1st leg of the 1st missionary journey

kind of continuity and also to notice something in particular as we go through here. We're also going to see that Saul, soon to be called Paul, carries out some amazing things here as he speaks to Elymas. So here's Acts 13, 1 through 3, and we're looking particularly at verses 2 and 3 in this.

This is another word, Antioch and the church that was there. Prophets and teachers, Barnabas and Simeon, who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene and Menaean, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. And particularly in verse 2 here, while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed, laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

So here we see Barnabas and Saul heading off for what is typically called Paul's first missionary journey. And so one of the things we pointed out last week, and we'll point out again here, is we'll see a sequence change here as well as a name change. At first we're going to see Barnabas introduced first. He was introduced back in chapter 4, verse 36, and we're given his name Joseph actually, formally, and then he is given the nickname Barnabas, which we see is carried not only throughout the book of Acts, but in the rest of the New Testament, means son of encouragement. Then we find the order then, once Saul becomes a believer, and then when the names are given together, it's Barnabas and Saul initially, And we'll find that as we start into this passage with that sequence. And then finally, we'll see Paul and Barnabas. That'll come up and eventually just Paul. So this is the tipping point, if you will, for the name change and the name switch, the name swap, change in orders. One of the things you also have on the front of your handout on the middle is kind of a map of Paul's first missionary journey.

We're going to be looking at the sending off as we just read from Antioch as they head towards the island of Cyprus, first starting at the east end at Solomus and then ending up at Paphos, and then we'll trace that through as they continue on up into Galatia. One of the things that this map doesn't make clear is all the dividing lines between the different districts. It's rather difficult to follow in detail because they don't seem to make sense from our standpoint. But Galatia has, for example, a very southern part and a very northern part. And we'll be looking in the southern part as we go through there. So today, starting at Antioch and going to Cyprus.

So Acts 13.4 says this, so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. So one of the first things we saw here as they sent them off, that they fasted and prayed and laid hands and then sent.

So the believers fasted to do what? They fasted to focus on the Lord. By the way, that's what fasting is for, to provide a focus on the Lord. I've said before, I fast pretty slowly myself, but it's to provide a focus on the Lord, not necessarily, you're not getting the Lord over a barrel, you're not doing some special trick with fasting. It's to set aside the focus on food to focus on the Lord.

Then they prayed to communicate with the Lord together, right? All of them. And then they laid hands on Barnabas and Saul, initially in that order. And what is that? That is an outward picture of their identifying with their mission. It's a picture of identification, somewhat similar to we have baptism as a picture of identification. Laying on of hands is another picture of identification. So the Holy Spirit had said at the outset to send Barnabas and Saul And then through all the believers there at Antioch, the Holy Spirit had said to set aside and had sent Barnabas and Saul for the work which they've been called to by the Lord.

So does that mean that once Once you send somebody off, and the Holy Spirit has been involved in the process, and everybody has prayed, hasn't everybody here done everything right? Are there going to be no disruptions? No hitches? Will everything go smoothly? Because after all, they did everything right, and the Lord sent them, right? So, no disruptions? Is that what's happening? Not so much.

So Acts 13.5 here, when they reach Solomus, they began to proclaim the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they also had John as their helper. So they take off. Everything's going fine. They haven't had any problems at all. Not a hitch. No difficulties.

Is that the way it's going to stay? We will see. And probably not, right? Okay, so here they go to Solomus, they go into the synagogues, and the first thing we see is they say they proclaim the word of the Lord. This word proclaim has the idea of making a message known, of declaring it. That's the thought in that word. Barnabas and Saul in that sequence initially. They weren't just going to tell people about something that they already knew. This was something new that they didn't, in fact, know before.

So the Word of God, which is a term that's used variously throughout Scripture, in this context it refers to the content to be believed in order to be saved. Let me just lay that out. It's belief that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. That is the content of the gospel to be believed. And one must believe that in order to be saved. That is called, in various ways, the gospel. It is called the word of the Lord and the word of God in different contexts, like this one. And sometimes it is called the faith. We'll talk about the faith just shortly here.

One of the things about the synagogues, the synagogues of the Jews were not a temple. They were not the same thing at all. They, in fact, had a number of synagogues in Jerusalem where they had the temple. So it was a place for the Jews to meet. It had been established kind of between the end of the Old Testament period and the beginning of the New Testament period. but as a gathering place for Jews both in the land of Israel and everywhere else throughout the world. And for those Jews who lived way far away from the Temple, it was particularly a place of focus. And two-thirds of the Jews, roughly speaking, lived outside of Israel. So a great many of the synagogues of those days were out in lands among the Gentiles.

And this was one of those, or an example of that. They would have a gathering of Jews there, and they had, by Jewish tradition, they had to have 10 adult Jewish men in order to form a synagogue. So you'd have sometimes a smaller group and sometimes a much larger group. And so this was the synagogue of those days, right? So the pattern of these two, and later Paul, was this.

We find it expressed by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1.16. He says this, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, not even in the Jewish synagogue, For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek. And you see not only the Apostle Paul saying that here, but you see that example and will find it repeated as he goes throughout these missionary journeys.

What would he do? He would first find where the Jews meeting. In some cases, they would meet not in a synagogue because there weren't enough Jewish men. Philippi would be an example of that. They'd often meet by a river or something of that sort. But with the synagogue, they would first look for that gathering of Jews, and there was one here at Solomus, and they'd start with the Jews in preaching the gospel and then move on to the Gentiles. So this was the beginning of that pattern that we'll see again and again. So they start the synagogue here in Cyprus, and we'll see that as we go through the first and subsequent missionary journeys, that that's the pattern.

One of the other things that comes out in this verse is it talks about John who is called Mark. Now I'm very glad, I'm very glad for this account of John who is called Mark. And there are several reasons why I'm glad and we'll find out more about that as we go through. He's somebody we're going to learn about and learn from a great deal. And I'm glad for guys like John Mark and it's because, well, I'm glad for people like Peter, who seemed like he had foot and mouth disease, right? So he frequently would have problems with his speaking, but the Lord changed him and used him.

John Mark is going to be another example. Well, even Saul turned to Paul himself. How did he start off? He started off as someone who wanted the Christians dead, right? and the Lord met him there on the road to Damascus. Saul, turned to Paul, was radically changed.

We're going to see this John Mark guy radically changed. The Lord, in fact, is going to surprise us about him in various ways. He first, however, is going to disappoint us greatly. We'll see in the next message or so. He is going to take off and abandon Barnabas and Saul. But later on we'll see a marvelous work of God's grace and to see how that happens.

Here's Acts 13, 6 and 7. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus. who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

Well, so first I have to tell you a story. This is a story that involves Randy. Do you see this here? This is a treehouse that Randy and his brother Ed built many years ago. and Randy was coming up on five years old, something like that. Well, during that time, in September, I think it was September of 82, we had, because the two of them had September birthdays, we had a fellow come who was a magican. Now, what's that?

I bring that up because he did magic that was comedic. He would, for example, say, I'm going to bring a rabbit out of the hat. And he'd reach down and something else would come up and he'd be surprised. And he'd put that down and he'd pull it out and something else would come up. And then the third try, he'd have something like a rabbit. Right. So at any rate, so it was like that. So here was Professor Dubious and Rainbow Queen of Mystery. Right.

And so it was a lot of fun and there were some magic tricks along with some comedy and some of it was a bit slapsticky and some of it was a bit corny. But nonetheless, so this is a magic and you'll have that sort of thing. Well, several years later, I took our son Ed to go see David Copperfield.

Now, that was really a phenomenal show. Now, it's a slightly different kind of magician, not so much comedy. but an illusionist and he did things like he would appear on the stage and in a puff of smoke he would disappear and then just one second later he'd be at the back of the audience and say hi and you'd see him run down and continue on with the show right and suddenly reappearing I saw him here's what certainly appeared to be a live duck and a live chicken And he instantly swapped their heads. And everybody in the whole audience and the whole auditorium saw the heads swapped.

And it was really weird looking, right? So here's this duck feet and the chicken head. And he did other things elsewhere. We didn't see this, but one instance he made the Statue of Liberty disappear, right? In front of a live audience there in the New York Harbor. So there are people like that who do things that are entertaining. What's the difference here? This guy was not just entertaining, he was essentially wanting to make a substitute spirituality, something that displaced Christ.

So that's the difference between the magickan, Professor Dubious and Rainbow Queen of Mystery and seeing a great illusionist like David Copperfield and this magician who actually claimed to have something spiritual similar to Simon earlier in chapter 8.

But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him. So here he was So we said previously that the filling of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts, this was about a month ago, was a special filling to empower for a specific task or to say specific words. And as you can see in each of those instances where it talks about the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts, it becomes apparent that it's a special filling for the task or for the words that follow. And it's similar in case here. This is opposed to the filling of the Holy Spirit that we studied in Ephesians chapter 5, 518, and the subsequent passage which talked about the filling of the Holy Spirit as a regular thing during the course of church history and during those days and during our own days.

So this word for fixed is gaze is one we've seen before in the Gospel of Luke. and the Book of Acts. And it is a really wonderful word. I've just been amazed as I've gone through the Book of Acts to see how the word is used in different ways. It's the word atenizo. We don't give too many Greek words here, but this is one we'll keep seeing and we see in this passage here. You'll see how it's used in various places. It's one to put a focus on. And one of the places that it comes up is in Stephen.

Stephen was looked at by the various Jewish leaders before whom he stood, and they gazed at him intently. The same word. They looked at him intently. But while Stephen was being stoned and just before he was stoned, he gazed intently at the Lord in heaven who was standing for him. And he was not distracted in the midst of that by the stones, by the shouts and noise of the men. He continued to have his gaze upon the Lord. He beheld the Lord.

Here's Acts 13.10, and Paul said, he said, And you who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, would you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

So what's astounding with this is that he does not use gentle and conciliatory words here, does he? Just rather amazing. This was full of the Holy Spirit. He said these things. So Paul says to Elimas, also known as Bar-Jesus, right? You are full of all deceit and fraud. Which of course, that just made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, right? Not so much. And why would he say this? Not only to declare the truth, but also to make it clear to Sergius Paulus The proconsul. He tells him again, you son of the devil. Now what does that mean? Son of the devil.

When you see son of used in a figurative way in the Bible, and it's used in negative ways like this, it's used in positive ways. We are called, for example, children of God. When you see son of or children of in the Bible, and it's not a literal son or child, the meaning is like in character and close in relationship.

Like in character and close in relationship. That's the meaning here. You who are like in character to Satan, who is the deceiver, right? And close in relationship to him. You have a closer relationship to him than you do to God, right? So, is he done?

No. You enemy of all righteousness. You are opposed to righteousness. You are an enemy of righteousness. You are not neutral. You are not occasionally righteous. You are an enemy of all righteousness. You are opposed to it. Why? That goes right along with being the son of the devil, like in character and close in relationship, and being full of deceit and fraud. Then he asks a question.

Will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? This is a reversal which you see in terms of the John the Baptist. John the Baptist was one who made the paths straight that were crooked. In those days, what would happen is when royalty was coming through, they would kind of clean up the road and straighten things out and get the rocks out of the road.

And so what happens is this fellow, Elimas, does the opposite. Instead of preparing the way for the Lord's message, he tries to inhibit it and stand in the way and make things more difficult. So here is Saul's opposition openly and overtly to Elymas.

Paul said these things to tell the truth about Elymas to Elymas as well as it having been presented in front of Sergius Paulus. He is also going to make it clear why the next will follow rather than coming in and simply carrying out a miraculous event with Elimas in front of Sergius Paulus, which might have been perceived as, what are you doing? Why are you doing this? This makes it clear why he was doing it. And it would also validate before Sergius Paulus and any others present, the message of the Apostle Paul that, OK, here's this guy who's a magician, but he's going to be overpowered. by a power that I wish to tell you about. Here's Acts 13, 11 and 12.

Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time. And immediately a mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. So the dramatic presentation has Elimas kind of looking cross-eyed and a bit confused, but what actually the Apostle Paul describes or is described here is a mist and a darkness that fell upon him.

It's not in the dramatic depiction. And then the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, responding to what he heard and what he saw. So what we see in here is Here is the Lord. Here is the Lord working. In this circumstance, the Apostle Paul, then called Saul, but then to be called Paul, he is working with these people in this circumstance, and what is he doing? He's making it very clear to all of them, making it very clear. where Elimus stands, and that Elimus is in the way of the gospel. And furthermore, we see here that the proconsul then is presented with the gospel, is presented with the truth, and is responding to that. The proconsul is responding in a couple of different ways. One is he is seeing the validation that the Apostle Paul has.

One of the things we've mentioned here is that the miracles were not done just to go and impress people. The miracles were not done simply to make whatever the Apostles wanted to have happen, happen. The miracles were done in order to validate the message, and that would certainly be something that happened here. Elimas was known as a magician, and to have the Apostle Paul's power above him would be something that is clear here.

Sergius Paulus, however, also says was amazed at the teaching that was presented him by Saul and Paul, and basically it looks at the gospel. The gospel was presented and he responded to that. The gospel that Christ died on the cross was buried and rose again.

One of the things that also happens here, we asked the question earlier, just because these men were sent off With prayer, with everybody being behind them, the Holy Spirit said, in advance of it, send these men off. Everybody prayed and fasted and laid hands on the Apostle Paul and on Barnabas and sent them off. And it says then that the Holy Spirit was the one who had sent them. It makes it very clear the Holy Spirit was involved.

We see here the first instance of opposition along the way. And one of the things that we're going to be seeing as we proceed through this first missionary journey, as well as the other missionary journeys, is that the opposition is going to continue. As a matter of fact, it's going to come in different forms, and it's going to be more intense as they get to other places. Things will actually be physically threatening to the Apostle Paul, even to the point where it looks like he's been stoned to death.

And so one of the points that will be apparent with that is that just because the Lord is with someone does not mean that there is no trouble coming. Right? But we're not going to address that all today. We're going to address it in a couple of weeks. So you'll have to come and find out more about that. One more thing.

We live in an era of great communication, at least in some respects. We live in an era where you can, you know, text a whole bunch of people, right, and send out a message and it goes all over the place. As a matter of fact, if something happens in one place, you can call somebody hundreds and thousands of miles away and tell them about it. We have the ability to communicate intercontinentally with no delay whatsoever or very little delay. Lots of communication.

But one of the things that has not changed in the centuries and even thousands of years is the ability to bring things before the Lord and entrust things to Him. Do you know that all of our technology has not improved upon prayer? The original wireless communication, Nothing has improved upon prayer. Prayer cannot be enhanced by electronics. That is as good as it's ever going to get.

And it's wonderful and marvelous. And you know, the Lord values our prayers. That's one of the things, as we were studying through Revelation at different times, including our Thursday night group, the Lord values our prayers. And it's important for us to look at that.

The people at Antioch certainly didn't know all the details of what was going on. But certainly you can count on they were continuing to pray, even for things that they didn't know about. They didn't know even this situation with the Limas until many months later. And yet, yet they were praying and the Lord knew, didn't he?

Let's pray now. Lord, we thank you as we go through this passage, as we see what you have done and presented. We thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you for the fact that we can bring things before you. And just as the church body was certainly praying for Barnabas and Saul as they went through their missionary journey, only to find out later what had actually occurred. We're thankful that you know all things, and when we're praying, we're not informing you of anything, but you want us to communicate with you about everything. We do that now. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.