Five Special Prophets and Teachers – Acts 13:1

Just because this verse says that there were prophets and teachers in the church in Antioch,

That doesn’t mean that the ministry is confined to prophecy and teaching.

And it’s a good thing, especially for this evening, since this message cannot be described as either a sermon or a typical Bible lesson.

It’s more like an exposition with a bit of imagination and tradition thrown into the mix.

What do we know, what can we learn, and what applications can we make after thinking about these five special men?

Notice first of all that we have reference to PROPHETS and TEACHERS.

That appears to be simple enough, doesn’t it? Well, not necessarily.

For example: were these prophets and teachers, official offices in the church?

At first it sounds like it,

But if so, why don’t we people in our church called “prophets”?

And if they aren’t official church offices, should we consider them as spiritual offices?

The first apostles were especially called to a special work for the Lord.

To be an apostle was not the same thing as to hold a church office.

Did these five men hold special offices of a temporary nature?

One of my favorite experts, A.T. Robertson, says that the structure of the Greek in the verse indicates that the first three men were prophets while the last two were teachers.

Should we be that precise, especially when our translators weren’t?

I think I’ll stick with my King James Bible on that.

All five of these men served both as prophets and teachers.

Another question might be whether or not these were the only prophets and teachers in the church.

When the verse uses that little word “as” – “as Barnabas and Simeon”

Is it suggesting that there were other prophets and teachers, or am I reading too much into the word?

One of my intentions in this study has been to provoke you to dig below the surface.

You may have read this verse a hundred times before, but have you ever stopped to look at it?

Does it really say what you think that it says?

All right, what is it to be a TEACHER? Were these teachers different from Sunday School teachers today?

The short answers are:

We all know what teachers are.

And I don’t think that those teachers were any different from teachers today.

Their job was to explain and apply the written Word of God.

Every prophet should be a teacher, although not never teacher is a prophet.

Every sermon should contain some teaching, even though some people might have already learned that particular lesson.

But what is it to be a PROPHET?

The first answer that most people have is that prophets foretell the future – sometimes they do.

Look at Acts 11:27 — “And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.

And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.”

Agabus, whom we’ll study more deeply later, was a God-empowered seer, a foreteller, as Daniel or Ezekiel were.

But I have a question:

If the church in Antioch had their own prophets, why did God have to send Agabus to tell them that a great famine was on its way?

The answer seems to be that to prophesy doesn’t necessarily entail predicting the future.

Sometimes God’s prophets foretell, but more often they merely forthtell.

Prophets are men gifted by God to speak the Lord’s words.

They may be given new revelation, or they may merely be preaching what God has already revealed.

Generally speaking, all the preachers that we find in the Word of God were prophets, speaking on behalf of the Lord.

One more question before we think about these men:

One of the commentators suggested that it was customary in that day when making lists to put the most pre-eminent name first and then to go down.

Is that what we see in this verse?

I have no problem thinking that Barnabas was the most pre-eminent of these men.

Does that mean that up to this point Saul didn’t display the same gifts as the other men mentioned?

Does the Bible enforce that kind of custom?

Don’t those who are truly first, by their very nature seek to be last, as did the Lord Jesus?

Is there anything to the order of the names involved? I rather doubt it.

And as far as you and I are concerned, shouldn’t we strive NOT to be in the spot-light?

The name mentioned here is BARNABAS.

We have already spent considerable time studying this great man, so I’m not going to delve into him again.

Suffice it to say that he was a Levite originally from the island of Cyprus.

He had apparently been quite wealthy; he sold some of his property and gave the income to the church.

The leadership of the church in Jerusalem respected his wisdom and spirituality and sent him off as an evangelist and missionary.

I think Barnabas is one of the great heros of the Bible, who doesn’t usually get the credit that he deserves.

I think that the more Barnabas-type people that a church has the greater that church will be in the sight of the Lord.

He gave of himself as well as his wealth.

He risked himself, even as we see in his support of John Mark in missionary journey number two.

I wish that our church had a dozen Barnabas’es.

And that brings us to SIMEON NIGER.

Here is a Jewish name, so it’s likely, but not guaranteed, that he was not an Hellenist or Grecian.

Simeon, by the way is the expanded form of “Simon.”

That was the Apostle Peter’s other name,

And it was the name of the man who met the infant Jesus in the Temple.

Of course this man was neither of those.

The surname “Niger” speaks of the colour black.

Was he a black man, an African? That is a possibility, but it’s unlikely under the circumstances.

Some of experts suggest that he was very dark complected, and that is possible.

Others say that Niger was just his last name, the way that people today might be Todd Little or even Conrad Black.

But I had to laugh at Matthew Henry, who boldly said that he had black hair.

I wouldn’t be surprised if 90% of the people of that part of the world in Paul’s day had black hair.

Was it just a name, or was Simeon a man of a very dark complexion?

Other than his name, residence, and his spiritual gift, we can be sure of nothing else about the man.

But what about Mark 15:17?

“And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head,

And began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews!

And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him.

And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.

And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.”

Apparently Simon the Cyrenian was the father of a pair of men who became well-known to the churches.

And that Simon was a Cyrenian, just as the next man here in Acts 13.

Could this man be the same man that carried the cross of the Lord Jesus?

We’ll probably never know on this side of heaven.

But if we took that position, a clever preacher could weave a message about moving from doing the work of a slave for Christ, to becoming one of the great prophets of God.

The third man of this prophetic quintet was LUCIUS.

Many of you are aware that I have been struggling with the pronunciation of this man’s homeland.

My brain wants to call it “Cireen,” but the editors of my Bible call it “Cirena,”

And my dictionary insists that it is “Cirene.”

So in my attempt to be a Biblicist I have been trying to call the place “Cirene.”

Cyrene was a city in North Africa which now goes under the name Tripoli, Lybia.

Just as it was in Alexandria and a few other major Mediterranean cities, there was a large community of Jews there.

But what is Tripoli today?

We have another instance of a city where the Christian opportunity was great, but which today is among the most unchristian of all the places on earth.

And what is the likelihood that our community or even our nation could join the Alexandrias, Cyrenes and Jerusalems of this world?

Once again, all we know for sure about this man is what we are given in this verse.

But we could really get carried away with speculation.

For example there is Acts 9:8-9:

“And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines,

And Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.”

The most notable convert from this synagogue was Saul of Tarsus.

But what is the likelihood that this Lucius was from Jerusalem as well, and that perhaps he was converted to Christ through the ministry and the death of Stephen?

This idea is quite possible, especially in the light of Acts 11:19-20:

“Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.

And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.”

Could this man have preceded Barnabas to Antioch and could he have once been from the same synagogue as Saul?

No one knows what influence our testimony might have on the people around us, even on those who profess to be our absolute enemies.

And then there is a reference in Romans 16: “I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: that ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.

Timotheus my workfellow, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you.”

What is the likelihood that the Lucius who was in Rome with Paul, was the same man who was with him in Antioch?

By the way, just in passing, there are a few professed scholars who want to identify Lucius with Luke.

But I’m not among them.

We’ll not consider Saul this evening,

But the man named MANAEN is fascinating.

Luke tells us that he was brought up with Herod Antipas, or Herod the Tetrarch, the uncle of the Herod who had just died of worms.

Think about that for just a moment:

That means that he was raised in the palace of Herod the Great.

He grew up surrounded by the greatest luxury that the world could afford in those days.

And yet the Lord saved his soul, and called him into the ministry.

He, somewhat like Barnabas and Moses, turned his back on wealth and high society to become a servant of Christ.

When we study the words “brought up” we find that Strong and others say that this word means “nourished with.”

This leads many commentaries to say that Manaen was the son of the nurse of Herod Antipas.

Some of them say that they were both nursed by the same woman.

Does Luke 8 shed any light on this man?

Luke 8:1 – “And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.”

The gospel of the Lord Jesus had somehow reached into the household of Herod.

Among the many people there were two boys just about the same age.

One was the son of Herod the Great, and the other was the son of one of the servants.

And the sovereign saving grace of God touched one of those boys, but the other went on in his sins.

One became a preacher of the gospel, and the other became a political exile living in Gaul.

One will spend eternity in Heaven with his Saviour, and the other will spend eternity in Hell.

We have in this short, seemingly unimportant verse the basis for great praise to God.

And how many of the family which we know will have similar stories to tell some day?

Pray for the salvation of God amongst us.