Acts chapter 12:25 – chapter 13:5:

Acts chapter 12:25 – chapter 13:5:

V25: The record returns to Barnabas and Saul, who return to Antioch, having completed their ” relief mission” to Jerusalem, and take with them young John Mark, perhaps with an eye on beginning to involve him in Christian service.

Ch 13 v1:  We learn of 5 gifted ” prophets and teachers” in that church – surely Elders in the later terms of Church office. The names and a little given detail suggest a wide range of background – Barnabas and Saul we know to be Jewish, some of the others may be Gentiles, one has ” royal connections” – though presumably his faith will have severed that connection with the corrupt Herodian family. God’s mercy touches and calls people from all kinds of backgrounds.

V2:  As they are worshipping and fasting before God, the Holy Spirit speaks clearly to them all, that they are to set apart Barnabas and Saul for a special work he is calling them to do. This will, of course, be missionary outreach on a wider scale than yet seen, the work that Saul especially was called to do back in ch 9 v15.

V3:  In obedient response, with prayer and the confirming laying on of hands, the others send them off to the work God calls them to. It’s sometimes said ” at God’s call, they sent away their 2 best men” – perhaps we can not say that as such – but what 2 men they did send off – as God still calls churches to do.

V4-5:  Taking John Mark as an assistant, they go to Seleucia, the nearest Mediterranean port to Antioch, and sail to Cyprus, landing first at Salamis, where at once they preach Christ in the synagogues there, still following the principal Paul will later lay down in Romans 1:16 – ” To the Jew first.”