Acts 13:1

Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. And they ministered to the Lord and fasted, and the Holy Spirit said, Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them away... — Acts 13:1-5

On Independence Day weekend, a call to trade our declaration of independence for a daily declaration of dependence upon God.

A Different Declaration

"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another..." Most of you recognize these as the opening words of the great Declaration of Independence, upon which a revolution began that altered the course of history for the last 233 years.

While we are exceedingly grateful and privileged to live under the Constitution of the United States and the liberties it affords us, we must recognize that this is not our eternal home. As disciples of Christ, the Scriptures reveal that we are citizens of heaven and ambassadors of God's kingdom here in this place. And while the Declaration and Constitution are powerful, the gospel of Jesus Christ has fundamentally changed the course of human history for the last 2,000 years. In fact, those founding documents would not have come about were it not for the gospel.

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays—as a boy my goal was to become a pyrotechnician, the one who sets off the fireworks, until I took chemistry in high school. Independence is a wonderful thing, and some within our fellowship who grew up in other nations recognize its greatness even more than those born here. As we celebrate our independence, I want us to consider the idea of liberty, because it fits with what we'll see in Acts 13.

The Cost of Liberty

It is cliché—on bumper stickers and shirts—that freedom is not free, but we should recognize the truth of it. The liberty we enjoy as Americans came on the backs of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, who lost their lives fighting for and defending it. Many within our fellowship served in our armed forces, and we are indebted to you.

But more importantly, we should recognize where our true liberty comes from. In Galatians 5:1 Paul writes, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free." Our liberty, first and foremost, comes from Jesus. By His death, burial, and resurrection He set us free from the law of sin and death. Isaiah prophesied this 700 years before Jesus came:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, and he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives... — Isaiah 61:1

On the cross He gave us the power to be set free. Liberty is costly, and we see that cost in the payment Jesus made to save us from our sins.

The Danger of Liberty

Some of you may pause and ask what I mean by the danger of liberty. Look at Galatians 5:13: "For brethren, you have been called unto liberty. Only do not use your liberty for an occasion of the flesh." Do not use your liberty as a license to sin. Liberty is not the right to do wrong. Peter says something similar in 1 Peter 2:16—we are not to use our liberty as a cloak for evil. One British poet in the 1600s said, "Most men love not liberty, but license."

Over the last 50 years our nation has taken its liberty and applied it as freedom to do whatever we want. People cite "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and say that anything keeping them from pursuing whatever makes them happy is infringing on their rights. The Bible calls this licentiousness—shameless sin, unbridled lust and excess.

Look at the progression in our history. In June of 1962 the Supreme Court began moving in this direction by banning prayer in schools, and within a year banned the reading of God's Word as well. We see a sharp turn at that point, because as soon as you remove God, you remove His moral law—and His moral law dictates our liberty. With no dictate over our liberty, people figure, "I'm free to do whatever I want," and "how dare you say that is wrong." Often that mindset is aimed at the church, accusing it of holding back progress.

I thought about the misuse of liberty this week, and every parent here will relate. As your children grow, you start to see sinful tendencies that look appallingly like your own—disobedience, backtalk, selfishness, little white lies. We almost think it's hereditary. But in many ways these tendencies are passed down as our children watch the liberties we take—when we allow ourselves to cover over the truth, to lose our temper, to be selfish, they begin to allow the same liberties in themselves. For some reason sin disgusts us more in others than in ourselves, yet they are blaring inconsistencies. With liberty comes the opportunity to use it as an occasion for the flesh.

The Response to Liberty

The proper use of liberty is also found in Galatians 5:13: "by love serve one another." First Peter 2:16 says, "as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God." In Romans 6:18 Paul says, "being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." And in 1 Corinthians 8:9 he warns us not to use our liberty to stumble others.

So we are to use our liberty to serve one another, as the servants of God, having been set free from the slavery of sin and death so we can now do what is pleasing to Him.

Independent, Yet Dependent

Although we are free as a people and nation, we are utterly dependent upon God. In John 15:5 Jesus says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."

I've had a clear illustration of this. When my wife and I moved into the foreclosure house we bought on the east end of town, the entire yard was dead—except one well-established grapevine that had taken over the backyard, with shoots running 20 feet. It wasn't fruitful because all its strength went into growth. Late last year Josh came over, we pruned it back, and it looked dead. But this spring little shoots came forth, even a small bunch of grapes. Yet if I cut the branch that holds the fruit and laid it out, could it keep growing fruit? Absolutely not. That's the spiritual principle: apart from Me you can do nothing.

Paul says the same in 2 Corinthians 3:5: "not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God." Apart from God we can do nothing—and yet, Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Seek First the Kingdom

In Matthew 6 Jesus tells us not to worry about what we'll eat, drink, or wear. Consider the birds and the lilies; your heavenly Father feeds and clothes them, and you are of greater value.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. — Matthew 6:33

The unbeliever who does not recognize his Father in heaven worries about these things. Here is the key: if you are not dependent on God, you will be dependent on something else. Dependency is inherent to our person—we are dependent beings from birth. In the abortion debate people claim a child isn't a viable human being until it can survive on its own, but I know thirty-year-olds who can't survive on their own. If Ethan, eight months old, were told "you're on your own, survive," I'd be jailed for child abuse. We are dependent by nature.

If you remove your dependency from God, a vacuum opens, and you'll seek something else. In our day that dependency is shifting toward the government—we look to it to take away our cares, whether health care, clothing, or whatever comes next. Before some of you became Christians, you were dependent upon a substance—alcohol, drugs, something. When you remove your focus from the kingdom of God, you will seek the kingdoms of this world to fill whatever dependent needs you have.

From Freedom to Bondage

There's an interesting cycle to freedom. When you give a person freedom, the next thing that takes hold is courage. We saw this when Iraq was liberated—people poured into the streets with courage to protest, dance, and tear down statues, things they could never do before. Freedom moving into courage moves into liberty, where you show constraint for the sake of others.

Liberty moves into blessing, and blessing into abundance. Our nation has experienced unprecedented economic growth; many thought it would continue forever, with the Dow climbing endlessly. It's the same mindset Isaiah described 2,700 years ago: tomorrow will be like today, and much more abundant. God warned His people before entering the promised land—you'll receive cities you didn't build, crops and vineyards you didn't plant; be careful you don't cast off God when you have abundance.

Abundance breeds complacency, where you're so satisfied you're unaware of the dangers. Complacency moves to apathy—a lack of concern, a careless indifference, where we no longer fight for anything. From apathy comes dependence, looking to someone else to meet every need. And the next step from dependence is bondage—back at that place under tyranny. Freedom leads to courage, courage to liberty, liberty to blessing, blessing to abundance, abundance to complacency, complacency to apathy, apathy to dependence, and dependence to bondage. As a nation we are in those places today.

But this is true of us as individuals too. When you shift your focus from God, you find something else to depend upon and become a slave to it. The Scriptures speak well of being slaves of God—that is a good thing, leading to the right recognition that He is God, He is Lord, and He provides for every need. So we should declare our dependence upon Him. We celebrate the Declaration of Independence on July 4th; may we celebrate every other day our declaration of dependence.

A Church Dependent on God: Acts 13

What does this have to do with Acts 13? How does dependence on God practically play itself out? In the church at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers. Jesus had commanded His disciples to go into all the world and make disciples. There among this flourishing church were five men given to prophetic leadership and teaching: Barnabas; Simeon called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene, who very likely came from North Africa, the region of modern-day Libya; Manaen, brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, indicating he was from Judea; and Saul of Tarsus. This church was growing—not just in numbers, but in power, influence, and righteous lives.

Verse 2 says they "ministered unto the Lord." These five men were teaching, preaching, and doing all kinds of works, yet they corporately ministered to the Lord. Many here serve God and His people in children's, men's, or women's ministry, but we can get so focused on serving that we miss the most important aspect of our lives—ministering unto the Lord. The word "ministering" can be translated "worshiping," and it's the same Greek word used in the Septuagint for the work of the priests and Levites in the temple.

New Testament Sacrifices

When we think of the Levites, we think of sacrifice—lambs, goats, and bulls. So how do we minister to the Lord in the New Testament church, when we have no altar and you didn't bring a bull to church this morning?

In Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." You bow before Him as the sacrifice—a living one—saying, "God, whatever, whenever, wherever, I am yours." This is the right response to all Jesus did.

Hebrews 13:15 adds, "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." Verse 16 continues, "But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." So a pleasing sacrifice to God is offering praise, walking in righteousness, and communicating—sharing with those in need.

Paul shows this in Philippians 4:18. Writing from prison in Rome, where prisoners had to provide for themselves, he says, "I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you." The Philippian church took a collection and sent Epaphroditus to care for Paul's needs—and Paul calls that gift "an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God." Sacrificial giving is, in God's eyes, a pleasing sacrifice.

Fasting and Hearing God

The early church in Antioch was ministering to the Lord in these ways. And as they ministered and fasted, the Lord spoke. Fasting is an important aspect of the early church; the word here is simply the negative form of eating—they set aside time to seek God, not focused on physical needs. Perhaps it was already their pattern, or perhaps they sensed an urgency to hear from God.

God still speaks today, just as He did to Saul and Barnabas. The question is whether we are ministering, fasting, and praying in such a way that we can hear Him. Francis Schaeffer once said, "God is there and He is not silent." He is always speaking; the question is whether we are listening.

Separated for the Work

The Holy Spirit said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." The word "separate" means to set apart for a purpose. Notice that God did not reveal the specifics of what He wanted them to do. That is hard for me—God says, "Step out in this direction," and when I ask, "What do you want me to do?" there is silence. I've found God reveals things one step at a time; perhaps He knows that if He gave me the whole story, I'd flip out.

This was hard for the church at Antioch, too. Saul and Barnabas were the main teachers who helped give this church its foundation, and now God said, "Release them to the work I've called them to," because their work was beyond the walls of that church. We have experienced this at Calvary Chapel of Escondido for years—God saying, "Separate unto Me Todd and Donna Kent for the Philippines," "Separate unto Me Donna Burkle," "Chris Blake," "Tony and Karen Kordakis," and even this last year, "Separate unto Me Pastor Pat." When Pat stepped out, all the specifics weren't clear. It's painful, yet it's God's call, and as we depend on Him saying, "God, whatever you call us to, we will do," He directs.

Sent Forth by God

Verse 3: after God had spoken, they still fasted and prayed, laid hands on them, and sent them away. They fasted and prayed before God spoke, and after as well—if there was urgency before, there was even more after. Any genuine work of God begins with prayer, and I'd suggest fasting is equally important so we can hear what He wants us to do.

We must recognize our dependence and declare it: "God, You are my Father; I will rely upon You, wait upon You, and yield before You." Our nation has spent more than 50 years removing its dependency from God—out of schools, out of the public square, "keep it inside the walls and don't bring it anywhere except church." That is the path to slavery, because man, created by God, will search for something else to depend upon and become a slave to it.

Notice this church's dependence: they waited until God spoke; after He spoke, they prayed and fasted; after He directed, they laid hands on the men and sent them away—and they were sent forth by God. In a day when many churches are governed by committee, by congregational vote, or by a handful of elders—which may be well and good—the Scriptures give us a principle of men laying themselves before God and saying, "God, what would You have us do?" and depending on God to speak and direct. God wants to speak and direct your life specifically and individually today, but it will not happen if your dependence is upon something other than Him.

So I exhort you: cast your care upon Him, for He cares for you—far more than the Congress or the White House ever could. Sign, as it were, your declaration of dependence. Apart from Him we can do nothing, but in Christ we can do all things, for He strengthens us and has promised to take care of our needs—even when His care doesn't fit our expectations or wants.

Closing Prayer

Father, we cannot enjoy liberty without life, and we cannot pursue happiness without liberty. You have given us life, and in living the abundant life we experience more happiness than any person who does not know You. I know my flesh has a tendency to drift, and so I ask, Lord, that by Your Spirit You would this week remind me that I can do nothing without You. We're asking in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, Amen.