Intro
We are walking through the book of Acts here at The Bridge, a book that tells the story of the early church. It’s a book that is an inspiration and encouragement to us 2000 years later, since we know that the God who worked in such powerful ways then is the same God who can work in powerful ways today. We’re in chapter 13 today, which is a pivotal chapter in Acts. Through the first 12 chapters of Acts, you’ve had the Gospel spreading first in Jerusalem, then the neighbouring region of Samaria, and then even to other parts of the Roman Empire. Some of this spread has been prompted by persecution. You’ve had Christians fleeing those who would take their lives, and in the process bringing the good news of Jesus to new regions. But in Acts 13, there’s a bit of a shift. You’ve got Saul and Barnabas very intentionally (directed by the Holy Spirit) journeying from place to place planting new churches and preaching the Gospel in new places. They’re not doing this because they’ve been forced out of Antioch. This is an intentional missions trip. And this is where you start to really see the spread of the Gospel in the ancient world. To use language we’ve become very familiar with in the last few years, there’s an outbreak. Something that may have seemed confined to one geographical place increasingly spreads throughout the world. It’s a Gospel epidemic! It’s Gospel infection! Call the World Health Organization, lock everything down! But it’s an outbreak, an epidemic, an infection, that actually promotes healing and health and restoration in a world of sickness and brokenness. That’s the kind of outbreak we need today!
Last week we looked at a passage where Saul and Barnabas are identified by the Holy Spirit as servants who are to be sent out. The church in Antioch, where they served, could have resisted this and held onto these beloved leaders. Instead, because they had a Kingdom mindset, they affirmed the leading of the Holy Spirit. They sent Saul and Barnabas with their blessing, along with John Mark. The first place Paul and Barnabas head to is Barnabas’ own home, the island of Cyprus. I like how one commentator points out that the leading of the Spirit isn’t always contrary to common sense. We might assume that if we make ourselves available to God, He will send us to some far-flung place that we’re completely unfamiliar with. Maybe. But He may very well call us to bear witness to the people we’re most familiar with, to the people we already intuitively understand. God doesn’t just negate our life experience. He uses it to make His grace known through us.
We pick it up in verse 4.
4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper. 6 They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, 7 who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. 9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10 “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11 Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.
Acts 13:4-12
1. Bar-Jesus
All this happens on Cyprus, an important island just over 100 km away from what is now Lebanon and Turkey. There were two major cities on Cyprus, Salamis being on the eastern end, Paphos being on the western end.
It’s in Paphos that we learn about this dramatic encounter involving three main characters: a sorcerer named Bar-Jesus, a proconsul named Sergius Paulus, and an apostle who is now going by Paul. Let’s look at each of these characters in turn, starting with Bar-Jesus, or Elymas as he is also known.
Bar-Jesus literally means son of Jesus, or son of Joshua. That’s a pretty thoroughly Jewish name. And Luke makes sure we know that this man was Jewish. He was a descendant of Abraham. By ethnicity, he was part of God’s covenant people, who God had rescued from slavery in Egypt. He was part of the people to whom God had revealed Himself at Mt. Sinai, to whom God had sent prophets to in order to call them back to faithfulness to Him. In all likelihood, this man would have grown up hearing the stories of God’s power. He would have received instruction about how to live well in God’s sight. This was his background. This was his heritage.
But Luke gives us another description of Bar-Jesus. Luke says he was a “sorcerer”. The Greek word is “magi”, which might remind you of figures in the Christmas story, more popularly (and incorrectly) known as the “three kings”. Magi were actually government counselors or advisors, who would often base their counsel on astrology, divination and magic. They had solutions for problems you didn’t have an answer for. One Greek writer (Pliny the Elder) talks about how if you had a toothache, magi would recommend boiling some earthworms and pouring them into your ear. You know, basic medical procedures we all know and love today. Bar-Jesus served in this way in Sergius Paulus’ court. He was an advisor, basing his counsel on the magic arts. In fact, this affinity to magic arts had become so core to his identity that the other name he went by was Elymas, which is an Arabic name meaning something like magician or sorcerer.
Here’s the thing: the words “Jewish” and “sorcerer” were not supposed to go together. In Deuteronomy 18 we read “let no one be found among you who…practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12) That’s pretty clear. If you’re one of God’s people, don’t mess around with this other stuff. It’s like oil and water. They don’t mix. They’re in fact in opposition to one another. And yet here’s Bar-Jesus who both identifies as a Jew and yet thinks he can function as a kind of sorcerer. He thinks he can live this syncretistic life where he mixes the Jewish faith of his ancestry with the spiritistic worldview of his Gentile context. But it doesn’t work. It’s clear from the Bible this doesn’t work. And when Paul confronts Bar-Jesus in Paphos, he holds nothing back: Bar-Jesus, literally son of Jesus, has instead become a son of the devil, full of deceit and trickery and an enemy of everything that is right. That’s why Luke calls him a false prophet: not because he’s predicting things that don’t come to pass, but because he’s falsely claiming to be revealing God’s word.
How many people today try to do something similar to Bar-Jesus? Well, maybe not exactly the same. There are sorcerers and witches out there, but I don’t know any as far as I know! But there are people who grew up with some teaching about who God is. They grew up with Bible stories. Maybe their parents or grandparents were devoted believers. They know that this is in their past. This is their heritage. Meanwhile, as they’ve grown up, they’ve fully embraced the ways of thinking and living in the world. They’ve adopted the kinds of worldviews that are favorable in our society. They’ve assumed worldviews that say that morality is up to your own choosing, worldviews that emphasize autonomy from God, worldviews that form an image of God based on whatever is acceptable and desirable to our own particular culture. Actually, that’s what sorcery is in some ways. It’s an attempt to manipulate the supernatural to accomplish our own ends. That’s what a lot of people do in our world today. They want to manipulate God to their own ends. The result is that you have all these people trying to make syncretism work, taking a bit of the Christianity they grew up with and mixing it with whatever they find appealing that is on offer in our world. Mixing it with whatever they think will get them ahead in life.
But it doesn’t work. These things do not go together. They don’t mix. You can tell because, just like Bar-Jesus, when people like this come into contact with the genuine Gospel message, they are offended. When they hear the all-or-nothing radical message of Jesus, they resist it and oppose it and try to turn others away from it too. Despite their heritage in the Kingdom of God, they have actually become agents of the kingdom of the evil one. Beware the example of Bar-Jesus. Don’t try to do this spiritual mixing and matching that is so prevalent in our day. Don’t think your heritage or ancestry or even your Sunday morning attendance earns you favor with God. Like I said a few weeks ago, Jesus wants your whole heart. Disciples of his must be all in, making him number one by far in their lives.
2. Sergius Paulus
Now let’s look at Sergius Paulus. He is called a proconsul. I learned something this week that is guaranteed to make almost no impact on your life, but you’re at my mercy so you have to learn it anyway. In the Roman empire, there were two kinds of provinces. There were imperial provinces that were overseen by the Emperor, had governors appointed by the Emperor, and had Roman troops stationed there. These were the seditious places where uprisings and revolts were a continual threat. Judea, with Jerusalem at its centre, was absolutely an imperial province. However, there were also senatorial provinces. These were regions the Emperor felt very secure about. He would place no troops there and would hand oversight of them to the Roman Senate. He figured if any senator wanted to overthrow him, that senator would get no help from a province without troops. Cyprus was a senatorial province, so it didn’t have a governor. It had a proconsul. Maybe that helps explain why Sergius Paulus may have been more open to the Gospel than if he was a blood-stained governor, crucifying rebels and exerting Roman power by force.
He certainly seemed to be open, didn’t he? Luke describes him as “intelligent”. This word isn’t always favorable in the New Testament, but not because God opposes education and learning, like some people think. After all, Paul himself was a brilliant scholar. Instead, that word is used negatively in the New Testament when people mix intelligence with arrogance (eg. 1 Corinthians 1:19). Sergius Paulus doesn’t fit that category, however. He wants to hear the word of God. His intelligence led him to a genuine desire for understanding. He wants to know about Jesus. He clearly had heard something somewhere and he was curious. He was hungry to find out more. And so he takes initiative. He doesn’t wait for Paul and Barnabas to come to him, he sends for them. This is the dream scenario for any preacher of the Gospel. For the most part, preachers are begging for people to listen, doing anything they can to draw an audience. I remember hearing of youth ministries that would give a new iPhone or XBox to whoever invited the most friends to some event. Get the Kingdom of God and Call of Duty all at once! In contrast to that, Sergius Paulus is ripe for the good news! There’s no need for bribery or trickery to get him to listen!
However, Sergius Paulus does have an issue. There’s a significant obstacle before he can believe the good news that salvation and eternal life have come through Jesus. That obstacle is our old buddy, his attendant Bar-Jesus. Bar-Jesus is determined to turn Sergius Paulus away from what he’s hearing. You can see it, can’t you? You can picture Bar-Jesus saying to Sergius Paulus, “don’t listen to these guys. I’m a Jew, too. I know the stories as well as they do. They’re out to lunch, man!” You can see him having just enough credibility to influence Sergius Paulus to doubt what Saul and Barnabas are telling him.
Influence from people can be pretty powerful. We know this from experience, maybe especially in adolescence. When I was a teenager, I was an incredibly conscientious kid, extremely concerned to follow the rules and not do anything I wasn’t supposed to. I was also terrified of girls. I’m talking about a palms sweating, heart beating 20 times faster, jumbled nonsensical words if in the presence of an attractive classmate kind of fear. But there was one girl who was part of the upper echelon of high school dynamics who would talk to me. For two years, she tried to convince me to skip a class and hang out with her and her friends. I’m guessing there was some appeal in even slightly corrupting the hyper-moralistic goody goody of the school. For two years I resisted this temptation until the last day of Grade 12. Even I, who as a teenager thought I was immune to bad influences, skipped a class! Which in reality meant that I was joining 90% of the student body who had all decided that class wasn’t worth attending on the final day. But I had done it. I had been influenced. I even summoned up the courage to ask this girl if she had a boyfriend, which of course she did, which made me instantly regret skipping the class. You mean this super popular girl wasn’t actually interested in a sweaty-palmed nerd? What did I even do this for?
Of course, coming under the influence of others isn’t just something that happens to teenagers. It’s a human thing, from childhood to old age. When I was thinking about Bar-Jesus and Sergius Paulus, I thought about a scene from The Two Towers, the second of The Lord of The Rings books/movies. Grima Wormtongue is an advisor and counselor to King Theoden of Rohan. That, my friends, is a nerdy sentence. That right there is some solid evidence of my high-school era nerd status. However, Grima’s sly words have overwhelmed Theoden and held him in bondage, a shell of the man he used to be. When Gandalf arrives with his posse to liberate Theoden, Wormtongue opposes them and tries to convince Theoden to turn them away. To set Theoden free, it is necessary for Gandalf to deal with the influence of Grima.
The reality is that some people are open to the good news of Jesus, which promises true freedom. They want peace with God, they want hope of eternal life, they want forgiveness of sins. But they have all these voices whispering to them, like Grima Wormtongue, trying to convince them that there’s nothing there. It’s all a mirage, a made-up story for weak and gullible people. You might be in that place right now. You might you have some degree of openness to Jesus. However, you’re also very in tune with the voices in our culture, in our media, in our government, that say that biblical Christian faith is a bunch of crock. You might have those voices in the form of someone very close to you.
Like for Sergius Paulus, those voices may need to be sidelined if you are to believe and receive all that God has for you. In Sergius Paulus’ case, God would end up doing that sidelining for him! But whether or not that happens, let me just say: consider carefully the influences you’re welcoming in your life. Listen to those voices that lead to genuine worship and gratitude to God. Beware of those voices that lead you away from Him, that make anything central to your life other than God. Too much of us are giving far too much space to a lot of voices, whether in relationships or in our Netflix watching or in our consumption of news media or whatever, that are leading us in the wrong direction. Just like Bar-Jesus with Sergius Paulus. Consider the voices you’re allowing to whisper in your ear.
3. Paul
However, like I said, God had an intervention in store for Sergius Paulus. I came in the form of Paul, which is what Saul is known as from here on out. This is where I’m going to make a counter-preaching point. What’s a counter-preaching point? It’s me undermining a popular preaching point, which goes like this: God turned Saul the persecutor into Paul the missionary, so He can do it in you too! It’s true that He can work transformation in your life. But the name change has nothing to do with it. Saul is his Hebrew name, and it’s his name both before his encounter with Jesus and after, as long as he is in primarily Jewish contexts. Paul is his Latin name, something that as a Roman citizen he would have also had throughout his life. The switch here is entirely due to Paul now traveling around the Roman world. It’s not so much a lesson about transformation as about being culturally contextual. It’s about being culturally sensitive when we’re representatives of the Gospel in new places.
Back to the scene. Paul is speaking to the proconsul but he’s got Bar-Jesus whispering disagreements in Sergius Paulus’ ear. That would be so frustrating if you were Paul, wouldn’t it? I imagine how frustrated I would feel if I was preaching, I noticed somebody leaning forward eager to hear the word of God, but at the same time the person beside them was doing everything they could to distract the listener. I asked Nate if this ever happens to him in youth ministry and these were his exact words: “that’s half the room”. Well, Nate, Paul’s got some words for you to try out! That’s because Paul straight up spits fire, no holds barred. “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right way of the Lord?” That, by itself, is unbelievably bold. My conflict-averse nature is just squirming, thinking “that would be awwwwkward!” At the same time I feel a cathartic release because there are people I’ve wanted to say things like that to. But Paul doesn’t stop there.
For some people, it’s easy to “spit fire”, to call people out and put them in their place. However, Paul doesn’t just speak empty words. Next, he says, “now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.” He announces immediate judgment on Bar-Jesus. And it’s exactly what happens. Immediately, Bar-Jesus loses his sight. This proud sorcerer is reduced to being led by the hand, surrounded by mist and darkness. Bar-Jesus, a man who is filled with spiritual darkness, now has a physical condition to match it. His blindness is a representation to all as to what a heart like Bar-Jesus leads to. And it happens through Paul’s words. Paul, in other words, is not all bark and no bite. He’s got real authority.
It reminds me of a story in the Gospels when a paralyzed man was lowered through the roof of a house in which Jesus was teaching. He tells the man that his sins are forgiven, and the Pharisees scoff. Sure, it’s easy to say something like that, but it’s also blasphemous! What kind of authority does Jesus have to say it? But then Jesus says, fine. What’s harder, to say his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and walk? Get up, man, take up your mat and walk. That’s what the man does. The powerful deed gives credibility to the powerful word, just like it does in Acts 13.
Sergius Paulus sees this happen and he is amazed. He is amazed at the teaching of the Lord. The teaching about Jesus has been made credible because he’s seen the power in it. And so he believes. The obstacle is removed, and a man ripe for the good news is brought to everlasting life. That’s just incredible, isn’t it? Paul isn’t a sorcerer. He’s not divine, he’s not an angel. He’s a man, just like you and me. And yet through his powerful words, a Roman proconsul is brought to faith and a false prophet is exposed.
Of course, it wasn’t really Paul, was it? Luke gives it away in 13:9: “Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit…” Filled with the Holy Spirit. See, this encounter wasn’t just between Paul, Sergius Paulus, and Bar-Jesus. There was something else going on behind the scenes. A deeper conflict than the visible human one was being waged. Let’s talk about the Holy Spirit’s role here.
4. The Holy Spirit
This was what some people have called a “power encounter”. Here’s one definition from Peter Wagner: ”a power encounter is a practical, visible demonstration that the power of God is greater than the power of the spirits worshiped or feared by the members of a given social group or by individuals.” John Wimber says ”any system or force that must be overcome for the gospel to be believed is cause for a power encounter”.
In the Old Testament, an example would be the showdown on top of Mt. Carmel between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, a prophet of God. Both have an altar set up. The prophets of Baal cry out all day for Baal to send fire on their altar. It doesn’t work. Elijah absolutely drenches his altar, prays to God, and boom! Flames from heaven consume the altar. Suddenly, the spiritual climate of Israel shifts. Baal is shown to be weak, God is shown to be powerful.
Here’s a contemporary example: I read about missionaries who were traveling to villages in India. They initially bypassed one Muslim village that was known for violence towards Christians. One of the missionaries, however, received a strong sense that they were to visit that village, to the protest of the others. As soon as they entered the village, angry young men surrounded their truck. The mullah arrived and told them he would permit them to share the good news if they could heal his ailing wife. If not, well…he left it to their imagination. The stakes were high in this encounter! Either Jesus would show up in power or they’d be killed! They prayed in Jesus’ name, the woman was healed, they preached the Gospel for days, and on the basis of their authoritative word and deed that displayed the power of Jesus, 250 people in that village were baptized.
This power encounter is what we see happening throughout the New Testament. We read that the world has come under the thumb of Satan, under the influence of spiritual darkness and disorder. However, Jesus has come into the world to break the power of Satan in people’s lives. In Mark 3:27, Jesus compares it to plundering a man’s house. The implication is that Jesus is tying up Satan and taking back what’s truly his. Jesus is on the offensive. The Kingdom of God is invading the kingdom of darkness. The Kingdom of God is on the offensive! There are going to be clashes with evil, but God will prevail. That’s what we see in Acts 13. Behind the scenes is this clash between the Holy Spirit and Satan, and the power of the Holy Spirit is incomparably greater than the power of evil.
But- and this is significant- the Holy Spirit doesn’t do His work of spiritual conflict in isolation. Power encounters happen among flesh and blood people, and the Holy Spirit works through His servants, who are surrendered to Him. This is the only reason Paul can do what he does: because he is filled with the Holy Spirit. It is because Paul is walking in such intimacy with God that the words that come out of his mouth are not actually his words, but the words of God. It is because Paul is so filled with the Spirit that he can speak these words of judgment with confidence that they’ll actually come to pass. It’s the work of the Spirit through His servants, displaying the power of God. This is what removes obstacles and empowers belief. We need more of this in our day, in our culture here and now.
Conclusion
Some of you this morning might relate to Bar-Jesus. You’ve been trying to do the mix and match thing, you’ve been trying to manipulate God, you’ve been relying on your heritage even while you abandon it in every meaningful sense. Stop it. It doesn’t work. That way only leads to darkness and blindness.
Others of you might relate to Sergius Paulus. You’re interested in what you’re hearing about Jesus, but you’re also surrounded by voices that are pulling you away from that radical faith and trust he asks for. You need to be conscious of who you’re listening to and where it will lead. You need to hear the word of God on its own terms and respond to God’s voice in your life.
And others of you will relate to Paul. Or, at least, you look at Paul and say “I want that. I want that kind of spiritual authority.” You see that there are spiritual conflicts all around you. You see that there are obstacles that need to be removed in order for people to believe the Gospel. You see that Satan is having a heyday and you want to be used by God to put an end to it. You can’t do this on your own. Not even close. You can only do it as you are filled with the Holy Spirit, and the way to have this happen is through a deeper relationship with God. Be consecrated to him. Die to the things that are keeping you from him. Ask for this, fast for this, pursue it with all your heart. He is the one who gives you authority. He wants to do it. If you’re a follower of Jesus, it’s your birthright. He is the one who will empower you to do what you could never do on your own, to say things you could never say on your own, to declare things you could never declare on your own. If you want to be used by God to plunder the kingdom of darkness in this world, like Paul in Acts 13, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
