If you would, go ahead and take your copy of God's Word and turn with me to Acts, if you're not already there. All right, let's go to the Lord again and ask for him to speak to us today as the mission begins. Lord, we thank you for amazing grace, the amazing grace that you've given to your people that were separated from you. Lord, we thank you for giving us the gospel, the good news of the gospel, and Lord, you being the gospel, that you would come and die and rise again, Lord, and that you would allow us to be a part of this, not only to be worshipers of you, but then to go and to make, only because of your great power, that you would put your spirit in us Your spirit is literally in each and every one of your children sitting here today, men and women, young and old, the spirit of God in us. That's amazing. And Lord, we get to leave this place and we get to go and we get to tell the world about you. And we know when we go, there's going to be great difficulty, as we'll see even today, Lord. We ask that you please give us courage as we walk through this text. Show us the things you want us to see, the opposition that will inevitably come across our paths. But we can have full assurance that you will keep building your church. We love you, Lord. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, we've all been raised in a world that we want to really bad. Believe for the most part, men and women, boys and girls, people of all ages are basically good. and that there are intentions and our goals in life are essentially for making the world and the people of the world a better place. Whatever a better place is to you, to them, however they or we would define what a better place is, we, I, want to think that the sweet, precious little one that's born into this world made in the image of God is innocent and basically good. We want, I want reality to be that as we interact with people, as we interact with people in the world, as we interact with teachers and bosses and government and friends and neighbors and coworkers and family members, I want reality to be that all of mankind's intentions and inner nature is to do good, is to be honest, is to be trustworthy, is to be truthful, is to be completely sincere and loving, and their intent is to be helpful and harmless. We not only want this, but all the way back from even Socrates and Plato, We have been inundated doctrinally, literally, in our system that human nature is basically these things. Humans and the human heart is born basically and morally good, honest, and trustworthy. But sad to say, the reality is the Bible says that's not reality. For truth is that which matches up with reality. Reality is that which matches up with the truth. And the reality is that the Bible communicates that outside of Christ, the human heart is deceitful, full of deception and dishonesty. The Bible communicates the human heart and nature is full of slander and sickness and corruption. Outside of Christ, human hearts are malicious, full of lies, evil, wickedness, and have con artist bents, if you want to say. Since the fall of mankind in Genesis 3, everyone, including you and I, is born into this world and lives with hearts that are characterized in such a way. Outside of having a heart change, outside of Christ graciously intervening and giving us new hearts, this is the nature of our hearts that is bound to our sin, which we just sang about. Amazing grace, right? Our chains are gone. What it's talking about there is we're chained to our sinful nature that we are born with. And I'm not going to walk through all these verses, but if you want to just go ahead and jot them down, they're on the screen there to confirm what I just communicated, because those things are heavy. So you can, again, you can see them, I believe on the screen and just jot them down, but just quickly, even Jesus himself in those last two sets of verses, Jesus himself was clear that out of man come evil thoughts, deceitfulness, wickedness and slander, just to name a few. Outside of, again, Christ giving us this heart change, our hearts are corrupted. It's who we are. And biblically, and I would argue even all of us would agree experientially, this should not be shocking to us. You don't have to live in the world very long to see this experientially, the characteristics, and those characteristics are of those of the father who are outside of Christ. John 8, 44 says this, you are those who don't know Christ, of your father, the devil, and your will is to live aimlessly. No, your will is actually to do your father's desires. So the attributes of the father, Satan, the devil, from the beginning is sly, crafty, deceitful, lying, and he's a twister of truth. And I know we don't want to think of people in this way, but outside of Christ, their hearts are bound to these type of characteristics. Well, why do I start with this? Well, if you recall, we transition and Paul and Barnabas are now going to go out. They've been called and they're going to be set apart to do the job that God has called them to do. They have to go make disciples of all nations. Disciples are humans. These humans are inevitably gonna oppose what they're gonna communicate by these Christians. In other words, the mission these guys are going on with the hearts that they're gonna come up against is not going to be easy because they're outside of Christ. There's going to be much push and resistance from those people that they run into, but be assured in remembrance, the promise going on in the background, that God will build his church. And if they didn't believe that, they're not gonna go. They believe that, and so they're gonna go, but they know that there's going to be much pressing back on them. And so within no time, we're gonna see Paul and Barnabas right after being sent out are against massive opposition. Let's look at verses four and five here, as we'll see the mission begins. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had John assist them. So two apostles, these two apostles and their assistant, John Mark, are sent out from the church at Antioch. To do what? To do as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28, 18 to 20. To make disciples, to baptize them, to teach them all that Jesus had commanded. And the totality of this first missionary journey, we will go on with Paul. We'll go from today, Acts 13.4, and it'd be good for you guys to maybe read through this this week, from Acts 13.4 here in Seleucia, all the way through Acts 14.26, where they'll come back to Antioch. And so they'll go, they'll be gone for a couple of chapters, and it spans approximately a year and a half, and it starts approximately in 80, 46, and 47. And so they're going on this year and a half journey, which is gonna span about two chapters, all the way through Acts chapter 14, 26. And as stated, this mission and the ones thereafter and how it comes home to us. Our mission today is under the promise that Jesus will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail. The first mission begins, as it says, they are sent out by the Holy Spirit. So what does it mean to be sent out by the Holy Spirit? Well, Pastor Jared covered this a bit last week, that the Holy Spirit at that time made it abundantly clear that they were called, they were set apart to be sent out specifically by the Holy Spirit. This was a unique transitional, again, time in the church. The mission had never happened before where people are sent out into the world in such a way. And so the Holy Spirit gave much clarity to the three other leaders of this church and these two guys that they were the two guys to go. I think you can see on the screen at this time, they leave Antioch, board on the Eastern Mediterranean Sea there at Seleucia. They're going to sail west all the way to the island of Cyprus, and they're going to arrive on that coast there in a place called Salamis. And from my understanding, you can actually, if it's not foggy or whatever, you can see from this Seleucia and Antioch all the way to Salamis, and it would take about a day to sail and get there on that coast. Well, the question maybe is why Cyprus? Why did the Holy Spirit send them to Cyprus? Well, remember God works through us, through our backgrounds and our personalities and our bents. Cyprus was a pretty familiar place to Barnabas. If you recall, he was a native there. He was born there all the way back in Acts chapter four, we covered that. He was born on that island. And so that would be both beneficial and intimidating, I think. Some of you sitting here have come from different cultures, different places with different backgrounds, some from different countries. And imagine if we said, you're going back into that same place where you came from, into that culture with the God that they worship, with the people that you know pretty well, we're going to send you back there to go essentially confront the culture. And so beneficial if you think about it, because they knew a lot of people probably. He would have known a lot of people. the culture they would have known. He probably would have known a lot of the leadership in the synagogues, which maybe would have cracked the door open to get into the synagogues, to be able to speak in the synagogues. Intimidating, because again, imagine going back in, knowing they believe a certain way and you are going to come back into these Jewish synagogues and kind of be a lightning bolt as you confront their belief system. Now remember, Paul and Barnabas would not have been the first Christians to get to this place. We saw this in Acts 11, 19. We're told after the scattering of the church in Jerusalem, after the persecution, that believers traveled and went out all the way as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. So they're not the first believers to come there, but clearly they're sent out on Well, what do they do when they arrive there? So they're on this ship, they're sailing west, and they get there, they head straight to the synagogues. They go right into the synagogues and they preach, or proclaim is what it says, the word of God. And if you walk through Acts, you'll see this consistent trajectory, if you want to say, or this consistent procedure as they arrive in new places. And actually, even before the mission begins, in Acts chapter nine, after Paul was saved, he ended up staying with the disciples in Damascus, and right away, he goes into the synagogue. But then if you walk through in Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas go to Iconium, they go to the synagogues. In Acts 17, they go to Thessalonica and Berea, they head straight to the synagogue. So you'll see this. In Corinth and in Ephesus, in Acts 18, they get there, they go straight to the synagogues. Why? Why did they go to the synagogues first? Well, according to Acts 13, it says it was necessary, verse 46, that the word of God be spoken first to you." To who? To the Jews. And so you see this consistency in scripture all the time, because if you go to Romans, right, the letter to the church in Rome, we know that the gospel is to go what? To the Jew first and also to the Greek. So as soon as he arrives at these places on mission, he goes right to the synagogues. Well, what in particular were they proclaiming? It says they were proclaiming the word of God. Well, remember they're Jewish. These are synagogues. Paul and Barnabas understood their backgrounds, their history, their mindsets, their makeup of these people they were going into. And it appears to me they would have been proclaiming or preaching and teaching what we will see actually next week in Acts chapter 13, verses 16 to 41 in Pisidia. We'll see that next week where Paul will stand up in this synagogue and he will give them really the essence of the gospel. And it's really fascinating as you walk through this, he essentially, in this text that I'll walk through with you, just high level, that their forefathers wanted a king. We all know that in the Old Testament, they wanted a king. So God finally gave them a king. And it was then through King David that God sends Jesus. And so it says there, follow along on the screen there in verse 22, he's speaking, remember, in the synagogue to these Jews, and he says, and when he had removed them, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will. Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he promised. And then Paul goes on and he says, brothers, Jews in the synagogue, sons of the family of Abraham and these among you who fear God to us has been sent the message of salvation. And then verse 28, watch as he walks through this. And though they found in him, in who? In Jesus, no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him Executed, you see crucifixion there. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in the tomb. Burial, Acts 13.30, but God raised him from the dead. Resurrection, verse 32, and we bring you the good news, the gospel, that what God promised to the fathers. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man, Forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses." And so over time through those verses, you'll see next week that he really, he just walks them through the essence of the gospel and he interweaves for them their history and the promises that they're blind to really that the King's coming. And so I'm convinced that here, In Salamis, Paul did the same thing. He might not have said the exact same thing, but he still weaved the gospel. Well, right at the end of verse five, he tags on, for some reason, they had John there to assist him. Why was John there? Well, first of all, who was this guy? It was the same John, John Mark, that we saw in Acts 12, 12. Remember, Peter, the angels release Peter. He was bound in prison. He gets released. He runs out into the street. The angel's gone. Remember, the automatic gate opens. The angel's gone. He then goes to the house of Mary. Rhoda hears him yelling for them. She comes and she runs back and says, Peter's here. You'll never believe it. And then it says there, they're at the house of Mary. And John Mark, the son of Mary is also So that's the John Mark that's going out with them to assist them. This is also, we know according to Colossians 4, John Mark is the cousin of Barnabas. So there's some familial ties here too. So we know who he was, but why did they take this guy? Why did John Mark go with them on a journey? Well, we don't have much, but it says that he went to assist them. And the word there simply means helper or a deacon-like assistant, just a servant who is coming alongside them to just help in whatever way possible they needed him to help. It's the same idea as Acts 6. Remember we saw in Acts 6, they needed to focus on preaching and teaching and prayer, the apostles, And so they said, we need deacons, deacon-like, they didn't call them specific, but deacons to go and take care of all these widows. And so they selected seven deacon-like super servants to just help in that particular situation with the widows. Here, we don't know exactly what it was, but there's no doubt there would be things that would distract or detract Paul and Barnabas. from staying focused on the mission of what they're called to do. And so they brought along this guy named John Mark. John Mark doesn't stick around long. We'll actually see next week, verse 13, that he sails back to Jerusalem, actually, or heads back to Jerusalem. He sails and then heads back to Jerusalem, and there's all kinds of speculation on why he leaves. But Paul and Barnabas set apart, get to work, knowing for sure the promise that God will build his church, they bring John Mark along, look at verse six, as we'll see the opposition to the mission. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Barjesus. So at some point they leave Salamis and they head down, if you remember the map, The southern part, most likely because of the terrain there, it's about a hundred miles west of Salamis. At some point, they head out and they get to Paphos and they come upon this guy named Bargesis. And the name there actually means son of Jesus or son of Joshua. And it says here, he is a magician. And if there's any young ones sitting here like, oh, they did that back then. Oh, that's cool. No, not that type of magician. But the original term actually is interesting because the original term in and of itself was not evil at its root. It's actually also used in Matthew two for the wise men. It was also a term used to describe those who were intelligent when it came to astronomy and astrology and those type of things. Along with that, the Hebrew translation, This word is used to describe the dream interpreters of Daniel. So at its root, it's not evil in essence. With that said, bar Jesus was a magician and a Jewish false prophet. And so I think for our understanding, a better translation for this would be if you're holding a KJV, a New King James Version, or an NIV, would be a sorcerer, a sorcerer. And it's really the same picture that we saw in Acts 8, if you recall, with Simon. Peter is sharing the truth of Christ, and he comes upon this guy named Simon, who's doing this magic. And if you remember, Simon did that to draw a crowd, and he did draw a crowd, to the point that they kind of worshiped him. They believed him so much, we saw in Acts 8 where it says, this man, and they're saying this, they're shouting this, this man, Simon, is the power of God that is called great. And so he drew a crowd, he had a following, he had power and influence. But at some point when Peter shares the gospel, he proclaims the gospel and people start following the truth of the gospel. Simon says, huh, I want to jump on board with that. Not because he was a God fearer. He wanted the power and prestige to stay with him. He wanted the following. And so he said in Acts 8, 19, give me this power also so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Again, he wasn't a follower of Jesus. He wanted the power to deceive people to worship him. And so what happened? Well, if you jump down, we're not going to read it to verse 40 or 22 of that same text. There's a reason why Peter says, repent and be baptized because he knew what he was doing. He was craftily trying to get people to keep following him. So like Simon, Bar Jesus was a deceiver. He was a con artist and he used religion to con people, in particular Judaism. And so we will see he wasn't only a magician, he was a false prophet. But this powerful statement that we're going to see in verse 10, Paul calls him the son of a devil, of the devil. In other words, this guy knew the word of God. but you would use the word of God to twist the word of God to deceive and lead people in the ways in which he wanted them to go. For what? For the sake of power, prestige, and profit. And so like Simon, Bar Jesus was just a big fraud. He literally made a living, literally made a living, was hired, as we'll see, by this guy named a pro council, for misleading and deceiving people blindly and giving them false hope, making them think that he had some sort of greater connection to God, making them think that if they just did what he told them to do, and that he had these dreams that he could reveal to them that was God-like, and then they would give him cash to keep doing this. Crafty. He would con them to pay for what he did for them. In the study notes of an ESV study Bible, it says Paul's subsequent characterization of this man suggests that his magic was assisted by demonic powers. Magic in antiquity was practiced by both pagan and Jewish people with the goals of the healing diseases, bringing physical blessings, cursings, or harming others and guarding against both curses and demons. Again, the goal would be healing, bring physical blessings, cursing or harming others, and guarding against both curses and demons, magicians also claim to foretell. Sound familiar? Today, we see, under the umbrella of Christianity, the false gospel and false movement of healings, health, and wealth, all under the title of Jesus. They pray on who? hopelessness, and they get people to give them their last bit of whatever they have to mislead them into false promises. And then if these promises don't come about, well, you got to give more or you got to have more faith to be able to get what you want. They get them to believe that by again, giving them this stuff or following them, The false prophets and the false teachers, they can heal them, cure them, and really get them to do whatever, all under the name of Christianity. And sad to say these false teachers, as we know, sit back on their private jets and their homes in the hills, counting their money as they continue to just lead people in the hopeless false gospels that they proclaim. And you know what? Sometimes we see this as being over there. Like that's over there or over there, or this is on our social media network. I can't believe people would be so duped into this. But this is right in our backyard. There are false gospels going on all around us and guys who yearn for power and prestige and will use religion to acquire such things. And it's ideal for guys and ladies like this to connect themselves to others, maybe of governmental, you know, high stakes, to be able to then influence and grow their power and prestige. And by the way, that's what Bar Jesus did as he connects himself to this pro council. Look at verse seven. He was with Proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. And so from my understanding, Cyprus was under Roman rule, had previously been conquered by the Romans. It was under Roman rule at this time. And because of this, the major or main cities then in Cyprus would then have what's like a governor or a senator of sorts that they would be appointed to one year terms, which they called a procouncil. And these guys would have all authority in each of these cities under two main things, which one would be military and the other would be in the courtroom. So they had lots of power. They had all power and authority to lead and direct military affairs and to really make decisions in the courtroom to trump whatever decision maybe would have been made. Now you have to understand if you're in the people of Paphos' situation, if you're citizens there, if you want to say, they would intently listen and watch and wonder what a guy like this was going to do or not do. Because the decisions these government leaders in these cities were making or not making would either be beneficial or oppressive to the people of Paphos. And so we have to ask the question, why would this pro-council, a guy of his authority, of his stature, send for these two guys to hear what they have to say? Well, as I already stated, he has great power and influence, but Luke, the writer of Acts, also adds that he's a learned man. a one who yearns for understandings of diversity of thinking, if you want to say. So be clear at this point, this guy was not a man of God. He was not a God fear. So why would he do this? Well, one, it appears again, as I just said, he just the diversity of knowledge of knowing. He would have obviously heard that these two guys were making great influence in the whole island of Cyprus. And so to fill, if you want to say his diversity and knowledge cup, yeah, have them come in. I want to hear what they have to say. I want to learn more. So that's part of it. But I also think it appears and probably held more weight with his position that he understood what they were doing was having a major impact in Cyprus. And so one who's in military control and a leader in this city, he wants them to come in. I want to hear what they have to say because I have to investigate it to keep up with and to keep my hand on the affairs of what's going on in Paphos as they come towards us. I know it's coming, so I want to be ready to be able to still control this thing as they come in. So if you really think about it, he was not a God-fearer, he was actually a man-fearer with much power. He wanted to know what all the rave was so he could continue to influence and lead that area in pathos with his governmental authority. Now, this isn't surprising, for we have seen this through the history of mankind. When Christianity steps into a particular area or to a region, the authorities of that region have a decision to make. It's gonna come anyway, so we have to make a decision. And usually one of three things happen, and it's usually one of two things that happen. The first is they can attempt to just get rid of all Christians. Usually by what? Severe persecution. and they tried to kill them off. We saw that in Acts, right? We saw that with Stephen as he was killed as an example of what could happen to anyone else who said they were a Jesus follower. Severe persecution. We also have this tactic today. All you have to go to do is go to the voice of the martyrs and they list off 10 nations where they do not hide at all, that you will be killed by the government if you proclaim the name of Christ. As we know, and can probably assume, there's more than just those 10 that are maybe not as explicit, but are implicit in what they do. So one, extreme persecution. Two, they could kind of try and look like they're working with Jesus followers, but strategically limit them in their scope of influence. So one, just kill them off. Two, the other strategy, let's just try and somehow act like we're working with these Christians and limit them in what they're doing. Again, we saw this in Acts. We saw this in Acts 5. Peter and the apostles all gathered at Solomon's portico in Jerusalem. Signs and wonders were being done. It said at that time more than ever believers were coming and being added to the multitudes of men and women being added to the church. The high priest sees this, jealousy happens, he gets enraged at what was taking place. But if you recall, it says he couldn't kill them because he was concerned about or fearful of the people and how they were responding to this message. And so what did he do instead? He threw him in prison and he essentially begged them and roughed them up a bit and said, stop proclaiming the name of Jesus. Well, we know that what their response were, it was, we must obey God rather than man. And so again, they roughed him up a little bit and then they let them go. So either one, severe persecution, two, let's look like we're working with these guys to stop this movement or at least slow it or corral it, or three is just leave Christianity alone. Three is not an option usually, as we know. Usually it's not an option for leaders of influence that they're just gonna let Christianity do its thing. They're gonna try and stop the movement. And as we move forward in this text, we see Bar-Jesus gets concerned about that. And so this guy he's connected to, this pro-council, this Sergius, he wants to step in and stop the possibility of this pro-council being persuaded to this movement for various reasons. Look at verse eight with me. But Alemas, the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them. seeking to turn the pro-council away from the faith. So, Elimis, he is Bar-Jesus. So this is the same guy. Luke here chose to use Bar-Jesus' Greek transliteration, which meant magician, as you can already see in the text. So I'm going to keep saying Bar-Jesus, because it's easier for me to say. So Bar-Jesus pushed back. He's pushing back against Paul and Bartimaeus, and he opposes them because he was concerned with what they were going to try and convince, right, the proconsul of. Why? Why is this such a huge concern for Bar-Jesus? Well, one, it would hurt Bar-Jesus' lifestyle if he would be hit where? In his pocket, if you want to say, because there would be no need for Sergius to employ Bar-Jesus anymore. He paid this guy for the services of interpretation and spiritual influence and direction in his life. So if Sergius becomes a follower of Christ, there would be no need for Bar-Jesus. He would have literally lost his source of income and his prestige and his power and his influence by being connected to this procouncil. Again, sounds a little like Simon, from chapter eight. Well, not just that, but what else was he concerned about? He was a Jew. And so he wanted nothing to do with Jesus. He hated Jesus. He opposed the king of the Jews, if you want to say. If he would have been one on that dark day in Jerusalem, if he would have been at the cross with them, he for sure would have been chanting, crucify him. And if he had a chance to, he would have loved to take the nails and put them in his arms, right? And so the resistance from Bar-Jesus against Paul and Barnabas was ultimately because he hated Jesus. And I think that's important to note that the resistance to Paul and Barnabas was actually a resistance to the Lord of Paul and Barnabas. Their resistance, his resistance, was not really against them in per se. It's to the one behind their message, King Jesus himself. And so the battle here for Paul and Barnabas and the resistance here is yes, face-to-face with this Bar-Jesus, but it's deeper than that. Bar-Jesus, yes, I know his name means son of Jesus or son of Joshua, but he was a child of the devil. And so he was the son of a devil, which Jesus said in John 8, which I already read, if God were your father, you would love me. For I came from God and I'm here. I came not on my own accord. This is Jesus speaking. Verse 44, you are of your father, the devil. In turn, your will is to do your father's desires. And so the battle being fought here is against ultimately the devil, the evil nature, the evil system of the world. The encouraging thing here is the battle being fought is actually a battle that was already won, right? Because the head of the serpent was crushed. But those who don't know the Messiah, are on the team, if you want to say, of the devil. And so Bar-Jesus's will in his service is in bondage, as we sang in Amazing Grace, to the devil and the schemes of the devil and his sin nature. It's enslaved. And so he's bent to keep doing the things of his father. And I think it's important, as we discussed in our Red Book class today, which was so good, that's not just for Bar-Jesus. That is for anyone who does not know by God's grace and has bowed the knee to King Jesus. Characteristics of the devil you see in Bar-Jesus are internal nature characteristics because their father is the devil of those who don't know Jesus. And so those come out in the life. The devil's a liar. There's no truth in him. In turn, what's Bar-Jesus? He's a liar and a twister of the truth. The devil was a murder from the beginning. Why does it add that phrase from the beginning in the Bible? While they were in the garden, the devil twisted the truce of the creator, right? And he dangled the carrot of you will be like God before Adam and Eve. And they believed that and they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And in turn, the one who dangled the truth or the false truth brought death in the world through the consequences of Adam's sin. And so death comes to all men because all sin. Bar Jesus and guys like Bar Jesus, even today, dangle the carrot of false hope before people and false promises of the better life, and they're actually just leading them to death. And so the devil and the character of the devil and the nature of the devil is full of lies. And in turn, those who are children of the devil speak those things they can't do otherwise. They speak out of the same character. And so because of this, we, the people of God, who by God's grace have been given eyes to see, are ultimately not fighting against flesh and blood. Paul said this in Ephesians, right? Be strong in the Lord. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against who? The rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We kind of dismiss that today. Just how we live and how we've been indoctrinated to think there is a devil scheming out there. It's spiritual forces. And Paul says, don't forget, stand firm, be strong, because you're fighting against the schemes of the devil. Now, as opposition from Bar-Jesus happened, we don't know exactly what was said. But according to our final section of the text, What happened, what he was trying to do, was a big fraud of trickery and deceitfulness, and Paul saw right through it. And this is the opposition that will come this side of heaven, that these twisting and this turning, and Paul and Barnas is standing before them, and they're encouraged though. Because the problem that Bar Jesus doesn't understand is he's resisting a king. He's not ultimately opposing them. He's opposing one who it's impossible for him to win or to push back on. It would be like one of us trying to move a boulder just on pure strength. It is an impossibility. And Paul and Barnabas know that. They know the behind the scenes promise, the background promise of this whole story is that God will build his church and the gates of hell will not turn it over. And so the creator of heaven and earth itself is the one that Bar-Jesus is trying to push back against. And so, People, Paul and Barnabas also, be encouraged because those who we go out into the world and take this gospel to, and those who try and push back against this thing, it is an impossibility that they can do it because they're fighting against God himself. And so with that, let's look at God's divine hand of judgment as we'll see this final point. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him. And so Luke reminds us right away, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was full of the Holy Spirit, and in turn, he had boldness. And reminder's sake, being full of the Holy Spirit is synonymous with being filled with the Word of God. And you can jot these down, Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. Those things are synonymous. He was full of the Holy Spirit and he was filled with the Word of God, in turn, It gave him the ability to kind of flex his spiritual muscles to be able to push back and resist the opposition that's coming. We saw this in 1 Peter, or see this in 1 Peter, where it says, resist him, stand firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And so this pushing back that you see, we are called just to stand firm. And I think that's important. It doesn't say, Peter doesn't say, hey, as these opposition comes, jump on movements and bandwagons and follow these things and try and corral these things. No, he says, stand firm. So just stand firm. Stand firm in what? The truth. And I think that's an encouragement to us. Don't mess with it. When God says it, that settles it. So when we see things in the world that are going on right now that we feel like are this massive movement and God's gonna lose, no, stand firm, church. Stand firm. And that's what Paul does here. Look at verse 10. He stands firm and he calls this guy, you son of the devil. You enemy of righteousness, fool of all deceit and villainy. You will not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord." This is strong language here. This is not politically correct language here. You son of the devil, you worker of unrighteousness. And the only reason Paul can be courageous here is because he's standing on the truth, right? And so he says, you son of the devil, you enemy of righteousness here, unrighteous, or yeah, enemy of righteousness. We live in this big world and Jesus actually brings this up where he talks about, we live in this field and there's good seeds and there's evil seeds. And the devil is the one who's sowing these evil seeds. And so through their evil desires, their slandering of the word of God, their lying, their deceitfulness, those non-believers here by Jesus are sons of the devil and enemies of righteousness. And what are they full of? Look at the text, deceit and villainy. And he says, stop making crooked the straight paths of God. Stop twisting the words of God. Stop using your Judaism and thinking you can be this big influence and you're leading people down the road to hell just where you're going, you son of the devil. Stop blurring the truth. And guess what? This was the very accusation all the way back in Micah that the prophet Micah was dealing with. And watch how this lines up. It's amazing with our text. Look at Micah three. Here you heads of Jacob and rulers of Israel, you leaders, is it not for you to know justice? You who hate the good and love the evil. Verse five, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who cry peace. They say it's peace when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. You act like you want peace. You cry, just calm down as you continue to eat and fill your own bellies and have more than enough food and more than enough goods, but keep oppressing those who have nothing to put in their mouths. Verse nine, hear this, you heads of house of Jacob and rulers who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight. Its heads give judgment for a bribe. They get money for it. Its priests teach for a price. False teachers want money. Its prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord in the midst of us? Isn't this all of the Lord? What was the consequence of those rulers? Verse six and seven. Therefore it shall be night to you without vision and darkness to you. The sun shall go down on the prophets and they shall be black over them. What happens to bar Jesus? Look at verse 11. The Lord is upon you and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time. And immediately midst and darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Paul's speaking, but the Lord's hand is the one who ultimately gave consequences here. Just as much as we see the hand of God in blessing in the Bible, we see the hand of God in judgment. We saw this in Exodus, when the plagues came, specifically the fifth plague, the hand of the Lord brought a plague, a severe plague, where he took all their livestock, camels, herds. And we see this throughout the scriptures. David himself, he fell into sin with Bathsheba, and the hand of the Lord pressed down upon him where he was rotting at his bones, it says in Psalm 32. And then out of this divine judgment, so, God still works. Even in the midst of darkness, God still works. You see this with the plague in Israel. In the middle of Exodus 14, look what it says. He sent all these plagues. He sent all these plagues. His people were released from bondage and slavery. They looked behind them. God brought the sea back to normal. And what's it say? Verse 30, the Lord saved Israel. And then verse 31, Israel saw the great power of the Lord. used against the Egyptians so that people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and his servant, Jesus. What happens in Acts? The judgment of the Lord comes. Verse 12, then the procounsel believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. And so after the miracle of punishment to bar Jesus, and the blinding that the Lord gave to him, he brings, the story continues, and he builds his church. This man, this bar Jesus, all earthly power, who was blindly leading people into hopelessness, is now stumbling around blind, looking, and it says, begging for just a hand to help him go. And yet the pro-council, kind of like a king in Paphos, his heart, as Proverbs 21 says, is a stream of water and the Lord turns it where he will. He just turned the heart of the pro-council from wanting power and prestige to bowing the knee to Jesus. The mission began, the promise that Jesus will build his church continues, opposition comes, God works through Paul and Barnabas here. He saves this sinner. And then the mission continues. And he sets sail next week as Jared will bring us from Cyprus to Perga. And God will still be the captain of the ship and his church will keep being built. And the story continues. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we are amazed and thankful that we're not fighting against the Lord anymore. We're not opposing, we're not twisting, we're not deceiving by your grace the truths of you and who you are. Look, we have a mission now. And we get to go and opposition is waiting for us. May we stand firm and be amazed as we have courage to tell and get to watch and then get to worship as we watch. We love you, Jesus. In Christ's name, amen.