Paul's POP Strategy (Acts 13)

Paul learned and followed Jesus’ strategy

He followed relational pathways to find the People of Peace

ACTS 13:1-7, 12- 15, 48-52 (LUKE 10)

• Barnabas led the team and they learned the POP strategy
• They went to Cyprus – where Barnabas was from
• Sergius Paulus was the POP

KEY IDEAS

1. Paul followed relational pathways
2. He was always learning and growing
3. We don’t “win one convert” – we look to disciple communities

ACTION
Who are the POP in the passing and permanent relationships?

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT NOTES

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

barnabas, cyprus, sergius paulus, paul, jesus, disciples, missionary journeys, head, lead, relational, pray, peace, verse, city, antioch, saul, principle, chapter, journey, turkey

SPEAKER

Tim Piesse

Something I find really helpful to do with the guys that I’m coaching in my cluster, is to look over the three missionary journeys of Paul. Incredibly, incredibly helpful because he’s on this learning curve. I don’t think he’s the fully orbed article. He’s not like, I wrote Romans in my spare time, just because he got knocked off a donkey or camel on the road to Damascus.

And so what’s really helpful is to look back, and we’re going to look right now at Acts chapter 13, and we’re going to look there, just ever so briefly, just to look at this, just this idea of the Paul starts on these three missionary journeys, Acts 13 through 19. And he looks, and what he’s going to do is he’s going to learn the words, the ways in the works of Jesus, and he’s going to, he’s going to learn them from I think Barnabas, who clearly takes him under his wing with a number of other people and invests in him and disciples him. And he disciples him, I think, in the way that he was discipled by Jesus. I think that Barnabas, Philip, I think Steven as well, I think they were part of the 72, this broader group of people, not the 12 not the B team, but this broader community of people that Jesus is wanting to mobilize into ministry and so Barnabas learned the words, the ways in the works of Jesus, from Jesus, and he sees this high capacity leader in Paul. This once in a generation leader in Paul. And who’s burning out even as he goes about what he’s doing, you know, in his hometown, and in Syria, as he starts out with full on zeal for Jesus after He comes to Christ. But what Barnabas does, and it happens as they’re sort of based in the city of Antioch, Syrian Antioch, just north of Israel. What happens is this team who are leading this church, they are praying and fasting. Fascinating, really important part, prayer is not part of the work, pray is the work. And one of the key questions that we have for the guys that we are leading, and they were coaching in our clusters, is, what is your prayer life look like? What is your team strategy for prayer, is your strategy for prayer as clear as your strategy for disciple making?

But these guys they’re praying and fasting, this diverse group of people Barnabas and Simeon and Lucius and Manaen, and Saul. And they pray, God speaks to them. And so prayer is so much the DNA of this of this leadership team that they keep praying and fasting, they didn’t just stop when they got the answer. They keep going, keep doing it. Why? Because they’d learned how to pray, like Jesus. 

And so out of that, the Holy Spirit says, set apart for me Barnabas, and Saul. Barnabas named First, I think it’s significant, I think that Baranabas is going to take the lead. And what you’ll see over the, these missionary journeys, or this first missionary journey is the Barnabas will start taking the lead and then there’ll be this room that Barnabas makes. And I love him because he’s, Barnabas is this kind of guy who I think, doesn’t live at the mercy of his ego. And when he sees Paul emerging, he’s happy to step back and give him room to grow, and then ultimately, to take the lead. 

They head out, and interestingly they head out having prayed and fasted and the Holy Spirit speaks to them. They head out with Mark as their apprenticeship because apprenticeship and disciplemaking and development is part of the DNA of this team and the DNA of this movement, because it was part of the DNA of the movement that Jesus started, but they head to Cypress. It’s fantastic. It’s not rocket science. Barnabas and John Mark, they’re from Cyprus. And so they head there, what are they doing? They’re following the relational pathways. They’re looking for people of peace. And this is the first thing that Paul will learn from Barnabas over these three mission journeys. Paul has shown no indication that he understands this principle at all up until this point, like he’s been going hard or going home. And what Barnabas seems to do is teach him and train him in this principle. 

Now they hit the East Coast of Cyprus, and they start in the synagogue. Again, they’re just looking for the places of grace, favor, and invitation. And they look there, and I think what they’re doing is they’re looking for the people of peace, again, to reiterate with our guys who we got together in cluster with them, to reiterate with them, look for the people of peace. Now, not everyone will be a Person of Peace, but also not no one will be a Person of Peace and what we need to do is keep looking. Being conspicuously spiritual, predictably present, and authentically curious, as we look for the People of Peace as we look and engage with the places of grace, favor and invitation, the places that people of peace gather.

And so that’s exactly what Barnabas does with Paul and with John Mark. And there’s no success on the East Coast. There’s no success and it says that they go through the whole island until they get, until I get to the west coast of Cyprus, and there they come to the city of Paphos and they encounter this false prophet. Brilliant name. He’s a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus. Terrible name, terrible name if you’re going to bump into Paul and Barnabas, but it’s interesting because Bar-Jesus connects them with Sergius Paulus whom, it says in verse seven was an attendant, he was an attendant of the Proconsul Sergius Paulus. And the Proconsul was an intelligent man, he sent for Barnabas and Saul, because he wanted to hear the Word of God.

And if you look through what happens here, clearly Sergius Paulus, clearly he’s a Person of Peace. He comes to Christ as a power encounter with Elymas another sorcerer. But Sergius Paulus comes to Christ, in verse 12. And then it says in verse 13, from Paphos Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. So they don’t head back. You know, we’ve successfully found someone established in Cyprus Baptist church, no no, they’re going to continue following the relational pathways. And they’re not just thinking one convert is a window that is something to be celebrated. Multiplication’s always the win in this disciple making movement that Jesus started. 

So that what they do is they head north, up onto the mainland again, but this time, it’s in Turkey. And what’s fascinating, and secular history tells us this, and I don’t need secular history to tell me that the Bible is great history. The Bible is ridiculously great history. But secular history tells us at this point that one of the in and around the place where they head to, which is Pisidian Antioch, in and around that city in this time, one of the major land owning families was the family of a man and Sergius Paulus.

So what do they do? They, they you see, what’s happened is they’ve led this man to Christ. And then I don’t know whether he gave them said, please go to my hometown, or gave them a letter of introduction, probably that, but they head North, they’re following the relational pathways. And what Barnabas is doing is he takes the lead here is he’s going this is the key principle, this is what we need to do with our guys, as we are training them as we’re journeying with them. What we need to do is help them understand we never graduate from this principle. Jesus continually look for People of Peace, and that’s what Barnabas is doing with Saul here. So what they do here is they will just keep following that and they’ll, they’ll head to head to cities like a iconium, and Lystria and Derby, who are in modern day Turkey, in this region. And again, they’re thinking region, not just a church or not just a convert. But they’re thinking region, this is the region called Galicia, which becomes the Galatian Churches that Paul will write to within a calendar year of all of this happening, because they’re going to continue on this journey of disciple making with these guys. 

What’s really interesting is if you look in the last two paragraphs of Chapter 13, what you see is after they, they go into the city and talk again, they the Jews, they go into a into a synagogue, it’s fascinating, because they actually get a welcome there that they haven’t received up until this point. So they just, they just fall in those relational pathways, looking for who likes them, listens to them, and serves them. And it says that the in verse 48 of chapter 13 that Gentiles heard, and we’re glad as well.And the word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 

And so again, there’ll be resistance at various points. And we wouldn’t wish the resistance and the opposition that hits this, this team at various points that basically threatens their lives. But resistance and pushback will be part of the journey, but we continue just looking. Why is the pushback happening? Who are the People of Peace who likes us, listens to and serves us, they might think a whole lot of horrible, theological things. That’s cool. That’s all good. But they’ll like you. They’ll listen to you, and they’ll want to serve you. It’s a personal relational journey with people. And just and then certainly important, because Luke wants us to understand that Acts 13 is really the words the ways in the works of Jesus, but in the, in the region of Galatians, on the island of Cyprus. It says this verse 51, so they shook in response to resistance, so they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and when to Iconian. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. This is language straight out of Luke chapter 10, which is the most explicit training that we get on the Person of Peace principle in the whole of Scripture. And this language “shake the dust off your feet”. It’s like these enormous easter eggs that Luke is saying, You know what you need to you need to see this principle that Jesus taught his disciples that Barnabas learned in Luke chapter eight, and put into practice amongst the as well as the others to mobilize him into ministry.

These words these ways these works are as relevant in Jewish Jesus context, in the context of a first century Turkey and Cyprus, but they’re also relevant in our experience and in our context. So we look at this first chapter Paul’s missionary journeys Acts chapter 13 looking at how to Barnabas train Paul in the principle of the Person of Peace.