Stepping Out – 3/14/10
Sermon Series: Acts – Faith Explosion
Title: Stepping Out
Text: Acts 13:4-12
“So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 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. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 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? 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. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.”
Introduction: I must have been about 11 years old. Although I don’t remember the exact year I remember the feeling like it was almost yesterday. Life around the ranch had become something that young boys simply cannot stand it had become way to tame. I don’t remember being particularly upset at anybody or angry at my life situation but I knew that it was time; it was time for an adventure. When you are 11 and you make this kind of momentous decision your options are somewhat limited. Although we lived next door to an Indian reservation it didn’t seem right to go out fighting Indians and anyway all of the Indians that I knew personally were pretty good people. I had never heard of any of them taking a scalp. There also weren’t any dragons around so I decided that my adventure would have to be running away. I packed up my trusty pocket knife and my sleeping bag. I didn’t take any food after all part of the adventure was living off of the land. I packed everything up and headed out and I made it all the way to the end of the hay field where our irrigation ditch came in from the La Plata river. There was a big tree there and I decided that this would be a nice place to camp. As I was sitting there suddenly the enormity of what I had done began descending around me and I thought that maybe my parents might miss me. The idea of adventure became less and less appealing. I gathered up and ran all the way back to the house and found out that, as unbelievable as it seems, my parents hadn’t even missed me. It wasn’t until later that it dawned on me that I was actually only gone a total of about 2 hours.
Transition: If we are living out the Christian life that God has in mind for us it is a life that is full of adventure. There is no automatic safety because we are living out the conviction of our beliefs.
Today as we see the beginning of the missionary journeys which the early church undertook we see that there are some requirements for living out the adventure that God has planned for us.
I. Being powered by the Holy Spirit
a. They are set apart by the Spirit
b. They are sent out by the Spirit
c. They are steadied by the Spirit
d. The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives
i. Convicts the world of sin
ii. Brings remembrance to us when we need it.
iii. Builds us up into the people that God wants us to be.
II. The growth of the believers
a. This text represents a definite shift in the narrative which Luke has drawn up for us.
i. Saul is no longer known as Saul now he is Paul
1. Luke uses the fact that the pro-consul of Cyprus’ name was Paul to let the reader know that now Paul is being known by this name – a more Roman rendering – rather than by Saul the Jewish name.
a. The text seems to indicate that this was a name which he always had but it is now being known by it.
b. The archaeological find at Cyprus.
i. It used to be thought, by historians that this was another place where Luke must have mis-spoke because Cyprus leaders at this time where known as Propraetor.
ii. That was true B.C. 30, but five years later it was changed to proconsul by Augustus and put under the control of the Senate. Two inscriptions have been found with the date A.D. 51 and 52 with the names of proconsuls of Cyprus and one is in the Cesnola Collection, an inscription found at Soli with the name of Paulus as Proconsul, undoubtedly this very man, though no date occurs.
ii. But more than the name change, what is really significant is that fact that Paul becomes the leader of this troupe.
1. Up to this point it seems clear that Barnabas is the leader.
a. His name is always mentioned first.
b. He was the one that brought Paul to the leaders at both Jerusalem and Antioch.
c. The choice to go to Cyprus as the first stop on their journey seems to have been his choice, it is where he was from.
d. But now Paul’s name is always mentioned first and the group that is doing the traveling is called “Paul and his companions” from now on.
iii. God puts in service to grow us into the instruments that He wants us to be.
1. He has been shepherding Paul along this path so that he would be the greatest force for the advancement of the gospel in the world, but He did it through service.
2. God will grow us as we enter into the service that He has for us.
III. The understanding of the Word
a. They proclaimed the word of God.
b. Sergius sought to hear the word of God
c. He came to belief because the teaching of the Lord was astonishing to him.
d. We have an incredible piece of literature which is the framework for all of the big questions of life. Nothing else even comes close.
IV. The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope he sees worlds beyond; but if he looks at his telescope, he does not see anything but that. The Bible is a thing to be looked through to see that which is beyond; but most people only look at it and so they see only the dead letter. Phillip Brooks.
V. I would recommend you either believe God up to the hilt, or else not to believe at all. Believe this book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There is no logical standing place between the two. Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims in the deeps of divine revelation; a faith that paddles about the edge of the water is poor faith at best. It is little better than a dry-land faith, and is not good for much. C.H. Spurgeon.
