Transformissional Leaders
- David Fairchild
- Nov 11, 2007
- Series: Acts
Acts 13:1-5: "Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court 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."
INTRODUCTION
Every week that we've been in the book of Acts, we've been asking the same question in a variety of ways, "What was going on in the midst of the early Church that made them so attractive to the world?" We've been asking this question so that as we read the book of Acts, we don't simply relegate it to a distant but pleasant historical read.
The book of Acts is not only a historical book, THE only inspired historical work on the early Church, it is also the standard by which we are to examine our own church and its passion and focus to see if we're in step with the heart and will of a God who is radically for the world as He sends us on mission as the Church for its sake.
This morning we continue in the book of Acts as the early Church begins to take shape as a sending, church-planting church with a diversity of leaders on mission.
Antioch becomes the center of Paul's missionary journey and it is from this church and from this time of worship that God moves now to the ends of the earth, overseas, as the Gospel (the Word of God) continues to increase.
We've been using a word "Transformissional" pretty consistently as a way of getting us to rethink what is means to be a Christian. To me it seems to be the best way of capturing the incredible change and activity of early Christians in one word.
They were radically transformed, in that they didn't just pick up a set of moral rules or some new ethic for living. They weren't just reshaped outwardly. Instead they were completely remade inwardly and were given new hearts that beat in the rhythm of grace. They had a totally different motivational resource as they drew deep from the well of Jesus' love for them. In other words, they weren't simply morally reformed; they were inwardly transformed. This was set against the current tide of simply working harder to get others' approval or even God's approval. For the Christian, they new they had God's approval. Instead of being obedient to become accepted by God, they knew they were already accepted by grace and were obedient out of sheer love and gratitude.
This transformation however, didn't simply end with a nice cozy inward feeling. They were so radically changed at the heart that sharing all that God had done for them with others was natural since they saw themselves as God's very ambassadors to the world. The Gospel didn't break in and end in a cul-de-sac. It blew through them and carried them into the world as a sent people by grace to see others come into God's family by grace.
So, as we look at this passage we see a group of Christians radically reshaped and transformed by the Gospel and leaders being sent on mission to the world. They began to send off missionaries to plant additional communities of grace-saved brothers and sisters who will then be on mission in their own city and culture.
But as we examined last week, you need others in your life to be reminded of the Gospel, to sense God's love through their hands, and to be led onto mission as the Church. This is what we see this morning.
We see the insulting need for Gospel leaders (prophets and teachers), the surprising identity of those leaders, and the power of Gospel-hungry leaders.
STUDY
I. The insulting need for gospel leaders
Verse 1a:
"Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers..."
As we move into this new chapter in the history of the Church, we see that in a community there is a structure of leaders who have been chosen by God and confirmed by the community to lead the flock of God.
We are continuously referred to in the New Testament as sheep who are in need of a Shepherd (Jesus) and who are led by undershepherds (leaders).
I don't know about you, but when I think of being called a sheep all of the sudden I think of beautiful, tranquil green fields with perfectly white sheep skipping along and playing in the field and it's like the front of some Hallmark card on resting or getting better. Perhaps that's just me!
But have we stopped to consider what it means to be called sheep? Have you received what the Bible is saying to us when it calls us sheep? Let's think about this metaphor.
I doubt many here this morning know much about sheep, so we probably have a fairly distorted, even optimistic picture of sheep.
However, if you speak to a sheep herder you'll come to see that sheep are not the nice, cuddly, fluffy little pets we make them out to be. They are dirty, pick up nasty bugs, and need to be regularly washed with chemicals to rid them of lice, tics, and worms. They are also very unintelligent and stubborn.
It may feel a bit harsh, but that's the truth about sheep. You probably know this about other Christians-that we're stubborn, often foolish, and can be filled with various maladies, but certainly not you!
Well, when we have a bad hair day, or clothing colors that don't match, others can see it and so can we. But when we have bad breath, others notice, but we don't. Our foolishness is sort of like that. Often times we simply don't notice it even if everyone else does.
The Bible calls us sheep for a reason. If you take any other domestic animal and drop them off a few miles into the woods, one of two things will happen. They will either fend for themselves or find their way home. Sheep can't do either! They are too helpless to fend for themselves, too helpless to defend themselves and they have no sense of direction. Sheep will die without a shepherd. They can't be their own shepherd. Sheep need shepherds to lead them.
The great Greek epic, the Odyssey by Homer (no, not Simpson), tells the story of Odysseus. He's the captain of his ship and he's trying to get home. He's traveling by the island of the Sirens and he needs to get home. The Sirens' song, however, is so irresistible no one that hears it will escape. Men will go mad following its sweat melody until they crash their ship upon the rocks and destroy themselves.
Odysseus sets the course, takes beeswax and puts it in the ear of his shipmates and has them strap him to the mast with rope and restrain him until they pass. He knows he's going to go insane, he knows he's going to seek at all costs, the cost of his own life, to pursue this sound. He tells them that he's set the course, and they are to get him home. He's going to go crazy, but no matter how much he yells and screams, ignore him and get him home.
What did he do? Odysseus knew that if he kept absolute control of his own ship he was going to loose his ship. He knew he would never get home unless he shared control with his men. He was making them his leaders, his shepherds.
We should know by now that we will never perfectly stay the course of our life without fail. There will be times, spiritually, when we're going to lose our minds. We'll never make it home, we'll never get past the insanity, unless there some around us that we have authorized and deputized to whom we are accountable.
You have to authorize people in your life to lead you, to not listen to you and to share control of your life with who you know will help you home. They are committed to get you where you need to go and ultimately want to go when you're thinking clearly. They will contradict you and ignore your insanity for your own sake.
Do you have anyone who can speak to you like that? Have you authorized people in your life to lead you? If you don't, at some point, you're going to run your life into the rocks. We need prophets, teachers, leaders in our lives, without which we'll die. That's how we have to see leaders in our lives. Not simply an accessory which is nice to have if you can afford it, like a sunroof or 22 inch rims, but a necessity in order for your engine to run.
This is what it means to be sheep in a flock. This is why it is the best thing for us, but an incredible insult to our self-control and desire to be our own captains.
We can't live in isolation of leaders in our lives. We can't go this alone. There are going to be times when we simply are unable to gospel our own hearts because our hearts have gone insane. We need shepherds in our lives.
This is the only way we'll stay the course of the flow of the Gospel.
Not only do we need them, but who they are may surprise us.
II. The surprising identity of Gospel leaders
Verse 1b:
"Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul."
The early church had leaders already in their midst to tell them God's word and to teach them and watch over them and lead them on mission even when their lives were selfish, self-seeking, self-righteous, and headed for the rocks.
Notice the diversity of these leaders. Some were prophets, some were teachers. In other words, some were telling them what God was saying and others were teaching them how to work out what God was saying in their lives. They were not only proclaiming the Gospel, they teaching them how the Gospel applied to every area of their lives.
Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew who was notoriously encouraging. He was someone who would come along and minister Christ's presence to you and encourage you on.
Simeon was called "Niger" which meant that he was black.
Lucian was from Cyrene which was in North Africa, and he may have also been black, but most of the people were more middle-eastern looking in this part of the world. He may have been one of the first evangelists to share the Gospel with the Greeks at Antioch.
Manaen was probably a half-brother or some close relative of Herod Antipas. He would have been of royal, upper-class status.
Then there was Saul, who was Jewish and a very well educated academic, a professor.
This group was incredibly diverse culturally, racially, and economically. Yet they made up the leadership of the Church and reflected the diversity of the Church.
They wouldn't have always agreed since they had such different backgrounds and customs. But this leadership saw their differences as necessary and beneficial for the health of the Church since each person would contribute something different to the leadership and would be sensitive to the various needs and cultures of the Mediterranean world.
The missionary Church was birthed with this kind of mixed leadership. We need this kind of mix in our leaders/shepherds.
But who should the leaders and shepherds of our lives be? Before we look at this, let's consider a couple of errors and dangers that we fall into when considering shepherds and leaders in our lives.
1- Own shepherding
Not being accountable to anyone in our lives. Not letting anyone in our life, not giving anyone permission into the dark corners of our lives. It's own-shepherding and it's a disaster.
2- Over shepherding
As we looked at last week, we need others in authority in our lives. We are to submit to our leaders, and we are to submit to one another. Authority is a good thing, but authoritarianism is a terrible thing.
We can find over-shepherds emotionally. When we look to someone else to come in and fix everything and make everything alright. We give ourselves to them because we hope they will make our lives right.
If we look at any other human being and say, "if this person loves me, accepts me, pays attention to me, then I'll be happy and have meaning in my life," you'll be ruined and you'll ruin the person in whom you're hoping. This is making someone your savior.
This is emotional slavery.
There is also leader authoritarianism. There are some who are so needful of leadership that they give up a sense of themselves so that they are totally led by some charismatic and strong figure. The person becomes their Lord who exercises too much control over their lives.
People who received no shepherding or were abandoned in some way growing up often run to over-shepherding and hope for someone to lead them.
Or, if you've been the victim of over-shepherding growing up, perhaps a parent who over did their job, you'll run to own-shepherding to escape the constraints and be free.
Most people in America say, "I'm spiritual, but I don't like the church," and it's because they've been burned by an authoritarian church.
Both are a disaster because they leave us in a kind vertigo where our lives are totally imbalanced.
So, who should be leading you? How do you find leaders? It's not as difficult as you might think.
1- Your peers in grace
The leaders in Antioch were people just like them. They didn't have a halo over their head, they were fellow sinners saved by grace.
These individuals are not marked out by being elders in this passage, though that may have been the case, but by their gifts. They are simply Christians who God has gifted to help lead the Church. These are people who have experienced the grace of God, just like you.
Since we are all given gifts at our conversion, this means that all of us in some ways are to be leading each other. Even if it's not an official office, it's still leadership and shepherding of one another. That's what all the "one another" passages are about!
We're told in one of these "one another" passages that we're to, "exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:13).
This is really significant. To exhort (parakaleo) means to give direction to someone, to come along side, to shepherd one another.
This means that there should be others who you're letting into your life in deep and profound ways daily. They should be so close to you that they can see the sins that you would normally hide. Why? Because these sins are deceitful and harden our hearts. They make us depressed and despondent. They cause us to live out of shame, fear, guilt, pride, and self-righteousness instead of grace. They cripple us and make us lame for mission since we're not experiencing grace through their deceitfulness.
These sins will never be seen until you let others into your private life and open up and share your flaws, sins, and temptations. You open up to give someone else a hunting license in your life to come in and tell you the Gospel and call (kaleo) you back to grace and away from sin.
Is there anyone in your life like that?
You realize that even if you come to church every week and take notes that you're not fulfilling this passage right? It's not happening through just Sunday gathering. You need to be in radical, transformisisonal community where we are helping each other be freed and shaped into the image of Christ on mission to the world. Where else would this happen?
You might be wondering what qualifications this person should have in order to speak into your life. Well, other than being saved by grace, the number one qualification to be in your life in this way is that they aren't you!
Since they're not you they will see things that only those who aren't you can see. That's their main qualification. You don't really know how you look at people. You don't really know how your tone of voice sounds towards someone. If you don't believe me, tape yourself on a recorder and listen to your voice. You think your voice is much more profound and with a deeper tone, then you hear yourself and you sound like a whiney 11 year old!
It's the nature of sin to deceive, so we have to have peers in grace to not only hang out with, but who will go deep into our lives and challenge the way we see the world and others by grace, who will challenge the decisions we make and we'll do the same for them!
2- Jesus is our ultimate shepherd
Jesus shows us that we can let our friends be friends, our parents be parents, our hanging out buddies be just that, and our spouse be our spouse, but only He can be our Savior.
If you try to make anyone else the object of your hope and your security, if you try to make anything else the source of your ultimate joy and satisfaction, you'll destroy yourself.
Only He can set you free. Only He can keep you from trying to be your own Lord through own-shepherding and only He can keep you from placing your ultimate hope in someone else by over-shepherding.
You'll either be too afraid of or too needy of leaders in your life if Jesus isn't the ultimate captain of your soul.
III. The power of hungry leaders
Verses 2-3: "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."
This is why we see them praying and fasting. They needed God's direction. They didn't know which way to turn or what strategy to follow to go out and plant churches. They were desperate for God's direction. They realized they were sheep and needed the Shepherd to lead them.
What were they going to do next? Who was going to go? Should they be given money? Should they work for themselves? How long should they be away? When should we send them? Who's going to teach us and watch over us when they're gone? Are we ready to send people away? These things are not answered in the Bible. And these things will split a church. This is why it is so important that we seek God on these issues.
Notice what they were doing? They were worshipping, praying and fasting. Why? Because they were hungry for God.
Fasting is a way of bringing us face to face with our own self-dependency. It is a way of shake up our system to show us how dependent we've become on other things to satisfy, comfort, and give us satisfaction. It isn't that food is bad and that starvation is good; it's that when we've put our security and our ultimate nourishment in something other than Christ that it becomes distorted. Fasting is a way to shake us out of that by coming to Christ in not only spiritual need, but physical need.
Leaders are individuals who lead you into a changed life. But is that it? Is that all leaders do?
Every other major world religion teaches its adherents to change the way they're living. They are all going for some kind of moral and ethical achievement. Truth be told, there are stories of changed lives in Mormonism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and a host of other religions, and each of them are leading their followers to love their wives, take care of their families, be ethical, don't lie, don't be a drunk, don't steal, etc.
So is there a difference between Christian leaders and all the other leaders of the various religions? Oh yes, all the difference in the world.
You see, the Gospel is not first and foremost concerned with "how" we live as it is with "why" we live the way we do.
What is the dynamic of the Christian shepherd that is so different? What is the message we are telling each other and laboring to spread that is so different if all other religions are getting similar ethical results?
Verse 5: "When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews."
The Gospel message has to be proclaimed because it is a message of news, not advice.
In every other religion you are saved by following the teaching of the leader of that religion; in Christianity you're saved by the teacher! It is news to be proclaimed, not just advice to be given.
If I give you advice I'm making the assumption you can keep my instruction. In Christianity, I give you news because I'm telling you what's been done. I'm not giving you an editorial, I'm reading to you news. That's a huge difference.
If I'm saved by news, then I will no longer feel superior to other people since they are saved by grace alone as well. This means I'm freed to love and reach others that are different from me because God saved me by grace alone.
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