Commentary - Acts 13:1-3

Bird's-eye view

This brief but potent passage marks a seismic shift in the book of Acts, and consequently, in the history of the world. Here, the beachhead of the gospel, firmly established in the Gentile city of Antioch, becomes a launching pad. This is the formal, Holy Spirit-initiated, church-commissioned beginning of the mission that would eventually turn the Roman world upside down. The narrative pivot is away from Jerusalem and Peter and toward Antioch and Paul. The key takeaway is that world missions are not the result of a clever human strategy or a committee meeting. They are born out of a healthy local church, steeped in worship and fasting, listening to the Holy Spirit, and obediently sending out their best men. This is the divine pattern, and it is established here with startling clarity.

Luke shows us a church that is doctrinally grounded ("prophets and teachers"), ethnically diverse, and spiritually vibrant. In the midst of their primary activity, ministering to the Lord, God Himself intervenes to give them their marching orders. The call is specific, the men are designated, and the task is from God. The church's response is not to debate, but to double down on their spiritual dependence through more prayer and fasting, and then to formally commission and send the missionaries with their blessing. This is the genesis of the great missionary journeys that will fill the remainder of the book.

Outline

Context In Acts

Acts 13:1-3 is the hinge upon which the entire book of Acts turns. The first twelve chapters have largely focused on the establishment of the church in Jerusalem, the work of the original apostles (especially Peter), and the gospel's initial, sometimes hesitant, push into Judea, Samaria, and the Gentile world through figures like Philip and Peter in the house of Cornelius. Chapter 11 recorded the founding of the church in Antioch, a thriving, cosmopolitan city, where believers were first called Christians. Chapter 12 provided a final look at the Jerusalem church's struggles, with the martyrdom of James and the miraculous deliverance of Peter. Now, in chapter 13, the center of gravity for gospel expansion shifts decisively from Jerusalem to Antioch. This passage is the formal commissioning service for the first missionary journey of Paul (still called Saul here) and Barnabas, which will occupy the next two chapters. Everything that follows in Acts is the result of the events described in these three verses.

Key Issues

The Spirit's Beachhead

We often think of missions as something the church does when it gets around to it. We form a committee, approve a budget, and send a check. But here in Acts, we see that mission is not an activity of the church so much as the very purpose of the church. And it does not begin with a human plan, but with a divine command. The Holy Spirit is the chief actor, the great strategist. The church at Antioch was not seeking to build its own little kingdom; it was busy building God's kingdom through worship. They were "ministering to the Lord." And it is out of that God-centered activity that the Spirit speaks and the world-altering mission is launched. The health of a church's worship is directly proportional to the health of its missionary impulse. A church that is not fundamentally concerned with ministering to the Lord will have nothing of spiritual substance to offer the world. Antioch was a healthy, vibrant, diverse, and worshiping church, and so it became the Spirit's beachhead for the invasion of the Gentile world.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Luke begins by setting the stage, and the stage is the local church at Antioch. He identifies the leadership, and it is a leadership of the Word: prophets and teachers. Prophets brought direct, though not necessarily predictive, revelation from God, and teachers grounded the church in the established apostolic doctrine. A healthy church needs both the dynamic and the didactic. Then he lists five leaders, and the list is a stunning display of the gospel's unifying power. We have Barnabas, a Cypriot Jew and a Levite. Simeon, called Niger, which means "black," was very likely a black man from Africa. Lucius was from Cyrene in modern-day Libya, another North African. Manaen is identified as a "foster brother" of Herod the tetrarch, the corrupt and murderous ruler who had killed John the Baptist. This means Manaen grew up in the decadent moral sewer of the Herodian court. And finally, Saul, the brilliant Pharisee and former persecutor of the church. A Levite, a black man, a Libyan, a court insider, and a former terrorist. You could not assemble a more disparate group with a worldly resume. But in the church, they are brothers and fellow leaders, a living testimony that the dividing walls of hostility have been demolished in Christ.

2 And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

This is the central verse. The impetus for mission comes while the leadership is engaged in their primary task: worship. The Greek word for ministering is related to our word liturgy. This was their formal, corporate service to God, intensified by fasting. They were not brainstorming an outreach strategy; they were focused entirely on the Lord. And in that context of focused worship, the Holy Spirit speaks. Notice the personal nature of this. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force; He is a person who speaks, who commands, who calls. He says, "Set apart for Me," indicating that this mission belongs to Him. He is the one sending them. And He has a specific work in mind, a task for which He had already called them. The Spirit's call comes to men He has already been preparing. God's call is not a vague whim; it is a summons to a definite task. The two men selected are arguably the two heavyweights of the group, Barnabas and Saul. A healthy church does not hoard its best leaders; it sends them.

3 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

The church's response to this divine directive is immediate and orderly. They do not just say, "Well, the Spirit has spoken, off you go." No, they confirm the Spirit's call with their own solemn actions. They engage in more fasting and prayer, showing their utter dependence on God for the success of this new venture. This is a serious business, and they treat it as such. Then comes the formal act of commissioning: they laid their hands on them. This was not to impart the Holy Spirit or to grant them some new authority. It was an act of public identification and blessing. The church was saying, "These men go with our full support. Their work is our work. We are one with them in this task." It is the church corporately affirming the Spirit's call and sending them out. The Holy Spirit calls, and the church sends. Both are necessary. The result is that they "sent them away." This is the first officially sanctioned and sent missionary team from a local church, and it provides the pattern for all subsequent missions.

Application

The modern church, particularly in the West, has much to learn from the church at Antioch. We are often driven by programs, pragmatism, and marketing strategies, but this passage calls us back to the true engine room of Christian mission: corporate worship that is centered on ministering to the Lord.

First, we must see that a church's missionary effectiveness abroad is directly tied to its spiritual health at home. A church that is not worshiping rightly, that is not fasting and praying, that is not listening for the voice of the Spirit, has no business trying to export its brand of Christianity. Our mission boards should be extensions of our prayer meetings. Second, we see the beauty of true Christian unity. The leadership at Antioch was a glorious mess of ethnicities and backgrounds. The gospel creates a new humanity where race, class, and past history are subservient to our identity in Christ. A church that is riven by worldly divisions has a compromised gospel witness. Third, we must recover a robust doctrine of the Holy Spirit. He is not a junior partner in our enterprise. He is the sovereign Lord of the harvest who directs His work. Our job is to be so steeped in worship and the Word that we are able to hear His directives. Finally, we must be willing to send our best. Antioch sent Barnabas and Saul, their top men. A church that is only willing to part with its spare change and its spare people does not yet understand the nature of the Great Commission. The work is God's, the call is His, and it demands our very best, all offered up in a spirit of joyful worship.