SUNDAY - SEPTEMBER 28, 2025 "The Work Continued" Acts 13:1-12

Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 a.m.

You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.

We hope you enjoy.

God bless.

We'll be in Acts chapter 13 again this morning.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

As you turn there, let me uh draw our attention for just a moment back to the Margaret Lackey State Mission Mission Offering.

We talked about that uh last week.

This is an offering we will take it up next week.

Uh there are offering envelopes that are available out at the Welcome Center.

There's also a pamphlet that describes the ministries that that this offering supports.

A couple of things that I do want to point out to the video and to the video that we saw last week again as well.

He talked about in this video and last week the nuns, the N-O-N-E-S, the Nuns.

This is a group of people.

It's really the largest growing group of religious people in our state and in our country.

These are people who claim no religious affiliation.

It is the fastest growing religious group in our state.

Last week we even talked about too, another stat that blew my mind.

I pointed it out last week.

I got to do it again because I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around this.

He talked about last week, he said 38% of Mississippians claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

38%.

But then he quoted another stat last week that said this 33% of Mississippi believe that Jesus is the only way to have a personal relationship with the Father.

There's a discrepancy there that I have that I struggle with.

Because as I said last week, I'll say it again, if you believe that there is another way to the Father besides Jesus, you are not a believer.

So that shows us that there are 5% of people in Mississippi.

Many of them, I am convinced, gather and are gathered in local churches today.

There are about 5% that think they are believers, but are not.

That makes the imperative for us.

It makes it imperative for us to be sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We must be telling people about Jesus.

And in Acts chapter 13, it's what's happening.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

We see that happening in the church here.

Remember last week we we talked about, we were in Acts chapter 13, and we're doing part two of that today.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

So just a reminder of what we looked at.

We saw last week, we began a journey, and we saw how the Holy Spirit moved in the first century church, and they moved in this church, and they the Holy Spirit called Paul and Barnabas to be sent out by the church and to pro and they proclaimed the word of God.

And we looked at for us how it is still, the call is still on us, and the Holy Spirit is still leading us to proclaim that word of God.

And so the challenge for us is that we must proclaim that word.

We saw in this journey, we saw Acts chapter 1, verse 8, we saw it being lived out.

Acts 1:8

Remember in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, he said, Jesus said, But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Acts 1:8

And we see that playing out because what we see is Paul and Barnabas carrying the gospel message to the ends of the earth.

But can I take a side note real quick and point this out?

They didn't wait till everyone in Jerusalem was saved before they went to Judea and Samaria.

And they didn't wait till everyone in Judea and Samaria became believers before they went to the ends of the earth.

It began in Jerusalem, it spread to Judea and Samaria, and now it is spreading to the ends of the earth, but they're not waiting.

It's all got to be happening at one time.

That's why we do things like the Margaret Lackey State Mission offering.

In December, we will do the Lottie Moon Christmas offering that supports international missions.

In the spring, we'll do the Annie Armstrong Easter offering that supports missions in North America.

Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, the ends of the earth.

The God, we must be spreading the gospel in all of these places at the same time.

We can't wait.

But back to our journey, we saw last week.

We sought to answer the question is how did we see the Holy Spirit working?

And last week we saw the Holy Spirit working as he called within the church.

He called.

And we saw him in the church calling.

And we saw what the church was doing is they were fasting.

They were worshiping.

They were praying together.

And we were challenged that the Holy Spirit, as he works in us, we must be praying.

We must be fasting.

We must be worshiping God.

And then we saw the Holy Spirit in this call move through the church as they he called Paul and Barnabas.

And then it wasn't the church that called Paul and Barnabas.

It was the Holy Spirit who called and Barnabas.

They just recognized him working and they prayed over them and set them aside and sent them out.

And we saw Paul and Barnabas begin to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and proclaim his name.

So today what we want to do is just kind of continue this journey.

And we want to begin this morning and look, continue to continue to look at how Paul and Barnabas proclaimed the gospel.

One thing that I think we need to look at here, well, you know what?

You know what I almost forgot to do, Doug?

And read.

So I just got excited.

So why don't we stop and do the most important thing that will be said in this message this morning and read from God's Word?

I invite you, if you are able, to stand with us as we give honor to the reading of God's Word.

Acts chapter 13, starting in verse 1.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaean, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had John to assist them.

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar Jesus.

He was the proconsul, uh he was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

But Elimaus, the magician, for that was the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.

Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead them by his hand to lead him by the hand.

Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

Let's pray together.

God, we are thankful for this opportunity.

This opportunity that we have had to open your word, to read your word, to be changed by your word.

God, we recognize this morning that there is power.

There is power in Scripture because not because of there's magic, but God, because Scripture is your revelation of yourself to us.

So, God, as you have revealed yourself to us, help us to see you.

Change us.

Jesus, it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So again, how do we see the Holy Spirit working?

We talked about, we began last week seeing the Holy Spirit working as Paul and Barnabas proclaimed the word of God, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And let's continue to play that out, though.

Let's continue to see their proclamation and how the Spirit was working in their proclamation.

He was working one in where they proclaimed.

What Scripture tells us is they were in Antioch.

They traveled down to Seleucia, which was, Antioch is inland.

They traveled down a river to Seleucia, which was on the port, on a port, and then they traveled to Cyprus, and then they proclaimed the gospel all through the island of Cyprus.

Now, why did they go to Cyprus?

Luke doesn't really tell us.

He doesn't tell us at all why they went to Cyprus.

Now, some will contend as they look at this that they went to Cyprus, maybe for a couple of reasons.

One, they might have gone to Cyprus because that's where Barnabas was from.

If you go back and look in Acts, we learn that Barnabas was from Cyprus.

We also know from the book of Acts that there was already some gospel work that was being done on the island.

So maybe they just went there because Barnabas just said, hey, I want my family to know about Jesus.

Can we go?

Sure, why not?

So they they went and they shared the gospel along the way as they were going.

We're not real sure why.

We don't know why they went there, but we know when they went there, they shared the gospel.

Now for us, as we look at this and we try to examine this and figure out what's going on here, I think there's something that we can see.

I've said this before.

You're actually going to hear me this morning say a lot of things that I've said before.

You don't remember them, but I'll tell you when I'm repeating myself.

I've said this before that I don't think you are here by coincidence.

Now you you think you may have moved here because of a job.

You you may have moved here because family's here.

You may have moved here because of a relationship.

You you may have moved here because your mom and dad are from here and you didn't have a choice in the matter.

But I promise you this God in his sovereignty moved you here.

And he moved you here with a purpose.

He moved you here with a job for you to do.

And I am convinced that he moved you here, and as you are here living this life, you are to be proclaiming the gospel.

In Matthew chapter 28, Jesus, right before he left the disciples, he said this to them in Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 and 20.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention Matthew 28:19

He says, He said, Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

These were Jesus' final words.

And the command in that verse, the command is make disciples.

We see that word go, and while it carries the weight of a command, it is really a participle.

Let me give you a little English lesson.

Because so many of you are going, so what?

Participle.

Participle is not a verb.

A participle is kind of a verbal adjective.

And so the verb is to make disciples.

And he tells us how to make disciples.

Going, make disciples.

Baptizing, make disciples.

Teaching, make disciples.

This is how we make disciples.

Really, a good translation of that could be this as you are going, make disciples.

Here's the command for us.

Just as Paul and Barnabas, as they went, they made disciples.

Church, hear me.

As you are living the life that God has placed before you.

As you are doing the things that God has placed before you in his sovereignty, hear me.

Make disciples.

Tell the people about Jesus.

There's the command.

You say, Grant, I'm not a missionary like Paul and Barnabas.

You may not be a missionary like Paul and Barnabas, but you are a missionary because you have been commanded to make disciples.

As you're going, as you're living the life that God has placed before you, make disciples.

Then we see something else interesting.

We don't just see where they went, we see to whom they went.

We see that as they traveled through all these places, they they they they Paul and Barnabas set up a way of doing ministry that's going to carry them throughout their whole missionary journeys.

In verse 5, it says, when they arrived in Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.

John went with them to assist them.

So Paul and Barnabas, every time they go into a city, if there was a synagogue there, they went first to the Jews when they went after they had shared the message with the Jews.

Usually they got kicked out of the synagogues.

So then they went to whoever was willing to hear, and they shared the gospel with the Gentiles.

And so that's usually what you see playing out with them.

That's their method of doing missions.

Go to the synagogues when we get kicked out.

We'll go to the Gentiles.

Here's our method.

This is what we're going to do.

But there's a twist that takes place here.

There's something that happens that is unusual for them because in verse 7 it sees, it says he was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

Typically, when Paul and Barnabas went somewhere, they initiated conversations.

They started the conversation.

They would go and they would share the gospel.

We're going to see later in Ephesus.

They go and they find these ladies who would go on the Lord's day and they would pray every day.

And so they went and found them.

They initiated, they went and found them, and then they shared the gospel and they cast the demon out of a young girl.

We'll get there.

It's a good story.

But that happened.

They initiated, but that's not what's happening here.

What's happening here is Sergius Paulus heard what they were doing and he summoned them to come to him.

They were thrown off, they were thrown a curveball.

They were thrown a twist, but they had to be ready for this.

It reminds me of the same Paul later in his life.

When he's looking back and kind of reflecting over what God has done in his life, and he remembers a young man named Timothy.

And he shares with Timothy about the gospel, about doing ministry.

And in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 2, he says this preach the word.

2 Timothy 4:2

Be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

See what Paul and Barnabas found in Paphos with Sergius Paulus is what he is telling young Timothy to be ready for.

Sometimes things don't go as planned.

We can lay out the best plans.

We can say this is how we're going to do ministry.

If you go on a mission trip with me, I'm going to tell you one thing.

There's two very important things.

One is share the gospel.

Second is this, be fluid.

Which means you got to be ready to change because things aren't going to go as plans.

We might have this schedule set, but it could change just like this, and you've got to be ready for the change.

Listen, as we are living our lives that God has placed before us, as we are going and doing the things that God has called us to do, as we are proclaiming the gospel.

Listen, if you're anything like me, I'm a scheduled person.

I want this and this and this to happen.

But as happens so often, sometimes we are throwing a curveball, and those curveballs come, and we have to be ready to share the gospel differently.

We must be ready to preach the word in season, out of season.

Be ready to exhort, to rebuke, to reprove.

With complete patience and teaching.

Paul told Timothy that he's got to be ready.

Because he knew you have to be ready.

He saw it in Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

So while we are called to proclaim, and we we see the Holy Spirit working, we see him working as he called the church, as he called Paul and Barnabas, we see him working as they proclaimed as they went.

This third point is difficult for us.

Because as we do those things, evil is going to oppose us.

It's going to come.

Because it is in our world.

You see what happens in verse 6.

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar Jesus.

Then if you go down a little bit more in verse 8, but Elemaeus, the magician, for that was the meaning of his name, opposed them.

And we don't know a whole lot about Bar Jesus or Elemaus.

We know that he was a magician.

When you hear magician, don't think about somebody on the street corner doing card tricks.

He's not an illusionist like we we think of mostly today.

This guy is like Simon back in Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

He is a magician who is dealing in the dark arts.

He is dealing with the occult and the power of Satan.

He is working there.

We know he's a magician.

We know that he is a false prophet, a Jewish false prophet.

Here's what that means: a prophet comes and declares the word of God.

This is what God says.

A false prophet is coming, especially a Jewish false prophet.

He is saying, This is what God says, but in actuality, he is not proclaiming what God says.

He is proclaiming the works of Satan.

So he is opposing Paul and Barnabas, obviously, for uh for reasons that is pretty clear.

He doesn't want their message to be heard.

But they proclaim.

Anyway.

That's interesting.

Luke doesn't really tell us how he opposed Paul and Barnabas.

He doesn't really tell us what he did.

But can you allow me just a moment to imagine if he were here today, how he might oppose the gospel message.

Here's some things I think he might do.

I think he might try to convince believers.

Hey, you're not good enough to share the gospel.

You don't know enough.

You need to learn some more.

You better just keep your mouth closed.

They might trick you.

You might say something you're not supposed to.

What if they ask you a question that you can't answer?

You don't know enough.

You better, you better be quiet.

Don't don't say anything.

He might say, hey.

You better not share the gospel because your history might catch back up with you.

You're not good enough.

You remember those things you did in your past?

You can't share the gospel.

They know what you did.

You better just be quiet.

You better not say anything.

You better not work.

He might even say, hey, there's no reason for you to share the gospel.

That's the preacher's job.

We pay him for that.

I don't have.

Just let me get them to him.

He can share the gospel with them.

There's lots of things that he can do to oppose the proclamation of the gospel.

But hear me today, church.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And you will be my witnesses.

Don't allow evil to have power over you.

Because you have the same Holy Spirit that Paul and Barnabas had.

You have the same Holy Spirit that any preacher standing up and proclaiming the power of the gospel in the pulpit today has.

Don't be fooled.

Don't be tricked.

Share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What we see Paul doing here, after he says these things and opposes them, Paul confronts them.

I mean, he confronts him in a pretty profound way in verse 9.

But Saul, who was called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.

And immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

Now is he telling us to oppose people, to confront evil like this?

I don't think so.

Let me tell you why.

Signs like this, I believe signs like this aren't needed anymore because we have the full revelation of Jesus Christ.

We have the full revelation of God in Scripture that Paul doesn't have.

And so when he does this and he performs this sign saying, hey, look, the Holy Spirit is real.

Look what he does.

We don't have to do that because we have the revelation of the gospel.

So then the question comes, what do we do then, Grant?

How are we supposed to oppose evil?

Paul, I think he tells the church in Ephesus the perfect way to do this.

In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10, he says this finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Ephesians 6:10

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present age, against age, against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

Sounds like evil's opposing us, right?

Yes, this is it.

So what do we do?

He says in verse 13, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm.

Verse 14 begins with stand, therefore.

Here's how we oppose evil.

We stand, therefore, on the truth of God's word.

Here's a repetition.

I've said this before.

God does not need us to fight his battles, he is fully capable.

What God desires from us is to stand on the truth of his word and proclaim Jesus to people.

How do we confront evil that opposes us?

By standing on the truth of God's word and proclaiming Jesus.

Finally and quickly this morning.

I don't want to pass over verse 12.

Reading this passage, it just hit me out of the blue.

In verse 12, it says.

The gospel message is that we serve a just God.

But Romans chapter 3, verse 23 tells us that we have all sinned and we all fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

So what a just God has got to do is appropriately deal with sin.

According to Romans 6, 23, that appropriate handling of sin is death, for the wages of sin is death.

That's what we deserve.

So God is going to justly deal with sin that we have committed, and that's going to be death.

But because God is also a loving God, he found another way so that you and I don't have to die.

He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who lived perfectly upon this earth.

And he died on the cross, receiving the wrath of God that was deserved for you and I.

This morning, if you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, I pray that today will be the day.

I pray that you will be astonished by the Word of God.

If you have, I pray that as the Holy Spirit works in you, That you will proclaim Jesus Christ as you are going.

Stand on the truth of God's word and be astonished by the gospel.

Let me pray for us.

God, you are so good and we love you.

We thank you for how you love us.

Jesus, I thank you for coming and living and dying and rising to save us.

God, move as only you can.

Jesus, it's in your name that we pray.

Amen.

We're going to stand and sing.

We invite you, if you have a decision to make this morning, if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, come.

We would love to share with you.

If you need to just come and repent because you have not been living out the acts of the Holy Spirit, trusting Him, proclaiming Him, maybe you need to repent this morning.

Come.

If you're looking for a church home, we invite you to come.

However, the Spirit is leading you, let today trust and follow Him.

Let's sing together.

Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.

If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSoto Hills.com.