To The Uttermost

At the Yahweh, he understood the commands of God, but he's also a sorcerer. The word sorcerer there in the Greek is the word magos, and we've heard that before. If you go back a couple of chapters into chapter 8, I believe it is, it's where Philip went and met a guy named Simon Magos was his name, but that just meant Simon the magician. The word magos is a derivation of the word magi, it was the magi, the kings of the East who came to present the presence unto Jesus.

It was the magi, as we've done in studies before, that were probably initially trained by Daniel several hundred years prior while Daniel was in Babylon and given the authority over the king's prophets and soothsayers and all, and Daniel schooled them in the word of God as well as learning himself the magical arts and the things of the Babylonians. So this guy is a Jew who is familiar with God's word and yet a sorcerer, a magos, who is familiar with the magic and the trickery of the magician. He's kind of eclectic in that he's able to mix the word of God with the occult, the things of the areas of sorcery. He's very New Age.

New Age is not new in this age. New Age was New Age back then as well. It's simply an eclectic mixing, eclecticism, if you've studied psychology at all, most of the therapists today like the eclectic approach to psychotherapy, and I'll tell you why. It's because none of the others work, and so they figure if they kind of throw them all together and put them all together at the same time, then something ought to happen.

So they take an eclectic approach. There's really no pure Freudians anymore. There's really no pure Jungians anymore in the areas of psychotherapy. They take a blend of each and they try different kind of regressive therapies or different kind of emotive therapies or different kind of therapies that way to try and get you to kind of emote or regress or call names or go back in your childhood or whatever to try and get you healed.

That's an eclectic approach. Well, this is eclecticism in the New Age of then and today is to take God's word and kind of mix it with Eastern mysticism or other philosophies and come out with some kind of a theology today to help guide our lives. It was very popular then and it's very popular today. He's also listed here as a false prophet. So evidently to get that title, he used the word of God in such a way that he would use

his position to say, thus saith the Lord, God is saying according to his word, and then try and manipulate whoever he could from his misuse of the word of God, and here he has

But an interesting application in a word, you go back to the time when Jesus was presented by Pilate to the people and Barabbas, and Pilate said, I'll release you whoever you want. It's that time of year, the time that I release, you know, a prisoner of your choice, who do you want me to release? Jesus or Barabbas? And they all cried, Barabbas. Well Barabbas' name was Bar-Abbas, Bar, son of, Abbas, Abbas, the son of the father, the

Abba is father, so he was just simply the son of the father. We don't know father who, we don't know what his real name was, he was just called son of the father.

that if I come in my father's name, you receive me not. But if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. Now Jesus is speaking there specifically of the Antichrist, who is coming future, and the people of the world will proclaim him to be God, will receive him as God. But it also goes to the secondary application of all those, Jesus said in Matthew 24, who are going to come in my name saying, I am he, I am the Christ.

Many false prophets are going to come, he said saying that.

groups, but it also received flack from the White House, and a spokesman for the White House said, quote, those who believe in a biblical view of homosexuality indicate how backwards they are in their thinking and are unaccepting of people, end quote. That's a result of New Age eclectic thinking, and you see our president shot many times walking out of church carrying his Bible and all, but the statement from the White House that says those who have a biblical view of homosexuality indicate how backwards they are in their thinking, in other words, to actually use Scripture to guide your lives for today is stupid and ludicrous, and that's when you carry the thing anyhow and try to

show your spirituality because you carry one, but then come off with statements that are totally anti-biblical, it's just an evidence of New Age philosophy that's infiltrated. You can be assured that there are New Age advisers replete not only in the White House but throughout Congress, nothing new, we're just getting to see how the enemy works. Sergius Paul is here in verse 7, according to verse 7 in NIV, it says he was an intelligent man. If you're reading King James, it says he was a prudent man.

A.T. Robertson in his word study says he was, quote, a man of understanding. He was open to the truth, he was an intelligent individual, he was prudent, he didn't make rash decisions. He weighed things out carefully before he made the decisions. In case you haven't noticed it in the press, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, every area of media makes you out to be stupid and ignorant and unintelligent and guided by

religious malarkey that, as the White House said, was backwards in thinking. But when you talk to Christians from all across the board, from all around the world, you find that they are the most intelligent, that they are the most prudent, that they are the

that they went on, by faith they went on. Well here's the second reason that I think it's interesting that there wasn't any great success there, is there's no apparent fruit from their ministry there and yet when they get to Paphos, the governor wants to hear them. Now how did that happen? Well, word evidently preceded them there, that these guys are coming and they're talking about God and talking about His word.

Now where did that come from? Well, very likely from Solomus or maybe from somewhere along the way where they just kind of inadvertently, you know, walking through town somewhere, walking through the countryside, talk to somebody and just share the Lord and word preceded them. What's exciting to me about that is the second reason. There are going to be times in your life where you don't see any apparent fruit from your walk with the Lord.

There are going to be times in your lives that you don't see any real successes. As a matter of fact, you're going to think you see more failures than successes. I've tried to share the Lord with people but I just can't articulate it right. I just can't say the right things.

You can't put your finger on it, but God's working. And Saul and Barnabas walk into Paphos and lo and behold the governor wants to hear them. God's working. God's working in your life. And you may have had this happen. If you haven't, I will pray that you do where someone that you've been working with and you've tried to share the Lord with them and they just kind of turn you off like a light

and they don't want much to do with you. And then kind of down the road a ways, they'll come up to you and they'll say, you know, I've been watching you.

I just never, never led somebody to the Lord. And so you feel like a total failure. If you're seeking to develop that love relationship with the Lord, if you're seeking to walk close to him, you can't help but be a witness. It just oozes out of you and people are going to see it. And if you don't have it happen here, you'll have it happen when we get to be with the

Lord and people are going to come up to you and they're going to say, you don't remember me probably, but we worked together back whenever. And I watched you and I saw your life and I knew God had to be real. And so I asked him in my heart, God's working even when you think they're just failures or no successes. Verse eight quickly, they experienced opposition.

They experienced opposition. But Elimus the sorcerer, for that is what his name means, opposed them and tried to turn the procouncil from the faith. Elimus' name literally means enlightened one, the enlightened one. And so that's how he tried to come across. And it says he opposed Saul and Barnabas and tried to turn the procouncil from the faith. Now, how did he do that?

Well, possibly from trickery, possibly from magic feats, you know, making things appear or disappear like Moses did with Janice and Jambres, maybe through healings, maybe through some powerful miraculous kind of thing. But because it's listed that he's a Jewish sorcerer, I would inevitably bet that it had something to do with misusing God's word, taking and twisting God's word. That's what Satan does so well. And so I believe that through Elimus, he probably used him in that same way to oppose Saul and Barnabas by twisting God's word since he knew it.

Now, I want you to just think how many people, you know, maybe even you have been one who have been turned off to the Lord, who have been turned away from the faith sometime in your life because of a misuse or an abuse of the word of God. You went somewhere to church and your memories of church are nothing more than some guy up there in a dark suit every Sunday that said, your sinner's going to hell and you need to do this and stop doing that. And all you heard growing up in church was how bad you were and how God's going to hammer you to the floor and you need to go through the list. You can't wear your hair long.

You can't wear pants. You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't. You never heard about the love of God. You never heard about the grace of God. You never heard about the mercy of God. All you heard was you can't, you can't. And by the way, you better give. And we're sending a team out to your house every month to find out what your salary is and you better give 10%.

We're going to make you sign a document that says you're going to give, and you were turned off to the Lord because of that. Or if you just have faith, if you just have faith, brother, you can say, I want that Cadillac and that Cadillac will be mine. You say you have enough faith. You send me a hundred dollars and we'll have faith that God will give you ten times that.

How many of you have been abused by the misuse of God's word that way and turned from the faith? You see, Satan does that so well. And I think that's what he's trying to do here with Saul and Barnabas is just misuse the word. See, those who seek to present the word faithfully and completely throughout, just from one end of the Bible through the other, verse by verse, line upon line, precept upon precept to present the truth, honestly and truly are going to be opposed by the enemy.

A few weeks ago, the Southern Baptist Convention just made a statement as they were just going through their bylaws and all, and they just made a statement that they put into their bylaws that we're going to honor the biblical admonition of marriage in Ephesians, chapter five, that the woman is to be submissive under her husband. And boy, the press took that one and ran with it. And again, they were labeled backwards and they're going to set women back centuries. They've already, women have fought their way out and now these, you know, these Christians are going to seek to set them back under subjugation again.

that means run into the ground and mash to the floor. And they had no idea what God's plan for marriage was, obviously. And so they're going to be opposed. And you're going to find that more and more, the closer we get to the Lord, anytime you take a stand for the Lord, it's going to be twisted, misapplied, misunderstood, and you're going to be labeled. But you better be willing, you better be ready for that and willing to do it, because the

closer we get, the more that's going to happen. All kinds of stuff coming out now that the MARC card, your personal identification number is going to be issued by the year 2000, coming into the year 2000, they're going to do away

You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery, will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now, Paul, you're not politically correct there, you're just speaking the truth as it is and not seeking to be politically correct. Elymas is not listening to truth, he won't listen to truth right now, he's probably seeking to overwrite everything that Paul and Barnabas are saying, and so Paul rebukes him. Verse 11, he says, now the hand of the Lord is against you, you're going to be blind and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun.

And immediately mist and darkness came over him and he groped about seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Elymas was already spiritually blind and Paul just now rebukes him with a physical blindness that comes upon him, and if you realize or think about it for a minute, that's very similar to Paul's own situation. Back on the Damascus road, he was very spiritually blind, going off to haul Christians back to Jerusalem to be tortured and killed. And God stopped him and blinded him physically and literally.

Now, why did that happen? Well, if you remember, once that happened, Paul didn't do much, did he? He had to lead him by the hand, led him into Damascus where he sat and prayed and was open to the word. When Ananias came and laid hands on him, he was open to hear. Now, it's very possible that Elymas, bar Jesus, smitten with his blindness, he's probably very quiet, still there in the court, still now hearing what Paul and Barnabas are saying.

Because he's quiet, he could very possibly be open to God's word. We don't know. We don't know if he believed and was saved, we don't know. I know when you get there, when you and I get to heaven, we're going to be amazed at who's there. Really? You're there? I mean, I remember you in high school, you know, I never thought you'd make it. As a temporary blindness, it says for a time, you will not be able to see, but very possibly

to minister God's truth to everybody there that was listening. Now, verse 9 shows us the first time that Saul's name is called Paul, and from here on out, his name will be referred to as Paul. Paul was not only Jewish, not only had a Jewish background, but he was a Roman citizen. His name was very probably Saul Paulus, just like Sergius Paulus here is the governor.

Paul's name is very likely Saul Paulus to reflect both sides of his Jewish and Roman heritage. That will come in very handy for him ministering to Gentiles to have a Roman name. So from here on out, as he goes to the Gentiles, we'll see that his name is predominantly Paul. Then we see in verse 12, as we close, when the procouncil saw what had happened, he believed.

Why? For he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. He saw the miracle. He saw Paul rebuke Elimus, and Elimus goes blind and all of a sudden stops quacking and just kind of sits there. But he was amazed. The procouncil, Sergius Paulus, was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. The Bible says the word of God is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.

It's the word of God that we are to sow. It's the gospel, which is the word of God about Jesus Christ that we are to bring to all nations. It's the word of God that people need to hear.

Seeking the Lord and seeking to understand him and seeking to dwell in his love and seeking to be obedient to his word will bring opposition. The power of God is in the word of God as we proclaim it. His spirit takes it and runs with it, and even when it seems like you don't see any successes and you feel like a failure, God is working powerfully and mightily, and he wants you to get to the point where you can trust him in that and just rest in his love. Father, help us to do that.

You're moving scripture with that. What is this?

And immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. To the uttermost, our call to go, and we've seen over the last couple of weeks as we began this series and these two chapters that it's more than a mandate, it's more than a command,

Ephesians chapter 3. We talked last time about how God took about ten years from the time that he called Paul on the road to Damascus until this point in Acts that he's sending him out, about ten years have passed. Ten years where God has honed down the man, where God has taken a man whose heart is full of zeal and willing to go and do whatever, but his willingness is based upon his own

they pray and confess and ask Christ to come into their lives, forgive their sins. And then they think that the walk now is just a matter of do's and don'ts. Don't do this, don't do that, but do study, do pray, do go to church, do give. And they miss the wonderful love relationship that God has opened up for us through the cross of Jesus Christ. And they try to fulfill their Christian calling on their own effort with their own zeal and

spirit in your inner being. Why? Why does God give you his power? Why does Paul want us strengthened with God's power through his spirit in our inner being? Verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all of the saints. Power to what, Paul? Power to go out and cast out demons and to do miracles and to heal and to raise people

from the dead? Power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and how long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Paul has come to know this love. It's the love that motivates him. You read about his actions and we'll read about it in Acts, the book of Acts and the

different things he goes through. And you think at times, how can you go through that, man? I couldn't handle that.

this love of God is so fresh and evident in him that he says now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work with us, within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. That's the love of God that moved Paul to go to all these places and suffer all these things. That's the same love that's available to you and I.

And as we come to understand that, as we come to know that and seek to deepen that fellowship, that relationship with the Lord, you will be filled more and more with that love. And then you just won't help but witness. It'll just, you just have to, you just have to tell people about the Lord. And you will be willing to go to the uttermost because you know that God's love is going to be with you to the uttermost.

The chapters 13 and 14 here, as we've mentioned, each time we've started this study are divided up. If you have a study Bible, it shows it's divided up by the different cities and different places that they go. So we'll look at it, at these chapters that way with each of the city headings because each of these different cities shows us something that happened, not only to Paul and Barnabas, but that we can expect to anticipate to happen in our own Christian walk. Antioch, and I have a map, was their place of preparation.

It was their place of beginning. Now the church was born in Jerusalem at Pentecost, but they moved out from Jerusalem and actually

of these locations that they're going to go, and then from here you'll see they'll come on over and we'll talk about those as we go through the rest of these chapters. Each of those places not only has occurrences that are interesting, but they're significant. Antioch again is the place of preparation. It's the place where they prepared to go as we saw last time, verses one through three, they ministered unto the Lord.

They prayed and offered prayers of adoration and surrender and sacrifice and confession

There's that time that we have to set our hearts apart unto the Lord regularly, daily and minister to Him and allow His Spirit to speak to our hearts. Now they move to Cyprus. They move out to Seleucia and across the Mediterranean to the area of Cyprus and in Cyprus we're going to see that they meet with opposition, opposition and oppression. Listen, any effort we're bringing out the area that many Christians never come to an

and we're in chapter 5. We were in chapter 5, we just finished it this week and moved into chapter 6. But in chapter 5 of 2 Samuel is where we see David finally brought to Jerusalem to be recognized as king of the entire nation of Israel. For seven years he was only king of one tribe, the tribe of Judah, and that was just in the city of Hebron and he reigned only as king of that tribe for seven years and six months.

But he was finally brought to Jerusalem and Jerusalem was captured by his troops. The Jebusites were conquered and Jerusalem was made the capital of Israel and all of the tribes now are together and David is now king over the entire nation. Great time of celebration, great cause to rejoice because now Israel is one nation. But the very next verse in chapter 5 of 2 Samuel says, and when the Philistines heard that David had become king of the entire nation, they rallied their entire army and went up against Israel.

Where you're living your life as a closet Christian, you know, it's a personal thing between me and God and I don't want anybody else to know and I don't want to share with anybody or anything, then Satan, you're not a threat to Satan, you're not a threat to the enemy. But when you begin to step out and really experience that relationship with the Lord and see the love that he has for you and begin to fathom that love, that there's nothing you can do to separate yourself from that love, and you begin to see how wide and deep

The moment you commit to drawing close to the Lord, the Philistines will move against you in full force. So in verses 4 and 5 we see that they moved from Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus and they arrived at Salamis and proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues and John was with them as their helper. Now why Cyprus? Why did they go to Cyprus?

Well because the Holy Spirit set them apart and the Holy Spirit's sending them out. True.

You go back to Acts chapter 4 and that's where you first meet Barnabas and you find that his name really wasn't Barnabas but they called him Barnabas because that meant son of encouragement and that was his nickname, he was an encourager. And you also find out some other interesting things about Barnabas. One is that he was from Cyprus. So there's a chance, now let me just kind of draw you along here for a minute, there's a chance that the Holy Spirit said separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work that I'm going to send them to do.

The worship of Venus, who is also known as Aphrodite, the love goddess, was centered in Cyprus. Cyprus, as you remember its position there on the map, was a stop off between the mainland of Italy and Greece and over to the areas of the Middle East. The ships would stop there and offload and onload cargo and personnel, and then move on to the other side of the continent. And so it was a major center of trade and a major center of perversion with this worship of Aphrodite.

The historians say that because of this heavy idolatry with the love goddess that every woman in Cyprus was required by law to serve as a temple prostitute at least once in her life. So it was a good place to take the word, a good place to bring the gospel. But they'll start with just a family, moving over to where the family is.

So because there are more than one synagogue in this area, there is probably a sizable Jewish population on Cyprus and in Salamis here. And so as Paul does here, this becomes his method of operation and ministry. He goes to the synagogues first to seek to minister the gospel to the Jews, to his people. He has such a heart for his people. And he knows the word so backwards and forwards that he can debate, he can argue doctrine

him, to bring him along, and thought, well, if we take John Mark with us, it would be a good time for him to be discipled and see the power of God move and really bring him along in his Christian walk. John Mark is also the one who wrote the Gospel of Mark that bears his name. In the Gospel of Mark, it's the only recorded incident in all of the Gospels when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, that a young lad was with them.

And probably also the same upper room that the disciples then came to again after Jesus' resurrection while they were waiting in Jerusalem for the promise of the Spirit of God. And were there together, John Mark, with them when God's Spirit came and fell at Pentecost upon each one. And Peter preached that sermon. It was probably there that John Mark accepted the Lord under Peter's ministry and is now going out with Uncle Barnabas and Paul to see the world and see the ministering hand

Well, it just shows where they started, right? And it's probably Barnabas' home. Well, that's true. But something I want you to notice is since there wasn't anything else recorded there, there was probably no significant work that was recognized as happening there through Paul and Barnabas' initial ministry. In other words, they probably didn't have the people come and just fall down at their

feet and say, I want to get saved, you know, and they've got thousands of people and they've got a church of 10,000 already just right off the bat there in Solomus. No apparent success. Why is that necessary for us to understand? Because there will be several places that we'll travel here with Paul where there was no apparent success, where he ministered, will even be stoned and yet have no apparent success, no great conversions, no great numbers of people that responded to the ministry of Paul the apostle to the Gentile.

Why is that significant? Because as we see that, number one, they were faithful to proclaim the Word and even when

to a city called Paphos. Paphos was the capital of Cyprus, a larger city than Solomus. It's about 90 miles from Solomus to Paphos, probably if you're really moving, a four or five day journey on foot. So that would have given Paul and Barnabas, Saul and Barnabas, his name's going to change here in verse 9, that would have given Saul and Barnabas some time to think, wouldn't it?

Four or five days walking after an unsuccessful ministry, what are you going to be thinking about? What am I doing out here? Right? Why am I out here doing this? I mean, we came, we thought the Spirit of God set us apart and just, why am I doing this? Maybe you've had that feeling occasionally, you know, as a Christian and God's moving you. We've had, I mentioned first service, this is really a time, God's Word is so timely.

Moving to the uttermost. When we first moved into this building back in 85, we were excited because we were growing in the other building and starting to outgrow the children's part, the children's ministry area and God opened up this building and we thought, alright, we're really going to see some tremendous growth here and moved in here and that year we had 40 families move that year. Just move. Move to different locations, up in different parts of the state and out of state.

And right now, this year, we're seeing that kind of a moving again as several families have already moved and several of you have been sharing with me about how the Lord is kind of, you know, maybe opening some doors and you may be moving on to somewhere else. And so, maybe this is just some preparatory for when you get to wherever and you go, well,

They've got that time to think. Now they come to Paphos and it says that in the middle of verse 6, there they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus who was an attendant of the proconsul Sergius Paulus. They met a Jewish sorcerer. If you've read this before, you've probably read the fact that they met a sorcerer. His name is Bar-Jesus. Down in verse 8, his name is also Elimus and we'll talk about the names here in a minute.