Magician vs. Apostle of the King

Listen, My Son ...

(Acts 13:5-12, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 27, 2012)

[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.

One of the truisms that I have come to embrace in life is that God has His people everywhere. This phrase has a special meaning when applied to the missionary journeys of men like Paul and Barnabas, Jews that had come to believe in Jesus of Nazareth as the Suffering Servant Messiah. As they went out from Antioch into the Mediterranean, they encountered Jews everywhere. When they came to eastern region of Cypus called Salamis, there were many synagogues of the Jews. It was the practice of these two missionaries to go first to the Jews, and to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah in the synagogues.

When God sent Moses to Pharaoh, he gave him these words: “Thus says the Lord, Israel is My firstborn son.” In all the centuries that followed of disobedience and discipline of the northern tribes and of Judah, God had never fully abandoned His Son Israel. Even today, the Jewish Messiah calls His ancient people home through the preaching of the Word. “Israel is My Son.”

In Proverbs, the Lord addresses His people as if talking to the young prince of a very godly king. He says in Proverbs 3, “Listen my son.” The preaching of the gospel to Jews has this plaintive cry attached to it from the Lord of the Jews. The message that we preach is about a Son of God who died for the nation of Israel, and not only for the Jews, but also for the scattered people of God all over the earth. Paul and Barnabas and their assistant John Mark were on a divine errand that continues down to the present moment. God calls out to His beloved children for whom He died. He says, “Listen, My son.” And Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father says to all the scattered and estranged children of God, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

[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.

Salamis is on the far east of Cyprus and Paphos is on the western shore. These men traveled the whole island and they eventually came upon the key man who would assist them in their mission. He was not a friend, but an estranged son of God, a Jewish false prophet and magician who was highly placed in the confidence of the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus.

Many enemies of the gospel have inadvertently been powerfully used over the course of the centuries of proclaiming Christ to the world. They set up a contest that we may not have asked for. But we need to remember who is in charge of everyone, even in charge of a man like this magician. What men may mean for evil, God is working for good.

This magician, this Bar-Jesus, opposes Barnabas and Paul, seeking to turn away Sergius Paulus from the faith. Since we are told that Elymas was attempting to “turn away” the proconsul from the faith, that must mean that Sergius Paulus had already begun to respond positively to the message of the Jewish Messiah. He had sought to hear the Word of God. But there was the enemy right within the courts of power. There was a confidante to the proconsul, even a son of Israel. But He was not a friend of God. Yet God could use this encounter between two Jews, Paul and Elymas, as the best thing that happened during this mission to Cyprus.

[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?

The Lord was calling not only Jews to come to His Son on this island. He was speaking through His servants to Gentiles like Sergius Paulus. He cried out to this man, “Listen, my son!” Listen to the Word of the King and receive the message gladly. But that message became very confusing when a powerful adversary, a fellow Jew, tried to convince his powerful Gentile friend that these two itinerant preachers were not worthy of his ear. Yet this Sergius was an intelligent man, and he was able to see something in the contest between Paul and Elymas.

Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, confronted his adversary very directly and plainly. There comes a point when the message moves from the urgent plea of “Listen, my son,” to these frank words. “You son of the devil.” That may sound like too much to say, but it was true. The kind of magic that Elymas was practicing cut him off from the Jewish people according to the laws of the Jews. He was in league with spiritual powers that were deeply rebellious against the Lord of Hosts and against the message of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the King of Righteousness. Elymas was the enemy of all righteousness. No amount of Jewishness would make these two men brothers in common purpose. Which one was telling lies? Which one was the villain? Which one was making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? This contest was not only between Paul and Elymas. It was between Jesus and the devil. Paul is honest enough to say this by the power of the Spirit.

[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.

He did one thing more. He pronounced him temporarily blind. Interesting. That is what God did to Saul of Tarsus in a very different setting several years before. This is the last we hear of Elymas. The power of the words of Paul showed who was the one who was representing the true King of the Jews, Jesus.

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

The meaning of this power encounter was not lost on the Roman proconsul. The Jewish magician lost, and the Jewish proclaimer of resurrection life through Jesus the Messiah won. This event was an astounding display of the teaching of the Lord.

The teaching of Jesus as the powerful Lord of heaven and earth has faced opposition since the days when Judas joined forces with leaders of the Jews against the Man that they saw as a great troubler of Israel. They viewed themselves as the true sons of the kingdom, and they rejected the Son of God who came to save us.

Today is the day for the sons of God to hear the voice of their Messiah and live. God will not plead with us forever. Eventually there will be a firm and permanent divide between those that have rejected the merciful pleas of the Almighty, exposing themselves to be sons of the devil, and those who have come to see Jesus as their only hope. Those who rest in Christ will be owned by Him. They are more than His sheep and more than His servants. They are sons of God. They hear the voice of their Savior, and they follow Him. He gives them eternal life.

1. Why did Barnabas and Saul proclaim the Word in synagogues?

2. How are we to understand this contest between Saul and Elymas?

3. Why was the reaction of the proconsul to the events that had occurred?

4. What opposition does the teaching of the Lord face today? How are we to confront that opposition, if at all?

OT Passage: Proverbs 3