God's Heart For The Lost | Acts 13 - 1-12 (Mar 27) Mike Armstrong

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Well, good morning, Redemption.

It is great to see your faces.

It is great to hear your singing wash over the back of my head.

It is really great to be gathered in the house of the Lord to worship him in strength, in joy, in faith, all of those things.

And we want to continue in our time of worship together, of course, right now.

Before we uh jump into our time in the scriptures, a couple of quick things to mention to you about.

We had a couple of dates, I think, wrong, or maybe it was an older video that we showed in announcements.

So a couple of things, if I can remember, uh off the top of my head.

First of all, uh the Ukrainian offering that we've been doing here as a church, uh, pleased uh to announce that we raised uh just over$5,500, uh you did, uh, to go towards uh this offering as we care for uh the GCC church that uh it meets right in the heart of uh Kiev.

And so uh really just want to express our gratitude uh from the elders uh to you for being generous in this.

We're really thankful for that and looking forward to the Lord using those funds uh powerfully in the lives of the church and the Terasov family uh that you see out there as they minister in uh extremely unique uh circumstances.

And so uh, while our offering time may have come to a close, don't forget about them.

Continue to pray uh for them, that the Lord would use them, protect them, protect that uh nation as well as they experience uh the incredible uh difficulties of uh of war.

Now, now another thing, I think uh in the announcement it said men's and women's was starting up next week or something.

It actually started up last week, this past week.

The ladies was was yesterday, uh yesterday morning over at the office at 8 o'clock.

The guys were Thursday morning, uh bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, 6 a.m.

And uh and so we had a great time, great start uh for both groups.

Uh, really thankful for that.

If you're like, oh, I missed it, too late.

It's not.

You can still join us.

You can come to that.

We would love to have you uh register and sign up.

Get uh get the book, Gentle and Lowly by Dana Ortland.

Both groups are going through the same book, and so uh excited to uh uh to have more of you join us if uh if you're able to make those times uh work.

Another thing is our youth retreat is actually happening right now.

They're gonna be coming home uh a little bit later this afternoon, and uh, by all accounts, the Lord is doing amazing things up there in our students.

I just love youth retreats.

I love what those winter retreats.

The Lord does always do something powerful and unique, and he's doing that uh in the lives of our students this weekend, and so I want to uh pray for them.

But in the in the before I do that, I also want to let you know that uh we have a uh a prayer and worship night coming up, uh, not this Tuesday, but the Tuesday after.

That's April 5th, right here in this room, 7 till 8, one hour.

Uh we're gonna gather, we're inviting the whole church, everybody to come out, and we're gonna pray and we're gonna seek the Lord uh for for direction and his uh wisdom and clarity on us as a church.

And so we're gonna have a time of singing led by Derek Burcy.

Uh, we're gonna have a time a times of prayer individually and in groups, uh interspersed throughout that.

So really looking forward to an important, important time for us to gather um and do that in person.

We haven't done it in person in a little while, and so uh mark your calendars.

We'd love to have you come out to that.

So I want to pray, and then we're gonna uh get into uh Acts 13 this morning.

So join me uh as I pray.

Lord, we come before you uh now and uh we uh thank you for the opportunity, the privilege, all of that to come before you and worship.

Lord, we thank you for the opportunity uh that we have to open up your word here in just a moment, God.

And so I pray that you would speak powerfully to our hearts today.

Lord, I pray that you would show us your goodness.

I pray that you would show us that you have a use for us.

We don't just become Christians to uh feel good about ourselves and then live life however we were before or however we want to.

It is about you using us in power.

And so, Lord, as we think about that in the context of our own church and what you're doing here, I pray that you would open up our hearts and our minds, give us joy to follow you, spurred on by the truth of the gospel, motivated uh by what by what you have done, by who you are.

Uh Lord, we want to remember that we've got uh a bunch of junior high and senior high students uh over up at Muskoka Woods right now, and they've been meeting and gathering and worshiping, uh, spending time in discussion, hearing from your word as well.

And uh so, Father, we want to pray that it would be a strong, strong finish uh to the retreat uh today, Lord, and that the work that you are doing in their hearts uh would continue to flourish and blossom, Lord, that uh you would make yourself the uh the core object of their lives, their heart's desire.

And so, Lord, continue to use Jeremy and our leaders, bless them, give them uh energy and joy uh in this as they do that.

Lord, we're looking forward to a prayer night coming up uh April 5th.

And so, Lord, I pray that you would meet us powerfully and there as we seek your face, Lord, we need you.

We are a church uh that prays fervently.

And so, God, we uh want to see you move and work.

And so, God, uh, Lord, as we just again uh get ready to open up the scriptures, uh Lord, speak to us, meet with us.

We pray this in Christ's name, amen.

Amen.

So, like I said before, uh Acts 13, if you're not turned there, uh get there uh on your phone or tablet or old school paper Bible.

We love all of the above.

Um so get in there and we are gonna go through it verse by verse, like we always do, uh, starting in verse one and going through to verse 12 today.

But um, as you're um getting yourself flipped there, I'm sure that uh that each of us, uh for one reason or another, uh have saved up money for something.

Right?

That's a pretty common experience for every single person.

I mean, even our kids, right?

Perhaps you've had to help your kids with this and talk to them about saving money and making sure that they put their birthday or Christmas money, whatever it is, you know, in a party like that, how kids tend to you just kind of throw things around or through the check that grandma sent or whatever, and it's a mixed around the wrapping paper and all that, and you're you know on top of them like, no, you gotta put this in your wallet.

You gotta put this in a safe place so that it's ready for when you need it, or you just take it for yourself and pretend that you'll give it back to them, okay?

But you put it in a safe place.

Or, or maybe it's for yourself, right?

Maybe you've employed something like the like the Dave Ramsey envelope system, right?

Perhaps that is you.

I see a couple of smiles.

Let me know what I'm talking about there, where you know you realize it's just it's it's too easy to tap the card, right?

I don't ever see the money go in or or or go out.

And so you withdraw the cash, you you put it in an envelope, you hide it somewhere.

That's why it's harder to spend uh cash psychologically, they say.

But again, you're you're saving that money, or in many cases, just putting your your money in a high interest savings account and and let it build from there.

The point is we've all had to save up.

We've all had to do it, we all should do it, and we do.

Which is really to say that that we set aside, okay, or or set apart funds for whatever purpose you've intended to use that money for.

Okay, well, today's passage takes that that phrase, that same phrase, set apart, okay, and shows us what God means when He when He takes a person, okay, you and I, he takes a person and sets them apart for service to his mission.

He does that here, as we're gonna see with Saul or Paul and Barnabas.

Okay, and in many ways, he's you know he does that that very same thing or similar thing uh with you and I.

So, a couple of things for you to consider them uh this morning.

How have I been set apart for the Lord?

Okay, ask yourself that question.

You know, do I sense that he's prepared me or that he's preparing me for a crucial role to play in the fulfillment of the Great Commission?

Do I sense that?

Am I all in on that?

And then I think an important question am I actually doing it?

Right?

Have I been set apart?

And then am I actually doing that work of ministry?

Am I doing it effectively?

Another important question.

Am I doing it wholeheartedly for him and for the sake of others?

Okay, so with all of that laid out here before us, uh, we're gonna jump into the first thing.

Got two points for you today.

Here's the first one.

Okay, being set apart for the Lord means that as my zeal for him grows, he sends me and I go.

Okay, and I think we really see this quite clearly starting in verse one.

Take a look at it with me.

It says, now there were in the church of, or church at Antioch.

Okay, pause right there for a second.

You remember Antioch, right?

That's that's kind of been the main location of focus for us over the last uh couple of chapters.

It's the city where believers were first called uh Christians.

Okay, the the the first church planted in a thoroughly Gentile region.

So you could say that Jerusalem, technically, that that was the first church.

Well, the church in Antioch was the first church plant out of an existing uh church.

Okay, and and so and so they were now the launch pad from which this rapid expansion began to happen, this expansion of ministry to even more Gentiles.

All right.

So there were the church at Antioch, it says, prophets and teachers.

Okay, and it gives us five of them here.

Okay, you got you got Barnabas, okay, you've got Barnabas, uh, Simeon, who was called Niger, you've got Lucius of Cyrene, uh Minaan, okay, who it says it was a lifelong friend of Herod, the Tetrarch.

Okay, now Tetrarch means that he was he was a governor, okay, and so you'll notice there we're introduced to uh yet another Herod.

Okay, Herod was like the name Mike back then, I think.

Everyone had it.

Okay, nothing special about it uh whatsoever.

Okay, but but this Herod was also known as Herod Antipas.

Okay, and he was the Herod that reigned in Galilee during uh Jesus' day.

And also he was the uncle of Herod Agrippa I.

Okay, he was the Herod who we looked at last week.

Remember the guy that got in worm food, right?

Eaten by worms, that kind of thing.

Uh lovely picture.

Okay, so this Menaean guy, he was a leader in the church, but also it appears that he had this kind of interesting connection or friendship, even it says, uh, with uh with Herod the Tetrarch, which historians say it means that they probably grew up together.

You know, that they as young boys in that region, and Menaan got saved, he joins the church, and Herod is decidedly not saved.

Okay, and so again, just a kind of an interesting connection it mentions uh for us there.

Okay, so you got the four guys, and then it gives us, lastly, the the fifth prophet or teacher of the church in Antioch, and that's Saul.

Okay, now verse 2.

It says, while they, and that they meaning the entire congregation, not just these five guys, but while they were worshiping, okay, you see that word worshiping there?

That is also literally can be translated as serving.

Okay, well so while they were worshiping, while they were serving, we call we call our service uh our spiritual act of worship.

Dave and I were kind of joking just a few minutes ago about him bringing the pulpit up for me, and he's like, I would love to serve in this way.

I said that's your spiritual act of worship, but hopefully not the only one uh here today, right?

But that's why you've got this word, this word worshiping and serving, they mean the same thing.

Okay, so they were they were worshiping the Lord and fasting.

Okay, typically fasting, uh we think of fasting, we think of uh of foregoing food, which is the intention here.

And I know that sometimes we we we we can have modern day fasts from social media, right?

We can we can fast from TV and Instagram and all that kind of stuff, and and that's uh all good as well.

But but here, and and most commonly it's expressed, it's it's understood as uh as skipping a meal or skipping a day of eating or or multiple days even.

And when you think about that, you think of food, well, like I kind of need that, right?

Physiologically, I I need food to sustain me.

It's something it's something that I that I crave, crave food.

Right?

So they were they were doing this.

They were they were they were fasting in recognition here, or or really an expression of their ultimate need for the Lord.

Okay, and keep in mind that hand in hand with fasting goes prayer.

Okay, so you've got fasting and prayer uh working together.

Okay, if you and I fast, if you've ever fasted before, let's say from food, and you feel those those hunger pangs, right?

It's noon, it's it's dinner, it's something like that.

Okay, it accentuates our awareness of our deepest need.

Again, I'm talking about spiritual fasting here, not intermittent fasting where we're trying to lose weight.

Okay, I'm talking about spiritual fasting.

It awakens this awareness of our deepest need, which of course is intimacy with Christ.

Right?

Where I'm seeking the Lord for something, I'm drawing close to him, I'm asking him to help me, to give me wisdom, to answer a prayer in a unique and interesting time.

It's a means to draw near to the Lord and express our longing for him to do to do something awesome, okay, whatever it is that we might happen to be seeking him for.

Okay, so remember from last week, okay, that the Lord responds powerfully.

Okay, when his church prays earnestly.

It's what we're seeing.

This is a church eager to worship, like they were eager to serve the Lord.

And they're fasting, they're they're praying, which just which which tells us where their hearts were at.

Okay, and and and we it's it's telling us that he's got ze they've got zeal to fulfill his mission, to make disciples.

The Lord's doing something, they're fired up about it.

They're like, how can we be used?

Let's seek the Lord for this.

Let's come at this with some intensity here and some passion.

And so they seek him through fasting and prayer, and notice he responds.

Right?

We see it here, uh, still in verse 2, it says it towards the end.

It says, the Holy Spirit said.

There's the answer.

The Holy Spirit says, now likely he said it through one of the prophets uh mentioned.

But again, notice as we've seen it all the way through the book of Acts, it's the Spirit of God driving the mission at every turn.

It's the Spirit of God.

It's not a bunch of guys, men, women, whatever, just throwing a bunch of ideas at the wall and hoping something sticks.

Okay, I guess we'll go, we'll kind of go there.

No, it's the Lord's vision being rolled out through humble and willing and eager believers, again, zealous to first go and then also do.

Go where God says and do what he tells us and leads us to do.

And so here's what the Holy Spirit says to them as he directs them.

He says, Set apart.

Okay, there's our little term there.

Underline that if you've got a pen, right?

Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Now, verse 3, it says, then after more, it would appear, fasting and praying, they they laid their hands on those two guys and sent them off.

Alright, so this moment is what is known as the launch of Paul's first missionary journey.

Okay, first of four that we see.

And and it's it's the first example of a church uh formally sending and commissioning a missionary team to go out into the world.

Right?

This is pretty amazing what is taking place.

Up to now, it's been more of an informal operation.

Okay, guys like Philip going out more or less independently.

Okay, that was still the Lord driving it too.

We're not being critical of anything that took place here.

But what we're seeing is that this is now becoming formalized.

The church is starting to find its structure.

There's more accountability kind of baked into this, and the Lord is guiding the church through the leaders.

Okay, but also notice that this is the fulfillment of the final part of Acts 1.8.

Right?

Acts 1.8, it's a verse we come back to, it seems like every single week, because it's the thesis statement of the entire book of Acts.

And I've said it before, I'll read it again, though.

It says, but you, this is what Jesus says to his disciples, right?

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

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, right?

That was home based, that's the first seven chapters of Acts.

Then he says, In all Judean Samaria, that was the kind of the next outer layer and air and region.

And we looked at that uh over the last number of weeks through chapters eight to twelve.

Okay, and then he says this, and to the ends of the earth.

Okay, that last part there is chapters 13 right to the end, to chapter 28.

Isaiah 13 · chapter mention

Right?

It's this it's this expansion again of ministry.

It's it's the rest of the book is this, you know, to the ends of the earth coming to fruition.

Okay, now keep going with me, verse 4.

It says, so being sent, right, there's our word, so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, okay, then notice this, they they went.

Or they go.

So they're sent, he sends them, they go down to this place called Seleucia.

Okay, Seleucia, just again, if we want to get our bearings straight, I know some of us are map people.

This is uh 26 kilometers from Antioch.

Okay, so you're thinking that's that's not too far, that's a pretty quick uh car ride.

Well, of course, they weren't taking cars anywhere uh back in this day, so it would have been a journey on foot.

Okay, so a bit longer.

But they go down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

Verse 5 says, when they arrived at Salamis, which is the closest port of Cyprus, and 209 kilometers from uh Seleucia, okay, so you got a 209-kilometer trip by boat.

Okay, when they arrived there at Salamis, the port of Cyprus, it says that they proclaimed the word of God.

Okay, that's this is what they do.

They're engaging, right?

Proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.

Okay, and it says that they had John to assist them.

John's the guy that we were introduced to uh last week.

This is John Mark, where you know Peter went and you know, Rhoda was there.

They were at Mary's house.

That was John Mark's uh mother.

Okay, so so ministry in synagogues, okay, Jewish synagogues, that became the model for Paul.

Okay, that became the pattern.

Whenever he traveled, he would show up in a city and he would begin his ministry right there in the synagogues.

Okay, teaching the Jews first, right, who already believed in the truth and the authority of the Old Testament.

And so he'd begin there and he would work to show them that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah.

But then he would use that ministry at the synagogues as a springboard out into reaching Gentiles as well and telling them of Jesus Christ the Messiah.

Now, as we think about these first five verses here, I really do believe there's a lot that we can learn here as a church.

I really do.

And one thing that we see in the Antioch Church is something that I think is very easy for us to just kind of gloss over or glaze over a little bit and or even neglect when it comes to our ministry here at uh Redemption, as Redemption Church.

All right, we saw in verse 2 that the Lord set apart, right, or told the leaders to set apart Paul and uh Barnabas, or Saul and Barnabas.

Okay, so he's earmarking these two guys for a very specific ministerial task.

Okay?

Now it's not too hard for us to see that in the text.

Okay, they they go, right, they go to Cyprus, but what we can, again, maybe just breeze past a little bit, is how it was their zeal for the Lord brewing and surging within them that provided the motivation to go.

Right?

These these believers, Saul and Barnabas, they were fired up.

They were passionate about this.

Now, why highlight this?

Well, because I I think it's, right, I mention it because of how easy it is, I think, for for you and I to physically go and serve in ministry.

Think about where you might be serving or where you've served in the past, you know, where I show up, okay, and I'm and I'm present and accounted for, and I'm and I'm there and I'm technically doing the work, but perhaps in some way I've kind of lost some of that spiritual zeal that was driving the bus before.

Right?

Some of that passion, that zeal that's required to do the task well.

Right?

That it's that zeal for the Lord that propels me to keep going when serving gets hard.

Right?

When it gets Difficult when it gets discouraging.

It's the zeal that drives you and I to do the work of ministry for the right reasons, right?

In the right ways.

With passion, with joy, with again resiliency.

So zeal for the Lord is like the wood in the fireplace of your heart.

Okay, burning red hot.

Okay, keeping you and I fueled and motivated as we serve the Lord Jesus.

Now, bear with me for a sec here because I think this text is very timely for us as we begin to emerge as a society, at least somewhat, from a very pandemic mentality.

And I think it's just the way of living that we've all been subjected to, we've all been living over the last two years.

I think it's just simply common knowledge and its fact that believers in churches everywhere, all over the place, have either chosen or in some ways been forced, you know, for some good reasons, maybe some not so good reasons, to withdraw from the church somewhat.

Right?

Right?

To back away and disengage from church life and involvement in ministry, involvement in serving.

You know, I don't think it would be a stretch to say or suggest that for some of us, we've kind of gotten lulled a little bit into this like spiritual sleepiness over the last couple of years.

Right?

Maybe just church involvement and engagement's gotten a little too easy when I can like roll out of bed and watch it at home in my underwear.

Right?

It's it's again, it gets a little bit too comfortable for us, and in the very in the various ways that we were maybe engaged before, we're we're kind of backing out of that.

Let me just kind of give you an example of uh sort of how we've been operating a little bit.

I mean, we've been able to run Sunday services uh on a skeleton crew, okay, for the last 24 months.

Right?

We've we've really stripped things down.

I mean, if you were here you know two or three years ago, uh you would be able to know that, right?

All the pipe and drape we had up and the screen in the middle, and we had banners everywhere.

You go to the other school, it was even more so, right?

At Mu Loch, and then in the really early days, we had like three screens up.

It's like Hillsong United in here, right?

It was like nuts.

Okay, and so we've really just like kind of paired all of that back in the last couple of years.

Right?

We've really we've really done that.

And the reason for that is is we wanted to be able to run church with as as as few volunteers and people to serve uh as we could possibly uh get to pull it off.

And some of the reason for that was due to you know capacity limits imposed on us.

I'm trying not to be snarky about all that.

Okay, but sometimes it was like you're allowed to have this many people in the building, and if we have 35 volunteers, you can have like four people sitting in the chairs.

And so we've stripped it down so more people could come and attend, and then we had our services over at the office.

We had like 80 services on a Sunday, right?

Felt like that.

It was like six.

Okay.

But we we did this as little groups of ten.

Okay, but but now as mandates are lifting slash lifted, there's kind of this sense among a lot of church leaders and and pastors everywhere that that people are are starting to return again, which is sweet, right?

You've got people coming back, and and and our even our numbers, which I don't pay a lot of attention to, but our numbers are starting to creep up a little bit, right?

But but at the same time, that that old pandemic mentality is is still entrenched somewhat in our hearts and minds.

Where the mindset that, you know, I'm I'm I'm just gonna do the bare minimum, or I'm gonna be somewhat there and and maybe a little involved, that that mindset is still there.

It's become a habit.

Where the urge to be all in in the in the ways that we used to, that that that urge, that desire, that passion, it hasn't quite returned.

It hasn't quite caught up to us physically being in the room.

Now I I know that that some of you might assume uh what's coming next.

Right, like here comes Mike with the full court press, you know, the guilt trip, bring out the whip, start serving.

What's the matter with you people?

Okay, we need we need plug holes, we need some some warm bodies, and we need uh you know, resurrect ministries have been mothballed over the last two years.

Okay, well, in some ways, I'm I am kind of saying that.

Okay, I'll be straight up with you.

Okay, but with a very, very, very important clarification or distinction on that.

Meaning that we don't simply want or need warm bodies filling gaps.

That's not what it's about.

What we're looking for, and more importantly, what the Lord wants from us and what he desires, and as we see it right here in the text, right, is he wants to set you and I apart, okay, to go and serve in whatever ways that we are gifted to serve and in ways that are needed, but for that to be motivated by zeal.

Right, to be fired up about this, to be passionate.

The picture that we see here in Acts 13 is a church, a church that is that they can't wait to get to work for the Lord.

A church that's all in for him and all in for other people.

It says they're worshiping, right?

Which means serving.

Right?

They're fasting, they're praying.

These are some of the words.

And that passion, as that passion grows in them, that's when he's that's when he sends them.

Right?

And that's when they go.

Okay, and and while that, I think this is important to say, while that that going that you see there is out from the church, okay.

Some of you might be noticing, it's not talking about serving in the church, he's talking about going out from the church.

Fair enough.

Uh, that's uh certainly true.

All right, they are going out to evangelize, but but don't forget that all ministry comes down to discipleship.

All of it.

That that is what we are called to.

Great commission tells, go and make disciples, right?

Some of us may get called to literally become missionaries like Barnabas and and Saul here.

Okay, but let's be honest, most of us aren't.

Most of us aren't gonna go to another country.

None of us are gonna walk 26 kilometers anywhere, right?

We're not gonna we're not gonna do that.

That doesn't mean that the Lord has zero intention of setting you and I apart.

He does.

It's just that your mission field came might might mostly be right here.

Right here in your neighborhoods, right, where you where you live, uh, or or in the church.

Right?

By by way of serving and by way of making disciples through the use of your spiritual gifts.

Okay, so if you're sensing that, yeah, man, like I I kind of hear what you're saying, I need to get serving here again, and you know, maybe for the first time and coming for a while, need to get plugged in in a little deeper way.

That's great.

Okay, it really is.

We love that.

But just remember that that zeal for him is what the Lord is looking to grow in us.

Right?

That's what he's looking for.

It's it's a fire to be stoked within you.

And it's something that, if you haven't noticed already, can absolutely go out.

That flame, that fire, it can grow dim, can't it?

It can grow cold.

And so maybe your your takeaway from all of this is to just begin devoting some you know, some some some prayer and some attention to your zeal.

Maybe it's engaging the Lord in prayer, maybe it's taking some time to literally fast.

And Lord, what would you have for me?

Where would you have me go?

What would you how would you have me involved?

Inviting the Holy Spirit to like blow on that that flame, right?

Fan those flames again to motivate you and and get you going with the right heart.

Whether you haven't served in a while or or ever.

Or you are, okay, there's there's the people that are, but but it's that that coldness of heart has started to creep in.

Right, and you're here, but you're like, right?

You're doing it, but it but the heart is lagging behind.

Very easy for us to get into that place as well.

So I want us to keep going here.

We've covered one thing, here's the last thing.

Being set apart for the Lord means that he will deploy me as a weapon for his kingdom.

He will deploy me as a weapon for his kingdom.

Think about this.

Okay, this is where we see that the Lord God, again, he doesn't just want to send us.

It's not just about it's not just about going where he leads, it's also about actually being effective in the going.

Effective in the doing, productive in his service.

That's what we're looking for.

That's what we see here starting in verse 6.

Take a look at this.

It says, when they, okay, so we're talking Saul and Barnabas, just to be clear, when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, okay, which is 145 kilometers southwest of Salamis, where they originally landed, okay, and it also happens to be the headquarters for the Roman government on Cyprus.

Okay, so that they arrive there.

It says that they came upon a certain magician.

Okay, a certain magician.

Now, I want you to clear your mind here for a second.

We're not talking about like the kid's birthday party magician, right?

Rabbit out of a hat, like they pull the bouquet of flowers out, like we're not talking about that.

Okay, it's not the cute, kind of fun, that kind of magician, not at all.

No, we're talking about what we would now call today black magic.

Okay, I mean seriously demonic stuff.

Like it's dark, it's evil.

Okay, they they come across this certain magician, it says a Jewish false prophet named Bar Jesus.

Okay, so he's a Jew, which is interesting, but he's obviously not like a practicing Jew in terms of Judaism at all.

He's not following the law whatsoever.

He he's on the other team.

He's a Jewish false prophet, his name's Bar Jesus.

Look at verse 7.

It says that he was with a guy, the proconsul, it says, and his name was Sergius Paulus.

Okay, so what's a proconsul?

Well, a proconsul is really the highest ranking Roman official in that province.

Okay, so you've got this guy here, um, Bargesus.

He was with Sergius Paulus.

It describes Sergius Paulus as a man of intelligence.

Okay, we're gonna see that come through in just a moment.

Okay, so he's a smart guy, learned guy, all of that, man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

Okay, so Sergius Paulus, he was this Roman high-ranking official, but he hears about Barnabas and Saul in his region.

He is, he hears what they're talking about, and he wants an audience with them.

Okay, and the idea being that he's he's like eager to learn, right?

He wants to understand, that he's he's coming at this from from with in the right way, with the with the right motive.

Sergius Paulus is.

Okay, so he summoned them, he wants to hear the word of God.

Then verse 8, look, but Elamis, the magician, okay, says, for that is the meaning of his name.

So in other words, Bar Jesus was also called Elamis, kind of like the you know, the Jewish and the Greek names there.

Okay, so Bar Jesus slash Elamis, he opposed them.

He opposed Saul and Barnabas, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

Okay, he's radically opposed.

Verse 9 says, but Saul, who was also called Paul.

Okay, so this is the first time now that we're given that name, Paul.

And that's how we're gonna know him as going forward.

Saul was his Hebrew name, Paul is his Roman or Greek name, and again, what he's known as going forward because of all of his work with Gentiles in Greek regions.

Okay, so Paul, it says, filled with the Holy Spirit.

Okay, make that distinction.

This is not just him flying off the cuff and and popping up, this is the Holy Spirit working through him, looked intently at him, looking intently at Bar Jesus at this element's guy.

Okay, so if you've read your New Testament and you've seen some of the works of Paul and how he operates, you know this guy can be an intense dude.

Right?

Like Paul, Paul didn't really back down from anybody.

And so you see him here, it's telling us he's looking intently at this guy who's opposing the work of God.

And look, look at what he says here.

And just imagine how what he says here would go over today.

Right?

In in our hyper sensitive, easily offended about literally everything culture.

Okay, look what he says.

Verse 10.

I've teeded it up enough.

Okay, he says, he looks at him and he says, 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.

Okay, that's kind of wild, but look at this.

Immediately, mist and darkness fell upon him.

This is the Bar Jesus, A.K.

LMS, fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

Okay, then look at this verse 12.

The proconsul believed.

Right?

He sees this go down when he saw what had occurred, right?

Told you that he was intelligent, right?

He sees this, he's like, I'm, I don't want to be on team Bar Jesus, I want to be on team Savior Jesus.

Right?

I don't want to see this happening.

This is this is intense.

I don't want this to happen to me.

Now, if if you tend to read that or you you look at that and you got get kind of caught up in the whole, like, well, you know, I wish that Paul had been a little more polite in the way that he said that.

Like, couldn't he could he have you couldn't he have like softened the corners on that and and allowed that to land, not like a lead balloon.

Right?

I mean, if if that's where you're at and you want him to be less offensive in his wording, remember it's the Holy Spirit speaking through him, so that's an interesting thing to think.

But it but if you're gonna go in that direction with it, that's your first take, I think you're really missing the point.

Because the reality is that Bar Jesus was a demonically driven servant of Satan.

Right?

That's what he was, right?

He dared to get in the way of Almighty God.

And so here is the Lord through Paul, nipping that nonsense in the bud.

Right?

It's the Holy Spirit deploying Paul as an absolute weapon, right, to take back enemy territory.

That territory being Sergius Paulus's heart.

He's going after the man's heart, he's doing it for his kingdom, the expansion of the gospel.

Right?

Paul steps in, the spirit blinds Elamis, and Sergius Paulus, he goes from darkness to light in an instant.

He believed.

Right?

It's highly effective ministry, to say the least.

It really is.

And this is honestly the mentality that we should have as Christ's followers today.

Right?

Just like calling out the kids left, right, and center and redemption kids, you son of a devil.

You're not paying attention.

Good, that was a joke.

Good, I'm glad you got that.

Can you imagine that?

Maybe you'd be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.

Right?

That'd be hilarious, I think.

Maybe not.

But our our attitude, right?

Our confidence, our our our understanding seriously should be that the that the Lord has set us apart, okay?

To use you and I as as weapons.

Right?

That's that's who we are, the sharp end of the stick, right?

Who take back ground for the kingdom and for the sake of the gospel.

Right?

Remember when when Jesus says to Peter, You will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

We talked about this uh a while ago, and how off the cuff we tend to think of that as like the enemy's attacking us, right?

And we the Lord's gonna protect us.

The gates of hell are not gonna crush the church.

It's actually the opposite.

Because what do gates do?

Gates protect an attack, don't they?

So he's saying the gates of hell will not will not prevail against the church, right?

You and I are weapons to go into a dark world with the light of the gospel.

That is the mentality that we are to have.

None of this like fearful, like, oh no, I don't want to be used, and I'm gonna be a little uncomfortable.

And what if it's awkward?

Right?

We're so soft sometimes, aren't we?

As Canadian Christians, I think, especially.

And listen, to really kind of get you thinking about yourself here, you're not serving, whatever the ways that you serve.

You're not serving as a greeter or setting up signage here on a Sunday morning because we're just here to play some dumb little game called church service.

Right?

That's not it.

And then go home as though nothing of eternal value is taking place.

No, no, you're doing these things, all of us contributing in very vital ways, right?

Used as instruments of spiritual war, weapons in the hands of God, where He deploys us for the express purpose of bringing forth the light of Jesus Christ in a world that needs it.

Right?

Which chases away, which which defeats the darkness of sin and saves people.

Right?

We proclaim the gospel, which which not only saves, it doesn't only justify, but it also sanctifies.

Right?

It it transforms us, it matures us and changes us.

Okay, so if you're prone to thinking that your service doesn't really matter, right?

Ah, someone else can do it, or they don't really need me, or what I'm doing isn't as valuable as that person or whatever.

Nonsense.

Think again.

Okay, it matters more than honestly a lot of things in life.

Like the Lord has set you apart for this.

Whatever your spiritual gifts are.

Right?

And I'm praying this as we work through this here, this is stirring up a zeal in your heart.

It's waking you up from maybe that that COVID slumber that we've all been in, myself too, to some degree.

Right?

And it's a fire that only grows hotter, right?

Driving you and I to go when and where the Lord sends.

For the purpose of being highly effective weapons, wherever it is that you may be deployed.

And not nailing it in, not like checking a box to feel good about the thing I've done today or this week.

No, no, hungry.

Hungry to see Jesus Christ take ground for the kingdom here.

Not just in here, out there as well.

Now listen, we are gonna have a time of communion today.

And we're gonna do that right now.

And we're gonna give you uh a moment, a couple of moments here to really gonna think about these things and get your hearts right.

Joel's uh coming back up here in a second, and and trust that you were able to grab uh the elements on your way in off the table.

If you didn't, now's your chance to go do that.

Okay?

I know we've got Dave at the back here with uh with a plate.

Okay, but think about this, okay.

Think about this.

What is communion?

Okay, communion is remembering Christ's death until he comes.

Okay, in other words, we're reminding ourselves of the gospel.

Okay, we're reminding ourselves of the gospel.

We're remembering who Jesus is and what he did.

It's specifically remembering his death.

Remembering what he went through, remembering why he went through it.

Right?

It was for you and I, it was for our salvation, so that we would be forgiven.

As he went to the cross and he suffered, all of that was for us.

His death is a substitutionary death.

You and I deserved to be up on the cross.

We deserve, we deserved, right, to be to be crucified.

We deserve to be punished.

We deserve the wrath of God based on our sinfulness.

Right?

We're all sinful, myself included.

I'm not saying this from my high horse, berating you, looking down on you.

No, I'm I'm right there.

And communion was is it's an opportunity for us to remember these things.

Because I'm sure if you're anything like me, it's so easy to go through a week and and you don't even think about the gospel.

You're just like, I'm going to work, I'm taking care of the kids, I'm whatever the concerns of the world are.

Yeah, that's what I'm focusing on.

And how important is it for us to come and gather on weekends as the church to remember, to remember our God, to remember our Savior, to get our hearts right.

And so the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, he says, let everybody examine themselves before taking communion.

Let's make sure that our hearts are in a good place before Him.

Means we're we're taking seriously sin.

Right?

And we're not just flippantly taking the elements, the the juice and the cracker.

Okay, by the way, the juice and the cracker, they are symbolic of Christ's shed blood and his body given for us on the cross.

Right?

And so I really would would encourage you, challenge you to take these moments seriously here.

I would also say that if you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, okay, that is, I mean, we're glad you're here.

Right?

We're we're excited that you're here.

We welcome you here with us.

I would just say this there's no point in you taking these elements with us.

It doesn't do anything for you, it doesn't get you closer to God.

It's it's just juice.

It's just a really bad wafer at the end of the day.

Like that's that's what it is.

Okay, but it's representative of what Jesus has done for you.

And so you can't work your way to heaven by taking communion today.

Rather, you humble yourself, you recognize your brokenness before God, that it was against God, and believe that Jesus Christ paid the penalty in full for you on the cross.

That when he resurrected, when he rose from the grave three days later, he defeated sin and he defeated death.

So if you would admit and understand and realize that you're not a Christian, I would encourage you to become a Christian today.

Admit your sin.

Trust in Jesus' work on your behalf.

Then take communion with us.

The rest of us, let's make sure we get our hearts right.

We remember the Lord.

We praise him.

We thank him.

And so the way this is gonna look is Joel's gonna play and and give us a few moments to pray and get our hearts right, and then I'm gonna come back up and lead us through the elements, okay?

And then we're gonna pray and close down our service.

So let's go to prayer now.

He says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's eat together.

In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Let's drink together.

He says, For as often as you eat this bread and you drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Lord God, we we marvel at what you have done.

We praise you, we worship you, we exalt you.

Because if you had not humbled yourself and gone to the cross and endured the torture of all of that, the horrors of it, received the full weight of the wrath of your heavenly Father, Lord, it would be us.

It would be up to us to face that, Lord, and we could not stand if that were the case.

And so, God, we we worship you and thank you for doing this for us by offering us the gift of salvation.

Lord, we thank you that we don't have to earn it.

We can't earn it.

No amount of good behavior or moralistic living will ever make up for what our sins have caused.

We're transgressors, we're breakers of your law.

But to the praise of your name, Jesus was not.

And so, Lord, we thank you for giving up your body.

We thank you for shedding your blood on our behalf.

Lord, we thank you for the victory that came three days later, where you emerged from the grave, signaling the end of sin, the end of spiritual death, knowing that should we believe in you, we would have eternal life, where our physical bodies will pass away, but spiritually we can reign with you forever.

So, Lord, we praise you for all of this.

God, I pray that as we looked at this passage today, Lord, that this amazing news, this truth of the gospel would be ringing in our ears, humming in our hearts.

God, propelling us and driving us to be zealous, to be willing to go and serve you, Lord, to be effective in that, Lord.

Weapons in your hands.

God, would you do this through our church?

And would you bring much, much, much glory to your name through us?

So stir this stuff up in us, Lord.

Work in us.

We know we're a work in progress, but we give ourselves to you now, and we pray this all in Jesus Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Listen, listen, we're gonna have uh elder prayer at the end of the service for the first time in who knows how long.

Okay, and so we're gonna have our elders and and even some of our small group leaders are gonna be up here as well.

And this is what we're gonna do going forward again.

If you were with us before, you know this is just how we roll.

We have our elders up here.

If you need any prayer, we invite you to come forward and let us know what's going on in your life.

It could be about anything.

Let us know what's going on.

Let allow us to pray for you.

It's a joy to serve you in this way, to show you love and to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

Right?

Our church is built on the foundations of prayer.

So again, our elders, you guys can make your way up right now.

Our small group leaders come on up, standing up here at the front.

Other than that, have a great day, have a great week, and we'll see you back here next Sunday.

You're loved.