Acts 13-4-12 The two of them (Barnabas and Saul), sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper. They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, 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. But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “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? 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. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.
In the above focus we see Saul and Barnabas going into all the world to win souls for Christ. They go after much prayer by the brethren in Antioch. They traveled across the island of Cyprus, ministering the Good News in Jewish synagogues. The proconsul or governor of Cyprus heard about these two men of power who were proclaiming the name of Jesus. Therefore, he wanted an audience with them to examine what Saul and Barnabas were ministering throughout his territory. We must assume that the Holy Spirit was drawing him to the Good News, for he assesses it as the word of God. But in his way to hearing the word of God was Bar-Jesus, a sorcerer. Sorcerers have always stood in the way of the Israelite people in knowing God. Paul said we do not wrestle with flesh and blood: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12) We see Bar-Jesus attempting to interfere with the Good News being proclaimed to the governor. The world after Noah was inundated by the powers of the wicked one. Abraham’s ancestors were in the hands of the viper: Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt. (Joshua 24:2-4) Abraham’s people lived in today’s Iraq. They were idol worshippers. We can assume that Abraham as a young boy also was acquainted with idol worshipping. But the grace of God intervened, through the work of the Holy Spirit. Abraham interacted with God and believed what he heard from God. Abraham placed his faith in what he heard from God, discounted his ancestor’s way of knowing God through worshipping Idols. He chose to believe God, but the devil interfered with Abraham’s descendants. We find Jacob’s beautiful wife Rachel stealing her father’s idols, taking them with her to the hill country of Gilead. Jacob’s household and servants carried idols wherever they went. Before going to Bethel in Canaan to worship God, Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” (Genesis 35:2-3) Idol worship, sorcery, witchcraft, and the like were always prevalent in the Jewish society. People such as Bar-Jesus were constantly with the Jewish people to prevent them from serving God with pure hearts. There was no end to the devil’s deception in the Jewish community. We find Ezekiel stating that they are worse than the people around them who were saturated with the evil works of the devil. You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you. (Ezekiel 5:7). In today's focus, we see the powers of the dark world attempting to thwart the plan of God in the governor’s life. But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Through the works of the cross, the devil is a defeated foe, but he still attempted to stop the Good News from being heard by the governor. But Paul knows the devil is defeated; therefore, he tells the devil’s instrument, Bar-Jesus, 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? 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. The spirit of evil is stopped in its tracks. Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
This power that Saul, now Paul, displayed came to the church after the resurrection. After Christ arose the church had to wait in Jerusalem for 40 days before the body of Christ on earth was filled with the power of God. Before Pentecost, the believers were warned not to go out into the highways and byways to proclaim the Good News that Jesus was resurrected, but after the Holy Spirit’s infilling, they were to deliver the Good News of eternal life to all people, everywhere. In the above focus we see this commandment of Jesus being carried out through Paul and Barnabas. They and the apostles were challenging the principalities of the air, the powers that were enslaving the human race. Before the resurrection and the infilling of the Spirit in the believers, the church was powerless to effect spiritual transformation. We see this evident in the apostles after the Lord’s Passover supper. Jesus broke the bread and drank the cup of wine with the disciples. This breaking of bread and the drinking of the wine is a confirmation of the new covenant with mankind. God was making a new covenant that would be eternal. The bread and wine are emblematic of the work of the cross. The apostles partake in this supper, but they do not really understand what it is all about, but will later. The Messiah they ate and drank with often terrified them because his existence was unimaginable to them. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mark 4:37-41) They often saw him as a good teacher, and also as one who had the power of the prophets, but to see him as the Son of God was a stretch for their imaginations, but when Jesus would perform such a miracle as calming the elements of the environment, they became fearful for He was dong things that only God could do, and how could they exist with a holy God without immediate judgment for they were sinful men, not as He, perfect and righteous. We see this scenario carried out when Jesus told Peter to go out into deeper water to fish. Peter objected to this command of Jesus for he had fished all night and caught nothing. But when he obeyed and let his net down, his net became so full of fish that he had to call James and John to help him get the abundance of fish to the shore. This catch almost swamps two boats. Peter reacts to this miracle by an expression of fear. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8) He knew he was in the presence of God. However, as we see the apostles leaving the supper, their concept of Jesus was still fleshly oriented, and not seeing him as the Son of God.
After the Passover supper, they go to the Mount of Olives. Jesus sits them down and talks about what will happen to them immediately. They had just gone through this sacred ceremony of partaking of the sacrament emblems that represent a new, eternal covenant between God and man. But now Jesus tells that that they will forget the reality of this spiritual, eternal aspect of the supper and move back into the reality of the flesh. Sometimes they saw Jesus as the Son of God, but other times, they saw him as a man who had authority with God and therefore could do many miraculous things. Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:“‘I will strike the shepherd,and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” (Matthew 26:32) They will flee from the authorities when they come to arrest Jesus. Even the strongest of them, Peter, will flee. His leadership ability and his boastful attitude will submit to fear when faced by those who could take his life. He had told the Son of God, you are wrong, saying I will not stand by you even in the face of death. But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same. (Matthew 26:35) As we know, Peter did not stand with Jesus in the face of Jesus’ enemies. He not only did not stand when the mob came to arrest Jesus, but even worse, in the courtyard of the high priest, he denied Jesus before men and before God the Father. He swore by heaven that he did not know this man Jesus. The apostles got a glimpse at times of who Jesus really was: the Son of God. When the time came for them to really believe He is the All Powerful God, they fled, placing their fleshly existence above the knowledge of Jesus being the Son of God. In the above focus, we see Paul and Barnabas facing persecution and death, willing to place their lives in danger to fulfill the commandment of Jesus to go throughout the world to preach the gospel. The world was very dark--sin inhabited the people everywhere: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. (Galatians 5:19-20) Sin has never dissipated in people; it is alway present abundantly. The hatred of God and his people is an ongoing story of life. Bar-Jesus hated Paul and Barnabas; he hated the light they represented, for he was an agent of the devil. Bar-Jesus represented the kingdom of darkness; Paul and Barnabas represented the Light. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5) Jesus is the light; Jesus is eternal life. Jesus is the truth, the way, the life. No longer would the believers walk merely in the flesh; no longer would the Peter’s in the world deny the living God. They would be willing to die for the cause of Christ, for light and life to be spread throughout the world. Breakfast companions, you are the light of the world. Be willing to spread your light to the world, for when you do, you are introducing the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God to a dark and desperate world, a world of chaos, with no answers for why they are here, living their short lives of consciousness, with death as their only future. Spread the precious gospel light while you have the opportunity.
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