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Guest (Male): What makes a good sermon? Well, I think you'd agree there needs to be teaching from the Bible, and it would be a good idea to include the gospel message too. Paul's first recorded sermon features just that. It's a survey of the Old and New Testaments up until that point in time, and he also emphasized the gospel. Study the word with us as we look together at this powerful sermon.

Get ready to study the word with Pastor Thom Keller. We're about to continue our series in the book of Acts. As we get back into chapter 13 today, we're following Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. You might think of it as a journal of their fascinating trip.

God may or may not call you to leave your home and go to a foreign land, but whether you're in Africa, Lebanon, or New York, you're to be involved in the ministry. And like these saints of old found to be true, we can expect some opposition as we minister. But how do we deal with it? Here's Pastor Thom to show us in Acts 13 on Study the Word.

Pastor Thom Keller: Well, let's go on. Verse six. Afterwards, they preached from town to town across the entire island until they finally reached Paphos, where they met a Jewish sorcerer, a magician, a false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He'd attached himself to the governor, Sergius Paulus, a man of considerable insight and understanding.

The governor invited Barnabas and Saul to visit him, for he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas, the sorcerer, as his name means in Greek, interfered and urged the governor to pay no attention to what Saul and Barnabas said. He was trying to turn the governor away from the Christian faith.

Now note first of all that this province had a governor. And in the Roman Kingdom, provinces fell under two different categories. The first category required troops because it was an area that was maybe prone to hostility or overthrowing or sedition. They would put troops in that area. That would be a military province. It would be ruled by the military.

In areas where that wasn't a problem and military was not needed, they instead would appoint a proconsul or governor. It was ruled by the Senate, not by the military. And so Cyprus, we learn, had a governor, which means it's not a military center. There probably weren't many Roman soldiers in this island.

And of him, it says that he had an advisor named Elymas. One of the commentators made an interesting point. They said that Bar-Jesus means son of Jesus. That's what "bar" is, son of. Bar-Jesus. So they said that Luke wrote this whole book in Greek, and for him to take this word and pull it out of Greek and put it back in Arabic, which is really where it comes from, the word really means "the skillful one."

But they said that probably Luke just couldn't bear to write with his pen "son of Jesus" for this man. And so he took his Arabic name, "the skillful one," and used that instead. Now, so this magician, this warlock, is an advisor to this governor, this governor who's been appointed by the Roman Senate.

Most men in power in those days had private wizards in their employ who were skilled in the art of magic and casting spells. Do you think that's so odd today? You know a lot of our presidents have had people that they consulted with for this very same thing. I know there's a car company I will not mention who has actually used these people to pick names for their automobiles. And that's a fact.

So it goes on today, people trying to tap into that dark side for power. But the message that Paul preaches poses a real problem to this Elymas. Paul comes in and he starts preaching Jesus, and this governor is interested. And this Elymas, this warlock, starts to see that this is going to pose a problem. It's going to mess with his paycheck, it's going to mess with his power, it's going to mess with his standing, and he tries to do away with it.

Your coming to Christ will almost always represent a threat to someone. If you're a Muslim, obviously, a Hindu, orthodox Jewish, obviously, they have a funeral for you if you convert. But even a husband and a wife. And you know, they say that when a woman becomes a Christian and the husband watches this from the sidelines uninvolved, he starts thinking, "Now she's going to judge me for things that we used to do together and were fine doing together."

"But now she's going to start judging me. The things that we used to do, we're not going to be able to do together. She's going to want to go to church, and I really don't have an interest in that. What if our kids want to go to Vacation Bible School and they start coming home and looking at the things that I do? They're going to start judging me. What if they want to start going to church every Sunday? My word, that's my only day off."

Many times there is a price to pay for following Christ, but God will always work it out for your good. All things work together for good to those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. He will always work it out for your good.

Verse nine. Then Paul, Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked the sorcerer in the eye and said, "You son of the devil, full of every sort of trickery and villainy, enemy of all that is good, will you never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord? And now the Lord has laid His hand of punishment upon you, and you will be stricken a while with blindness."

Instantly mist and darkness fell upon him, and he began wandering around begging for someone to take his hand and lead him. What do you think this said to the governor? What do you think this said to all the people who knew this man and his dark power, to see Paul speak these words and he go blind, crawling around begging for someone to help him? When the governor saw what had happened, he believed and was astonished at what he had learned about the Lord.

It says in that beginning section Saul, who is called Paul, this is where we get the name flip now. He was called Saul; he's now called Paul for most of the remainder of the book of Acts. Saul was born a Roman citizen. That had tremendous respect and power and brought a lot of advantages to him. But that was his Roman name. Paul is the Greek name.

So the way to kind of look at it is his father would have called him Saul. When he went out and played with his friends, they would have called him Paul because that was his Greek name. It'd be like you growing up in an Italian family and your father calling you your name in Italian, and yet all your friends calling you by your English name. It's really the same thing. That's why the Paul-Saul flip back and forth.

Paul looks this man in the eyes. Can you see that? Paul gets tired of this guy. He just gets weary of it and he just looks him straight in the eyes. Can you picture that scene? Because you know this warlock does not like Paul, and you know Paul does not like him. And my guess is he had beady eyes, beady dark eyes, like many times accompany that darkness. And Paul just staring into them.

And he says, "You son of the devil." You son of the devil. Forget how to win friends and influence people, right? He's not working real hard at this guy, but he's tired of him. And instantly blindness hits him. He begins begging. Morgan, the commentator, said this: "The severest words of the Bible, Old and New, are reserved for those who stand between men and truth, for those who stand between men and God."

The severest words in the Bible are reserved for those who stand between men and truth, for those who stand between men and God. And this man was trying to stand between truth. This is, by the way, Paul's first miracle, first recorded miracle. Does it sound familiar? Right? That's what happened to him, isn't it? He was struck with blindness. I guess you go with what you know.

But it's the same as his first power encounter with God with a very different result. And it says the governor saw and believed and he was astonished. I'd like to read a story. This is too good to miss because it fits into this right here. It's in Uganda. In December 1983, a young Ugandan evangelist named Robert Kanya was invited to hold an evangelistic crusade in the spiritually oppressed town of Soroti.

The ministry team, in an effort to break the spiritual bondage over the area, committed to fast during each day of the crusade and eat only one meal in the evening. Nearly a thousand people showed up for the first meeting held in an open field surrounded by mango trees, but local leaders had hoped for more. Unfortunately, a prominent witch doctor, Mohammed, had threatened to disrupt the sessions by releasing a box full of deadly snakes into the crowd.

Mohammed's real trade, despite his Muslim name, was selling magic charms and practicing witchcraft. Again, this man is going to be threatened by this message of Christ. For years he had kept the people of Soroti under his spell. Although there were several Christian churches in the area, it was rare for anyone to show any interest in joining them.

Robert, the evangelist, knew nothing of Mohammed's trade or threats, and he admonished the people boldly to dispense with their reliance on witchcraft and turn in faith to the living God. As the conviction of the Holy Spirit fell, people who had been hesitantly fingering their charms discarded them as though they were hot coals. The power of God swept across the crowd, dissolving tumors, opening blind eyes, and restoring withered limbs.

At least six crippled people walked out of the meeting under their own power. The news then spread like wildfire, recounts Robert in his own words. When I got up to preach the second day, Mohammed was furious. He brought out his box full of snakes to the meeting and threw challenges openly. The crowd by now had grown twice as large and people were streaming in on bicycles, running and carrying their babies.

With everyone looking on, Mohammed stood up in front of me and screamed, "Get out of this town. If you bother my potions which I have sold to people, I will kill you." Instead of heeding his warning, however, we carried on with our ministry. Another 111 people were saved that day, and the witchcraft charms continued to pile up. Mohammed walked into the crowd and pulled the lid off his magic box.

Looking at me, he said, "Now we will see who has the real power." With that, Mohammed and his two attendants pulled out a long green snake and sent it under the platform. As it came slithering up, the people in the audience were leaping out of the way. Trying to ignore the whole affair, I was about to make a point when my interpreter suddenly jumped off the platform.

Gesturing frantically, he yelled, "Look behind you." Turning around, I saw the snake coiling up as if to say, "This is my turf now." It was clear that the creature had been sent to attack us. Well, the people went wild. I've never heard such screaming in my life. People who were selling food in the nearby markets ran over to see what was happening. Attracted by the commotion, uniformed school children returning home from school also scurried over, as did the patrons of several local bars.

Altogether about 6,000 people now gathered in the field. Looking at the green snake next to me, I commanded, "You devil, go from here." Immediately the serpent uncoiled, left the platform, and returned to its box on the ground. Although Mohammed tried to coax it out again, the snake refused to obey. In exasperation, he pulled out a large cobra and yelled, "Attack." Seconds later, it came flying over the heads of the people and landed on the platform. Flaring its hood, it prepared to strike.

The crowd was now divided into two groups: those on our side and those with the witch doctor. The air was filled with the sounds of an African war chant, "Hey-ya, hey-ya, hey-ya." We were in the middle of a classic power encounter. Even though my knees were shaking, I said to the pastors, "This thing is not a snake as you think, it's a spirit." With that, one of our intercessors, a gray-haired 70-year-old lady, began to sing, "There's Power in the Blood."

Soon we all joined in. As we sang, the Holy Spirit fell upon me. I suddenly felt strong enough to kill a lion. I heard the Lord say to me, "Go to the snake." Pointing my finger at the swaying serpent, I rebuked it in the name of Jesus. Spiritually defanged, it uncoiled and became as straight as a rod. Then I heard the Holy Spirit say, "Pick it up by the tail." So I grabbed the snake and I began to use it to walk with.

The scene was unbelievable. Trying to see what was happening on the platform, people were pushing and stepping on one another. The heathen were chanting while the Christians continued to sing "There's Power in the Blood." After about 10 minutes, I suddenly felt a fresh surge of the Holy Spirit's power. When I looked down, the snake was dead. When the astonished witch doctor saw this, he exclaimed, "You killed my snake."

Pointing my finger at him, I said, "You're next. You're going to die like your snake if you don't give your life to Jesus." Suddenly Mohammed fell to the ground and began to writhe like an agitated serpent. After we had cast the demons out of this man, a process that took about 45 minutes, I asked the leaders to bring him under the platform. He was so weak he couldn't even stand. I asked him publicly, "Do you want to believe in Jesus?"

When he said yes, I led him in the sinner's prayer, then instructed the people to place his snakes and charms on the witchcraft heap for burning. At this, Mohammed vomited, coughing up everything. The people were amazed. Many had tears running down their faces. I said, looking out to the crowd, "If you repent of your sins, then God will visit you." Thousands responded and were saved that day, including about 30 Muslims.

It was the beginning of a great spiritual awakening in the city of Soroti. When we finally burned the witchcraft items, skin rashes that had plagued many of the pastors suddenly cleared up. Mohammed himself was completely transformed. After preaching mightily in Zanzibar, he has since moved to Madagascar, where he now pastors a church of about 800 members. Praise God. So when you read these things and think that these things still happen today, they still happen today.

Let's go into verse 13. It says, now Paul and those with him left Paphos by ship for Pamphylia, landing at the port town of Perga. And again, you can see where this takes place. This is Pamphylia and Perga is the port city for Pamphylia. There John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. But Barnabas and Paul traveled on to the island of Antioch of Pisidia. And as I said before, there are about 13 different Antiochs because the Caesar named his cities after his father, whose name was Antiochus, so there are a lot of Antiochs.

Now, this John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. We don't know why he left. There's some conjecture about possible reasons. The road that they were about to travel on on this journey was the most dangerous in this whole area. It was rugged country and rife with robbers and thieves. It may have been that he was scared. It may have been that he was homesick for his family. And it may have been that he was resentful of the Paul-Barnabas team. We don't know. Barnabas was John Mark's cousin. But whatever, he left. What we do find out is that later on, Paul considers this act an act of desertion. And when we get to that, we'll see how severe that division really was.

Let's go on and read his message, starting in verse 14. On the Sabbath, they went to the synagogue for services. Again, there had to be at least 10 Jewish males. After the usual reading of the books of Moses and from the prophets, those in charge of the service sent this message: "Brother, if you have any word of encouragement for us, come and give it."

Again, the typical service was that the way it would take place is first thing they would do is there would be opening prayers, and then they would read from one of the first five books, the Pentateuch, and then they would read from the prophets, and then they would ask if there is anyone among us that can give us instruction in the word.

And Paul had been a student of Gamaliel. And Gamaliel was probably—not probably, he was the most respected Jewish teacher, rabbi, in his day. And so any place that Paul went where he would have said, "I was studied under Gamaliel," it would have made him almost rock star status at that point because Gamaliel was held in such high regard. Again, how God uses the preparation that we go through in order to give us a platform later.

Verse 16. So he's in, they come and ask him to speak. So Paul stood, lifted his hand to quiet them, and started speaking. "People of Israel and you devout Gentiles who fear the God of Israel, listen to me. The God of this nation of Israel chose our ancestors and made them prosper in Egypt. Then He powerfully led them out of their slavery. He put up with them through 40 years of wandering around the wilderness. Then He destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to Israel as an inheritance.

All this took about 450 years. After that, judges ruled until the time of Samuel the prophet. Then the people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin who reigned for 40 years. But God removed him from the kingship and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, 'David son of Jesse is a man after my own heart, for he will do everything I want him to do.'

Now Paul is masterfully setting up this message to start with their Jewish history and take them to Jesus, and he does this through King David, who is the bridge really. In verse 23, 'And it is one of King David's descendants, Jesus, who is God's promised Savior of Israel.' But before He came, John the Baptist preached the need for everyone in Israel to turn from sin and turn to God to be baptized.

As John was finishing his ministry, he asked, 'Do you think I am the Messiah? No, but He is coming soon, and I am not even worthy to be His slave.' Brothers, you sons of Abraham and all you devout Gentiles who fear the God of Israel, this salvation is for us. The people in Jerusalem and their leaders fulfilled prophecy by condemning Jesus to death. They didn't recognize Him or realize that He is the one the prophets had written about, though they hear the prophets' words read every Sabbath.

They found no cause to execute Him, but they asked Pilate to have Him killed anyway. When they had fulfilled all the prophecies concerning His death, they took Him down from the cross and placed Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead." He appeared—now again, I want you to notice how much time here is spent on the resurrection.

When they had fulfilled all the prophecies concerning His death, they took Him down from the cross and placed Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead, and He appeared over a period of many days to those who had gone with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are His witnesses to the people of Israel. And now Barnabas and I are here to bring you this good news. God's promise to our ancestors has come true in our own time in that God raised Jesus.

This is what the second Psalm is talking about when it says concerning Jesus—now he's going to talk more about the resurrection—"For God had promised, 'You are my Son, today I have become your Father.'" Verse 34, "For God had promised to raise Him from the dead, never again to die. This is stated in the scripture that says, 'I will give you the sacred blessings I promised to David.' Another Psalm explains more fully, saying, 'You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.'

This is not a reference to David, for after David had served his generation according to the will of God, he died and was buried and his body decayed. No, it was a reference to someone else, someone whom God raised and whose body did not decay." Half of Paul's message is on the resurrection.

And I said this when we first started the book of Acts: there is a power in the resurrection unlike anything we will ever understand in the natural. And when you share Christ with someone, do not skip over the resurrection. There's power in that. Every time you see a gospel account given in the book of Acts, it is disproportionately centered on the resurrection. Why? Because there is tremendous power in the resurrection. Half of his message here is on the resurrection.

Guest (Male): We're going through Acts right now on Study the Word with our pastor and teacher, Thom Keller. You can hear this message again by going online to ccleb.com. Again, we're at ccleb.com. There are many other messages for your growth and edification there too. Or call and request a CD copy at 717-507-7862. That's 717-507-7862.

Here in the month of May, we're pleased to offer you a book by D.L. Moody we think you'll benefit from. It's called Your Victory in Jesus. If you're a Christian, you have victory, and that victory was secured by Christ at the cross. But the question that remains is: are you living in victory? Join D.L. Moody as he explores true victory and start to experience the overcoming life ruled by Christ instead of fear. For a gift of any amount, we'll send this your way with our thanks. So call today, 717-507-7862.

Or you can write to Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 17046. You're invited to worship with us here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, where Thom serves as pastor. Visit ccleb.com for our service times and see what's coming up at the church there too. When you get a chance, download our free Android app. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play Store. Thanks for studying the word with Pastor Thom Keller. We'll dig deeper into the book of Acts with Thom next time. We hope you can join us.