For a number of weeks now, my greatest realization has been that we often seem to live as if there is no eternity. We live as if God does not exist. It would probably be difficult for people who do not know anything about what we believe to observe our lives and determine that we do not think this world is our home.
Paul told the Corinthians that if there were no resurrection after this life, then we should “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). I wonder if that is the message that we are sending to the world. I wonder if the world looks at what we say about there being life after this and the Creator of the world being our Father, looks then at what we really believe by how we live, and determines that we are no different from them at all; we just need this idea we talk about to sustain us through this life (see note 1).
Therefore, I believe there is a crucial need that we live what we profess. I believe that we should think, talk, and live with the reality in mind that this life is not the end of that for which we are living. We need to show the reality of eternity in our lives.
But how do we do that?
Isn’t that the question that often does not get answered in a message like this? Normally, we simply say to one another, “That’s right. Let’s do it!” And all the while, we do not know what it means.
I believe that the believers at Antioch were living this way. And as I have looked and meditated on their thoughts and actions, I believe that I have seen a little clearer picture of what it means to live with eternity in the forefront of our minds. Therefore, I want us to see how they lived and leave tonight striving to live in a similar fashion.
First of all, it seemed that the church at Antioch lived in a state of discontentment.
By that I do not mean that they wanted more of this world. Rather, I believe they were discontent with this world, and they were striving for another. I gather that simply from the fact that they were fasting as they worshiped the Lord (v. 2).
No one fasts out of contentment or because they are completely satisfied with the way things are. People fast out of discontentment and longing. That is the whole reason for fasting.
In Ezra 8, Ezra led the people in a fast for the safety of the people as they traveled out of captivity back to Jerusalem. He hungered for protection greater than he could provide. He was not satisfied with his own feeble power, but he hungered for God’s hand to be on the people.
In Luke 2, a lady named “Anna” fasted and prayed as she longed for the coming Messiah. She longed and expressed her discontentment (for life without his coming) with prayer and fasting.
Finally, in Matthew 9, when Jesus is asked why his disciples do not fast, he responds, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast” (9:15).
Here Jesus shows us a couple of things about fasting. First of all, he associates it with mourning. I believe this fits with what we have seen in fasting expressing a longing and dissatisfaction. Then he shows us why we should (and will) fast. He shows us that we should fast out of dissatisfaction for our Lord not being with us as fully as we would desire and out of a longing for him to return. That is what I think we must gather from this passage. The disciples did not fast when Jesus was with them because they had what they were longing for, but when he would leave, they would long for him out of discontentment as they lacked his presence as intimately as they would have liked.
So the church at Antioch was worshiping the Lord on the one hand and fasting on the other. They were praising and celebrating as they were mourning and longing. They knew Christ and rejoiced, but they did not know him as intimately as they would have liked, and they mourned and longed. I think the mere presence of fasting in the church showed discontentment, which the present American church often lacks.
As I was studying the topic of fasting and preaching about it about it a year and a half ago, I had several people remark that that was the first time they had ever heard any teaching on fasting. I wonder if that is not a direct result of the comfort that the American church feels for this world.
Thinking with the reality of eternity in mind-which is an eternity with the greatest joy we could know, God-demands that we feel some dissatisfaction until we are with our Lord face to face. It demands that we are hungering for his return and mourning as one who groans with all of creation (Romans 8:18-25).
They also urgently sought the face of the Lord.
I do not doubt one bit that one of the church’s drives for fasting was that they wanted the Lord to direct them in how exactly they were to continue their missionary efforts. After all, they had realized that the gospel was not limited to the Jews. They had seen some of the first Gentile converts. They themselves were some of the first Gentile converts.
And since Gentiles needed the gospel, and there were Gentiles all over the world, what were they to do in order to reach them? I think this was a question they were asking the Lord as they worshiped and fasted.
Luke records, “While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’” (Acts 13:2). I think this should probably give us a clue to think that some aspect of the reason for their fast was so God would give direction for how they were to direct their missionary efforts.
How many of us, I wonder, find ourselves fasting in urgency over seeking the Lord’s face in how we are to be involved in reaching the nations with the gospel? It would seem, if we really believe that this task must be accomplished before the Lord returns and we long for his return, that we could say that we often find ourselves in fasting and prayer for how we might be involved in this task.
I think that is what the church at Antioch was doing. They were fasting for the Lord to use them in the work of world evangelization. I pray that God would burden many of us with the same heart.
They also prayed and fasted for power.
Once they got their answer that they were to send out Paul and Barnabas, they did not stop praying and fasting. Instead, they prayed and fasted for power for them. Luke records in verse 3, “Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”
The reason I believe that they were asking God for power is because Paul is filled with the Spirit as they were preaching in Paphos and demonstrates great power in blinding the magician, Elymas. This fits my understanding of how Luke uses “filled with the Spirit,” as something that is always accompanied with power. This also follows the seeming pattern of God's acts being preceded by prayer. Therefore, just like Pentecost and Acts 4:23-31, I believe that these believers prayed for God to pour out his Spirit in power for the sake of world evangelization (Acts 1:8), God responded in filling Paul with the Spirit, and Paul preached with a demonstration of the power of the Spirit of God.
People who pray that way believe they are in a war. Again, I believe that the fact that many of us do not cry out for the Lord to pour out his Spirit on his church in power shows that we do not think we are in a war. And this leads to our contentment with this world, often a nonchalant attitude toward world evangelization, and a lack of passionate urgency in our prayers.
Antioch cried out for power because they knew they would need it in the war. And so do we. We need the kingdom to come in our lives, for the men around us are dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1), blinded by Satan from seeing the light of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4), and in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). We need power for the battle of world evangelization.
And we can urgently cry out for power with confidence, knowing that God has already stated that the gospel most definitely will be preached to every nation before the end comes (Matthew 24:14).
Finally, the church at Antioch understood how crucial was their task.
I gather this not only from the fact that they were fasting and praying before the Spirit called out Paul and Barnabas or the fact that they prayed and fasted for power for Paul and Barnabas for the mission. But I also see it in Paul’s actions while they were preaching in Paphos.
Luke tells us that there was a man there named “Sergius Paulus” who had summoned Paul to come and speak the word of the Lord to him. Yet while he was speaking, another man named “Elymas” tried to persuade the man not to believe. And Paul responds by saying, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time” (Acts 13:10-11). Then Luke writes, “Immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed by the teaching of the Lord” (Acts 13:11-12).
Now, wasn’t that pretty harsh of Paul? After all, the man had to be blind for a while. But what was at stake in Paul’s eyes? He understood that this proconsul would not know eternal life apart from hearing and responding to the gospel. That is worth offending someone.
Paul would probably not fit in very well in a society such as ours that tells us that not to recognize views that say there are others ways to heaven besides Jesus is hard, cold, narrow, and bigoted. And the reason why he would not fit in is because he felt the task to which God had called him was crucial. He had his mind set on eternity and not simply on the world around him.
O God, grant this of your church. Amen.