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Set Apart for the Work

Acts 11:19–26; 13:1–3
Alex Hogendoorn
May 31

The church exists not to gather and stay, but to gather and be scattered into the world for the work God has called each of us to.

Sermon Summary

The church at Antioch wasn't founded by an apostle, a bishop, or a missionary strategy. It was founded by ordinary believers fleeing persecution, who simply followed Jesus — and the hand of the Lord was with them. This church became one of the most significant in the New Testament, not because of its organization, but because Christ was leading it. When Barnabas arrived, his job was to do what every leader should do: encourage, establish, and equip a church that was already alive in the Spirit.

What made Antioch remarkable wasn't just its origin — it was its composition. The pastoral team included a Jewish Levite, a Sub-Saharan African, a North African Roman, a childhood friend of the king who was persecuting the church, and a former persecutor himself. People who had every reason to be enemies were standing together as one body. That is the gospel made visible. And from that church, the Holy Spirit said: set these two apart for the work. Not through a program, but through worship and fasting — a posture of submission to Christ. We gather not to stay, but to be flung into the field, wherever Jesus chooses to throw us.

Icebreaker Questions (pick one)

  1. When you were a kid, how did you play with the weeds in the yard? 

  2. Has there been a moment in your life when you felt "thrown" somewhere unexpected — and it turned out to be exactly where you were supposed to be?

Opening Prayer

Ask the Spirit to speak through the word and to lead your time together.

Scripture Reading

Read Acts 11:19–26 and Acts 13:1–3 aloud as a group.

Discussion Questions

  • God Revealed: Barnabas "was glad" when he saw God's grace in Antioch. The elders of the church were "worshipping" when they were called. What do you see in this passage that makes your heart glad and worship God?

  • Humanity Mirrored: We have a tendency to think of certain people — the most gifted, the most established — as exempt from being redirected or uprooted by God. Where do you feel that resistance in yourself?

  • Gospel-Centered Vision: The pastoral team at Antioch included people who, outside of Christ, were enemies — racially, politically, personally. What does it mean that the gospel is what made that unity possible, rather than anything they had in common?

  • Transformed Living: In what ways has this Gospel Community (or our church) encouraged or equipped you for something God was already calling you toward? Where do you still feel you need that?

  • Sharing and Witness: The sermon described each of us as being "flung" by Jesus into the specific world we inhabit — our workplaces, neighborhoods, relationships. Where has God placed you, and have you had a moment recently where you sensed that placement was intentional?

For Further Study

  • Matthew 9:37–38 — Jesus commands his disciples to pray for workers to be sent into the harvest; the word ekbalo ("throw out") captures how urgently and actively God deploys his people.
  • Acts 1:8 — The risen Jesus describes the church's witness as moving outward in concentric circles — Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth — a pattern Antioch embodies.
  • Acts 8:1–4 — The scattering of the Jerusalem church through persecution becomes the mechanism for the gospel's spread; suffering and mission are intertwined from the start.
  • Romans 10:14–15 — Paul asks how people will hear without someone being sent; the beauty of feet that carry good news grounds the theology of mission in human calling and movement.
  • 1 Corinthians 12:12–13 — The body of Christ is composed of people from every background, unified by one Spirit — the Antioch team is a living image of this truth.
  • Galatians 3:28 — There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female in Christ; what Paul proclaims theologically, Antioch demonstrates historically.
  • Ephesians 4:11–12 — Leaders in the church are given not to do the ministry themselves but to equip the saints for the work — Barnabas's role at Antioch in exact form.
  • 1 Peter 2:9 — Believers are called a royal priesthood and holy nation, set apart to declare the excellencies of God — a direct echo of the "set apart" language in Acts 13.
  • Luke 10:1–3 — Jesus sends out the seventy-two as laborers into the harvest, ahead of him into every town — ordinary people deployed ahead of any formal structure.
Adults
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