The work of God.
This first famous missionary tour had some features quite peculiar to itself and is, in some respects, inimitable by us. Bat in other aspects it may be regarded as a typical work of God.
I. IT was BEGUN IN GOD. It was
II. IN HIS STRENGTH IT WAS CARRIED ON AND COMPLETED. In his strength. The entire account, from beginning to end, conveys the idea that the apostles sought and found their strength in a Divine source; indeed, nothing less would have sustained them under the difficulties and sufferings of their mission. It was carried on and completed. It was a work "which they fulfilled"
III. IT WAS CROWNED BY A RECITAL TO THOSE WHOM THEY REPRESENTED. Paul and Barnabas were undoubtedly sent of God; but they also went as members of the Church at Antioch. That Church regarded them as its representatives, followed them with its sympathies, sustained them by its prayers, and received them back with its warmest welcome. And to that Church, gathered together for the purpose, they recounted" all that God had done with them "—a most suitable crown to a noble work. With eager, sympathetic, rejoicing spirits the assembly must have received the narrative. How grateful must have been the psalms, how fervent the prayers, how heartfelt the congratulations, that followed! A work is not crowned until its story has been told to those who had a real and living part in its initiation and its procedure.
IV. IT WAS FOLLOWED BY INVIGORATING REST (verse 28)—the rest of