Project 119: Acts 13:1-12
| Project 119 | Dr. Wayne Splawn
I will be forever grateful to the Lord for the time I have spent at Beeson Divinity School at Samford University. It is a place God used to prepare me for ministry and I am thankful for the men and women who have helped me become a more faithful minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. From time to time, I am reminded of particularly powerful truths my professors taught me during seminary. For example, I can vividly remember a point one of my professors made regarding the truth of Isaiah 55:11. He said, “God promised that His words would not return void; He did not make the same promise about your words.” This truth about the power of God’s words has stuck with me over the years.
In Acts 13:1-12, Paul begins his first missionary journey and, as an astute reader would expect at this point in the book of Acts, Paul and his fellow missionaries encounter opposition. When they arrive at Salamis, they proclaim the word of God and the proconsul wants an audience with the missionaries so he can hear their message firsthand. A magician named Elymas tries to oppose God’s word by turning the proconsul against the missionaries. However, things do not turn out the way Elymas had hoped. Rather than stymying God’s word, he is struck blind. And this incident leads the proconsul to believe. The man who tried to thwart God’s purposes becomes the person through whom God’s word powerfully advances in the life of the proconsul.
We should be encouraged by this account. It seems that we regularly hear how people are increasingly hostile to God and His word. This truth could cause us to feel discouraged, but we must not lose heart. No matter how much opposition we face, we can be certain that God’s word will prevail. May we continue to faithfully rely on the power of God’s word, believing that God will bring His purposes to pass in our lives and in our world.
Acts 13:1-12 (ESV):
Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping 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 after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
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.