Acts Chapter 13 Verses 10 – 11

• (A dimness and a darkness is actually what it says here in the Greek – and that leads to a person seeking someone to lead them…because no one leads themselves) But sheesh!  Judgey much, Paul!?  What he says here is direct and it sounds awful harsh but check this out…before this comes out of his mouth we read, the Bible tells us, the Holy Spirit reveals to us that Paul was, “filled with the Holy Spirit!” 
• Here is what you find as you study Jesus…those that were in sin, those that were lost, like a sheep without a shepherd or a child without a father…He was compassionate. He was gentile.  Full of grace and content just being near to them and loving them.  But those that stood against the truth, and especially those that sought to turn others away from the truth, Jesus was a lion!  In Matthew 12, Jesus frees a man from demonic possession and the Pharisees heard about it and said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”  Jesus’ response?  “I forgive you!”    His response was, “You brood of vipers!   You are evil men…an evil and adulterous generation!”
• Read Matthew 23! He goes in, man!  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Blind guides!  Guilty of the blood of the prophets!  Murderers!  Serpents and again brood of vipers!”  Why?  What is this side of God, this character of Jesus?  The same lion, the same Spirit we see right here flowing from Paul who is filled…  It is your choice and option if you’d like to commit spiritual suicide and reject the cure of condemnation, the anecdote of eternal death…it’s your choice for you BUT it’s an entirely other thing for one to stand in the way of another and bring them down.  Jesus revealed it this way in Matthew, “All sins of men will be forgiven…except the blasphemy, the standing against publically, of the Holy Spirit.”  And that is what this false prophet does in this scene and so Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, calls a spade a spade and judges the content of this man’s character to the salvation of another…and that is the righteous thing to do!  
• And notice just quickly here, I wonder if Paul wished what had happened to him would happen to this man as well. Paul, a former blasphemer, aggressor against Jesus…because what he pronounced upon Elymas…blindness for a season…is exactly what happened to Paul when he encountered God.  And really, all Paul did here, same thing that happened to Paul, is that he made Elymas’ physical state match his spiritual state…

Acts Chapter 13 Verse 12

• I want you to see and remember what brought the proconsul to eternal salvation….immediately we will default to the miracle because that’s just who we are but the text says, “Being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.”
• “What brought you to the Lord?” A simple and often asked question…and a common answer is an event, a move of the Holy Spirit…some sort of thing of power or event of power and that’s good but I pray that’s not it…if a miracle, a demonstration of power can draw you to the Lord, it is reasonable to think a miracle, an experience, a powerful external happening, a circumstance….can draw you away!  Are you astonished, amazed…are you in the Word of God?  Being taught by Him…?  The fastest and most effective way to being strong in the Lord and mighty in faith is to be mighty in the scriptures…

Acts Chapter 13 Verse 13

• At the beginning, it was “Paul and Barnabas,” but now it’s, “Paul and his party.” Paul has become really the lead and notice, John Mark heads home.  We’re not told why but we are given a clue in the early part of the chapter as the Holy Spirit called Paul and Barnabas but it appears…not John Mark.  This ends up being a real problem.  Not just his leaving them but what it causes later.  Paul and Barnabas will eventually split up over this.
• Later, in Chapter 15, Barnabas wants to take John Mark again. Perhaps Barnabas had forgiven him.  Wanted to give him another chance…it could be that Barnabas didn’t even care at all when John Mark wanted to go home and left…but Paul would have none of it.  It’s a truth that there are different types of people…Paul and Barnabas seem like close friends and yet very different wiring…and so they split.
• But I love this, right at the end of 2 Timothy…at the end of Paul’s life…he asks for Mark. Why?  Because time had gone by…  That’s not it…time doesn’t heal all wounds…Jesus does…walking with the Lord, trusting Him, being strong in His Word and filled with His Spirit…that heals all wounds…and Paul reaches out to everything he is not, John Mark…and builds that bridge back to peace.  Exactly like Jesus. 
• Did you know that? Jesus has spanned eternity for you and for me….for every enemy He ever had.  He has built a bridge with His own blood back to each one of us.  God Himself.  With power, love, grace, Fatherly kindness, provision and even justice…and amazingly as you walk with Him…and He heals your heart, you just become like Him.  Why?  Because in the dawn of creation, you were made in His image…that’s your original design and as He heals you, he heals you closer to that…

Acts Chapter 13 Verses 14 – 23

• Paul is so very confident of this statement. Why?  Because it was Jesus Himself that spoke to him.  He did not see Jesus…he heard Him…just like you can hear from Him anytime you want…simply by spending time in His Word!

Acts Chapter 13 Verses 24 – 25

• How did Paul know that? Was it popular at the time?  Was it an ancient meme?    Or it could be that Paul was there…at the baptism of Jesus and those words he heard first hand and they burned in his heart every day after that!!

Acts Chapter 13 Verses 26 – 39

• Forgiveness of sins – slate cleaned – deliverance and liberty – and yet also Paul says, “Justification,” which is a positive credit in your account towards God!

Acts Chapter 13 Verses 40 – 43

• Man, continuing in the grace of God is just as important as beginning in the grace of God! Christian, don’t forget that!  We tend to lose that truth…to forget that!!  It was the grace of God that brought you to Him and hear me, man…it is the grace of God that keeps you even today!!  I know you see more now…but God saw it all from the beginning…remember that…and that leads into this last bit I’d like to show you…

Acts Chapter 13 Verses 44 – 46

• What an eternally huge and revealing John 12:47, Jesus said, “If anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.”  Yet going to hell involves judgment…well, who’s?  Mine, and yours.  Salvation has come.  Life from the grave has come.  Eternal life has come…everlasting life has come…and it is you that has the power to judge yourself into it or out of it. 
• I could say the same for an effective ministry…or even a good marriage. Love has come…grace has come…forgiveness and kindness and the power and desire has come…but reject Jesus in your heart towards your husband…you make the judgment call…I won’t have a good marriage…And I don’t mean to step this truth down a thousand levels to everyday life, I just want you to know that.  Choose Jesus and you judge yourself right into everlasting life.  Reject Him and you judge yourself right out…many even to hell…

Acts Chapter 13 Verses 47 – 48

• That term “appointed to eternal life” is a coffee house of controversy where Christians through the ages pull up a chair and discuss until the shop closes. I just want to offer you a few thoughts.  Does God appoint some to eternal life, predestine some to heaven and predestine some to hell?  First let me offer to you the doctrinal theological  No…and yes.  There you go, lets pray!  HA!
• God is sovereign. And in His sovereignty, within the confines of that sovereignty, He has given man free will.  Freedom of choice.  He is sovereign…He can do that!  And yet…God is not confined within time like we are…He is above it all…He sees the end from the beginning and so while He has given you complete control of choice…He knows from the beginning what you will choose…and so think of predestination not as God choosing for you but rather God knowing from the beginning what you will choose.
• If you believe that God chooses for you or for mankind then scriptures like verse 40 don’t make sense. “Beware…”  Beware of what?  What is there to be careful about?  It’s already chosen.  If you are one to think that God has chosen it all for you already then why would God say through both Peter and Paul (2 Peter 3:9 and 1 Timothy 2:4) that His will is that none should perish but that all would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ?  God choosing for man makes those verses lies…and God cannot lie…and so how do free will and predestination dwell together?  Within the sovereignty of God. 

Acts Chapter 13 Verses 49 – 52

• I love that…rejected by men, hated by an entire region…circumstance horrible…and yet they are filled with joy. Why?  How?  Because to be filled with the Holy Spirit…to be filled up with God…is to be filled up with joy…