The Beginning of the Journey

Today’s Passages –Acts 11 – 13

(Second Milers also read –Psalms 91 – 95; Proverbs 19)

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” – (Acts 13:2)

Here in Acts 13 we see the beginning of the missionary journeys of Paul. In this passage a local church, Antioch, lays hands on Barnabas and Saul (Paul), and sent them out to start New Testament churches in Asia Minor, and later in Europe. This was the beginning of what would later be labelled by Paul’s critics as a movement that “turned the world upside down”. But it all started with a local church that trained and authorized a couple of missionaries to bring the gospel from a place where it was preached to a place where it was not preached.

It is the mission of every New Testament church to bring the gospel to the people who have not heard it. We are responsible to get the good news of salvation to the people that live in our geographic area through soulwinning outreaches; but we are also equally responsible to get the gospel to the people that live outside of our area. We do that through church planting, and missions. We are to plant churches in areas that are nearby, and also send out missionaries from our churches to areas that are far away; and we should also help support the missionaries that are sent out from other churches. My personal responsibility is to go, or give: if I cannot go to some foreign place to preach the gospel myself, I must give to those who will.