When Paul and Barnabas set out on their missionary journey, they visited many cities to declare the good news of Jesus Christ. Yet along their way, they encountered men who sought to steer people away from the truth. In this sermon, R.C. Sproul introduces us to Sergius Paulus, one of these false prophets, explaining how Paul responded to him with boldness and conviction.

At this time, I would like to go back to our study of Acts. This morning, I will be reading from Acts 13:4–12:

So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.

Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.”

And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let him hear.

Our Father and our God, as we consider now this brief passage and further record of the works of the Apostles and of Your Spirit, we pray that You would impart in our hearts the same burden for souls manifested by Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark, that You would give us fire in our bones and the same kind of holy boldness that they displayed before the civil magistrates. We ask that You would give us understanding through the illumination of Your Spirit, who indeed is the Spirit of truth. Amen.

Anointed Missionaries Sent Out

To begin, I will call attention back briefly to the words we find in Acts 13:2–3: “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted”—that is, the leaders of the church in Antioch—“the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.”

Verses 2 and 3 tell us of the sense in which the church commissioned Paul and Barnabas for this great missionary task of reaching out to the gentiles. The early church used the laying on of hands frequently as a symbol of anointing people with the power and presence of the Holy Ghost. It was used in ordination. It was used in the benediction at the end of the service. It was used to commission church leaders and workers, again indicating a sense of spiritual consecration, a setting aside and anointing for a sacred task.

When we pick up the text this morning in verse 4, having just read that the early church sent Paul and Barnabas on this mission, verse 4 says, “So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit . . .” We can commission people, but we have no power. We can license, ordain, and send people for sacred tasks, but unless God the Holy Spirit sends and anoints them, their labors will be in vain.

Notice that what we see in this brief text is the onset of the most significant, important, and vital missionary undertaking in the history of the church; indeed, in the history of the world. It begins with some geographical details of how they had been at Antioch on the Orontes River. They first went to Seleucia, which was the harbor that served that part of Syria, and they boarded a ship.

We are told by geographers even today that if you stand on the coast of Syria in what was Seleucia and look out into the Mediterranean, 130 miles in the distance on a clear day, you can still see the shape and outline of the large island of Cyprus. That island was in Paul and Barnabas’ vision as they set sail.

We also know that in antiquity, if fair winds were availing, that journey across the water could be accomplished in just a few hours. We read that as they journeyed in the ship, they landed then in Salamis, which was the easternmost port of Cyprus. They immediately began to preach to the Jews in the synagogue, which was their most fishing place for converts to Christianity. Paul reminds us later in his letter to the Romans that his commission was to give the gospel to the Jew first and then to the gentile.

The False Prophet

We do not know how long Paul and Barnabas stayed in Salamis, but from there they went to Paphos on the other end of the island, roughly ninety miles west of Salamis, and there we read of their encounter with a false prophet. We are told, “They found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man.”

Sergius Paulus was from the West. He was of Roman orientation, and even in antiquity those in the West were fascinated by the mysterious arts and practices that came out of the East, which was given to practice the occult.

We expect a participation in the occult from oriental religions and mystery religions of the East, but this man known as Bar-Jesus is identified as a Jew. Jews who cast fortunes, who were soothsayers, fortune-tellers, and the like, came under the wrath of God because in the Old Testament, in the law of Moses, the practice of this kind of sorcery and magic was an abomination to God and subject to the death penalty.

But this man Bar-Jesus had no scruples whatsoever about making his living by offering future predictions for leaders looking for investments and military generals who wondered what the outcome a battle would be. In this case, Bar-Jesus associated himself with the ruler of Cyprus, the proconsul Sergius Paulus.

What an ironic thing that his name was Bar-Jesus or Bar-Yeshua, which means son of Jesus. He was there in attendance when the proconsul invited Paul and Barnabas to tell him about the Word of God they had been proclaiming in Cyprus.

Luke’s History Vindicated

Before we look at that in more detail, let me take a moment for a footnote about this. For many years it was said Luke made an obvious historical error in his record of this encounter because he identified Sergius Paulus as a proconsul.

It was well known that during Caesar Augustus’ reign, he divided his dominion in the Roman Empire into two groups. On the one hand were those provinces conquered by the Roman legions that were still hostile and required the military to be stationed in the provinces to keep the peace. Those provinces came under the direct dominion of Caesar Augustus, who directed the affairs of those military outposts. On the other hand were provinces that were peaceful and offered no significant threat of uprising. To them, Caesar assigned SPQR, the Senate and people of Rome, Senatus Populusque Romanus. You may have seen depictions of the standard bearers of Roman soldiers with those letters SPQR. He gave peaceful provinces over to the hands of the Senate, and the Senate then commissioned rulers who were given the title proconsul.

The critics said, “Under the reign of Caesar Augustus, Cyprus was part of the rule of Caesar and not of the Senate, so Luke erred in giving Sergius Paulus the title proconsul.” One of the great things about archeology is it seems that every time they turn over a spade, every time a shovel of dirt is moved in the Holy Land, some new detail of history that had been in question is confirmed and corroborated by external evidence.

In our own day, a stele that was set up during the reign of Claudius, who reigned at the time of Paul and Baranabas’ trip, indicated that the island of Cyprus was shifted from the dominion of Caesar to the dominion of the Senate early on during Claudius’ reign, and the local ruler at that time was then appointed the title proconsul. Once again, the critics are raging, and Luke as a historian is vindicated and has earned the reputation as the most accurate historian in all antiquity.

These are details that can be falsified or verified by external forces. You cannot verify biblical affirmations about angels unless you dig up a petrified angel wing, but these details of geography are open for this kind of examination. As usual, Luke was right.

Opposition to God’s Truth

The historical accuracy aside, what we are really concerned about is what happened in this meeting between Paul and Barnabas and Sergius Paulus. As Paul was trying to give the Word of God to the proconsul, he was interrupted by the false prophet Bar-Jesus, whose name translated was Elymas, who was doing everything he could to impede the presentation of the gospel and prevent the proconsul from having a favorable response to it.

Does that sound strange to you? Those of you who are believers know well that when you were first converted, there were people all around you—friends, family, and so on—who did everything they could to dissuade you from committing your life to Christ.

I remember my own conversion. I was excited, and I went home to see my pastor. I thought of all the people in the world, the one who would be most thrilled to hear of my conversion would be my pastor. When I told him my story, he looked at me in disdain. He said, “You’re getting confused by oriental mysticism.” Then he said to me cynically, “If you believe in the resurrection of Christ, you’re a damned fool.”

My pastor’s words were like a stake through my heart. The one person I expected to support the preaching of the gospel was standing in direct opposition to it. That is how we know that the Jewish man in this text was a false prophet: he fought against the truth of God.

Paul’s Intense Rebuke

How did Paul handle the false prophet? He could have said to Sergius Paulus, “Could I have a word with you privately?” He could have tried to avoid any kind of public head-on collision with the false prophet in front of the proconsul. Or he could have charmed the false prophet by being as gentle in his refutation as he possibly could be. But that was not how Paul elected to respond.

Listen to the words that came from the lips of the Apostle to the false prophet. We read, “Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him.” Boy, would I like to have a photograph of that. I would love to see the look in Paul’s eyes because I think his eyes were blazing as he turned his gaze on this man who was trying to prevent the proconsul from hearing and receiving the gospel.

Paul looked at the man and said, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?” Clearly, the Apostle had not taken the time to read Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Nor was he bound by the conventions of the political correctness of his day. Rather, he lashed into this man and gave him what for.

We are told Paul spoke in this manner while filled by the Holy Ghost. If you are familiar with the life of Paul, you know that Paul was a man who over and again manifested a pastor’s heart, a man who admonished us to be gentle, patient, long-suffering, kind, and merciful, not combative, not belligerent, not bellicose in our relationships with people, mirroring and reflecting the way in which Jesus dealt with people. Jesus would not break the wounded branch. How tender He was with the downtrodden and the weak.

Yet when those who in positions of power and authority stood up to resist the truth of God, Jesus did not take any prisoners. He asked no quarter, and He gave none. When He talked to the Pharisees, He called them children of hell, just as Paul called this false prophet the son of the devil. But we are not accustomed to that.

An Outcry in Enfield

A few months ago, I mentioned to you that Max McLean, who records the Scriptures so people can listen to them, recorded a recitation of the most famous sermon ever preached in America, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached by Jonathan Edwards in Enfield, Connecticut in 1741. I did the introduction to that recording.

Recently, when I was with Max, I asked, “What kind of response are you getting from it?” He said, “In the main I’m getting a positive response, but it’s also worked up a lot of hostility, and I get angry letters from people who don’t like it.” I said: “Me too. I’m getting them also.” It was on our radio program, Renewing Your Mind, that people heard it, and we are getting angry letters from people that say something like this: “I don’t want to hear this kind of preaching because my god is a god of love, and this sermon is about hell.”

I recently said to Vesta about one of these letters: “It frightens me that there are people in the church today who become hostile when hearing or reading Edwards’ sermon.” The message in it is the application of one biblical text, and principle after another taken from Deuteronomy, “their steps shall slip in due time,” where he warned the people in Enfield, Connecticut of how perilous their current situation was.

Let me give you a little history. The Great Awakening had swept through New England. It had moved in Northampton, where Edwards was the pastor, and then George Whitefield came from England and itinerated through the area. The Great Awakening spread to almost every village in Connecticut except one: Enfield. All the villages around Enfield were caught up in revival and awakening, coming to Christ, but the people of Enfield were stiff-necked and hardened in their hearts.

The leaders in Enfield contacted Edwards and begged him to travel to Connecticut and preach. It was there that Edwards came to preach that sermon. Halfway through the sermon, he had to interrupt himself because there was such an outcry in the congregation, not an outcry of anger, but an outcry of grief and mourning as people were slain in their consciences and pricked by the truth of the Word of God. They were crying out for relief from their guilt.

Edwards stopped and asked elders minister to them, then the sermon resumed. He kept on going, and we are told by an eyewitness that he was not ranting, raving, or screaming. They said he fixed his gaze on the bell rope in the back of the church and in a gracious tone continued with these biblical images, warning the people, saying: “Do you realize that some of you who are in the congregation this morning, within the next twelve months, will be in hell? Some of you may be there before the sun rises tomorrow.”

Love and Judgment

We do not know the extent of our days. We do not know how long God is going to be patient with us. His longsuffering is designed to give us an opportunity to take advantage of the grace given in Christ, but what happens according to the Scriptures is that the longer God delays, the more arrogant we become, the bolder we are in our defiance against Him, and the more we get rid of any notion of judgment, saying, “Our god is a god of love.”

Ladies and gentlemen, a god who is a god of love and never punishes sin would not be loving. A god who is the judge of heaven and earth but never judges would not be a good judge. If there is anything certain that comes to us from the lips of Jesus, it is that every human being will stand before almighty God and be held accountable for every thought and deed, every idle word.

I cannot see the heart of anyone here this morning, but the odds would indicate that there are people gathered in this room who at some future point will be in hell. In hell they will remember: “Yes, I heard about the cross. I heard about Christ. But I was like Bar-Jesus. I never stopped fighting the gospel. I never ceased rejecting it until the day I died, and now, alas, it’s too late.”

I thank God that the Apostle Paul loved Sergius Paulus enough to call the enemy of the gospel out right in front of him and to expose him for what he was: a fraud. He was a deceiver who saw the goal of his vocation as to undermine the preaching of the truth.

That was why Paul spent so much time in jail, being beaten nearly to death, and finally paid for it by having his head cut off by Caesar, because he loved the lost and cared about their eternal destiny. Oh, that we would be awakened to that kind of passion that marked the very beginning of the missionary enterprise of the Apostle Paul.

Flee to Jesus

Luke tells us at the end of the text that Paul said to the false prophet, “The hand of God is upon you to put you in darkness for a season.” This would not be forever, but for a time during which he would be stricken with blindness. Then we are told that the false prophet, who could supposedly tell everyone else what was coming next, was groping around for somebody to hold his hand to lead him in this dark mist that God had put upon him.

As for Sergius Paulus, he was astonished. The Apostle Paul came and told the fortuneteller, “You son of the devil, you’re going to be blind.” The proconsul saw that, and we are told that he believed. But there is a little footnote there. He did not believe simply because he was an eyewitness of the judgment that befell the false prophet, but we are told that he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. It was the Word of God. It was the truth proclaimed by Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark that overwhelmed Sergius Paulus.

God gave to Sergius Paulus ears to hear and eyes to see, so that when he died, he did not end up in hell. Every now and then, you must look in your mirror, look hard, cut away the facade, and ask yourself: “Where is my heart? Am I really trusting in Christ and Christ alone for my salvation? Or am I still resting on my performance, how many times I go to church, how many good deeds I’ve done, or how much money I’ve given away? Or have I fled to the cross as my only hope in life and death?”

Jesus alone is the gateway to Heaven and everlasting life. Every moment that we resist the full commitment of our hearts to Him, the same Apostle who spoke to this false prophet says that we are heaping up wrath, piling it up, treasuring it up, making a new deposit every day against the day of wrath. Flee to Jesus, if for no other reason than to save your own soul. Let us pray.

Our Father and our God, give to our land, our church, our families, and our homes the kind of revival that breaks out when your Word is preached boldly and accurately. For we know that the lies we tell ourselves and the lies we tell others cannot overcome the light of Your truth. Save us, oh Christ, we beg You. In Your name. Amen.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.