Message: In Acts 13 the Holy Spirit instructed the church to send out Paul & Barnabas so they fasted, prayed and laid hands on them to go. After sailing to Cyprus and ministering all over the island they came across a Jewish false prophet who was a sorcerer named Bar-Jesus. He was with an intelligent man of the proconsul who was trying to hear the gospel from Paul & Barnabas but the sorcerer opposed them as they preached the gospel and tried to interfere and turn the man from the proconsul away from the faith. Paul, being filled with the Holy Spirit said “You son of the devil full of deceit and all fraud- enemy of all righteousness, will you ever stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord?” He told the man that the Lord’s hand was against him and that he would be blind and would not see the sun for some time. He had to be led around because of his blindness. Oh the irony!! This is exactly what God did to Paul when he was Saul opposing the truth of the gospel. For both of these men their spiritual blindness came with a consequence of physical blindness in order for them to see the condition they were in. It also came with the humiliation of having to be led around. This not only insulted his dignity but it also marred his reputation because blindness implicated being cursed by God, and in this case he most certainly was! The story doesn’t tell us whether Bar-Jesus, the sorcerer ever repented and changed, but his blindness definitely caught the attention of the proconsul man and he was amazed by the teaching of the Lord. As I thought about this it occurred to me that God will be gracious to us and heal us in our spiritual blindness but Bar-Jesus was a false prophet, which means he falsified himself as a spiritual authority and used it to lead people away from the truth. Spiritual authorities carry a great responsible and are held accountable for leading people into deception. This man knew what he was doing so he was held accountable as if he was actually a prophet. There are many false prophets in the world leading people into false doctrine. This is dangerous for both them and the people they are leading but this is why it’s so vitally important that we know the word for ourselves and are able to recognize a counterfeit. The difference between Saul/Paul and Bar-Jesus is that when Saul had an encounter with Jesus he was healed.
Message: In Acts 13 the Holy Spirit instructed the church to send out Paul & Barnabas so they fasted, prayed and laid hands on them to go. After sailing to Cyprus and ministering all over the island they came across a Jewish false prophet who was a sorcerer named Bar-Jesus. He was with an intelligent man of the proconsul who was trying to hear the gospel from Paul & Barnabas but the sorcerer opposed them as they preached the gospel and tried to interfere and turn the man from the proconsul away from the faith. Paul, being filled with the Holy Spirit said “You son of the devil full of deceit and all fraud- enemy of all righteousness, will you ever stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord?” He told the man that the Lord’s hand was against him and that he would be blind and would not see the sun for some time. He had to be led around because of his blindness. Oh the irony!! This is exactly what God did to Paul when he was Saul opposing the truth of the gospel. For both of these men their spiritual blindness came with a consequence of physical blindness in order for them to see the condition they were in. It also came with the humiliation of having to be led around. This not only insulted his dignity but it also marred his reputation because blindness implicated being cursed by God, and in this case he most certainly was! The story doesn’t tell us whether Bar-Jesus, the sorcerer ever repented and changed, but his blindness definitely caught the attention of the proconsul man and he was amazed by the teaching of the Lord. As I thought about this it occurred to me that God will be gracious to us and heal us in our spiritual blindness but Bar-Jesus was a false prophet, which means he falsified himself as a spiritual authority and used it to lead people away from the truth. Spiritual authorities carry a great responsible and are held accountable for leading people into deception. This man knew what he was doing so he was held accountable as if he was actually a prophet. There are many false prophets in the world leading people into false doctrine. This is dangerous for both them and the people they are leading but this is why it’s so vitally important that we know the word for ourselves and are able to recognize a counterfeit. The difference between Saul/Paul and Bar-Jesus is that when Saul had an encounter with Jesus he was healed.
