And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
In Antioch a small group of teachers and prophets are praying and fasting when the Holy Spirit breaks in with a command. The moment raises questions that still shape Christian service: what were they doing when He spoke, who called Barnabas and Saul, and does the Spirit still direct His workers this way?
What filled the room was not preaching to people. It was time spent with the Lord Himself. (The quotes here use an older translation, which reads "as they ministered to the Lord.") One writer rules out two common misreadings and explains what the fasting added:
William KellyDo not confuse this ministering to the Lord with serving Him in preaching or teaching. It was no doubt mainly prayer and intercession. The idea that the Lord's Supper was involved is crude and unfounded... The fasting that went with their spiritual action toward the Lord confirms this. Fasting humbles the outward nature, so that the inner man may be before Him with an undivided heart.
That posture is not a relic of the past. It raises a question about how we start work for God today:
Edward DennettWe may well ask whether our service for God today is often taken up too easily. Would it not help spiritual power and effectiveness if we were more often found in this attitude before we began anything for God?... Our question is about waiting on God together, with fasting, before we start work in which all the saints have a common interest. The early Church understood this.
The wording of the command is the point. Something that speaks, claims servants for itself, and issues orders is not a force:
A. J. PollockMany have thought of the Holy Spirit as only an influence, and not as a Person, equal with the Father and the Son in the unity of the Godhead. But Scripture shows plainly that He speaks and acts only as a Divine Person can speak and act. The present occasion bears this out. An influence cannot say, "Separate ME Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." This is the language of a Divine Person. It is the speech of sovereignty, and only a Divine Person is qualified to use it, out of a will that is all-powerful and wholly wise.
Notice the tense. The Spirit does not say "I am calling them" but "I have called them." The separation falls on two men who had already served for years:
William KellyWhatever the channel, the word was not spoken to the church but to the fellow workers, to separate those two for the special work in front of them. It is the Spirit Who says, "I have called them." This was not the first time either Barnabas or Saul had been called with authority to the service of Christ. Even the younger of the two had worked openly and well for years, both in the gospel and in the church. Men in a hurry to find the rite of ordination in this passage end up with ordination carried out by brothers of lower rank than the two men themselves.
The commission did not come from Jerusalem, from the twelve apostles, or from the meeting in Antioch. Their work traced back to one source:
J. N. DarbyThe Holy Spirit commands them to separate to Him Barnabas and Saul for the work to which He had called them... The definite and obvious source of their mission was the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who called them to the work. He sent them out — an all-important principle in the Lord's ways on earth. We come out from Jerusalem, from Judaism, and from the authority of the apostles the Lord chose while He was on earth.
One writer draws the line between what belonged to that hour alone and what stays with the Church:
Samuel RidoutThe occasion was momentous. It was the first regular going out from the assembly of messengers who would carry the gospel to Gentiles as well as Jews. Some features here belong to the apostles alone. Yet in the main it is a simple picture of the spirit of prayer, self-denial, dependence and fellowship that should mark the Church of God at all times. There may be no "prophets" now who can put the infallible "thus says the Lord" in front of their own words. But we have the "thus says the Lord" in His all-sufficient and infallible word, and we have the same sovereign Spirit, who can certainly make His will known.
- Waiting — They were not planning a campaign. They were busy with the Lord in prayer and fasting. Guidance came to men already turned toward Him.
- Speaking — A mere influence cannot say "Separate Me." The One who broke the silence claims servants for Himself. That is the language of God.
- Calling — The call came first, the separation second. God's summons to a work is His own act, not a rank conferred by other men.
- Sending — The mission came from the Spirit, not from Jerusalem, not from the twelve apostles, not from the meeting at Antioch. A new starting point on earth had opened.
- Continuing — Some features belonged to that one hour. The prayer, self-denial, dependence and fellowship are for the Church always, and the same sovereign Spirit still makes His will known.
Then, having fasted and prayed, and having laid [their] hands on them, they let [them] go.
The Spirit had just named Barnabas and Saul for the work He had called them to. This verse records what the gathering at Antioch did next: fasting, prayer, and hands laid on the two men. What did that act give them, if anything?
The chapter mentions fasting twice. One writer reads that repetition as a sign about the people waiting on God, not about the food.
Samuel RidoutTwice fasting is mentioned, and it must be specially significant. I do not speak of the mere going without food. I mean that spirit of earnest longing, of self-denial, of absorption, which lies behind the actual neglect of food. Fasting is not an end, and hardly a means to an end. It is a sign of the purpose of a soul that has lost its natural inclinations in one mastering desire. It is to such souls, emptied of self, that the Spirit makes known His will.
One writer answers those who say such passages only describe an inner attitude:
W. T. P. WolstonThe assembly identified themselves fully with their mission by fasting, prayer, and laying on of hands. I think when Scripture says a fast, it means a fast. Often one hears it said, "That means a moral state." Do you think it was only a moral state at Antioch? The moral state existed, and it showed itself by an actual, physical fast, which was not commanded, so far as we read.
The account explains the gesture later, when the two men return to where they started.
William KellyThis was not to confer authority... The end of Acts 14 explains what this action was, and why hands were laid on them. It says there that they sailed to Antioch, the starting-point, from where "they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled." That was the object and meaning of the hands laid on Barnabas and Saul. It was not the presumptuous thought that men who were spiritually below the apostles could give them what they themselves did not have to the same degree. It was simply a brotherly commendation to the grace of God.
One writer draws out what a hand laid on a man commits you to.
W. T. P. WolstonNote this, no hypocrisy. If I pray, and put my hands upon a man, I am identified with him. If I put my hand on my brother in prayer, I ought next to put my hand into my pocket, to help him, because "the laborer deserves his wages." They identified themselves with these two men, and no doubt supported them.
One writer asks who was laying hands on whom, and what that would mean if the act were ordination.
J. N. DarbyHere prophets are together, and the Holy Spirit says, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul to the work to which I have called them." There was no popular choice of office-bearers, at any rate. And these prophets (not the presbytery, of which there is not a word) laid their hands on them. It was not to ordain them, but to commend them to the grace of God for the work which they then fulfilled. ... If this is ordination, it is ordination of apostles by laymen.
The last words of the verse matter. Where the ESV reads "sent them off," one writer argues that the assembly only let them go:
F. W. GrantThey were all waiting on the Lord in complete seriousness of spirit when the word came. Afterwards, when they laid their hands on them, prayer and fasting went with the action. But those who acted with this true and earnest interest took no authority in it. They "let them go" — not "sent them away." The text says next, in plain words, that the "sending forth" was of the Spirit.
From here the base shifts, and so does the authority behind the mission.
J. N. DarbyThey were sent forth by Him — an all-important principle as to the Lord's ways on earth. We come out from Jerusalem, from Judaism, from the jurisdiction of the apostles named by the Lord while He was on earth. ... A glorious Christ in heaven acknowledges the disciples as members of His body, as Himself on high. The mission comes from the Holy Spirit on earth, and it knows only His energy as the source of action and authority. This is the work which now opens.
- Emptied — fasting is the sign of a soul absorbed in one desire, and the Spirit makes His will known to such souls.
- Commended — the hands on Barnabas and Saul meant one thing, and the end of Acts 14 says it: the assembly commended them to the grace of God for the work.
- Identified — real commendation continues in support: a hand on a man in prayer, then a hand in the pocket.
- Released — the assembly only let them go; the word for sending them out belongs to the Holy Spirit in the next verse.
- Sent — the mission came from the Spirit, not from Jerusalem or any office, and the work now opens away from the old centre.
They therefore, having been sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia, and thence sailed away to Cyprus.
At Antioch the disciples had just let Barnabas and Saul go, yet Luke does not say the church sent them out — he says the Holy Spirit did. That raises the question behind the rest of the book: who sends a servant of God, and where does the work start?
The verse names who sent them. One writer traces the whole ministry of these two men back to that source.
J. N. DarbyThe Holy Spirit commands them to set apart for Him Barnabas and Saul for the work He had called them to do. Such was the source of the ministry of these two. It certainly bore witness to the One they had believed in, whom Saul at least had seen. They acted under His authority. But the clear and obvious source of their mission was the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who called them to the work. He sent them out (v. 4). This is an all-important principle about the Lord's ways on earth.
The men at Antioch did one thing in verse 3; the Spirit did another in verse 4. One writer shows that Luke's words keep the two apart, and that the Spirit speaks here as one acting in His own sovereign right.
C. E. Stuart"Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." "Set apart for Me," "I have called them." These words show sovereign action… But they went on their mission, Luke adds, "being sent out by the Holy Spirit." Both their call to this new work and their mission as apostles came from the Holy Spirit. The disciples let them go to their work; the Holy Spirit sent them out. The words used here in the inspired record are worth noticing. They support the translation "let go" instead of "sent away" in verse 3.
The starting point matters as much as the sender. The work now goes out from Antioch, and a new man takes the lead.
William KellyApart from his share in the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15), Peter disappears from the history in front of us. Another figure comes not just into prominence, but into the centre — and he does so from this very chapter, the first chapter of what we may fairly call the second volume of the Book of Acts. We hear of a mission by the Holy Spirit — not from Jerusalem, but from Antioch. That city was already known for a Christian zeal that made a strong impression on outsiders, and for the first united stand made or mentioned among the Gentiles.
Naming the sender also rules out every other sender. One writer applies this to any group of men who claim the right to commission.
C J DavisIt is as outrageous to imagine two directors at the same time as to think of two heads giving orders to one body. It was not the assembly of saints that called and sent these men out on their mission, and it was not a body of officials either. The Holy Spirit chose them (v. 2), and the Holy Spirit sent them out (v. 4).
Being sent by the Spirit did not cut the two men off from the believers who let them go. When they came back, they called the assembly together.
William KellyNext, notice this. The Holy Spirit sent them out with authority (Acts 13:4), and that put them under direct responsibility to the Lord, whose servants they were. Even so, they were quick to share all He had done with the saints. They call together the assembly they had gone out from, so that all might rejoice in His grace — above all in His grace to the Gentiles. The church is not the source of the mission. It is the place of fellowship with the grace of God — grace that used the truth to bless the Gentiles through Paul (not Peter), starting on earth from Antioch (not Jerusalem, and not Rome).
The sending shows up on a map. They sail from a real port to an island that one of them came from.
C. E. StuartWithout delay they went out. They took ship at Seleucia, the port of Antioch. It was a thriving place then, with a good harbour; now it is a ruin, its two basins choked with sand… They went first to Cyprus, the home country of Barnabas. Many Jews lived on that island: at Salamis, the city where they landed, there were several synagogues.
- Called. The Spirit says "I have called them" — words of sovereign action, not the language of an impersonal force.
- Let go. In verse 3 the disciples only let them go; the wording carries no commissioning.
- Sent. Verse 4 supplies what verse 3 withheld: the mission itself came from the Holy Spirit.
- Out. The starting point moves from Jerusalem to Antioch, a Gentile city — a new centre for the work.
- Back. They came back and told the assembly everything: the church does not send the mission, but shares the joy of God's grace in it.