APC’S Antioch Moment (Acts 13)
Why are we doing this?
Why subject ourselves to such pain?
Why not just stay together and get bigger and healthier and always have enough workers for Children’s ministry?
I mean, there are still sooo many areas of growth needed in our church!
People who need more care.
More discipleship.
Maybe some of you have fears like…
What will we be like after sending such key people?
How will we make it financially?
Will the Elder team be healthy without Dale and Daniel?
Is this really the best time?
I get all these thoughts and fears…
Did you know, the early church struggled with these very issues, many times over?
Throughout The book of acts we see God’s people dealing with the same tensions. They want to stay with what is familiar, with what is comfortable, and the Spirit of God continues to lead them to expand faster than they would ever feel comfortable doing.
There was never a moment throughout history when God’s people felt like it was a great time to give away their best. The time that was perfect to multiply.
This morning, the church of Antioch in Acts 13, has 5 powerful insights to teach us in this pivotal moment in our church.
Context
Up till chapter 11, the gospel is primarily spreading among Jews.
Like us, God’s people wanted what was comfortable and convenient and did not want to spread towards to gentiles.
But the spirit forced them to spread and scattered the church using the persecution led by Saul.
And one of these churches that were planted during this spreading was a church in the city of Antioch, this was the church where people were first called Christians. It’s location is now modern-day Turkey.
About five to ten years after its founding, the church, led by Paul and Barnabas, received a surprising new direction from the Holy Spirit.
Acts 13:1 ESV
1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
I just want to highlight that the leadership of this church is extremely diverse with gentile Christians in leadership, with up to two of them being from Africa and also diverse socially, some being from the very court of the local ruler.
This is remarkable!
Acts 13:2–3 ESV
2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
I want to highlight Five insights from this passage:
1. They Sought the Lord, rather than telling the Lord
The church was in a season where they were seeking the Lord through intentional prayer and fasting.
Not just for direction, but seeking his face for himself because they loved him!
Why do I say that, “because it says they were worshiping the Lord.”
Sadly, many churches can fall into the danger of deciding the future of the church based off of their own wisdom, desires, or the will of the people, and then asking God to slap a blessing on it.
But the Church in Antioch, was seeking God for himself and seeking direction with a heart opened to whatever he may say.
And we know that they were truly seeking openheartedly, because of how they ultimately obeyed whatever he told them.
This is vastly different from what we can often do in prayer. We have already predetermined the acceptable answers from God. The unspoken conditions in our relationship with him. And we seek him, only to get the answer that we desire.
Not, fully surrendered to whatever he may say.
All of us have done this.
Thank God, the church in Antioch didn’t do this, for their open heartedness towards God ultimately resulted in the mission’s movement that led to us knowing Jesus today.
This is what we’ve tried to do as elders at all peoples church and as many of you have done with us.
For many years, we have sought the Lord about what he wants us to do when it comes to church planting.
I had it on my prayer card and prayed almost every day, God, “who, when, where, how?”
And after years of Seeking him, we believe we have heard from him.
About two years ago, Dale and Daniel floated this idea of Church planting together at a retreat with our wives. That did not go well at all.
And then about a year ago, they brought it up again and it didn’t go well again.
And then this last January both of them upgraded from thinking it was a good idea to really hearing a distinct call from the Lord.
I personally didn’t hear this from the Lord, but two elders who I trust did And so I trust with my whole heart that the Lord is leading them.
I don’t have to understand it all, only God needs to understand!
Do you know what’s better than sticking together and having a comfortable and amazing church?
The presence and blessing of the Lord.
And if we want to be with Him, obedience is where he is at.
Obedience leads us to his presence.
› Which leads me to my next point,
2. Obedience is Costly: They Sent their Best
The command God gave was difficult, requiring the church to release Barnabas and Saul, who were the two most prominent and gifted leaders.
Barnabas was known as an encourager. He’s the kind of guy you want around. He’s the guy you wanna call when you’re having the worst day of your life.
And Paul, Paul was Paul! The greatest missionary of all time!
It is not possible to state how costly and central they were to that community.
All of us love the idea of being fully surrendered as long as it’s theoretical.
But can you imagine what it would’ve been like when they heard from the Lord?
No, Lord! You can’t mean them. Anybody but them!
We have so much momentum.
Or
There Are still so many areas of weaknesses. Not at this time. Another time certainly when the budget is better.
And so are we sending some of our best with Light House.
I know When some of you first heard earlier this year, you thought, “No, not Dale and Daniel! Send Sam instead!”
But we must be obedient.
My mentor Reminded me that sending our best for church planting is mirroring the very heart of the gospel.
God only had one Son and He sent his best!
And so do we!
The whole gospel is life coming through death.
And sending dear saints from your church is a mini-death, but with God in equation, death leads to resurrection.
Obedience is costly just like it was costly for God.
› 3rd insight,
3. Passion and Mission over Surviving and Comfort
What was the passion that was greater than the drive to merely survive?
In chapter one to the letter to the Romans, Paul explains the passion that drives him in all his ministry.
Read slowly
Romans 1:5 NLT
5 Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.
And when this passion, Jesus’s fame.
And the mission, the gospel being proclaimed everywhere is burning in your heart,
You have clarity and resolve in your decisions.
The clearer the mission is in our hearts, the more obvious and simple it is to sacrifice for it.
When the mission is hazy, sacrifices are unbearable.
Do we want to send out some of our dearest friends to start another church?
NO! Let’s stay together!
But in light of our collective passion for Jesus and the Mission He entrusted us, we can do it.
It’s so painful, but we can do it!
When we think about the many billions who do not know the Savior and We have a passion burning inside of our hearts for the fame of Christ’s Name, then the sacrifices, though costly, are put in its rightful place.
But sadly, this passion and mission has not been driving the majority of churches in America.
The current State of the American Church
In the last 50 years, we have seen a 3,000% increase in mega churches in America, which is a church that has at least 2,000 people or more.
AND YET
We have seen a decrease of church attendance of about 25% which is roughly 65 million people.
We have witnessed the birth and ascension of the some of the largest churches the world has ever seen.
And yet we have seen one of the steepest decline of professing Christians at the same time.
Does that seem strange to you?
But this is just focusing on numbers.
We know that we have a epidemic where there’s many people growing up in the church their whole life and they stay spiritual infants. And the entire Church system is often rigged to keep them in that state of maturity.
Our Church Planting Strategy (Multiplying smaller churches)
We believe our church's calling is to be a part of a movement of multiplying small, family churches where:
• Discipleship is primarily done in the context of the everyday stuff of life.
• The majority of members are empowered and released to use their gifts.
• And ideally, geographic closeness allows for true 'life-on-life' community."
There are two primary strategies for us to choose when it comes to multiplying healthy churches. And we’re committed to both of them.
1. On one hand, you have the Spirit giving clear ambition to some leaders to plant in a certain place (locally or abroad).
2. On the other hand, we can see clear spiritual momentum, where there is a growing group of healthy leaders and healthy disciples in a geographical area. And it just makes sense for them to come together as a church.
And what we are doing with Light House is in somewhere in between both of these options.
› Show the map
Let me show you our current makeup as a church. This is almost up to date, though we are missing about 5 homes. But this is where our members live right now. And so you can actually see Light House church is comprising primarily of those in the Rosevillish area.
It may be the next church plant is South of the cities. But we must seek the Lord.
And I want to make it clear, none of these areas are truly unreached. There are good churches all around the Twin Cities.
But the kind of church we are trying to be, where we can actually be a family and do life on life discipleship, requires us to be more geographically close to each other.
And the MetCouncil predicts we will have an influx of about 300,000 new residents in the Twin Cities by the year 2040, we need lots of healthy churches everywhere!
› Transition back to our 4th insight from Antioch,
4. Gaining By Sending
Was all of this sacrifice worth it for the church in Antioch?
First of all, yes, because you are already successful if you obey Jesus, even if the outcome doesn’t seem immediately successful.
But God gave the church in Antioch tremendous fruit.
Despite sending their best, God was faithful to this church. Instead of stagnating or falling apart, they actually continue to thrive, though I am sure not with out significant valleys.
And we will indeed have significant valleys at APC in the coming seasons.
But there is a divine paradox that when we send our best, in obedience to the Lord’s leadership, he blesses us even more than if we kept everyone to ourselves.
From that single prayer meeting, the Gentile mission exploded through Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. This movement eventually traveled all the way to us today.
The church endured for hundreds of years and became the home church of great leaders like Ignatius and Chrysostom.
5. A See you Later not a Farewell
Adapted from John Piper and the Bethlehem’s Antioch Moment.
The departure of Saul and Barnabas was deploying a new mission—not a permanent loss.
We actually see Paul and Barnabas returning to give updates to Antioch later on.
Acts 14:26–27 NLT
26 Finally, they returned by ship to Antioch of Syria, where their journey had begun. The believers there had entrusted them to the grace of God to do the work they had now completed. 27 Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church together and reported everything God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, too.
As we send our beloved members and leaders to plant Light House Church, this isn’t a good bye forever. We will stay deeply connected.
I was originally tempted to preach on Acts 20 because it shows how emotionally heavy it is to say goodbye. The apostle Paul is saying goodbye, and going to Rome, and prophesies that he will never see the Ephesian elders again.
But this is not our case. These members are going to be 20 minutes away from us.
We are attempting to try to do church plants more like they did in the early church, where they stayed deeply connected with the other churches, sent Help to each other, make visits, and strategically work together for the larger mission of multiplying worshipers of Jesus and healthy churches here and abroad.
In the short term, we already have on the calendar that we will celebrate Christmas Eve together.
We have more plans forthcoming.
PLUS we love each other like crazy and want to find excuses to be together!
In many ways, this is like having an adult child that you were sending out to do great things in the world. The relationship has changed, but you haven’t lost them. In fact, them going is a sign of health and maturity. Them perpetually always being with you, is a sign of unhealth. This is good, but hard.
Just like sending kids off to get married and start a new family is good but hard.
Conclusion
Why are we doing this?
That’s a question I started with.
Do we want to send these dear people out to plant Light House?
No, it wouldn’t be our preference at all.
But it makes complete sense in light of the gospel.
We have to let go of our fear of losing control.
Of things changing.
And entrust our fears, pains, and control to our sovereign and gracious Father who loves us and is leading us to accomplish his global rescue plan.
We don’t have the strength to send well, but the Spirit is more than able to help us!
The Father Sent his best, sacrificed what was most valuable to him,
so that we can have Life.
So we do the same!
God was faithful to the church in Antioch, He will be faithful to us!
Page . Exported from Logos Bible Study, 10:40 AM October 20, 2025.