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Our text this morning is found in Acts chapter 13. If you will take your Bibles and turn there, Acts chapter 13. This morning we will be looking at verses 1 through 12. Let me read the text to you. Acts 13, verses 1 through 12.

“Now there were at Antioch in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas and Simeon who was also called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

“And 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 and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

“So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

“And when they had reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John as their helper.

“And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain 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.

“But Elymas, the magician (for thus his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

“But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him,  

“and said, ‘You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

“’And 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 a 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.”

I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, “Antioch, a Spirit-filled Church.”

What is a Spirit-filled church? Well, many people would answer that question by saying it is a church that is filled with loud music and frenzied emotion. In fact, I have heard that on numerous occasions from those who have attended here, not wanting to stay, complaining that it was not a Spirit-filled church. I remember one lady in particular saying, Yeah, we're really looking for a Spirit-filled church like I was raised in. And I asked her to define, “Can you tell me a little bit what that was like?” And she said, “Well, there were lots of shouting and singing and dancing and waving of arms and we would always make a huge circle every Sunday and hold hands and kind of dance around the entire sanctuary.” They were singing some song about the walls of Jericho coming down. I don't know the name of that song.

And she would talk about the preacher who would walk around and shout and scream and weep and speak in tongues. And many of the people would do the same thing. And by the end of the service, she said that most everybody would be on the floor at the front of the auditorium at the altar. She called it weeping and speaking in tongues and crying out loud. And she said by the time the service is over, we're typically exhausted.

And I asked if she considered herself to be a Spirit-filled Christian. And she said, “Oh, absolutely.” And I again asked her the question, “How would you know that you're Spirit-filled?” And she said, “Well, because I've been baptized by the Holy Spirit and I speak in tongues.”

Well, that's a popular view of many, many people, though I would submit to you it is profoundly unbiblical.

So what are the marks of a Spirit-filled church? We're going to see that here this morning as we look at the church in Antioch. There are numerous answers in the New Testament that help us understand this. But today, we're going to focus obviously primarily on the church in Antioch.

And as we do, there are three distinct and undeniable characteristics that I believe will leap off the page of this text. The Antioch church was a Spirit-filled church because of three things. Number one, because they had Spirit-filled shepherds. Number two, Spirit-led missions. And number three, Spirit-empowered warfare.

Now, before we examine this closely, may I remind you of the context. Antioch is going to be one of the first dominant sending churches of the church age. They were a missionary church, as we will see. They were also, we know, a very large church. They had a plurality of leaders, of teaching shepherds. Five men that were put in a role of prophet and teacher. And we will understand that more in a moment.

And in the context of these five men doing faithful ministry, we're going to see the Holy Spirit speaking to the whole church through these leaders - probably through one of the prophets that were amongst them - speaking to the church to send out Barnabas and Paul.

We're going to see that this was a total surprise to them. They were not seeking this, but the Spirit of God sets them apart and the leadership will affirm them. And they're going to sail away to Cyprus.

Cyprus was an island about, or I should say, it is an island still to this day, sixty miles off of the coast of Syria. It would have been about a two day's journey from Antioch, where they were living. It's the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It was also, we know, the home of Barnabas. And so it would have been familiar territory for him. No doubt he had numerous contacts there. He also would have known the culture. He was a converted Hellenistic Jew.

And we're going to see that many Jews lived there, as well as many Gentiles. So join with me as we look closely at what happened here, and I am convinced this morning that some of your popular evangelical convictions will be challenged as we look at this text.

So hold on, here we go. First of all, a Spirit-filled church is one with Spirit-filled shepherds.

Notice beginning in verse 1.

“Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers…”

Now let's pause here. You will recall we've studied in the past, that “prophets” is a reference to New Testament prophets. These were basically preachers of the word. They're not at all like the Old Testament prophets. New Testament prophets coexisted with the apostles. In fact, all apostles were prophets, but not all prophets met the qualifications of an apostle. This was a foundational gift of the early church. These were men that were gifted by God to expound upon revelation that God had already given. And by and large, their ministries were confined to local churches. And occasionally, these men would speak new revelation - new messages of a practical sort - not of a doctrinal nature.

You will remember we've already met the prophet Agabus in our study of Acts. Remember in Acts 11? He received some new revelation from God with respect to the practical needs to prepare for a famine that was about to occur. And also, he spoke again in chapter 21 of Acts, as we will see, forewarning of Paul's arrest and imprisonment by the Romans. And in both cases, again, he received direct revelation of a practical nature, not of a doctrinal nature.

And remember, the church did not possess the New Testament scriptures in written form. They did not have this book as we have it today, and so, God provided for them apostles as well as these prophets. And upon completion of the New Testament canon, all that was necessary for the edification of the body of Christ was final. And the prophets, like the apostles, disappear and are replaced by pastor-teachers and evangelists.

So, not only were these men prophets or preachers proclaiming the word, but also, the text says, they were teachers. And the emphasis here is more on the didactic nature of their ministry - the systematic teaching and study of the word of God. A little bit different than public proclamation of the word, public preaching, even though that can have overlap, as it often does here in this pulpit; and rightfully so.

And these five men, as we see, were divinely appointed to these ministries in this large church in Antioch. We know it was large because in chapter 11, verse 21, we read that “a large number who believed turned to the Lord.” And we're also told in verse 24 that “considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.”

And you will also remember that Barnabas and Paul met with them for an entire year, as we read in verse 26 of chapter 11. And it says, and they “taught considerable numbers.”

Well, who are these men? Well, we have Barnabas, his name is translated “son of encouragement,” and indeed he was. We've already met him in weeks gone by, so I'll not take time to rehearse once again all of who he was.

Then there was also “Simeon, who was also called Niger,” the Latin for black or dark complexion. Sometimes it's pronounced Niger. And we know nothing more about this man other than probably he was of dark skin.

Then we have Lucius of Cyrene, which would have been a city in North Africa. We know nothing more about him other than, again, he was a prophet and teacher.

And then we have Manaen, it says, “who had been brought up,” which could also be translated - that phrase “brought up” - could also be translated a “foster brother,” brought up with “Herod the tetrarch.” And so this would have been Herod Antipas; so he was brought up in this royal family, and we don't know any more about him.

And then, of course, there is Saul, who will become Paul in this chapter.

Now, notice the characteristics that would designate them as Spirit-filled shepherds. Because, as we will see, you cannot have a Spirit-filled church without Spirit-filled shepherds.

Notice verse 2, “And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting...” Let's pause there…” ministering to the Lord.” This was what they were doing. “Ministering,” both in the Septuagint as well as in the New Testament, is a term in the original language used to describe the service that a priest or a servant would render in a temple.

And notice their ministry here was to the Lord, it's not to the people; they were ministering to the Lord. Now, obviously, when, as we will see, you minister to the Lord, primarily;  secondarily, you're going to minister to the people. But every church leader, especially the shepherds of a church, must understand that their service is ultimately unto the Lord, not unto the members of their congregation. That is secondary.

We must serve and honor and obey the Lord, not the people. And if you get that turned around, you're in trouble. As a pastor, I know that I must answer to Him. And with all due respect, I don't answer to you. Oh, certainly, at some level, I do. But primarily, I answer to the Lord.

My goal is, therefore, to be pleasing to Him, not so much to you, even though I hope that will occur. In fact, when I prepare, and I've talked with many other pastors who share this, I never ask, “Oh, will they be offended if I preach this?” The question I ask is simply, “Is it true?” And if it's true, you will hear it. And unfortunately, I know there are many pastors who wish they had a congregation like I have, where they could preach the truth without fear of losing their job, so to speak. But unfortunately, that is not always the case.

So, I am to preach His word, not my word. Shepherds are to be His spokesmen, not your spokesmen. That's why in Colossians 3:23 and 24, we read, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord, rather than for men.” And then later, Paul says, “It is the Lord whom you serve.”

Now, what was their primary ministry duty? Well, it is simple, and we see this in many other passages of Scripture, but the thing that they were doing primarily was studying the word of God and praying. Primarily, they had a devotion to study and prayer, so that they could secondarily shepherd the flock.

Remember in Acts 4, this was the reason why the leaders had to delegate to other people to help them. As we read in Acts 4, verse 4, “…but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” May I remind you, as I do myself often, that in 1 Timothy 4, Paul solemnly charged Timothy in the strongest of terms in the original language.

He tells him, “Preach the word.” And the grammar in that particular text indicates that preaching is to be your first priority; the preaching, the teaching of the word.

“Preach the word,” and then he says, “be ready.” And in the original language, it is a term that means be urgent. In fact, it was a military term that means to stand by, take your stand, stand fast at your post, be ever vigilant, be on duty.

He says, “be ready in season and out of season…” which literally means when it's convenient and when it's not; when it's popular and when it's not, stay at your post.

Then he says, “…reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.” And then later on, the text goes on to say that the people won't want to hear it. Many of them will not want to hear it. A day is coming when that will be true, and certainly that is today.

“They will turn away their ears from the truth. They will turn aside to myths.”

And he goes on and he says, “but you, Timothy, be sober in all things.” In other words, be mentally, be spiritually alert. He goes on and says, “…endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry,” which literally means do it with all of your might.

That is the priority of a shepherd, that is our ministry unto the Lord. Literally, he's saying, be ready to seize every opportunity to speak on my behalf. And the point is: you will not be able to speak on behalf of the Lord unless you know what he wants you to say. Therefore, our primary duty is to remain in his presence, studying his Word. Remain in the vault of study so that you know what his Word says, so that when you stand before the people, you can be his spokesman and say, “Thus saith the Lord.”

In fact, if you've not seen it - maybe someday you can come and look at it - when I first came to this church and someone built this pulpit, some of the dear folks made a beautiful little bronze plaque. Actually, it's blackened with bronze print. And it simply says, “We Would See Jesus.” And my Bible sits on top of that plaque.

It's a reminder to me every time I come into the pulpit of the priority of being God's spokesman. And in order to do that, as Paul says later on in 2 Timothy 2:15, he says you've got to be diligent “to present yourself approved to God.” And again, not to men. Don't be diligent to be approved to men, but to “God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.”

So these men were there, the text says, ministering to the Lord in this way. And it says “fasting.” Now in Scripture, fasting is typically done in times of mourning, in times of repentance, in times of intense petition, when there is some serious crisis. And frankly, many times that it will be a time, as you know, when you don't even feel like eating. You're not hungry. Or perhaps there's no time to eat because of the great spiritual war that you're engaged in. But you also must remember that these men had enormous responsibilities in this church. A church of new believers that had come out of both Judaism as well as all manner of Roman paganism.

As I was thinking about it, they would want to spend much time fasting, praying before the Lord because of all that they would endure. Can't you imagine how it would go? “Barnabas, I heard what you said about the Law and I just don't buy that, we need to talk.” And another would come up and say, “You know, I have a real problem with these Gentiles coming in here with our Bible study and worshiping with us.” And on and on it goes. “You know, I don't agree with what Saul said about such and such.”

And then somebody else comes along, “You know, I can't believe that you men would allow that Flucy Florence to come in here knowing full well that this woman wants to do nothing more than eat food and flirt with the men.” I mean, folks, this is the stuff of the church.

Or “Lucius, you've got to tell Manaen that he needs to meet with my un-submissive wife and help deal with those problems.” Or Simeon, “Would you please warn Barnabas about ‘Maximus Can't-Sing-Us’ because he wants to lead the singing and he can't carry a tune in a bucket.” And on and on it goes.

So, beloved, I give you these examples simply to say that shepherding a congregation of any size, but certainly a large one, is going to drive any shepherd to fasting and to prayer quite often. And so, this, no doubt, was what they would do, desperate for wisdom and encouragement and love and stamina, because ministry is exceedingly hard work.

Every pastor will tell you that he feels emotionally drained after preaching a sermon because, especially for a Bible expositor, this will be the culmination of about 15 to 20 hours of study and prayer.

And you add to that other duties of shepherding; it's something that a pastor wants to do, namely to fast and to pray.

So God honoring ministry, which, quite frankly, many churches really despise, requires a shepherd to live in the presence of God, to search for every morsel of truth, to somehow grab a hold of every grain of wisdom, to seek every ounce of strength to do battle with the enemy and to find words of encouragement as you deal with the inevitable criticisms and sometimes slander and complaining and gossip and those that cause dissensions and all of those kinds of things.

Now, because of their faithfulness, I want you to notice something here; because they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, notice in verse 2,

“…the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’”

Now, undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit spoke through one of the prophets. We don't know that for sure, but that's probably the case. So I want you to notice here the first mark of a Spirit-filled church will be Spirit-filled shepherds. Men devoted to the word, men devoted to prayer, ministering as priests unto the Lord, committed to a personal pursuit of holiness. As we are reminded in Ephesians 5:18, Paul says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.”

Now, might I remind you, this is not referring to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as we read in Romans 8:9, as we read earlier this morning, or even the baptism by Christ with the Holy Spirit, like we would read in 1 Corinthians 12:13, because every true believer is instantly indwelt and instantly baptized by Christ with the Holy Spirit the moment he is born again. But rather, this command is to be filled with the Spirit, similar to walking with the Spirit. In fact, they are interchangeably used. And it literally means to be under the Spirit's control. To be intoxicated, if you will, with the Holy Spirit. To surrender to His control.

And how do you do that? Well, by letting the word of Christ richly dwell within you, among other things, as Paul said in Colossians 3:16. To be so saturated with the word of God that it dominates everything you think and everything that you do.

And so, these Spirit-filled shepherds who knew the word and were teaching the word and obeying the word, produced Spirit-filled churches that do the same; and we see this here in Antioch.

And this results, secondly, to Spirit-led missions. And again,

“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 and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”

Now, folks, here we see at Antioch some very interesting patterns concerning missions and missionaries, as they relate to the local church. And I want to preface some of my observations to you by saying that I do not believe that Acts 13 is necessarily to be considered a detailed treatise on the inviolable laws of missions and missionaries, but I do believe that there are some things that we see here worth considering.

First of all, I want you to observe here that we see that it is God, not man, who chooses His choice vessels to be missionaries. There's no public plea here from the pulpit for people to somehow come forward to be missionaries.  Notice the Holy Spirit moved first upon the mature leaders of the church to determine the missionaries they would send forth. The Holy Spirit did not move upon the individual missionaries themselves; and I don't want to indicate that that never happens.

And most of the time it will happen almost simultaneously. But all too often, the opposite occurs. We kind of wait for somebody to feel a quiver in their liver, who feels somehow led by the Spirit to become a missionary, and then we send them out; a very dangerous thing.

And notice the kind of servant that God chooses. They were men who were preachers and teachers of the Word. They were men that were already actively engaged in ministering to the Lord and fasting. I want you to notice here that they were not women. They were not youth. They were not novices. You never see those types of things in the New Testament.

But rather, the ones that were sent forth from the church were mature, gifted, doctrinally sound, proven, seasoned veterans. And often, again, the very opposite occurs in modern evangelicalism in our culture. I'm not sure how many times have I been to mission conferences, and youth rallies where people are listening to other missionaries and maybe evangelists or pastors, and they are begging and pleading for people to somehow surrender to the call to the mission field.

And many times, the mature leaders of the churches of those particular people in the audience are the last to know that some of these individuals have decided that they want to be a missionary. They have, therefore, no idea - many times the sending agencies - have no idea how mature or gifted or doctrinally sound or proven these people might be, even though there are certainly checks and balances here to help with that.

But typically, what happens is people appeal to one's sense of adventure. Mission work typically is presented as very glamorous and certainly noble. But you know, statistically, most that go into the mission field never make it through their first term. There's something wrong with the process. Therefore, millions of dollars are virtually wasted every year. I've counseled with hundreds of missionaries over the course of my life and consulted with numerous mission boards and continue to do so to this day, and sadly, even though there seems to be a change, seems to be a shift, I believe, in the right direction, for the most part, the mentality has been the more the merrier. We'll get the men here and we will teach them. But beloved, as we can see here, the mission field is not necessarily the place for on-the-job training. Here in Antioch, they sent out two of their very best. They did not send out an army of novices.

I was speaking with someone not too long ago that was describing an evangelistic crusade that they were on in Kenya. And of course, I know Kenya well since I've been there and I've got some students that I've taught that live there. And he described several places where they went with this team of people, evangelistic crusade, and he named, I forget how many thousands of people, came to Christ. And when I was talking with some of my pastor friends that are there, good solid pastors, they tell a very different story.

They tell a story of a lot of emotional manipulation, a lot of easy believism, a lot of cheap grace, kind of the altar call evangelism, no subsequent discipleship. And may I just remind you that this is never consistent with Jesus' philosophy of ministry that we saw Him model. You know, we learned a fascinating ministry principle in our study of Matthew a few years ago, and that is that concentration produces multiplication.

You take well-trained people and you go deep with the few. You don't go shallow with the many. I'll never forget, years ago I heard John MacArthur say to pastors, “Men, you be consumed with the depth of your ministry and let God handle its breadth.” And I have never forgotten that. You see, depth will produce depth. Superficiality will produce superficiality.

You can either scrape the surface of a large area and very quickly find a little bit of water in a few pools that will last for a little while, or you can take your time and dig deep down into a well of water and have it for a lifetime. Jesus is our beloved example, and certainly here at Calvary Bible Church, I'm convinced that if we continue week in and week out to systematically study the Word of God, verse by verse, and plumb as best we can the depths of divine truth, and to be consumed with quality and not quantity, to be consumed with excellence and not success, to be consumed with spiritual growth and not numerical growth, I am convinced that God will, maybe not in my lifetime, but that God will do precisely what He has promised to do, and that is that He will build His church. It's easy to draw a crowd, but it takes great patience and care to grow a church.

May I give you a second observation as we look at what happened here in the church of Antioch? Unlike God's method here at Antioch that sent out a team of two that were gifted and experienced, along with a helper, John Mark, many modern missions tend to send out lone rangers, though many of these sending agencies are learning more and more the importance of sending out teams. And I've seen the disaster that that can result in, especially what a disaster it is to send out singles who do not have the gift of celibacy, or to send out women who do. I'll tell you folks; it's a train wreck waiting to happen.

How much better to send two gifted, experienced, teaching shepherds and let them pour their lives into a few, let them go into the synagogues and even into the public places and preach the Word, and go deep with a few rather than renting stadiums and filling them up with massive evangelistic crusades.

By the way, this type of ministry has always been the context for great revivals down through history. When revival suddenly and unexpectedly broke out upon the church, remember that happened in the Great Awakening in the American colonies in about 1725 through 1770.

Let me give you another observation that I find interesting here. There's no indication of any financial support. Money is never mentioned. Now, before you completely panic here, certainly the New Testament is clear that local churches are to support those who minister to them. That's very clear. 1 Corinthians 9:14, we read that the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.

Very clear. 1 Timothy 5:17, elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching, and so forth. And also, even we see in other passages that some missionaries are supported, and I believe there's a place for that, that that honors the Lord.

Philippians 4, we read where Paul is praising the Philippians for supporting him. And in 3 John, verses 6 through 8, we read how that we should generously support traveling missionaries and itinerant preachers who go out for the sake of the name of Christ. They're going out for His name, not for their own name. They're not in it for their money. And it says that we may be fellow workers with the truth. I realize all of that, but I would also submit to you that many times missions becomes a never-ending pursuit of more money, and that becomes the preoccupation. How often have I read missionaries write letters and the main theme is, please send more money. Hardly ever do we hear of a missionary supporting himself, primarily as Paul did in his trade, as we will see.

Now again, I don't think that the purpose of Acts 13 is to give us detailed, inviolable laws of missiology, of missionary outreach, but I do believe we should not ignore some of these principles that we see here and all through the New Testament.

Now, as we come back to the text, they're ministering to the Lord, they're fasting, the Holy Spirit sets them apart and calls them, verse three, “Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them…” In other words, there was a public recognition of their divine call. They sent them away, literally in the original language, they released them to do the ministry.

So again, this is the first mark of a Spirit-filled church. You will have Spirit-filled shepherds ministering to the Lord by devoting themselves to the word and to prayer. And secondly, the second mark of a Spirit-filled church will be Spirit-led missions.

In other words, God will raise up from within a church body those people that are His choice servants, His obvious shepherds, who will in turn be affirmed by the leadership and be sent out with their blessing. And as a result of this - as a result of Spirit-filled shepherds and Spirit-led missions - there will inevitably be Spirit-empowered warfare.

Notice verses four and five.

“So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia…”

That was a port city.

“…and from there, they sailed to Cyprus.

“And when they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John as their helper.”

Now you must understand Cyprus was a very wicked place. It was a place where they worshipped Aphrodite. Romans also called her Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. There were great festivals that would honor this pagan idol, especially in the capital city of Paphos, which was notorious for religious prostitution, for drunken debauchery, and so on. In fact, Athanasius, one of the early church fathers, said that this place was, quote, “the deification of lust.”

To maybe put it in perspective, it's like San Francisco here in the United States, or like Las Vegas or other similar cities. So what we see here now is the Holy Spirit chooses His servants, and He sends them right into the heart of Satan's dark domain, along with, the text says, John, who was John Mark, as their helper. This was Barnabas's cousin, as we read in Colossians 4:10. Now obviously, there was a large Jewish population here. We know that because we see synagogues referred to in the plural. So there were a number of Jews that were there. And here we have the Apostle Paul, who is a converted Jewish rabbi, who deeply loves his Jewish countrymen, despite their unbelief. And he comes now to minister to them.

Now, notice what happens in verse 6.

“And when they had gone through the whole island, as far as Paphos…”

Now let me pause here for a second. The island is about 60 by 100 miles. 60 miles wide, about 100 miles long. And they have gone now from the northeast corner down to the southeast corner. They go through “the whole island, as far as Paphos, and they found a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, whose name was Bar-Jesus.” Now, it stands to reason, if you go into enemy territory, you're probably going to meet the enemy. And this is precisely what happens. Wherever the Spirit of God is at work, Satan is always going to likewise dispatch his diabolical troops. And here we have one of the leaders, a Jewish false prophet, a man that would have been steeped in the occult. His name is Bar-Jesus, which translated means, “son of salvation.” How wickedly deceptive; certainly coming from the father of lies.

In verse 7, it says that he was “with the pro-consul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence.”

In other words, he was somehow attached to the governor there of Cyprus. Sergius Paulus was the Roman governor of Cyprus. And like most pagan rulers, he had his religious counselors, and here we have one. It reminds me of someday the Antichrist is also going to have one - the false prophet.

And here in verse 7, we read that this man summoned, referring to Sergius Paulus, “…he summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.” So obviously now he is curious. As a ruler, he needs to know what all the fuss is about. No doubt he has heard of the problems that the Christians have had and have perpetrated upon the society over on the coast. He's probably heard of some of the mysterious prison breaks and all of the things that were going on. And the text says that he was an intelligent man.

And I believe here, as we will see, the Holy Spirit is already at work in his heart. The Holy Spirit of God is softening his heart to the truth, making him receptive to the truth. And obviously he is not satisfied with the mystical pagan religions that are all around him and the counsel of the deceiver Bar-Jesus.

You know, this is often the testimony of people who were saved out of rank paganism. I've seen this, maybe you have as well. And you always want to keep this in mind when you're witnessing to people, regardless of how pagan they seem to be. Many times those people will later say when they come to Christ, you know, I was really struggling with all the silly stuff that I was involved in. I was doubting it, I was beginning to hate it, but I didn't really know what else to do.

Now notice verse 8, what happens here.

“But Elymas the magician (for thus his name is translated)…” Elymas, by the way, being the Greek transliteration of an Arabic word for “magician” – Elymus the magician was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.” It sounds like most of Congress here in the United States trying to turn the people of America away from the faith. And here we see the enemy engage Barnabas and Paul, in battle. The spiritual warfare begins.

 I love this in verse 9, “But Saul, who was also known as Paul…” I want to stop there. There is a very significant shift here. It's very subtle. But from here on out, his name will be Paul, not Saul. Paul was Saul's Roman name. And we will, from here on, he will, from here on, be known in Scripture as Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. A very subtle but important shift that Luke records. So Paul, I mean Saul, who was also known as Paul, “…filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him.” So here the Holy Spirit now motivates and empowers him to deal with this false prophet. And he locks his eyes on him.

Can't you imagine the scene? Now, it would appear here, as we kind of read between the lines a bit, that Bar-Jesus is serving as kind of the official counselor and critiquer of what is being said to the proconsul. He is probably standing close to him. He's probably hearing things and whispering in his ear, shaking his head, scoffing and sneering at what the preachers are telling him. We've all seen that before. And it may be that his incessant ridicule caused the proconsul to be all the more interested in what was being said.

Verse 10, here's what Paul now says.

“’You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?’”

I have to laugh here as I think about it. The Holy Spirit believes in the direct approach, doesn't he? There's no dialogue here. There's no exchange of ideas. There's no, let's have a conversation, as the emergent church would say. There's no, hey, Bar-Jesus, let's talk for a little bit here. Why don't we get something to drink? We'd kind of like to know, what is it that you're thinking? What is it that you don't like about what we're saying? And maybe we can find some common ground here. You don't see that at all. But rather, you just see someone speaking the truth forthrightly.

Beloved, there is a good lesson for us here. Let me put it to you very simply. Never dialogue with error. Never dialogue with error. Rather, confront it with truth. Don't waste a second of your time trying to hear and learn the deceptions of a heretic or the foolish musings of some pagan teacher. Yes, be kind, but be forthright and give them the truth. Unleash the gospel on people.

Verse 11, “And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you…” The hand of the Lord here, the hand of divine judgment. Paul goes on to say,

“’And you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.’ And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.”

What a vivid example of Spirit-empowered warfare.

And I might also add as a footnote, what an interesting shift now. Rather than Barnabas, whose name always comes before Saul, because he was the one taking the lead, now you begin to see Paul taking the lead. It's as if he's saying, “You want to live in spiritual darkness? Then I will give you spiritual darkness and physical darkness.” What a dramatic and merciful illustration of a spiritual truth.

Yet notice the element of hope that's in this phrase. He says, “for a time.” Isn't that interesting? “’Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.’” Now, we don't know how long this happened. We don't know if it was for the rest of his life, probably not, because it says “for a time.” We don't know. Maybe he repented; we could only pray so. But I would also submit to you what a picture of Israel's temporary blindness that Paul would later describe in Romans 11. Remember where he says that “God gave them a spirit of stupor” in the King James? Eyes to see not and ears to hear not down to this very day.

And then later on he says, “But I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery.” In other words, of this blindness, this temporary hardening. In other words, don't believe that God has somehow finished with his chosen people; that somehow his elect has now been set aside. Don't be foolish and think that somehow now Israel has been permanently replaced by the church. Don't think that.

Lest you be wise, he says, in your own opinion. But he says rather, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until there's a precious word, a word of hope “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved as it is written.”

Now notice what God does in verse 12.

“Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened and being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.”

Isn't that amazing? The proconsul believed when he saw what had happened. Being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. Notice, it doesn't say that he was necessarily amazed at the miracle. That's secondary. He was amazed at the teaching of the Lord.

Beloved, therein is the power of the Spirit of God in the teaching of the Lord. The power is in the gospel. Little wonder Paul would later write in Romans 1:16 that “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Well I ask you this morning, do you believe that? Do you believe in the power of the teaching of the Lord? Do you believe in the power of the gospel? If so, then I would challenge you to make sure that you are seeking to be Spirit filled. That you too are being devoted to the Word and to prayer. That you're totally surrendered to the Holy Spirit. That you are captivated by the truth of the Word of God. That you are intoxicated with the Spirit. And therefore, that you will seek every opportunity to unleash the Spirit-empowered Word upon those who are lost and dying in their sins. May God burden our hearts to this end. And strengthen us to confront error with truth, to bring light into darkness that Christ Jesus might have the preeminence in all things.

Let's bow our heads together.

Father, we praise you for this historical account of what occurred there in Antioch. And Lord, thank you for the truths that we can glean from this. Lord, how we praise you that by your grace and by your mercy you saved this Roman proconsul. And that someday we will be able to see him. Lord, we thank you for the power of the gospel. And Lord, I pray that it will cause each of us to grab a hold of it with renewed vigor. And to be excited about the power that we possess through the indwelling Spirit of God. Lord, I pray that we will be Spirit-filled Christians. I pray that this church will be a Spirit-filled church. I pray that we will have Spirit-filled shepherds. That we will have Spirit-led missions. And Lord, that you will empower us by your Spirit when we go to war. Lord, we thank you and we praise you for these eternal truths. May we live consistently with them for your glorious sake. For it's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen.