How often do you think about the Christian life being a war? Maybe the better question to ask is how often do you live your life like you are in the middle of a war?
I remember recently seeing a friend that I had not seen in a while, and I asked him how he was doing. He said he was doing great because he was prepared for war. I asked him what he meant, and he said that life is war and we needed to be prepared – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually – for war because this life is war. I have thought about what he said quite a bit since then and I think he is really on to something.
Now, oftentimes, a new believer begins to follow Jesus – not because they view the Christian life as a war – but because they have encountered some kind of soul crushing experience and they become part of the church because they need a spiritual hospital to stitch them back up again. And then as soon as that new believer is stitched up and walking better, they begin to treat the church like a cruise ship as they critique and criticize and demand better service on their cruise.
The reality is the Bible never speaks of the church as a cruise ship for consumers to get a vacation from the hardship of life. The Bible describes the Christian life more like a battleship that is designed for war. It is true that every battleship has a hospital in it, but that hospital is designed to help soldiers get healthy enough to get back into the war. The hospital was never designed to get people healthy enough to become better consumers.
The moment we become Christian, we are engaged in a spiritual war where we put on our armor daily as we put on the mind, the heart, and the disciplines of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior so that we can wage war with weapons that are not physical but are spiritual and are designed for destroying invisible demonic strongholds (Eph. 6; 2 Cor. 10:4). So, how often do you live your life like you are in a spiritual warzone? What is it that causes you to live like you are on a cruise ship instead of a battleship?
I think that our passage today will help you to think through those questions and it should also give you some concrete ways to get your head, your heart, and your hands into the warzone. Last week we studied chapter 12, where God revealed his continued care of the church in Jerusalem as we witnessed how he miraculously set Peter free from prison and then literally took out king Herod, the churches blood thirsty enemy.
Now before that episode in Jerusalem, you might remember how God was advancing the gospel into the sin city of the middle east known as the city of Antioch (11:19 – 30). That episode, where we observed what it looks like to be Christians who live in sin cities, ended with Barnabas and Saul delivering a financial gift to help the church in Jerusalem (11:30). In a time and place where greed was celebrated and justified, believers practiced sacrificial generosity.
Chapter 12 acts like a parenthetical episode as God cares for the church in Jerusalem. The final verse of chapter 12 helps to return us to the advancement of the gospel outside the borders of Jerusalem when Luke writes in 12:25 that “Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had accomplished their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark”.
From this point forward, the church is engaged in an all-out war that begins with a short episode of John Mark joining the battle and then eventually going AWOL when he taps out and leaves the battlefield. It all begins with the Holy Spirit commissioning a small crew for war.
1Now 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. 2While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. 4So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked at him 10and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. 13Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem.
#1: COMMISSIONED FOR WAR (VV. 1 – 3)
In verses 1 – 3, we get a picture of the ideal church that understands her identity as a battleship. While many churches in the West today are concerned with growth strategies that horde their wealth and horde their people, the church in sin city Antioch was radically counter cultural enough to be open to the Spirit’s leading to commission and to send some of their very best people out into the battlefield.
The church in Antioch was full of the very best prophets and teachers not to mention the fact that they were super diverse; they literally had a world class staff team. But as they were worshipping God and fasting, the Spirit of God spoke to them and instructed them to “set apart” or to commission Barnabas and Saul for missionary work in other parts of the world. In response to the Spirit’s leading, the church laid their hands on this new mission’s team, they prayed for them, they fasted, and then they obediently sent them out to war.
When you walk out the doors of this church building you will see signs by the doors that say, “You are now entering the mission field”. The reason we have those signs by the doors, is so that we can constantly be reminded that the church is meant to be a battleship that sends its soldiers out into the warzone/mission field of the world we live in. Every person you come across or come into relationship with, is someone you are responsible for sharing the gospel with.
If you think that your participation in this church is only about having your needs met, then you have seriously underestimated and misunderstood our mission to run to the very edges of hell to win souls for Jesus. Every member here is meant to be a soldier who has been commissioned for war. This means that every member here must be sent to the battlefield on a weekly basis because that is exactly what we see happening in the next chunk of our text.
#2: SENT TO THE BATTLEFIELD (VV. 4 – 5)
In verses 4 – 5, after Barnabas and Saul are commissioned for war, they are sent out to the battlefield. Now Barnabas and Saul, along with their missionary intern, John Mark, in one sense, were sent out by the church in Antioch; they were literally missionaries from the church in Antioch. They were not lone ranger fanatics, doing whatever they thought God told them to do.
In fact, Luke makes it clear that they were “sent out by the Holy Spirit” through the church in Antioch (vv. 3 – 4). While these soldiers went to the battlefield on behalf of their church, in reality, they were representatives of the Holy Spirit who sends his witnesses into war, armed with the word of their testimony and the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 12:11).
This becomes increasingly clear when you recognize that this “special ops” team landed on the island of Cyprus and began immediately to share the gospel all across that 95-mile-wide island beginning in the Jewish synagogues and ending in the Gentile courts of rulers and state officials (vv. 5, 6). The bottom line here is that this “special ops” team was sent by the Spirit through the local church to the battlefield so that the gospel could be shared with everyone they came into contact with.
When I think about the trajectory of this story up until this point, I see a church that is radically obedient instead of complacent, I see the Spirit who is radically diligent in his war against evil, and I see a missionary team that is fully committed to the advancement of the gospel behind enemy lines. Barnabas and Saul with John Mark in tow, were sent into the battlefield to wage war against the enemy as they obediently shared the gospel.
This was not your typical run-of-the-mill Sunday gathering with air conditioning and comfy seats and slick programming. This was not a leadership team who sat in the back room with a flow chart trying to figure out how to entertain the masses. This was a team of Christians who rose to the challenge of living life like it was an all-out war. This was a full-frontal assault on the enemy with the weapon of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a fight for eternal life, which leads us to the next portion of text.
#3: THE FIGHT FOR ETERNAL LIFE (VV. 6 – 12)
In verses 6 – 12, after our mission’s team shares the gospel throughout the entire island, they end up in the company of a Gentile ruler named Sergius Paulus who was an intelligent man and who was interested in hearing the message of the gospel. This Gentile ruler seems to have been searching for something that far surpasses the momentary nature of this world we live in because he was in the company of a Jewish false prophet who was actually a magician (vv. 6 – 7).
This magician seems to have felt threatened by the Gentile Ruler’s interest in the gospel, so he tried to discourage him from listening to Barnabas and Saul who was also known as Paul (vv. 8 – 9). It is interesting to note that at this very moment, Saul becomes known as Paul (his Gentile name) for the rest of the book as his Gentile ministry takes the front stage.
Paul was very frustrated with this magician, so he shot him a look that would have stopped anyone in their tracks, he rebuked him with some very heavy language (calling him a son of the devil and an enemy of all righteousness), he accused him of being full of lies, he instructed him to stop trying to make crooked the straight paths of the Lord, and then he pronounced blindness upon him as a consequence for his war against God (vv. 10 – 11). The result of this little skirmish in the war for eternal life is that this Gentile Ruler “believed [in Christ] when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord” (v. 12).
The bottom line here is that Barnabas and Paul entered the battlefield and engaged in the fight for eternal life. Can you imagine if Barnabas and Paul had decided that the skirmish with the magician was too risky for them? Or can you imagine what the outcome of this story would be if Barnabas and Paul had decided to just invite the Gentile Ruler to church in Antioch instead of facing the magician down?
One of my missionary heroes is a man named CT Studd. He was a missionary to China and India. He is famous for saying that “some people want to live within the sound of a church or chapel bell, but I want to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell”. He is also famous for saying that he had no desire to coddle selfish, lazy sheep in the sheep pen because he wanted to win souls for Jesus in the dirtiest of places. I think Barnabas and Paul would be in good company with CT Studd; being commissioned for war, being sent to the battlefield, and fighting for eternal life for everyone they met.
CONCLUSION (V. 13)…
So, there you have it. That is the text – simple and sweet. As we conclude, I want to ask you again: How often do you live your life like you are in a spiritual warzone? What is it that causes you to live like you are on a cruise ship instead of a battleship? Oftentimes we live like we are on a cruise ship because we desire safety, or comfort, or security, and we sometimes live in fear over whether or not we will say the right things, or whether or not we will lose friendships if we begin engage the fight for eternal life.
Barnabas and Paul were living like they were on a battleship. They were being controlled by the desires for safety, comfort, or security, and they trusted that Jesus was the best friend they could ever have and that he would give them words to speak when they needed them.
John Mark on the other hand seems to have had a misunderstanding about what it means to be a Christian who runs into the battlefield to seek and to save the lost just as his Savior had done. Luke confirms this when he says that “Paul and his companions set sail for Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem” (v. 13).
It is not as though John Mark was not a believer. Though Paul later refuses to let John Mark join them in the warzone again (Acts 15:36 – 41), he does ask for John Mark when he is near the end of his life because he believed that John Mark had proven himself to be “very useful” to Paul for ministry (2 Tim. 4:11). So, while John Mark’s salvation was not in question at this moment, it is very clear that John Mark abandoned the mission for a season; just as we all are guilty of abandoning the mission at some point or another.
I do not know what reasons you have for being complacent or absent in this war for the salvation of lost souls. Sometimes, I find that we get complacent, or we become absent in this calling to fight for the salvation of the lost, because we are afraid, or we are selfish, or we are tired of suffering, or we think it is someone else’s job, or we do not like the uncomfortable feeling of sharing our faith with others.
Whatever the excuse is, it is still a sin to disobey God’s commands to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth and to make disciples, to baptize them, and to continue teaching them to obey God (Matt. 28; Acts 1:8). To not follow our Captain, Jesus, to the very edges of hell and back for the sake of the lost, is in fact a sin that we should constantly repent from.
The message of our text is clear: This is war, and, in this war, we should be like Barnabas and Paul not like John Mark. But it is also clear that is never too late to repent from our disobedience and get back into the war of fighting on the front lines for eternal life.
We only need to look to Jesus who left his place in heaven at the right hand of his Father and came to a sin soaked warzone to spread the message of the gospel, to die upon the cross in our place, to leave the tomb empty on the third day, and to leave us not only with the promise of heaven but to also leave us his very own Spirit who will empower us to endure and to become his witnesses in the midst of an all-out war between the forces of hell and the forces of Heaven.
I would like to challenge all of us right now to confess and to repent of the ways that we have turned the church into our own personal cruise ship and ask God to forgive us of our sins and to fill us with his Spirit so that we can get to work on his battleship as he guides us into the war for eternal life.
I would also like to challenge us to ask the Spirit of God to reveal the name of at least one person that we need to share the gospel with courageously, winsomely, and faithfully, in an ongoing relationship. I think if we would all do this and then follow through with this, then we will become a church that is engaged in this war for the sake of seeing lost souls come to find eternal life. – Amen!
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).