Jesus opened the “door of faith” (Acts 14.27) for the first sending church in history, Antioch Church, which commissioned Paul and Barnabus, the first cross-cultural missionaries in New Testament history! Let us learn from Antioch Church about being a dynamic sending church that sends out workers as “sheep among wolves.” (Luke 10.1-3)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Why do you think Jesus sends His workers ahead of Him to EVERY place and town He went? How is that relevant to modern missions? (Luke 10:1)
- We see in Acts 13 that worship ignited missions. John Piper says that “Worship is the fuel and goal in missions.”What would our church look like if this statement was true?
- What can we do as a church to hear whom the Holy Spirit is actively selecting to send and to which people groups the Holy Spirit is selecting to send to? (Acts 13:2,4)
- What do you think Paul and Barnabus means “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22)? Is this statement still true and relevant?
- What can we as a church do when missionaries return so that “they (can) gather the church together and report ALL that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the (least reached)” (Acts 14:27)?
- When Paul and Barnabus returned to their sending church at Antioch, why did they “stayed there for a long time with the disciples” (Acts 14:28)? What do you think Paul and Barnabus did during that time? What can we do as a church to receive our missionaries for a long time, instead of hopping around living out of suitcases?