Standing Strong - Acts 13

March 26th 2023

Series: The Book of Acts

Sermon Title: Standing Strong - Acts 13

Topic: Journey through the book of Acts.

Key Passages: Acts 13

Sermon Blurb: In this message, we will see Saul & Barnabas go on another mission trip. We will see how at every turn, the devil tries to stop the movement of God but fails. We will also see how Saul and Barnabas reach people for Jesus and how we can follow that model today.

Sermon:

Hello Family Church!!!!!

Family Moment

Welcome back to our study through the book of Acts!

Grab your Bible and open it up to Acts 13 again today.

We are going to touch briefly on what we talked about last week and then walk through the rest of this chapter today.

As you are getting there….

Let me catch up any guests we have today.

The book of Acts is all about the church that was launched by Jesus shortly after his resurrection and return to heaven.

We have seen the church growing like crazy!

We have seen the culture the church was born in trying to destroy it, and we will see more of that today and next week as well.

We have seen the other religious organizations around it trying to destroy it, we will see that again this week and next as well.

But God is God….and God’s church will never be stopped.

PAUSE

So, let’s re-read the start of this chapter and then get into the new part.

Acts 13: 1-52 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.

2 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.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

So again, as we talked about last week….

The early church was worshipping God.

Fasting….

Praying….

Listening to the Holy Spirit!

And sending people out on missions to reach people for Jesus.

PAUSE

And today we are going to see where Saul and Barnabas take off on their missions trip and what they do.

So let’s keep reading….

4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.

Pause there for a second and let’s look at a map.

Because it is important, we NEVER forget that we are talking about REAL human history here.

Here is a map of this part of the world.

The water you see if the Mediterranean Sea.

The bottom of this map would be Egypt.

The right side is Modern day Syria & Israel.

The north side is Asia

So look at verse 4…..

They went do to Sell-ohhh-shaa which you see the starting point on the map to the top right….

They sailed down to the Island of Cyprus, again verse 4.

They land in the port of Sa-lam-ee’s.

And the missions trip begins!

And it begins with….look at verse 5…

Sharing the good news of Jesus in that port city….

They went right to the Jewish people and told them that the savior they were looking for had come and he was Jesus!!!!

PAUSE

Now one last thing to note…. John was with them.

That is important to star in your Bible and we will come back to that later….

PAUSE

So, verse 6 says the travel through the WHOLE island, sharing about Jesus, until they get to Paphos (Paaa-Fos).

Paphos another port city.

Same island…just the other side of it.

And to help with keeping things in perspective….

This was not a quick trip.

Cyprus is 3,572 square miles and over 150 miles from one end to the other.

So to travel through the WHOLE island would take a while.

Let’s read this next section….starting at verse 6

6 They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, 7 who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus.

The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.

9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, 10 “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?

11 Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.”

Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

Let’s stop reading there and unpack this….

Sergius Paulus is the governor of the Island.

And he must have heard good things about Saul and Barnabas because he asks them to come to share the Word of God with him.

This is amazing if you think about it.

The ruler of all Cyprus hears about these missionaries….

These missionaries who are absolute nobodies!

They have no human authority.

They have no political authority.

They have no church authority!

They are unknowns.

PAUSE

But they are called by God.

Sent by God!

And God, against all odds, has gotten them a hearing on their first mission with the governor of the whole island of Cyprus!!!!!

It's like what we saw in Acts 10 with Cornelius all over again!!!!

A pagan, a person who does NOT believe in God AT ALL!

For some ODD reason….. wants to hear the Word of God.

And God, through worship and fasting in the local church, tells the church to send these nobodies from Antioch to make this connection.

PAUSE

Do you see why this series is called unstoppable?

The movement of God cannot be stopped!

God will move in ways none of us can imagine!

PAUSE

But church also do NOT miss something else.

Just because God is moving.

Just because God is opening doors in your life.

It does NOT mean you will NOT face opposition!

PAUSE

Look at verse 6….

BEFORE anything good happens…..

Opposition named Bar-Jesus meets them HEAD-ON!

Before they even get a word in with the Governor OPPOSITION steps in!

A magician, or spiritist, or witch doctor, or shaman gets in the way.

A person aligned with the Devil tries to stop things before they ever get going.

Here is another anti-God force in the world…..

Like Herod from Chapter 12 of Acts.

With an explicit aim is to turn away the proconsul from the faith….

PAUSE

Have you ever had that happen in your life?

Maybe you were trying to grow in your faith but then your friends started to rip on you for it.

Maybe you were trying to prioritize going to church…and then your spouse said I am done with church…

Maybe you were trying to read your Bible more and your dog eats your Bible!

Maybe you were trying to live out your faith at work…and your boss threatens to fire you if you don’t stop….

Church……

Just like the devil tries to stop the early church.

The devil will try to stop you as well…..

PAUSE

In verse 10 it becomes even clearer what Elymas is doing. Paul says to him,

"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?"

Making crooked the straight paths of the Lord.

PAUSE

Here is the point…write this down…

God is sending his church like he sent his Son to seek and save the lost!

Repeat

And just like the Devil could NOT stop Jesus!

The devil…and the people he works through….cannot stop Jesus now!

Do you realize that you are UNSTOPPABLE when you are doing what Jesus has called you to do!!!!

PAUSE

Because Saul and Barnabas did NOT back down when they were challenged….

Because they choose to let God move through them.

They lead the Governor to faith in Jesus!

Pretty cool!

PAUSE

Let’s keep reading….

Verse 13….

13 From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. 14 From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch.

Let’s put that map back up one more time…

Here again, you can see where they traveled….

And you can leave that map up and people can connect the dots as I unpack one other thing here.

It is very easy to pass over things in the Bible.

Remember I said start verse 5 and John being there to help.

Well, look at verse 13 again….

He leaves them here and goes back to Jerusalem.

Now that is easy to read and think nothing about it.

But let me show you something….

Flip for a second to Acts 15…

Acts 15: 36-40 Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”

They want to go back to visit the people are talking about today!

37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.

Do you see that?

Ties to what we just read…

John Mark deserted them.

He ditched them and went back to Jerusalem.

Now….we do not know why he left them.

The Bible does not say that.

If you have a study Bible and look at the notes in the bottom of them it says….

He could have been home sick….

Like my brother at camp as a kid crying all the time…..

He could have been tired and wanted to go rest.

He could be like all the kids going into the workforce today…

He could have been afraid of all the opposition and didn’t want to get hurt.

He could have not liked how Saul led.

He could have not liked how they were reaching out to Gentiles….

We don’t know why John Mark left….but he did….

And SAUL did NOT like it…..

39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.

John Mark doing what he did in Acts 13 caused Saul and Barnabas to split company later…..

And after that you will NOT see them doing ministry together again in the book of Acts…..

BUT let me say this….

I won’t steal all the thunder of Acts 15…but when we preach on that you will see…there is a happy ending much later…..

PAUSE

But here is the point….

Ministry partners had disagreements in the Bible and so we can expect that today as well.

Repeat

Easy example.

The pandemic!

I had people get SO mad at me for the choices I made.

We had people leave the church.

We had people say terrible things about me.

Just like we see here in the Bible….

We had disagreements and some people left…

But like Saul….and I will say John Mark….

We need to follow how God is leading us…and be ok with going in different directions….

The Bible does NOT say Saul was right and John Mark was wrong…

Church can I beg you…..

Please be people that allow others to have different opinions from you.

I am confident when we get to haven one day a LOT of us are going to realize some of the things we thought we were right on…that we were NOT!

I am confident that when we get to heaven on day some of the things we thought were a BIG DEAL…we will find out they were NOT!

So please….church…..let’s continue to choose NOT to fight about things we do NOT need to!

I think a BIG part of what makes us such a JOYFUL church is how we choose NOT to fight over things we do NOT need to!

And instead we choose joy….

Thank you church for being a people that do that!

I love you guys so much!

PAUSE

Let’s go back to Acts 13 and finish reading it….

And I love this part of Acts 13 because you are going to see them do what we do EVERY service here at Family Church!

Who wants to see that?

Acts 13 verse 14

On the Sabbath they entered the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have a word of exhortation for the people, please speak.”

Stop there…..

Verse 15…..

After reading from the Old Testament….

The first ½ of our Bible…..

They then said here is how it applies to our lives!

Do you see it?????

What we do EVERY service!

We come to church.

We sit down…verse 14….

We directly read from the Bible….verse 15…..

And we say….how does this apply to us….verse 15!

PAUSE

I say this all the time….

Our model as a church is not rocket science…

We as a church simply are trying to be a group of people who do what the early church did again…

Super simple in theory…..

But hard in reality….

PAUSE

Let’s keep reading…..verse 16…..

16 Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said: “Fellow Israelites and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me! 17 The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt; with mighty power he led them out of that country;

18 for about forty years he endured their conduct in the wilderness; 19 and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan, giving their land to his people as their inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years.

“After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.

22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’

Stop there for a second….

What are they doing?

They are just stating things everyone knows and can agree on BEFORE they get to the contentious stuff.

Just like you see me correlate what we are reading in the Bible to your lives today….

So, we can all relate to it…

BEFORE I challenge you….

Verse 23 starts the challenging their mindsets….

23 “From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel.

25 As John was completing his work, he said: ‘Who do you suppose I am? I am not the one you are looking for. But there is one coming after me whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’

26 “Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. 27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath.

28 Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb.

30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.

32 “We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: “‘You are my son; today I have become your father.’

34 God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God has said, “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’

35 So it is also stated elsewhere: “‘You will not let your holy one see decay.’

36 “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. 37 But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

38 “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.

40 Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:

41 “‘Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.’”

Stop there…

So they shared with the people the Good News of Jesus…

The start with things everyone can agree on…

Then share why they think they needed Jesus…

PAUSE

All of you can do the same thing….

Verse 42….

42 As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. 43 When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

So they are invited to come back and share more at the next service!

Pretty cool!

Verse 44….

44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

Stop there…..

Pretty awesome right!

Everyone comes to hear more about God!

BUT…..

Do you remember where we started today?????

Just because God is moving.

Just because God is opening doors in your life.

It does NOT mean you will NOT face opposition!

And look at what happens next…. OPPOSITION!

Verse 45….

45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him.

46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.

47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. 49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.

50 But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.

51 So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

What an awesome chapter of the Bible!

So much we can learn and take away….

But church…look at verse 49 again….

Acts 13:49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.

Here we are almost ½ way through the book of Acts and we are seeing so many people trying to stop God and it is NOT working!

We are a part of an UNSTOPPABLE movement!

And when you and I choose to embrace that reality…..

LOOK OUT!!!!

God is going to do BIG things through you and me!!!!!

PAUSE

Let me give you your life application today…..

And for those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church.

We love to end our messages with an application point to your life.

Something that you can take away from the message and apply to your life this week.

This week’s life application says this……

Life Application: When I try to grow closer to God, the devil will try to stop it. Commit NOW that you will stand strong when you come under attack. As a result of today’s message, I will ____________________________ .

Let me encourage you to write down one simple thing you WILL do as a result of what you learned this week….

And watch what God does!!!!

Let’s Pray…..

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