Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful
that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either
by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray
for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,
I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,
they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will
do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a
non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't
hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the
types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
Father, we ask that you would continue to gently but deeply pour out the Holy Spirit upon us.
We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would move very deeply in us, that we might know that we are in
your presence, that you are a great God, that Jesus is a great Savior, able to save all who put their
faith and trust in Him, that you will help us to grow in knowing that the gates of hell will not
prevail against your church, and that even if we are weak, you are strong. So Father, we ask that you
would do a gentle but powerful work in our hearts this morning, bringing your word home to us in a
deep way. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. So a couple of years ago, probably
more than a couple of years ago, I was taking the cab to the airport early morning, and I was going to
some pastors' conference. And this is a different cab conversation than last Sunday's sermon, just in
case you're wondering. The cab driver asked me why I was going to the airport so early where I was
going. I told him I was going to Vancouver. I told him, he said, oh, why? I said, I'm going to a
pastor's conference, meet with other pastors. And he looked at me through his mirror, and he started to
pepper me with some standard Muslim critiques of Christianity, about the Bible being corrupted,
and a few other things like that. And I'd had a bit of experience in handling some of those things.
I was able to parry them, you know, give some answers. And then he sort of paused, especially
after one of them when he talked about the Bible. And I said, well, that's actually not correct.
Anyway, he paused, and I said, so I take it you're a Muslim. I said, are you a practicing Muslim? He said,
I was a very, very devout Muslim for quite a few years. But then a couple of years ago, I realized
that nothing written in the 7th century can have anything relevant to life today. Sort of interesting
that he was trying to get me to stop being a Christian. That's what he said, nothing written in the 7th
century can have any relevance to life today. And then he told me this other little detail.
He said, when I said that to my mom, she's still sad over it, because I live a different way now.
The reason I mention this is it's, as you know, there's many, there's always been people who walk away
from the Christian faith. And one of the things which contributes to people walking away from the
Christian faith is the great disconnect between what we do on a Sunday morning, where what we do when we're
with our Christian friends, and what happens when we walk out the door. And there's ways of,
talking about what it means to be a Christian, and there's ways of looking at the Bible,
that are all, they can make us feel very comfortable, and they can make us feel very safe.
And by the way, I like people feeling comfortable. I like feeling comfortable.
But if we talk about things in certain type of way, almost ignoring how the world, how the doors out,
people on the other side of those doors, how they would look at the same text.
If we only talk about it in here with our in-house language, and never sort of connect what's outside
that door with what's going on inside, it will make it harder to be a Christian.
And in fact, it could even end up leading you to the conclusion that nothing written in the,
in this case, first century, has anything to say to life in this century.
So one of the things you can pray for me is that week by week, when I try to open the word,
and when other people like Steve open the word, that we'll be, we want to have the two worlds come
together. Because the fact of the matter is, Jesus really is the hope of the world.
There is no other hope. He is the hope of the world.
So let's look at this text in light of what I've just said, because I think you'll see why I brought
this up as an analogy. So if you turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 13, Luke chapter 13, and by the way,
I can't see what you're seeing on the screen. So if those of you who are watching this, maybe it's a
sermon later, our service got delayed earlier because we were having trouble with pro-presenter.
So I don't know if periodically you're just going to see a big pro-presenter advertisement rather
than me when I preach, and that's just, we'll fix the glitch next week. That's all I can say.
Anyway, Luke chapter 13, I'm sorry, Acts chapter 13, not Luke, Acts chapter 13, sorry.
You see, I'm going to talk about sorcery. All sorts of things start to go wrong, you know,
but it won't work, by the way. Christ is one, and we all know the end of the story.
So Acts chapter 13, and here's, and actually before I go any further, you know, here's the
thing that the text is going to be about today, and you'll see why I'm using this as an analogy
and example at the beginning. What we're looking at today is the first true missionary journey.
The first true missionary journey. So up until now, the book of Acts is an eyewitness-based
history of the first 30 or so years of the Jesus movement, and it was written while eyewitnesses
were still alive to critique it, and up until now, obviously there's been the Gospels making
big jumps out of the Jewish community into the Samaritan community, out of the Jewish community
into the pagan world. It's left Jerusalem. The story's going to take place in Antioch. Antioch's
the third most important city of the Roman Empire at that particular time. It's a very,
very important city. The third biggest as well. And so the Gospel's been doing this, but it's
in a sense all been done informally. People leaving and gossiping the Gospel. I can't remember who
invented that phrase. It wasn't me, but gossiping the Gospel. But what we're going to look at today
is the first missionary endeavor, where there's a conscious decision made to send missionaries
out, and with financial and prayer support, the very, very first time. So here's the problem.
Outside the door. Outside the door, we learn to decolonize our minds. That's what they want to teach
you in school, don't they? The problem in the world is that there's been this terrible movement
of colonization. There's been these terrible, terrible people called missionaries. No offense,
I know there's at least one missionary in the room. No offense to you, but that's how the world speaks
about missionaries. Missionary activity, in principle, is wrong. It's narrow-minded, implying
that Jesus is the only way. It, in fact, is trampling on the indigenous and other types of spiritualities
which exist in the world, and it tramples on them, and it's a form of colonizing which we need to rid
ourselves of if we want to flourish. That's what they say out there, right? Tell me I'm wrong. Well,
maybe not right now, but later on. Send me an email. But that's how the world understands this,
and so here we are looking at a text. Christians, at least orthodox Bible-believing Christians,
think missionaries are good guys. Out there, they think missionaries are bad guys. So we have to read
the text putting those two things together, putting those two things together. So how does this story
go? And we'll talk about it a little bit more as we get into it to see the power of the story.
And it begins in chapter 13, verse 1. It goes like this. Now there were in the church at Antioch
prophets and teachers. It's the only place in the New Testament where it talks about the church being
led by prophets and teachers. Nothing else is said about it. It's usually presbyters or elders
that are in charge of churches. Nobody knows why, but that's just the term that's used. And when it says
the church in Antioch, we can't think of it, nothing personal against my Baptist friends, we can't think
of it like Baptists think of it. They wouldn't have had, there would have been way more Christians in this
room would hold, and there weren't many houses with rooms this big. So it would have been a whole pile of
churches. It would have been more like a community of local churches. So when they're using, a lot of times in the
New Testament, when they use words like the church in a city, what you really need to think of is
there's a whole lot of church, small churches, but there, and each one of them is a church, but the
bigger group is also a church, okay? Just so you understand what's going on. So there's a group of
people looking over the, all of the, in a sense, the Christian movement in Antioch. They're called
prophets and teachers, back to the text, and here's the names of the five of them. There's five of them.
Now, there's lots of interesting things which are going on in here, but I want to give you, and I
apologize. I thought I had, I thought I had made these points to send to Clara, and then I discovered
that I hadn't written them down and sent them to her in advance. So there's no point up on the screen.
That's all on me, but here's a big idea, and it's a big idea for all of the book of Acts, and it's a big
idea in terms of how you're going to understand why missionaries are a good thing, Christian missionaries
are a good thing. What Jesus did to save you is not narrow because it is cramped and weak. It is narrow
by being utterly unique and utterly huge. I'll say it again. What Jesus did to save you is not narrow
because it is cramped and weak. It is narrow by being utterly unique and utterly huge. You know what
the best example of it is? It would be as if people say it's awfully narrow-minded to think that this
solar gap, this solar, this solar system should only have one sun. You'd go. I mean, if you even said
something like that, it would mean you don't know anything at all about physics or astronomy or anything
like that. If you added a second sun, you wouldn't have our solar system. Everything would end.
And the fact of the matter is, just having one sun for our solar system, as I said, it isn't a problem.
There's a really interesting book that just came out, the 20th anniversary edition. I haven't read the
book, but I've watched two very long interviews about the book. It's called The Privileged Planet,
written by, I can't remember what the first guy's scientific specialty was. The other one is an
astronomer. It sounds like a fascinating book, and they've rewritten it or updated it for the 20th
anniversary of it. But the fact of the matter is, is the sun is utterly unique and utterly huge and
everything our solar system needs. And that's the same claim that's been made by Christians about the
gospel. That what Jesus did for us on the cross is like to the human race what the sun is to the solar
system. It's utterly unique and it's utterly huge and it provides everything that's needed for our
solar system to thrive and for us to live and thrive. Not narrow and cramped. I mean, you just think about
it for a second. This is the fundamental Christian claim. This is, you know, later on it's going to talk
about how Paul goes everywhere talking about the Word of God and all, and that's a short form in a sense for
saying that what he does is he talks about the Word made flesh by opening the Word of God. So he opens
the Word of God to talk about the Word made flesh. And that all gets you that the message of the
gospel is that God, the Son of God, has done something absolutely huge. That the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, a union of love and fellowship and communion, and they look at the
human race, they look at human beings made in the image of God, and they see that we have gone completely
and utterly astray. That while we do some good things at the very, very center of who we are, we think that
we can all individually be the sun at the center of a solar system. And that, of course, just constantly
causes chaos and messes up families and relationships and churches and governments and communities and
nations because you can't have everybody being the sun with all the planets revolving around them. If
Louise and I both think we're the sun, we are always going to be in conflict. And so that God, the Father,
God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, they look down at human race, they see that there is this huge need,
they see that we cannot save ourselves from this. And so God does a rescue mission. God, the Father,
God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, a union of love, a communion of love,
they do something to rescue us. And God, the Son of God, sets aside his glory, sets aside his splendor,
sets aside his prerogatives of God, sets aside his using the power of God, but still remains God and
takes into himself our human nature and descends, descends into becoming a zygote in the womb of Mary.
What a remarkable idea. What a remarkable story. He humbled himself to become a zygote. And as a zygote,
he then goes through the normal nine-month gestation period that human beings go through. He goes through a
normal birth. He has a mother and a father. He eventually has brothers and sisters. He has
cousins and nephews. He lives in a town. He works with his hands, and he learns language. He works
with his hands in his father's business. He has to bury his dad by the time his ministry begins. He
spends this three years of teaching and letting people know that the promises, the ancient promises
that God had been making for thousands of years, that he would send a deliverer, that he is
that answer to those promises, that God has kept his word. He lives a completely human life. He suffers
the trials and temptations that we suffer, only he doesn't sin. And then he goes and willingly allows
himself to die on a cross. And if you go and you read the gospel stories, it's so completely and utterly
mind-boggling. It's something which should gobsmacked you, that the one that if those ancient eyewitness
biographies are true, and they claim to be eyewitness biographies written when eyewitnesses were still
alive, the man who could calm the sea, the man who could walk on water, the man who could heal
the sick, the man who could raise the dead, allows himself to be captured. And it is not the nails that hold him
to the cross. It is his love for you and me that holds him to the cross. And he dies in my place and in your
place to reconcile us to God. And he takes all there is to taste of death. He's buried. He's put in a tomb.
So this descent, God, the Son of God, his descent to being a zygote, his descent to human life, and his
deeper descent into tasting all there is to taste of death. He descends and he descends and he descends
all to save you. And then there is the ascent. On the third day, the stone is pushed away from the
grave, not by any human power, but by the power of God. The grave clothes are left behind. Jesus rises
physically from the dead, and his body is never found. And over the next 40 days, he appears alive
to many people in many places in many ways to show that he is completely and utterly alive, that he has
defeated death. He has tasted all there is to taste of death. He does not have a near-death experience.
He is not like people that we might know who die, who enter into the place of dead and come to this
side of death, only to have to die again. He tastes all there is to taste of death. He emerges on the
far side of death. Death is now defeated, and that which causes death, which is a rebellion against God,
our desire to be the Son in every human relationship, that is completely and utterly defeated.
The price has been paid. Our sins are forgiven, and he ascends into heaven, and this whole mighty act of
God to save us, his descent, his ascent, and of course we have his promise of the coming again. And that
is utterly unique and utterly huge. And it is huge enough for every human being.
Now why am I saying that at the beginning of the story? Well, not only because you need to remember
this throughout the entire rest of the book of Acts, but you already see the hugeness of it to broach
and break all sorts of social and racial and language categories. If you just look at the five names here,
this is where you get it from. Look at the names again. Verse 1. Who's Barnabas? Barnabas is a rich
land-owning Jewish man who becomes a Christian. Who is Simeon? Simeon, who is called Niger, he's somebody
from Africa. He's black. These are the leaders of the church. How the gospel is huge enough to affect a person
who is from Africa, sub-Saharan Africa we would now call, and he's also someone who is, somebody is already
there who's a rich Jewish man, Lucius of Cyrene. Do we have any Syrians present? He's a Syrian.
And then we have Manan, a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch. Herod the Tetrarch was not a
Jewish man, but we have somebody who is of a very type of secular, rich, powerful Jewish family who has
become a Christian. And then last of all is mentioned Saul, who we now know primarily is the name of Paul.
And we now know in hindsight how important a person Paul is, but back then he lost everything by
becoming a Christian. There's evidence from his letters that he was completely and utterly
disinherited and lost all contact with his family when he gave his life to Christ.
And in the ancient world he is poorer than poor.
What Jesus did for us on the cross is big enough to encompass this very highly educated but now
impoverished man, a wealthy man, a person with connections to the court, somebody from Syria,
somebody from sub-Saharan Africa. And that's the leadership of the church.
See, what Jesus did is huge. What he has done for us is sufficient for every sort of human being.
Some other time, because it's going to come up again, we'll talk a little bit about how it is,
but you'll see that what happens is in this part that we just read is that the Holy Spirit propels
them to begin this missionary journey. And if you look again at just verse 3,
then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. You see, there's a very
conscious, there would have been financial provision, and there would have just been their blessing,
and there would have been their prayer support, they would have been pledging their ongoing
koinonia with them in this very, very first missionary journey. And now we get the account
of the beginning of the Christian missionary encounter with the pagan world. I'm going to ask you
once again, friends, brothers and sisters, could you pray, would you join me in praying that God would
in his kindness empower the Christian church today to have a new missionary encounter with Canada?
Pray that God will have mercy on our nation and allow us to have a new missionary encounter with
our land. So what happens? Well, this is even a bigger problem, this next bit that I'm going to go to.
It's going to show, yeah, I think hopefully you can get to see, I'm going to talk some other week a bit
more about why it's completely reasonable to believe that Jesus is the only way. But you'll see here the
fundamental Christian claim. It's going to be torn out time and time and time again. The gospel is not
narrow because it's weak and cramped. It's utterly unique and utterly huge and utterly all that anybody needs.
Well, here we go with this very first story. Look at what happens, verse 4.
So being sent out by the Holy Spirit,
being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia
and from there they sailed to Cyprus. Seleucia is a port
and they sailed to Cyprus.
When they arrived at Salamis, which is the port in Cyprus,
they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jewish people
and they had John to assist them. And just an aside, if you go reading a little bit earlier,
you'll see that John is the person we primarily know of as Mark.
And he's the one who wrote the gospel of Mark.
Okay, so they had John to assist them.
When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos,
and just pause there,
in the original language it implies that they didn't just sort of go for a trip,
like a hike,
that they went and they preached as they went,
told people about Jesus.
So verse 6 again,
when they had gone through the whole of the island as far as Paphos,
they came upon a certain magician.
Now, it's a bit of an unfortunate translation in the ESV.
I think a couple of times I said,
sometimes the ESV is a bit too precise.
And if you look, there's another sense of magician.
But the better word,
and I'm going to say this when I read it from now on,
it's a better word is to say sorcerer.
So they're not talking about a person who'd get a show at Las Vegas.
They're talking about a person who deals with dark powers,
who deals with potions and rituals and draws down,
claims to draw down,
and does powerful forces,
which we would understand to be demonic,
and has potions and spells,
and gives power to amulets and all of that stuff.
So I'll read it again.
They came upon a certain sorcerer,
a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.
That means he's called himself a prophet.
He calls himself the son of salvation.
And he was with the pro-council,
and the pro-council is the head of a Roman province.
So he's a very big deal.
And he was with,
and when it says here he was with,
it means that he's part of his team of advisors.
He's a key advisor.
So Bar-Jesus claims to be a prophet,
and claims to be a son of salvation.
He is a sorcerer as well,
and he's one of the key advisors to Sergius Paulus.
And then it continues,
a man of intelligence,
who summoned Barnabas and Saul,
and sought to hear the word of God.
Now just sort of pause here for a second.
There's a couple of things that we need to do
to understand what's going on in this story,
and to be able to experience the story emotionally.
So first I'm going to give like another point,
a bit of a bigger point,
which I wish it was up,
but I forgot to email it.
In a sense,
one of the things that's at the heart of this whole story
is that God calls us to go in weakness
to an upside-down world
with demonic opposition
that has, you know,
an upside-down world
that has demonic opposition to us.
I'd have to word it better.
Go in weakness to an upside-down world
with demonic opposition,
and bear witness to Jesus
in the power of the Holy Spirit.
That's in a sense the message.
Now why do I say it's an upside-down world?
Once again,
think of the difference between us
and when you go through the door.
How do we start to enter into this?
Well, here's the first one.
Imagine you get invited to a party
in your neighbourhood,
maybe with your work.
You know, maybe you work
for some social media network,
maybe you work on Parliament Hill,
maybe you work for the Civil Service.
Maybe it's just a neighbourhood party,
and you get invited to a party,
and you happen to go into the party
around the same time,
or just a little bit
before two other people who come in.
And they don't come in together.
Two, let's say, we'll just say them,
two men come in,
one after the other.
They're about the same age.
And you're just sitting there having a drink,
or standing there having a drink,
and you can sort of overhear what happens.
People come up,
and they start to have conversations.
And this,
we'll do this one over here.
This fellow over here,
says to people,
and they ask him who he is and what he does.
He says,
I've decided to become a missionary,
and I'm going to go to an unreached people group.
That means a people group
that's never heard anything about Christianity.
I've decided I'm going to be a missionary
to go to a group of people
who've never heard of Jesus at all.
Okay?
The other person says,
they ask him what he does,
and he says,
I'm a sorcerer.
Now, who's going to have
the interested crowd around him?
If this guy has a crowd around him,
it will be because people want to challenge him
for his colonizing,
imperialistic,
narrow-minded,
backwards,
ignorant,
knuckle-dragging,
behavior,
and beliefs.
People for that guy,
they might be a bit amused,
but most of them,
they'll be pretty interested in it.
What do you do for sorcery?
Does it work?
Like,
oh, could you tell me some spells?
That's the real,
that's the world we're going out to.
In here,
we think
that sorcery
is spiritually dangerous.
because there really are occult powers
that only want to hurt you.
That, in fact,
if you think you're manipulating
these powers for your benefit,
the truth is
you're only being manipulated
by those demonic powers
for their benefit.
And you are being led
into greater and greater
deception and weakness.
That's what we believe.
Out there,
it's cool.
And all the way through the text,
you see,
in a sense,
what the Bible is saying
is why is it that often
after you've been a Christian
for a while,
you feel like the world
is a bit of a funny place?
Because the Bible wants us
to understand
that the world
is upside down.
But they don't think
it's upside down.
When I was in the world,
I didn't think
it was upside down.
I thought Christians
were weird
and completely
and utterly unattractive.
But Christians think
that Jesus came
to turn the upside down world
upside down,
which is another way
of saying
to turn it right side up.
to understand
that prayer
is good,
casting spells
is bad,
that openness
to the Holy Spirit
is good,
openness to demonic powers,
and they won't call them
demonic powers,
they'll call them
white magic
and all that other
type of stuff
is that they're
misnaming them.
We're being asked
by God
to go to an upside down world.
And if we think
about it for a second,
that's part of the reason
why we have a bit
of discomfort
when we go out
into the world
is because,
in a sense,
we're talking to people
who are standing
upside down
on thin air.
And they look at us
and say,
why are you walking
on the ceiling?
And we look at them
and say,
actually,
we're walking
on the floor.
Why are you standing
upside down
on thin air?
You can see
those can be
difficult conversations,
awkward conversations,
ones that we don't want
to maybe even
acknowledge are there.
We might want to say,
well,
if you sort of
look at it
the right way,
they're not really
standing upside down
in thin air.
No,
the Bible wants
to make it clear
that if you live
as if there is no God,
that's upside down,
there is a God.
If you live as if
you somehow
are a little sun
in the center
of your own solar system,
the fact of the matter
is you're at best
a moon
circling one of the planets
that circles the sun.
And you won't actually
be healthy or whole
until you realize
you're a moon
around a planet
going around the sun.
You're not the sun.
You'll never be the sun.
You'll only start
to be less anxious
and more happy
when you realize
you're not the sun.
Never will be the sun
and being the sun
would be bad for you.
Good grief.
Imagine how terrible
it would be for all of you
if I was God.
Let me tell you,
that would suck
for every single one of you
because I can be petty.
I can be anxious.
I can be filled with fears.
I can be unbelievably judgmental
about how people drive
and how people shop in Costco
as if those things
really matter
and all sorts of terrible things
would happen
if I was the sun.
You should all be glad I'm not
and brothers and sisters,
I don't mean to offend you.
I'm glad you're not God either
because you would make
just as big a mess.
Well, no.
Probably I'd make a bigger mess.
No, never mind.
We won't get into a mess.
It's just as to who would make
a worse God
than either of us.
So here's the thing.
So the first thing
about this story
is to understand
the dynamics.
And there's the exact same dynamics
that are going on here.
Right?
This is exactly like our world.
In their world,
all the smart people
are fine with sorcerers.
And all the smart people
think the idea of God,
the Son of God,
of the Trinity
and the only one.
They all think that's wrong.
It's upside down
and wrong-headed.
But that's where Paul
has gone to speak.
And the other thing
about it is,
we need to remember,
is that now we know
that Paul is famous.
But in Paul's day,
Paul is a nobody.
And Sergius Paulus
is famous
and powerful.
And Paul is a weak,
poor person
who nobody has heard of.
And here's the other thing
about this story.
Paul is going into
Sergius Paulus' place.
Sergius Paulus
didn't go to visit Paul
where he was staying
in an inn.
Sergius Paulus
asked Paul
to come into his place
where Sergius Paulus
is surrounded by his buddies
and his advisors.
And in a moment here,
we're going to see what...
Well, here.
Look what happens.
This is...
And then I'll tell you
how to...
Okay.
Here's how to put it.
Imagine for a second,
and I'm going to be
politically neutral,
you've gotten invited
to speak
at a place
that Trudeau has rented
and he has Gerald Butts
and Katie Telford
with him.
And you're going to now
say these things
to Gerald Butts.
Politically neutral?
Pierre Polyev
has invited you
to his place
and you're going to say
what Paul just says
right now
to Jenny Burns.
Okay?
Being politically neutral.
Just imagine
if you could go
in Pierre Polyev's place
surrounded by his buddies
and you're going to say
the following words
to Jenny Burns.
Or you're in a Trudeau place
and you're going to say
the following words
to Gerald Butts.
If you start to think
of it in this way,
you'll get nervous.
Verse 8.
But Eliamis,
the magician,
the sorcerer,
Elias means
wise dreamer,
for that is the meaning
of his name,
opposed Paul,
seeking to turn
the proconsul
away from the faith.
but Saul,
who was also called Paul,
filled with the Holy Spirit,
looked intently
at LAMS
and said,
he looked intently
at Jared Butts,
he looked intently
at Jenny Burns,
or pick your,
you know,
whatever,
Elon Musk's
personal attendant,
or I don't know
who owns Facebook
nowadays,
whoever they're,
just think of that,
and he says to them,
verse 10,
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?
Paul's a nobody,
and he just said it
to powerful people
who can just literally
say off with your head,
off with your head.
See,
God calls us
to go to the upside down world
that also has
demonic opposition,
and he calls us
to bear witness
to Jesus
in the power
of the Holy Spirit,
and the point
of the text here
is this.
The point of the text
isn't that Paul
is bold.
The point of the text
is in verse 9.
But Saul,
who was also called Paul,
is filled
with the Holy Spirit.
That's the point.
God uses weak people
like you and me.
That's the point.
God uses weak people
like you and me.
And you never know.
It might be
a couple of years ago
I was...
Who's the guy
who started
the Daily Wire?
Is that Ben Stein?
Eh?
Ben Shapiro.
That's right.
Ben Shapiro.
A couple of years ago
when I was in Israel,
it turned out
that the hotel beside me,
Ben Shapiro,
was staying there
at the same time.
Because some of the people
who were in the group
that I was...
One of the people
who joined us in the group,
he'd been in that hotel,
and he actually was
in the elevator
with Ben Shapiro.
So here's the thing.
You nobodies,
you never know
when you're going
to be in the elevator
with Ben Shapiro.
I was on Parliament Hill
and once visiting somebody,
I was in the...
I was in an elevator
with a couple
of captain ministers.
Like, you never know
when you're going
to bump into them
at a restaurant
or something like that.
And you never know
when you're going
to have a conversation.
And if you get a chance
to bear witness to Jesus,
everything within you
and the devil within you
is going to tell you
not to say anything
about Jesus.
But it might...
I'm not saying you should,
by the way.
I'm not saying you should
just automatically
blot it out.
But it...
God does things
through weak people.
He does things
through weak people
like you and me.
He just asks us
to bear witness.
Conversion is God's business,
not mine.
It's his power,
not mine.
I mean, back in the day,
Trump used to walk around
when he was building
one of his hotels
and chat away
with construction workers.
Like, you get a chance
to chat with Trump?
Tell him about Jesus.
Like, that's the astounding thing
here in this story.
Don't think of Paul as being...
Remember, Paul's a nobody
in this particular story.
The Lord...
Take heart.
The Lord knows
that your weakness,
but he is strong
even in your weakness.
And it's his strength
which matters,
not yours.
And then it goes on
in verse 11.
And now, Peter,
Paul continues.
And by the way,
some people think,
get mixed up
with Saul and Paul.
So Saul is...
Saul and Paul
are the same person.
I just met
a couple of weeks ago.
In fact,
I think she's here again today.
I met somebody
who's an immigrant
from China.
And she told me
her Canadian name.
And I asked her
what her Chinese name was.
Right?
And I have a hard time
pronouncing her Chinese name.
But I can pronounce
her Canadian name.
It's a very,
very common thing.
So a lot of Jewish people
had pagan or Roman...
They had Roman names as well.
So Saul is his Jewish name.
And I meant to write this
in my notes.
I was telling somebody
just before this.
I think in Greek,
in the language of that time,
Saul,
if you just hear it said,
it sounds a little bit
like somebody who waddles
and has diarrhea
or something like that.
Like it's not
an attractive name.
So he has a Roman name.
And throughout the rest
of the book of Acts,
he's now in the pagan Roman world.
He's always going to go by Paul.
But anyway,
go back to this.
So verse 11,
and now behold,
the hand of the Lord
is upon you.
This is Paul speaking.
And you will be blind,
unable to see the sun
for a time.
He's speaking to Bar-Jesus,
Eleamus.
And immediately,
mist and darkness
fell upon Bar-Jesus,
Eleamus,
and he went about
seeking people
to lead him by the hand.
Then the procouncil believed.
Now in our English,
it looks as if he believed
because he saw what it heard.
But what he saw,
when he saw what had occurred,
that made him pause.
But what he was astonished by
wasn't the miracle.
He was astonished
at the teaching about Jesus.
He was astonished
that God,
the Son of God,
would leave heaven
to seek him,
to save him.
that's what he was astonished by.
One final thing in closing,
for those of you
who know your Bibles,
or if you were to start to read
from the book of Acts
at the beginning to now,
you'll know that before this,
there's one other time
when somebody struck blind.
That was Paul.
And it was part of his
coming to faith in Christ.
So the Bible here
leaves open-ended.
Elymas,
Bar-Jesus,
comes under God's judgment,
but you'll see that
even in this judgment,
there's an aspect of mercy to it.
There's an invitation
for him to pause
and be astonished
by what Jesus has done
for him on the cross.
There is a pause
that leads to a hope
for conversion.
Now, it never tells us
whether he's converted or not.
And I think that's partly
the art of Luke
writing the book of Acts
to bring before us
this great message.
It's repeated three times
in the book of Ezekiel.
And if you use the old
book of common prayer
from 1662,
actually goes all the way
back to the mid-1500s
for your morning
and evening prayer.
I try to do that every day.
It has this wonderful line,
God takes no delight
in the death of a sinner,
but rather that they will
turn from their wickedness
and live.
And you see this
even with the sorcerer.
God offers him
a chance to repent
and come to Christ.
Let's stand.
Our heads in prayer.
Father, if we're honest
with ourselves,
there's people
that we just think
they would never
become Christians.
In fact, Father,
if we're honest,
there's people
that we don't even
want to have become
Christians because
we like hating them
or being angry at them
and it would mess
our lives up
if all of a sudden
we had to call them
brother or sister in Christ.
And Father,
you know that we're
reluctant to confess that
because we like to try
to pretend we're pious.
But Father,
you know our hearts.
And you know,
Father,
how often we measure
what we do
or don't do
by our own strength,
not knowing that
you know that we're weak
and that what matters
isn't our strength
but your strength.
You are the one
who is strong
and mighty to save.
And you know,
Father,
how we can feel
uncomfortable
being in an upside-down world
beginning through the gospel
and your scriptures
and our fellowship together
in the means of grace
to start to understand
how to live right-side up
in an upside-down world.
But we ask,
Father,
that your Holy Spirit
would move in our lives
so that we can increasingly
with humble confidence
and joy in the gospel
live right-side up
in an upside-down world.
And even in the face
of opposition,
that in weakness
we might recognize
those opportunities
you give us
to bear witness
to Jesus.
And we thank you,
Father,
that you take no pleasure
or delight
in the death
of a sinner,
that your heart is
that we will turn
from our wickedness
and live.
And we give you
thanks and praise
those of us
who are here
who are in Christ.
We thank you,
Father,
that you so moved
in our hearts,
unworthy as we are,
to lead us to Christ.
And so,
Father,
we ask and thank
all these things
in the name of Jesus,
your Son,
and our Savior,
and all God's people say,
Amen.