FBC Daily Devotional – December 7, 2021

Well a good Tuesday morning to you.

Today we're in Acts chapter 13, and this is the passage that records for us the beginning of

missions.

And you know when Jesus, just before Jesus ascended to heaven, recorded for us in each of the

Gospels, but it's particularly in Matthew 28, you have that what we call the Great Commission.

He told the disciples to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that he has commanded, and so forth.

All right now so far in the book of Acts that going into all the world has been

prompted by persecution.

So persecution arises, the you know followers of Jesus they scatter, and wherever they go

they take the gospel.

But now the the movement of missions is.

More.

Divinely directed.

Now surely the Lord is sovereignly behind the persecution and all the rest of that.

But here the Holy Spirit gets directly involved and sends forth the first

couple of missionaries.

A couple of things I want to bring out in that sending forth of these first missionaries.

One of them is that it's the Lord who in his sovereign authority

and for his sovereign purposes he sets apart certain individuals

for ministry in unique ways.

Now the Holy Spirit came and said set apart Barnabas and Saul, we read this

in verse 2, for the work to which I have called them.

Now there were others there and they were just as they were equally as

much in leadership in that church in in Antioch and yet the

Holy Spirit specified two individuals Barnabas and Saul and

they were the ones chosen to go do this particular work.

Now that why did he choose them?

There's no indication whatsoever that it was on the basis of any merit on their part.

I'm sure that the other individuals in that assembly who were gathered there and they were they were fasting and they were

praying they were godly individuals.

They were just as worthy of being called to this task as were Barnabas and

Saul.

But that's not what God's purpose was for those individuals.

It was God's purpose for Barnabas and Saul.

So this is the act of the sovereign God in his authority choosing whom he will

for these particular tasks.

And the other thing I want you to notice about this is that that calling to this task

was a long time in coming and here's what I mean by that.

Remember in the conversion of Saul, it's recorded in Acts chapter 9, the Lord made it

clear that Saul, who had been persecuting believers,

was going to testify of Christ before the nations, before

Gentiles, before rulers and so forth.

But yet that was a while ago.

That was quite a while ago.

I mean, I'm not talking just a couple of weeks ago.

That was quite a long time ago.

From the time that conversion of Saul until now this calling and

sending him forth to do this task of missions.

So what I take from that is we have to be patient with what we are convinced

God would have us to do.

I remember in college, you know, sophomore year of college, you know, and

how old was I?

19 years old and you know, you get kind of you're planning to go into ministry.

I sensed that calling and I was with a bunch of men and guys that also felt called to the ministry and

we're just we're chomping at the bit to get to get on with the work, to get to the work.

And.

Yeah, you know, there's still three years of school, of undergraduate work, and then if you're gonna go on to get to

seminary and graduate work, you got more beyond that.

And I remember a lot of a lot of guys feeling really impatient, feeling like, you know, there's too much to

do.

There's too many in the world who are perishing and, you know, we've just got to get out and get to the work.

We, you know, we shouldn't be wasting our time, you know, going to these classes and learning about all these things that really, you know, don't

matter in the long run.

And this is the attitude of many.

And I remember also, on more than one occasion, one

professor or teacher after another saying, men, this is where God has you

now.

This is the stage of preparation.

When God wants you out in the work, he will lead you out in the work, but now you give

yourselves to this.

That was wise advice.

Because yes, God can lay a ministry on a person's heart, lay a calling, if you will,

on a man's heart.

But that doesn't mean he's to drop everything and leave and go do that right away.

There can be a time, and often, most of the time, I would say, there is a time of preparation.

Before that commencement of the the work to which he's called.

So this is the case with Saul.

The other thing I would have us to notice here is that verse 2 tells us that the Holy Spirit said

to them, said to them, separate me Barnabas and Paul.

And I wondered, how did he do that?

How did the Holy Spirit communicate that message?

We don't really know, do we?

Was it an audible voice, you know, as they were all gathered together?

It says they ministered to the Lord and fasted.

They were worshiping the Lord.

They were fasting, these group of men, together.

And then the Holy Spirit spoke this and said this.

Was it an audible voice they heard?

Did he speak through one of the individuals as, you know, like in Acts chapter 2, the Holy

Spirit descended upon the the believers and the apostles and on the day of

Pentecost and then he spoke through them and they spoke in languages that they didn't know?

How did the Holy Spirit do this?

We don't really know for sure.

All we know is that it was the message of the Holy Spirit.

So we haven't written down for us in infallible scripture this this record

of that divine call.

The Holy Spirit doesn't always call in these remarkable ways

today.

I think most of the men I know, for example, in the ministry, missionaries, pastors, and so forth,

they would not testify to hearing an audible voice saying, you need to go into the ministry.

It is instead a series of impressions and even using the word to

speak to the heart and draw attention to passages and so forth that lead them to this

compulsion, this inescapable compulsion that I must do this work.

Well, however, the Holy Spirit did it, the message got across, the point got across and

right away, upon getting that message, the church obeyed and they sent forth

Barnabas and Saul, who would later become Paul, to this important, important work.

What a wonderful ministry, the Holy Spirit, to to sovereignly work in the hearts

and lives of individuals whom God would have do certain things for his purposes and his

glory.

Let's thank the Lord for how he works.

We are grateful, Father, for the way you work often behind the scenes in ways that are not

audible and visible, but yet nevertheless unmistakable.

Thank you for your sovereign grace.

Thank you for your sovereign work, and I pray that we would be attentive and obedient to

that leading of your gracious Spirit.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right.

Well, have a wonderful Tuesday, and I trust God will bless you in it.

Good day.