You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?
Is there anything here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.
Welcome to More Than Ink. So, we all know that Barnabas and Paul were active partners in missionary journeys throughout the book of Acts. How did they get started doing that anyway?
Yeah, that's right. You see them as great travel buddies. Well, maybe the church in Antioch sent them, huh? Was it the church that sent them, or was it the Holy Spirit's idea?
It was the Holy Spirit's idea, and we'll see exactly how that happened today on More Than Ink. Okay, I know you've been looking for us. Well, you found us. Here we are. This is More Than Ink. I'm Jim.
And I'm Dorothy. And we're glad that you've joined us as we're working our way through the book of Acts, and it's been full of a lot of drama up to this point. We're up to chapter 12, and wow. And there's more coming.
And there's more coming. Yeah, it's an exciting tale about how the early church spread out and spread the gospel. And we're focusing in, when we get to chapter 12, we're focusing more in on the apostle Paul now. So, we'll see a lot of his journeys and crazy stuff. But before we get to him, we have one more chapter to cover that's kind of odd.
You know, last time in the last time we were together, we were looking at Peter. He was in jail, and then they were praying for him, and he got let out of jail. And Herod, who put him into jail, was really mad. I mean, like, Herod was really mad.
You can't even accent how mad the language says he is. But he got out. The angel took him out. He reported to people praying for him.
They wouldn't let him inside. And then he left. He's talking about Peter, not Herod, yeah.
Peter, yeah. So then Peter told the people praying for him, and then he's gone. And Herod is so mad about this. He basically just, in a huff, leaves the Judean area and goes up north to Caesarea, which is kind of a resort town for the Romans, and he just cools his heels up there. But then we follow him just a little bit before we start focusing on Paul as he goes up to Caesarea. Yeah, so I was thinking about that, because this passage begins, now Herod was angry, right?
Yes. With the people of Tyre and Sidon, but he was just mad anyway. He was already angry. So, we don't know what this anger against them consisted of, but we just know he was already petty and angry. When we left him, he was angry about losing Peter. He had lost track of Peter, yeah, and couldn't explain it. And was ready to do a crowd-pleasing execution, and it just did not happen. So that's where we pick up today, if you're following, we're in chapter 12 of Acts, and we're going to pick up verse 20, and we're up in the north in Caesarea, and we're going to see what the angry Herod does.
Okay. Now, Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, the voice of a god and not of a man. Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied. I had to make sure we got that in.
That's a nice contrast point. Well, Lucas put those two statements together, right? He wants you to see that although Herod did not prosper and multiply, Herod did not, but the word did, the word of God did.
That there's no helping it. So we see the end of Herod here, who is the enemy of the gospel, and much so down in the south, he tried to kill Peter. He had killed James, the brother of John. So here he is up in the north. This Herod, by the way, is the grandson of Herod the Great, and not the Herod.
Herod's actually a title for President or Caesar, stuff like that. And people from Tyre and Sidon. Now, do you know where Tyre and Sidon is? Well, they're up north on the coast, outside of Israel, but they're north of Caesarea in some ways. Present-day Lebanon on the coast of present-day Lebanon. And it says according to the passage here, they rely on food coming out of Israel. You wonder about that. Since Tyre was a port city, you wonder if he had somehow blockaded their port or whatever. We couldn't find anything historical record of that.
I don't know. But they're afraid of losing their food supplies, so they come down to the king, and they would basically say just about anything to get on his good side, because after all, it's a matter of food. So it says on the appointed day Herod put on his royal robes. He dressed big.
Your robes always say who you are, how important you are. And took his seat on the throne, did an oration, and the people started shouting the voice of a god and not a man. Okay, so now you did a little reading in Josephus about this event, which is very interesting.
I had heard it before, but it was interesting to reread it. Yeah, there's this guy named Josephus, Flavius Josephus. He was born just a year or two after the crucifixion, but what he eventually did was he wrote the histories of Israel during that time in the first century.
And he actually talks about the death of this Herod Agrippa. He was a Roman. He was originally a Jew.
Well, he is a Jew, actually. In fact, he was leading some opposition troops against the Romans in the first rebellion and stuff like that. Anyway, he makes a connection with the big general at the time. That big general brings him alongside to actually be a translator, because this guy can speak Latin as well as Hebrew. He ends up going back to Rome. He ends up being part of the court of this general who becomes Caesar.
So he's well connected, right? Anyway, he writes these histories. And in one particular history that's called The Antiquities of the Jews, he writes this, and it's in Book 19 of The Antiquities in Chapter 8. So here's what he says. Now he's talking about this same event we just read here in Chapter 12 of Acts. Now he says, Josephus says, Now when Agrippa, right, that's the name of this Herod, when Agrippa had reigned three years over all Judea, he came to the city of Caesarea. That's where we are.
That's right where we are. Yeah. And on the second day, they did a big show up there to impress people, but on the second day of this, he put on a garment. And here's that specific garment it talks about from Acts. He put on a garment made wholly of silver and of a contexture, truly wonderful, and came into the theater early in the morning, at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays upon it, shown out, shown out after a surprising manner and was so resplendent to spread a horror over those who looked intently upon him. And presently his flatterers cried out.
Yeah, his flatterers, one to get on his good side, cried out. Well, one from one place, another from another place, although this was not for his good, Josephus tells us. And they cried out, He was a god. And they added, Be thou merciful to us, for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth only as superior to mortal nature. And then Josephus says, And upon this the king did neither rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery.
So he accepted, he accepted the worship of the people. Right. And you know that the Acts account says the same thing. And then a little bit later in Josephus, I skip a few sentences. A severe pain also arose in his belly and began in a most violent manner. So something was going on internally. Yeah.
Yeah. And people tried to pray for him. And I skip a few more verses in Josephus still. And Josephus says, And when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life, being in the 54th year of his age and in the seventh year of his reign. So he did die historically recorded, he did die. He did die.
It's interesting why I wonder why Luke says and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last it sounds in the in the account that he just croaked right in front of the crowd. But that's clearly not what happened. But he was stricken in some way and was sick at that event.
Yeah. And so there's a lot of consistencies between the two accounts, the sickness, the very painful sickness, something specific about putting on a rope or something about what he is wearing the account says that was had something brilliant. Yeah, so and the fact in the account says they said you're God and that's exactly what Josephus records too. And Josephus says and he accepted it.
You didn't shut him down. So and of course, in the axe account, it says that God struck him down, precisely because he would not turn down that adoration. Well, and if you think about wearing a gown, all of silver and standing in the theater, well, if this is the same theater that we've been in, in Caesarea first century theater, he would have been standing with his back to the west, which is the ocean.
And early in the morning, the sun coming up would have struck that silver. Yeah, that gown and been blinding light people in the audience. Yeah. Yeah. So what I love about this is that, you know, Luke emphasizes he breathed his last, but the word of God increased and multiplied, right?
It's just right next to each other. This statement about the opposition to the word died. Yeah, yeah. The living word of God continued to increase. Yeah. Even though the most powerful man there, Herod Agrippa, who was opposed to the gospel and thought he had it licked when he killed James and was going to kill Peter, thought he had this in the bag, but he couldn't kill Peter. And so sure enough, yeah, Luke wants to make sure you catch the irony here. The guy who was against the gospel died, but the gospel itself increased and multiplied.
Cool. So we have a meanwhile back at Jerusalem moment, right? See, it had been in Jerusalem when the events with Peter and James and John happened. And now we're back in Jerusalem. Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem because they had been sent there with the gift, as you recall, from the church in Antioch. Yeah.
Back in Acts 11, they sent a gift from the north from Antioch. Okay. So pick it up in verse 25? I'll do it.
Let me do it. Yeah, in 25. So man, Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark. So yeah, as you just said, they were down in Jerusalem bringing the gift from Antioch, which is way up in the north. It's in present day Syria. So then we turn the page into chapter 13, and here we go.
Now there were in the church at Antioch, which is where we are now, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch. The guy who just died? Yes. Apparently. Yes.
Well, no, actually this guy is one generation older than the guy who just died. Oh, oh, oh, okay. This Herod the Tetrarch. That's right.
The Tetrarchs were put in place after Herod the Great died. Right, right. So this is the Herod that killed John the Baptist. Right.
Right. Because his niece was it that taunted him for that, killed John the Baptist. This is also the guy that was at Jesus' trial, for sure, this Herod the Tetrarch. So Manaen, it says in verse one, a lifelong friend of that Herod. He's here in the church and Saul. So he's an older guy.
He's an older guy. Okay. Yeah. So verse two, so 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. Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Let's just stop right there.
Fascinating. There doesn't seem to be any discussion or debate. No, no mission committees, no fundraising. It's just very clearly the Holy Spirit said you need to set them apart. No inkling in fact of where they're going to go.
I mean this is just like, do this. But I do find this a fascinating thing. There's a difference between being set apart and then being sent. So this set apart right here is actually for the purpose of the church here it's like you need to let go of these guys. That's the setting apart without really any intention about where they're going to go.
But you need to just take your hands off of them. And the second one, read that the Holy Spirit is the one that sends them. And I really identified with this because when I left full time employment with Hewlett Packard with HP, really the first thing that God called me to was to leave that without too much idea about what I was going to. And so that set apart here is really the idea that you need to say no to a previous life before you can say yes to the next life.
And so for me that was really true. The first calling was you need to leave that behind. So I argued with God that I did not want to be disconnected from that old life. But I had to finally disconnect and then later on, it was actually a couple of years, then God could say good, so this is where we're going to, so now I send you.
So one is a pulling away, the other is a sending out. So I just want to show that because here in this particular passage in verse two it says set them apart. I'm leaving, just let them go from Antioch.
You need to let them go. Okay, so it's interesting to me too, that's a great connection, thanks for that. That Barnabas had been early involved in the church in Antioch and then he had gone, when that church began to grow, he went and looked for Saul and brought him back there. So it's interesting that Saul and Barnabas are on this list of the prophets and teachers that were functioning in Antioch, but there's all these other guys who had grown up in the meantime. And so the Lord has indicated this church is going to be okay. You guys don't need to stay here and shepherd them, you need to move on. Right, he had backfilled for them before they knew they needed the backfilling. And remember earlier on too, we saw movement of Christian missionaries from Africa and other places coming to Antioch.
Right, right. And clearly this guy Simeon, who's called Niger, which just means black, came from one of those African things. So it has taken root there and some of the people I presume that are in this list are the ones that had come to bring the gospel to Antioch before Barnabas and Saul got there.
So that's actually pretty fascinating to me. And Saul was there. But also I might want to point out in verse 2 it says, while they were worshiping, that word worshiping means more than just standing around singing. It strongly implies ministering in a sense. Like Paul and Barnabas were actively engaged ministering in their midst. Because it's the same word when you look at the Greek Old Testament, it's the same word they use for the priests when they actually do sacrifices. So they're not just worshiping, they're actively engaged in making worship happen. So that word really implies strongly that Paul and Barnabas were deeply connected in the lifeblood of this church.
In the service of the church. Yeah, so that's why when the Holy Spirit says something he says, you need to let these guys go. So that's a big deal. Well, apparently they did without any discussion. They did. And we need to press on because the story gets pretty exciting. So let's go to verse 4.
Why don't you read. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. Now when they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.
And they had John to assist them. Okay, hang on just a second because I just want to encourage you if you're listening to this, get a map. Get a map. Get a Mediterranean map because it's very helpful if you can, otherwise these places just mean nothing. But we're going to describe now the route they took on the island of Cyprus.
So verse 6. By the way, when you get a map, you might have to get a Bible era map. Oh right, a first century map. Actually I know one of these names is still on the maps today, but not all of them are. It's surprising as we go through Acts how many of the names and cities we'll go through in Acts actually are still on the maps. But get a Bible one because then you can find all these places.
Okay. So 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 Elimus the magician, for that's the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Okay let's stop here for just a second and talk about this guy's name. He's going by the name Bar Jesus, right? Son of Jesus. Son of Yeshua.
Right, right. That's his stage name. But his real name is Elimus, the wise man. That's what Elimus means. Yeah and I kind of chuckle when we got to verse 8 and he introduces the name Elimus because it's almost as though Luke who's writing this says, I'm not going to use that name again.
I think it's so off at Bar Jesus. Are you kidding me? Son of Jesus? No.
Not going to do it. Elimus. So he has come in right alongside the proconsul and is seeking to influence God.
Right and he's a big guy. Apparently. Yeah. You're talking about the proconsul. Yeah, the proconsul, Sergius Paulus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay so Saul sees through him immediately. Look at this in verse 9. 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? Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time. And 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. Yeah. Fascinating. Reminds me of another magician he's come across. Well, yeah, I was kind of going another direction there.
No, go ahead. Well, Paul, in what he calls this guy, what he says to him, is deliberately taking down the names by which he goes. Right? You son of the devil, you are not the son of Jesus. Not a son of the God who saves.
Right. And Elimus, meaning wise man, right, Paul says you are the opposite of wisdom, right? You're the enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy and you make crooked God's straight paths.
Well, I thought, I've read that somewhere before. You know, it is connected to Hosea 14.9, and so let me read that verse. �Whoever is wise, let him understand these things.
Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them.� And it's like he's running in the back of Paul's mind is the word of a real prophet saying the Lord's ways are straight, the Lord's ways are true, the Lord's ways are righteous, you are God, a son of God. Yeah, yeah. And you know, it makes me wonder whether Paul was having kind of a deja vu moment here about his own experience.
I wondered that too, because the language is almost the same. Almost the same, and the repercussions afterward is to be struck blind temporarily. Right, and go around looking for somebody to lead you by the hand. Exactly, exactly. And so actually it's a wonderful picture. You who consider yourself wise now won't be able to see. I mean, you think you see all, you see more than everyone else? No, you see less. In fact, you are actually blind. What's interesting to me is we don't have the end of Elimis' story.
As Paul said, you're going to be blind for a time. We don't even know if he repents. We just don't know anything about him.
Yeah, just don't know anything else about him. But we want to believe that being struck blind and being called on the carpet for his deceit would have yielded in him a repentance and a turning, but we don't have that story. Yeah, because it did with Paul. It allowed him to sit around for several days thinking about what just happened, you know, and the fact that he saw Jesus and he thought Jesus was the enemy, and now this Jesus displays a power to stop him on the road to Damascus.
I mean, it gave him some time to just chill, you know, and get his head straight. Elimis, we don't know. We just don't know. We just don't know.
But, you know, I'll go back a little bit. You know, the fact that they went to Cyprus, I think, is a fascinating thing. We know that Barnabas came from Cyprus.
His hometown, yeah. Yeah, so when they left Antioch, they just went down the coast a little bit to a port town, that's Seleucia, and then got a boat. And you just go directly west from there, and you're in Cyprus. So they go across the water. They hit the eastern end of Cyprus. And then it says that they proceeded over to the other side west. Paphos is on the other end of the island. The whole length of the island.
So they walked the whole length of the island, yeah. And later on we'll find out that someone else famous in the New Testament does exactly the same thing, and that's Titus. Titus is left in Cyprus to go from one end to the other to appoint elders, Paul tells us. In churches that Paul had established at some point.
Probably some of these. Yeah, that's why that's really a fascinating connection. And I might say something about Sergius Paulus. I mean, you know, he sounds important, and he really is. A proconsul is someone who runs an entire province, an entire province. And there's actually a distinction between a proconsul and another kind of leader. A proconsul doesn't need troops. So he's a proconsul. He reports directly to the Roman Senate rather than to Caesar, which is unusual. Yeah, so he's not a military guy or general.
No, no. And you know the Roman guys that were, you know, you talk about Pontius Pilate, those guys answered directly to Caesar. Sergius to the Senate. But I mean, he's still a big dude. He's a big dude. And he's a man of intelligence, it says. And he's a man who's interested in religious stuff, evidently. Well, it's interesting to me that Luke tells us he's a man of intelligence when here's this sneaky Pete Bar-Jesus had come right in alongside him, and you wonder if Luke's not telling us. He was, you know, he suspected this guy wasn't speaking the truth, but he didn't have it affirmed until Paul came in and just called him out.
And he didn't have any contrary facts either. Right. Which is why in verse 7 it says that, you know, he sought to hear the Word of God.
I mean, tell me what you know. Right. And then that figure's in the end when he comes to Jesus, and the end of this passage is read in verse 12. It says the pro-counsel believed not only when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished, at the teaching of the Lord.
So he put two and two together. He asked them tell me what you know. Right. They told him what they know, what they've seen. And in fact, John Mark, who's with them, can actually testify to eyewitness stuff.
Right. Which is fascinating that both Paul and Barnabas haven't seen. John Mark saw a lot of stuff of Jesus directly. They're telling him all that and then it's, that truth is nailed down by the fact that miraculously Paul can actually see right through this magician and call him on the carpet and the next thing you know the guy's blind. I mean that's like, that's like great.
So it's an interesting thing. You can't just have a miracle and come to Jesus. And in this particular case we have a miracle and the truth. And since, since Sergius Paulus is an intelligent guy and he wants to know the way things really are, he's come to the right spot when he asks Paul and Barnabas, what do you know about the word of God? And Paul kind of slaps his hands together and says, here we go. And he tells him. And that is what brings him to the Lord, the teaching of the Lord. Yeah, and Paul without any magical mumbo jumbo just says, you're going to lose your sight.
You will not be able to see. Right. Whereas you know, bar Jesus, Elimus has been identified as a magician. So that would indicate to us that he's been doing some sort of magic stuff.
You can pull the wool out of your eyes. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's an interesting point. Even someone who's intelligent like Sergius Paulus, even intelligent people can be hoodwinked by people who are clever or swayed by a very persuasive person.
Yeah. But in the end here, the, the veracity of God's word, probably the firsthand witness testimony of John Mark, you know, Barnabas, you know, incredible. I mean, these guys, these guys are just hitting all the marks for Sergius Paulus who wants to know the truth. What is the word of God? And they tell him and he comes to the Lord.
Yeah, it's fascinating. And what happens in Cyprus after that? We don't know much until Paul sends Titus back. Because very shortly after this, Luke tells us they pack up and leave the island. Well, yeah, they've crossed the island from east to west.
Right. And when they're in, when they're in Paphos, they're in another port town and they're going to leave off the west coast and they're gone. But, but what an incredible thing that happens right here when they just come on the island and through the testimony basically of these three men in the presence of a fake, a fake religious leader than someone of great import. Now we really don't know what kind of influence Sergius Paulus had on the, on the Roman Empire and also on the status of Cyprus. But we do know that he probably told some tales back in the Senate when he was called back to Rome to report how things in Cyprus.
Well, we had this guy. So, so God uses powerful people and he uses a humble small people. But in this particular case, God chooses to use a very powerful and influential man who has the ear of the entire Roman Senate.
It's fascinating. Well, and God himself had affirmed the teaching of Paul. Yeah.
By, by providing Eulaimus to lose his sight. Right. Paul had the wisdom and the insight to say, this is what's going to happen to you. And the Holy Spirit does it. Yeah.
Yeah. I might also say it kind of gives me shivers when I, when I see that phrase that Paul uses against Eulaimus where he says, the hand of the Lord is upon you. Not it's coming, but it's upon you.
He sees what you're doing. And it's interesting too, you know, God gets bent out of shape, not so much when we fool ourselves, but when we get in the way of other people hearing the gospel, he is going to intercede. Well, come back with us next time. And we're going to continue this incredible story as we go through Acts. And we're going to see what happens next as Paul and Barnabas and John Mark push on. We'll see you here on More Than Ink. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you're there, take a moment to drop us a note. Remember, the Bible is God's love letter to you. Pick it up and read it for yourself and you will discover that the words printed there are indeed more than ink. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
