14

When we compare many of the modern attitudes to, as well as the claims that are made about, the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the clear witness that is found in The Acts, a most decisive contrast is noticeable.

One of the key factors that is evident at every point of the development of the Holy Spirit's ministry to, in and through the Church throughout the book of The Acts is the devoted submission of the Church to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Also, most marked is the humble attitude of the Christians of immediate and continuing obedience to the Holy Spirit and His sovereign ministry.

The absolute priority of the Person of the Holy Spirit and His authority is established from the very beginning by both the decisive example and the clear teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus exercised His role as “Head over all things to the Church” through the sovereign authority and activity of the Holy Spirit, and the Church continually gave full and faithful obedience to the Lord; at no time questioning the absolute right of the Lord to work in this way to accomplish the will and purpose of God.

By contrast, far too often today, the Holy Spirit is spoken of in terms that suggest that He is little more than the servant of the Church and the Christian. The impression that is so commonly given is that the Holy Sprit is always available to any and every Christian if and when they may want Him to come, and when He does come it is to attend to whatever their whims may dictate at any given moment.

With such an unworthy attitude, which is completely devoid of any Biblical foundation, it is not at all surprising that so much of what is defined as being “of the Holy Spirit” is nothing but an empty worthless facade, which is totally devoid of the vitality, the power, and the spiritual fire that is so decisively evident in all of the Holy Spirit's activities in and through the Church in the Book of The Acts.

When we come to study the developments in the thirteenth chapter of The Acts, we find a most compelling statement of what the attitude of the Church to the Holy Spirit must be.

In Acts 1: 8 the Lord Jesus emphasized that the believers would “receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria.”

The first ten chapters of the book of The Acts clearly demonstrate the faithfulness of the Church in witnessing to the Lord Jesus in each of those areas. Chapter ten brings to us the first effective outreach “to the uttermost,” as Cornelius and the other Gentiles who were gathered with him responded to the Gospel, which was shared with them by Peter.

In Acts chapter 11 we have recorded for us the exciting developments which took place in the Syrian city of Antioch. Even there, the first emphasis was to reach out to the Jews who lived there.

But the Holy Spirit was at work powerfully in the lives of those particular Christians, as He was directing them into the next steps to which He was leading them.

“Some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned to the Lord.”(Acts 11: 20, 22).

These were Christians who were filled with the Holy Spirit. While, by their heritage they were Jews, the Holy Spirit filled their hearts with the love of God, and the Holy Spirit used that love to motivate them to witness to the Gentiles.

It is so important to take careful note of the sequence that is quite evident here. In their obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit they reached out to share the gospel of Jesus and Him crucified with the Gentiles. This enabled the Holy Spirit, who filled them and motivated them, to use them most effectively, resulting in the Holy Spirit bringing many of the Gentiles to faith in the Lord Jesus.

Every aspect of these exciting developments gives the clearest evidence to the personal presence and the dynamic sovereign leadership of the Holy Spirit in the Church in Antioch.

Hearing of these developments, the Church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to participate in this exciting spiritual revolution which was taking place in Antioch. Barnabas was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was also a servant of the Lord who was being used by the Holy Spirit to encourage and inspire new converts and inexperienced Christians.

Barnabas was also from Cyprus, which meant that he would readily identify with many of the Christians who were already in Antioch, and who were being used by the Holy Spirit in this new movement.

Therefore, it is not at all surprising that the arrival of Barnabas resulted in: “Much people was added to the Lord” (11: 24). Nor is it surprising that “The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” (Verse 26).

The name “Christian” identified the disciples with the “Christ!”- which means: “The Anointed One!” The One on Whom the Holy Spirit has come and in Whom the Holy Spirit resides, and through Whom the Holy Spirit works!

Emphasized quite clearly is this fact: The key at every point is the personal presence and the sovereign activity of the Holy Spirit.

It was also while he was in Antioch that we have the following development, “Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch.” (11: 25, 26).

Thus both Barnabas and Saul were found in positions of spiritual leadership in the Church in Antioch at this time. It is this fact which bring us to the next vital developments which we find recorded in The Acts chapter thirteen.

“Now there were in the Church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.”

These five men present us with some very interesting contrasts. Barnabas, as we know, was from the Island of Cyprus, but he was also very well known and highly respected in the Church in Jerusalem.

“Simeon, who is called: Niger!”- which means: Black! Could this be the “Simon of Cyrene,” which is in Africa, the one who was compelled by the Roman Centurion to carry the cross for the Lord Jesus? We really do not know, but the use of “Niger” suggests that he could have been from Africa.

Lucius is described as being from Cyrene, which was, as we have just noted, in Africa. His name is actually of Greek origin, so it is not easy to determine what his background was.

Manaen was raised in the privileged context of the household of the Herods, who were not actually Jewish, but who desperately wanted to be accepted by the Jews. That household was highly ambitious and political, to the extreme. Beyond this, we know no more about this man.

Then there was Saul of Tarsus, a city of considerable significance in Asia Minor. Saul had also spent a considerable amount of time in Jerusalem. He was one who at one time had been so proud of his heritage as an Hebrew of the Hebrews, and as a Pharisee.

With all of the very significant differences in their background and upbringing, etc., we could anticipate that there would be marked differences in their emphasis and their priorities in their continuing life and service. But this was not the case at all.

These were men who were completely united in heart, mind and spirit. They were utterly loyal to the one decisive priority. That was, the motivation to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus to everyone who needed to hear that message. Every other consideration was completely and deliberately submerged in their unswerving commitment to this one strong desire.

What was it that caused all of the natural instincts and prejudices to be so thoroughly reduced to complete insignificance, so that they no longer played any role whatsoever? This was accomplished by the one decisive fact: These men were filled with the Holy Spirit!

Each of these man knew, and completely accepted the reality: When the Holy Spirit comes on a person He does so to make that person a witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, so that anything and everything that the Holy Spirit identified as standing in the way of that goal must die.

In these five men every other consideration had been crucified - crucified with their total cooperation and agreement. They had only one desire: that the Lord Jesus be glorified.

It is so crucial to take notice of the activity that these Christian leaders were involved in at this time. They were fully and faithfully giving themselves in service to the Lord.

This is a very simply statement, but it is also a strikingly significant statement. The focus of their service was: “To the Lord!”

Almost completely without exception today, when we think about service in the Church we always speak of service for the Lord. Rarely, if ever, do we hear people speaking about “service to the Lord!” So much of what people call “service for the Lord” never qualifies to be called “Service to the Lord!”

The Christians in the Church at Antioch were sharing in an extended time of prayer and fasting as they were giving themselves fully to honor and glorify the Lord, to exalt His Name, and to praise the infinite majestic wonder of His Person.

The focus of their vision and their desire was uniquely: The Lord. Every part of their being was involved and committed to be able to honor Him, to be available to Him for His praise and His glory; so that every part of His good, and acceptable, and perfect will would find full expression in their transfigured thinking and their transformed lives.

It is this ministering “to the Lord” that has become so very rare today. As Christians, we are far too busy with the endless round of Church activities, as we minister to the Church and to its busy-ness, as we minister to the people and all of their needs, real and otherwise; and as we minister to whatever other demands thrust themselves into our circle of thinking.

Is it because we keep ourselves so busy that we have no time for: ministering “to the Lord, and fasting?” Or is it because we do not see just how crucial this matter is that we do not make time for: ministering “to the Lord, and fasting?”

Whatever our reasons, the result is that so very few of us today know how to minister to the Lord, even if we felt inclined to do so. The consequence is that our lives have become so empty of true spiritual significance, and true spiritual fruitfulness, even though they are so thoroughly preoccupied with serving - who knows what?

It was while the Church at Antioch “ministered to the Lord, and fasted,” that the Holy Spirit was able to speak to them, revealing the will of God for them.

It must be noticed that their ministering to the Lord and the Holy Spirit speaking to them are one event, and not two events in sequence. That fact is of the utmost importance to every Christian who has a deep urgent desire to be both filled and used by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit spoke very simply and very directly: “Separate (to) Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”

This was a most awesome occasion in the experience of the Church at Antioch. The Holy Spirit's Word did not involve a simple request for the leaders of the Church to think about, if, and when, it suited them. The Holy Spirit was speaking in absolute sovereign authority, His Word was a decisive command to the Church, and he expected His Word to be obeyed.

“Separate (to) Me!” “Sanctify wholly to Me and to My will and My purposes!” The Holy Spirit was expressing the sovereign will of the Lord of the Church. “Barnabas and Saul are to be wholly set aside to Me for My purposes, for Me to use them when, and where, and how I choose to use them.”

Barnabas and Saul were marked men. Their entire beings, and their entire lives, were completely claimed by the Holy Spirit. Every moment of every day. Every power and every ability. Nothing was their own any more. Separate them - to Me! The Holy Spirit claimed them.

Was that a unique development that was strictly limited to those two men? Certainly not. The Holy Spirit was expressing the reality that applies to every person who claims to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus. Far too many Christians choose to ignore these sovereign claims of the Holy Spirit.

This is the continuing expression of the sovereign right and authority of the Holy Spirit. Wherever Christians are responsive, He continues to assert that sovereign right and authority today. But He can only do so whenever and wherever the Church and Christians give Him the opportunity to do so.

The fact that the Holy Spirit is only able to do so on the rarest of occasions today speaks volumes about how very busy Christians are doing all the things that they think are important, and how little time, if any, they give to discovering the things that are of such great importance to the Holy Spirit.

Notice, the Holy Spirit directed that the work to which Barnabas and Saul were to give themselves was: “the work whereunto I have called them!”

How can Christians today discern “the work to which the Holy Spirit has called them?” Christians today will only be able to discern that work as they faithfully follow the order that the Holy Spirit has clearly revealed and firmly established.

First, we must be separated to the Holy Spirit. We must be wholly sanctified to Him, giving to Him His total sovereign right to all that we are and all that we have. Then, and only then, will He be able to reveal to us all of the other vital details of the perfect will of God.

When the Church today, along with its leaders, and all Christians, humbly move back to the established Biblical order of priority and precedence will we ever experience the level of ministry of the Holy Spirit that was the experience of the Church in Antioch.

What is the Biblical order? First, The Church ministered to the Lord, and fasted, being fully given to exalt, honor and glorify the Lord as their first priority. Then the Holy Spirit will be able to speak to the Church in the way He seeks to speak, and He will be understood.

The Holy Spirit will emphasize that Christians must be separated to Him, wholly sanctified to Him. When Christians are actually wholly sanctified to the Holy Spirit all of the other elements of Holy living will be brought into line by the Holy Spirit and His teaching.

Then, and only then, will the Holy Spirit be able to direct the Christians into the service to which He has called them. Only then!

The Holy Spirit had spoken, and the Church had heard the Word that He had spoken. Their response to His Word was one of humble, sincere worship, and willing submission to His authority. This response reveals again their dedicated devotion to the leadership and direction of the Holy Spirit.

It is vital that we take notice of the things that did not happen. There was no discussion as to whether of not they should act on this directive. There was no one who raised the issue as to whether or not they needed to seek any further to discover if this was the will of God for the Church at that time.

No one expressed the concern that Barnabas and Saul were so greatly needed by the Church in Antioch that they just could not permit them to go anywhere else. There was no discussion of the costs involved, or whether they believed this to be financially feasible.

They knew! They knew that the Holy Spirit had spoken, clearly, decisively, in sovereign authority. So, they humbly bowed in worship and adoration as they honored Him and His Word.

Those very things, which the Church in Antioch did not do, would have been given the highest priority in the councils and committees of the Churches today. Is this the result of the fact that the Holy Spirit is not being given the opportunity to speak to the Churches today? That He can no longer speak as He could, and did, to the Church in Antioch?

It was in that manner that the Church in Antioch triumphantly demonstrated the total unity of their hearts and minds with the Holy Spirit. He continued to fill them, so that He could constantly direct every aspect of their lives and their service.

As the Church in Antioch gathered to share in the commissioning of Barnabas and Saul to the work to which the Holy Spirit has called them, all of those in the Church were affirming their willing and joyful acceptance of the sovereign authority of the Holy Spirit. For them, His authority extended to every aspect of the Church and its mission, and they rejoiced that this was what they desired more than anything else.

As they laid their hands on these two servants of the Lord, it was an act of worship by which they gave confident witness to their genuine commitment to always honor and glorify the Lord Jesus as the Lord, and the Head of His Church.

In these developments we see clearly illustrated some vital spiritual dimensions and dynamics in the Church that was at Antioch. If the Church recovered these same spiritual dimensions and dynamics today, the Churches would be totally revolutionized! Vast numbers of Christians would not be able to recognize their Churches as the Holy Spirit was able to do in them all that He did in and through the Church in Antioch.

The Church at Antioch played an important, but secondary role, in sending out Barnabas and Saul, and the Church willingly and humbly accepted the fact that its role was secondary.

It would so greatly enhance the work of the Churches and Missions today if this fact was recovered and faithfully applied. In far too many cases “The Sending Agency” acts and speaks as though their role is the primary one, while the Holy Spirit has received very little, if any acknowledgment.

Barnabas and Saul were able to go out to the appointed task with the clear and strong conviction: the Holy Spirit had sent them out. This fact would always give to them a deep and an abiding assurance that they were in the center of the will of God.

The Church at Antioch rejoiced to be able to affirm the reality that they also knew that Barnabas and Saul had been sent out by the Holy Spirit. Thus the Church was completely united with these messengers who had been chosen and sent out by the Holy Spirit, and that vital spiritual unity remained so strong and critical over the many years that were to follow.

These decisions were all made under the personal leadership of the Holy Spirit, and therefore, they were in accordance with the perfect will of God. This was the continuing pattern for each of the missionary journeys that followed: the decisions were being made by the Holy Spirit, who communicated them to these faithful messengers, who thankfully accepted this indispensable guidance.

As Barnabas was originally from Cyprus, he may have had a special burden for the people who lived there, and that may have been one of the contributing factors in the decision to go there. But, even if that was the case, it was the Holy Spirit who gave Barnabas that burden, even as it was the Holy Spirit who would confirm the decision to the servants of the Lord.

Every Christian who is sanctified wholly to the Holy Spirit knows about the burdens that the Holy Spirit brings to their hearts, even as they personally identify with the way in which the Holy Spirit is using such burdens as the means of revealing some aspect of the will of God to them.

The key is to always remain sensitive to the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit, and to the many ways He may choose to use to guide us into the perfect will of God.

“And when they were at Salamis, they preached the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.”

As soon as they arrived in the Cypriot city of Salamis, they immediately set to work, giving themselves fully to the responsibility which the Holy Spirit had entrusted to them.

They knew that in the synagogues of the Jews they would find people gathered, people with whom they would be able to share their vital message. This approach involved a strategy that was used repeatedly throughout the missionary journeys.

In the synagogues they would not only finds Jews, but also many Gentiles who had been attracted to the worship of the God of Israel, and the moral and spiritual emphasis that this worship involved. These people proved to be a very fruitful field for missionary outreach. Even as it was an effective way to be able to reach out into other areas in the city.

Paul instructed Timothy, “Preach the Word!” (2 Timothy 4: 2). He wrote to the Corinthians, “For the preaching of the cross . . . is the power of God” to salvation. “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1: 18, 21).

The Holy Spirit comes on Christians in power for the specific purpose of making them: “Witnesses to Jesus!” Like John the Baptist, we need to be pointing people everywhere to: “The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29).

Barnabas and Saul were completely loyal to the Holy Spirit's leading as they preached the Word of God. They shared the gospel with every person they could reach. Their desire was to prove to be faithful instruments who were being used by the Holy Spirit to bring people to the Lord Jesus.

“And when they had gone through the Isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus: Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man: who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the Word of God.”

What a stark contrast we have in these two men. One of them was a Jew, but obviously he was a Jew who had totally rejected every aspect of the teaching of the Word of God. He was a sorcerer, one who was willingly in the service of the spiritual forces of evil. He was a false prophet, which was the inevitable result of giving himself in a willing alliance with the spiritual forces of darkness.

By contrast, there was the government official, Sergius Paulus. This man was sincerely seeking to find the source of spiritual truth, but the sorcerer had attached himself to this man in an attempt to keep him in bondage in spiritual darkness. Yet Sergius Paulus sent for Barnabas and Saul, because he wanted to hear the Word of God from them.

In these two men we have an accurate portrayal of the actual spiritual reality which the servants of the Lord will continue to face everywhere. There are those people who are sincerely seeking for the truth, and yet they have very little idea of where they will be able to find it.

Then there are those who have given themselves in personal allegiance and slavery to everything that is evil, making themselves the willing tools of the spiritual forces of darkness and evil.

“The Mission” of the sorcerer is quite obvious. As the willing tool of the spiritual forces of all that is evil, he was committed to oppose Barnabas and Saul, to withstand them, “seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.”

In these developments the Holy Spirit is exposing the spiritual realities that Barnabas and Saul had to first identify, then, deal with. They had been sent out by the Holy Spirit to turn people, including Sergius Paulus, from the darkness to the light as it is in the Lord Jesus.

At the very moment when they were set aside for this vital ministry, all of the forces of spiritual evil joined in their determination to do everything they could to thwart the efforts of these ambassadors of the Lord Jesus, and specifically, in this case, to hold enslaved the deputy as a pawn of their evil intentions.

This was the spiritual reality which actually confronted Barnabas and Saul. This is still the actual spiritual reality today. The Holy Spirit is calling into the service of the Lord Jesus every person who is genuinely available as a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit. As He calls each one, the Holy Spirit is seeking to reveal to them that this is the actual situation that they will inevitably face. Always!

All those who go out under the leadership of the Holy Spirit will be called to press the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel. Such faithful servants of the Lord will always be attacked by every resource of darkness and evil that “the rulers of the darkness of this world, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness” can throw against them to stop them.

There are no easy victories for the ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ who go out in His Name and in the power of the Holy Spirit. There are no effortless battles to be fought as we seek to set the slaves of darkness free. All the powers of darkness will ensure that there is a price which must be paid before those who are the slaves to sin and darkness can be set free.

Being personally confronted and challenged by this determined, demonic effort to block their faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul was moved by the Holy Spirit to respond.

We need to make very careful note of the fact that Paul responded as a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit. This meant that He was being strengthened in his inner being by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. He was being personally guided and directed by the Holy Spirit to know exactly what the will of God required him to do at that time. These factors clearly emphasize that this was the only way that he could take a bold stand against the spiritual forces of evil.

There were some people who were not filled with the Holy Spirit who dared to attempt to use the Name of the Lord Jesus in an effort to set that man free from the evil spirit who possessed him. (Acts 19: 14 - 16). Their efforts proved to be completely futile, as the spiritual forces of evil that they attempted to control immediately and utterly routed them.

“Filled with the Holy Ghost!” Knowing with unshakable assurance that “greater is He that is in you that he that is in the world.”(1 John 4: 4). It is in that relationship, and only in that relationship, in which the Holy Spirit will work, to enable, strengthen and guide, so that we have the essential resources that are so necessary to face the spiritual hosts of wickedness.

“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?”

These words are the words of the Holy Spirit. They were spoken with the full authority and power of the Holy Spirit. These words express both the just judgment of the Holy Spirit on the character of this man, and the Holy Spirit's verdict on this man's commitment to be a willing tool of the forces of evil.

By contrast, Paul was the willing instrument of the Holy Spirit who filled him, and he gave himself in total identification with the Holy Spirit and the character and mission of the Holy Spirit. This meant that the Holy Spirit in this situation was using him powerfully and effectively.

Nothing of what Paul said or did was Paul's own idea. He was far too dependent on the Holy Spirit, and submissive to the Holy Spirit to dare to launch out on his own. Paul knew that the massed forces of spiritual evil could be defeated, but only as the Holy Spirit spoke His Word in His power and authority.

This is the level of total submission to the Holy Spirit, and the complete cooperation with the Holy Spirit, that is the will of God for every Christian - even today.

The key: we must willingly allow the Holy Spirit to continually fill us, and to allow Him to exercise total sovereign authority in every area of our lives and service at all times, without any exceptions.

The sorcerer was stricken with blindness and reduced to complete futility. He had dared to present himself to be a tool of the spiritual forces of evil and darkness, only to discover that the One whom he had dared to oppose had already destroyed his master! “That through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2: 14, 15).

The Lord Jesus has already destroyed: the devil. The reality of this victory is freely and fully shared with every person who is filled with the Holy Spirit. It is such people who are confident that the victory is always sure for them. Therefore they are confident that every attack of the forces of evil can be defeated, destroyed, as they faithfully apply the resources that the Holy Spirit brings into their lives when He fills us.

Up until that crucial moment when Paul spoke the Word of power and victory given by the Holy Spirit, the sorcerer had been able to maintain a position of some influence and control in the life of Sergius Paulus. But at that crucial moment the Holy Spirit powerfully used Paul and Barnabas to speak the Word that broke and destroyed the power of all of the spiritual forces of evil, and to set the captive completely free!

“Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine (the teaching - the Word) of the Lord.”

Up until that moment the deputy had never seen the power of these spiritual forces of evil effectively challenged in any way. But as he listened to Paul speak the Word of the Lord, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and then saw the outcome of the almighty power of the Word of the Lord, it became too obvious that the sorcerer and everything he represented was routed in utter defeat.

It is of the greatest importance to notice the specific element that actually convinced this man: it was “the doctrine,” “the teaching,” “the Word,” “of the Lord.” It was the Word of God that was spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit by the Spirit-filled servant of the Lord.

“The deputy . . . believed!” Not because of what he saw. That was secondary. He believed as the Holy Spirit applied the Word of God in power and conviction in the deputy's heart and life.

The key is always: The authority of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit always expresses His authority through the Word of God, as He applies the Word in convincing, convicting power.

As we have looked at these verses we have witnessed the Holy Spirit speak in authority and power, to the Church; to the Christians; and, even, to the unsaved!

When Christians today catch the deep and vital impact of these developments, surely we will humbly, and urgently seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Being always filled with the Holy Spirit, and listening to Him, obedient to His Word, submissive to His leading and direction in all things.

Then, we will see the Holy Spirit working in our day in the same way He was able to work in the Church in Antioch. In the same way He was able to work in and through Barnabas and Saul.

He is waiting for us to give Him the opportunity which will result in revival for the Church, and the revitalization of their Christian lives and service.