Acts 13:4-12: A Spiritual War Is Raging

Acts 13:4-12: A Spiritual War Is Raging

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Acts, and today the next passage we come to is Acts 13:4-12. It says,

4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 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. 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. 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? 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. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

One of the best ways to lose a war is to not even realize that you’re fighting one. Any country that’s oblivious to the presence of a powerful enemy or to that enemy’s strategies or tactics will almost certainly be defeated. And you could also apply this to athletic competitions as well. I remember, back when I was in high school, running in my very first track meet, my main race was the two-mile race—and I wasn’t a bad runner. However, I didn’t really know what I was doing. So on the last lap of the race, I saw that I was in a pretty good position. I wasn’t in first place but was doing pretty well, and there was a fair amount of distance between me and the runner behind me. So, I just continued running that last lap at approximately the same pace I had maintained for the first seven laps. 

However, what I didn’t realize is that around halfway through that last lap, the runner behind me began an all-out sprint for the finish line. And I remember on that final hundred-yard stretch before the finish line, many of my teammates on the sidelines were calling out to me. I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but it sounded like some sort of warning. So I glanced behind me, and to my surprise, this other runner had somehow closed the gap and was now just a step or two behind me. At that point, of course, adrenaline took over, and the two of us sprinted it out for the finish line. Thankfully, I did manage to cross the line ahead of him, but it was a close one. I almost lost the race to him simply because I was unaware of what was going on. I just didn’t realize the nature or the intensity of the contest I was in.  

And it works in a similar way spiritually. There are no shortage of passages in the Bible that remind us that we’re in the middle of a spiritual war of epic proportions. In fact, that’s the main idea of this passage in Acts 13. This passage shows us that a spiritual war is raging for the souls of those who don’t yet know God. A spiritual war is raging for the souls of those who don’t yet know God. And, again, the best way to lose that war is to not even realize that we’re in the middle of it. 

Satan is a powerful opponent with a very specific agenda. And at the very center of that agenda is his desire to hinder the spread of the gospel and keep people from putting their faith in Jesus. Unfortunately, Satan often does this very effectively. So it’s not an acceptable option for Christians to be oblivious to this monumental struggle—this spiritual war that’s raging around us. And not only do we need to recognize the reality of this war, we also need to know a thing or two about our enemy if we’re going to counter his attacks effectively. We need to know what he’s trying to do, how he’s trying to do it, how to recognize his work in this world, and ultimately how to overcome him. Thankfully, I believe the passage before us shows us all of these things.  

But before we walk through this passage, let me first remind you of the context here—since it’s been a few weeks since we looked at the preceding passage. Chapter 13 marks a major turning point in Acts. The first twelve chapters of Acts document the spread of the gospel among Jews—primarily through the Apostle Peter. This took place in the city of Jerusalem and then in the larger regions of Judea and Samaria. However, beginning with chapter 13 and continuing through the rest of the book, the focus now shifts to the gospel’s advance among people who aren’t Jews—often called “Gentiles”—through the Apostle Paul and his associates. And Paul and his missionary companions would take the gospel far beyond the borders of Judea and Samaria and go throughout the Roman Empire. 

Now, as we saw a few weeks ago, the first three verses of Acts 13 record the Holy Spirit leading the church of Antioch to set apart their two most prominent leaders—Barnabas and Saul—for missionary endeavors wherever he might lead them to go. By the way, Saul and Paul are the same person. Saul is his Hebrew name, while Paul is his Roman name. So the church prays over Barnabas and Saul and sends them off for this ministry. Their two most prominent leaders—sent off for the sake of the gospel. What a powerful reminder that the mission Jesus has given his church of spreading the gospel takes priority over everything else. It takes priority over our comfort, it takes priority over our preferences, it takes priority over everything. So that’s Acts 13:1-3. 

Now, as we come to verse 4, here’s what we read about Barnabas and Saul: “So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.” So destination number one in their missionary travels was the island of Cyprus. As you can see on this map here, Cyprus was actually fairly close to Antioch. You can see the city of Antioch there all the way on the right side of the map, and the island of Cyprus is just a little to the west of that. And one reason why Barnabas and Saul probably chose to go to Cyprus first was because, not only was it close by, but—according to Acts 4:36—Barnabas was actually a native of Cyprus. So Barnabas already knew the culture and the territory, which made him well-equipped to engage in ministry there. 

Then look at verses 5-7: 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. 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. So in their travels through the island of Cyprus, Barnabas and Saul come to the capital city, called Paphos, where they encounter two people. First, a magician and Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. “Bar-Jesus” literally means “son of Jesus” or “son of salvation.” And we can’t be sure, but he may have chosen that name for himself because he was actually claiming to be a descendent of Jesus who had inherited Jesus’s miracle-working power. But regardless of what his name was a reference to, just understand that this guy’s bad news. When it says that he was a magician, that’s not the kind of magician we might think of who functions primarily as an entertainer with things like disappearing animals and neat card tricks. No, this man was practicing the kind of magic that involved demonic powers. 

And the text says that he was with the Roman proconsul, or governor, of Cyprus—a man named Sergius Paulus. Bar-Jesus would have functioned as something of a consultant for the proconsul, using his magical powers to give the proconsul advice in various situations. He was probably involved in using astrology to look for different signs that would be significant for the proconsul as well as utilizing various formulas and incantations and amulets in an effort to provide the proconsul with reliable guidance as he made important decisions. And again, these magical powers originated from demonic entities. 

Now, it seems that the timing of Barnabas and Saul’s arrival on Paphos couldn’t have been better. The proconsul, Sergius Paulus, was apparently very interested in spiritual things and receptive to spiritual ideas. This is probably one reason why he kept Bar-Jesus around and why it says he “summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.” I mean, that’s pretty amazing when you think about it. Imagine being from somewhere else and travelling here to Pennsylvania as a missionary and going to Harrisburg and immediately being summoned by Governor Wolf because he wanted to hear the word of God. That would be incredible. And that’s basically what happens here in verse 7. Evidently, this proconsul was dissatisfied with the paganism and idolatry that was pervasive throughout the empire and was on a quest for spiritual truth and was therefore amazingly open to new ideas. Unfortunately, Bar-Jesus had been filling his head with nonsense, but now Barnabas and Saul arrive and are able to share the gospel with this proconsul. And it’s when they do that that the spiritual war that’s been a reality all along now becomes evident. 

Look at verses 8-10: 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 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?” So when this magician, who also went by the name Elymas, tries to turn the proconsul away from the gospel, Paul, who’s ever so talented being subtle, calls him a “son of the devil” and an “enemy of all righteousness.” Not exactly the kind of thing you would find on a Hallmark card. 

The likely reason Paul calls this guy a “son of the devil” is because he’s playing with his name. This magician liked to call himself Bar-Jesus—or “son of Jesus”—but Paul’s basically saying, “Look, dude, you’ve got way more in common with the devil than you do with Jesus. Jesus isn’t your father—the devil is.” And it was true. Elymas was functioning as an instrument of Satan in his attempts to keep the proconsul from embracing the gospel. That also made him, as Paul says, an “enemy of all righteousness” who was “making crooked the straight paths of the Lord.” God designed the way to be rescued from our sin to be a “straight path”—easy to travel for all who are willing to lay down their prideful self-sufficiency. But Elymas was putting obstacles in the proconsul’s way and thereby making that straight path into a crooked one. Presumably, he was doing this because he enjoyed his position of prominence with the proconsul and wanted to keep his job. The proconsul becoming a Christian wouldn’t exactly be a career boost for Elymas. Yet what we’re seeing here isn’t just the career ambition of Elymas but ultimately the work of Satan through Elymas to prevent the spread of the gospel. We’re seeing a manifestation of the spiritual war that’s always raging—a war for the souls of those who don’t yet know God. 

And as we see here, Paul knows exactly what’s happening. He’s not oblivious to this spiritual war but addresses it head-on in his rebuke to Elymas. And it’s critical for us to be keyed into that as well as we seek to lead people to Jesus. When you share the gospel with someone, understand that you’re not sharing that message in a spiritually neutral context. First of all, we know from the Bible that the person’s heart is naturally in a state of rebellion against God until God works miraculously within them to change that. So that’s one thing that’s not neutral. But in addition to that, don’t doubt for a moment that Satan’s actively at work in the situation and willing to use every weapon in his arsenal to keep that person from Jesus. You might compare it to a magnet. You can’t see the pull of a magnet. It’s invisible to our eyes. And yet, it’s definitely there, exerting a powerful influence and pulling certain things in a certain direction. Similarly, you can count on Satan to do all he can to create a magnetic field of sorts pulling people away from Jesus. Even though it can’t be seen, that doesn’t make it any less real or any less powerful. 

So sharing the gospel, as simple as it might be in many ways, actually involves an all-out war against the forces of darkness. And that shouldn’t in any way discourage from sharing the gospel, but it should lead us to make sure that our gospel witness is absolutely saturated with prayer. This battle against the forces of darkness is won not by our sophistication or smoothness in sharing the gospel but rather on our knees in prayer. Our human abilities are no match for Satan’s power. Friends, Satan laughs at our abilities, but he trembles at our prayers. Samuel Chadwick said it like this: “Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” So that’s why we pray—both as individuals and as a church in contexts like our Wednesday Prayer Gathering. We recognize that we’re in a spiritual war and that this spiritual war has to be fought in a spiritual way and with spiritual weapons. 

Also, as we look at Elymas here in Acts 13, we’re not told exactly what he said to “turn the proconsul away from the faith,” but we can be sure that it involved deception. Satan, after all, is referred to by Jesus himself as “the father of lies” in John 8:44. That’s just the way Satan operates—his “m.o.” if you will. Not only that, but in Paul’s rebuke to Elymas in verse 10, he says that he’s “full of all deceit.” And listen: just as Satan was working through Elymas to whisper lies into the ears of the proconsul, he’s actively whispering lies today into the ears people all around us—and even into our own ears as well. 

So I’d like to bring a few of these lies to your attention by sharing with you five lies from Satan that seem to be especially common in our society today. First, the lie that life is about finding yourself and creating your own identity. If there’s anything that defines this generation, it’s an ongoing identity crisis. Having rejected God as our Creator, we now don’t even know who we are any more. When a belief in God was more common, we had an identity that was given to us. We didn’t have to figure out who we were—we were able to simply embrace it. And that identity was a wonderful thing—a gift given to us by a good and loving God. Now, however, people don’t have that. Instead, they’re left to create their identity out of thin air. 

Some people seek to do this by advancing in their career. Others seek to forge an identity through various relationships. Still others seek it through popularity and notoriety. And the thing all of these identities have in common is that they’re ever so fragile. They can be shattered instantly by a career setback, a difficult breakup, or even a hurtful comment on social media. Is it any wonder that mental health cases are skyrocketing? Not only that, but this duty of creating your own identity is almost limitless—extending now even to the areas of gender and sexuality. And even though many would speak of all of this as liberation, it seems to me to be more along the lines of bondage. I mean, what a burden it must be to have to continually figure out who you are and even then, once you think you’ve finally figured it out, to still have an identity that’s as fragile as a glass figurine. No wonder Satan delights in whispering this lie into people’s ears—that life is about finding yourself and creating your own identity. 

Then a second Satanic lie that seems to be especially common today is that it’s arrogant to believe in absolute truth. We’re told that truth is a relative concept. Something can be true for one person but not true for another. And, of course, that includes beliefs about God. So the result is that nothing—not even God—can function as an authority over us. That’s the real motive here. That’s why this lie from Satan is so effective. People don’t want to have to answer to God for the way they live. They want to be able to follow the sinful desires of their hearts without being hindered—and this denial of the existence of absolute truth gives them a convenient way to do that. Now, of course, this idea that absolute truth doesn’t exist is a blatantly self-refuting idea because the idea itself proposes at least one absolute truth—the truth that absolute truth doesn’t exist. So this viewpoint ends up affirming the very thing it seeks to deny. But, as is so often the case, it’s very easy for people to overlook the rules of logic when there’s something they really want to believe. And Satan is more than happy to add fuel to the fire and advance this lie as much as possible. 

This leads us to the third lie Satan’s whispering in the ears of people today—the lie that God and his rules are oppressive. The implication is that God—in giving us instructions for how to live—is either on some kind of cosmic power trip and doesn’t care if we’re happy or not or is maliciously trying to make us miserable. Either way, he’s oppressing us. That’s what Satan would have us believe. And this is a lie he’s been peddling ever since he first tempted Eve to eat the fruit in the Garden of Eden. The Bible teaches that God’s told us to live in a certain way because he loves us and is showing us the best, most satisfying way to live—much like parents instruct their children to do things like eat healthy foods and look both ways before crossing the street. Parents aren’t being oppressive in telling their kids to do those things but are expressing love for them—as is God when he instructs us to live in certain ways. Yet Satan’s almost constantly whispering the opposite into our ears, telling us that God and his rules are oppressive. 

Fourth, Satan loves to tell people that their sin is too great for God to ever forgive them. Supposedly, there’s a limit to what God can forgive, and they’ve surpassed it. Never mind what 1 John 1:9 tells us—that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Satan wants us to believe that there are some kinds of unrighteousness that God can’t cleanse—as if the blood of Jesus shed on the cross is deficient in some way and lacks the power to forgive whatever sins we’ve committed. 

Then finally, the fifth and perhaps most common lie Satan’s whispering in people’s ears is that, “You’ll be happy when…(fill in the blank).” You’ll be happy when you get that promotion at work. You’ll be happy when you finally meet that special someone. You’ll be happy when you manage to save up a certain amount of money or make a certain purchase or are able to afford a certain kind of lifestyle. In reality, the Bible teaches us that true joy is found only in God. As David says to God in Psalm 16:11, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Ultimate joy and pleasure are found in God and God alone. Yet Satan would have us looking to everything but God in our quest for joy—with the result that we always seem to come up empty. 

So those are some of the lies Satan loves to whisper into the ears of people today. Just as, back in our main text, the magician Elymas sought to keep the proconsul from embracing Jesus by telling him whatever lies he thought would be effective, Satan employs the same strategy today to keep people from Jesus. Why change it if it’s been so effective? So, for any here this morning who might be buying into these lies, I can’t encourage you enough: don’t be deceived. 

Moving on now to verse 11, after Paul rebukes Elymas for allowing himself to be used by Satan for such evil purposes, he says to him, “‘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.” Elymas’s physical blindness here functions as a symbol of his spiritual blindness. It also serves as a demonstration that Jesus is supreme over the forces of darkness. 

And the proconsul takes notice. We read in verse 12, “Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.” Now, notice here what makes the biggest impact on the proconsul. This verse mentions that the miracle of Elymas being struck with blindness had something to do with the proconsul’s conversion, but it wasn’t the driving force. According to the text, why did the proconsul believe? It says that “the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.” That word “astonished” is also translated “amazed” and “astounded.” So even though Paul’s miracle was obviously a factor in the proconsul embracing the gospel, ultimately it was the gospel message itself—“the teaching of the Lord,” as it says—that the proconsul found so persuasive. 

You see, the truth of the gospel is ultimately self-evident. It can often be very helpful to look into the historical evidence for Christianity. There’s certainly a place for that. But at the end of the day, the gospel is self-evident and self-authenticating. When God opens your eyes to behold the glory of the gospel and to recognize the “astonishing” and “amazing” things it teaches, you intuitively recognize that this just has to be from God. It’d be a lot like finding some sort of electronic device out in the woods. If you found…a cell phone, let’s say, you’d assume that somebody dropped that phone. You wouldn’t assume that a bunch of dirt and leaves and other natural materials were randomly mixed together to make that phone nor that the animals out there in the woods somehow managed to assemble the phone. That phone with all of its incredibly complex circuits and components is way beyond what nature is capable of developing. In a similar way, when God opens our eyes to behold the glory of the gospel, we immediately recognize that it’s infinitely beyond anything the human mind could ever invent and therefore just has to be from God.  

For example, think about the holiness of God. That’s a pretty central theme in the gospel. The Bible teaches that God’s absolutely holy and has zero tolerance for sin. He never winks at our sins or sweeps them under the rug but rather is compelled by his own righteous and holy nature to judge us for our sins. Now, right there, we see something striking. Even though God’s holiness certainly isn’t comfortable for us to think about—since we’re so unholy—that very discomfort is actually a powerful indication that the whole idea of this holy God isn’t a product of the human imagination. A twentieth-century theologian named A. W. Pink once said it like this: “An ineffably holy God who has the utmost abhorrence of sin was never invented by any of Adam’s descendants.” Again, “An ineffably [or unspeakably] holy God who has the utmost abhorrence [or hatred] of sin was never invented by any of Adam’s descendants.” You see, if we were inventing a god, we would inevitably invent a god whose holiness is far below the holiness of the God of the Bible. Our god would be one who’s more tolerant of our sin. And yet, the God we find in the Bible is a God of absolute holiness. 

In addition, not only is the holiness of God self-authenticating, I’m convinced the love of God is self-authenticating as well. The gospel is a message of this holy and righteous God showing incredible mercy toward those who have rebelled against him and demonstrating his love in an astounding way. God the Father sent his own Son Jesus to this world on a rescue mission. Jesus entered our broken world in the humblest of circumstances and then proceeded to live a life that’s never been lived before—a perfect life free from even the smallest sin. He then voluntarily allowed himself to endure the agony of crucifixion. You see, our sins had to be dealt with. Somebody had to be punished. Yet Jesus endured that punishment in our place. Romans 5:6-8 describes it like this: 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Think about that. Even while we were still sinners—even when we were in a state of active and hateful rebellion against God—Christ died for us. What human mind could ever invent a love like that? We don’t even have the capacity to comprehend such love, much less invent it. 

So that’s what I mean when I say that the gospel is self-authenticating. It shines with a glory that just has to be from God. And, back in our main passage, it’s this glory that the proconsul saw and that caused him to be “astonished” and “amazed.” Perhaps there are some here this morning a lot like this proconsul in that your eyes are being opened to the glory of the gospel like never before. Will you respond as the proconsul did by embracing this gospel message? That involves turning away from your sins and putting your trust in Jesus alone to save you from your sins and make you right with God. 

Also, for those of us who are already Christians, hopefully all of this is an encouragement for us to share the gospel with boldness and confidence. Listen: you don’t have to know the answer to every question. You don’t have to be equipped with an arsenal of sophisticated arguments. Just talk with people about Jesus. Help them see who he is, what he’s done, and everything that makes him so glorious. That’s what God uses to get ahold of people’s hearts and ultimately to bring them to faith. The most powerful argument of the truth of Jesus is…Jesus. His glory is self-authenticating. 

As we look at Acts 13, we see that a spiritual war is raging for the souls of those who don’t yet know God. Yet we have a weapon that can’t be overcome—the truth of the gospel that exposes the lies of the enemy. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel,” Paul writes elsewhere, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”