Combating Opposition-Part III

October 31, 1517 was a great day in the history of the modern church. It was the day that sprang the Protestant Reformation. Protestant obviously meaning to protest what the church had been doing and reformation because the intent of the young Augustinian monk was not to abolish the Catholic Church but to reform it back to what the Scriptures taught. Being a monk he had seen how corrupted the church had become and as he himself studied the Scripture and came to Romans 1:16-17, his eyes were opened to the truth that justification comes by faith alone, not through works. What put Marin Luther over the edge and drove him to hammer the 95 thesis on the doors at Wittenburg was in actuality a building project. There were plans to build a bisillica in Saint Petersburg but they were not getting the funds needed so they came up with a plan. They would go to all the churches and they would preach sermons on how their loved ones were in hell and tell them if they wanted their loved ones to be taken out of hell than all they had to do was buy an indulgence for them and then this would be added to their grace account and essentially buy them out of purgatory.

Well Martin Luther heard this and once he did he was angry at what the church was doing and he wanted to see this changed. He wanted the church to go back to the to Christ alone, by Faith alone, through grace alone, In Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone. The problem was he faced a heavy opposition. These people had power and influence and they didn’t want to let it go. Martin Luther never backed down and as he went others would follow, it wasn’t easy and many of them died for the cause of Christ as heretics but they are God’s servants who brought us back to Christ by Combating Opposition.

Why is Jesus so polarizing?

Jesus told His disciples, I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Jesus Christ is very polarizing He can move some to realize how much they need Him, and need forgiveness and he can move others to anger and hostility. There is no middle ground when it comes to Jesus Christ. He has said that himself. Bringing the gospel to the people means we are going out to war, it means we will face hostility and we need to know how to handle hostility. We have been looking at five components to combating opposition. We have already looked at four of the five. The first four are actually offensive tools or components. The last one we will look at will be defensive.

Let's go ahead and look at Acts 13:1-12 and as we read through it I will stop along the way and just remind you of our first four components as we conclude our look at Five components of Combating Opposition.

Five Components to Combating Opposition

Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were ministering to 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 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hand on them, they sent them away.

Here is were we found our first component, Prayer.

Prayer

Prayer should be our first component in anything we do, it should come naturally to us and I believe prayer is one of the weakest disciplines in the Christian life and it is the weakest discipline in going out to share the gospel. Prayer is a reliance on God and a focusing our entire being on who He is and what He wants not only in our lives but also for the world. It is a the beginning of letting all things go in this world and embracing the will of God, it is a seeking the eternal and letting go of the temporal. Through prayer you align yourself with the will of God and so this would lead to the next component which is Willingness.

Willingness

We see this in verses 4 through the first half of 6. "So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John as their helper. 6 When they had gone through the whole island and far as Paphos;" So we see in these verses their willing to go as God commanded them. The Holy Spirit told them to set apart Barnabas and Saul and so they did. We see in verse 4 they were sent out by the Holy Spirit, so they followed where the Spirit lead without putting up a fight. They didn't just answer a call but they were willing and they knew this would not be an easy trip and they also knew they would face opposition. These first two components are followed up by Humility.

Humility

Humility when it comes to giving the gospel and receiving the gospel are important. We find that the proconsul, that is the governor of the island, is a man who is seeking knowledge. This is why he has Bar-Jesus on his cabinet, just so he can soak up his knowledge. Since he desires so much to have knowledge he hears of Barnabas and Saul in the area and we found that Sergius Paulus being a man of intelligence doesn't necessarily mean he is humble, but he will be humbled by the message Barnabas and Saul are about to give. Those giving the message are also humble. This is not about them it is about the gospel, they are putting themselves last for the cause of Christ. The good news of being saved from our sin and being plucked out of hell is more important then our personal comforts and being liked. When we understand it is not all about us and that it is all about Jesus Christ is when we truly learn to put ourselves last and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and that is exactly what happens with Saul. His prayerful willing humility is prime for the control of the Holy Spirit. He is Spirit-filled.

Spirit-filled

Look at verse 9, "But Saul, who was also know as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him," Now when it comes to living for Christ and when it comes to giving the gospel and even when it comes to receiving the gospel it is all the work of the Holy Spirit. In fact this is the third time we have seen the Holy Spirit work in the passage. The first time was in verse 2, when He said, 'Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' Then in verse 4, "So, being set out by the Holy Spirit," and now in this verse the Holy Spirit takes control of Saul who is also called Paul. The filling as we said last week simply means to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Paul was so under the control of the Holy Spirit that it is as though the words that come out of his mouth in verse 10 are not his own. When it says here that he fixed his gaze on him, gives the impression, the Holy Spirit was seeing through Paul's eyes and looking right at Elymas. I picture this as one of the most intense stares ever. To the point that it was piercing, burning right through Elymas. It is like the purity of God looking through the eyes of Paul and seeing fixing Himself on the evil and sin within Elymas. This was one seriously intense gaze. How many of you had a parent, mother or father, who when they looked at you with that gaze, knew you were in deep trouble. Well multiply that by 100 and you still don't have the intensity that comes from a man who is under the control of the Holy Spirit who is staring down at a heretic who wants to turn someone away from the truth. This guy Elymas had no idea who he was dealing with, and I don't mean Paul.

It is comforting for me anyway to know that when it comes to giving the gospel in a dark and cruel world like we live in and knowing that I will face opposition out there. Now this opposition is not just people who won't listen but people who will work hard at trying to convince the person you are witnessing to doesn't listen to the truth. See it's one thing when you are giving the gospel to someone and they argue with you and come up with all the reason why they don't want to listen to the truth. Those people are just hard hearted, they are proud and until they become like a child and trust without seeing there is nothing you can do. This isn't the opposition Paul encounters, his opposition is not from the one who wants to hear but the one who is threatened is someone else. It has become The Holy Spirit verse satan's minion. This is the opposition, this is what we need to prepare for. This is why prayer, willingness, humility are important, because we need to be able at all times to yield to the Holy Spirit to fight our battles for us. That is what happens here. The Holy Spirit takes control, and the Holy Spirit does something to this advisory that stops him in his tracks. He denounces him.

Denounce

Now before I read the next verse I do want to preface one thing, Paul doesn't just mouth off to this guy, he doesn't just start calling him names and beating him down verbally. No, what he does here is he calls out the man's sin. Verse 10 reads, 'and said, "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?" Here is the Holy Spirit denouncing this man's wickedness, his evil intent. This man is so consumed with power and so stuck in his own pride that he tries to sway the Proconsul from the truth. He is living in spiritual darkness and he wants the proconsul to live in spiritual darkness with him. This is a matter of the heart here. 'You who are full of all deceit and fraud."

Should you listen to your heart?

This is the true source of man's desires and beliefs, it is the heart. This is what motivates us. The source of our motivation in life is the heart. Now I know what you're thinking, Mike didn't you tell us not to trust our hearts because they are desperately wicked, yes and if we trust our hearts we end up like this guy here. That is why we need to be careful of what motivates us.

Solomon writes this in his letter, Ecclesiastes;

Ecclesiastes 9:3 NASB95

3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.

"This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead." Mankind is full of evil and insanity in their hearts. No matter what we think of ourselves our hearts are desperately wicked. We only know one thing, selfishness, chase after what you enjoy and what makes you happy, on this earth. Problem is we all have one fate in this world and that is to die. So the question comes do you want to die with a motive of serving yourself or the motive of serving a Holy, Righteous and Just God.

Jesus taught His disciples a very valuable lesson on the heart and how the heart can motivate us.

I want us to get the context of what is going on so I would like to start in Matthew 15:1

Matthew 15:1–20 NASB95

1 Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” 3 And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 “For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” 6 he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. 9 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ ” 10 After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, “Hear and understand. 11 “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” 12 Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?” 13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. 14 “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” 15 Peter said to Him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 Jesus said, “Are you still lacking in understanding also? 17 “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? 18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20 “These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”

"Then some Pharisees and scribes," the religious leaders of the day who knew the Law of Moses and knew their traditions. "Came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 "Why do Your disciples break the traditions of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." Notice what they are calling Jesus out on, not the breaking of God's commandments or God's Statutes or Testimony, but the traditions of the Elders. They are not angry about dishonoring God but about dishonoring tradition. Well Jesus hears what they have to say but He responds by pointing them to their own hypocrisy and He does so by using the Word of God.

Verse 3 "And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" He hits them right at the heart of the matter, telling them to look at what motivates them, are you motivated by man's rules or God's Law. He continues 4, "For God said, Honor your father and mother,' and 'He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.' This is God's law, His command. These are quotes from Exodus and Deuteronomy, God has actually said this. Do you know what it means to honor your father and mother? This doesn't just mean you listen to them and be nice to them. It also means when the time comes you take care of them. They didn't have social security back then, or retirement. They also didn't have nice cozy nursing homes where you could place them. When dear old mom and dad aged well passed the point of being able to make a living for themselves, it was up to the kids to take up the reigns and to provide for their parents in their old dependent years in the same way their parents provided for them in their younger dependent years.

Well the Israelites didn't want to do this so what do they do, come up with a tradition to circumvent God's commandment. Look at verse 5, "But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God," 6 he is not to honor his father or his mother. 'And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.'" This is what they would do and this is terrible. They will not take care of their own family which God has commanded them and they will give the money as an offering so they can get out of taking care of their parents. Jesus makes it clear they are not only circumventing the command of God but they are completely canceling it out all together for their own man made rules.

Jesus continues in verse 7, "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophecy of you: 8 This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me, 9 But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." These are strong words Jesus uses against these men. He denounces them by calling them hypocrites which means they are only putting on an act, He uses the Scripture to point out that what they are doing was useless and empty. They say one thing but they, in their hearts, in the core of their being, were far from God. They might be able to put on the impression of righteousness but there is no righteousness in them. They claim to be the foremost authority on God's commands but then they devalue His commands by elevating their own and saying it is from God.

Jesus continues, 10 After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, 'Hear and understand. 11 It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man." Jesus will explain this in verses 18-20 so I will just continue. Then the disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?' That's a silly question, of course they did and don't think that wasn't Jesus point. 13 But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.' Ouch, what does that say about what has happened with the system and the religious leaders. Listen Israel is God's chosen nation and God has not cut them off but the system they were following was steering away from what God had intended. This is not what God had planted and the same goes for people in general if God has not planted them then they will be uprooted. 14 "Let them alone, they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

So here comes the explanation of Jesus' words in verse 11, 15 Peter said to Him, Explain the parable to us.' 16 Jesus said, 'Are you still lacking in understanding also? 17 Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? 18 But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19 For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20 These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man." Do you see what these religious leaders have done. They have imposed on the people a outward appearance, a superficial presentation of what it looks like to be holy. All the while they are ignoring what God has asked for, He has not asked for the appearance of holiness, he has asked for our hearts, the entirety of our inner being to be cleansed so that what comes out is holiness. The religious leaders were doing this backwards and thinking this pleased God, but it didn't please God at all. God wants our hearts because our hearts are what is far from Him and our hearts, this is the mind, the will and the emotion, should all be directed toward God and motivated by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God which points to Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. What is your motivation? Is it feelings, is it trends, is it man’s opinion or is it the Word of God? As for me and my house I pray it is always the Word of God.

When it come to combating opposition we need to denounce the person trying to sway away the one who is open to listening to the gospel. This is a principle here this is not necessarily what you want to say although it may be just what this person needs to here. What the Holy Spirit is doing with Elymas is pointing out he has a heart problem, it is a sin issue. This sin issue is what is motivating Elymas, the motivation being deception and lies, simply put his works are evil.

What motivates you and why?

Then Paul under the control of the Holy Spirit associates this man with the devil. You might not have picked up on this but there is a word play going on here. The man's Hebrew name is Bar-Jesus, the word Bar is Hebrew for Son. They didn't have last names like we do today. That is why we have Saul of Tarsus, or Jesus the Nazarene, or even at times the Son of the carpenter. So this guys name was literally Son of Jesus. Jesus was a popular name in this time and it means, the Lord Saves. Now Paul flips this he calls the man, 'you son of the devil.' He is no Son of Jesus but a son of the devil, of the deceiver. He is no friend to Jesus or a part of the family of Christ in any way but is an enemy of all righteousness. Only One is righteous and that One is Jesus Christ. Paul not only tells him he is motivated by evil but he even adds he is an enemy of all righteousness. There is nothing good in him. And he throws at him one more detail that is hard not to notice, "will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?" This guys evil is so deep and and he is so motivated by his evil that he is doing the work of his father Satan, and just as Satan is an enemy of God so is this guy and all this guy does is twist the truth of the Lord, just like Satan does. That is what Satan did in the garden of Eden, twisted God's truth to trick Adam and Eve into not following God's commandment. He tried to do the same to Jesus in the wilderness but at that time he failed. It is incredible where the first Adam failed the last Adam, Jesus Christ, passed the test. Satan is a deceiver and a twister of the truth motivated only by pride and evil intent.

Look at what Jesus says to the religious leaders of his day.

John 8:42–47 NASB95

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. 43 “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”

These people will not listen to Jesus, who comes proclaiming truth, he comes proclaiming righteousness because He is righteous but this guy is not looking for righteousness he is looking for power, he is achieving this through lies and deception and it is all for the sake of the one whom he serves, satan. When the motive of someones heart is that deeply depraved you can't speak to it. This person needs to be shown their guilt and their shame. There are times you need to be this blunt. Now this is not a witnessing tactic, this is not saying go up to people and start calling the devil. Remember this guy Paul is calling the son of the devil is a guy who is trying to sway away the one who is receiving the gospel. That guy needs to be shut down. He is the enemy of Jesus, he is the enemy of all righteousness and he is the enemy of the gospel. Bring to the surface the persons guilt and point out that you know what he is doing and who he serves.

This denouncement was followed up by a physical manifestation of this man's true nature. Look at verse 11, "Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time." And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand." This man was blinded, it was temporary but it brought out the truth of the man's own condition. The man was in spiritual darkness. He didn't say the light of the truth of God's Holiness and he didn't want to. So the Holy Spirit through Paul placed on Elymas a punishment fit for the crime, blindness. I love how the passage says he went about seeking someone who could lead him by the hand. It reminds me of what Jesus said, the blind lead the blind and fall into a pit. The one who would lead Elymas by the hand is one who is spiritually blind as he is. He is not begging for forgiveness at this punishment instead he is looking for pity. It is not pity that saves us but our brokenness for our sin is what brings us to our knees, God doesn't require or want pity, He wants a broken and contrite heart. That is what he wants. That is what should motivate us, our worthlessness before His worthiness.

What does God want from us?

The opposition to the gospel was now out of the way. Paul and Barnabas were free to preach to Sergius Paulus the whole council of God and look at verse 12, "Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord." This manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power was incredible, something Sergius Paulus had never seen but I love what it was that amazed him, the teaching of the Lord. Elymas going blind is not what transformed Sergius Paulus, he was transformed by the power of the gospel because the power of God's word is what transforms the heart from being motivated by wickedness to being motivated by holiness. Sergius Paulus was looking for knowledge but what he found was far superior to knowledge alone, he found himself coming into the presence of the God of the Universe and the transforming power that comes with realizing God wanted his entire being, heart, soul strength and mind.

This is what God wants of us to. He has called us by his holy calling, opened our eyes to his truth, it wasn’t parlor tricks that amazed me but God's word, the reality that God would give up his place in heaven to come to the earth He created to die for a people who rejected Him and put Him on a cross all to give the offer of forgiveness so that I can be with Him for all eternity. That is amazing grace. Now that we have been called by His holy calling, He has asked two things of us, "be holy as I am holy," and to "go out and make disciples." It is a war zone out there and there is an enemy to God's righteousness but know that we have the weapons to defeat him, Prayer, willingness, humility, The Holy Spirit, and the ability to Denounce his evil work. So don't fear the enemy there is nothing he can do to you, you belong to God not Satan and if the enemy kills you in battle, oh well, to live is Christ to die is gain."

Do you have all the components necessary to combat opposition?

Does having these components help alleviate your fear? Why or why not?

If you don’t have these components, why not, and what can be done about this?