The Spirit of Missions – Acts 13:1-12

A study like this gives us the opportunity to consider all kinds of doctrines.

Sometimes we are forced to examine things that we haven’t looked at before, like fasting.

And like our subject tonight, sometimes we have the opportunity to think about doctrines that we have looked at 26 times before.

(This is only the 27^th message that I have filed under the Holy Spirit).

When we started this study, I was afraid that it would become boring.

Even though we may look at some verses a half dozen times,

And have familiarized ourselves with them to the point of incidentally memorizing them,

These last few months have been anything but boring – at least to me.

(By the way, our first message in this series was preached August 27^th, 2003.)

As I was reading this scripture for the twentieth time, I noticed a repetition of references to the Holy Spirit.

And it became obvious once again that the ministry of missions is the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God.

I have already brought that to your attention, but let’s think about it in a little more detail this evening.

When we read these verses, we not only see what the Spirit was DOING,

But when we stop and think about it for a moment, we begin to see the DOCTRINE of the Holy Spirit.

First, what do we see the Spirit DOING here?

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”

The first thing that we see is the Spirit CALLING Barnabas and Saul into a new ministry.

As I said last Wednesday, the true gospel ministry is a “calling” and not just a worthy occupation.

The Holy Spirit chose and invited two of the ministers of the church in Antioch to carry the gospel into the uttermost parts of the world.

Some of you might be wondering about the word which is translated “called.”

It is not “ekkaleo,” the root word of “ecclesia” – the church.

And it isn’t “eklektos” which is translated “called” or “elect.”

It is the word “proskaleomai” ( pros-kal-eh’-om-ahee ) which means “to call to oneself.”

The Holy Spirit CALLED TO HIMSELF Saul and Barnabas.

Is there anything more important or precious than that?

Secondly, notice verse 4: “So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.”

Not only were the missionaries called to come to the Spirit, they were also sent away by the Spirit.

Do you remember that in Matthew 8, sandwiched between our Lord’s healing of a leper and His healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, He healed the servant of a Roman Centurion?

Do you remember what the man said and Jesus’ reply?

“And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,

And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”

That centurion was a man with some authority.

He said that when he ordered one of his troops to come to him, he came immediately.

And when he sent him off on some mission, whether large or small, the man instantly obeyed.

The authority of that centurion is not an 100^th of a percent as authoritative as the authority of the Spirit.

When the Spirit said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul unto the work where unto I have called them,” they were separated unto the Spirit.

And when the Spirit sent them forth, it was under the Spirit’s direction, to His destination and with His authority.

The next reference is to the fact that Paul was FILLED with the Holy Ghost.

Verse 9 – “Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him,

And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness,

Wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?”

To be filled with the Spirit means that the person is completely yielded to the Spirit.

And the person yielded to the Spirit to going to enjoy the blessings and power of the Spirit.

That person is going to taste the fruit of the Spirit:

And the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.”

These are gifts of the Lord which can and should be enjoyed by all of the Lord’s children.

Unfortunately we are usually so filled with the world, self and sin that we don’t possess this fruit as much as we should.

In addition to this fruit, the person who is filled with the Holy Ghost may also be given special gifts, enabling him to accomplish special and sometimes miraculous things.

In this case, in addition to being able to see Elymus’ true nature, which was probably apparent to everyone,

But, in this case, the Holy Spirit enabled Paul prophesy Elymus’ temporary blindness, which occurred immediately.

So what we see the Holy Spirit doing in this passage is calling the missionaries, sending them out, filling them with special gifts and empowering them to accomplish the miraculous.

This is what we see the Spirit DOING, and that should be apparent to everyone.

But with a little contemplation we should also see parts of the DOCTRINE of the Holy Spirit.

What does this passage teach us about the DOCTRINE of Pneumatology?

First we see the PERSONALITY of the Holy Spirit.

There are some people who say that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than the force of God.

They say that God is a fan and the Spirit is the wind that is created by the fan,

Or they say that God is like the sun and the Spirit is the warmth that we feel when we stand in the sunshine.

There are others who deny the Trinity and say that God takes different forms on different occasions.

Some say that for a short time God became a man and was seen in the person of Christ.

But more often than that, God, as the unseen spirit, who called and sent forth these missionaries.

The problem with this false doctrine is that these people deny that when God is working in the form of the Spirit, there is no God the Son, and there is no Father.

It can be clearly demonstrated from the Scriptures that God exists in three persons.

Not only can we prove that Christ Jesus is God, the Son …

And not only can we prove that God was in human flesh and often did what only deity could do …

And not only can we prove that the Holy Spirit is divine and displays the attributes of deity …

But we also have several occasions when we can see or hear the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all at the same time.

At the baptism of the Lord Jesus, for example, we see Jesus coming up out of the water,

And the Holy Spirit coming upon him from Heaven in a visible form almost like a bird might land on a branch,

And we can hear the voice of God the Father speaking from Heaven.

Not only do we see and hear the Father, Son and Spirit,

But we see that each of them is a separate “person” acting individually, despite their unity.

The Father spoke, the Spirit descended, and the Son arose.

And in Acts 13 we see the person-hood of the Holy Spirit once again.

More specifically, we hear the Holy Spirit communicating with His church.

“The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul.”

Communication requires personality.

The silent places of the Scriptures are often as dramatic as the spectacular revelations.

For example, we are not told HOW the Spirit spoke to the church or to the missionaries.

Was it with an audible voice?

I rather think that is wasn’t because it was the Spirit and not the Father who spoke.

Was it with a disembodied hand, writing on the wall of the meeting house, as the Lord spoke to Belshazzar in the book of Daniel? I doubt it.

Was it through a series of dreams? Perhaps.

Was it by way of a still small voice in the hearts of a dozen different church leaders? Perhaps.

No one can directly say how the Spirit spoke, but that he somehow spoke cannot be denied without denying the written Word of God.

And communication necessitates personality.

And the Holy Spirit demonstrates elective choice.

Even though it is not the word “eklektos” which is translated “called” or “elect,”

That the Spirit called these two men out of at least five, means that he made some sort of choice.

Of course, it would be incorrect to say that the Spirit made this choice separate from the Trinity,

But at the same time, it is not incorrect for the Spirit to say, “I have called them.”

And He called them to a specific work.

Lacking a better word, we might say that the Spirit had made PLANS for the missionaries.

It was decreed of God that Barnabas and Saul go where they went and do what they did.

The Spirit knew that Barnabas and Saul would go to Cyprus, then to Pamphylia and Pisidia,

Because that was where He was sending them,

As the Centurion would send his soldiers the Holy Spirit was sending his troops,

Even though those orders were probably not written.

As far as Cyprus and the city of Salamis are concerned, it was likely that the Holy Spirit did specifically direct them.

The missionaries were sent forth by the Holy Ghost.

Something else see here about the doctrine of the Spirit involves His mysterious cooperation with men.

I don’t like the word “cooperation” in this regard, but I’m not sure that there is a better word.

“Synergy” is a nice big expensive word, but it’s more confusing than helpful.

So how does the sovereign God COOPERATE with men?

I don’t know that He can and still remain truly sovereign.

On the other hand we see His will coalescing and fusing with men to accomplish His will.

Verse 4 days that the missionaries were sent forth by the Holy Ghost,

But v. 3 says, ” And when they had fasted & prayed, & laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”

It is a part of the Doctrine of Pneumatology that the sovereign Holy Spirit works with holy men to accomplish His sovereign will.

Also, when we hear Paul’s denunciation of Elymus, after being told that he was filled with the Holy Ghost,

We realize that what he said about the man was not merely and educated guess.

The Holy Spirit knows what is in the heart of man, just as it was said of the Saviour.

“He needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.”

The Holy Spirit, as does each person of the Trinity, possesses omniscience.

He knew what was in the heart of Elymus, and He knows what is in your heart as well.

You may be able to fool me and this church; you may even deceive yourself,

But the Holy Spirit knows the truth about you.

And when you stand before the Judge of the quick and the dead, you will be judged based upon the facts, not just the evidence.

“Thou are a child of the devil, and an enemy of righteousness.”

Will there be any more chilling words spoken at the Great White Throne?

Perhaps only, “Depart from me ye cursed. I never knew you.”

The last thing that we see hinted in this scripture in regards to the Holy Spirit, is His part in salvation.

The salvation of a sinner is the work of the entire Trinity.

Some parts of redemption cannot be separated and put into Jesus’ file or the Father’s corner.

But other aspects most definitely are the work of one divine person over another.

God the Father did not die on the cross, that was the work of the Son.

There have been heretics who preached the doctrine of patra-passionism, that it was the Father who suffered on the cross in the form of the Son.

But when we hear the Lord Jesus cry out to the Father from the cross, we know that doctrine could not possibly be true.

Based on what Jesus said to Nicodemus, regeneration, the new birth, is the work of the Spirit.

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

When the dead human spirit is given life, it is most directly the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is the will of the Father, and it is through the death of the Son,

But the application is through the Spirit.

So when Sergius Paulus was saved we can see the Holy Spirit working once again.

There is nothing theologically wrong with saying that the Spirit of God saved that man.

So once again, reading these twelve verses, we not only see the Spirit working, we also see an outline of the Biblical doctrine of Pneumatology.