Good Tuesday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you actually felt there was an unseen enemy battling against you? Yesterday I left you in the town of Paphos, on the Island of Cyprus, with Barnabas and Saul facing exactly that situation.
These two men, both of whom had experienced the power of Jesus in their lives, had been invited to a meeting with the proconsul official in the town of Paphos. He had heard about them and wanted to hear their story.
As they came, they encountered a man Dr. Luke describes with these words: “They met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus…Elymas, who opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith…” (Acts 13:6-8) Oh my! What does that description mean? Do you think you’ve ever met anyone like this? This man was living a life of contradiction. Do you see it?
First, he was a Jew, but at the same time a sorcerer! An authentic Jewish man would be devoted to the Holy, Almighty God of Israel with all his heart, mind and strength. Every Jewish person recited the ‘Shema’ found in Deuteronomy 6:4,5 frequently! However, being a sorcerer meant this man was in league with Satan! He was accustomed to experiencing demonic powers in his life. Do you see the contradiction? Pause. Do you know anyone who claims to be a Christian but is dabbling in dark kingdom stuff?
And at the same time Dr. Luke tells us this man Bar-Jesus Elymas was a ‘false prophet’. That means he claimed to be a man through whom the God of Israel would send messages for God’s people. He was claiming to be like Isaiah or Jeremiah or even John the Baptist! Yet he was a hypocrite, a liar and was actually opposed to God and God’s people.
Barnabas and Saul both knew the Old Testament made it very clear this type of man should be stoned to death to prevent his spiritual cancer from contaminating people and entire towns! (Jeremiah 14:11-16)
For the first time since Barnabas and Saul had left Syrian Antioch, commissioned to take the message of Jesus to faraway places, they were being confronted directly by the power of Satan’s dark kingdom.
Dr Luke describes what happened with these words: “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 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.” (Acts 13:9-11)
Oh my, do you see two very significant things happening here my friends? First, this is the moment in the Bible when Saul the Pharisee became known as Paul the apostle. Luke writes it with no fanfare. Many Bible scholars believe Saul’s full name was “Saul Paulus”, with his first name being the name of Israel’s first king and his second name being either his father’s name or a widely accepted Greek name. You’ll notice the proconsul was named Sergius Paulus. Saul was from Tarsus, a city under strong Greek influence in the Roman Empire.
This change of name was NOT intended to be a renunciation of his Jewish heritage but rather an embrace of his mission to take the story and message of Jesus to the entire Roman empire, the Greek world, the Gentile world, beginning here on Cyprus Island.
From this moment on, for the rest of his life, he was known as Paul the apostle of Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; Galatians 1:1 etc.) Now let’s watch as Paul the apostle of Jesus takes on the dark kingdom in the life of Elymas the sorcerer.
First, please notice Luke wants us to understand that Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit. That’s important.
No one can engage the dark kingdom with any degree of confidence without the filling and power of the Holy Spirit of God. But wait a moment. Wasn’t Paul filled with the Holy Spirit of God at his powerful salvation experience in Damascus perhaps 10 years earlier?
This is an important theological concept for us Christians. Yes, the Holy Spirit is vitally involved in our salvation experience. It is the Holy Spirit who ‘regenerates’ us, giving us a new spiritual nature. That’s the “Born Again” experience Jesus described to Nicodemus as recorded in John 3:3-7, remember? And the Holy Spirit lives within us as followers of Jesus. (John 14:16,17)
But the Holy Spirit also comes upon a person with a fresh anointing when that person is engaged in a particularly complex or important spiritual action such as Paul confronting Elymas the sorcerer here in Acts 13.
Pause. If you are an authentically born-again follower of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit has saved you and is living within you, right? But like Paul here, have you experienced occasional times when the Holy Spirit does something special in you, empowering you as you face a particular challenge or opportunity?
Secondly, please notice Paul’s very clear accusation of Elymas’ true identity: ‘You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right.’ (Acts 13:10)
Empowered by the Holy Spirit Paul declared the horrific truth: this Jewish man was in league with the devil and opposed to God!
Whenever any of God’s people find themselves confronted by the dark kingdom, God’s TRUTH is vitally important and must be declared, for Satan will always use deceit as a weapon. (John 8:44) That, my friends, is why we here at “Walking with Jesus” work so hard to help you know and understand God’s Truth! Consider the power of Jeremiah 9:23,24.
Third, please notice Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, declared God’s punishment upon Elymas. He was going to become blind, unable to see, for a God-determined period of time.
Of course, Paul remembered this is what Jesus had done to him in their encounter on the Damascus Road. For three days Paul was blind and helpless, praying for Jesus to teach him God’s truth and it changed his life! (Acts 9:3-9)
Dr. Luke’s record of this event says: “Immediately mist and darkness came over Elymas…” (Acts 13:11) God’s judgment came upon wicked Elymas powerfully! But also, please see God’s mercy here. Elymas should have been struck dead by God but in God’s mercy He spared Elymas’ life. This so impacted the proconsul Luke tells us: “When the proconsul saw what happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 13:12)
Oh my, what a dramatic spiritual victory. This was exactly what Barnabas and Saul had been commissioned by the Holy Spirit and the Antioch leaders to do. Take the story and Gospel message of Jesus to people and places living in the bondage of Satan’s dark kingdom! The darkness was defeated, the light of God’s truth proclaimed, and two men’s lives were dramatically changed!
We need to pause right here and reflect on what we have witnessed today in Paphos, Cyprus with Barnabas and the apostle Paul, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God!
Important “lessons learned” study notes at the link below will be very important in helping you dig more deeply into these significant Biblical truths, and a wonderful worship song will invite you to embrace the victorious supremacy of Jesus Christ. I’ll be here, of course, tomorrow, waiting for you.
Today’s Scripture: Acts 13:6-12.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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