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Have you ever wondered how early Christians spread the gospel while facing fierce opposition in a world rife with spiritual darkness, and what that means for believers today? In this riveting sermon, Pastor Mark Hudson delves into a pivotal moment from Acts where Paul confronts a deceptive magician, leading to a stunning miracle and changing a powerful leader's beliefs. Let's explore how bold resistance to evil, guided by the Holy Spirit, can transform our own responses to hostility in an increasingly rebellious world.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Most of you know who C.S. Lewis is. At least you've heard his name. He may have not read
00:04any of his works. But anyway, he wrote Mere Christianity. And my understanding is that
00:08he would read segments on the BBC during World War II. So I can imagine that's not possible today
00:14on BBC reading Christianity stuff on the air. But he did. And he wrote in Mere Christianity.
00:22He said, one of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously
00:27was that it talks so much about a dark power in the universe, a mighty evil spirit who was held
00:33to be the power behind death and disease and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this
00:39dark power was created by God and was good when he was created and went wrong. Christianity agrees
00:45with dualism that this universe is at war, but it does not think this is a war between independent
00:51powers or two equal powers. You could say that. It thinks it's a civil war, a rebellion,
00:57and that we believers are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel, enemy occupied
01:05territory. That's what this world is. Many of us have experienced that. This is enemy occupied
01:11territory. And in the text today, we're going to see just exactly that. The disciples and the apostles
01:17knew that they were in hostile territory. Remember we saw last week that Herod killed James.
01:24He wanted to kill Peter and then God delivers Peter. So they understood that what they were working
01:29within was a hostile framework as they were trying to tell people the truth of God. They understood
01:35well. As we come to chapter 13 in Acts, as we continue moving through the book of Acts,
01:42hopefully you have your Bibles with you. If not, open up, there's one under the chair there,
01:45or turn on your biblical device. We're going to see that those who faithfully proclaim the truth
01:52in God's word will suffer resistance for a great evil will attempt to silence them. That's what's
02:00going to pour out of the text today that we're going to see that these faithful believers are
02:04wanting to tell other people about Jesus Christ, the gospel message, the truth about God, the teaching
02:09of God. But there was this hostile evil resistance against that. And Paul then, we're going to see
02:16Paul acts against that. How do we respond when people forcefully resist the gospel message? I mean,
02:24you're talking to somebody at work and they just yell in your face and call you all bad names. I mean,
02:29how do we handle kind of resistance like that when things are coming our way really fast? Because you
02:35and I are living in a rebellion in evil occupied territory. Paul and Barnabas understood that.
02:47Look at verse number one of chapter 13. Now, there were in the church at Antioch. We've been dealing
02:54with Antioch. We had Antioch in the Jerusalem church, but now we're dealing with the church
02:57in Antioch, Antioch in Syria. Now, there was a church at Antioch. Now, there were in the church
03:03at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,
03:10Mananin, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping, and I thought
03:16it was really interesting, NASB uses the word ministering. So, it's the same idea, worshiping,
03:21ministering. While they were worshiping slash ministering the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit
03:27said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after
03:33fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Now, God, the Holy
03:38Spirit is calling people out into the mission field to carry the gospel to the nations.
03:44What he desired all along was that the nations heard the gospel, heard his revelation. The
03:49Jewish people forgot that and they became very centered around everything them and forgot
03:55about the nations around them. Now, God's sending that message, his truth to the nations around
03:59him. In chapter 11, we saw that there were no prophets in Antioch, that they came down
04:06from Judea to the church in Antioch. Now, I don't know if these are the same ones that
04:09came down or if they went back home and God raised up other prophets. I'm unsure. And
04:14the text doesn't really tell us. It just tells us that they're there. And we really don't
04:17know by the grammar of it, which ones were the prophets and which ones were the teachers.
04:21Some have said the first three were the prophets and the last two were the teachers and Barnabas
04:26in the first group as a prophet and Saul in the last group as a teacher. Yet we saw Barnabas
04:31and Paul both teaching. So maybe there was a duplicate role or maybe we can just say this
04:35is a good representation of the leadership of the church in Antioch would be a good way
04:40of looking at it. The gift of prophecy, the gift of prophecy was given to the church and
04:45it was a reason it gave to the church. The prophet spoke an inspired word from God for
04:49the edification and the direction of the church. Remember, there is no New Testament to
04:53call upon. The new covenant has been instituted, ratified in the blood of Jesus. And now God
04:59is giving revelation about this new thing called the church to the prophets. And they're then
05:03telling other people to encourage them and strengthen them. And then the teachers were
05:07coming along and giving further instruction about what the prophets had said. They had no
05:11way, they couldn't call back on anything here that we have to call back on. They needed God
05:16to direct and guide them. And that's exactly what he was doing. First Corinthians.
05:20On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to the people for their upbuilding and
05:27encouragement and consolation. That was the role of the prophets. God inspired words so
05:31that they could be uplifted and consoled and strengthened. And then Ephesians 2, we found
05:36out that the church was built on the apostles and the prophets. They laid the foundation of
05:40the church that it could build up into the building that it is today. Chapter 2, verse 20.
05:45Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
05:50cornerstone. So the prophets gave inspired speech. In other words, God spoke to them
05:55directly and they spoke to the church. And the teachers helped secure the believers in
06:00their faith, helping them understand what God was saying through the prophets. I'm sure
06:05that you've read some of the Old Testament prophecies and go, I don't know exactly what
06:08that's talking about. Well, the teachers would come along. God would give an inspired word.
06:11The teachers would come along and explain to the church what this means. What's going on
06:16here? Ladd in Wycliffe Bible commentary suggests that the prophets gave or were given direct
06:22revelation from God by the Holy Spirit and the teachers were gifted in the interpretation
06:27of that revelation. Thus, the utterance of the Holy Spirit probably came through the prophet
06:32when they called out Saul and Barnabas. Barnabas and Saul probably came through one of the prophets,
06:36called them out. So when I stand up here each week, I have taken what the apostles and prophets
06:41have given to us. And my job is to try to help us understand what the apostles and prophets have
06:47said. So sometimes some of you have come up to me and said, you know, I've read that before,
06:51but I never really understood it. And now God has shown me. That's kind of my job is to help us
06:54understand what is the prophets and the apostles said. That's my responsibility. So other than Saul
07:02and Barnabas, we don't know who these guys are. I mean, we know a little bit of information.
07:05Simeon was called Niger, which means black. Maybe he was from Northern Africa. It's possible.
07:12Dark skinned. It's possible. We know Manion was raised with Herod the Tetrarch. Herod the Tetrarch
07:19is the guy who had John the Baptist beheaded. They may have been actually foster brothers. They were
07:23reared together. So they were friends. It's possible that he was actually a foster brother of him.
07:30It's unknown why the church was fasting. It says that they were fasting. We don't know why they
07:38were fasting. It's unknown to us why they were fasting. Perhaps they were in a state of expectancy
07:42of God's leaving for the church. What's God going to do now with this church in Antioch? So they're
07:48fasting. They're fasting. They were fasting and praying for the will of God for the church. What does
07:54God want with this church? And they were praying and fasting and worshiping and ministering.
07:58Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline, says that the central idea in fasting is a voluntary
08:06denial of an otherwise normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity. Fasting. It's a
08:15spiritual discipline. Sadly, it's not one that the American church knows well. We don't do well at
08:23fasting. I mean, I'm generally speaking. You may fast and others, but generally speaking, the church in
08:28America has forgot about fasting. We have forgotten about that. Steve Willis was talking about, he'd
08:35been on numerous mission trips before, lots of them over in Africa. And he says, you know, I just
08:40wanted to, I wanted to experience it all. I wanted to sleep where the people slept and play where the
08:44people play and eat the food that the people ate. I wanted to experience it all, to be immersed in the
08:49culture. So he said, you know, sometimes we get so wrapped up in our culture, we fail to see what's
08:58going on around us. And he said, this came to came to life to him several years ago when some brothers
09:05from the Zambian International Theological College came to West Virginia to visit. After visiting with
09:11believers in several African nations, he wanted to give them an opportunity to visit the church in
09:15America. So their church raised money, brought them over, found house parents or house people to
09:20host them in their houses, wanted to make sure they experienced, they were immersed in the American
09:25culture. So two weeks into their visit, a pastor said quietly, I have a question for you. Pastor,
09:32that's a Zambian pastor, by the way. It seems as though in America, every meal is a feast. You people
09:39don't eat, you feast. I've never seen so much food before. Hey, listen, I like eating. Don't get me
09:45wrong. I like eating a lot. And so I think I kind of understand from that point of view, that culture,
09:50looking at what we eat as Americans, it's like a feast. And so Steve goes, ouch, that hurt. He said,
09:57I thought these gentlemen would enjoy the opportunity to sample America's varieties and quantities of food.
10:03After all, it was only just a few weeks. He said, surprisingly though, it wasn't our gluttonous
10:09practices that bothered the pastor most deeply. His next question socked me between the spiritual
10:14eyes. The pastor from Zambia said, we've been here two weeks and we eat three or four times
10:20every day. When do you take time to fast? Ouch. Ouch. Eating is normal. It's a fine thing to do.
10:32Yet fasting is the idea that I'm willing to set aside something that is normal, something that is
10:36good and devote my focus and attention on worshiping, ministering, and praising God and
10:42seeking God's will for the church or for our lives. I think we have forgotten about fasting in America.
10:49We've forgotten it. Now, again, if you have health issues, you need to talk to your doctor. I'm not a
10:54doctor. You talk to your doctor whether you can fast, but it's something perhaps we should add back
10:57into our spiritual disciplines is fasting. It was an immense time of worship, neglecting even to eat.
11:05They were so into worshiping. Now, the Holy Spirit led the church to send out missionaries. It was
11:11God's initiative. It wasn't the church that, hey, what can we do? Oh, I know. Let's send out some
11:16missionaries. No, it didn't start with the church. It was the Holy Spirit. God started this. It was God's
11:21initiative to send the people out. God calls into ministry. It's the one that he does. He calls people
11:26into ministry. And he called them, the Holy Spirit. He's not a force. He's not some force out
11:33there in the universe. He's a person. He has a will. He chooses. He's a person. It is God who calls
11:40and equips for ministry service. The missionary to India and Persia, Harry Martin, once said,
11:46the spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. And the nearer we get to him, the more intensely
11:52missionary we must become. It's the heart of God to get the message out to the nations. That is God's
11:58heart. It's what he's asked us to do in at least two places to carry the message out to the nations
12:03so that they would hear the gospel. It's interesting, and it seems to be true. I've seen it in my life.
12:10You may have seen it as well, is that the Holy Spirit chose those who were already engaged in
12:16ministry. They were already doing something. Saul and Barnabas were teaching. A full year they were
12:20teaching at the church in Antioch. So they're already engaged in ministry. It's like the Holy
12:25Spirit comes along and says, okay, I want you to do this ministry too. Yeah, but I'm already doing
12:29something. That's great. And you're doing a great job. Now I want you to do this. It seems like he's
12:32adding another ministry on top of another ministry. He does that sometimes. You know what it does? It
12:37stretches us out of our comfort zones. Oh, I can't do that. I can't do that. Yeah, but God's calling
12:42you to do that. He's asking you to do that. This is what he wants you. But I can't do that.
12:46That's too hard. It pushes us out of our comfort zone. We don't know who laid hands on them.
12:54We don't know whether the church, it says they laid hands on them, whether it was just the pastors
12:58or the prophets and the teachers or the whole church. But basically they're saying, as we agree
13:02with the Holy Spirit, you guys should go. We're in complete agreement with the Spirit.
13:07We recognize that Saul and Barnabas has been chosen by the Spirit to go, to go out onto a mission
13:13field. And they're going to start what we know as his first missionary journey. Here's a map up here.
13:19They start in Antioch of Syria over the right-hand side, the big yellow button there. That's their
13:24starting point. We're going to see the day that they sail to the island of Cyprus, land in one
13:28location, travel to another location. That's all the further we're going to get today. But you're going
13:32to see this is their first missionary journey. They make it all the way to Derbe and they come back
13:36around and they end up back in Antioch to report to the church all the things that they did.
13:40So this was Paul's missionary journey. We're only going to make it to Cyprus today.
13:44So it kind of gives you a view in your mind where they traveled to and how they traveled back.
13:51So look at verse number four.
13:55So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
14:01Seleucia is a port city just outside of Antioch, not to about 10 miles away, 10 miles west.
14:06And from there they sailed to Cyprus, which is a nation island. When they arrived at
14:11Salamis, you saw that in the first slide, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues
14:16of the Jews. So there's more than one synagogue, so there must be a lot of Jews there.
14:19And they had John to assist them. That's John Mark. That's where Peter was, you know,
14:25knocking at the house of his mother, John Mark's mother. That's just John Mark here.
14:29John to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos,
14:33they came to a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.
14:39So the first part of chapter 13, God sends true prophets. Now the enemy sends a false prophet here,
14:46a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the pro-council, Sergius Paulus,
14:51a man of intelligence who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
14:57But Elemas, the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them.
15:02So they're speaking the truth of God and he's standing there counteracting them, opposing them,
15:07seeking to turn the pro-council away from the faith, the teaching of what the apostles are teaching.
15:14But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him
15:19and said, you son of the devil. Could you imagine saying that to somebody you're witnessing to them
15:27and then someone off to the side is counteracting everything you say and you turn to them and say,
15:31you son of the devil. I don't think that would fly really well, huh? That's what he does though.
15:36Do you see that? You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy.
15:44Will you stop making crooked the straight pass of the Lord? And now behold, the hand of the Lord is
15:51upon you and you will be blind and able to see the sun for a time. Immediately mist and darkness fell
15:57upon him and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. He couldn't see.
16:02Then the pro-council believed when he saw what had occurred for he was astonished at the teaching
16:08of the Lord. So now they're on Cyprus. Paul's name is, or Saul's name has changed to Paul. It's good
16:17because he's ministering among Gentiles. Paul was his Roman name. Saul was his Hebrew name. Many people
16:22had two names, especially he was a Roman citizen. Paul was. So he had two names, a Hebrew name and a
16:27Roman name. He's going to be ministering among the Gentiles. So to take his Gentile name makes perfect
16:32sense. It's perfectly appropriate. He will be ministering among the Gentiles. So the name changes
16:37appropriate makes perfect sense. Of course he's a, he's, he's functioning like in a sense, like a Gentile
16:43among the Gentiles with a Gentile name. He actually writes about that. Edward Henson wrote,
16:48Paul changes the outward uses of his name as a matter of cultural identification with the people
16:54whom he's trying to reach with the gospel. So he, he goes to his Gentile name. See how a Paul,
17:01Paul was, Paul was so willing to alter things, not the truth of God, but alter things in his life
17:06so that he could reach as many people as possible. Look at first Corinthians chapter nine. This is what
17:11he said. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of
17:18them. You'll see in this whole context as often as I want to win so many people. To the Jews, I became
17:23as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law, though not being
17:30myself under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one
17:36outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those
17:41outside the law. To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak. I become all things to all people
17:47that by all means, I might save some. He's not going to say, hold on to his Hebrew name. Sure,
17:52use my Roman name. Use my Gentile name. I'm going to be ministering among them. It makes perfect sense.
17:58He was willing to lay aside that so he could reach as many people as possible. Not the truth of God's
18:02word, of course. He wouldn't lay that aside. But his name, that's no big deal for him.
18:08So Paul and Barnabas now travel to Cyprus. That's the hometown of Barnabas.
18:11This big island, it's a hometown, it's actually a large island state. That's where he's from.
18:17Barnabas is going home. The Hellenists had already been there and taken the gospel there
18:21and preached it, and the church had already been established there. Acts chapter 11.
18:26Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled
18:30as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except the Jews. So Cyprus
18:37has already got the gospel message. And so they're there on the island. They're going to the synagogues
18:41of the Jews. He preaches in the synagogues. That was his practice. He would go wherever the Jews
18:46were meeting. He would go there first, and then he would go off to the Gentiles. He always said to
18:49the Jew first and then to the Gentiles. Acts 19. And he, Paul, entered the synagogue for three months
18:55and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
19:01And John Mark is there to help them. Maybe while they're preaching, he's getting lodging and food,
19:06whatever he's doing, he's helping them in the ministry. They couldn't really be able to do
19:10everything they did without his help. He was there helping. So Paphos is the capital of the city,
19:17of the nation state. And the Sergius Paulus was put in by the Roman Senate, not by the emperor,
19:23but by the Roman Senate. That's why he's called a pro-council. He's there and he's overseeing the
19:27island, making sure that everything is running well. No one wants an insurrection because then Rome has to
19:32come in with their soldiers. So they try to avoid that. So he's monitoring everything that's spoken on the
19:36island as much as possible. If we've got some false teachers coming along trying to rival people up
19:40for insurrection, you'd want to stop that. So he heard about them and he wanted them to come
19:45and he wanted to hear more of what they had to say. God was calling Sergius Paulus because the text
19:53says he desired to hear the word of God. Outside of himself, he had no desire, but God is calling him,
19:59drawing him to himself. And he wanted to hear what God had to say. He wanted to hear the truth of God.
20:04God is calling him. So as Paul was preaching to the pro-council, this false Jewish prophet,
20:12magician, we were told on the text, comes up to interrupt him. So Paul's speaking about Jesus,
20:18about the resurrection, about the teaching. And this guy's over here just contradicting them and
20:23saying, oh, don't believe that. That's a bunch of lies. It's not true. He's just back and forth,
20:28back and forth. Paul says he was a deceiver, a person who claimed false powers. He wasn't,
20:34he was a false prophet. That's what the text tells us. God sends true prophets, but the devil
20:39counters with false prophets. Whenever the truth of the word of God goes out, the enemy is there
20:45trying to negate that preaching of the word. So he's a false prophet. And you remember what happened
20:52to people in the Old Testament who claimed to have prophecy and spoke a prophecy that didn't come to pass,
20:56that was a lie. They got killed, didn't they? They got stoned to death. I mean, today we have a lot of
21:02people making all of these prophecies and they say it, but they never come back and recant and say,
21:05hey, I was wrong when it didn't come to pass. Now I'm not advocating that we should stone people who
21:10make false prophecies today. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying maybe you'd be a little more
21:15serious about saying stuff that when you claim us from God, when it really isn't from God,
21:19if that was the case, that you would end up dead at the end.
21:23So he was a false prophet. He was not speaking truth. His name is Bar Jesus, which means the son
21:31of Jesus. What a name. Why would he take that name? Devil, I'm sure. Sure. He attempted to hinder the
21:39witness of the missionaries. What? The faith. You see, he was trying to counter the faith,
21:44that body of teaching given by the apostles and prophets to the church. So they're teaching and
21:49they're saying, nah, that's a button. That's not true. That's all a lie. Oh no, don't believe that.
21:53He's just standing off to the side. Ah, don't, you don't need to, it happens today.
22:02Happens today still. We'll be talking to people about Jesus and there's a third party over there
22:06just yapping away saying, oh, that's not true. That's a bunch of lies. Don't listen to him.
22:09Don't, it happens all the time. In fact, we even have people naming the name of Christ that are trying
22:13to push people away from the truth of God's word. We have people that name the name of Christ that
22:18say, ah, the Old Testament, it's, it's outdated. It's outmoded. We don't need the Old Testament
22:21anymore. Let's just jettison it. Or inspiration. Oh, and it causes so many fights in the church.
22:27Let's just not talk about inspiration, whether the Bible is inspired or not. These are people naming
22:31the name of Christ that are teaching contrary to the teaching, the faith of the Bible.
22:36There are many people trying to keep others from the truth of God's word.
22:40He was demon inspired. He was not God inspired. He was demon inspired. And we have to remember that
22:50sorcery, the occult, games with dark magic are demonic and satanic. We have to recognize that.
22:59And we can't say, ah, that's just neutral. No, it's not neutral. It's not neutral. They are lies
23:05opposed to the truth. The enemy loves to come along and mix a little truth with error.
23:10And then confuses people. He does it. He does it to me. I'm sure he does it to you as well.
23:14A little bit of truth with a bunch of error. And then we hook onto it and it just,
23:18it derails us for a period of time. He loves to do that. Where God is at work,
23:23the devil tries to hinder or destroy God's work. And we have to realize that Christianity has nothing
23:28to do with the occult or magic practices. In fact, they're contrary to that.
23:33Paul rebukes this false prophet, this magician. In fact, the word is magi, the same word of the
23:43people coming from the east to see the birth of Jesus. Same word. They were at least somewhat wise.
23:49This person was not. He was an enemy of all righteousness. So Paul didn't rebuke him selfishly
23:55and say, hey man, you're interrupting me. Stop interrupting me. Be quiet. He didn't do that. No.
23:59The text says he was filled with the Holy Spirit, which means the spirit is at work in Paul saying
24:05what he's about to say to this false prophet, this magician. In Leviticus 19, 31, we are told,
24:12do not turn to mediums or necromancers. Those are people who deal with the dead.
24:18Do not seek them out. And so make yourselves unclean by them. I am the Lord, your God.
24:24So Paul was prompted to respond to what he was doing.
24:28Llamis was doing. He was prompted to respond to it. He did not ignore the evil that was right in front
24:35of him. I think we, American Christians at least, have been too nice to the evil around us.
24:48That's not that biggie. That's just the way that it is. And we overlook the intense evil,
24:54the darkness that's around us and say, ah, well, you know, that we have been too nice to evil.
25:01Paul calls him out. You are the son of a devil. He doesn't say, hey man, you got a little bit wrong.
25:06You are the son of, he calls out evil. He responds to it. Ephesians 5, 11, we were told this,
25:13take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
25:20Now I'm not saying we run around and say evil, evil. We scream evil. I'm not, I'm not saying we do
25:25that at all. What I'm saying is that we need to recognize and acknowledge the presence of evil
25:31in our society. And for that matter, in us as well, and recognize it and not just poo it or look past it,
25:39but call it out, respond to it. There are certain behaviors in our society that are evil behaviors.
25:49They're evil. Sexually trafficking women and children is evil. And we need to say it's evil.
25:58We can't say, well, that just happens. No, it is evil to do that. We have to respond. We have a
26:04ministry that we get to help people out that are, that have been trafficked, sex trafficked,
26:08and then brought out of that. Deceiving people through manipulation. Oh yeah, I'll manipulate
26:16that person to get whatever I want out of them is evil as evil behavior to manipulate people for
26:23your own good, not, not to help them. Or there's a behavior that says the Bible is not authoritative
26:31for my life at all. It has no right to speak into my life at all. It's a behavior. I reject the Bible
26:41has no right to speak into my life at all. There's also leaders in our country that are promoting evil
26:50in our country, desire evil, want it to happen in our culture, in our country.
26:56Murdering a baby in the womb is evil. And there are leaders in our countries that propose that and
27:05say all the way up to birth, you can go ahead and kill a baby. That is evil.
27:13Removing God from the public square. Oh, we don't want anything to do with God. Take God out of school,
27:18take prayer out of school, take him out of the public square. That is evil. You're rejecting the truth
27:23of God. That should bring shalom to society, peace to society. Instead, we reject the truth of God.
27:30We want him out of our, out of our society. The public square is what some of our leaders in our
27:35nations want. Or to encourage people to break the law, to, to, to not enforce known laws that
27:42disrespects authority. That is evil. There's entertainment in our society, TV shows and movies.
27:52Listen, they're not indifferent. They're evil. And we need to call it out. Maybe we need to cancel
28:00some of our entertainment services that we carry along. Say, no, I can't do this one anymore. They
28:05may have a couple of, but there's just the, the direction this is going. I can't support that
28:09anymore. It's evil. Cultural practices around it that everyone else is doing. We've just kind of
28:17gone along with it or we just don't say anything about it. We need to stop and say, these things
28:22are wrong. They're evil. And we need to call them out. And again, we're not running around pointing
28:28fingers saying evil, evil, evil. That's not it. We're recognizing it as evil. We're acknowledging
28:33as evil and we're responding to it. I say, we must no longer be nice to evil in our society.
28:41It's time to call it out like Paul did. Maybe you need, maybe by voting, we can change some
28:52of the evil in our society. Or maybe you need to run for office to change the evil in our
28:57society, get some godly leaders in our society. Somehow we must respond. We cannot be neutral
29:04to evil any longer. This, this, this blindness that was, that was, that, that God did upon,
29:11upon a lamus. It's the first of Paul's recorded miracles that God exercised through him. It's the
29:17first one. He did many other ones, but this is the first one that's recorded for us right here.
29:22And the miracle got, Sergius Paul's attention, but it was the teaching of the word of God that was
29:26important to him. Sure, that miracle. Oh yeah, that was, but it was the teaching that he responded to.
29:31If you see in the text, it wasn't the miracle. It was the teaching that he responded to.
29:36The Holy Spirit's miracle provided an open door to preach the gospel.
29:41And a lamus was trying to keep Sergius Paulus in darkness. So darkness is now what a lamus will
29:47experience himself. He'll now be blind. He can't see. He has to be led around by somebody else.
29:54He can't see. A lamus's eyes were closed. Literally Sergius Paulus eyes were opened.
30:02Metaphorically. And here's what's so neat. God is so good. There was mercy in the judgment.
30:10Did you see the text? It says, you'll be blind for a time. Not forever. Even in God's judgment,
30:18there was mercy in God's judgment. He will only be blind for a time.
30:23So what does God say? What is he, what is he saying to us here in this text? What do we need
30:29to know? A couple of things. Number one, fasting is a spiritual discipline. Fasting is a spiritual
30:36discipline, which sets aside food for a time of intense devotion to God. Do you practice fasting?
30:43Again, if you have health issues, talk to your doctor. I'm not a doctor, but the question for us is,
30:48do we practice fasting? Two, the Holy Spirit calls people to ministry. It's a Holy Spirit that
30:55calls people. I don't call people to ministry. The elders of this church do not call people to
30:59ministry. God, the Holy Spirit calls people to ministry. The church confirms the Holy Spirit's
31:05choice. Is God calling you into ministry today? Is God calling you to the media team?
31:12Is God calling you to help teach the children over next door? Is God calling you to be a greeter
31:19there in the entryway? Is God, is God calling you to a ministry? It's the Spirit that calls. The
31:26church that says, yeah, we agree with what the Spirit is doing. We agree. Yes, here it is. Go for it.
31:32Third, do not be afraid to call something evil that the Bible clearly defines as evil. We can have
31:39personal opinions about other things, but what the Bible specifically declares as evil. Don't be afraid
31:45to call it evil. Stop being nice to evil. Let's pray. Father, I'm so thankful that you sent Paul and
31:57Barnabas out to the nations because at the end, that gospel came to us. We're part of the nations,
32:05and so we're thankful, Spirit, that you called them out and sent them out so that they could preach
32:10the gospel. But we know wherever your truth is being proclaimed, there's always going to be a
32:15resistance to it. Always. We see it in our own lives, Father. We know there's always a resistance
32:20to teaching the truth of your word. So we want to pray for our society. There is so much evil in our
32:26society today. May the truth of your word permeate our society, bring shalom to our society,
32:33peace to our society, that our society would begin functioning according to your truths and your
32:39word, that we would be kind to one another. Oh, Father, I pray that you would bring about your will
32:46in our nation and that you would bring about righteousness in this nation. And Father, we like
32:52to thank you. Thank you that you have always been so good to us, yet we recognize that there is evil
32:59in this world. And we're no longer going to sit back and say it's neutral. Give us the courage to
33:07speak out against that which is evil in our society and then proclaim the truth in your word that
33:13counters what the evil is trying to accomplish. So we thank you, Father. Thank you that you have
33:20called out and sent missionaries. Maybe you'll call one of us out and send us also. We pray in Jesus' name.
33:26Amen.
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