April 8, 2025

#274 - Discipleship, Diversity, and Devotion in Antioch - Acts 13.1-3

In today's Al Pastor podcast, Pastor Brian and Noah walk through Acts 13:1–3, where the early church at Antioch, through worship, fasting, and prayer, sends out Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. Discover how God's diverse human patchwork, Spirit-led calling, and faithful commitment launched a movement that continues today. Join us as we unpack what true discipleship, fasting, and community look like for believers now.

Show Notes
Transcript

Episode Overview:

Acts 13 marks a major transition in the Book of Acts: Paul and Barnabas are sent out by the Spirit for the first missionary journey. But before they go, we are given a beautiful glimpse into the life of the church in Antioch — a church marked by diversity, worship, fasting, prayer, and faithful obedience.

Key Highlights:

1. Big Transitions in the Story of Acts

Shift of focus from Peter to Paul.
Shift of location from Jerusalem to Antioch.
Christians were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26).
The church is no longer Jewish-only: Jews and Gentiles are now joined together in Christ.

2. God's Diverse Human Patchwork (Acts 13:1)

The leadership team was remarkably diverse:
- Barnabas: Levite from Cyprus.
- Simeon called Niger: Likely of African descent (Horton notes likely Black).
- Lucius of Cyrene: From North Africa.
- Manaen: Raised alongside Herod Antipas, a high political insider who now serves Jesus.
- Saul (Paul): Former Pharisee turned Christian leader.
The gospel brings together different races, backgrounds, and classes — united by faith in Jesus Christ.
Illustration: Like a patchwork quilt, all different pieces sewn together by God's grace into one beautiful design.

Reflection Question:

How does my life reflect the beauty of God's diverse church?

3. Worship, Fasting, and Hearing God’s Call (Acts 13:2-3)

While ministering to the Lord (praying, singing Psalms, teaching Scripture), the Holy Spirit spoke.
Fasting prepared their hearts for clarity, focus, and obedience.
Fasting isn't about earning God’s favor — it's about serving notice to our flesh that the Spirit leads.
Confirmation, not confusion: The Spirit confirmed what Barnabas and Paul had already been sensing.
No lone rangers: The church affirmed and sent them through prayer and laying on of hands.

Reflection Question:

When was the last time I fasted and prayed to seek God's direction?

4. God's Pattern for Sending

Missions are Spirit-initiated and community-affirmed.
The local church is essential in discerning, sending, and supporting.
God's protocol:
- Worship ➔ Prayer ➔ Fasting ➔ Hearing ➔ Obedience ➔ Sending.
Application today: Every major spiritual decision should be bathed in worship, prayer, and wise counsel from God's people.

5. Faithfulness Before Promotion

Paul and Barnabas first labored for a year in Antioch teaching and serving.
Commitment and honoring your word matters to God.
Story Application: Pastor Brian shares how staying faithful to a year-long ministry commitment led to greater doors opening later — illustrating how God honors integrity and perseverance.

Reflection Question:

Am I faithful where I am, even when other opportunities arise?

Key Themes:

Spirit-Led Missions: Missions start with the Spirit, not with man's plans.
Importance of Fasting: Fasting focuses us on God's voice, not on earthly distractions.
Unity in Diversity: God's church is a patchwork of all backgrounds stitched together by the gospel.
Commitment and Integrity: God honors faithfulness, not just ambition.
Community Affirmation: No one is sent alone; the church stands behind Spirit-sent workers.

Reflection/Application Questions:

How can I cultivate deeper attentiveness to the Spirit through fasting and prayer?
What steps of obedience might God be calling me to that need confirmation in community?
Where has God already placed me to be faithful right now?
How can I support others being sent, even if I’m not the one "going"?

Key Scripture References:

Acts 13:1–3 (Main passage)
Acts 1:8 (Mission starting at home)
Matthew 6:16–18 (Jesus’ teaching on fasting)
Luke 5:33–35 (Jesus' teaching about fasting after His departure)
1 Corinthians 12:12–27 (Unity and diversity in the body of Christ)

Closing Encouragement:

God still calls. God still sends. He uses ordinary believers who are willing to fast, pray, worship, and obey. Like the church in Antioch, we are invited to be part of God's unfolding mission — a beautiful, diverse patchwork of people stitched together by the Spirit to bring Christ to the world.

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You're listening to Alpa Store, the show that helps you love God, love your neighbor and eat more

tacos.

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I'm your host, Pastor Brian.

Welcome to the show.

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Hey friends, I want to welcome you back to the Alpa Store podcast.

I'm Pastor Brian and of course I've got Noah here with me again.

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Noah, how you doing today?

I'm.

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Doing good.

All right for so for those of you that are just kind of tuning in or are new to the podcast, 'cause

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I have been told that there are some several of you that are listening some for the first time and

and are trying to track with us at Arvind Assembly of God, Noah's my 14 year old son.

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And sometimes on episodes.

I, I love to go deep and there's nothing wrong with that, but my philosophy is, is if Noah can get

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it, then anybody can get it.

So we're on a journey of discipleship.

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And part of that journey is we have a chapter every week that we read.

Last week it was Acts chapter 12.

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And so I want to just recap that for us, Noah, before we dive into chapter 13.

We saw some some really incredible scenes.

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Most importantly, probably the most intriguing or interesting to you would have been what?

Probably the worms.

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Probably the worms, right?

Just I mean, that's, that was that was incredible.

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That was the downfall of King Herod.

And one of the lessons that we learned is he was a man that was full of pride and he tried to take

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God's glory for himself.

But what's amazing to me is the way that this chapter, chapter 12 kind of ends.

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There's a contrast.

We see the word of God, despite persecution, despite opposition, kept on growing.

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So now here in chapter 13, the focus is going to shift to one of the next major phases of God's

plan.

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And this is OK.

This this statement that I'm about to give, you know, is an understatement.

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This is the first missionary journey of the church.

Now, when I say it's an understatement, the reason is because as we've been walking through the

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text, one of the main ideas is that the the focus has shifted.

It's focused from an individual to another individual.

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Where?

Where has it shifted from, Noah?

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From Peter to Paul.

Exactly.

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Now it is also shifted from a location to another location.

Do you know what that might be?

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From Jerusalem to Antioch.

Yep, you're exactly right.

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The focus has shifted there.

Now we'll come back to Jerusalem in chapter 15, but from from right now, do you remember where

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Christians were first called Christians?

Antioch.

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It was Antioch and one of the reasons that is is because God has now identified even further.

It's it's a unfolding of his plan, the multiethnic, multi diverse nature of both Jews and Gentiles

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becoming the covenant people of God.

And so now what we're seeing is this first missionary journey branching out from here.

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Now I want to zoom out.

We'll go into more details on this on Wednesday, but in chapter 13 and 14, we are going to see

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summarized statements of over 2 years of missionary work.

And so one of the things that we do on this discipleship journey, as we pay attention to the text,

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we do what we would call it with our study guides, whether it's a Horton or it's a Barton life

application or even some people go a little bit further.

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They could use like a Zondervan exegetical for, you know, I would not going to recommend that at

this this phase in your life.

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And then we've got the big dog.

I call him Craig Keener.

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Now the the purpose of that is that we extract, we do a process that's called exegesis.

That means out of the text can you say that word exegete or exegesis?

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Exegesis.

Now when you think of, let me give you an example so you maybe you can remember this word because

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this is an important word.

If I say somebody had an exoskeleton, what does that mean?

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Like a skeleton.

I don't.

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It would be something like on the outside of their body that comes along to support.

So it'd be, I want you to imagine if I had an arm here and then they drilled into my wrist, like if

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they wanted to turn me into like a robot, I have a pen and it comes up and then I've got a, I've got

a rod outside, right?

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That goes up to my elbow.

They drill here and then they come up to my shoulder and then they they attach it there.

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And, or whether or not they drill that, I can just attach it.

And then all sudden I could lift 10 times more than I could lift, right?

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Yeah.

That's what we would call an exoskeleton.

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It means it comes out of out of the body, comes out of out of it.

That's what exegesis means.

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It means to pull out of the text.

So our goal in our discipleship, when we read Noah, it is to bring out of the text.

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We don't come or approach the Bible by bringing our baggage, our presuppositions, and that is

difficult to do.

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But through this process of discipleship, we're learning more and more and more how we approach the

Bible.

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We approach the Bible on its terms, its culture, its vocabulary, and we're trying to extract out of

the text.

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What does this mean?

Big picture stuff, exegesis out of the text.

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Does that make sense?

Yeah.

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All right, So as we've pivoted, as we've transitioned, remember First Missionary Journey, chapters

13 and 14 cover a period of a couple of years, give or take.

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When I say give or take, I'm not saying give or take years could be like 2 years and five months,

you know, a minimum two years.

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OK, so in this episode we're going to cover the first couple sections of Acts 13.

We're going to look at how Barnabas and Saul.

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And by the way, praise the Lord, we don't have to say Saul anymore because it's now we've

transitioned.

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I've been saying that for how long?

A long, a long time.

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Now.

It's going to be Paul.

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We're going to see how Barnabas and Paul are sent out by the Holy Spirit.

And then we're also going to see that they encounter right off the bat, some spiritual opposition.

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So there's, there's quite a bit here.

And so let's take it one section at a time.

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Why don't you go ahead, Noah, and read for us Acts 13 one through 3.

Now in the church that was at Antioch there is there were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas

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Simon who was called Niger, who sees his Cyrene Magnen who had been brought up with with Herod the

tetriarch and Saul as they ministered to the Lord and fasted.

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The Holy Spirit said not separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, and they sent them away.

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All right, there's a lot that we can talk about and unpack here.

I'm going to leave that for Bible study.

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If anybody's interested, I could also do a separate episode, but we'll see how much you and I get

into in this section.

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I want to start off by talking about these names.

What stands out to you know the most from this list and why?

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Because with these list of names, at this point, it doesn't matter what the background or what race,

people were coming together for the word of God.

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That is exactly correct.

So that's what we noticed.

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This group of leaders here in Antioch is incredibly diverse.

I mean, think about this, you've got we've got Barnabas, he is a Levite from the island of Cyprus,

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OK.

Then we have Simeon called Niger, likely he's of African descent and Horton makes a note that most

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likely he is black.

So there's there is a diversity not only in racial and cultural, but also in skin color.

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Now, we're not highlighting this for the sake of highlighting it like oh, white and black, but this

is actually a pretty big deal for this church.

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Because open to that point, it was just all Jews.

All Jews?

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Yes, absolutely.

Then we also have Lucius, who is from Cyrene, that is also and.

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It was.

Was it Egypt or where was it?

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North Africa in that, in that region.

So it could be, it could be, it could be Algeria, it could be Libya, it could be that that when we

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say Cyrene that we're talking regional.

So we would say North North Africa, but North Africa typically covers the span of Algeria.

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That's where one of our friends is right now is in Algeria.

I'm not going to say his name because of sensitivity.

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And then we also have a Libya.

And then we also have Egypt.

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That's that's normally that region.

So we have Lucius from Cyrene, and then we have Manian who grew up with Herod Antipas.

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And by the way, yes, it is that Herod.

The one who killed John the Baptist if.

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That's who it is.

Do you want to talk about that for a moment?

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I'm sure.

OK, there's some speculation about who this man is.

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Have you learned anything from your readings and either?

And tell me if you have and where you got it from.

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Well, about Manian.

Manian, yes.

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Well, he was.

I read a little bit that he was raised with Herod as like a stepbrother and he like and he and he

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like around the same age as Herod.

Now let me let me back up.

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When you say stepbrother, did you say like his stepbrother?

Yeah, like his stepbrother.

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Yeah, the word that's used there.

Horton actually points that out.

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So what's the implication?

He was raised with him and same age.

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What else?

Keep going, you're doing good.

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And that he was like his like right hand man.

Interesting, interesting.

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And so you go from him being like the right hand of Harry.

And then he would have probably heard the message of John the Baptist before he died.

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And then and he started like, rethinking everything.

Yeah.

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So this is fascinating.

Let's let's sit on this for a moment.

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I mean, each one of these men we can sit on it will come back to the major point here.

But many and we cannot prove this.

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OK, Noah, we cannot prove this, but it is thought that he was of such high position as Herod's right

hand man.

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So let me clarify.

Who is this Herod we saw in the previous chapter?

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Herod Agrippa.

This is the Herod Agrippa was the nephew of Herod Antipas.

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Herod Antipas is the tetrarch.

That means that this is when the Kingdom had been divided.

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He's the uncle of Herod Agrippa.

Herod Agrippa threw his own uncle under the bust and took his territory and his Kingdom and united

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everything together.

But this particular Herod here is the one that did kill John the Baptist.

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He put him in prison.

And there's an indication that Herod was all like he was interested.

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John had called him out because he had married his brother's sister.

In effect, this is blasphemy, this is adultery, This is against the Torah, and John the Baptist

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called it out and said you must repent.

Was it?

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Was it his daughter or who?

Was it that that the only reason why he killed him was because of the yes person who wanted his

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head?

Yep, Yep.

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They threw a big party and there was the dance.

And Herod opened his mouth and said, give me whatever it like, tell me anything you want and it'll

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be done.

And she asked for the head of John the Baptist.

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But there's but Herod had been listening to the preaching because even though John the Baptist was

in prison, he had still been preaching.

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So how does this connect?

Everything is believe that Manian had been hearing the preaching.

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Here's what's even more interesting.

And again, we can't prove this, but many commentators and scholars make a note that this is possible

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even though we can't prove it.

That his wife most likely was by the name of Susanna.

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Who helped Jesus early in the ministry?

Yes, who contributed greatly financially.

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There is a ministry of finances to where you can help fund the gospel.

And Susanna was not only there in person as part of this group of women, but she contributed

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financially.

And so it's believed.

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So there's a whole history of Manian, and I want you to think about this.

It's also believed that Manian not only was converted during the days of Jesus shortly after John

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the Baptist, but that Manian most likely was there on the day of Pentecost.

He was filled, baptized with the Holy Spirit.

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He was in the upper room, and now he's up here in Antioch.

Really a beautiful, beautiful picture when you think about it.

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OK, so let's let's recap.

We have Barnabas, he's a Levite from Cyprus.

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We have Simeon called Niger, likely of African descent, Lucius from North Africa, Manian who grew up

with Herod Antipas.

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And then we have Saul, a former Pharisee.

You know what this reminds me of Noah of the disciples.

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When Jesus was going around picking disciples.

Didn't they all have different backgrounds?

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Weren't they diverse culturally?

They were.

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I mean, talk, think about it.

We got a fisherman, we got a tax collector, we've got a zealot, right?

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And when you look at all these different backgrounds culturally, ethnically, well, when I say

ethnically, these are all ethnically most likely, you know, same ethnicity.

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Let me let me, let me go back and correct myself.

What I mean by that is the racial divide isn't necessarily what we would think it is today because

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we had all shades and colors.

When I say ethnic diversity, we're talking about from different backgrounds and cultures and stuff

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like that.

And so God brings together what we would call a divine, and Barton uses this term, human patchwork.

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What do you think of when you hear that word?

Patchwork?

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Well, like you're like fixing like a piece of cloth or something.

Yeah.

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So if we say patchwork, that's kind of an old term, like women used to sew blankets and comforters

and they would bring in all these different patches and they would sew them together and they would

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be all different colors.

Before like a design.

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Yeah, and it would be a design, but when you're done, it's a, it's a, it's a functional, beautiful

blank of it.

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So I want you to think of this, that the gospel brings together a human patchwork, different races,

different classes, different backgrounds, but there's one unifying factor and that is faith in Jesus

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Christ.

Do you have any thoughts or questions before we move on?

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I'm, I'm trying to remember what comment, but I think I had read something where it said that it

could have been the, the Luke could have done the order of the names because back then, like the

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like the most important thing would be like the first and last thing.

So I found that a little bit interesting.

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It could have been, and I'm just going to give you my opinion on this.

Sometimes people like to rank things hierarchical.

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And it doesn't mean that that's doesn't happen.

It does because what we're going to see in the Bible is we're going to see Barnabas and Saul,

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Barnabas and Saul, and then you're going to see a reversal.

You're going to see Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas.

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And the indication there is that Paul is taking over the reins or the leadership.

So that certainly has happened.

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Now, the question we've got to ask this is how we think biblically OK, is, is Luke listing these

names in hierarchical order?

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And the answer to that is it's possible I think.

It's just a matter of Paul and Barnabas were the like capsules.

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They were like the principles, like the leaders of the church.

Yep, and doesn't make them any better than them.

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But it was just.

Exactly.

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It was just him, like going based off of that.

Correct.

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Because at this point, Barnabas, he's listed first, right?

Yeah, at this point, he's still the entrusted one.

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He's still.

The leader first hand and then Paul would be like the right like.

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Right now I'm going to give you just a little bit of an insight because Paul, Paul is the least

concerned when you study him from his characteristic standpoint, like his personality.

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And this is fascinating.

I'm not, I don't claim to be an expert by any means.

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There's plenty of people, but Paul could care less about hierarchy and about titles.

He, he, he drives this home all the time.

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Now he will use, he'll pull what we call his Apostolic authority card just so that he can have

spiritual credibility.

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But it's not in the sense that he's flexing that he's saying I'm, I'm #1 Paul in fact says I'm the

least of the apostles.

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He says that he, he's like I am the lowest.

He humbles himself consistently.

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So just a side note, just a side note, any, anything else before we move on?

Oh, no, All right.

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So out of these 3 verses, I I want to know what you think Noah, that God speaks to them while they

were ministering and fasting.

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What do you think?

Well, it's kind of like how how he spoke to how did I forget his name?

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It was the.

Was it?

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Are you thinking of Cornelius?

Yeah, Cornelius.

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Cornelius, he was just like a common.

He wasn't.

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He was just like a Roman.

And yet God still spoke to him.

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And now you have God speaking to like everybody.

Yes, yes, that's actually really, really good connection that you made there.

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I think what we can learn from this is that this isn't because they're they're about to make a major

decision here.

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And the major decision is, is that they're going to send out Barnabas and Paul, right.

So in other words, this isn't a casual decision.

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It is born out of worship and out of surrender to the Lord.

And the Spirit didn't say, hey, why don't you ask them where do they want to go?

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No, he said, I want you to separate them.

In other words, set them apart.

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Now, God had already called Saul and Barnabas.

There's no question about that.

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But the difference is this isn't new information to them, but we've come to a point where now

they're being released by the church.

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Do you remember what they were doing prior to this?

Parts of them being released, yes, on fasting.

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No well in Antioch.

Oh no.

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I'll remind you and you'll remember real quick, they'd spent a year there.

Oh, teaching, right.

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So they had committed themselves for a year.

And so now they're at a critical point.

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They're like, OK, God, what do you want us to do?

Do you want us to stay?

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Do you want us to go?

What do you want for us to do?

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They've already been called, so they got a.

They got an affirmation that they were released by the church to go now before the Word of God.

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I want to, I want to say this because I think it's important.

Noah before the word of God had just been spreading organically, meaning the believers that were

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scattered carried the word of God with them everyday, ordinary believers.

And what were they doing?

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They were preaching and God was moving, right?

Yeah.

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Now we get a glimpse of at least some organization.

But what we're going to find out is, is there's no there.

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There is a plan, but there isn't at the same time.

They're on an adventure to go see what God has in store.

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And so sometimes God calls us to something big, right?

Like what they're about to do and what we're about to really kind of dive into this whole week.

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But here's the other thing, God also will use confirmation through the community, which is God's

church, the people of God to send us.

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That's important because that means that there are no lone Rangers.

We don't just go off and do our own thing.

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Like for instance, like, no, all of a sudden, let's say you were praying and reading God's word and

you're like, you know what?

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I feel a call.

I'm, I'm, I'm going to go out and I'm going to do this.

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We don't see God operating that way necessarily.

His protocol is to use his church and his community for affirmation.

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So that's the spiritual component that's being emphasized here.

And so This is why staying rooted in a local church matters so much.

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Does that make sense?

Yeah.

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Any any other thoughts or questions?

I just I just find it because it had said they were fasting and then with Jesus, he didn't like, he

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didn't make fasting like the mandatory thing because like with him, as long as they were with Jesus

and fault, like fasting isn't something that was required.

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But but yeah, they still did like devote their time to him.

OK.

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I like, I like the fact you brought that up.

However I want to, I want to bring some correction to them.

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When we use the word mandatory, we tend to think transactional.

Let me, let me use it.

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Let me use a word like this.

Fasting should be a normative part of your life and rhythms of discipleship.

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Now, the reason Jesus didn't focus on fasting is because he said, he said they're with me, but there

will come a day when I'll be gone when they'll be fasting.

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So Jesus, Jesus also said when you pray and when you fast.

In other words, Jesus is Jesus is assuming that when you pray that you have a prayer life.

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And then when he says when you fast is found in the Gospels, he says don't be like the hypocrites

that make it known like, oh, I'm fasting.

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And he's like go wash your face.

Go, go.

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Don't present to anybody that you're fasting, otherwise you'll get your reward.

Because whether you're after you're seeking affirmation from other people to say, oh, look at you,

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you know, you're so spiritual.

You're fast.

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He says, Nope, keep it to yourself.

Now, that doesn't mean you can't fast with somebody, right?

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We're not talking about that.

We're talking about fasting.

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And it's like all of a sudden your eyes are droopy and you're like, oh, I'm kind of tired.

And this one is like, what was wrong?

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Oh, you know, I'm fasting.

Oh how spiritual like clap my hands.

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We don't do that's what Jesus but here's the other point.

So Jesus said right now I'm with them.

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They don't need to fast, but when I leave they will.

So we see fasting here.

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Don't.

I don't like the word and I'm not trying to be nitpicking over this.

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Mandatory.

Yeah, you're because it as I'm like reading the sex and how it had said Jesus did not emphasize

24:17

fasting as long as he as he was with his disciples.

They could not be expected to fast because they were like friends or tendons of a bridegroom at a

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feast.

Exactly.

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He's like, why would you come to a wedding and say you're fasting?

Friends of the bridegroom and and who?

24:33

And he's the bridegroom, right?

So they're here.

24:35

You're at a wedding.

You had a banquet.

24:37

Because it's kind of, it's kind of like at that, at that period of time, they were with the real

deal and didn't need that at that moment.

24:46

Well, since you, since you, you brought it up.

No, I, I, I, let me find it on here because Horton really, really has a zinger on fasting and oh, I

24:59

found it and you're the one.

So we're only through 3 verses.

25:02

So we might have to break this up into a couple episodes, but that's OK.

Listen to this.

25:07

It says many passages.

This is talking about fasting and from Stanley Horton.

25:12

Many passages, however, indicate there is a place for fasting.

It enabled believers to give themselves to prayer, served notice to their own flesh that they had

25:25

matters of the Spirit to attend to and encourage soul searching and renewed dedication to holiness

and love.

25:34

Now, I'm going to keep reading, but I want to ask you, did something stand out out of one of those

statements?

25:42

Non particularly I would have to listen to it again.

OK, listen to this.

25:46

It enables believers to give themselves to prayer, a served notice to their own flesh that they had

matters of the Spirit to attend to.

25:56

It gave them it.

It was no distractions of having to worry.

26:00

It was just constant prayer through like the whole time they were fasting.

Exactly, I like the way he worded this is served notice, right?

26:09

Like, let's say somebody was going to sue you, Noah.

What they would do is they show up at your front door with a piece of paper, or they would find

26:16

somewhere where you're at and they would say you've been served.

Boom.

26:20

Guess what?

You got a date with the judge.

26:23

I like what he's using here because he says you serve notice to your flesh.

In other words, there are times in your life when you have got to, I'm going to use the word man up.

0:00

OK?

26:35

Like you got a man up and you got to tell your flesh who's boss.

And with them, with them fasting also, it may it remind them that that they are dependent on God.

26:46

Absolutely.

And then it goes on, it says.

26:49

Evidently the leaders and probably the whole congregation regularly put other things aside for a

time of worship, prayer and praise.

27:00

Add to that fasting and you confront an intense and united devotion to the Lord.

In such setting, vision is born and people find divine direction for their lives.

27:15

Beautiful.

That's what fasting does.

27:19

You are coming to the age Noah, where you can start implementing fasting into your life.

And since we're on the topic, and since we're not going to move on past verse 3 because I already

27:33

see the the the time of the podcast, I want to sit on this for a minute.

OK, Fasting is a powerful tool.

27:41

The purpose of fasting is not to lose weight, although you can.

That's a benefit, right?

27:47

Like you'll drop some, but you'll gain it back just as quick.

The purpose of fasting is to have a time of consecration, of seeking the Lord in devotion to him.

27:57

Now it's abundantly clear.

I think that it's abundantly clear is that the end?

28:04

Because he says the whole congregation.

In other words, they were all on the same page.

28:10

So sometimes people will get really, really nitpicky over the details.

Like I just told you, don't let people know that you're fasting.

28:18

But within the family of God, in the community of God, you can, you can team up.

Like let me just use an example.

28:26

Let's say the youth group said, hey, we're we're we're trying to seek God more in our lives.

So as a youth group, we're going to fast.

28:33

That means you all hold each other accountable, right?

Yeah.

28:36

It's just you guys all have the same.

It's different if you're telling people who have the same goal versus just wanting attention.

28:44

Correct versus like showing up at the gym.

And being like, oh, I'm fasting.

28:50

Oh, I'm going to.

Why aren't you benching that?

28:53

Oh, because I'm fasting.

No, we don't do that.

28:55

That's that's, that's, that's the, that's the ticket right there.

By the way, the you know what the best ticket is?

29:03

The ticket to the gun show.

And if you guys can't see me at home, which you can't, I'm flexing my biceps.

29:10

So I just showed Noah where his ticket is to the gun show.

Hey, we got to have a little bit of humor on the podcast.

29:19

Right.

I prefer the ticket to hell.

29:21

OK, yeah, let's be spiritual.

See how I get you, though.

29:24

I got you good on that one.

All right, so let's recap it.

29:28

Do you have anything else out of this?

I, I, I I I like how it says and laid hands on them and they sent them away.

29:37

Correct, correct.

What is it about that that you like?

29:41

Because when I see when I hear read that I picture them like praying over them and just like making

sure they have everything they would need and just like send, send them off.

29:53

Correct.

This is the importance and the beauty of community.

29:57

And then you have support.

And then I don't know, whenever, whenever we have like our own missionaries come home before, before

30:06

they would go away.

Isn't that something we would do also?

30:10

Yes.

No, Absolutely.

30:12

Absolutely.

We will.

30:13

I'm not going to mention the names, but we'll have a missionary that'll be coming I think sometime

in May.

30:18

I got to look at the date.

Yeah.

30:21

And we will do exactly that.

We'll call them forward at the end of the service.

30:25

We will support them how financially and through prayer.

And we're renewing our commitment because it's a missionary that we're already supporting, right?

30:37

And so this is the beauty of the body of Christ.

Now, in this sense, this one's a little bit different because there will be multiple churches that

30:44

have come in and partner, but this is the capital T, capital H, capital E, the descending church.

Yeah.

30:52

Wasn't this like the home church?

Almost like the Church of like the foundation.

30:56

The home base now what we're going to find, I won't get into this now, but later they're also

supporting financially.

31:04

So they're going to back this trip up later we're going to find out that Paul decides to be bi

vocational.

31:10

That means he becomes a tent maker and there's a good reason for that.

And it's when he goes to Corinthian Ephesus and he has to he does it out of necessity because he's

31:20

not a hired hand right.

So he's, he's, he takes this, he, they're supported their support.

31:27

Now doesn't mean they're rich and none of that.

But listen, you got to have, you got to have some money.

31:31

Because what we're going to see is they're going to, they're going to, they're going to go down to

Seleucia, they're going to sell to Cyprus.

31:38

They're going to go from Cyprus and they're going to go up to Poseidon, Antioch.

You got to pay your, you got to pay your boat fares.

31:46

You pay for food, you got to eat, you got to do all these things.

Absolutely.

31:53

So it's, you know, yeah, you pay your way when you can and then, you know, sometimes you have the

blessings of the church.

32:02

So we have an indication here that there's actually 2 instances of fasting and praying.

They had, they had been fasting and praying and then they received the word right.

32:13

I want you to separate me to them.

And then they spent more time in fasting and praying and laid hands on them and sent them away.

32:22

Pretty, pretty cool, yeah.

Now we can also get into what does this mean in verse 2 when it says they ministered to the Lord.

32:29

What would that have looked like?

Well, we don't.

32:31

We don't know, right?

We don't.

32:32

We don't.

Necessarily like all the details.

32:36

Well, we have a good idea actually.

Now when it says that they were praying and worshiping, they weren't like putting on a song and

32:45

worshiping the Lord.

What do you think they would have done if I said they were praising the Lord?

32:50

I don't know.

They would have been, they would have been singing the word, they would have been singing the

32:54

Psalms, right?

Hymns like the book of Psalms.

32:59

They would have been reading and teaching the word of God.

They would have been in prayer.

33:03

They would have been in praising the Lord in that respect.

So it was.

33:08

I am not trying to insert this here, but it was.

It was founded and centered on the Word of God.

33:18

I think the part that I was because I said we don't necessarily, I think I got him mixed up because

in the commentary was saying how how we don't necessarily know how God spoke to them.

33:31

And so I think that's what I mixed up because because I talked about how we don't necessarily know,

but we have a basic idea.

33:39

OK, got it.

Yeah, because it's like, well then what do you mean?

33:42

The Holy Spirit said.

Right.

33:44

Was it like tongues?

Was it like a vision?

33:47

Like?

Yep.

33:47

So Horton.

Horton actually outlines that he gives 2 possibilities.

33:52

Could have been a message of tongues and then somebody could have interpreted it could have been

most likely it was what we would be call a prophetic word during the time of of of ministering to

34:05

the Lord through their services.

Somebody stood up.

34:09

We don't know who and they could have said I feel strongly by the Lord, but that the Lord said

separate.

34:16

That means to put to the side out of this group, you 2.

And it's not like, imagine we're in a service and I and let's say I stood up and I said, all right,

34:27

I feel like the Lord is saying I would like these two dudes in the sound booth, Noah and Matt.

I feel like the Lord saying separate them, that they're about to go to Africa.

34:40

And you guys, you guys are going to look at each other and you're going to be like, what's wrong

with him?

34:45

In the sense of where did that come from?

Right.

34:47

Yeah, Yeah, this wasn't that.

This was something and you want to say, how do I know?

34:55

This was something that they were already called, they were already praying.

So this wasn't like.

35:02

It was like a confirmation.

It was a confirmation.

35:05

You just got it, you got it right.

And so sometimes things can come out of left field.

35:11

Most often when we start talking about prophecy, we start thinking of like, like if I was to sit

down now, God can do this.

35:19

Don't misunderstand me, Noah.

God can prophecy over you at a young age and say, you know what?

35:25

You are going to be the best.

You fill in the blank.

35:28

I could say you're going to be called to the ministry or I could say you're going to be the best

real estate mogul that Southern California has ever seen and you're going to finance the ministry.

35:43

I could say I can say a number of things.

We're not talking about that the majority of the time.

35:49

It's something that God's already confirming.

That's where we get the majority of prophetic as well.

35:56

So this is this is actually a really kind of a a beautiful, beautiful text.

I'm going to I'm going to give one story out of here, OK.

36:03

I think that this was important that we have saw, have seen that Barnabas and Paul had spent a year

in this church ministering.

36:16

They had made a commitment.

They fulfilled that commitment.

36:19

Do you remember they also took up an offering and they delivered it to Jerusalem.

I do.

36:24

And then they came back and now they're saying, all right, what's the plan next?

Sometimes God honors our.

36:32

I think that there's a very important thing about honoring commitment and I want to tell you a story

about that.

36:39

When I came to Arvind Assembly, see I'm the pastor now, but I at one time I was the associate pastor

and when I came the pastor at that time, his name is Pastor Amos.

36:53

He drilled me and this is a good thing.

We need this in our life.

36:58

He asked me to commit to one year, he said, and I don't know why I I thought it was strange.

I'm like, what do you mean commit to a year?

37:07

I think that he just sensed in his spirit and in his soul that God had more for me than what I was

doing.

37:14

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

37:16

So he said, I want you to commit.

I want you to commit to one year to right here at Auburn Assembly.

37:22

And when I came, I was like, what do you mean commit for a year?

Of course I'll commit for a year.

37:28

Why?

Because I don't want to go anywhere else.

37:30

I felt called Arvind Assembly at that time.

Well, guess what, within about four to five months I start, I got some offers and I got more than

37:42

one offer.

There was can.

37:45

You say offers.

Do me like the lead or like another associate?

37:48

No, to go pastor my own church in another city.

So let me give you an example.

37:55

The first one was this was 4, maybe five months.

I'm trying to remember exactly as I was.

38:02

The associate the presbyter had was looking for somebody to fill in the pulpit on an Easter Sunday

for the Assembly of God in Mojave.

38:13

Well, guess what Easter Sunday is like?

What for the church?

38:18

The Jesus coming back.

It's like the Super Bowl, all hands on deck.

38:23

Nobody was going to leave their church, no associates going to leave their church.

Like when when we start talking all these different churches to go where to go to Mojave, like

38:36

you've you've driven through Mojave.

That's like there's nothing out there, right And nothing against Mojave.

38:42

If you're from Mojave, ever listening, Hey, we love you.

But and so if somehow the call got to pastor Amos and like, Hey, do you know anybody?

38:52

Well, guess what?

He's like, Hey, do you want to go preach in Mojave?

38:55

I'm like, Yep, I'll go like that.

You know what I mean?

38:58

I was just like, yes, awesome.

So ah, man, I, I was ready.

39:02

I went to go, I call it, you know, preach the paint off the walls.

Like, man, I was so excited.

39:09

And so I went to Mojave and awesome time, we had a blessed Easter service.

And I remember I got there several hours early.

39:19

I'd called one of the deacons.

All I said, all I ask is that you have you have a place for me to pray.

39:24

I need a backroom or I need something.

Remember when we went to Mexico and I had to go?

39:29

I asked the church.

Do you have a backroom?

39:31

Yeah.

That's just how I am because I want to go.

39:34

I want to go quiet my heart.

I want to steal my mind, steal it STILLI want to pray and focus on the Lord.

39:44

So I went earth man.

I left like it was like 5 or 6 in the morning.

39:48

I drive to Mojave, man, I'm worshiping the Lord all the way there and I get to Mojave.

We had a great service.

39:55

Anyway, after the service, all of the their their board said, would you stay for a little bit?

We'd like to talk with you.

40:05

I thought I was in trouble.

I'm like, man, I probably, I probably offended somebody.

40:09

Maybe I preached wrong and they said we would like for you to consider becoming the pastor of our

church.

40:17

What had happened was is the pastor had been sick.

He was a very old man.

40:21

And they had found out not only did they need a preacher on Easter, but that their pastor wasn't

coming back.

40:29

And they were a little bit heartbroken because this man had been there for quite some time.

And they said, would you consider becoming our pastor?

40:38

And you know what went through my head?

Like, wow, look at God.

40:42

He's opening doors.

God, like, you know, this is me.

40:47

I'm young too.

So I come back, I'm all excited.

40:52

And I sit down with Pastor Amos.

And I said, this is what God did.

40:57

You know what he said.

Well.

41:00

He looked at me and he said, do you remember what you committed?

I said one year.

41:07

He's like, you only been here four or five months.

I said, you know what, you're right.

41:14

And that was hard, but I had to honor my commitment.

Here's the point sometimes commitment because I believe that that Paul and Barnabas they had

41:25

committed they set out for the year.

They said we're going to preach for a year.

41:28

God honors our commitment.

He honors our word.

41:31

And here's the thing I came I came to Arvind assembly.

I'm trying to think of the year.

41:37

I'd have to go back and look.

It was in, it was in.

41:41

It was like an it's a funny how it works like October of might have been 2007, something like that.

Long time ago, way before you were born.

41:50

Nor And so anyway, I had to turn them down in Mojave.

Then guess what happened?

41:56

Well, oh, Lone Pine.

Lone Pine.

41:58

Then I got offered another church towards the end, few several months later towards the end.

And you know what I had to say?

42:06

I had to wait.

And I said I as soon as it was presented to me, I said I committed for a year.

42:11

I cannot go anywhere.

And guess what?

42:13

Pastor Amos told you to go no.

No, no, no, no.

42:17

It was at that time I had his name's Pastor Hobson.

He's the pastor.

42:21

He was the pastor in Ridgecrest, and he was my Bible college instructor.

And he came back to me right at the year and said, hey, Are you ready?

42:29

Lone Pine still open?

I'm like what?

42:32

And then?

You.

42:33

That's a whole other story, but.

If God gives me a car, I'll go Exactly, yeah.

42:38

Crazy story but here's the thing God honors commitments and I believe as we look at this God was

able I I feel like I understand it because God is God is more concerned about our word, our word,

42:58

our honor, our integrity and our commitment.

Meaning you commit to doing something you do it and I believe that these are part of the ingredients

43:06

which helped because I want you to notice he said set separate to me Paul and Barnabas.

In other words, they've done good, they labored well, they have been teaching, they have been

43:19

feeding the flock.

And so any other thoughts or questions out of this text or anything else?

43:27

No.

All right, Well, we, we have just exercised our spirits right.

43:33

We've disciplined our our minds and our hearts through discipleship and now what are we going to go

do?

43:40

The same for our bodies.

Yeah, we're going to.

43:43

Well, you are.

I don't know how much I'll do, but you're going to go discipline your body by pushing some weights,

43:49

right?

You're going to serve notice to your flesh who's in charge, right?

43:54

Yeah.

You're going to put some.

43:55

You're going to put some weight on there, and you're going to push that weight up and you're going

to serve notice who's in charge.

44:03

All right.

Well, thank you so much.

44:04

For those of you that have tuned in and has been falling with us.

There's only the three verses.

44:09

And hopefully we'll be able to walk through verses 4 through 12 or 13, possibly much quicker, and

we'll get that going.

44:19

So again, thank you so much.

We'll see you on the next episode.

44:29

Thank you for listening to Al Pastor with Brian Overturf.

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44:37

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44:48

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44:52

Until then, we'll see you later.