Acts 13:4-12

Okay, well, we'll try this again. Start number two. It's so good to have you this morning. If you were here watching for the first four minutes, well, we lost power, and so everything flickered, and we were gone for a minute. But we're back now, so why don't we go ahead. I'll have another drink of coffee. We'll pray, and we'll get into the Lord's Word again.
Father, we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you for your Word. We pray that you would be our teacher today. Thank you that you are the God of the thunder. You are the God who brings the rain on the just and on the unjust. And you are the one who, even though electricity might go out, your word will never go out. It will never lose power. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's have some coffee and we'll get in the Lord's Word. Alright, so I'm just going to pick up right back what I'm going to read and we're just going to start over again.
So being sent out by the Holy Spirit they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus and when they arrived in Salamis they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. Now, when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the procouncils, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elimas, a sorcerer, for his name is translated, withstood them, seeking to turn the procouncil away from the faith. Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, O fool of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?
And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.' And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went out, and he went around, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the procounsel believed. when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord." Well, I'll read it a second time this morning and it becomes no less amazing to me.
What is this about? What is this getting at? Well, remember this is where they have left Antioch. This is Barnabas and Saul. Notice the order here. That it's Barnabas and Saul when this missionary journey first starts. It seems like Barnabas is the main one.
And they're going back to Barnabas' hometown. So they're sent those couple miles down from Antioch to the port city where the Roman fleet is. And as they're there, they're going to Barnabas' home area. This is a stomping ground, right? They're going back to Cyprus where Barnabas is from.
And they go from the eastern part of the island to the western part of the island. So they make their trek from east to west. And so it says that they're going all throughout Cyprus. And that's true, right? They're going from east to west. They're moving through it. So they find different Jews in the synagogues there.
And so they've made this 16 mile or so sail across and they go to this first town, the first town is Salamis. And so when they get to Salamis, they find synagogues and they go and they preach the Word of God. Now it's just interesting here, the Greek word used for that is katevagandelion. Katevagandelion.
It's hard to, but it's according to the gospel. They're preaching the good news of the Word of God. They're proclaiming the good news in the synagogues. They're going with a very specific reason to go tell the Jews about the gospel. This lines up perfectly with the pattern that we're going to see in the book of Acts and what Paul says in Romans chapter 1 verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of God for or I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And so first they start with the Jews and then they move to the Greeks. So they move from the east and they go to the west.
And it's interesting to note here that they bring John Mark with them. He was the one who Peter had gone and revealed himself at his mother's house and John Mark was there. And so after he got out of prison, so John Mark is, they've taken him to Antioch and now they're taking him to Cyprus with them as well. We'll hear more about John Mark later. But as they go to the kind of the more major portion of the town, this is where the pro council is.
To Paphos, they find a certain sorcerer, a magician, a magus, Simon Magus, right? It was the last time we encountered someone like this, the man who was trying to buy the Holy Spirit. And here this man's a false prophet, he's a liar, and he's got the ear of the pro council.
And as they go to Sergius Paulus, he's the one who called them. He heard about them. Hey, I want to hear about these guys. He wants to hear the word of God. But this dude doesn't want the procouncil to hear from them. He tries to dissuade Sergius Paulus from getting them.
And when they get there, it's amazing what happens. This is the part of the story. I'm just going to let you know, I have this double underlined all over the place. Saul, who's also called Paulus, being filled with the Holy Spirit. I love this part. He looked intently at him. It's like he stared him down. And this is the point in which he just is spot on, right? Laser focused on him.
Oh fool of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness. This is how he describes him. a fool of all deceit and unrighteousness, you son of the devil." I don't know about you, but that doesn't exactly sound like the nicest title that someone might give me, but that's exactly where he's looking in his eyes and he's spitting truth at him. He's calling it as it is. He's calling a spade a spade, and this is what this man is, a liar, a deceitful person. Someone who's a son of the devil, who's purposely trying to dupe this pro council into believing all his crack magic.
And here, he tells him, by the power of God, what's going to happen, you're not going to be able to see for a time. And the Lord's hand is heavy upon you, and what happens? And immediately, you know, this is one of, speaking of John Mark, this is one of his favorite words, right away, immediately, a dark mist fell on him. His eyes are somehow blinded and he's groping around and he can't see and he's having to hold on to someone just to be able to know where to go.
And the pro-council Sergius Paulus sees us and he goes, whoa, whoa. He believes because he sees the word with power. He sees and he believes. This is going to be the pattern that we see time and time and time again throughout the apostolic ages. The gospel is going out and the signs and the wonders are not for personal benefit, but to show that the word of God is true. That the gospel is true. That the king has come and that the spirit is alive and active and moving through his apostles, his sent ones.
So isn't this interesting, that up in Antioch, we didn't spend much time on this last time, but up in Antioch, we had Mayanaon, who was a close friend of Herod Antipas, who comes to believe in Jesus Christ, and then we also now find a procouncil coming and believing in Christ.
I'm going to suggest to you Something that might be radical. Do we pray for our leaders today? There's going to be Herod's who need to be struck dead because of their pride in their insolence and their apostasy against the Lord. But do we actually pray for our religious leaders today? Do we pray that they'll want to hear the Word of God? Do we pray for our governors? Do we pray for our senators? Do we pray for our congressmen? Do we pray for our vice president? Do we pray for our president? Do we pray for our justices?
That they might hear the Word of God and believe it. It can happen. There were both the low in the church and the influential in the church. So often we focus on the lowly and forget that even those in power need to bow the knee to Jesus Christ. The reformation that needs to come It needs to be grassroots up, yes, but it also needs to be from the highest echelons of authority in our land. How wonderful would it be for the kings and the judges, the rulers and the principalities to hear of Jesus Christ and to follow Him.
Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we do pray. for our president. We pray for our vice president. We pray for the judges in our land. We pray for our senators. We pray for our congressmen. We pray for our governors. We pray for our mayors. We pray for those who are in power and can make decisions.
Lord, we pray that you would let them hear the Word of God, that they would not be duped by false prophets and quack magicians, that they would not go towards idolatry. But Lord, we pray that they might come and know the one true and living God. We pray that they would know the one who knitted them together in their mother's wombs and will call them to account for how they rule and judge. We pray that they would know you, that they would love you. We pray that they would be about true righteousness and justice. Lord, we pray. We pray that it's not that we might have influence, but that you might receive the glory.
How wonderful it is to hear of when anyone comes to know you. Lord, we pray that you would give us opportunities that we might speak to those people and that we might tell them of the one who we know is full of all power and might. Please teach us to live quiet and peaceable lives, with all reverence and dignity. In Jesus' name, amen. May the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. May you know that He truly is powerful and able to save. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
And thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.