I didn’t expect to be in southwest Virginia this morning, but I am. My youngest daughter Skylar Just turned 21, and Monica and I came down to see her Thursday night. We also planned to get all the sisters together in Harrisonburg, about halfway between Radford VA and Dundalk MD, to have a little birthday party for Skyler. Monica was going to stay down here through Sunday, and I was going to ride back up to Dundalk with Kelsey and Ryan and Arden and Noor. But Sky is leading music in her church this morning, and begged me to stay here and go to church with her.  And I just couldn’t say no. So this is the way I am preaching today.

There are plenty of things I used to do when the kids were younger that really drove them crazy. One of them was when I would let them read the Harry Potter books or watch the Harry Potter movies but not play with the Harry Potter merchandise. No magic wands. No plastic kettles for playtime potion brewing. No books of Make-Believe magic spells. I was such a stick in the mud.

I explained to them that the reason why I wouldn’t let them play at sorcery is that God forbids Christians to be involved in occult practices or magic endeavors. He commands us never to try to make contact with the spirits of dead humans or any other spirits except himself. He warns us never to entangle ourselves with objects or habits or activities that go along with the occult. That was the repeated command of the Old Testament and it was carried on repeatedly into the New Testament.  We find this all the way to Revelation 21:8 “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire…”

There it is. Along with the murderers and adulterers and idolaters and liars, sorcerers go to hell. Well, unless they repent of that sin and run to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation. The point is, all throughout the Bible, from beginning to end, witchcraft, sorcery, astrology, necromancy, and all of the occult arts are considered sin. They are not acceptable behavior for God’s people. I would know more let my children play at sorcery that I would let them play games of adultery or murder. Sorry, kids. Well, not really.

All right. We find ourselves this morning in the 13th chapter of the book of Acts. In this chapter, Saul and Barnabas preach the gospel across the island of Cyprus, from Salamis in the East to Paphos in the West – a journey of over a hundred miles.. In the process, they run into a Jewish sorcerer and a Roman official, and an epic confrontation takes place. Let’s read about it right now.

S&R Acts 13:4-12

⁴ So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. ⁵ When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 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. ⁷ He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. ⁸ But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. ⁹ But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him ¹⁰ and said, “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? ¹¹ 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 him by the hand. ¹² Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

what they need to listen for

• 3 characters in this real-life historical drama of sorcery and salvation

An apostate sorcerer

We ought to think about this man named Bar-Jesus. Saul and Barnabas ran into him in the city of Paphos, on the west coast of Cyprus. They had proclaimed in Jewish synagogues across the island the good news that the Jewish Messiah had come to save his Jewish people from their sins, bring in the Kingdom of God they had been waiting for so long, liberate them by defeating their enemies, especially their true enemy the devil.

Bar-Jesus is called a magus, or astrologer, and a Jewish false prophet. We are told his other name, Elymas, actually means magician. He was twice an apostate Jew, because he was deep into the dark pagan arts that Jews had always been forbidden to practice, and because he was clearly rejecting his Messiah and actively trying to keep Sergius Paulus from coming to Christ. He was doubly fallen away from God. The way Paul speaks  to him suggests he may actually have been fully possessed by demons.

Acts 13:9-11 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 all 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 him by the hand.

3 lessons for us today.

1. God has always forbidden occult practices (one of 4 events in Acts)
2. Such practices and beliefs lead to apostasy, demonization, damnation
3. God wants us trusting his Word and his Spirit

Please learn the lessons God wants you to learn from the sordid story of Elymas Bar-Jesus

A pagan onlooker

• Sergius Paulus

1. An ordinary man: a Roman proconsul (like Pilate), a government official
2. A lost man: Roman, worshiper of Roman Gods
3. An open man: intelligent man, called Saul and Barnabas, listened, watched, believed

• so if you are a pagan, someone who is not yet a follower of LJC, open yourself, listen, watch, believe
• pagans are not any more wicked or evil than I am or you are
• thinking or speaking or living like a pagan is only a problem if you call yourself a Christian but refuse to learn to think, talk, and live like one

A Christian evangelist

• Saul of Tarsus

1. Passion for the gospel he came to share
2. Passion for the Lord that the gospel is about
3. Passion for the lost that the gospel is for
4. Passion that can be seen and heard: filled with the Spirit, but not at all nice

• the cult of niceness
• niceness vs love
• first time Saul is called “Paul”

conclusion

• compare Elymas’ reaction to Paul’s rebuke with Simon Magus’ response to Peter’s rebuke in Acts 8
• neither man actually repented