27th Mar 26 | 16:08
Studies by Book
01 Acts 13 01-03 THE COMMISSIONING OF BARNABAS AND PAUL 02 Acts 13 01 Gifts to bless the church
📖 Acts 13:01-03
02 – Sun, 16 Feb 2025 – *Gifts to bless the church* - _Acts 13:01-03_ – THE COMMISSIONING OF BARNABAS AND PAUL – _Ephesians 04:11-13_
_Acts 13:1 Now *in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers*: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul._
There were prophets and teachers in the early church. Let us look more closely at these gifts.
Prophets were those who spoke the mind of God to the people. _Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets._ They sensed and spoke of the application of this move of God, to the current situation, to the people.
Psalm 45 is a typical prophetical psalm. This Psalm speaks of the King and His throne. _Psalm 45:6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom._
People have to know God's ways and align their lives with them. This is the role of the prophets. The prophet is, therefore, a disturber, an agitator, and a dreamer. He or she will cause people to relook at their lives under the scanner of God's nature and ways.
Knowing their vital role before God and the people, prophets waited on God so that they may speak His words to the people. _Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him._
False prophets are those who do not correct people according to the ways of God but speak words that will give them their gain. _Micah 3:11 Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And *her prophets divine for money*. Yet they lean on the LORD, and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No harm can come upon us." / _Ezekiel 22:28 Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,' when the LORD had not spoken._
Barnabas’s prophetic gifting was seen in the way he sensed that God would use Paul mightily for His purposes and therefore he took extra effort to connect with Paul, at a time when the rest of the church elders in Jerusalem were wary of him. _Acts 9:26-27 And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple. (27) But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus._
Barnabas went to Tarsus to bring Paul to Antioch when this was not on his assignment. This is prophetic.
Prophets are unpopular and have to suffer. _Matthew 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!_
Barnabas had the prophetic gift and he was also an encourager. This was a beautiful and powerful combination. He spoke the heart of God to the people, but he connected with people and walked with them. *These are the qualities that we must desire from God to be effective in the ministry*.
A teacher, in the Bible, articulates and explains the ways of God to the people and helps them understand, internalise and apply them to their lives through demonstration. Jesus was a teacher and His method of teaching was through His own life. _Acts 1:1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began *both to do and teach*,_ .
A teacher breaks down bigger concepts and ideas into smaller parts and explains them to be understood and embodied. As doing precedes teaching, the teacher will be more severely judged. _James 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment._
Teaching is a crucial gift for the growth of the church both in quality and quantity. _II Timothy 2:2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men *who will be able to teach others also*._
Paul taught Timothy the word of God from his own life journey with God. These lessons that Timothy understood and applied to his life, from Paul, he taught to other faithful men. These leaders were those who applied the word of God to their lives. These leaders followed the same teaching process to other leaders.
Incidentally, teaching is what is expected from us in the Great Commission. _Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (19) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) *teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you*; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen._
Barnabas and Paul, with the gift of prophecy, encouragement and teaching between both of them, were powerful instruments in the growth of the church.
```Let us ask God for these gifts to bless the church.```