Vision 3/7/10

Sermon Series: Acts – Faith Explosion
Title: Vision
Text: Acts 12:24-13:3
“But the word of God increased and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark. Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.”

Introduction: It is amazing how what we know affects what we see. (the story of the motor-home that Ray and I went to pick up that the tree had fallen across) While I saw a pile of miscellaneous broken pieces, Ray had a whole different vision for what we were looking at.

Transition: The passage which we are going to examine today straddles two different chapters. There is a reason why this makes sense. Sometimes in our English bibles the chapter and verse designations do not accurately reflect the paragraph breaks in the original text, this is one of those places. Verse 24 is the start of the next paragraph not the end of the preceding one. So when we read that – “the word of God increased and multiplied.” – we are being introduced to the next train of thought, not finishing up the incident which took place when Herod Agrippa was killed.
As we begin the study this week it is important to see that this is one of those places in the text of Acts where a big shift is occurring. The church is beginning to intentionally fulfill the commands which Jesus left for them which we read at the beginning of this book when Jesus said to them – “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” As we have been reading the text you might have noticed that while the Church has definitely been following God’s leading, His work of spreading the good news of His redemptive plan with mankind, it has been just that – following. Now as we turn the corner we see that the Church in Antioch is given the vision of stepping out on unproven ground, the horizon of their world has taken on an entirely different cast, now it is the background for the wondrous kingdom of heaven. It has now become the place where God is going to capture the world back from the brokenness which has engulfed it since the fall of mankind into sin, and they get to be a part of that plan.