Sunday, January 7, 2023 AM

Christ Circles the Public Square

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you today, and we thank you for your mercies that are new every morning. We thank you that your compassions fail not. We praise you because your faithfulness is great.

Your love and kindness is from everlasting to everlasting. That we are here is a testament to your grace. This good that we enjoy is to your glory. We pray that you would do your work in us now. As we look at your word, as we consider its truth, that you would grant us the grace of rejoicing in your word and submitting to your truth and being changed in accordance with the image of your son, Jesus Christ.

It is in him that you are well pleased. It is in him that we have all of our hope. It is in his name that we pray. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 13.

And we will be reading verses 6 through 12 this morning. Acts chapter 13, verses 6 through 12. The title of the sermon this morning is that Christ Circles the Public Square. Thus far in the book of Acts, the preaching of the good news of the kingdom, as Luke is often describing the gospel, he says the good news of the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom.

Thus far, the proclamation of the good news of the kingdom has taken a very public approach. What began as prayer in the upper room became preaching to the pilgrim crowds in Jerusalem's market at Pentecost.

What began with helping a lame man by the gate beautiful turned into hours of preaching in the temple, which was followed up by an arrest and then a trial. What began in Jerusalem spread to Samaria and Ethiopia and Antioch and Cyprus.

The life and death of Jesus Christ, these things were not done in a corner. And we can be assured that this same news, the good news of the kingdom, will spread to every corner of the world. I invite you to stand with me as we read Acts chapter 13, beginning in verse 6.

This is the word of the Lord. Now, when they had gone for 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 Alamos the sorcerer, for so his name is translated, withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. And Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, O fool 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. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.

The Town Square Is Not Neutral

Are you ever driving in the South?

Oklahoma is not the South, by the way. I learned that when we moved to the South and we were so informed. But when you drive through the South and you drive through the older towns, especially the older county seats, there is a common structure to these little cities.

As you drive in, obviously, you're going to get the town sign with a motto on it. Sometimes they're plain, boring. Sometimes they're cute. Sometimes they're funny, such as, Welcome to Beaver, Oklahoma, Cow Chip Capital of the World.

But you get a sense, or perhaps a smell, of what this town is all about. When you enter into the town and you drive further on, you begin to see some of the older buildings. Soon you'll see the old stone churches.

And in the South, these will have cemeteries adjoining them. And they look very rugged, stone fixtures, that even a tornado will not blow away. And as you move past the churches, you get into the town square.

The town square is something that has all the businesses around in a square owned by the families of the town. And in the center, you have the courthouse. And this is where you have the parades. This is where you put up the nativity scene.

This is where you have the political speeches. This is the public area, the public property. This is where you have the banjo music on Friday night. This is the town square. It reminds me of Bolivar, Tennessee, just north of where we used to live in Tennessee.

And as you think about that picture of a small town, a county seat in America, there are the churches, there are the family businesses, and there is the public courthouse. Let me ask you a question. Where does Christianity belong?

There's the churches, there's the family businesses, and there's the public courthouse. Where does Christianity belong? When I was in Bolivar, Tennessee, visiting there, they would have Friday night on the square.

People would gather together and hear folk music played. Perfect time for me and some buddies to do open-air preaching on the courthouse lawn. But I couldn't necessarily walk across the street to, let's say, a family business, Teresa's Groovy T-shirt shop, and stand inside her business and start hollering.

She might ask me to leave. That's her property. So does Christianity belong in a family business? In a fashion, it should. Christianity definitely belongs in the churches. And Christianity should belong on the public property, too, don't you think?

And they were fine with that. It's the courthouse. They saw it as a neutral site. This is the public square. This is where you have the parade and the nativity scenes and the banjo concerts and the political speeches.

But is it really a neutral site? What if a family business put up signs everywhere that they were Christians? Everybody okay with that? What if a church advertised, We preach the gospel of Jesus, and they handed out tracts?

Everyone's okay with that? What if the mayor, chief justice, and city officials stood on the steps of the county courthouse and said, This town belongs to Jesus Christ. We do things his way. But some people are going to have some allergic reactions.

Hey, now, that's the public neutral area. The Bible doesn't belong there except to promise to tell the truth. Jesus doesn't have anything to say or to do with this neutral area in our American society.

But it is truly not a neutral site. This is the perception. The perception of the public square is one in which everybody has their own right to be there, and nobody should tell anybody else to be quiet.

Everybody has equal opportunity to showcase their ideas in the marketplace of ideas, and whoever has the best selling points wins. But it's not a neutral site. Why is it not a neutral site? I mean, this is considered sacred in American society.

The public square is a place where everybody can exercise their constitutional freedoms, including Muslims and Wiccans and even Methodists. But is it a neutral site? God's Son, Jesus Christ, the heir of all things, has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

He rules on a throne that is forever and ever, and the Bible promises that he will sit there until his enemies become his footstool, which means that he is the Lord of the living and the dead. He's over the churches and the families and the magistrates.

He's Lord over every rural village and every bustling city. And we see that worked out in our passage. Here's Barnabas and Paul, and they go from town to town, from island to island, from region to region, and by what right do they do this?

They go by the authority of Jesus Christ. When they show up, they declare the authority of Jesus Christ, and it's not that different today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In verses 6 through 8, we see proconsuls and sorcerers and preachers.

Oh, my, what a mix-up. Let's think biblical thoughts about this situation. Verse 6, 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 Alamis, the sorcerer, for so his name is translated, withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. So Barnabas and Saul, along with John Mark, they sailed from Seleucia, the port city, just down the river Orontes from Antioch.

The church sent them out from Antioch, and they went to the island of Cyprus. And they land at the port of Salamis on the east side of the island of Cyprus, and they begin traveling. After they preach in the synagogues there for a while, Barnabas, of course, Cyprus is his home island, so obviously he's got relatives, he's got cousins, he's got connections there.

And they preach in the Jewish synagogue, and they proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. When they're done there, they begin moving through the island of Cyprus, 106 miles, probably stopping at the fishing villages along the way, and they come to the southwest section of the island, to the capital, to the place where the Roman proconsul, the governor, this is where he looked over the affairs of state for the island of Cyprus on behalf of the Roman Empire.

And this time, instead of finding a Jewish synagogue, they find a Jewish sorcerer. Apparently, news of their preaching of the gospel had preceded them. And as soon as they arrive in town, the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus, says, I want to hear about this.

I want to hear what you're saying, this good news of the kingdom, this Jesus of Nazareth whom you declare to be Lord. I want to hear exactly what you mean by that. It may have some impact on my administration, upon my own person.

He wants to know more about that. But a Jewish sorcerer gets in the way. His name, bar Jesus, is Aramaic, meaning the son of Joshua. So we know who his dad's name is. He's also named Elimus, which is also from the Aramaic, which means dreamer.

He is called a magician. He's called a sorcerer. The Greek word is magus, just like Simon Magus of chapter 8. And just like Peter faced off with Simon Magus in chapter 8, so Paul faces off with this magus, this dreamer.

What does it mean that he's a dreamer? It means that he takes the whimsy of his scattered, unconscious mind to be more authoritative than the word of God. He thinks dreams are more authoritative than the word of God, than what God has to say.

And this is who is advising Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cyprus. And he does not welcome Barnabas and Saul. Did Wormtongue welcome Gandalf, having Theoden under his control? There's no neutrality here.

If Sergius were to begin to listen to Paul and Barnabas, then Elimus would lose his power. There was no neutrality there in the governor's office. No neutrality in the high court of Cyprus. It was either the sorcerer or it was the preacher.

It was either the pagan or it was the Christian. There was no neutral ground where everybody would have equal voice. As long as Elimus and Sergius were pals, as long as Elimus's dreams tickled the ears of his patron, he would enjoy power and privilege, a comfortable life.

But as soon as Sergius Paulus begins to show interest in the gospel of the kingdom, Elimus interferes. No man can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve two different masters. Now, Sergius Paulus, we'll call him Serge. Serge is a smart guy, Luke says. He's a very intelligent man. In fact, Roman history records him as Lucius Sergius Paulus.

What a great name. And soon after this encounter with Paul and Barnabas, Sergius went on to serve in Rome itself under the emperor Claudius and helped with the water management of the river Tiber. His ancestral home was in Pisidian Antioch, where his son would later serve as an important magistrate.

And in fact, Pisidian Antioch was the next destination for Paul and Barnabas to go preach. Perhaps Serge gave them letters of recommendation, encouraged them to go to his ancestral home and share the same news with those that he knew there.

But I have a question. If this Roman official is so intelligent, what is he doing listening to a Jewish magician? If he's so smart, why is he listening to Elemus the Dreamer? Why does he have him on staff?

That's very common in this day. These Caesars, the emperors, were renowned for having some sort of astrologer or magician counseling them and interpreting the signs of the skies and the dreams to try to give them some sort of direction.

Those who were in leadership liked having a spiritual advisor around because it helped them in two ways. One, in this pagan world, they were always looking for an expert to tell them what was true. Sound familiar?

Welcome to postmodernism, where only the experts can ever tell you what is true. In this pagan society, they needed an expert to help them get some sort of baseline about which god to serve and which direction to take.

And if things went really, really wrong, then the advisor ended up really, really dead because the head coach has to fire the offensive coordinator if things go wrong. Interesting, the proconsul Felix, who presided over one of Paul's imprisonments, also used a Jewish magician that he found from the island of Cyprus, so perhaps they had a guild there.

But he's listening to a sorcerer. Sergius wants to know what it all means. Elemus is a magus. He's not listening to the word of God. He is not declaring the word of God. He is declaring the fantasies of his own mind.

And he says, Paul and Barnabas, the good news of this kingdom, the authority of Jesus of Nazareth has no place here. He seeks to actively interfere. This is not the place for that.

Get that out of here.

In our day, there's a bit of sorcery called neutrality. Neutrality does not exist. There is no neutrality anywhere. In Genesis chapter 3, when all of humanity was united with the devil against God, God says in Genesis 3 .15, I will place enmity between you and the serpent.

God picked the fight. God said, no, there's not going to be an easy peace. There's going to be a conflict. There's going to be an opposition. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and thus it has ever been.

And there's no neutrality about Jesus Christ. When He is declared King of kings and Lord of lords, and He says that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth, then there is no place to go hide.

There is no space to be carved out and said, I can be neutral in this place. I can be undecided. To be undecided is to be in rebellion against Christ. This being the case, we need to rethink where Christianity ought to be.

Where should Christianity be? Well, everywhere Christ has authority. Everywhere Christ has authority, that's where Christians, that's where Christianity should be. The magistrates have advisors. You hear a political official talking about their administration.

What does that mean?

It means the elected official has a whole bunch of people around advising, saying thus and so. Here is truth, here is falsehood. Here is right, here is wrong. Here is wisdom, here is folly. Who's advising?

Are these neutral advisors?

No.

They're either submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ or they're pagan. Those are our two options, biblically. And so, recognizing this, we ought to roll back any kind of discipleship that has happened in our minds and in our hearts that would tell us that Christians are to serve Jesus privately.

It's fine to have crosses up on the walls in your home. It's fine to feel a certain way about Jesus in your heart. It's fine to say things about Jesus in the church. But this kind of devotion to Jesus Christ is unseemly for the workplace.

It ought not show up on the highways and the byways of life, as if God were this small, as if Jesus Christ is like the idols of the ancients that can be picked up and tucked away and brought to only certain places but not taken anywhere else.

Why would it make any follower of Jesus Christ cringe? Why would we cringe to hear governors and legislatures and judges and presidents and city planners and mayors and representatives and school board members declare Jesus Christ to be king of kings and draw upon the scriptures and the word of God for wisdom and truth and morality?

Why would that ever make us cringe? Why would it ever embarrass us? We've been discipled in a way that is contrary to the clear evidence of the word of God. Even when they do so poorly, it's still desirable.

It's still desirable. I remember I was at a rally one February and we all stood out there, abolition day. We wanted to see the abolishment of all abortion, both surgical and chemical. And there was a legislature.

He was up there and he was talking Bible. And he had half a story from the Old Testament, and he went all allegory on it, totally misinterpreted it, but he was excited for Jesus and drawn on the Bible.

Did it bad, but, man, I was glad to hear him striving where he was at to obey Jesus. We must not think that there is a neutral, irreligious space. The worship switch in everyone made in the image of God, the worship switch is hardwired on.

We're either Christians or we are idolaters of some kind. Just think about the situation. Paul and Barnabas are just passing through. Sergius lives there. Alamos lives there. Sergius Paulus has to administrate and do government there on the island of Cyprus, and Paul and Barnabas aren't staying long.

They're just passing through. What right do they have to say anything to the governor of the island about what he should think or how he should live or how he should administrate anything? They're just visitors.

They're on their way somewhere else. The authority is not with them. It is not with their intentions or their investments. It's not with their experiences. The authority is at the right hand of the Father Jesus Christ.

They're declaring the authority of someone greater than they are, of whose sandal strap they are not worthy to loose. Not every thought, but many people, when they think of a Christian magistrate today, many times it's immediately equated with Sharia law, and no one ever thinks to ask by what standard is a secular pagan sounding moral alarms.

Any time a secular pagan gets up and starts sounding moral alarms,.

Oh, this is evil.

Chapter and verse, please. By what standard? Because it makes you feel uncomfortable?

Wow.

We must all bow before your comfort as the standard of right and wrong in this universe. Let the plumber lay pipe before the face of God. Let the nurse care for the sick to the honor of the great physician.

Let the civil magistrate punish evildoers and praise doers of righteousness as the minister of the great king. Preachers belong before procouncils, and not just when they're being burnt at the stake. The gospel belongs in the town square, and not just at Christmas in a nativity scene.

Christ owns the copyright on the public domain, and he owns every patent on every man. Now, it's not just that Jesus belongs in the public square, but that he owns it. As you drive about and as you go from place to place, you might find Jesus in the public square.

Some declaration about the fact that Jesus is, or that God is. A young man was telling me about how they're playing Christmas hymns, Christmas carols in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, in the shopping malls.

Well, how about that?

So we're driving along on the highway. There was a huge billboard that we saw from time to time. It said, you know, it had it all about who God is and who Jesus is. But what are these things saying? It's not just that God is in the public square, not just that Jesus is in the public square, that there's an election sign out by the road that says Jesus on it.

There's someone, I don't know who it is, I imagine it's a young man on Western, pretty much north of 44th and south of 29th Street. He practices what I call evandalism. John 316 spray paint on the buildings.

Evandalism, you know. I don't know what kind of doctrine leads you to practice evandalism, but he did put something else up the other day, and he got a little courageous and put a little sermon up, rather than just John 316.

And this one says, unlock Jesus, not your phone. There you go. There's Jesus in the public square. Probably not the way we're supposed to do that, spray painting other people's buildings. Could work on his doctrine a little bit.

It's not just that Jesus is in the public square, not just that people talk about God. People are fine doing that. What is being said, though? That's what matters. Who is Jesus Christ? What about him?

Who is God?

What about him? Not just that the words show up, not just that the names show up, but what's the point? Why does it matter? How does it impact everybody everywhere? It's not just that Jesus belongs in the public square, but that he owns it.

Do you remember the story of Elisha, who was advising the king about the goings-on of the Assyrian raiding parties? And every time the Assyrians tried to smash the Jewish forces, they'd always fail. And the Assyrian king wanted to know who was betraying him, who was telling the secrets, who was the spy in his midst, and they said, oh no, it's none of us.

It's that prophet Elisha down in Dothan. He tells the king everything that's going on. And so, the armies come and surround Dothan. This is a military matter. Dothan is in trouble. Israel is in trouble.

And Elisha is unworried. His servant is pretty worried, but Elisha is unworried.

Why?

Because surrounding the Syrians who are surrounding Dothan is the army of the Lord, chariots of heaven, the angel of the Lord leading the armies of heaven, Christ circling the public square saying, no, this is not how this is going to happen.

Later on, when the Syrians are all made blind and brought in before the king, the king says to Elisha, father, my father, can I kill him? And Elisha says, no. You feed them and you send them home. Isn't that interesting where the authority of God, the authority of the word of God is being consulted.

It's not just that Jesus Christ belongs in the public square, but that he owns it. There's no space that he does not claim. There's no room for neutrality about him. And either at the cross or at his coming, there's a reckoning for every one of us.

That is part of the message of the good news of the kingdom. Now, on the one hand, it seems rather illegitimate in our culture to put Jesus in God everywhere. Does he really belong there? But if there's one thing that's even more problematic for folks than that, it's the next item up in the story in verses 9 through 12.

Spirit-Filled Name Calling and the Judgment of Elymas

Spirit filled name calling. Verses 9 through 12. And Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, O fool 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 indeed, 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 procounsel believed when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord. So we see here Saul, who was also called Paul. Why does Luke begin to let us know that Saul has changed his name to Paul?

It may have been about this time that he decided to change his name. About 10 miles, here he is 10 miles northwest of an ancient temple to Aphrodite, which is not a great pagan cult at all. And Salos, in the Greek, sounds like another word for loose morals.

So here is Saul, who also has a Latin name, Paul, which is connected to his Roman citizenship. And he's coming before the Roman procounsel, close to the temple of Aphrodite. He wants there to be no confusion about what kind of guy he is.

And so he comes with his name Paul to speak to the Roman procounsel, and he drops this word, his name Saul. So I bring this up to point out that even though we hear Paul saying this kind of stuff in verse 10, you son of the devil, so on and so forth, we also see that it's not coming out of a rebellious attitude to all authority, where it's, I don't care what anyone thinks.

He's not saying that. Being free of the fear of man is not something where we say, I don't care what anybody thinks anywhere, I'll just say it. Because being free of the fear of man means that we're fearing the Lord, and the Lord would have us love even our enemies.

And so Paul is being careful and conscious about this. And he says some things, doesn't he? Elemas, notice, is keeping Sergius Paulus from hearing the gospel, hearing the word of God, even though he's requested to be able to hear it.

And Elemas is keeping the Roman procounsel from hearing it. And then Paul says to Elemas, you are full of all deceit, you are full of all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness. So he is saying some things.

Now is this legitimate? Is this something where we're looking at something that's descriptive? You know, Paul just lost his temper. Like later on he gets in a fight with Barnabas about John Mark. Is it something that's descriptive, or is it something that's prescriptive?

Like, this is a good thing. This was right and proper. Well, isn't it interesting? Look at the text. It says, Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, said this. Isn't that interesting? He's filled with the Holy Spirit when he says this.

He's not filled with a prideful spirit. He's not filled with a jealous spirit. He's filled with the Holy Spirit, and he says these things. Well, I suppose if the Holy Spirit can fill Samson, and he can kill a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, then certainly the Holy Spirit can fill Paul and shut up a Jewish sorcerer.

Now, name-calling is something that we've been told time and again. It's just not something that Christians ought to do. It's okay to have Jesus and God in the public square, just as long as Jesus and God don't say something that's offensive.

As long as Jesus and God are winsome, as long as the church is winsome in the public square, that's what matters. If we ever say something rude like this, then we're not being Christlike. There was a big billboard on the side of the highway we used to see all the time.

It says, God loves you just the way you are. Maybe he loves you in spite of the way you are. Maybe that's a little bit more biblical. Because if God loves you just the way you are, then don't repent. Don't need anything else.

You're good to go. In a 2022 Christianity Today article titled, What's Wrong With Winsomeness?, Russell Moore, who used to be president of the ERLC, lashed out against Christians who rejected winsomeness as the preferred approach to a hostile culture.

He pointed to a clip of Christian commentators describing the enemies of the faith as demonic. That bothered Moore. Thought that was wrong. He wrote in his article that describing enemies of the faith as demonic is the same thing as disobeying Jesus Christ's instruction to turn the other cheek.

He said this was dehumanizing language, which demonstrated a high degree of biblical illiteracy. He said that those who oppose sinners directly, rather than just opposing their sin, are merely pretend Christians, and they demonstrate anti-Christlike character.

Of course, he did not find space in his article to clarify how that fit with Jesus calling his opponents the children of the devil and calling them a synagogue of Satan. Nor did he include this passage of Paul addressing Elemas.

Now, one would think that Jesus Christ would be the standard for Christlikeness. Sometimes that includes name-calling like this. Sometimes it includes name-calling like this. Well, there's no chance that Elemas or Sergius misunderstood what Paul said to and about the sorcerer.

Come on, Paul. Couldn't you have tried to encourage Elemas? He's a Jewish magician, after all. Couldn't you take some of the good stuff and leave the bones behind? It didn't have to be all deceit and all fraud, did it, Paul?

Why are you being so rude? Call him a son of the devil? That's really strong. Don't you want to win him to Jesus and persuade him to Jesus, just like Sergius? What a mercy that Paul does not affirm Elemas or ignore him.

Here is the blind leading the blind, and they are headed for a pit. Paul doesn't have time.

This is it.

Elemas is trying to keep Sergius from hearing the gospel. This is the one shot. Elemas is heading for the pit. Sergius is heading for the pit. And Paul has got to say something before they both fall in.

And so he mercifully and severely addresses Elemas. He doesn't ignore him. He doesn't affirm him. He lets him know there's not a scrap of good in his sorcery or in his person. He has to repent from perverting the straight ways of the Lord.

And so Christ uses his apostle to pronounce judgment upon this Magus. Peter did the same thing with Simon Magus in chapter 8. Paul does the same thing here in Acts 13. God's mercy has intervened. Notice the temporary blindness.

What a mercy. A temporary blindness, just like with Saul of Tarsus, who was an enemy of Christ. The Lord can grant him sight. The Lord can grant him a humble brokenness. The Lord can grant him repentance.

And so Paul proclaims the goodness of the kingdom with power. Sergius believes. Sergius believes. False prophets are nothing new. They come in a variety of stripes. Elemas is way out there. He might be Jewish, but he's interpreting personal visions and doing all sorts of crazy things.

It's not even like he's taking up the word of God and twisting it just slightly. He's still a false prophet. Just because somebody wears a suit and is on TV and claims to be an atheist, that doesn't mean they're not a false prophet.

There's all kinds of false prophets everywhere. It's those who are claiming to tell you the truth, but they're not telling you the truth. They're telling you a lie, because they're using a basis of their authority that is not the Lord God and His revelation and His word.

So Sergius is listening to a false prophet, and Paul says, stop it. Just like Jeremiah did to the kings of his day about the false prophets of his day. In Jeremiah 5 .31, the Lord declares this, the prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule by their own power, and my people love to have it so.

But what will you do in the end? Why do they love to have it so? Because it sounds nicer, much easier. But that doesn't solve anything. Jeremiah 6 .13, from the least of them to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness, and from the prophet to the priest, everyone deals falsely.

Jeremiah 14 .14, the Lord said to me, the prophets prophesy lies in my name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.

When somebody comes to you, or you hear somebody say, you read something that somebody has written, and they say things about God and Jesus, and then tell you something that you really like hearing, it doesn't mean it's the truth.

It doesn't mean it's the truth. The Word of God is filled with truth that makes us feel awful. It is disturbing. It humbles, it breaks, it opposes. A sharp, two-edged sword, piercing to the very heart of things.

Also a healing balm that heals, that soothes. Bread that feeds and nourishes. Well, Paul is not being mean. He's filled with the fruit of the Spirit. He's being loving. He's being faithful. He's doing the good thing.

And he is stating what needs to be said. He hasn't spent as much time with Elemas as Sergius had. But Paul is not being arrogant to claim that he had the truth, and this other man did not. When people declare, well, who knows what the right interpretation is of the Bible?

Many people believe in the same God and have different approaches. This is not humility. It is not humility to claim that the creator of mankind and the author of Scripture has ordained such a pernicious confusion that not even those who are born again of the Spirit in union with Christ can know anything for certain.

That is not humility. That is rebellious arrogance. The Lord has given us a good and sure word. Now, I think it's important to remember that Jesus' harshest words were for those who shut up the kingdom of heaven, who did not enter and kept others from entering.

His harshest words were for the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes, who, just like Elemas, were trying to shut down the preaching of the good news of the kingdom and keep people away from Jesus of Nazareth.

He had his harshest words for those folks. And although his rebukes fell hard at times upon his own followers, we see a great deal of longsuffering and grace. I want that observation to properly balance our approach.

Let Christ properly balance our approach. Too often, Christians are ready to unleash a holy tirade upon their own brothers and sisters. Rarely calling out the false teaching of pagan influencers for the snakes that they are.

Paul tells us in Galatians that if we bite and devour one another, we will surely be consumed. But rather, we are called to love one another even as Christ loved us. And we may have something hard to say to one another from time to time when a rebuke is in order, but it is out of all longsuffering, in love for one another, with all manner of hope.

Love hoping all things. One of the ways that Christ shows us his love is by ruthlessly identifying and opposing those who would prey upon his flock. And so sometimes there are some harsh things that are said.

But he's stating them out of his authority. These things are being stated out of who Christ is in his full authority. He's the standard. He's the standard of right and wrong. He's the standard of true and false.

He's the standard of wisdom and folly. And so these things are sometimes said in this way because of who Christ is, because of his glory. Even as we are directed in how we are to love one another and be patient for one another because of who Christ is.

And all of this is to be displayed outwardly, not kept up and hidden in the closet. Jesus said, by this all men will know that you are my disciples by the love that you have for one another. And this gospel that we preach and proclaim and live by is to be declared to everyone everywhere in the public square.