Acts 13 – Heart of worship; heart of mission.

Heart of  worship
Coming back to the heart of worship.   Worship that changes the world!
Luke brings us back to Antioch in Syria, and mentions five worshippers by name: Barnabas who took the Gospel so seriously that he had sold a piece of land in Cyprus to provide for the poor in Jerusalem, and who had been one of the first to welcome Saul into the Church at Jerusalem.  There was a black guy called Simon: a Jewish name and a black skin suggests mixed race.  Lucius of Cyrene, another man with African connexions – though a Roman name.  Manaen (or Mehahen) who was related to Herod Antipas: high-born, from the not very religious part of Judaism.  And Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee who had been dramatically converted.  An interesting, mixed, well-travelled bunch, who “happened” to be in Antioch.  They were all “men of the word” . And they were worshipping.  It;s just possible that Luke mentions them because they were the church leaders and the the whole Church was worshipping; in fact it doesn't matter who were worshipping.  What is interesting is that they were worshipping: Luke uses the word “liturgy” here, which originally meant something a person did at their own expense, as a service to their community.  If someone paid for a water trough in the street, that was liturgy.  It was public service of worship to God.  If there were only five of hem, they were doing the same as the whole Church did.

What does “worship”  suggest to you?  A little group of people, going through the motions of religious observance?  They know what to do.  First a hymn, then a prayer, another hymn, a reading from scripture,  Or maybe they made the words up as they went along. Maybe the lifted their hands up to Heaven as Jews did in their prayers.   Maybe one or two of them spoke in tongues... 

We struggle with our different expectations of “worship” today.  Some Christians get involved in “Worship wars”  over the style and content of worship.  But what is all that about?  Why do we do it at all?  What's the point?  What difference does it make to a watching world, how we worship?  I suspect that for many people who don't have faith, church is seen as simply some weird, archaic mumbo-jumbo, singing and repeating meaningless words and symbolic actions. Whether it's solemn or joyful, the problem is it's still a fringe activity with little purpose or connection with the real world.   We walk in, we do the routine, we walk back out again.  The philosopher Soren Keirkegaarde, famously told a story about the Duck Church. “The ducks waddled into Duck Church, and sat on the pews.  The duck preacher waddled up to the pulpit and said 'Ducks – you have wings. Ducks, you can fly'.  And the ducks all said “Amen”, and waddled home. 

So these five men of God were worshipping.  They were hanging out with god.  They maybe wanted some guidance but they weren't simply “praying for guidance.”  They had a concern for the nations but weren't simply praying for the nations or for revival.  They were worshipping.  And they were fasting.   That tells me some that they meant business with God. It tells me they were serious about it.  They wanted answers to their prayer; they wanted to hear God; they wanted to be led by the Holy Spirit.  So they worshipped and they fasted.

 Worship is first of all about “presence”.  It is about wasting time with the Almighty.  Anything else, guidance, power, healing, conviction of sin, answers to prayer, flow from exactly that: when we are prepared to give the Lord that time of Presence. Sacrificial, needy, thirsty, hungry presence.  Worshipping God is spirit and in truth. 

Coming back to the heart of worship.   And from that heart, God speaks: “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  Now maybe they already had a sense of call and this was the Spirit's moment to confirm that.  Maybe they had to find out what that work was.  “OK God, what are you calling us to do?”    But the call was to mission and evangelism.  Luke often uses “Work” in that way.

That moment when you realise “Hey there's a world out there”.  That's why worship changes the world. Such realisation is part of the purpose of the Prophetic work of the Missionary Spirit.   That – the turning inside out that orientates us towards mission – is part of the desire of the Holy Spirit in our lives.   To hang out with God is to begin to catch his heartbeat for the last the lost and the least.

Heart of mission
And so a fragile little “team” was sent out after more  fasting and prayer with laying on of hands.  Saul and Barnabas (two of the five best men in the Antioch Church) along with the young “helper” John Mark.   So off they went to the nearest port, Seleucia, and got a ship to Cyprus.  Why did they choose Cyprus?    It was a strategic island: prosperous and industrial with copper mines; Roman governed, Greek influenced and with lots of Jewish immigrants. And it was already familiar territory to  Barnabas. 

What is our mission-place, how do we know and how do we get there?  Sometimes God's strategy is to send us to the place we know well. 

As they journey through Cyprus, they meet a guy called BarJesus (“Son of Joshua”) or Elymas the sorcerer.  He was involved in all sorts of dark powers and probably fooled people into thinking he was more powerful than he really was.  He had influence: the Roman Governor used his services.  When Sergius, the governor, began to find out about Jesus, Elymas – or the spirits that were in him- saw trouble ahead and tried to stop Sergius from even hearing the Gospel.   We will face struggles, spiritual warfare, as part of mission.  Sometimes political, sometimes manipulating and undermining, sometimes brazenly supernatural, the enemy will try to Distraction, Discouragement and Deception to derail mission. 

We need to see these as Spiritual conflict, a “power encounter”.  We need to make them “power encounters”.  Look how Barnabas and Saul handled them: 

The power of the Spirit.  Many people are “Spiritual” but not at all committed to the Christian faith.    Some of their reasons fro avoiding faith are bad ones: there's something attractive about experience without dogma or demands.  But we are seen as peddling dogma and making demands without the experience.   There is a lot of paranoia about false gifts: Jesus said if we ask for a fish we will not be given a snake.  If we ask for the Holy Spirit  that is what Father will give us.  The enemy is smart.  He delivers up forgeries in the form of spiritualist healing, witchcraft, horoscopes etc. False healings, miracles and prophecies.  But listen.  Nobody ever forged a £4 note.  We have the reality of the Spirit's power and presence. We need to get out there!
 
Spiritual authority:  Direct challenge.  This is not the recommended way of talking to people about Jesus. It's not how they spoke to Sergius who was a genuine enquirer.  We want to win people not arguments.  But there is a point when we need to “shake the dust off our feet” when people are clearly unwilling to engage with the Gospel and are – and this is the crucial point – making an effort to prevent others from engaging with it either.

Word of faith:  not presumption.  Not arrogance; not simply interpreting things that happen “God got even with you there!”)  but speaking a faith word into people's lives, whether in prayer, or in prophecy

The result of all this, was that the Proconsul was saved! EH was genuinely looking for truth and could see the sense, in what Barnabas and Saul said, backed up in the power of what they did. 

And when we do come back to the heart of worship, we encounter the heart of god.  And when we to, we find he's a big hearted God.  We find we are pointed to the heart of mission.

© Gilmour Lilly January  2014