Set Apart

“Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend 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. (Acts 13:1-3, ESV)

Introduction

This brief passage is one of the major turning points in salvation history. It marks the commencement of the first planned mission to the nations and the adoption by the Church of a true other-centred identity. Remarkably, from this point on it is Antioch rather than Jerusalem that becomes the sending hub of the work of God upon the earth. Even though the Jerusalem disciples had personally heard Christ command them, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Matt 28:19) and experienced the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Jerusalem based Christianity became a dead end because its identity remained attached to the temple and the Law[1]. We live in a day when most of the Western Church is far more like Jerusalem than Antioch.

The Gifts of Christ

We are told that in the church in Antioch there were “prophets and teachers”[2], and these ministries always appear in this order in the NT (1 Cor 12:28-29; Eph 4:11). After Acts 13 Paul and Barnabas are called “apostles” (Acts 14:4, 14), and apostles appear first in all ministry lists.  The surprising reason for this is stated by Paul, “you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,” (Ephesians 2:19-20, ESV). These texts are not discussing the foundation laid by apostles and prophets (1 Cor 3:10), but teach that apostles and prophets are the foundation God uses upon which the church is built[3]. It is critical that we understand the profound relationship between Christ and these ministries that makes this amazing reality possible.

Centred on Christ

The first thing we note is that the Antiochene believers were “worshiping the Lord and fasting”[4].  They are worshipping Jesus because they have a revelation of Christ as “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36; Rom 10:12). This is not an image of the earthly Jesus, nor even of the resurrected Christ, but the ascended and glorified Lord whose dignity and sovereignty know no limit. These brethren were worshipping the Lord “and fasting” because for them Christ was more important than food (cf. Acts 14:23) [5]. As Jesus’ preparation to meet the devil required fasting in the wilderness (Matt 4:1ff.) they understood that the trials which awaited them required a deepening dependence on supernatural strength[6].

As the text makes clear, the outcome of Christ-centred worship is not ecstasy but mission. This is grounded in the shape of Jesus’ own life; when the Jews took up stones to kill him Jesus described himself as “the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world” (John 10:36). The outcome of the Son’s eternal devotion to the Father was being sent by the power of God to save the world. This vision of worship has been largely lost today. I remember as a young Christian coming out of a service and saying to a friend, we come here Sunday by Sunday and say “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah” and we are not changed”

The relationship between worship and mission is perhaps clearest in the book of Revelation. The apostle John is “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:10) and receives a vision centred on the slaughtered and risen Lamb of God. The purpose of this vision is not some emotional rapture but to keep the persecuted Church faithful to “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” (Rev 1:9). To worship Jesus as he is will always lead to conflict.

The Spirit Speaks

“the Holy Spirit said”.  When the ascended and glorified Christ is worshipped the Spirit will always speak. As Jesus said of the Spirit, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:14). What the Spirit says is “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (Cf. Acts 20:28). Paul’s own testimony contains a clear sense of being set apart by God in relation to his apostolic service. “But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles” (Gal 1:15-16, ESV cf. Rom 1:1).  This consciousness of being set apart to divine service comes from union with Christ himself; Jesus prayed, ““Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”” (John 17:17-19). Jesus possessed a clear consciousness of being sent into the world because he was so persistently and dynamically aware of the movement of the Spirit of God within him taking him outwards: into the wilderness, to cast out demons, to teach, and finally to go to the cross (Matt 4:1; 12:28; Luke 4:14; Heb 9:14). All those who are sent on a mission from God will be sensitive to the Spirit, and the more dangerous the mission the more spiritual sensitivity they will possess.

When the Spirit says, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”, the perfect tense in the Greek indicates that these two men already knew that they were called[7]. Paul shared Jesus deep inner clarity of calling because of what the Lord had shared with him at the time of his conversion. The message Ananias was to give Paul from Christ was, ““he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”” (Acts 9:15-16, ESV). This word proved consistently true in the apostle’s life[8].

This can be too much for ordinary people. I remember decades ago when we believed the Lord was leading us to move from Victoria to Queensland with our four small children but no assured income or ministry prospects. I received a distraught phone call from a member of the church saying we should not go. I had already received an offer from the foremost philosopher of religion in Australia to work with him on my PhD, and the senior pastor of the church wanted to put me on his salary if I stayed. So there was plenty of motivation for me to be a “Jerusalem Christian”. I believe that the tears that our friend shed on the phone were accurate as to the difficulties we were to encounter in Brisbane but she did not understand that to follow Jesus means sacrifice[9].

The Work

“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” What is this work? In various places we hear of “the work of the ministry” (Eph 4:12), “the work of Christ” (Phil 2:30); “the work of the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58; 16:10); “the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim 4:5), all these are part of the work of God to which the apostles were called, but there is much more to “the work” than this. In 2 Corinthians  4:11-12 Paul sums up his manner of life; “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” And in a passage that reminds us of the apostolic union with the slaughtered and risen Lamb of God (Rev 5:6); ““For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:36-37, ESV)

This dying and rising with Christ, a life of many mini crucifixions and mini-resurrections, is he work to which the Spirit calls us all. In his book “Creative Suffering”[10] Paul Tournier says, “a man’s true work is his life”. In the realm of creative suffering this is especially the vocation or work of an apostolic team. These men and women are called to image to both world and Church (e.g. Acts 20:26-35) the work to reflect the life of Christ.

The centre of any church built on the foundation of apostles and prophets is not signs, wonders, or even teaching, but dying-and-rising with Jesus. This mode of service to which God calls both you and us is impossibly difficult. Paul recounts a situation of being, “so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.”, but “that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” (2 Cor 1:8- 9, ESV)[11].

This humanly impossible work to which God calls us all, but the apostolic body in particular, is only made possible by our union with the humanity of Christ: hence the imperative of the laying on of hands, fasting and prayer in blessing, solidarity and deep fellowship (Acts 13:3).

Conclusion

In an age when following Jesus is often presented as our choosing of a “Christian lifestyle”, The Roastery[12] is a perfect environment for the sending out of a missionary team. This context reminds us that everything we do, even our eating and drinking, is to be done in the service of the Lord Jesus and in the power of his Spirit[13].

“Set apart for me” is not a call for a few extraordinary people in a time of extraordinary spiritual life, it is a call to every one of us to share the life of Christ. Everyone who hears this call of the Spirit to follow to follow the crucified and glorified Lord must at one level feel this is an impossible call. But all who say “Yes” to this call will surely find time and again “““With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”” (Matt 19:26). Such is the testimony of Jesus.