Toward the end of our passage last week, we found out that the tyrant did not have the last word.  Here, instead, is the word – “But the word of God continued to advance and gain adherents.” (12:24)  The word of God – the revealing of God in Jesus, the proclamation and demonstration of the good news of Jesus, the plan of God – continued to advance. People continued to take up Jesus’ invitation to follow him, to get behind him, to say “I’m yours, Lord,” and “Jesus is Lord of all.”  We said last week that the church is called to pray fervently and to proclaim deliverance in our words and in our actions – peace, hope, joy, love, help in the grace or unmerited favour and goodwill of Jesus of Nazareth.  “Pray and Proclaim,” as someone said in our Wednesday morning session, and I wished I had thought of that last week.  Pray and proclaim.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit of God living in us, the church has a vital role to play in the spreading of the word of God.  We read this at the end of chapter 12 – “Then after completing their mission Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem and brought with them John whose other name was Mark.” (12:25).  The next part of our story focuses on the mission of Paul and Barnabas.  We read in our story today about opposition to the mission.  Mission and opposition is where we are in chapter 13.

Depending on who we are, we might have different feelings about opposition or confrontation.  We might want to avoid confrontation at all costs.  We might like confrontation a little too much.  We see in our story today that there is a time for confrontation of powers and forces that act in direct opposition to the love, will, and truth of God.  May followers of Christ be known by what we are for in Christ – mercy, grace, compassion, flourishing for all, justice.  At the same time, we are called to speak and act against fear, greed, self-absorption, vengeance, scorn, etc., etc.  To believe foundationally that the deliverance and help and hope of all humanity is in Christ alone is to say at the same time that anything else which claims to be a foundational source of help is false.

The story speaks to the call of the church to be a peculiar people.  To be set apart.  Part of the peculiarity for those who follow Christ is that Christ alone is worthy of and commands our complete allegiance.  This means that there are situations which do not call for compromise or accommodation.  For Saul and Barnabas, this was one such situation.  In his Acts commentary, NT Wright puts it like this: “… we would very much prefer the story to be one of gentle persuasion rather than confrontation.  We would have liked it better if Paul had gone about telling people the simple message of Jesus and finding that many people were happy to accept it and live by it.  But life is seldom that straightforward, and people who try to pretend it is often end up simply pulling the wool over their own eyes.  It’s a murky world out there, and though the choice of compromise is always available in every profession (not least in the church), there is in fact no real choice.”  “What’s the point of trying to swim with one foot on the bottom of the pool…” Wright goes on, taking Jesus with a bit of magic/nationalism/consumerism/the kingdom of me - never venturing out of our own depth, never trusting in something beyond ourselves – as opposed to swimming out trustingly in the waters of grace and mercy and help.  Trusting in pure, unadulterated, undiluted Jesus.

It’s the first missionary journey of Saul and Barnabas.  The mission is launched from Antioch.    The last time we encountered Saul, he’d just met Jesus on the road to Damascus.  Shortly after that, he effects an escape from the city by being lowered in a basket over the city wall.  He goes to Jerusalem.  His life is once again endangered, and the believers in Jerusalem send him to Tarsus.  In the meantime, Antioch has become a big centre for the early church.  The place believers in Christ were first called “Christians.”  Barnabas – the son of encouragement we encountered weeks ago – the Cypriot, the man who sold the field and gave all the proceeds to the church to do with as they saw fit – is sent to Antioch and we read that when he came and saw the grace of God he rejoiced and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith (11:23-24).  Barnabas goes to Tarsus, brings Saul back to Antioch with him,  and the two were guests of the church and taught a great many people.

And now we’re caught up.

This was a sending church in Antioch.  Directed by the Spirit of God, they send Barnabas and Saul on their first journey, which means it’s time for a map.  Their first destination is Cyprus, which makes sense.  Barnabas was from there.  Before we look at their experience on Cyprus, though, I want to take a look at the marks of the sending church that we read in chapter 13.  Whether we’re talking about sending and supporting people overseas or locally, or ourselves being sent from this place weekly, what are the things that mark the sending church?

The church wants to learn, and they want to hear what God has to say to them.  There were prophets and teachers.  Remember how the Jerusalem church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.  This practice is still in effect.  They wanted to come to an ever greater understanding of the nature of God and the nature of the story that we are caught up as followers of Christ.  There are prophets.  People are inspired by the Holy Spirit to bring words from God.  We’ve said many times that prophecy in the Bible is not simply a matter of foretelling – speaking of future events – but forthtelling, speaking about practices that reflect the ways of God and practices which are opposed to the ways of God.

They were generous.  They were generous.  God inspired generous hearts.  The church in Antioch supported famine relief in Judea (ch 11).  They were generous with their people, sending them out and not keeping people like Saul and Barnabas to themselves.  They were generous in their hospitality and welcoming of people.

They were ethnically and socioeconomically diverse.  A Cypriot.  Simeon Niger (literally Simeon Black).  Lucius from Cyrene in North Africa. Manaen – a member of a king’s court..  And Saul.  We are given a new identity in Christ and are welcomed into a family.  This is what was happening in the church of Antioch.

They worshipped the Lord together. They fasted together.  They prayed together.  We see God as the prime mover in the story.  The Holy Spirit speaking.  The Holy Spirit sending. We see the church taking part in God’s activity among them.  Seeking to discern God’s will together in worshipping, praying, and fasting.  Laying hands on the two and sending them off, or releasing them.  Luke reminding us right after that they are sent out by the Holy Spirit.  They went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.  The home of Barnabas.  It seems like a sensible place to start. 

After arriving at Salamis and proclaiming the words of God in the synagogues there (with the help of John Mark), Barnabas and Saul go across the island and come to Paphos.  They meet two men.  Sergius Paulus governs the place on behalf of Rome.  Luke tells us that he wants to hear the word of God.  Bar-Jesus.  Nothing to do with Jesus – it was a common enough Jewish name.  Yeshua in Hebrew.  Bar is “son of”.   Jewish.  A false prophet.  A magician.   Not a magician like Penn and Teller, but one who claimed to be able to commune with spirits and tell the future.  Not an uncommon thing in those times for officials to have such people in their employ.  As far as Judaism went, Elymas (as he was also known) was a renegade.  Communing with the dead and fortune telling was most anti-Torah.  Deuteronomy 18:10-11.  Such things work in direct opposition to the truth of the sufficiency of God.  A desire to know the future and someone purporting to be able to divine the future (and it’s interesting that we use the word “divine” because what is that but taking on the role of the divine) is getting in the way.  Bar-Jesus or Elymas is opposing the message of Christ, which Barnabas and Saul are bringing, and he is trying to turn the governor away from the faith.  “What is the big deal with consulting 1800 California Psychics?” we might ask.  By what criteria are we to discern what is and what is not ok as followers of Christ?

This brings us to an underlying message here.  It’s a message that runs throughout the book of Acts, and indeed it runs throughout our faith.  It’s about the sufficiency of Christ.  The message goes like this, as someone has put it – “The very nature of the gospel renders problematic and subservient any relationship other than the relationship of the believer to Christ.”

In Christ alone our hope is found.

Every other thing in the world that claims to save you or deliver you or bring you peace and joy or whatever claim is being made is to be held up in light of this claim.  In Christ alone our hope is found.  On this, we do not and will not compromise. 

What does this look like in our lives?  It may still mean a desire to know the future or hear from the dead.  Psychics and mediums (media?) are still popular.  It may be a little less obvious.  The temptation to compromise or accommodation in our faith may look something more like mixing our Christianity with a dash of consumerism, or a pinch of nationalism, or a cup of my life is a movie starring me.

We’re talking about the sufficiency of Christ.  In Luke’s day, there was a widespread belief that we find our security in the state, the empire, in those days.  The state was your peace, and all things were subservient to the state.  This kind of belief is not just restricted to the ancient world, of course, though it’s maybe not so much about the state now.  There’s been a waning in the belief that it will be government policy or a political party that will bring us peace.  “From where does our help come?” is the question we considered last week (and let us keep on considering it).  As we consider how fragmented and siloed opinions are these days, it’s hard to say that there’s any consensus answer to the question “From where will our help come?”

The message is the same.  Barnabas and Saul brought it.  The Psalmist sang it.  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.  The good news is that Jesus is Lord and Jesus is our help and our peace.

False prophets cry peace when there is no peace.  What are some of the claims that are made with regard to what will bring us peace, help, and security?  We need to be aware of them and act and speak out against them when we’re called to.  The devil is known as the liar after all.  Where are we being called to speak truth and live out truth?  It might sound harsh to our ears for Saul to say to Elymas, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?”  Elymas was acting in direct opposition to the plan of Go,d and Saul named it.  We can ask the question of ourselves, “Are we making straight paths for the advancement of the word of God?”  Are we speaking of and living out the sufficiency of Jesus for life now and life to come?  Openness to the message can be found in the most unexpected places – like a Roman proconsul or a Roman centurion.  Opposition can be found in the most unlikely places.  It might come from within our own ranks.  It might come from within ourselves if we examine ourselves honestly enough.  We are all people in need of grace and transformation.

Saul calls it out and makes a prophecy of his own.  Elymas will go blind. Harsh.  It will be a reflection of his spiritual blindness.  Only for a while, though.  And remember what happened to the last guy who was blinded by the light in our story and had to be led by the hand for a little while.  There is hope for anyone, even Saul.  Even Elymas.  Even me.  We keep praying, “Lord help me to see.”

The story ends with amazement and belief.  The proconsul saw what had happened.  He believed.  He was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.  This should be reminding us of someone else who amazed with his deeds and teaching.  Mark 1:27.  Saul will be known as Paul from here on out.   Paul used to be like Elymas in being blind.  Now he’s reflecting Jesus and the ways of Jesus.    The sufficiency of God, Christ, the Spirit, to form us in the image of Christ as we follow him.  May the Spirit of God continue to work in us to give us the will and opportunity to make the good news of Jesus known in demonstration and proclamation, the courage to call out what is false, and the strength to hold on to the hope that is ours.  May these things be true for us all.