Antioch, Apostolic Sending and Setting - Part 9

Good or for ill? I've had one scary experience where some presumptuous German brother laid hands on me without my bidding him and in his zeal and I went into a meeting and it was flat. Something was taken from me by that impartation of what he was in himself, which was not good. So how is it that they allowed the hands to be laid on them as being sent? Because they were in that quality of relationship that they knew the life and the character of those whose hands would have been laid upon them. They knew that they were not up the night before twiddling the TV dial to find some X-rated movie or some other kind of dubious pleasure. They were in that relationship that they knew the life and character and therefore could welcome the hands of that people. But not only did they receive and honor that, but God himself honors the laying on of hands for it says, so they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost went. That God himself interprets the laying on of the hands of a tested body whose character is in keeping with God as being the same as being sent by the Holy Ghost. Did you see that? You must see that. You mustn't miss that. That God himself honors, certifies, and recognizes the character of that assembly as being so much in union with himself that their sending is his sending. That they being sent by the Holy Ghost went. And I'll tell you what, when you go like that, wow, mama mia, that's something much more than some autonomous going being sent by a committee with well-meaning intentions. You are receiving the benefit this morning of a man who has come to you being sent out of an apostolic body in northern Minnesota by the laying on of hands, which means that once that is performed they are not freed from the responsibility they have entered into it. That means they are in prayer this morning, in supplication, in processions for what is taking place here. And that brings a dimension of depth, penetration, content, weight that would not otherwise be our enjoyment if they were not praying and supplicating thousands of miles away because once having laid hands on this one being sent they are then covenanted and joined in a continuing responsibility to sustain him with their prayers. That's why I take photographs, slides, and when I get home I can show them on the wall who they were praying for. That thousands of miles away there's a conjunction, something established in the realm of spirit that is absolutely critical for what is taking place here. Now Art, is all that so necessary? Aren't you a gifted man? Wouldn't we just be just as much blessed as you are without such ascending, without such? No. Is it that important? Yes, because what is taking place here is not just of interest or blessing but of life and death significance. We're speaking things and speaking foundations that will affect the church in ways that will touch eternity itself. This is apostolic thinking, that a meeting is not just a meeting or an enjoyment or a blessing. Eternity itself is at stake every time saints convene and God sets a man like this before them so that in the Philippines we could say with complete confidence God has not just discussed apostolic foundations, he has established them in the word that is sent by a man who is sent. It's another kind of proclamation. It's the word becoming an event. So don't be troubled that you don't understand it all. It's over your head. It's too difficult. It's strange. The word is still going forth and will not return to him void. It has a credibility, a weight, a cogency as a sent word from a sent man that performs the thing for which it is sent. Even above and beyond your own present comprehension, it will not return to him void. I'm laboring but my labors are not in vain. This is much more than a speaker. This is much more than a gifted man or interesting perspective. It's event. An apostolic sending is an event. It moves the church from faith to faith, from glory to glory. For example, in Romans 10, how shall we believe in him of whom they've not heard? Speaking about the Jews. And how shall they hear except one preach? And how shall one preach except one be sent? For faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Not the gospel reduced to a cliche or principles or a formula, step one, step two, step three, but an apostolic proclamation of the gospel that in the hearing of it, however hostile and opposed they were prior to that, the very hearing of the apostolically proclaimed words of one sent creates the faith to believe it. My Jewish people are waiting for apostolic proclamation that will issue out of Singapore and other places of the church around the world. Okay. So being sent by the Holy Ghost, they went down to Seleucia. From there they sailed to Cyprus. They arrived to Salamis. They proclaimed the word of God in the synagogue of the Jews. They had John for a system and they went on and they encountered a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the pro-council. Sergius Paul is an intelligent man who summoned Barnabas and Saul, wanted to hear the word of God. But the magician Elemas, but that's the translation of his name, opposed them and tried to turn the pro-council away from the faith. Is this a mere happenstance or is this indicative of a certain pattern that will likely be true of our experience as it was of Paul's? That the first opposition that is experienced is itself Jewish because they are the enemies of the gospel for our sake. That somehow from the very beginning, because it is apostolic, it is going to be contended against in a very powerful way by a Jewish man who is also a magician and a sorcerer and contends against the message. But the authority of Paul is invoked against that one, Paul being filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently on him and said, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now listen, the hand of the Lord is against you and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun. Immediately mist and darkness came over him and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand. When the pro-council saw what had happened, he believed and he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord. This morning somewhere between four and six a.m., I saw this in an entirely new way. That this is not some idiosyncratic character that they happen to encounter, but that this is representative of the kind of opposition that we can rightly expect, that strangely is Jewish in its nature and has been historically opposed to the gospel. There's a certain vehemence and bitterness.