Last time we began with Acts 13 and saw there in its
introduction (vv. 1-3), a multicultural
Church led by a multicultural leadership sending a multicultural team to evangelize
a multi- cultural world.
Acts 13 introduces us to the first missionary journey which
ends in Acts 14:28, when Paul and Barnabas
return to Antioch in Syria. It is the missionary effort of the
early church that literally
results in an explosion of churches planted in
the then known world.
This reminds us of the life and times of John Calvin and his
pastoral ministry in Geneva, Switzerland, in the middle of the 1500’s. The
young Protestant movement was always at risk of being threatened and persecuted
by the Roman Catholic church, and those kings and countries which supported
that church. In Switzerland, John Calvin, who was actually a Frenchman, was
safe, but he had a great interest and passion for the progress of the gospel in his fatherland. The Protestant Reformation
spread rapidly through Europe and France. Much of we know of that time is found
in the archives of Geneva. There
are hundreds of letters to and from Calvin and also from others to the underground church in
France and whilst in 1555 there were only five underground churches in France
yet only four years later in 1559, there are reportedly over 100
underground churches in France. Seven
years later, in 1562, there is mention being made of over 2,150 underground
churches in France!
This is typical of the history of the great revivals. Truly, the Holy Spirit
can do more in 5 minutes than we can do in 50 years!
And so we see Paul
and Barnabas sent out from Antioch in Syria, with prayer and fasting, (v.3)
and even more significantly, we see them “being
sent out by the Holy Spirit” (v.4).
Can they go wrong, being led by the Holy Spirit? What we shall learn is that they cannot go
wrong. God’s purpose for the salvation
of all His elect people in the world will not ultimately be resisted. They will go
in the power and assurance of God, and they will accomplish the purpose for
which they have been sent out, but we
shall also learn that this does not mean that there will be no trouble and no
resistance on the way. God’s archenemy,
that fallen angel called Satan
will do whatever he can to hinder
the progress of the gospel. In fact, we
shall see it now here, in this text, as
Paul, Barnabas and John Mark engage upon the first
leg on this journey – on the island of Cyprus.
As we move
forward with this story we have then
seen that there
are four important ingredients
in getting this mission on the map : fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit’s calling, the laying on of
hands by the church of the missionaries and the Holy Spirit
sending them and filling them for
the purpose.
We cannot overstate the historical importance of this moment
in Antioch with reference to the history of the world. From now on the whole world will be evangelized.
Before this call from
the Holy Spirit there was no organized missionary activity to Asia Minor,
Greece, or the Roman empire or Spain.
Before this Paul had not written any of his letters which were all the result
of his missionary journeys. In fact, 13
out of the 29 books of the New Testament were the result of the three
missionary journeys described in the book of Acts.
So, the church at Antioch was called by the Holy Spirit to
the breaking of new ground. The church needed wisdom and insight from God regarding
this new venture , and fasting with prayer was
employed for this purpose.
What is
the purpose of fasting? While
much can be said, and whilst reference
can be made on a key text in Isaiah 58 on the nature of true fasting and false fasting, we want
to confine our comments to this :
In essence fasting with prayer is saying to God, “We want your blessing and counsel in this
matter more than this food. Please hear our prayers. We will not give up until
we have an answer from you.” Fasting has to do with desperation for God’s will
to be done. There are many ways to fast.
Some may be partial, like Daniels’ fast when he only chose to eat
vegetables. Other fasts are complete
fasts, like Moses’ fast and Jesus’ 40
day fast. In this case the whole
congregation fasted (not sure exactly how) for the purpose of this missionary
outreach.
At any rate, this
prompting of the Holy Spirit together with
the prayer and fasting of the
church put Christianity on a map, making it very soon the dominant faith of the Roman empire and of Europe, and of
North Africa and territories in Asia. Today the Christian faith is found in
virtually every country of the world. For instance, in 1900, there were
approximately 10 million Christians in Africa. By 2000, there were 360 million.
By 2025, conservative estimates see that number rising to 633 million. Those
same estimates put the number of Christians in Latin America in 2025 at 640
million and in Asia at 460 million.[1]
World missions was born in a worship meeting , accompanied by prayer and fasting, and it changed the course of world history.
The first missionary
journey is primarily focused on three places:
(i)
Cyprus (13:4-12)
(ii)
Antioch
in Pisidia (13:13- 52] in south Galatia
(iii)
Iconium
and Lystra (14:1-23)
We begin in Cyprus.
Why Cyprus? Well,
Barnabas was from there [4:36], and Cyprus would be the
first major island and country and convenient stop over on the way to the Roman empire and away from the mainland where the Christian faith had found its beginnings.
And so, from Seleucia, about 20 kilometres from Antioch in
Syria they sail to Salamis in Cyprus. There they preached the gospel in the synagogue
of the Jews (13:5). In passing it is mentioned that John Mark
assisted (Gr. hyperetes) them. They
made their way (presumably preaching) through the island from east to west to
Paphos (about 120 kilometers). It is here, Luke reports, that
the first opposition appears.
The opposition is in the form of a man called Bar-Jesus,
(lit. ‘son of Jesus’ or ‘son of
salvation’), or as Luke calls
alternatively him, “Elymas”, meaning sorcerer or magician
(v.8) Do not let his name, Bar
Jesus, fool you. He is no saviour at all. He is in fact an anti- Christ. He is anti-
gospel. In fact, he's the very opposite of what the Lord Jesus and His gospel
stands for.
We find him in the company of an influential politician, the
Roman pro- consul Sergius Paulus, who is said to
be a man of intelligence. Sergius summoned Paul and his colleagues to hear the Word of God, and this
Jewish false prophet Bar Jesus, alias Elymas the sorcerer knew that from his twisted perspective (and
from Paul’s perspective, ‘a son of the
devil’ ) trouble was looming, and therefore he sought to actively turn Sergius away from the faith. The devils in Jesus’ day always knew that
the truth which He spoke would
undo the lies and darkness which they
represented [ e.g. Mark 1:21-28;29-34;3:11 ; 5:1-20 etc.]
And so we read that Saul, who now becomes Paul, filled
with the Holy Spirit (v.9
cf. v.4) challenges this Elymas, and he calls him what he is, “ you son of the devil, you enemy of righteousness, full of deceit and
villainy”… “ will you not stop making
crooked the straight paths of the Lord
?” … this is a reference to Isaiah 40:3, about making a straight
path for the good news which the anticipated Messiah would
bring. This prophecy is associated with
the coming of John the
Baptist. John came to prepare the
straight paths for Jesus, whose forerunner he had become. Here also are Paul
and his team making a straight path for
Sergius to hear about the straight and narrow way in Christ,
and this false prophet tries to turn Sergius Paulus away from that straight path to follow his crooked path.
So, here is the gospel and there is the opposition. Here is the power of God, the Holy Spirit working through Paul and his team, and there is the magic power
of the devil through Elymas. Who will
win?
The answer is easy. God wins, because God wanted Sergius
Paulus to believe and be saved! God wins because He is the sovereign of the
Universe, and not the devil. God
wins because He has all the nations in His purpose. This
man from Cyprus among many others from
Cyprus , must be a part of the nations that will worship at the footstool of the throne of their
Creator! [Rev.5:9; 7:9] . Elymas
like every devil and son of the devil must bow the knee to Jesus, as in this
case the Sovereign Lord strikes him with a judicial blindness… “immediately mist and darkness fell upon
him…” and he was helpless .
Sergius Paulus, the Roman pro- consul in Cyprus, who by the preaching of the gospel was sought out
by God, not only sees this which is happening to Elymas, BUT
he is also astonished at the teaching of the Lord (v. 12), AND HE BELIEVED! He embraced the truth as it is in Jesus. What a wonderful blessing and encouragement that must have been to
Barnabas and Saul at the beginning of the first
missionary journey.
Make no
mistake! They are going to need this
encouragement and reminder of
the wonderful sovereignty of God and of
the Holy Spirit who has sent them, who goes before them and who continues to lead them on this journey. There
will be some severe trials along
the way to come. They need to have a
strong assurance and reminder that God is with them…
In Conclusion : A few things to think about ...
1. The importance of having a calling for a fruitful
missionary work. This
needs to be
rooted in the inward call of the Holy Spirit, and it ought to be accompanied by the united praying and
fasting of the church, which also recognizes such a call by the laying on of
hands.
2. The importance of the church
praying for and supporting such a work. May I remind you the
church members that at the most basic
and fundamental level, you need to be involved in the ministry of prayer, as we consider the missionary expansion of God in this world and in our
generation. Paul in
his epistles always asked for the
church’s help in prayer . Surely we cannot do less. From a human perspective then I would fear to send anyone into the
mission field without the help of a
praying church.
3. Remember that we cannot keep the best and most gifted people
for ourselves. The tendency is always there to
keep those gifted people like Saul and Barnabas for ourselves. I don't want Barnabas
and Saul to leave my church! But the worshiping church at Antioch said, ‘We will and must send the best we have into the mission
field for the glory of God and for the
sake of His ever expanding kingdom.’
4. Remember that though the Gospel of God will always triumph, it will also always be resisted by Satan, as long as this age will last .
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