PREACHING WITH POWER
Text: Acts 13:4-12
Introduction
1. Illustration: “If I had 300 men who feared nothing but God, hated nothing but sin, and were determined to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and him crucified, I would set the world on fire.” (John Wesley).
2. In a NT church, everyone is a minister, everyone is an evangelist, and everyone is preacher.
3. “And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:15-16).
4. Now, as we go into all the world, we need to preach the word with power. How do we do that? Through the power of the Holy Spirit.
5. Read Acts 13:4-12
Transition: First, we must be…
I. Led By the Spirit (4-5).
A. Sent Out by the Holy Spirit
1. After being hand-picked by the Holy Spirit through fasting and prayer, Saul and Barnabas set out on their first missionary journey. Luke tells us in v. 4, “So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit. They went down to the seaport of Seleucia and then sailed for the island of Cyprus.”
a. The key factor in this entire section is the Holy Spirit.
b. He led them, directed them, empowered them, and acted in their behalf.
c. The first place the Holy Spirit led them to is the island of Cyprus, which was about 100 miles southwest of Antioch.
d. They got there by going to the seaport of Seleucia, which was a few miles from Antioch.
e. Why Cyprus? Cyprus was where Barnabas was from, and he would be familiar with the area, and they would have been familiar with him.
f. Another reason Cyprus was a good staring place was the Greek speaking Jews had already begun telling people about the Lord there, and some of the members of the Antioch church were from there.
g. So, it made great sense to start the mission there.
h. You see, the Holy Spirit really knows what he’s doing.
2. The first thing that Luke tells us they did in Cyprus is, “There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogues and preached the word of God. John Mark went with them as their assistant.”
a. The first town they went to in Cyprus was the town of Salamis. Salamis was the leading city on the island and was the seat of the government.
b. There are two things that we should keep in mind about Paul on his missionary journey’s. First, he always went to where the people were.
c. Since Salamis was the seat of the government it was most likely a place that had a large population, which presented a good number of people to preach the Gospel to.
d. Second, Paul always went to the Jewish people first. He would find the most influential synagogue and he would go there and preach about Jesus.
e. This goes on for a long time, until Paul gets fed up with the Jews lack of faith and decides to focus completely on the Gentiles.
f. The reason he went to the synagogue first was simple; he was known as a highly educated Pharisee who had learned under the famous Rabbi Gamaliel.
g. These credentials would give him an open door to preach there, until he gained a reputation for bringing a radical message about Christ.
h. We should pay close attention to content of their message; they preached the word of God!
i. They didn’t go and tell people their opinion or tell these people what they wanted to hear. Rather, they told them what they needed to hear, the word of God, and the way of salvation through faith.
j. We need to tell people that salvation comes by grace, through faith in Christ!
k. But we need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit.
B. He Will Teach You
1. Illustration: N T Wright, the famous New Testament scholar talks about the task of Christians in the world. He says, "Many say, 'Oh yes, the Holy Spirit came in his place to live in us.' Yes, but for what purpose? The Holy Spirit came to empower us to be God's life in the world. We are to do the work of God in the world. We are to be God to the world. And we cannot do that alone. The church is God's redemptive community in the world. Without you, and without you joined with God's other children, God's work will not be done. He will not do it without us. He will not do it for us."
2. The Holy Spirit will teach us how to do the work, but he will not do the work for us.
a. “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” (John 14:26).
b. Jesus said the Holy Spirit will teach us everything we need to know, and he will remind us of everything Jesus said.
c. He will teach us what to say and how to say it.
d. BUT…he won’t say it for us!
e. He won’t go out and tell people about Jesus for us, we need to be willing to go where he sends us and say what he tells us.
f. Now, I know some of you are saying to yourselves, “But I can’t, I’m too afraid to talk to people.” You don’t have to be good at it, you just need to be willing.
g. The Holy Spirit will give you the words to say and the boldness to say it. You just need to be willing to open your mouth and let him fill it!
Transition: But one thing we need to remember is that we will be…
II. Facing Opposition (6-8).
A. Trying to Keep the Governor from Believing
1. Just because we are led by the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges. Luke makes this clear in vv. 6-7 where he says, “Afterward they traveled from town to town across the entire island until finally they reached Paphos, where they met a Jewish sorcerer, a false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He had attached himself to the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor invited Barnabas and Saul to visit him, for he wanted to hear the word of God.”
a. Now, Saul and Barnabas didn’t just go to the big cities, because here Luke tells us they covered the entire island going from town to town.
b. Wherever there were people to hear the message, that’s where they went.
c. Finally, Luke tells us they got to the town of Paphos, which was a regional center of the government.
d. There they met a sorcerer named Bar-Jesus. The term sorcerer in Greek comes from the word from which we get the word magician, and often these people were charlatans, tricksters, and in this case a false prophet.
e. This sorcerer had attached himself to the local government leader named Sergius Paulus, and Luke points out he was an intelligent man.
f. He had invited Saul and Barnabas because he wanted to hear the word of God.
2. However, Luke tells us, “But Elymas, the sorcerer (as his name means in Greek), interfered and urged the governor to pay no attention to what Barnabas and Saul said. He was trying to keep the governor from believing.”
a. Apparently, this sorcerer had the governor wrapped around his little finger, and he wanted to keep it that way.
b. So, he interfered with what Barnabas and Saul were trying to say to the governor to keep the governor from believing.
c. He was afraid that if the governor became a Christian that he would lose his influence over him.
d. He told the governor not to listen to what Saul and Barnabas were saying to him.
e. He truly was a scoundrel!
B. Since They Persecuted Me
1. Illustration: Several months ago, a pastor in India sent some of his associate pastors into a village. They evangelized by knocking on doors and as God brought in healing and deliverance into these families, they would come to Christ.
a. They once knocked on the door of a policeman, a very active member of one of the political parties that is very much against Christianity. He arrested them on the spot. They were arrested for this horrible crime of praying for people and taken to the prison.
b. This pastor heard about this, and he went to the jail to convince them that they were not doing anything wrong. But before he got there, there were about 50 people waiting. They beat him up and knocked him unconscious. Some friends of his saw him there and took him to the hospital.
c. He later went back to the prison, and convinced the people to let these people out and he continues in his ministry. He hasn’t slowed down at all. They continued doing the ministry in the village. They wanted the people of India to know the love of Jesus Christ.
d. How do you respond to opposition? Do you respond to it by kind of hiding your faith? As soon as you hide your faith, you lose your faith, because it loses its reality even for you.
2. Opposition to the Gospel is guaranteed, but it is not our job to get people to respond, it is our job to tell them.
a. “Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.” (John 15:20-21).
b. Will there be opposition? Yes, there will be people who don’t want to hear it. It’s a guarantee.
c. But they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting the message.
d. It’s not our job to get people to respond, but it is our job to tell people about Jesus.
e. Never give up because you are afraid of how people will respond. It’s the job of the Holy Spirit to deal with those kinds of people.
f. But it’s our job to keep telling people the Good News.
Transition: Instead, we need to…
III. Overcome By the Spirit’s Power (9-12).
A. The Lord Has Laid His Hand
1. Fortunately, no scoundrel can stand up to the power of the Holy Spirit. In vv 9-10, Luke tells us, “Saul, also known as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he looked the sorcerer in the eye. 10 Then he said, “You son of the devil, full of every sort of deceit and fraud, and enemy of all that is good! Will you never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord?”
a. Up until this time, Luke has always referred to Saul by his Jewish name, but now he introduces us to his Roman name, Paul. From here on out in the Book of Acts, he will refer to him by that name.
b. Luke tells us he was “filled with the Holy Spirit.” One of the great things that the Holy Spirit does for us is that he fills us with a holy boldness.
c. This the key; it wasn’t Paul, but the Holy Spirit in Paul!
d. He enables us by giving us the power to stand up to those who would try and stop us from preaching the Gospel.
e. This holy boldness came upon Paul, and he looked the sorcerer in the eye, and called him a son of the devil.
f. Ironically, the name Bar-Jesus means, “son of Jesus,” but in a play on words, Paul makes it clear that he had no connection with Jesus.
g. He tells him he is full of deceit, fraud, and that he is an enemy of all that is good.
h. He confronts him by asking, “will you never stop trying to pervert the true ways of the Lord?”
2. Now, in v. 11, Paul, still full of the Holy Spirit, steps into action, and says, “Watch now, for the Lord has laid his hand of punishment upon you, and you will be struck blind. You will not see the sunlight for some time.” Instantly mist and darkness came over the man’s eyes, and he began groping around begging for someone to take his hand and lead him.”
a. Talk about boldness! Paul declares that the Lord has laid his hand of punishment on the sorcerer.
b. Then Paul tells him something that he knows a little bit about, that he would be struck blind and that he wouldn’t “be able to see the sunlight for some time.”
c. Notice the phrase “for some time.” God always gives us the opportunity to repent and turn away from our sin and towards him.
d. Paul knew this because once he was struck blind and followed the Lord’s instructions, he regained his sight.
e. God is merciful and always gives us a way out of our sin. But until that happened, he was instantly hit with “mist and darkness, and he began groping around and begged for someone to take him and lead him by the hand.
3. The combination of the truth of the Gospel and the power of God he had just witnessed had a positive effect on the governor. Luke says in v. 12, “When the governor saw what had happened, he became a believer, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.”
a. After hearing the preaching of the word and seeing the power of God at work, the governor believed and gave his life to the Lord.
b. The two things left him astonished about the teaching of the Lord.
c. He is the highest ranking official to be converted in the New Testament.
d. The word of God and the power of God brought him to a place of decision for Christ.
B. He Will Give You an Advocate (Jn 14:16)
1. Illustration: "God will not be absent when His people are on trial; he will stand in court as their advocate, to plead on their behalf." (Unknown).
2. When we face opposition, the Holy Spirit will be there to be our defender and advocate.
a. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.” (John 14:16).
b. The word translated Advocate, comes from the Greek word parakletos, which is a combination of two terms, para, “beside,” and kaleo “to call.” So, “someone called to our side.” In non-biblical literature, parakletos had a technical meaning of an attorney who defends someone in court.
c. Paul needed the Holy Spirit to come to his side, and he did in a big way.
d. Don’t you think the Holy Spirit is going to come to your side when you need him?
e. If he came to Paul’s aide, he would certainly come to yours!
f. Depend on the Holy Spirit to defend you.
g. Depend on the Holy Spirit to give you boldness.
h. With his help you cannot fail!
Conclusion
1. When we preach the word, we will be…
a. Led by the Spirit
b. Face Opposition
c. Overcome by the Spirit’s Power
2. What’s the point preacher? When we share the Good News with people, be led by the Spirit and be fearless in his power.
