The Modest Call to Missions
[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. [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.
[4] So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. [5] When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. [6] When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.
Acts 13:1–6 ESV
The Antioch church was doing what they knew to do: worshipping the Lord and fasting. We don’t know what that looked like, or what their ‘church’ looked like. They were made up of a lot of people that fled Jerusalem in Acts 7–8 when Stephen was martyred. Saul had been saved and lived at home in Tarsus for at least a decade, then came to Antioch at the request of Barnabas. At one point the Antioch church supported the Jerusalem church through a famine by sending money. Jerusalem would also send prophets to Antioch and they had originally sent Barnabas there to check their orthodoxy but he ended up staying there for years teaching them.
Then this event of the Holy Spirit calling out Saul and Barnabas to new work happens. The beautiful thing is that it doesn’t say
“the Holy Spirit called them to Cyprus to make a magician go blind and to Iconium to be mistaken for Zeus and Mercury and almost get killed and then stoned and left for dead in Lystra…”
No, the Holy Spirit called them to a work, and they obeyed. The beauty of mission work that “we went through the whole island to Paphos,” is the sum of daily obedience to God’s call. A busted shin, a lost wallet, a great conversation with a kid in the street, some amazing food while seeing an amazing sunset, miracles, salvation, beatings, – These are all the day to day work of being on mission for God.
Mother Theresa once told a visitor that she never asked God what His plan was for her life. If she would have seen all that God would have her do, she would have been overwhelmed, packed up, and gone home. Being with God and His people, worshipping, praying, fasting, living is what gives way to obeying God when He calls. And the simple obedience every day is what ads up to a life and a legacy exalting the Lord.