³Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. ⁴So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

The famous auto racing event, the Indianapolis 500, gave birth to the phrase, “Gentlemen, start your engines.” This starting command suits our text well today. The Spirit spoke, “Gentlemen, start your spiritual engines to begin the race to reach the world with the gospel” (to paraphrase the text). In other words, “Get going!” And so they did.

God did not dictate the method, but the team of six spontaneously acted. They fasted once again and prayed, and four of them “laid their hands” on the Spirit-appointed two, Barnabas and Saul. That phrase has come to be associated with a group identifying and enabling an individual for ministry. We saw that in Acts 6:6 when the apostles “laid hands” on the seven servants to deal with the problem of inequality of benevolence toward the widows. It came to be associated with imparting a spiritual gift or commissioning someone for ministry (see 1 Tim. 4:14, 2 Tim. 1:6, Heb. 6:2). As we see in our passage, this activity did not create authority or power or gifting—that is what the Spirit does. But the laying on of hands gives symbolic recognition and acknowledgment of the reality. Lest anyone think the leadership at Antioch ecclesiastically and authoritatively conferred spiritual power to Barnabas and Saul, verse 4 makes it clear that the two were “sent out by the Holy Spirit.” They were servants of God, not the church. We must emphasize this distinction because of the abuse seen in the hierarchical structure common in many formal churches with their clergy-laity divide. God is the one who selects His ministry servants, and the leadership is called upon to recognize what God has done.

It is quite obvious that the laying on of hands symbolizes solidarity between those who send and those who are sent. This unity and harmony led Barnabas and Saul to report back to the church at Antioch upon the completion of their mission:

From there they sailed to Antioch, from which they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had accomplished. (Acts 14:26)

The accountability was not of an authoritative nature, but one that naturally arose out of a common sense of God’s calling. Barnabas and Saul’s mission was an extension of the ministry of the church in Antioch.

So begins the journey, as the two left Antioch, headed west, and picked up a boat to the island of Cyprus, Barnabas’ birthplace (Acts 4:36).

Lord, help me be a believer of action and not waste time just thinking of serving.