Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00015A
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00:22 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:23 I'm Pastor Mark Howard and I'm here with my co-host, Jim, and 00:27 he is my brother by the way. We are studying the book of 00:31 Acts. It's been an exciting book with a lot of powerful growth in 00:37 the early church. So much so, Jim, that sometimes we're 00:41 tempted to look at it as some kind of enigma like this is a 00:44 puzzle how they grew and it's something that we can't have. 00:47 But I think one of the things we've discussed here is that the 00:50 book of Acts is the model for what God wants to see in the 00:53 church today and we have every opportunity and every 00:56 availability of God's power through the Holy Spirit to be 01:00 what the church of Acts was. So we're trying to gain and gather 01:04 lessons from this history of the early church that would help us 01:08 to be more effective as God's church in these last days. 01:13 Now our last time together we looked at Chapter 12 and how 01:18 Peter was miraculously freed from prison and the surrounding 01:22 events of that. We're moving into Chapter 13 now and 01:26 transitioning to the ministry of Paul and Barnabas or Saul and 01:29 Barnabas as it says here in the text. Before we go into the 01:33 scripture I want to begin with a word of prayer and so I'd invite 01:36 you to bow your heads with me. Father in heaven, I thank you 01:40 today for your mercies toward us. I thank you for this history 01:44 of how the Christian church began and I pray Lord that you 01:48 would move upon our hearts with a sense of responsibility that 01:53 we are to carry forward the work that was begun in such sacrifice 01:57 and commitment as we look back and see the early church. They 02:00 began a work that now has been entrusted to each one of us 02:04 including our viewers. Father I just pray that you would bless 02:07 us as we study and help us to know how better to apply these 02:12 things in our lives, personally and corporately as a church in 02:15 these last days. We ask and pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 02:19 Now we're going to turn to Acts Chapter 12, the very end of Acts 02:25 Chapter 12, verse 25. We're moving into Chapter 13. I hope 02:28 you have your Bibles with you. If not, you might want to grab 02:31 your Bible and follow along with us. We're going to Acts Chapter 02:35 12 verse 25. The Bible says here And Barnabas and Saul returned 02:38 from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry and 02:42 they also took with them John whose surname was Mark. Now in 02:45 the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets. 02:49 I'm going to pause here and say that back in Acts Chapter 11, 02:53 Jim, we looked at the building up of the church of Antioch and 02:58 we saw that Barnabas was called to come to Antioch because he 03:01 he had heard what was going on there and he was so amazed at 03:05 what the lay people were doing in Antioch and he saw the need 03:09 for the apostolic leadership as well but he went and got Saul 03:12 and called him over and then they stayed for quite awhile 03:16 working with the church at Antioch and really establishing 03:19 it. What we see here is a transition taking place where 03:23 Antioch is becoming home base, headquarters, for the apostles. 03:27 So when they finished their ministries, it says here in 03:29 Jerusalem, they came back now not to Jerusalem, they came back 03:32 to Antioch. And it says that in the church in Antioch there were 03:36 certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called 03:40 Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought with Herod 03:44 the Tetrarch and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and 03:47 fasted the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul 03:52 for the work to which I have called them. Then having fasted 03:56 and prayed and laid hands on them they sent them away. 04:00 So being sent out by the Holy Spirit they went down to 04:04 Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cypress. Now I want 04:07 to comment on a couple things here. One of the things that we 04:10 have looked at just briefly before is that when we study 04:13 in the Bible we come down to the end of the Bible to the book of 04:15 Revelation. Revelation shows us a picture of the history of 04:19 God's church in Revelation Chapter 12 and it brings us down 04:22 to the end of time and it points out some characteristics of 04:26 God's church at the end of time. It refers to them, at least in 04:29 the authorized version by the word remnant, in the newer 04:33 translations the rest. In other words, those who remained 04:36 faithful like the early church. It makes me think of the passage 04:40 where Jude tells us in the book right before Revelation that we 04:43 are to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered 04:46 to the saints. In other words, there is a pure faith and we are 04:49 always to contend for that pure faith. God says at the end of 04:52 time he's going to have a church with a pure faith. They're going 04:54 be the remnant, the rest, those who remain faithful. They're 04:57 going to be like the early church. Two of the 05:00 characteristics that are brought out, Jim, are that they keep 05:03 the commandments of God and that they have the testimony of Jesus 05:06 which a brief study will show is referring to the gift of 05:10 prophecy. You can look at Revelation 19:10 and 22:8,9 05:14 kind of gives that understanding Well, if we're going to find the 05:18 gift of prophecy active at the end of time you would expect 05:20 that it would have been active in the early church and what do 05:24 we see here but prophets and teachers. Sometimes, like for 05:27 example in verse 2 where it says the Holy Spirit said. We like to 05:31 get this idea that the Holy Spirit was directly speaking to 05:35 each individual and I think you mentioned this is a previous 05:39 episode that we really like the idea of God coming and talking 05:43 directly to us. We don't like as much the fact that God may talk 05:47 to us through some church leader. You know, who's he to 05:50 talk to me. I'll get my information from God myself. 05:53 You know, he'll speak to me directly if he's going to speak 05:55 to me. That's sometimes the attitude we have. 05:56 Because the church leaders have weaknesses and their own views 05:59 and it's harder to take counsel from them. 06:01 Absolutely. You know we're human beings and as much as a church 06:06 leader deserves respect there's still the human element. So we 06:12 read in the book of Acts and some people will say, Hey it 06:14 says the Holy Spirit said to them and that's how God worked 06:17 in the early church. But keep in mind the context. How did the 06:21 Holy Spirit say and who did the Holy Spirit say it to separate 06:25 to me Barnabas and Saul but the prophets. That's how God speaks 06:28 to prophets, directly through the Holy Spirit. But he doesn't 06:32 speak to everybody in the same way. Now sure his Spirit speaks 06:35 and guides us but let's remember that the Bible tells us that 06:38 the Bible tells us that there are gifts of the Spirit and the 06:41 Holy Spirit works through the gifts of the Spirit including 06:44 the gift of prophecy and the gift of pastors and teachers. 06:47 So the Holy Spirit chooses different avenues and we need 06:51 to be willing to work in the context of those avenues and so 06:54 the Holy Spirit said through these prophets, separate to me 06:59 Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them and 07:02 then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them they 07:06 sent them away. This fasting and praying, we see this in another 07:12 place in the book of Acts. This is something that they did when 07:18 they were very focused and serious about what they were 07:20 about to do. And they sent them as missionaries. It really grabs 07:25 my attention that we don't read much more before this of... we 07:30 see Barnabas but Niger and Manean and these others, we 07:35 don't read a lot about them prior to this. In other words, 07:38 they don't seem to be people very prominent, but Saul is very 07:42 prominent. Who are they to tell Saul what to do. But we don't 07:46 see Saul saying anything like that. These leaders in the 07:49 church were spoken to by the Holy Spirit who said set them 07:53 apart and send them thus and so and Saul and Barnabas submitted 07:56 to that leadership. Once again we see a picture of organization 08:00 in the early church and how God is working through that 08:02 organization. That's right. So we have Saul 08:05 and Barnabas here being sent out on their first missionary 08:08 journey. I'd like to pick up in verse 5 after being sent out. 08:12 In verse 5 it says and when they arrived in Salamis they preached 08:16 the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. 08:19 They also had John as their assistant. This is John Mark 08:22 that you mentioned earlier. Verse 6 says now when they had 08:26 gone through the island to Paphos they found a certain 08:29 sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-jesus who was 08:34 with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. 08:37 This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word 08:41 of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated), 08:45 Elymas would be the sorcerer that was spoken of earlier here, 08:49 withstood them seeking to turn the proconsul away from the 08:53 faith. Then Saul who is also called Paul, so now we're going 08:56 to see a transition. We're going to start seeing Saul frequently 09:00 called Paul here in the book of Acts. 09:02 So wait a minute. So you said Elymas is Bar-Jesus so we're 09:04 talking about the same character here. 09:05 That's right, that right. But Saul who is also called Paul, 09:09 filled with the Holy Spirit looked intently at him and said, 09:13 O full of all deceit and all fraud. You son of the devil, 09:16 you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting 09:19 the straight ways of the Lord and now indeed the hand of the 09:23 Lord is upon you and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for 09:26 a time. And immediately a dark mist fell on him and he went 09:30 around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the 09:33 proconsul believed when he saw what had been done, being 09:36 astonished at the teaching of the Lord. This is a pretty 09:40 interesting story. Yeah. I've never addressed 09:42 anybody like that no matter how cantankerous they were. 09:45 That's right. The apostle Paul was pretty bold here and fitting 09:49 with the rest of the apostles here in the book of Acts. 09:52 But what's fascinating about this story is that we have this 09:55 sorcerer, Elymas, who has somehow become connected with 10:01 this proconsul or governor and so he is there as Saul and 10:07 Barnabas are sharing the word of God and he's trying to withstand 10:11 them. Now this could be pretty influential because seeing that 10:15 he was a sorcerer and was connected, that means that 10:18 somehow he had shown attributes of special supernatural ability 10:22 or he was able to accomplish things that were above what 10:27 would be humanly possible and so when he withstood that 10:31 probably caused the proconsul to question, wait a minute, is this 10:36 really of God. It makes sense what Saul and Barnabas are 10:38 saying but is this really true? 10:40 Because Elymas had had his confidence. 10:42 That exactly right, and he gained that confidence through 10:45 that supernatural ability. We need to be really careful about 10:48 that. Supernatural ability does not necessarily mean that 10:51 something is of God. We've mentioned that before. It's a 10:54 common theme here in the book of Acts. But it makes me think of a 10:57 couple passages of scripture that we really need to take heed 11:00 to. One is in Matthew 24 and I'd like to look at that one. This 11:05 is Jesus speaking in Matthew 24 about the end of time and the 11:10 types of things we should look out for and in verse 24 he says, 11:14 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show 11:18 great signs and wonders, supernatural things, to do what? 11:22 To deceive, if possible, even the elect. So he says, hey, at 11:26 the end of time what's going to be used to deceive people is 11:30 supernatural powers and miracles signs and wonders. Then if you 11:34 look in Revelation Chapter 13 it speaks of this power that 11:39 causes people to worship the beast and receive the mark of 11:45 the beast and it says in verse 14 of Revelation 13, And he 11:50 deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he 11:54 was granted to do in the sight of the beast. So the deception 11:59 at the end of time will happen by signs and supernatural 12:01 miracles. That's the first point But secondly, we're thankful 12:06 that God has a supernatural power that always exceeds that 12:10 of the devil and those that he instigates. There are certain 12:15 things that God allows, but he can always conquer or give more 12:20 than what we see here in Acts or in any situation of 12:23 supernatural powers. So in light of that I think we need to look 12:28 just briefly at the book of Exodus Chapter 7. In Exodus 12:31 Chapter 7 we have a fantastic story in which Moses is called 12:37 to go before Pharaoh to begin setting the people of Israel 12:42 free from slavery and bondage. So Aaron is instructed, Moses' 12:47 brother to cast his rod down in front of Pharaoh to show that 12:52 he's sent of God and it says in Exodus 7 and verse 8, Then the 12:57 Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, When Pharaoh speaks to 13:01 you saying show a miracle for yourselves then you shall say to 13:05 Aaron, Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh and let it become 13:09 a serpent. So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and they did 13:12 so just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod 13:15 before Pharaoh and before his servants and it became a serpent 13:19 but Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, Okay so 13:23 this is exactly what Elymas was in the book of Acts, a sorcerer. 13:27 So the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with 13:30 their enchantments. So they were able to create a serpent out of 13:34 a pole too, or rod or whatever it was. Verse 12, For every man 13:37 threw down his rod and they became serpents, but Aaron's rod 13:41 swallowed up their rods. So even though there was supernatural 13:45 power, at the end of the day God's power was greater. And 13:48 then you see the same thing happen as they went through the 13:51 10 plagues of Egypt. The magicians were able to copy 13:55 certain plagues, but then when they got to the plague of lice 13:58 they couldn't copy it and then finally when they got to the 14:00 plague of the boils they couldn't even stand before 14:02 Pharaoh because they were covered with boils and couldn't 14:05 do anything to remove them. So we need to remember that what 14:08 we see here is fitting to what we will see at the end of time 14:12 and that is that the power of God, even when we see the power 14:16 of the supernatural in the enemy, the power of God is 14:20 always greater. And it was because of Paul and his faith 14:25 in this particular, I don't want to call it a curse, that's 14:29 probably too strong a word, but it was certainly a punishment 14:34 that came upon Elymas when he said, Now the hand of the Lord 14:37 is upon you. You shall be blind. And this sorcerer who had 14:41 supernatural power was all of a sudden made to look very weak 14:45 and powerless before Paul and Barnabas. So that is what really 14:49 the proconsul looked at and when he saw that he said these words 14:53 that make such sense are of God because clearly the power of God 14:58 is in charge here. Yeah, absolutely. Well you know 15:01 the main point here is that while we know God can work 15:05 miracles and will work miracles in our day, the enemy also is 15:08 going to work miracles. So our safety will not be found in 15:11 looking for the miracles but looking at the message behind 15:14 the miracles. But we also don't need to be 15:16 afraid of the enemy's supernatural power because 15:19 God's is much greater. Absolutely. Well we need to go 15:22 to a break and I hope you stay tuned. We'll be back in just a 15:24 minute and talking more about the book of Acts. |
Revised 2014-12-17