they incorporated fasting into their time together. Luke describes this activity in a manner that suggests it was a regular engagement in which they met together to seek the Lord. Two features are seen in their approach. One is brotherly love – there is no sense of competition between them. Another is dependence on God for his blessing – the fact is that growing churches pray more. There would have been many things to pray about in the church and they took time to consider those issues.

Prayer would have been needed regarding what subjects to teach. After all, they could not have a series on a New Testament book because none of them had yet been written. This means that the congregations in Antioch were not asked to listen to a sermon on John 3:16! There could be expositions of Old Testament passages interpreted in light of the coming of Jesus and there would have been explanations of doctrines and of areas of Christian living.

A discernible feature here with regard to the call of the Spirit is that he can ask a leadership to release their best people from among themselves for service elsewhere. It is likely that Barnabas and Saul were the more accomplished of the five men, and they were the ones that God wanted to use elsewhere. Subsequent events in Antioch reveal that sacrifice on the church’s part did not hinder the growth of the church in that city because it continued to grow.

Prayer, calling and confirmation

We are not told the background to the command of the Holy Spirit about his plans for Barnabas and Saul. It may have come suddenly or it may have been given because the time was now ripe for them to move on after thinking about it for a while. Saul definitely knew that his future ministry would not be confined to one place because he had been told by Ananias years before that he would take the gospel to different places. It may have been the case that he had asked his fellow leaders to pray about the matter. The one thing that is obvious is that the information was given in a situation of seeking the Lord’s will.

It is interesting that the Holy Spirit gave this information to the leaders as a group rather than just to Barnabas and Saul themselves. This indicates that God does not want his servants to function as detached from others and not responsible to others. It is clear from Barnabas’ and Saul’s response after their first missionary journey that they held themselves as accountable to the church in Antioch because they returned there with their report.

The Holy Spirit also asked the other three leaders to embrace his plan for Barnabas and Saul. We can imagine the thoughts that went through their minds at the prospects of losing two gifted leaders. The three would have more responsibilities. We can see that they too were being asked to go forward in faith and not to regard the change as a loss but as an opportunity for more grace to be given.

The commissioning of Barnabas and Saul involved the ritual of laying hands on them. This was proceeded by a time of earnest prayer for divine blessing. The laying of hands pointed to identification. As we read the accounts of what happened to Barnabas and Saul in later chapters we should remind ourselves that behind the scenes, as it were, prayer was being made for them by the leaders left behind in Antioch (and no doubt by the church there as well).

Clearly, the leaders in the church in Antioch wanted to obey the Lord. Probably the congregations in Antioch would have been puzzled by the willingness to let Barnabas and Saul go away. Some might have even objected to the loss. Maybe that is why the leaders seem to have sent the pair away immediately so that no-one would attempt to hinder the Lord’s plans. Whatever the situation, they speedily obeyed the instructions from the Spirit.

Communications from the Spirit

This incident does raise the issue of how do we know that the Holy Spirit is intimating something to us. One obvious aspect is that others will be aware of it – Barnabas and Saul were not the only ones who were given awareness by the Spirit. In what ways would they have been aware of it? One detail is that Barnabas and Saul had shown previously that they were gifted for the roles of teaching. A second detail is that they had proved already that they could work as a team when the church in Antioch had sent them to Jerusalem. Connected to that second detail was the fact that they had proved themselves reliable with finances and other helps that the church in Antioch had provided for needy churches. A third detail is that Barnabas and Saul were men of prayer.

In addition to God providing awareness to others, he also teaches those he wants to use to have patience until his time comes. If there is one person who had to wait for God to open doors it is Saul of Tarsus. He has been a Christian now for over a decade, he has been engaged in various kinds of ministry in Damascus, Tarsus and Antioch, and yet he has not fully commenced his life’s work. That is about to happen, of course. Yet we can see that he was taught patience. We need to ask ourselves what patience is. In a biblical sense, it is not mere resignation to a situation. Rather it is expectancy that the Lord has his time for things to happen.

The Spirit leads people to be busy while they wait for doors to open for them. It has been pointed out that God never asked a person who was doing nothing to do something for him. The ones who receive guidance from the Lord are busy doing his general commands about service in the church. One way in which this was explained was by saying that God would not call a person to cross the sea for Jesus if that person was not willing to cross the street for Jesus.

We know that on this occasion the Spirit could have led one of the three leaders to make a prophetic announcement about Barnabas and Saul. In a sense, that does not help us today because we believe that the gift of prophecy has ceased. One obvious question is, how would we know that it was the Spirit who was speaking? When writing to the church in Corinth, Paul told those who prophesied to check what another prophet had said, which indicates that mistakes could be made. It is also possible that the Spirit revealed his will to all the men at the same time by another means. It looks to me that when the Spirit leads someone to work for him he will accompany the call with so many obvious features that others will be convinced that the person has been called. And if others are not convinced, it would suggest that the Spirit is not calling that person to the task.

Leaving Antioch

Barnabas and Saul set off on what we call Paul’s first missionary journey, although that is not very accurate if all that is being referred to his travelling with the gospel. Paul had been engaged in spreading the gospel around his home area for several years. As they set out on this new journey, there does not seem to have been any specific guidance as to where they should go. They travelled under the providential guidance of the Holy Spirit.