Paul and Barnabas Go to Cyprus

Acts 13:4-12

As we look back at verses 2 and 3, we see the Antioch Church fasting and praying and worshipping the Lord. It is in this condition that the Holy Spirit speaks to them and instructs them to ordain and send Saul and Barnabas out as missionaries. Notice the Spirit does not require them to form a committee, or a missions board, or to crunch the numbers to see if they can afford it. There is no mention of putting together a program, or taking a vote on whether the timing or location was right. Simply put, He spoke to the leaders of the church and told them to send out these two men, and they unhesitatingly obeyed.

This has always been one of the purposes and functions of the church. The Gospel and the Great Commission were never supposed to be held tight to the chest, but to be distributed and shared with the world!

I will not believe that you have tasted of the honey of the gospel if you can eat it all yourself. True grace puts an end to all spiritual monopoly. - Charles Spurgeon

In Matthew 5:14 Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

In ancient eastern customs, the place of worship to any deity (pagan or the true and living God) was set on a hill whenever it was possible. In many places in the Old Testament, we read about high places being erected with altars to pagan gods. Abraham took Isaac to the top of a mountain to worship God. Moses went to the top of a mountain to receive the commands of God. Solomon built the temple on the top of a hill (known still today as The Temple Mount in Jerusalem). The Samaritans worshipped God on Mt. Gerizim. Even our little church is located at the base of a hill, and all who pass by can see it.

But if all of our efforts and worship is hidden within these walls, we are not obeying the Great Commission to “go into all the world.” Even by expanding into our community, just outside these walls, we are not spreading into the world. Jesus commanded the apostles to go to “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.” For us, think of it this way: Conway, Faulkner County, Arkansas, and the uttermost parts of the world.

The church in Jerusalem did not heed Jesus’ commands. They certainly focused on Jerusalem, and we’ve read many accounts of thousands of people coming to Christ by faith, being baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, but they were not going out into the world with the Good News. Then persecution came and drove many of them out of the city into Samaria and Judea. Small incursions into the outskirts of the world were made, but so far most of what we see the church doing is reaching people within the borders of their own country, in cities like Samaria, Joppa, Caesarea, and others.

But Antioch understood the Lord’s command, and not only did they help support the church at Jerusalem (and likely other churches in other cities), they set the example by having a heart of missions for the world. As a Gentile city, this very diverse church saw the need for the Gospel to be taken to the pagans around the world. It was not enough to just minister to Antioch proper, but the world must receive the Good News. So they met and fasted and prayed for the Lord’s guidance. If we are to obey the Lord and follow in the example of the church in Antioch, we must be in the missionary-sending business, and I think the best way is to send missionaries that we know. Men without families, like Saul and Barnabas, whose sole mission and purpose in this life is to take the gospel to a lost and often hostile world. If we cannot send someone from our assembly, invite men who are called to that ministry and get to know them, invest in their lives and missions, so that when they go, they go with our personal knowledge, understanding, relationship, prayers, and money. This is the Antiochian way.

Verses 4-5

After Saul and Barnabas are ordained and sent out on their missionary journey, they head to the port city of Seleucia, and from there they head to Cyprus, an island to the west of mainland. In the eastern port city of Salamis, they preached the Word faithfully to the Jews in their own synagogues.

It was the custom in those days for the synagogue meeting to open with a reading of the scripture, and then the leader of the synagogue would invite any visiting teachers or scholars to come up and give a word, either on the text that was just read, or on a different text of their choosing. Saul was a rabbi who had studied under Gamaliel, and this would have enabled him to have a standing in just about every synagogue in the world at that time. Barnabas was a Levite, and so he would have been esteemed as well. And so they were invited to speak to the Jews in their own meeting houses, and they took the advantageous opportunities to tell them how Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah they had been waiting for.

The Gospel

They would have presented the gospel to a people who were already God-fearing, but had not yet accepted the Savior. They would likely have shared the words of Jesus when He said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” (John 14:1) and “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). Saul may have shared with them the same words he wrote in Romans 9:6 “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,” in order to show them that for them to inherit the blessings and promises of the Father, they must embrace the Son. He would have pointed out that no matter who their earthly father is, their heavenly Father would not accept them if they reject the Son. And the same is true for all people, in all ages, in all corners of the earth. You may have been born and raised in church, or you might have come from a Christian legacy, or perhaps you have lived a “good” life, but there is no such thing as good works, or being good enough to obtain eternal life. Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Verses 6-12

Yet, despite the passionate preaching of these two well-educated, anointed, Holy Spirit-sent missionaries, Scripture does not record any conversions at Salamis. So they set off on a westward approach until they reached the port city of Paphos, 110 miles away on the western coast of the isle.

Here they encounter two men: a Jewish sorcerer named Bar-jesus, and a Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus. It would seem that Bar-jesus was an advisor or perhaps at least an acquaintance of Sergius. When Sergius Paulus called for these two missionaries to come speak to him about the word of God, Bar-jesus sought to get in the way and turn them away from Sergius.

Jesus (more accurately, Yeshua) was not a particularly unique name in those days and that region, and so this sorcerer was the son of a man named Jesus, hence his name Bar (“son of”)-jesus (“Jehovah is salvation”). But because of his actions here, look at what Saul calls him in Acts 13:10

Acts 13:10 KJV 1900

And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

Elymas (Arabic = “wise magician”) was attempting to subvert the work of the Holy Spirit in Sergius Paulus. It was this type of hinderance that Jesus condemned in Matthew 18:6

Matthew 18:6 ESV

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

In that verse, Jesus is not talking about those who would physically hurt children, but in that context He is talking about those who would hinder the young in faith from coming to Christ, from loving Him like children and having a child-like faith. So Paul (as he is known from here on out), curses Elymas and fights for the soul of Sergius. He pronounces the same judgement of blindness for a season on him that the Lord did on Him on the day of his conversion. It is interesting that Paul does not curse him to die, but that he will suffer temporary blindness. It is because Paul hoped to cause Elymas to see the Truth through his physical blindness, and would result in him coming to the same saving faith and belief in Jesus as he did.

my experience in Port-au-Prince with a demon-possessed man (perhaps a sorcerer)

We do not know if Elymas was converted, but we do see that Sergius was, in verse 12.

With this event, it would seem that the missionary work in Cyprus was completed, because verse 13 tells us they departed from Paphos and went to Perga in Pamphylia, and so we will depart from the text today and return next week, Lord-willing, to continue to follow Paul on his first missionary journey.

Let us be mindful of our calling to send and be missionaries. Let us answer the call of the Holy Spirit: He may be calling some of us to repent, believe, and be baptized. Others may be called to go as missionaries, and still others may be called be the senders of missionaries. But let us all take heed to the calling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, so that with our lives we may bring Him glory, and honor, and obedience.