Thank you for that good song of assurance about Jesus reigning. Good morning to everyone. We have run out of life jackets to put on the piggies up at our house, so hopefully the rest can swim. Been a little rough the last couple of days with the rain. But better than drought, my wife says.

So we're going to be continuing our study in Acts 13 this morning. And when you look at this passage, the dominant theme that you see is the working of the Holy Spirit. And I just want to talk this morning about how we can be a spirit-filled church as we continue through the book of Acts. 

What we've been seeing throughout the book, especially in these last couple chapters, is God's plan for the church. The example of the early church in its genesis, as it's being formed before our eyes as we study through this book, serves as an example for us in principle of how God intends for His church to function. As we've said many times, the book of Acts is a description of the early church and not necessarily a prescription for the church today. 

And this is true in many ways. But it's also true that we find rich principles here, by example, that help us to understand God's intention for the body of Christ, the local gathering of believers. And this has become even more acute in these chapters concerning the founding of the first Gentile church in Antioch. 

So we're at a major transition point in the book of Acts, where we see a shift from a focus on Jerusalem and Judea and the ministry of Peter to the Gentiles and the moving out to the ends of the earth, evangelizing and preaching Christ to all men, to every creature. And this is highlighted in the ministry of Paul. The rest of the book will be an account of the ministry of Paul the Apostle and his great missionary journeys out into the world. And it all begins at Antioch. 

Barnabas has searched out Saul, and he's brought him to the church at Antioch to minister with him, as we saw that church growing and busting at the seams. And we will see that after a year or more of teaching and grounding the new believers in doctrine, the Holy Spirit decides to send out Paul and Barnabas to preach the gospel and found churches all over the known world. 

But what we're going to see today are some tremendous principles for the early church and for us concerning how to be a spirit-filled, a spirit-led church. I want to begin back in chapter 12 at verse 25 for context. At verse 25, it says, "and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry. And they also took with them John, whose surname was Mark." 

Now, in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaan, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 

Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. And from there, they sailed to Cyprus. And when they arrived at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues to the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. 

Now, when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the procouncil, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas, the sorcerer, for so his name is translated, withstood them, seeking to turn the procouncil away from the faith. 

Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "Oh, full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time." 

And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the procouncil believed when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

I've given you four points on your outline for our text today. First, we see settled in doctrine. Second, sensitive to the Spirit. Third, sent to preach Christ. And fourth, set for the defense of the gospel. 

Well, last time we talked at length about the importance of doctrine in the church, that the central purpose of the gathering of believers is for teaching, teaching of the Word of God. And I'd like to revisit this crucial truth in our first point this morning as we see that the church in Antioch was first settled in doctrine. 

I'm going to go back to chapter 11 at verse 26. This verse really sets the context for the discussion of the church in Antioch. In Acts 11:26, it says, "And when he had found him, this is Barnabas finding Saul, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people, and the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch."

The church in Antioch was founded. Remember, it was those guys who were from Cyprus and Cyrene who began to preach the gospel to the Hellenists, and many were saved, and the church began in Antioch. And the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas up there to see what all the buzz was about, maybe to make sure that things were in proper order. 

And Barnabas went up there and saw that the Spirit of God was working mightily among the Gentiles. And he rejoiced, and he encouraged the believers to continue with the Lord. And he began a ministry there, but the church was growing so fast he needed some help, and he remembered his old buddy Saul, and he went and took off and searched diligently for Saul. 

And he found him, and he brought him back to Antioch with him. And verse 26 says, "For a whole year, they taught the church. They taught the brethren. They taught the truth. They taught the word of God." They preached Christ to the believers so that they might be grounded in the faith, that they might be settled in doctrine. 

And what we're going to see in our text today is the fruit of that teaching and preaching ministry. What we're going to see is a Spirit-filled church, one that is walking in the power of the Spirit and following His leading. And that can only come, obedience and fruit can only come, my brothers and sisters, by a laser focus, a solid commitment to the word of God is fully sufficient to meet our every need, to provide our sustenance for growth, our compass for truth. 

The word of God must be central to everything we do. And we must continually teach it and preach it and know it and believe it and obey it if we are going to be fruitful, if we're going to be a God-glorifying, soul-winning church. I want you to see this truth in Antioch. They taught. They preached the word of God. 

In the first verses of our text this morning, it says, "Now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manan, and Saul." Prophets and teachers. What did they do? Well, just a word about prophets. This office existed in the early church because the word of God had not been completed. 

We did not have our New Testament to search to see if what a man said was true. So the prophets served a purpose to speak God's truth and will, often concerning practical matters. Paul and Barnabas were teachers and preachers. They focused on doctrine, on theology, grounding the believers in truth. 

When we see the prophets speak, it usually concerns some practical matter. Remember back in chapter 11, we saw a prophet speak and say that there was going to be a famine. Paul will be bound. He'll be arrested in Jerusalem, as we'll see a prophet predict coming up in our studies. Here we see that the prophets expressed the will of the Holy Spirit to send Paul and Barnabas out as missionaries, preaching the gospel. 

The prophets often spoke concerning practical matters rather than theological teaching. But Barnabas and Paul, they were teachers. They were preachers in that church, and they taught doctrine. The prophets faded away, and now they only exist in the sense of truth-telling, that is, speaking forth the word of God as written in the Bible. 

There's no new revelation in the church today, no word from God other than His written word for us to know and to study and to believe and to obey. And we must search these words from God. We must search the scriptures daily to see if what teachers and preachers say is true. You understand, my friends, that it is incumbent upon you to do that very thing, to be as the Bereans, to search the scriptures to see if what I say is true. 

The point I want you to see in verse 1 is, again, the emphasis on teaching. The point was for the people to hear and know the word of God, the truth about Jesus Christ. And that was the focus in the church in Antioch. And I tell you, my friends, this is the focus of every fruitful church. 

I try not to think too much about the error that exists in the evangelical church today. It's so much better and more fruitful to focus on the truth and teaching the truth and preaching Jesus. And that's what I do within the context of Living Hope Church and wherever I have opportunity. But sometimes life necessitates that I get outside of this wonderful bubble in which I spend most of my life and study and preaching and thinking and teaching. 

I must mingle within the larger evangelical community sometimes. And I have to tell you that we are truly blessed to have this little fellowship here in the woods of Winchester in this day and age. Because there are some really strange things going on in the church today. I'm not sure what all some of them are doing or what they're trying to accomplish, but the word of God is not at the center. Teaching of the scriptures is not the focus. 

And I have to tell you, you see it in the fruit. I've recently seen the focus on the social gospel coming back into the church. And in fact, a social justice movement, I think, is rising up in the evangelical church. We need to be so careful not to get sucked into these things, to find ourselves trying to cure the ills of the world, reading books and going to seminars and getting our minds conformed to the world and setting aside the gospel of Jesus Christ as our focus in order to bring equity and justice to this world. 

The forms of error are endless, but it seems to me that there's a shift from the political activism and moral authority of the church that came with the so-called religious right to a socialistic focus on curing the ills of the world and righting the wrongs. We must be so careful, so diligent, so focused on the word of God and the gospel of Christ because it's so easy to be drawn away and then end up somewhere that really makes no sense when we leave the emphasis of teaching and preaching the truth for what we deem are better things to do. 

At Antioch, the first Gentile church, they taught the people. They grounded them in doctrine. They focused on Jesus. And the fruit was spirit-filled, spirit-led believers who were discerning, who were built up and edified in Christ and had become mature. And they were ready to go out and reach the world, not being distracted or deceived by false teaching, but focused on Jesus and his saving truth. 

Do you see the absolute necessity of this focus, my friends? Do you see our overwhelming need? Do you sense that need for yourself for the truth, for teaching, for being settled in doctrine? They were grounded. They were settled in doctrine in Antioch. 

And we see next that because of this, they were sensitive to the Spirit. Look at verse 1 again. "Now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who's called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaan, and Saul. And they ministered to the Lord and fasted. The Holy Spirit said, 'Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away."

Now you can just sort of read over these words, but think about what was going on here. The church had only begun a year or so ago. The idea of Christianity, the gospel, Jesus, none of this had ever existed before in this place. The whole thought of salvation coming to the Gentiles was an absolute revolution in thinking. It had been such a short time. 

And Barnabas and Paul were there. The teachers and preachers, the beloved pastors, the ones who could guide and correct and answer questions and counsel and pray, ministering continually to these new believers. And the Holy Spirit comes and He says, "Send them away." Can you imagine? 

Send Barnabas and Paul? These are our pastors. These guys are central to our church. Let's send a couple other guys. We need Paul and Barnabas here. But this is not what their response was. You see, in this very short time, they had been taught. They had been grounded in the Word. They were mature and they were sensitive to the leading of the Spirit. 

And they were eager in their hearts to believe the Spirit, to trust, and to obey. This would not have been possible, my brothers and sisters, had they spent the last year focusing on the social ills of their community in Antioch, and believe me, there were many. Some of the historians say that this region corrupted Rome. That's how bad it was. 

No one would have gone for the idea of sending away the two pastors of the church. No men would have been prepared to take their place. No believers would have been mature enough to function on their own and to continue in the work of the church without Barnabas and Paul. Teaching was necessary. Grounding in the word was essential. Growth and maturity was key, and the result of a focus on the word and teaching and doctrine was that the believers in that church were sensitive to the Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit said to send these two men, I have called them, the church sent them away. 

And they had other men rise up and lead the believers, and the believers continually searched the scriptures to see if what they said was true. And men were maturing and discerning, and the church kept growing and preaching and teaching and going out into the community and preaching Christ to win the lost. 

My friends, this is the simplicity that is in Christ. This is what God intends for you, and it's such a contrast with the complexity that is in the worldly ideas of men. So we see that they were settled in doctrine. We see that they were sensitive to the Spirit, and next in our text we see that these believers in this church were sent to preach Christ. 

Look at verse 4. "So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant." 

Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the pro-council Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the Word of God. 

Don't you love how God just keeps arranging opportunities for these guys? They're not out advertising. The Holy Spirit is working and giving them opportunities. We'll see that again. This is such a practical point for us. What are we here to do? You say, well, we're here to bring glory to God, and that's true. 

And we do that by showing the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ living in and through us. What we say, how we think, what our passions are, but first and foremost by showing the great love that we have for lost men and for the brethren because of what God did in us at salvation. His love was poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 

And that love is manifest by the speaking of the truth, by our clear and passionate desire for men to be saved, to bring the good news to them that they might believe, that they might respond to the gospel in faith, and pass from death unto life. We are here, my friends, to preach Christ, to speak the Word of God to men, and everything else we do must be working toward this essential goal. 

We meet together to fellowship, to be encouraged, to be built up, to worship, and praise God for who He is and what He's done and what He has promised. We come together to be equipped to then go out to do the work of ministry, to be edified, to grow so that we might be better equipped to do this work. My friends, we are here to be a witness for Jesus Christ, and this is exactly what the believers of the early church were about, and this is exemplified in the lives and ministries of Paul and Barnabas. 

They went to Salamis and they preached the Word of God. They traveled on to Paphos and had the opportunity to witness to the procouncil there and preached the Word of God. We will see this everywhere Paul goes. He's preaching Christ, he's preaching the gospel, and then he's building up and teaching the believers who come to faith, and he's equipping them to go out and do the same. 

This is so clearly the absolute focus and almost sole purpose of the church in the book of Acts, and that should be a great lesson for us today. If there's something in our theology that inhibits, that hinders us from being bold in our witness for Jesus Christ, preaching the gospel to every man, then our theology needs to go. 

If there's something in our philosophy or method of ministry that puts off the preaching of the gospel, that minimizes the importance and central focus of preaching the Word of God, the truth about Jesus to men, then there's something wrong with our methods and with our ministry. My brothers and sisters, this is abundantly clear in the book of Acts and the epistles, even in the book of Revelation, as well as the direct commands by Jesus to his disciples. 

Preaching the gospel to every creature is right at the very top of God's priority list. The question is, is it at the top of our priority list as a church, as a body of believers, as individuals? The church in Antioch was a teaching church, it was a preaching church, it was a witnessing church, it was a mission-minded church. 

This is our heart and practice here at Living Hope Church as well. We encourage you from this pulpit continually to study the Word, to hear the Word, to search the scriptures, to go out into these communities and preach Christ, and to support those who are going out around the world to do the same. We are a missions church, and I have to tell you that it's really quite astounding the amount of resources that this little church commits to missions every year. 

And that is because God has put that in your hearts, to give for this purpose. And it's because of a great desire of the elders of this church to allocate as much of those financial resources as possible to the furthering of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what we are about because, my friends, that is what Jesus told us to do, and that is what we see in the example of the early church here in the book of Acts. 

Now next we see that these believers were not only settled in doctrine, they were not only sensitive to the Holy Spirit, they were not only sent to preach Christ, but they also knew and believed that they were set for the defense of the gospel. This is a tough one, my friends. On the wall next to my bed is my ordination certificate framed and hanging there on the wall, and sometimes when I lay down at night, I'll look up at that certificate hanging there, and at the top of the document in big letters it says, "Set for the defense of the gospel." 

That is a profoundly heavy weight on my shoulders, my friends, but I hope that you share that burden with me. That is your great desire to make the truth clear, to make Jesus known, who He is, what He's done according to His Word. And I hope that in that desire and willingness to make it clear, you are willing to confront error, just as Jesus did in John chapter 8 or Matthew 23. 

Have you read His words there lately, my friends? To the religious leaders of His day, in public, before the crowds, Jesus said, "You are not sons of God, you are not sons of Abraham, your father is the devil, and his works you wish to do." Turn over to Matthew 23, let's look at Jesus' words in Matthew 23 at verse 13. 

Matthew 23:13, "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." Now we may have the idea in our minds these scribes and Pharisees were a bunch of rotten scoundrels, and they were, but they were the religious leaders of the day, they were the respected men, they were those in our communities today who lead the churches. 

"Hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers, therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. 

Woe to you, blind guides, who say whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind, for which is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind, for which is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift. 

Therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. 

These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish that the outside of them may be clean also. 

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you're like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." 

Jesus was bold in confronting error and false teaching, a false gospel, because He knew that lies lead men to hell. Paul was just as bold, and we see it here in our text in verse 6 of Acts 13, and it says, "When they had gone through Paphos, they ran into this guy Bar-Jesus, a Jew who was a false teacher, and the procouncil wanted to hear from them. He called for them and he asked them to preach the Word of God to him, 

and when they began to preach, the man was being persuaded, and Bar-Jesus, he comes in and he's trying to dissuade him from the truth. And Paul looks at him and he says, 'O fool of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?' And then he becomes blind." 

I've been criticized for being too bold, for focusing on doctrine too much, for not just chilling out a bit, but I have to tell you that I fear that I am nowhere near bold enough in speaking the truth and defending the gospel against error." 

Jesus and Paul were bold. I remember when I was a young man in grade school, maybe fourth grade, I went to church six days a week. I was enrolled in a Roman Catholic school and we went to Mass every day during the week and then on Sunday. 

I remember a time one weekday morning, all of the school was assembled in the church for Mass, and the priest was going through his rote service reciting the words he was supposed to say, and this man came in from the side door in the front of the church. 

I remember he was carrying a Bible and holding it up in the air and proclaiming very loudly that we were all going to hell and we needed to repent, and other things that I didn't understand, nor do I remember, but it did break up the monotony a bit of that daily Mass. It was exciting and interesting at the time. They grabbed him and they hauled him out, but you know since I've been saved, I've thought of that event many times. 

The man must have been a believer and perhaps he's a little off in his methodology, I'm not sure. Maybe he was just so moved by compassion and fear of us all sitting in that dead religion and headed for hell that he just had to come in and speak the truth. I'm not sure, but I know one thing, he was bold. He left an impression on me even though I didn't understand anything at the time. 

I just can't imagine so openly confronting sin and false teaching publicly as Jesus did, as Paul did. Look at what Paul said here, look at his words, put yourself into this real-life situation. Paul has the opportunity to witness to this influential man in this city, a great opportunity arranged by God, and there's this sorcerer who holds sway with the procouncil and he's anti-Christ, he's anti-gospel. 

What do you do? Here's what Paul did, he told him, "You're a son of the devil, you're perverting the straight ways of the Lord, shut up." Now you might think or argue that this was not a wise move by Paul. He should have been more kind, more sensitive to this man's needs, he should have been more loving. 

But the problem with questioning Paul's words or actions here is encompassed in five words, look at verse 9 again. "Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit." Filled with the Holy Spirit. These were words spoken by Paul when he was filled with, when he was controlled by the Holy Spirit. 

This is the exact thing that God wanted Paul to say. Now this might not be exactly how to do it in every situation, but the point I want you to get here is that the truth is what matters. Men must hear the truth about Jesus in order to believe and be saved. 

And if the truth is all muddied up, if it's all watered down, if we let things go and we don't make things clear and don't correct error and don't rebuke it, then men will not know the gospel, they will not hear the truth about Jesus, and they will not be saved. So it is necessary that we make it clear, that we expose evil and the works of darkness, that we warn men about error. 

In Romans 16:17, Paul told the believers to mark out, note, mark out publicly and warn against those who teach doctrines contrary to the truth about Jesus. We can't just let it go. Maybe we have an opportunity to witness to someone and they're interested and they're listening and they're being persuaded like this city official. 

And someone else pipes in and they say, you know, I think if we do the best we can, if we try to be a good person, if we follow our religion, then God will understand, He'll let us into heaven. What do you say in that moment? I've been there lots of times. 

How do you handle that? Because you see, everyone listening is being led astray into confusion by that gobbledygook. We have to correct it. We have to make it clear for the sake and the salvation of all who hear. We are set for the defense of the gospel, my brothers and sisters, and that is part of our ministry, and our going out to preach Christ to every creature. 

It's vital that we be clear, and we see the example of Paul here being abundantly clear. And we see the result that this man believed because he was astonished at the Word of God, the teaching of the Lord. 

We've seen today in our text a Spirit-filled church, and that begins with being settled in doctrine, being a teaching church, preaching the Word verse by verse, chapter by chapter, line upon line, precept upon precept. 

And this results in believers who are growing, who are being built up, who are becoming mature, no longer tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Believers who are sensitive to the Spirit, who are sent out to preach Christ, and who are set for the defense of the gospel. 

What a privilege it is to be a believer, to be an ambassador for Christ, to hold this good news message, the power of the gospel of Christ, the power unto salvation for all who will believe. And what a gift the church is, the local body of believers, for fellowship, for worship, for meeting together to hear the Word of God taught that we might be built up. 

Peter says, "Desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby." That is what we are to be about. Because that is what results in fruitfulness, in witness, and in glorifying our God and Savior. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful for this account that You've preserved for us in the book of Acts and for the example that we see and the principles that we can apply. And Father, we're thankful that You're continuing to build Your church, and that You use us. What a privilege it is to live for You, to have the peace that surpasses understanding in the midst of this world, and to know that our salvation, our eternity is secure. 

Help us to be bold and powerful witnesses as You give us opportunity, and help us to have a clear focus on Jesus, our life. It's in His name we pray.