Bible Study Lesson for Acts 13:1-3: Paul's First Missionary Journey Beings

(Note: When I taught my Bible study on the Book of Acts I used a flannel map as a visual aid. In my lecture notes you will find reference to this flannel map. The primary commentary I used was Compton's Interactive Bible, a software CD; I sometimes refer to this as my Interactive Bible CD.)

Acts 13 can be broken into three sections:

Verses 1-3 describe how the Holy Spirit tells the church at Antioch that Barnabas and Saul are to become missionaries.
Verses 4-12 describe what happens on the island of Cyprus.
Verses 13-52 describe what happens at the city of Pisidian Antioch.

Read Acts 13:1. Apparently these five men were the main leaders of the church of Antioch. If you remember back in chapter 11, Barnabas is sent by the church in Jerusalem to see what was going on in Antioch. Read Acts 11:22-24. Once he is there, he realizes that more church leadership is needed, particularly in the area of teaching, so he goes to Tarsus to bring back Saul. Read Acts 11:25-26.

What of the other men mentioned here? "Simeon" is a Jewish name, but Niger is Latin for black, so he probably had a dark complexion. Lucius is a Roman name, Cyrene is the capital of Libya. Again back in chapter 11 the church in Antioch was built on a foundation of believers from Cyrpus and Cyrene; Lucius may have been one of these men. Read Acts 11:20. Manaen had been the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, that is Herod Antipas. (This is the Herod that had helped crucify Christ. Herod Agrippa the I was his nephew; Agrippa I was the Herod that just died in the previous chapter.) Manaen would have undoubtedly had many insights into the Herod family, as well as been well-connected and well educated. Considering how warped the Herod family appears to have been, it is quite amazing that a foster brother should end up a leader in the early church!

Read Acts 13:2. My commentary was quick to point out that Saul and Barnabas' first missionary journey did not result because of some businesslike planning session; no, the Holy Spirit spoke up (possibly through one of the prophets here) and told them to set the two men aside for a special work. This occurred during a time of worship and fasting.

Read Acts 13:3. When the church sends these two men out, they do so with prayer; as part of this prayer they would lay hands on the men, possibly as a sign that they are going out with the blessings of the church, as well as committing their journey to God. In Acts 14:26 we will see the completion of their mission.

As we will read in a few verses, John Mark, Barnabas' cousin and the author of the gospel of Mark, will accompany them on the journey. { Get out flannel map and put the symbol of Paul, Barnabas, & John Mark on map for Antioch }

To be continued...

Sources
Editors. Compton's Interactive Bible (software)
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version