WWUTT 2637 Paul Curses Elymas the Magician (Acts 13:8-12)

An evil magician by the name of Elimus had a stronghold on a guy by the name of Sergius Paulus. But the darkness that he wanted to keep the Proconsul under is the very darkness that would come upon him when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Paul and Barnabas on Cyprus and the Synagogues of the Jews

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come back to chapter 13, where Paul and Barnabas have been spreading the gospel on the island of Cyprus. Let me read to you once again verses 4 -12.

Hear the word of the Lord. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. And 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.

And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet, whose name was Barjesus, who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence.

This man summoned Barnabas and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God. But Elimas the magician, for so his name is translated, was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with 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 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 astonished at the teaching of the Lord. It's interesting to note that what happens to Elimas is exactly what he was doing to Sergius Paulus, or what he was attempting to do.

He wanted to blind him to the truth. He did not want him to see the hope of the gospel that had been proclaimed by Paul and Barnabas, which Sergius Paulus wanted to hear. He had summoned Paul and Barnabas because he wanted to hear that word.

But Elimas was attempting to prevent him from seeing the truth. And so this curse that Paul puts upon Elimas afflicts him with blindness. And he goes around asking people to guide him by the hand. That's what we have in verse 11.

A mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. He was blind, could not find his way, was looking for people to guide him, which was exactly what Sergius Paulus wanted.

He wanted someone to guide him in the truth. But since Elimas tried to prevent that, he was afflicted with the very thing that he was doing to the proconsul. So that's what we'll get to as we go through this account.

We ended at verse 7 yesterday, and we're picking up at verse 8. But let me kind of recap a few things or make a few more points on these first few verses here. So they are sent out by the Holy Spirit.

They go to Seleucia. When they were sailing from the mainland to the island of Cyprus, the Seleucia to Salamis is like the shortest distance. So Salamis would have been the first port that they could have come to.

And it says that they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. That's a common pattern we see with Paul. We're going to see that again, even as we go through Acts. The first place that he goes to is the synagogue, because that's where the oracles of God were kept.

The scriptures, those things that God had spoken to the prophets and were written down. So Paul could go in there and read from those words and show the people that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that had been spoken about in the law and the prophets.

It's also understood there in the synagogues that Yahweh is God. So Paul already has an advantage in that he doesn't have to convince the people that the Hebrew God is the one true God, as he would have to do with the Gentiles.

He's stepping into an environment where the Jews already believe that Yahweh is God. When the Jews reject that Jesus is Yahweh, is the son of God, is the Messiah who's been sent by God, when they reject that, then Paul goes to the Gentiles and will proclaim to them.

And it's by the power of the gospel that Gentiles will be converted and even see that Yahweh is the true God all through the power of the word that is proclaimed. But Paul's beginning is in the synagogues.

This also in fulfillment of what Jesus said to the apostles when he said, you will go out and be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So Paul would go to the Jews first and then he would go to the Gentiles.

This was his habit whenever he entered a new city. So verse six says that he went through the whole island. Paul and Barnabas had gone through the whole island from Salamis all the way to Paphos, which would have been the furthest point on the island if you're kind of like tracking a map to see where they went.

And it's there at Paphos that they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet. And it's sure to be said to us here that he is a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus. Now it's very common among the Jews, among Jewish false prophets in particular, to practice magic and other arts.

And we see this even later on with in Acts chapter 19 in Ephesus, you had the sons of a Jewish man named Sceva and they were practicing magic arts and even attempting to adopt things they believed Paul was doing to gain some sort of fame and acclaim for themselves.

Paul was casting out demons in the name of Jesus. And so a guy like Elimus would have been doing the same thing. He would have claimed to have been able to cast out demons and evil spirits. And some of the magic that he did included these incantations that he would probably recite.

He also claimed to be able to have some vision of the future or an ability to heal. And he may not have ever performed a miracle to heal because demons did not do that. Demons were not healers. They were destroyers.

True healing came only from the power that had been given to the apostles to confirm their message came from God by being able to perform miraculous healings. And when they did that, when the apostles performed healings, the people probably at that point recognized, oh, they're actually healing people.

Whereas these false prophets around us and those who claim to be able to do healing have not healed anybody. Maybe they had some elixirs or things like that that could imitate some kind of a healing, but they could not perform an actual miraculous healing.

So that's the kind of a thing that this Jewish false prophet would do. It's really not too unlike what many charismatic preachers will do today. They likewise claim to have visions of the future. They claim to be able to speak a word into somebody that will have great power.

They claim to be able to perform healings. But what they're doing and calling healing is not really a true healing. And then once you truly encounter a healing in you, then you would see, oh, yeah, what these guys doing, what these guys were doing was not really healing at all.

It's not too unlike what this guy bar Jesus or Elias was doing. He was practicing these false arts and probably attributing them to the powers of angels, even claiming to cast out demons. But he could not really do what he was doing there.

There may have been some demonic influence upon him that that gave him some appearance of power, but he did not really possess it. And he had a hold on the pro consul. He was with the pro consul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence.

And this man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. And that's where we ended yesterday. So Elias's relationship with Sergius Paulus was likely for personal financial gain. And the reason why he doesn't want Paul and Barnabas to hear the word of God was twofold.

First of all, being a Jewish false prophet, he doesn't want Sergius Paulus to be influenced by the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that's number one. Secondly, Elimus benefited from his relationship with Sergius Paulus in a financial way.

So if Sergius Paulus turns to the gospel and begins to worship Jesus, then Elimus is not able to personally profit off of that anymore. This is also something that we will see come up again in the book of Acts, where there are people who oppose Paul and Barnabas's message, or Silas later, who was with Paul.

Wherever Paul goes and is preaching the gospel, there are people who oppose him because it will affect their way of living, their way of being able to make financial gain. They can't attain those things anymore because people are starting to believe in the gospel.

So a lot of that opposition is not simply based on, well, we don't believe Jesus is God and so therefore we're going to oppose Paul. It's also because when the gospel spreads and people believe in Jesus, then those who had manipulated the people for personal gain are not able to gain from that anymore.

That's another motivator for them to oppose the gospel. So Elimus is opposing Paul on both grounds here, because he doesn't believe Jesus is the Messiah, and also because he won't be able to profit from his relationship with Sergius Paulus any longer.

Paul, the Holy Spirit, and the Name of Saul

So Elimus the magician, for so his name is translated, we have in verse 8, was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him.

Now before we get to the words that Paul speaks to Elimus, this is the verse where we get the transition from knowing Saul under that name to now knowing him as Paul. From this point forward, he will be called Paul, with very few references to him also being known as Saul.

There are some who will teach about the conversion of the apostle Paul from being Saul into Paul, like God changed his name, just like God changed the name of Abraham from Abram to Abraham, so he did with Paul.

But that's not really true. In fact, Paul's name never changed. In the narrative, we will go from seeing him as Saul to the apostle Paul, but that doesn't mean that God gave him a new name, and now Paul just starts using it.

Saul was his Hebrew name. Paul was his Greek name. So since he has been ministering in Antioch, and now he's gone to Cyprus, he is speaking to Gentiles under the more accepted Roman name, which is Paul.

Even when he was preaching in Antioch, remember that we had read that he was with Barnabas in Antioch for about a year. Even when he was there, he would have been known as Paul in Antioch, because that was the name that would have been most acceptable to Gentiles.

It doesn't become an immediate turnoff when they hear Saul, and they're like, oh, well, that guy's a Jew, and we're not going to listen to a Jew. Paul is a Roman citizen, though he was raised a Jew and was a Pharisee of Pharisees, and he used his citizenship to his advantage.

The Lord used Paul's citizenship so that Paul would be accepted by Gentiles, and he would be able to preach the gospel to them more effectively. So this name is the name that he is known by to the Gentiles.

It's not a name change. It's just the name that he would prefer to go by among those that he is attempting to reach. Remember that he said to the Corinthians, I became all things to all people. To the Jews, I became a Jew.

To the Gentile, I became like one of them. So this is what he is doing by identifying himself under this name. It was likely the name that he was known by in Roman records, even. Seeing that he was a Roman citizen, they knew him as Paul.

His Hebrew name in Hebrew or in Aramaic would have been Saul. So we continue on with Paul fixing his eyes on Elimus and saying to him, here's verse 10, 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 this is a rebuke to Elimus, but it's also alerting the proconsul, Sergius Pallas, as to Elimus' motives. So this is a testament to even those around Elimus who had been influenced by him. And now Paul issues this curse.

That's what we have in verse 11. Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time. I don't know if you're familiar with Lord of the Rings, either you've seen the movies or perhaps you have read the books, but in the second part of this saga, which is known as The Two Towers, either in the film or in the books, there's this very famous scene where the wizard Gandalf, who at this point is now known as Gandalf the White, in the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring, he was called Gandalf the Gray, but now as Gandalf the White, he comes to the king Theoden.

And Theoden is under the influence of a dark wizard whose name is Wormtongue. You would think that a guy named Wormtongue would raise some suspicions, but Theoden has had his spirit or his counsel darkened by Wormtongue's manipulations.

In the film, this is a lot more dramatic and Gandalf performs something of like an exorcism. He curses Wormtongue, but then he exorcises Theoden from the hold that the evil wizard Saruman has on Theoden.

That's in the film. So he performs this exorcism to release the wizard's hold. In the books, it's a lot more subtle. So Gandalf will take Theoden by the hand and lead him outside into the fresh air and into the sunlight.

And he also whispers to him and speaks to him probably of those things that are the promise of victory. He speaks of the quest to destroy the ring and that victory will come to the kingdom once again.

And it's in speaking these things to the king that his countenance lightens and the hold that Wormtongue has on him has been released. And so what we see here, when I read that in The Lord of the Rings, it reminds me of this.

There's kind of a mixture of both. What we see in the film and what we read in the book. Because Paul certainly curses Elimas, puts this curse upon him and afflicts him with blindness. Just like you have kind of the dramatization of it in the movies.

But at the same time, you have Sergius Pallas who is saved, not by performing some sort of exorcism on him, but by simply speaking to him the word of God. And Sergius Pallas comes to faith, seeing the power of the word that comes even upon Elimas with this curse that he is afflicted with.

A mist and a darkness fall upon him and he goes about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened. But what does he believe? He believes the word that Paul and Barnabas preach.

He believes the gospel. And his faith in Jesus Christ through the hearing of the gospel saves him, lightens his countenance, makes him an even wiser man now that he knows that Christ is king, his sins have been forgiven, and he has everlasting life with God through faith in Jesus.

Remember that it said about the proconsul in verse 7, he was a man of intelligence. Now he was a man of worldly intelligence, certainly. But now his spirit has been given an understanding of spiritual things.

The dead man inside of him has been brought to life through the light of the gospel that has shined upon him. And it's through just this power of the word that a man has been brought from death to life, from darkness into the light, from an intelligence that you would have said was worldly, into an even greater intelligence that is spiritual and is the wisdom of God.

But what happens to Elimus? Like I said in the beginning, what happens to him is exactly the same as what Elimus was attempting to do to Sergius Paulus. He was attempting to lead him in darkness. And that's the affliction that comes upon Elimus.

Even seeking those who would lead him by the hand and not being able to find anybody who would lead him because he has been afflicted with the very condition he was trying to keep Sergius Paulus under.

But the proconsul believes, comes to faith when he saw what had happened and he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. I hope my friends that the gospel is an amazing thing to you. It is incredible to witness the plan of God that had been fulfilled, that had been predestined from ages past, that he accomplishes through his son whom he sent, who lives a perfect life, dies on the cross for our sins, is raised again from the dead.

And through what Christ accomplished in his life and in his death and in his resurrection is given to us, we are blessed with it and clothed in the righteousness of Christ by faith in him. Are you astonished at the teaching of the Lord?

Are you amazed that God saved a sinner like you, that you were not deserving of the love and grace of God and yet it has come to you through the gospel that has been proclaimed to you? I hope that I never lose my sense of amazement at that and being humble before God and knowing I was totally unworthy of God, of even uttering his name.

And yet he has made me his child. Through faith in Jesus Christ, I have been adopted into the family of God. And what a wonderful blessing. And may we never cease to marvel at it and give thanks to God because of the goodness that he has given to us.

At the same time, we know it is by this word that we have come to salvation. And so we must share this word with others. And so likewise, the darkness that others are in, they will be freed from it and brought into the light when the light of Christ shines upon them.

There are many who wander in darkness in many different ways. It could be that you see a person who is just great with life. They're happy with life. They seem like they have it all together. But what they don't know is that they're actually stumbling in darkness because they are ignorant to their sin and the judgment that awaits them if they don't find a solution to their sin.

That solution found only by faith in Jesus Christ. Then you may encounter other people who are in darkness and you can see the darkness on them. They are just in despair. And the world has never shown them kindness.

But they will know the light of God when they hear the gospel of Christ. Many people stumbling in darkness in different ways. But as said in John chapter 1, Jesus is the light of the world. Psalm 118 verse 27, the Lord is God and he has made his light to shine upon us.

And Isaiah 60 verse 1, arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Be astonished at the teaching of the Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read and studied these couple of days about Paul and Barnabas preaching on the island of Cyprus and sharing the gospel there.

Even a man of such high stature like Sergius Paulus coming to faith in the gospel of Christ by your gracious will. May we continue to marvel at the goodness of God and those things that you teach us according to your scriptures.

And likewise, we will take this word and share it with others so that they too may come to faith in Jesus and live. Help us to walk in the light as he, our Savior, is in the light. And we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

First John 1 7. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

Find a good, gospel-teaching, Christ-centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study When We Understand the Text.