if you're a visitor this morning we are continuing our study in the book of acts i invite you to turn to the book of acts chapter 13 acts chapter 13 first 12 verses uh that's found on page 1172 in those bibles in front of you 1172 and so you have some context here we're now looking at paul's first missionary journey. This is where it all begins in Acts of the gospel really going out to the ends of the earth to fulfill what Jesus said would happen. You are my witnesses to the ends of the earth. And here we see the Lord fulfilling his word. But we also learn a lot about the church's role in this and the opposition that comes as we've been seeing. So we're continuing those two themes this morning here as we look at Acts chapter 13. This is the word of the Lord. We'll pick up at verse 1. Now, there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul while they were worshiping 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 after fasting and praying they laid hands on them and sent them off so being sent out by the Holy Spirit they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus when they arrived at South Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had John to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elimus, the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? and now behold the hand of the lord is upon you and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time immediately mist and darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred for he was astonished at the teaching of the lord and there ends the reading of god's word we have uh this morning one of the most unique passages in the New Testament to help us understand what we're up against and the struggles that we face in the life of the church. And I'm excited to preach this particular passage to you today, for I find Acts chapter 13 to be a great answer in addressing opposition in the ministry. Most of you know, I hope if you've been in the church all your life you certainly know if you've ever served in the leadership position you know that the ministry is full of opposition and conflict the minute that you put out one conflict the minute that you have have put out one you turn around to the other side and there's another one there's another battle that you're facing and something else you feel like you're constantly fighting fire. The Lord gives us a lot of insight in how to handle this. In fact, what I've noticed as a pastor, at least I look over the course of the themes that I've preached over the years and going through books of the Bible, I'm a strong believer in book Bible preaching. I think that's really important. You do come across through these books seasons of themes that the Lord presses down upon a church. And one of the themes that we have come to in the life of this church is dealing with opposition to the truth. You can have seasons where you come to in the Lord's providence, a need to understand very clearly, a teaching on the love of God, a season on the use of gifts. It always seems to go that way where you get it in seasons like that. We are in a season of studying opposition to the truth. There's a need for understanding what the Scriptures call us to do to remain strong amidst the spiritual warfare that we are in and now we look at this in light of a season of opposition that we're studying if you are coming to our evening services we're going right now and finishing tonight in the book of jude probably the best part of jude that we're looking at tonight because it's telling you how to contend for your faith it's everything comes together. We've been looking at the problems. Everything comes together in how to contend for the faith. And Jude gives some of the most beautiful, practical instruction in the New Testament on how to do that. So I hope you'll be here tonight for that. But I've always struggled as a pastor to know how to do that. Well, how do you contend? How do you do it in a way that is effective and wise as the Lord wants us to do. And I believe Acts 13 this morning gives us another insight into that. Last time, remember, they were dealing with major opposition from the civil magistrates. They were dealing with opposition from Herod, who we linked together with Pharaoh to show two hands going at each other and the Lord's hand prevailing. By the time we were done, Herod was eaten by worms and died, remember? This morning, we have an entirely different kind of threat that is being explained to us as Christians. A threat that is far more dangerous than Herod, if I might say. In some ways, that is surprising in the way that Paul dealt with it and handled it and is a good teaching point for us and as i was wrestling with this uh this week i thought about there's really one thing that i've never seen before or i just never dawned on me the way that it did here in this particular text and it is showing us that a people who are unwilling to stand up to opposition stagnate the church a people who are unwilling to stand up to opposition stunt the church's growth on the contrary a people who are willing to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to this to the saints will see in that place the church grow not rocket science but that's not what we're prone to do this is the problem we are prone to be passive we are prone to just want peace at all costs at the cost of the truth we all ultimately want to just all get along and sing kumbaya right that's in us that stunts the church's growth that approach so that's what we're we're showing here we're looking at how the church functioned that was amidst all this this conflict and we're going to see that this morning here first the circumstances that led to the opposition and how they handled that second what kind of opposition this is what i'm i'm really overjoyed to to to study this morning what kind of opposition was the greatest threat to the church you ever thought about that and third how they in contending for the faith trusted the lord and saw again through this its progress and growth we'll look at that briefly this morning it's another acts passage about confidence in the gospel ministry that's what this all is it continues to show us that confidence in what we've been studying uh to see the gospel go and through the ministry of jesus to the ends of the earth the lord is fulfilling his word and saving as we open up acts chapter 13 we have a beautiful moment of transition here which i don't want to skip over too quickly because i think it gives us a window on how important the church was and the local church was and i want you to to understand your place in this as the escondido urc and to think about that just for a moment with me before we get out onto the mission field last sunday we had a meeting if you were here and we had a vote to send a missionary to italy that's pretty exciting i don't know if we felt or thought about the importance of the mission activity of the church but to think about the fact that the lord decided and wants to and seems evident to us use this church this church i want you to notice this here in verse 25 we read now there were at the church in antioch prophets and teachers and then it lists fabulous five men really neat barnabas simeon who was called niger lucius of cyrene manan listen to this a lifelong friend of herod the tetrarch and saul what a collection of very talented men in this one church remember uh the persecution that had happened in jerusalem pushed the christians out and this church in antioch formed of of of jew and gentile together and it and what we're seeing develop here is this church became a center, a hub for all the missionary activity. It wasn't Jerusalem. God brought together an Antioch Jew and Gentile and the church became a major missionary church for the gospel. It's here, it seems, that we learn something about the Lord's strategy, the Holy Spirit's strategy, that he loves to localize and give strength in particular places to be major centers of sending missionaries out to the ends of the earth. Notice that the church was full of prophets and teachers. The Lord had strategically raised up a church. Strategically. With a lot of resource for the mission work at large. I was reading this week, did you know that as Barna reports it, 60 to 70, we've typically got it wrong in how we look at the church across the U.S. 60 to 70% of all churches in the United States have less than 100 people. Did you know that? They struggle, they're weak, they have little resource. That is the going statistic of the church. 2% are over 1,000 people. And those are always where our eyes are, right? 2%. What does that tell you about the Lord's work? What does that tell you about how he likes to work? But I think it's important to realize there are centers of strength that he loves to use for certain purposes like this. And I think it's important to ask, what is our particular place here as the Escondido URC in this place? I raise that to have you think about what kind of church we are do you think about that it's an important question i don't know how you can miss us being in a small way a church like the church in antioch full of jews and gentiles in antioch right look at us how many students have passed through here over the years from Westminster Seminary. How many have gone out onto the mission field that sat right in these pews? I think it's stunning to think how much this church has supported these causes, has sent out, has been a part of that. We sit in a strategic place that the Lord has done something. How can you miss it? I just don't see it. You think it's a coincidence that we are a stronger church with resource? Why do you think God does that? It's a good question, isn't it? The Lord has strategically placed us here, and he did this in Antioch, to consider the broader mission of the church. And this is meant to be a great encouragement to you. It means that when we think this way and we understand this, we are a church being greatly used by the Lord, even though you may not always see what's going on out on the mission field. We'll study that in a minute. But this is a mission field. We tend to look over the fence and say, oh, you know, there's so many great things happening over there. That's how we as people are. We're always fence looking. We're always doing that. Not realizing how much in struggle the church is. The 60 to 70% of them are weak, full of conflict, and discouraged, and struggling. And a strong, united, united, larger church is a blessing and can be a big blessing to the kingdom. Without Antioch, the mission isn't happening. Do you understand that? Antioch was so important to this. Antioch and Syria, there's two Antiochs. We'll look at the one in Pisidia shortly. But this is the core hub church here we're seeing. And I think we need to think a lot more. I don't have a lot of time to develop this this morning. I think we need to think a lot more about the particular blessing that we, involved together, united together, using resources collectively together, are meant to be. Notice what they're doing here. Lo and behold, we keep coming across this in Acts. What are they doing? They are praying and they are fasting. a praying fasting church with this much resource with this many teachers is vitally important and now we begin to see how the holy spirit thought of the church as they're praying in fact a fasting all of a sudden the holy spirit speaks we're not told to who we don't know how this came but he made it clear as he said separate to me barnabas and saul for the work i have called them to do And notice then that in verse 3, this is exactly what the church did. Having fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and sent them out. It's a beautiful moment. Nobody who felt like doing ministry like in our day just went out and did it, did they? The Holy Spirit selected certain men. And notice it didn't come in a private vision to Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas and Saul didn't say, hey, the Holy Spirit came to me last night in a vision and said, I want to go out and I want to go down to Africa. That's not how it worked. He came to the church and he told the church to send them. I would think it would have been hard for the church to let Barnabas and Saul go. Would you have wanted to let these two guys go? The son of encouragement? After praying and fasting, they sent them and this is the whole program that just unfolded that jesus told us to pray for jesus specifically told us to pray about this remember what jesus said pray to the lord of the harvest that missionaries would be sent this is all of it unfolding right here they're praying here come the missionaries they're going it's beautiful beautiful when you see students go out of here when you see students show up from the seminary when you see all these things happening what an exciting project to be a part of that's how you should see it now i want to encourage that to be encouragement to you to understand our role and to understand that as we look now at about what is about to happen here this is he's giving us a window on the struggle of the church as a whole and a look on our mission field at our mission field and out there what's going on what are our battles what are we up against what do we face what is most important all that we've been studying in acts and now that's where we begin i want you to notice here then in verse 4 so being sent out by the holy spirit barnabas and saul went down to seleucia and from there they sailed to cyprus where they arrived at salamis and they proclaimed the word of god in the synagogues of the jews and they had john to assist them this is the first missionary journey boys and girls i'm sure you study this in your bible classes i used to map this out and it's pretty neat to see it's significant for they've crossed the sea now they have headed over to take the gospel to cyprus as jesus taught them they went out and all they wanted to do was to preach the gospel there was a program in action they first went to the synagogues to preach to the jews and then if the jews rejected it they went to the gentiles and clearly the lord now had opened up a door and the spirit had directed them to head off to cyprus to preach the gospel i can't imagine for the first time going into a region and these people have never heard and you get to go out and preach jesus exciting endeavor as they came to the island of paphos you'll notice there that they came to the proconsul there a governor of a roman province this was a very intelligent man the scriptures say very wise man sergius paulus in fact uh you can read about him to this day there are inscriptions we have actual knowledge that this figure exists and was a proconsul and the governor of this province this is all documented back that's what i love about acts is it's rooting it in actual real history we're right into ancient history here i love verse 7 this man sergius paulus called for barnabas and saul to hear the word of the lord now last time we had a moment like this this was cornelius remember um when cornelius said to peter here we are we are in the presence of god to hear everything that god has commanded you to speak to us from his word remember that he uh he said that and peter had a reluctant voice we want to see jesus we want to hear jesus well this wise man heard of in the region paul saul and barnabas's teaching and preaching what were they doing they were preaching jesus we know that because now we're going to study something very fascinating there's a huge problem here did you catch it there's another jesus here there's another jesus here very fascinating sergius had heard rumors of a jesus whose name meant salvation but this man bar jesus son of salvation you find that a coincidence by the way had become sergius's paulus's main spiritual advisor now luke is giving us a lot of detail about this guy three things are said about bar jesus you'll notice here in connection with the name luke says first he was a false prophet this guy was an antichrist luke identifies him that way doesn't give him that honor actually his name is elymas you'll notice there the magician for that is the meaning of his name there's the the second thing there he was a magician he practiced magic he opposed them by turning the proconsul away from the faith this guy now does this sound familiar if you've listened to jude the last few weeks this guy heard jesus preach and all of a sudden panicked because his message and his gain as an advisor to sergius was under threat of being taken away false teachers false prophets are all about their own game now why is this being shown to us isn't it interesting that the first scene in paul's we'll deal with his name change in a second first missionary journey comes with the greatest opposition that's one way to look at it isn't it satan is after him this is why we always say when when somebody stands up and professes their faith i know what's coming attack when somebody's made a claim for christ and believe christ expect the attack this is the the course of things this is how the devil works satan's opposing them on the mission field on every front but but but i believe this is this is a special benefit to us to understand the nature of opposition it's not that it was just happening over there this is happening everywhere what do we learn the first words on paul's missionary journey first missionary journey are some of the most stunning rebukes i read in the whole new testament did you hear him i'll come back to that he is giving you the holy spirit a window into what the apostles saw was the most dangerous threat to what we're doing it's what the church needs to understand is the most pressing threat to what we're doing here's the thought i couldn't get away from we don't see in acts anywhere else where paul and the apostles are confronting people over emperor worship, which was everywhere at the time. Nothing like Jupiter or Rome and all that, where we have major responses like this. It's just not there. There's one instance that's close, but it's a very kind response. Here was their most aggressive response to opposition. What was it? What is this? Did you notice something else? The third thing was said about him? So, so far, bar Jesus, false prophet, magician. Third, he's a Jew. This figure came right out of Judaism. False prophet who was undermining the true Jesus, who practiced magic. You know what magicians did in those days? Magicians were those who would evoke the dead. They would bring back the plane to, bring back the spirits of deceased loved ones. The biggest thing was they would predict the future. They would talk a lot about the future and be interested in things like astrology and spells and magic and all the stuff that we would say, oh, come on, weird. What is this? syncretism you know what syncretism is combining everything of every religion and bringing it together in one joining it together with the occult practices with a form judaism he combined all the worlds orthodox outwardly false prophet in message and a cultist in practice that is one powerful figure that is one guy to be reckoned with everyone uh in their culture was conscious of the eastern religions the oriental mystic religions and all this stuff they were concerned uh they were most concerned in the church with the popular religions of the day that had a jewish overlay not roman because of their history with judaism they were not as concerned about the external threats as they were the internal i think this is what informed paul's later plea to the church in emphasis when i leave i warned you day and night for three years with tears why because savage wolves fierce wolves will come in not sparing the flock and from among you there will be those who rise up men speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after themselves this is going to go on so put it together if you can take a form which looks orthodox and combine it with a false message and borrow all the stuff from the Greek religions and Roman religions of magic that attracts people, you have one powerful syncretistic religion that is hard to overcome. Apply it. Let's apply this. This is what concerns me today. This is what most concerns me right here. How? Well, if we can take the label Christian and we can come with a message that's nothing about the true Jesus, but comes in the name of a Jesus, a different Jesus that has not been preached, and combine it with all the sensuality of the world, oh man, you have got one powerful, syncretistic thing called Christianity. See it? Someone said to me the other day, The greatest challenge we're going to face in our future, in our country, is not getting rid of Jesus, but reinventing and recreating Jesus. Well, I thought to myself, much of the evangelical church has been doing that for a long time. Combine bar Jesus with a sensuality, all the sensuality you can get. I mean, what is the one question that drives people today when they come to the worship of Jesus? What is it? Is it about the truth? Is it about the word? Or is it this question? How did you feel? Isn't that it? Did you feel good? Did it do something for you that way? Based on what? Well, I'm not popping bunnies out of hats, right? Entertained. This is the magic of our day. Entertainment is the magic of our day. We love magic. We live for magic. Why? It wows. You ever seen a real magician? It wows. There's a sense of something mysterious about it. There's a sense of something unknown. Something exciting is going to happen. Three things. We love today a Jesus who doesn't judge sin. We love a message that tells us only what we want to hear. We love smooth talk. We call it Christian. and we make it as sensual as we can make it. This is the greatest threat. This is the greatest threat. Meet Bar Jesus. Meet him. Study him. But his name is Elimus. Charlatan. False. Magician. See what Luke, the recorder, is doing here? I'm not going to call him Jesus. Here's his name. They're calling him Jesus. Here's his name, charlatan. I find it interesting at this point that Luke then now changes Paul's name. Right here, there's a name thing going on. How can you miss it? Notice that there. Elimus means magician, phony, charlatan. And he mentions in that context now the name change of Saul to Paul. And people have made way more of that than they should. It's merely using the Roman name, but it's important because the Roman name means what? humble paul humble small and all i could walk away with is say you see a vast difference between the false teacher and the true in the aim and the scope and the purpose and the person in the ministry one leads to people to hell the other leads people to jesus the true jesus one leads people to hell with a false Jesus the other leads people to heaven with a true this is our battle but there's another thought worth considering here this was an impossible battle this was an impossible battle I mean the syncretism offered everything not only sensual but ritual, elaborate sacrifices, incense, prostitution, you name it, all brought together into one big bag. I could go on with everything sensual. It can be on both sides of the aisle. It can be overly formalistic with all the incense burning, and then it can be everything loose, you can imagine all jumbled up together into one here is the one here's the here's the struggle think of last week uh herod two weeks ago herod and the church the church has prayer and the word herod has the sword and prison and the church overcomes look at this battle everything that attracts humanity everything that grips them against the knowledge of the true jesus and paul and barnabas what are they offering what where's the magic think about it all the sensuality of the world they're offering no temples you don't walk into anything beautiful and grand of a grand temple like they did where you could find god there in the temple localized in a building no rituals no magic no images you don't find it back where do you find one nothing nothing sensual the church was gathering in homes it was so simple it was so simple the ministry of the word the breaking of bread and prayer all they did was went around preaching jesus called people to fellowship and love it's boring it's boring right no it's not you know what happened in the next few centuries with rome this is where i think it gets really historically interesting the roman culture became so burned out on the sensuality of it all tell me if you don't apply this to america right now the roman culture became so burned out on the sensuality of it all christianity became accepted by the masses as most appealing because of its simplicity so that i'm not saying this was a good thing so that constantine would make it the state religion you think we're on a fast track burnout i do i think you i think i think we have an open door in our culture right now in the church culture what i'm saying is is none of the stuff that we actually think answers what we think um attracts people actually satisfies or answers their needs. Bar Jesus did nothing for Sergius Paulus. Nothing. Except maybe made him feel good for the moment. But we live on the wrong assumptions today that so many people think that the ministry, so many people do, the ministry, syncristically thinking that this is what people want. And you know what? It's not true. It's just not true. There was just an article in the Washington Post that said, if you want proof of that, the mainline liberal churches are all dying at rapid, rapid rates. And lo and behold, guess what churches are growing right now? The conservative churches. I'm not making a case for blanket ugly conservatism. I'm promoting what Acts is showing us here, People who know what they believe and why they believe it and practice it and as an answer and know that Jesus saves. The simplicity of the gospel ministry. That's what the Reformation brought back. Rome had fallen into this trap. Everything was sensual. And they tore down the idols. And they preached the cross. Simple preaching, fellowship, prayer, Lord's Supper. He even knows you're weak, so he gives you two sacraments, doesn't he? And through this making known of Jesus, people are delivered and satisfied. I want you to see how Paul handled this threat. That's where it goes, doesn't it? How did Paul deal with this? Are you ready? Bar Jesus pulls aside Sergius Paulus and says, They're liars. This is what false prophets do. They get angry like we looked at in Jude, and they attack, and they pull people away from the faith. Stay away from them. But Saul, who was also called Paul, the humble one, I love that he puts it right here because whatever I'm about to read, you would say that does not seem very humble. It's as humble as it gets. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, so this is the Spirit now about to speak, looked intently at him. You think it was high, you know? What was it? It was a glare. You son of the devil, you enemy of all unrighteousness or all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? That does not pass the American test for niceness, does it? You're not a son of salvation, you're a son of Satan. And you're an enemy of everything that's right, and you are full of villainy. What an indictment. You, the last one is the biggest, make crooked the straight paths of the Lord. Remember, John the Baptist made straight the paths of the Lord. This guy was making them crooked, meaning that his whole ministry was pulling people away from Jesus. There is what Jude has been telling us. We've come preaching the cross. You're making that way crooked. There is no time for this in the New Testament. You see the threat? The encouragement here is what I said at the beginning. The church grows through those who are willing to be discerning, contend, and warn against this stuff. We have to be willing to say to syncretists in our day, they're perverting the way. You have to be willing to oppose those who stand in the way of Jesus. The Lord is saying the churches who stand in the truth, who stand for something, who are willing to count the cost, are the ones that will grow. And don't you love to see that again here? That through all this opposition, all this conflict, conflict, conflict, conflict, conflict, keeps coming. Notice. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time. Immediately, mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. The Lord will always undermine the wisdom of the wise. We look at this and think, how can we battle this stuff today? I look at that, I struggle with that as a pastor. I face all the same pressures because I think sometimes you do. You feel like, are we just stuck doing something the same thing over and over, over and over. Same old songs. Same old preaching. Same old thing. Everybody's reinventing. And I struggle with contentment myself there. I really do. But Acts, you see, is the greatest help for us. isn't it? Nothing is what it seems. Guess who's watching all this? Somebody here is watching and hearing all this right now, who's pondering it and thinking a lot about it, who is Sergius Paulus? Right here, right now. You are Sergius Paulus. And guess what's just happened? Something very powerful. A battle has just been won. I'm convinced of it. Two Christs were just set side by side. You would think Sergius Paulus would say, wow, look at the magic of this Christ. Right? That's not what he said. What is recorded? Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at what? That a mist fell? At the teaching of the Lord. There's a power nobody can stop. And when you come into contact with the Word of God, the preaching of Jesus, the teaching of the Lord, it'll rock your life. It won him. it was the message that took him the message that jesus of nazareth the son of god had died and got up out of the grave who's ever heard of that what jesus false jesus has ever been able to do that and all power and authority has been given to him and he's seated and whoever repents and believes the gospel will be saved from hell and the judgment of god he reigns he has power and that message delivers because the holy spirit works in it isn't it wonderful isn't it god just converted the proconsul of the whole region and many people came into the faith because of it I come back to my original thought. We close right now. The church back at Antioch gave a great gift. The church at Antioch was a blessing to the ends of the earth. We're in this struggle together. But the word of the Lord will always prevail. You learned what's going on in any mission field. And this is a mission field. Wherever the word of the Lord is, wherever Jesus is preached, There the church is, there is real power. And God promises to you today to bless that, to strengthen you in that, and to save people through that, no matter what's going on and how attracted we are to everything else. He is telling us, stay here. We should have confidence in the gospel, confidence in the name of Jesus Christ, And that he is able to save and shatter the chains that people are under. So, maybe we should pray a lot more. Right? Pray and fast a lot more. I always thought, what if we called the church to a fast? You'd think we're weird. Who does that today? Pray and fast. Be diligent to stand for the truth of the gospel. May God give us all grace to fulfill our calling as the Escondido United Reformed Church. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what a wonderful section of Scripture. It's humbling to see your work, your wisdom, your power unfold against the powers of this age, the crafty workers of darkness. And as we study in this figure, we see all these things today. But we're not so arrogant to think that we don't fall into this. We do. Keep us, Lord, from Bar Jesus, the false prophet. Keep us from magic. Keep us from a form that denies the true power of God, a form of Christianity that denies the true power. And let us rest in Your wonderful promises, knowing that in the word of God, in the gospel proclaimed, there is indeed power to shatter the enemy and that you will prevail in saving a people and not one will be lost. Give us as a church to understand this, to be thankful, to not lose heart. Thank you for your work in this place. Encourage your church here today of what you're doing. And let us be overjoyed in the truth, being willing to stand firm and contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.