Gospel Message in Antioch
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him, “Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.”
Acts
22:21
.
Thus the Lord had given Paul his commission to enter the broad
missionary field of the Gentile world. To prepare him for this extensive
and difficult work, God had brought him into close connection with
Himself and had opened before his enraptured vision views of the
beauty and glory of heaven. To him had been given the ministry of
making known “the mystery” which had been “kept secret since the
world began” (
Romans 16:25
),—“the mystery of His will” (
Ephesians
[160]
1:9
), “which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men,
as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and
partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof,” declares
Paul, “I was made a minister.... Unto me, who am less than the least of
all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is
the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world
hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the
intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places
might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according
to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Ephesians 3:5-11
.
God had abundantly blessed the labors of Paul and Barnabas during
the year they remained with the believers in Antioch. But neither
of them had as yet been formally ordained to the gospel ministry.
They had now reached a point in their Christian experience when
God was about to entrust them with the carrying forward of a difficult
missionary enterprise, in the prosecution of which they would need
every advantage that could be obtained through the agency of the
church.
“There were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets
and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and
Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, ... and Saul. As they ministered to the
Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul
[161]
for the work whereunto I have called them.” Before being sent forth
as missionaries to the heathen world, these apostles were solemnly
dedicated to God by fasting and prayer and the laying on of hands.
Thus they were authorized by the church, not only to teach the truth,