Imagine the power of being guided by the Holy Spirit, of seeking divine direction before taking any step. Acts 13 is a divine exploration of just that. We navigate through the scattering of Christ’s disciples, their proclamation of Jesus despite fear, and their church-building efforts in Antioch, led by, Barnabas, and Saul. As they bow their heads in prayer and fast, the Holy Spirit reveals a mission for Barnabas and Saul.
As we follow Saul and Barnabas, we learn the importance of waiting for the Lord's confirmation before rushing into ministry, and how prayer and fasting bring the Lord's direction. Spiritual disciplines are key to hearing the Lord's call and being empowered to walk the path He has carved out for us. The Holy spirit is not just a historical phenomenon; the Holy Spirit is God.
Imagine the power of being guided by the Holy Spirit, of seeking divine direction before taking any step. Acts 13 is a divine exploration of just that. We navigate through the scattering of Christ’s disciples, their proclamation of Jesus despite fear, and their church-building efforts in Antioch, led by, Barnabas, and Saul. As they bow their heads in prayer and fast, the Holy Spirit reveals a mission for Barnabas and Saul.
As we follow Saul and Barnabas, we learn the importance of waiting for the Lord's confirmation before rushing into ministry, and how prayer and fasting bring the Lord's direction. Spiritual disciplines are key to hearing the Lord's call and being empowered to walk the path He has carved out for us. The Holy spirit is not just a historical phenomenon; the Holy Spirit is God.
Welcome to the Be Disciples podcast with your host, kyle Morris, dakota Smith and David Glavin with his episode 93, and we're in the book of Acts. We're going to be starting chapter 13 today. How's it going, guys? How's your last week been?
Speaker 2:Hello, last week's been great. What's going on, david, how you doing Good for me, been good for you or thing good for you. Been good for me. Been good for me. We did talk before the episode. Here we're all going to speak with a different accent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I shot that down, as you can tell from that example.
Speaker 2:You can't have been somebody rock.
Speaker 3:I do good country though, so okay.
Speaker 1:You good, I mean we are in the country you ain't country.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:It was a good week.
Speaker 2:Thank you for asking. It was a good week, great annunciation.
Speaker 1:The.
Speaker 3:Lord did great things this week.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, yesterday we had Scott Swartzentruber that's right and his wife Shannon from I-68 Ministries down in Mexico that we partner with for a couple of things A house build once a year and then we're actually going down next month to do a pastors conference down there to really help pastors learn how to interpret God's word and to formulate their preaching, and so that was a blessing. I enjoyed his sermon very much. He was great, and just the time that we got to spend with him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he came over to the house afterwards. Yesterday we had some burgers, got to spend time with he and his wife. I've known Scott for approaching 10 years now and probably built seven or eight houses for that ministry. I mean as a part of one of their ministry, myself, you just built one man show. Yeah, you guys didn't know this giftedness of mine. No, definitely not More so like they allowed me to participate in the house build, but yeah, yeah, I'd be a little scared if you build me a house.
Speaker 1:I'd let David build me a house, yeah.
Speaker 2:But probably not. Yeah, okay, yeah, have you seen my work.
Speaker 1:I mean I'm pretty sure he called you Dakota, called David to help him for stuff.
Speaker 2:So yeah, david, at least has that background. I didn't call Kyle.
Speaker 3:No, just flip it on your hair there, I'll cut through a pipe.
Speaker 2:You did, but we fixed it. It's okay. It's all right. I did not fix it.
Speaker 1:Well, the reason I just I mentioned I-681, I think you should check them out. If you're listening, you don't know about them. But also they are people who are missionaries, who live since, and we're going to be talking about mission's work in chapter 13. Definitely, today we're going to be talking about the movement of the Holy Spirit. You know, scott shares his story a little bit about being moved to reach the loss, or to reach the poor, and the Holy Spirit moving him in a way where he revealed a ministry down in Mexico to go reach people, and I think that is just something today that the Holy Spirit's doing all around the world. But today we're going to be studying this movement of sick people, the church going and making disciples of all nations. So let's pray and then we're going to get into Acts 13. Dakota, can you pray for us?
Speaker 2:Father, thank you for this morning and thank you for the laughter here in the office and we just enjoy time with one another. We enjoyed time and prayer and just enjoying the gift of friendship. So thank you so much for this podcast, this episode. We pray that God, as we work through the text, you would give us an insight in our conversation so that it would be helpful to the listener. In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 2:So chapter 13,. We'll just start with the first, like three verses. Now, there was at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers, barnabas and Simeon, who is called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene and Meneon, who had been brought up with hair of the tetrarch and saw, while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So, guys, a couple of things in verse one, any initial thoughts. I mean we can't ignore either who is being mentioned or their titles, any thoughts?
Speaker 1:Well, we go back to chapter 11, right, antioch, the ministry that has been built by just disciples going and preaching the gospel, and a church being built and Barnabas being sent by the church in Jerusalem, and then Barnabas going to get Saul to join him to build up this church. So that's, we're in that same situation at this time, and so this is continuing that narrative of the church at Antioch and what's going to come of that. So I'm just reminded of the Holy Spirit moving through disciples of Christ as they were scattered and I've actually read something that scattered should just be called sent, because when they were sent off after the death of Stephen, they were sent people, they were going, they were proclaiming, they weren't scared, they kept talking about Jesus. And so I think here we see a group of men here ministering to each other and being in worship to God and fasting together.
Speaker 3:They're specifically ministering to the Lord and to each other. The fact that they are not getting together. They're getting together for a purpose, that is, to fast and seek the. You know the purpose of the Lord and during that time, during their fasting, that's when the Lord brings up this direction for Paul and for Barnabas, for Saul and for Barnabas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and maybe just a couple of other things. If we look at verse one, just some of these individuals mentioned, of course we have Barnabas. We've learned much about him, but Simeon, who is also called Niger Niger does mean black in the original language, which many presume that he was a black African among the congregation at Antioch. My notes say from David Guzik, and it's likely, it's likely that this is the same Simeon who carried Jesus's cross from Luke 23, 26. So you see that the man who carried Jesus's cross is likely the same individual here and that I mean he. He in a very literal sense got to pick up his cross and follow Jesus daily. You know, I think that's that's necessary to note here in the text.
Speaker 2:And then you look at Meneon. It says who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch. This is the Herod who beheaded John the Baptist. So maybe this is a childhood friend or maybe they're best friends, who knows? The text doesn't give us more details in what we have, but it says he had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch. And I have a note here that says Herod and Meneon grew up together but went in very different ways. One killed John the Baptist and presided over one of the trials of Jesus before his crucifixion, that's Herod. The other became a Christian and a leader in the dynamic congregation Antioch. So it's almost like there's these individuals here at this super hustling and bustling Holy Spirit and powered church and all of them, their lives are interwoven with the person of Jesus Christ and that's to some degree, and and that's what they all have in common.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then there's also there's Lucius of Cyrene, but we know Barnabas is from Cyrene.
Speaker 2:Okay, I didn't pick that up, that's good, and so there's a possibility.
Speaker 1:Barnabas and him know each other. It doesn't say, but they are from the same place, so at least they have a common. They have something common other than the Lord, but of where they're from. It is a Hellenist group that there, that is a part of this church, and so the language in which they're using is Greek, because of the crowd of who they're preaching to, and so maybe these guys also have the ability to speak multiple languages and to reach these people as well. So maybe that's why they were specifically there. God called them there because they could relate to the people and minister to them.
Speaker 2:Something else too. If you look in verse two it says while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting. That word for ministering it's translated in the Septuagint as the same exact word that the Levitical priests offered to the Lord in the temple. So like, literally, temple service, temple worship, temple ministering. I think sometimes we are one sided in our thoughts and it kind of goes like this you know, we are called to minister to people, absolutely, but sometimes we maybe think that's where it stops and I mean truly, like our heart, our life, our worship should be ministering to the Lord, that it should be pleasing to the Lord, like I should be ministering to him, and that's something that's kind of forgotten in our Christian walk. We don't, we don't speak about it in language like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the ESV, it says worshiping. It doesn't even use the word minister and just go straight to worshiping. Yeah, but yeah, I think, even when we think about reaching people for the Lord, we got to remove ourselves from our own kind of thinking of what people need and focus on what the Lord wants us to provide those people right Seeking the Lord's guidance in reaching people, in serving the poor, in reaching the lost. So I think that is worshiping the Lord, being being in prayer, life and fasting, which is what they're doing. Right. They're not like, hey, we're out doing stuff and we hope the Lord does things. No, they're praying and fasting because they want to know where you're going to. What do you want us to do? They're seeking the Lord and in worship to know how to go reach people. And I think we see that a good example of that here, and I think pastors should be doing the same thing right. We are here to equip the church to minister to the Lord, to do his work, and we got to make sure we're actually doing his work.
Speaker 3:We want him pleased with the church's maturity and aligning with the heart of God, aligning with the will of the Lord and ministering to the Lord, serving others in ministry to the Lord, Yep, and that is drawing close to God and knowing what his heart is and and and what that service looks like and and everything that we do. And that's how we keep when I'm going to application. But you know, I believe that that's how we keep in line in our own ministries, keeping our own hearts in check. Is that reminding that when we get rejection from those that we are serving or when things aren't going the way we want, that we're not doing it for them, we're doing it unto the Lord? And that is the service. We may not always get the responses that we want in ministry to the church and serving the church and loving the church, but ultimately we're loving God in that action and God's doing the work in the hearts of others, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we also just see practice of spiritual disciplines. Our men right now a large group of them, almost about 50 men, are meeting throughout the week to study spiritual disciplines. Here we see prayer and fasting. Those are two common ones that we hear all the time. There's more than two, but I think prayer and fasting, there's a, there's the practice of it to be disciplined in. It is really important, I think, because it does exactly what you just said. It prepares us to align ourselves with the will of God and his desires for our calling, for our life, and when we do that then we can actually really minister to people.
Speaker 3:The early church fathers had an idea of fasting and prayer that I think we've lost today. And what it does in a practical sense, that it takes away, I think, sometimes subtle and sometimes blatant ways, we don't see how much we are led by our own flesh desires, Like we speed up a conversation because we're hungry or you know we were, we were hoping to go do something else, so we speed through something else that we're not doing thoughtfully and diligently before the Lord and and you know, the ministry you know hurts. So when we take away that desire, when we fast from something that can be a fleshly distraction for us, then we are, you know, disciplining ourselves to trust in the Lord and not those things, and it sets us back on track.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't imagine what these guys were going through from a busyness standpoint. Like they're planting a church and during the time where there were no you could say churches or established congregations, like this is new. They're they. We got the church in Jerusalem and we got some church planning starting to happen and I mean, how busy can you get? I mean we get busy in our day to day to the point where sometimes we're like, well, was that as productive as it could have been if I stopped and prayed and and actually talk to the Lord today. Like, sometimes we just get so busy so I can't. I can't imagine the busyness that they had teaching and trying to get people organized and and this is all new and there's persecution and there's all kinds of things going on. But we see them here doing this prayer and fasting and I think that is really important.
Speaker 2:And maybe to add to it as well.
Speaker 2:I don't know if anybody reaches that level of maturity without failure, at least spiritually, like it takes a while to kind of grow up and from what we've seen already in Acts, we've already seen a hesitancy over a lucked ends, decisions made in the flesh, decisions made without prayer. You know, like all of those things we actually have seen in the first 12 chapters. I can't give you the exact reference on the spot, but nevertheless it's, it's obvious. If you read the text it's almost like you. You get this depiction of a maturing church and I'm speaking about the universal church here in this context but the depiction of the church of Antioch. They're mature because I also think they've got mature leaders who have seen things go wrong. And you know right about this time I think we talked in last episodes, podcasts that the, the famine that came over the land would have been about 11 to 14 years after, after the church began in Pentecost. So the church has had, like the last decade plus to really learn from what to do and what not to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Saul, here isn't some young guy anymore.
Speaker 2:No, he's been away for a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think there's maturity that's take place in his walk with the Lord by the time this occurs. You know, it's something I think about in my own life, like when I was younger I wanted to be a full time like youth pastor and and I was always not given that by the Lord at that time, like it was always like no we're eating work this other job and do ministry, but I'm not ready.
Speaker 1:God's like, I'm preparing you and I'm impatient. So I'm like, why, why, why? Why didn't this happen? You know, why am I not full time? That's my desire. But you think of like somebody like Saul, who was trained formally right in God's word, who then gets converted to follow Jesus. Jesus comes to him and and he puts his faith in Jesus and then goes away for 10 years, and now we see him come back. Now God calls him into ministry.
Speaker 1:What is happening here in verse two, 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. There's a work that Saul and Barnabas were called to, and this was the moment. This was the moment that the Lord finally said to Saul now is the time to go. And he had to wait. He had to wait on the Lord. Five years, yeah. And so I think it's cool to see that and to pay attention to the timeline, because we want to be so fast in things, especially in America. We want things to happen now, and here we see waiting. We see waiting and confirmation from the Lord, and we also see a calling which we all in this room talking can relate to. A calling because we're all called to be pastors and there's calling.
Speaker 2:We just talked about this yesterday with Scott and Shannon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's callings to be missionaries, there's callings to do certain things, and we see that here in scripture there is evidence of a calling and we have to be aware of that Now. We're all called to be evangelists, we're all called to disciple, because that's a great commission. But some are called to specific offices, you could say of ministry, whether that's eldership or deacons or missionaries or just certain areas that you are called to do for the Lord. And there is a specific calling in the Holy Spirit. He picks Barnabas and Saul out of this group of men to go and to be sent for a specific reason which we'll learn about.
Speaker 1:But I want that to be pointed out, as maybe you're thinking of a call to ministry. As you're listening to this, maybe you've been wrestling with what that looks like. Be careful. One, yeah, one, be careful, but two. Do what they're doing Prayer and fasting, wait on the Lord, be patient, just jump in and rush. Now. It doesn't mean don't keep living a life as a Christian sharing the gospel and keep doing that, but don't jump into ministry right away. Spend time and prayer with the Lord. I don't think it always looks like this.
Speaker 3:But in this, in this instance, I'm saying the time is spent in prayer and fasting. That's where the time is spent. The time is not spent in deliberating and meeting and tabling the issue and trying to decide and then finally coming up with the decision. The time is spent in prayer and fasting and when the Lord gives them a clear answer, send Paul and Barnabas. It's immediate, it's done. It's like this is our call. As soon as they're done, fasting, go. And I think that in the ministry maybe we lose out on some of that. When you know, when we spend too much time trying to spend our wheels and making decisions where you know our time should be spent in prayer and fasting, the Lord will make clear the way and that's when we act and that's where we put Robert around.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry to cut you off. Yeah, I'm in total agreement with that. I think there are times where maybe we appeal to the idea of praying first and then going and doing it, and then in a reality, we get like locked into do, do, do, but we have forgotten how to pray. And I mean, one of the areas that the Lord has worked on me in the last couple of years is, like Dakota, like wait for me to lead, wait for me to speak, wait for me to prod and impress upon your heart before you dive into something. And almost every single time I go forth with something without prayer, it really it kind of just fizzles out, never really works out. But the things that I have felt the Lord speaking to me on, it's really amazing. Like it, it's not about me, it's just the Lord is the one who empowers it and it always like succeeds, it always flourishes, it always bears fruit. Who would have thought, you know? So, along those lines, I think that's interesting.
Speaker 2:But maybe, backing up in the text for a brief minute too, I think this is really interesting. Right, they're seeking, they're ministering to the Lord, they're seeking to be pleasing to Him, they're fasting. They've obviously said Lord, we want your attention, we want to be honoring to you. And then the beautiful words the Holy Spirit said Like that's the Christian life. If you're not born again, you don't know that. Yeah, it's true, I mean really.
Speaker 2:I can't explain it to somebody, you just gotta.
Speaker 1:Well, we can. You know, we've talked about the Holy Spirit, obviously in Acts, because this is the Acts of the Holy Spirit, but it is hard to explain as a believer who's in dwelt by the Holy Spirit, because people are like people who are not believers, you know, with criticisms of Scripture or criticisms of what God has done, and we see that the apostles not really understand things until when the Holy Spirit indwells in them. Yeah, the Holy Spirit gives an understanding to God's word, an understanding to what God is doing, not a fool. We don't have all the knowledge because the Holy Spirit's in us, but the Holy Spirit is God Empowering the believer, indwelling in the believer. This is different than any other time in history.
Speaker 1:Israelites didn't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was present, the Holy Spirit was active, the Holy Spirit impressed, the Holy Spirit guided and still led them, but not indwelled in them. And so, yeah, I think it's amazing here, this is the Holy Spirit, said man. When the Holy Spirit speaks, god is speaking and he's leading. And I think, you know, all three of us can think about times where the Holy Spirit spoke and we were like, oh no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's clear as day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't, you know it, I can't ignore that, yeah, and it's not something you would envision for yourself, it's not. It's even something that goes against the way you even maybe think about yourself. I think of things that the Holy Spirit impresses on my heart that I'm like I'm not ready for that. Lord, I don't, I'm not. And sometimes it is. It's like the Lord tells you something and he's not saying, he's not always saying do it now here. When the Holy Spirit man, they just they act, they're searching this. But I think there's a moment which the Holy Spirit's like I'm preparing you, I have something for you. I'm not going to give that to you yet, but I'm getting you ready. And then there's moments where the Holy Spirit's like go and do now.
Speaker 3:And it's very evident Super fun and energizing when you listen to the Spirit. It's not fun when you don't listen to the Spirit and when you ignore.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:When you ignore the Spirit, the feeling that you get the condition your Spirit is in. But in ministry, when you follow the Spirit, it's just, it only pushes, continues to push you and energize you and excite you for the ministry.
Speaker 2:And maybe to add a little bit of balance. This does not necessarily mean that you've got to hear from the Holy Spirit before any physical act or function that you do. Right, like some things, the Holy Spirit's. Like you know, I'm not going to speak because, like the Bible already says it, the word already says it. You should be mature enough to know that, like you know, sometimes the silence of the Lord is his way of saying, like I've already told you what to do. So, as a Christian, you have to be discerning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can't. Oh, the Holy Spirit didn't give me that gift, so I can't do that. Well, hold on. What does the Bible say about a Christian and what was how we're supposed to live and what the things we're supposed to do? Like that, just that. Is the Holy Spirit speaking. The Holy Spirit wrote the.
Speaker 2:Bible. That's right. So I've already heard from the Holy Spirit on specific things concerning his what we would call his moral will.
Speaker 1:Right. So yeah, I think there there is definitely a balance. But there are times the Holy Spirit speaks and says go.
Speaker 3:It's just like with our kids and the daily routines, Like I don't have to tell you to do the things that we do every day.
Speaker 2:I told you enough times, right, yeah, you're not getting a cookie for brushing your teeth.
Speaker 3:That's right For taking the laundry downstairs. That's what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Something else in the statement that I'm just kind of being reminded of. When the Holy Spirit says set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them, that's a depiction of the deity of the third person of the Trinity. Set apart for me, he doesn't say, at least directly, for the father, for the son, Set apart for me, why? Because the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, not a thing, not a force, not an it, the person of the Holy Spirit says set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. And I think the Holy Spirit receives his orders from the father and from the son, but nevertheless he is saying me and I, the Holy Spirit, a person. And then maybe one other thought I think it's really interesting that Barnabas and Saul clearly seem to be the most equipped and readied individuals in the church and and in this case that's who the Holy Spirit setting apart?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's also directed for the rest of the men there. I mean, how maybe tempting would it be for you like, hey, guys just want to pass her this church here. She doesn't want to stay here, mm-hmm, you know, and just continue to do what you're doing right here in Antioch. We can grow a big church and keep doing our thing, mm-hmm, but the Holy Spirit's like, you know, I have something for you and you're, we're gonna, I'm gonna set them apart and you need to listen, and they'd listen and they do, because they're right after Laid hands on them and sent them off, that's right. So they, they didn't go selfish, I mean, they were practicing Spiritual discipline, they were practicing Listening to the Lord. They were, they were trying to give it all over to him, and so it didn't amount anything selfish, it amounted in obedience, and I think that that's a key element here to spiritual disciplines.
Speaker 1:The spiritual disciplines leads to obedience to the Lord and and that's what happens with these, this group of men, and when men get together and pray and when they're seeking the Lord, the Lord speaks, the Lord moves, and this isn't just for this time in the early church. This is today. We can't forget the Holy Spirit. This is the church age today. This is the same age Now. The apostles are alive and there's gonna be some things that the apostles do that that we don't do today, but the Holy Spirit is still working today and we can't forget that in the church now Holy Spirit's active, holy Spirit's moving, and we need to not Treat the Holy Spirit as if it's something of the past.
Speaker 1:I think we can get in trouble with that. I think we get in trouble for ignoring the Holy Spirit. Oh, that's too spiritualized or weird or awkward. No, the Holy Spirit is God and we can't ignore the work of the Holy Spirit. We do that in conservative churches at times. We pray to the Father and we pray to Jesus and we only say the Holy Spirit when we baptize and we, we just don't always engage in what the Holy Spirit is doing. So we just we just need to. We need to know that the Holy Spirit is God and active and to not be shy.
Speaker 2:It creates a very stale spiritual atmosphere when we keep the Holy Spirit, you know, bound up lock and key, you know, with the lack of our, our words.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean I try to pray every Sunday let the power of the Holy Spirit move in who's preaching and move in the hearts. Yeah, because that's who's moving, that's who's moving in acts, that's who's moving today. Like, like we need to recognize the whole Trinity, not just the ones we're comfortable with. Yeah, the Holy Spirit can be like a little uncomfortable, like, oh, the Holy Spirit does weird things. Like, oh, things in acts, they, those things creep me out a little bit. That's supernatural. Well, the Father is supernatural and does supernatural things. That's right.
Speaker 2:So it's Jesus, the Holy Spirit's actually, and you know, on that point, the Holy Spirit's actually just Following orders from the Father and the Son. So to actually ignore or reject the Holy Spirit would be to ignore or reject the Father and the Son indirectly. So we've got to be careful with that. Yeah, as we continue through the rest of this text, we've spent a lot of time here, guys, in the first three verses of chapter 13, if we were to evaluate, you know, one through 12 all together, we would see, probably because it's narrative, a basic structure, a basic plot sequence you where you have setting, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion. So I would like to say verses one through three have just been the setting, what's happening Before Barnabas and Saul get sent on mission. So we have only covered the setting today. So I Propose this, as we start to close up this episode, that with verses four through twelve, let's just follow the basic plot sequence. You know the rest of the way, what's our rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion, and let's see what the Lord is continuing to do. So I'm gonna read four through twelve, like all in one shot.
Speaker 2:It says so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they also had John as their helper. I think that's John the Apostle, or no, john Mark? Sorry about that. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet, whose name was bar Jesus, who is with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
Speaker 2:But Elemus the magician for so his name is translated was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who is also known as Paul Filled with the Holy Spirit, or literally empowered by the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him and said you, who are full of all deceit and fraud, you, son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time, and and immediately, a Mist and a darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. So what would you all categorize as rising action climax, falling action conclusion?
Speaker 1:Well rising action is there's clearly this situation, that's that's building where the proconsul has sent for Saul and Barnabas to come, and there's a there's a conflict between Bar Jesus, there's this magician, and then there's a conflict of what's being taught. There's a, there's a false message, and then there's the true message. And so here the proconsul wants to hear from those who are One, the Apostle Paul, yeah, and Barnabas, what, what the word is, what's the word of God? We want to hear it. We want to hear your side of what's going on. So there's a conflict between the truth and lies. That's rising to a specific point. David, what do you got?
Speaker 3:well, they were on their way to where they were going. They got where they were going, they started doing what they were doing and then somebody came along and wanted to hear, and the enemy took opportunity to create conflict in that. So and Paul spoke to it, addressed it, didn't let it resonate, didn't let it just cut it right out.
Speaker 1:Which would be the climax? Right, it would be the climax, paul's. Like you, son of the devil.
Speaker 2:Like just straight to the book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the climax Straight up called him the son of Satan. So, yeah, I mean that's. This is the transition here where we see Saul becomes who Paul, which we know as the apostle Paul, who uses the word, the name Paul in his letters as he's doing his missionary work and transitions here in Acts. But this is the Paul that we know. This is the Paul that calls out false teaching, calls out wrongdoing that is not of the Lord, and so he is bold here in calling him out. But he's calling him out because of the lies there's lies in what they're trying to get the proconsul to fall into, a set of lies that would lead them in the wrong direction, which is I don't know how many examples today we could think of in America where that's happening, where people are being led away by the lies of our culture, by the lies of other ideologies, and so Paul's not letting this happen. Paul's speaking the truth and calling out evil when it's evil.
Speaker 3:I mean, if you were one who was blinded by the spirit for not following God, I would probably be pretty quick to look for an opportunity to make somebody else blind too. Yeah. God did this to me. It's on you now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean liar, that's a great connection I didn't really think of that. Like Paul knew, the Lord can make somebody blind. He knew that Because he's already experienced it.
Speaker 2:Like I've been here, bro, it's your turn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a great connection.
Speaker 2:Well, it is interesting. You know both of his names, his Hebrew name, saul, his Greek name, paul, are mentioned In verse five. He's ministering in the synagogues, but then from there as they go throughout the whole island. Verse six onward it seems like you know he's ministering to the Gentiles, which is, I think, the transition to Paul. But it is really interesting at the end of verse eight, this magician Elemos was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. And I think there's your rising action, then your response.
Speaker 2:The climax is Paul himself. You, son of the devil, are you ever going to stop trying to twist and make crooked the things that come directly from the Lord? Like, are you gonna keep twisting? And then I think we get our following action in verse 11, and then our conclusion in verse 12. Let's talk about verse 11. The following action would be what guys Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time. And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him. Anyone about seeking those who would lead him by the hand? So how, I mean why, could we attribute that to being a falling action from the climax?
Speaker 1:It's a consequence from the climax. I mean, it's the result of the false message that this individual is proclaiming. And we see the blinding, we see the temporary blindness. It's for a time right. This isn't a permanent blindness, according to the word. And so, just like Paul, who experienced a temporary blindness, and now he's seeking people to lead him by the hand Well, obviously, if you're blind, you can't see where you're going. But Paul needed the same thing and won his discipleship and understand of who Jesus was. So you're hoping that this guy was like well, the Lord just blinded me. There's, I must be wrong. I mean, maybe not, but I just think there's something here. Yeah, I need to be led by the hand because I can't see. But there's also, just like Paul, he needed to be led by the hand by who? Ananias, and because he didn't know where to go from. There there was redemption for Paul.
Speaker 3:There's hope for redemption for the magician.
Speaker 1:Which kind of comes the conclusion of the proconsul believing what was seen, which this man can no longer see at the moment, and the conclusion is that they were astonished at the teaching of the Lord and they believed in what Paul was saying. So, yeah, I mean it concludes in the best place possible belief.
Speaker 3:He who was falsely leading is now having to be led. He's now having to rely on others.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe just one other thought too. It says the teaching of the Lord. So we know that, you know Paul and Barnabas are the ones teaching, but it says the teaching of the Lord. So ultimately, like, what we say, what we give to others, is the teaching of the Lord. And we've kind of been covering this in Matthew 10 recently, in the missions discourse of Jesus. Here as a church, you know Jesus is teaching his disciples what to say based on other sermons he's given. And then he says now you go to other people and you take my message and see if they receive you or reject you on the basis of me. So ultimately, everything we teach should be the teaching of the Lord. If we're teaching anything apart from the Lord, then it's us who will be held culpable and responsible for that.
Speaker 1:So Well, we think we need to do something beyond that to be astonishing, yeah, I know, oh, that's a great point yeah. You know, we think we.
Speaker 2:They're amazed at the teaching of the Lord.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not the teaching of Kyle, yeah, not the teaching of Dakota and David, the teaching of the Lord. Yeah, they were astonished. People are going to be astonished by God's word, not our own. And that's why, when we go to preach, we say, lord, this is your word, we do not wanna add to it, we do not wanna take away from it, we wanna preach your word. Your word is astonishing, not our own. And so, yeah, god uses Paul, he uses preachers to go and to proclaim, but the astonishing part isn't the man preaching, the astonishing part is the word of God. That's right and we need to be reminded of that.
Speaker 1:So, thank you guys, so much for listening to Be Disciples podcast. We hope you're enjoying our study in the book of Acts and we hope that you would share that with others. Remember to go on podcast platforms. Rate us five stars, give some comments. That just allows our podcast to be more seen ultimately, so more people hear the word of God. Just as we were talking about, we want people to listen to this podcast, to be equipped in God's word, to go out and make disciples. Have a blessed week and we'll see you next time.