We think of science as being always precise, and it is remarkably precise. We think that such precision prevents disagreements among scientists about scientific matters. That is not the case. One such disagreement offers an especially illuminating parallel to a disagreement among Christians.

The scientific disagreement takes place among physicists, who study the smallest known pieces of matter such as electrons. One group of physicists has concluded that these smallest pieces of matter determine what nature will always be. Another group has concluded that these smallest pieces of matter do not determine what nature will always be. There is something random about how matter behaves, and we can't predict with certainty what the exact future of nature might be.

What is especially interesting is that both points of view are "equally good at accounting for the observed phenomena" of nature (McGrath, Theory, 270). Both offer impeccable science, but they come to different conclusions about nature.

Now, as I said, this offers a parallel to an equally perplexing Christian mystery. When the church makes a decision, does it reflect the action of the Holy Spirit or the deliberations of the congregation? As the story of Acts unfolds, we will come across several events that raise this question. We come across one such complex of events today in Acts 13.

The Choosing of Saul and Barnabas
The opening four verses present this fascinating mystery. Verse one reintroduces us to the church in Antioch, which had come into existence as a result of Sual's persecution of the Church. Verse one presents a roster of spiritual leaders in the church. In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.

Initially, Barnabas had been the church's teacher. The end of chapter eleven reported his decision to go to Tarsus and find Saul and bring him to Antioch to be Barnabas's companion teacher. Since then, three others have joined them in the task of the spiritual formation and guidance of the church in Antioch.

Verse two introduces the mystery. 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," What do you mean, the Holy Spirit said? Did they hear a voice or have a vision? The book of Acts offers plenty of examples of both. If that is what happened, the difference here is that Luke doesn't say who heard the voice or had the vision. He seems to be focused on the Holy Spirit as the power behind what is about to happen in the rest of the book of Acts.

Verse four sounds like something different. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. Verse three said the church sent them off. Verse four said the Holy Spirit sent (them) on their way. Verse three sounds like everything depended on the church. Verse four sounds like it depended on the Spirit. Both account for what happened. How do they relate?

Patterns
Luke doesn't explain himself to theologians and other curious Christians any more than nature explains itself to physicists and other curious human beings. He gets on with the story. It is obvious that it is the story of a journey, a journey with a clear Christian purpose.

Their first stop was on the Island of Cyprus. Please allow verse five to register with you for now. It is an important clue to Barnabas' and Saul's strategy. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues.

Verse six says that they traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. Does this remind you a little bit of nancy Reagan and her psychic in the in the Reagan White House?

Verses 7-8 identify the problem sorcerers and psychics can cause. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the corcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.

Verses 9-12 report that Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, performed a miracle of destruction, and Elymas was stricken blind. Verse 12: When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

The Door to the Ends of the Earth
The end of verses five had identified a traveling companion for Barnabas and Saul. John was with them as their helper. Chapter 15:37 will identify this man as John Mark, possibly the one who wrote the second Gospel of our New Testament. Verse 13 here tells us that they sailed from Cyprus to the Asian city of Perga, where John left them to return to Jerusalem.

Never does Luke specify what kind of help John Mark was supposed to give Barnabas and Saul, and never does he tell us why he left them. We will have to speculate in a later sermon about why he seems to have abandoned ship.

In verses 14-15 Luke deepens the picture of Barnabas' and Saul's strategy. From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch, located on the southern coast of what is now Turkey. On the Sabbath they entered the synagogue and sat down. They had done that routinely on Cyprus. Verse 15 opens a tiny window on synagogue life in the first century. After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue rulers sent word to them, saying, "Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak."

That's how they got a hearing. So, standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and spoke. Here for the first time (who knows why?) Sual was called Paul, and from hereon that will be his name. But why did Paul speak and not Barnabas? I suspect it was because Paul was a superior teacher, and Barnabas, guided by the Spirit, was of the persuasion that it's amazing how much you can get done, when you don't care who gets the credit. Just for the record, Paul's name with one important exception will be listed first from now on.

One half of the 52 verses that make up chapter 13 report what Paul said in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia. Like Stephen in Acts seven Paul mostly retells the part of the story of Israel. Unlike Stephen, Paul used the story for a quite different purpose.

Stephen told the story of Israel to show a pattern of unbelief. Paul tells it as the background for his presentation of Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel. In verses 16-22 he sketches the story of Israel from Abraham to King David. In verse 23 he got right to the point.

From this man's (David's) descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised. In verses 24-25 he connected the story of Jesus with another contemporary personality, which his listeners would have known about. Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel. As John was completing his work, he said: "Who do you think I am? I am not that one. No, but he is coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie."

Verse 26 offers a passionate statement of how privileged Paul considered his generation of Jews to be. "Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us (the people of Israel) that this message of salvation has been sent."

In verses 27-29 he laid responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus with the rulers in Jerusalem and their sympathizers. In verses 30-31 Paul comes back to the theme of apostolic preaching in the book of Acts. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.

In verses 32-36 Paul presents the resurrection of Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel. We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. Paul then quotes several Old Testament passages to illustrate God's promise. It culminates in verses 35-37.

"You will not let your Holy One see decay" (Psalm 16:10). For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

The punch line comes in verses 38-41. Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses. Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you: "Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you."

The response of the synagogue was heartening. As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

Incidentally, verse 43 mentions a group of people called devout converts to Judaism. In verse 16 Paul refers to a group he calls you Gentiles who worship God. Back in chapter ten we met a Roman centurion named Cornelius, a Gentile, whom Luke described as devout and God-fearing (Acts 10:2). All seem to be referring to "non-Jews, sympathetic to Judaism, those who did not submit to circumcision or observe the Torah in its entirety, but who did agree with the ethical monotheism of the Jews and attended their synagogue services" (Fitzmyer, Acts, 449-450). They were everywhere, and they made up a strategic audience for Paul, as he spoke in synagogue after synagogue throughout his travels in the Roman Empire.

A week later, says verse 44, on the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. This time there was opposition. Listen carefully. The rest of the chapter shows us the human mechanism by which Christianity made its turn to the Gentilees and began its serious journey to the ends of the earth.

When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we not turn to the Gentiles.

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. Jewish hostility drove Paul and Barnabas out of Antioch, but they left behind a church, says verse 52 that was filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
Paul and Barnabas traveled many miles on their first missionary journey and encountered at least one man of influence, Sergius Paulus, a Roman Proconsul on Cyprus. But everywhere they went they followed a specific strategy. They went to Jewish synagogues. In many, if not all of them, their Jewish kinfolks gave them opportunity to address the synagogue. They took advantage of that opening to tell the story of Jesus as part of the story of Israel.

Are there such strategies open for us? I have always looked for strategies to use within our life together at BVBC. Increasingly, I find myself looking for strategiees to impact the Brandywine Valley with the gosepl of Christ. I don't want to force anything. Just as there are channels in the waterways of the Chesapeake Bay where boats can navigate safely, so I believe there are channels in the culture of New Castle County and Southeastern PA where we can get a hearing for the love of God.

I'd like to see us take some risks for the gospel the way Paul and Barnabas did. Eight or ten possibilities of doing so are fermenting in my soul. I can't tell you today if any of them will be fruitful. So, if you are willing, pray that the Holy Spirit, who is the power behind such dreams of risk-taking, would send us out on a spiritual adventure that would merit inclusion in the book of Acts.

If that happened, would it be because we planned well and execued well? Or would it be because the Holy Spirit made it happen? We may not know how to explain it, but the truth is that both will be true, won't they? We have to plan and work as if it all depends on us, and we have to plan and work as if it all depended on the Spirit's power.

The danger we have to be aware of is emphasizing one of those realities at the expense of the other. If we focus on what we do and minimize or neglect the Holy Spirit, we'll be in danger of arrogance and pride of accomplishment, and in the end we'll lose our ability to discern the Spirit's guidance.

On the other hand, if we focus on the power of the Holy Spirit and minimize or neglect the human dimension of the work of Christ, we'l be in danger of hypocrisy and spiritual pride, and in the end we'll lose our credibility with people.

God created us body and spirit. Let's do justice to both realities. Simultaneously, let's work and pray. Let's think and trust. Let's brainstorm with each other and meditate before God. Let's make decisions but hold those decisions in an open hand.