Acts 13:1-12 "Speaking to an Upside Down World"

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,

Luke 13 · chapter mention Luke 13 · chapter mention

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.

Luke 13 · chapter mention Acts 13 · chapter mention Acts 13 · chapter mention

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

Acts 13 · chapter mention

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.