Acts 13:1-3 is a major turning point in Acts. Barnabas and Saul are commissioned for a specific work because the Holy Spirit begins it, and the church at Antioch publicly recognizes and supports that call in worshipful obedience.

Luke begins by naming the prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch. This leadership group is both gifted and strikingly varied in background, and that fits Antioch’s growing importance in Acts as a center for the gospel’s outward advance.

The setting is important. These leaders were serving the Lord and fasting. Luke’s language points to worshipful ministry directed to God, not simply a planning meeting driven by human strategy. In that atmosphere of devotion and spiritual attentiveness, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

To set them apart means to designate them publicly for a distinct task under divine direction. The church was not creating this mission for itself. God had already called Barnabas and Saul, and the church was now to recognize and act in obedience to that prior call.

Luke does not tell us exactly how the Holy Spirit communicated this message. The most likely explanation is that the Spirit spoke through one of the prophets mentioned in verse 1, since that fits both the presence of prophets here and the normal pattern of prophetic mediation in Acts. Even so, Luke does not name the human instrument, so we should not press the precise mode beyond what the text says.

After this, the church fasted and prayed again, laid hands on Barnabas and Saul, and sent them off. Here the laying on of hands is best understood as a public act of identification, affirmation, and commissioning for the work God had assigned them. The focus is not on giving them new spiritual power, since the Spirit had already called them, but on solemn recognition and support.

This scene, then, is a formal commissioning. It shows that Christian mission begins with the Holy Spirit’s initiative, not merely with church strategy. At the same time, the church has a real responsibility to discern, confirm, and support God’s call through corporate worship, prayer, and obedience. Divine calling and church commissioning work together; they are not in competition.

This passage should also be read within the larger flow of Acts. It is not simply a timeless technique for organizing missionary work. It marks a decisive transition in Luke’s narrative as the gospel moves outward in a more focused way through Barnabas and Saul, advancing the book’s broader theme of God’s saving purpose reaching the nations through the risen Christ by the Spirit.