Another Filling of the Holy Spirit — David Servant

Paul, Barnabas, and Bar-Jesus on Cyprus

A church planter can walk 20 miles in a day. Give him a bicycle and he can go three times as far and be three times as effective. Welcome back to Acts chapter 13. We're right in the middle of the story when Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey on the island of Cyprus are sharing the gospel with a guy who's really interested.

Paul’s Spirit-Inspired Confrontation of the False Prophet

He's sought them out, a proconsul, a Roman governmental leader who is very intelligent according to Luke. And he's asking questions and Paul and Barnabas are giving him answers, but he's got a buddy named Bar-Jesus, whom Luke calls a Jewish false prophet.

And boy, you know, God is merciful, but where his mercy ends, his judgment begins. And so as he's speaking out against what Paul and Barnabas are sharing with this spiritually hungry man named Sergius, we read in verse number nine of Acts chapter 13, but Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, this would be Bar-Jesus, 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?

The Miraculous Judgment on Bar-Jesus

And now we're going to keep reading in a second, but the subsequent, the consequence of this pronouncement upon him is that he's going to go blind. He's going to just suddenly go blind and be blind for a time.

So it's a miracle. Nobody can say otherwise. And I posed the question last time when we read in verse number nine that Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, and then he fixed his gaze upon Bar-Jesus, or Elimus the magician as he's also called, was Luke commenting that Paul was just a guy who was always filled with the Holy Spirit because more than a decade ago he'd been filled with the Holy Spirit when Ananias came and laid his hands upon him in Damascus there, or was Luke really saying that he was suddenly had an impartation of the Holy Spirit?

A Fresh Filling of the Holy Spirit

And I said, the latter of those two is obviously the correct answer because Paul just couldn't do these things anytime he wanted to. If he could, he would have done it to everybody, everyone who didn't believe the gospel, whoever opposed him, he would have done that to them.

I mean, what a great way to close the mouths of your opposition and to make believers out of everybody. I mean, ask yourself the question, if you could just make anyone blind that you wanted to and you would use that gift responsibly, wouldn't you make everyone blind for a time who refused to believe the gospel so that they would believe the gospel?

And so that those who were listening intently, they'd really become instant believers? Of course you would. So Paul would have done this every time he ran into problems, goodness, when he was arrested and so forth later on.

I mean, he could have made everyone blind and snuck away. So this is a gift of the spirit and operation. And as Luke describes it, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. It was a sudden whoosh, another infilling of the Holy Spirit.

One Baptism or Repeated Infilling?

All this is to say that those folks who teach that there's only one baptism in the Holy Spirit, only one infilling of the Holy Spirit, when you're born again, you get all the Holy Spirit you're ever going to get.

They need to read their Bible sometime because there's verses like this that make it so crystal clear that that is simply not true. And again, I never understand why people argue about these things. Who wouldn't want all of the Holy Spirit they could possibly get?

And do you really think that you have all the Holy Spirit that you could ever possibly get? That God's unable to give you more of his Holy Spirit? Come on. God's God. And the Holy Spirit's a lot bigger than we give him credit.

Prophetic Words Under the Holy Spirit’s Inspiration

I'd also have to mention here, well, let's read this once again, verse number 10. Look then what Paul said clearly as he was anointed by the Holy Spirit. Again, these words are almost, I guess you consider them prophetic words.

He's saying, what he's saying is only said under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Listen to what the Holy Spirit, God is love, right? But listen to what that loving God said to this wicked guy who was opposing the gospel.

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 crook of the ways of the Lord? So that's not really a gentle rebuke, is it? And I'm saying that just so we don't get misled by those who present God as just all lovey-dovey teddy bear type God.

Divine Judgment Tempered by Mercy

No, no, no, no, no, no. God can shoot very straight, and he will, all right? And really, even in this, his love is displayed. Look what happens. Verse number 11, Paul says, now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.

Well, you know, God could have killed him, right? He could have been dead in a doorknob just instantly if God had willed it. But God mercifully blinded him, and it was obviously a temporary blindness because he said you will not see the sun for a time.

We don't know how long of a time. But immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand, right? The opposition is silenced. I'm sure that old bar Jesus had time to think about his opposition to the message of Paul and Barnabas, and I hope, although it doesn't say, but I hope that he became a believer over this.

The Conversion of the Proconsul and the Significance of Miracles

But here is the good news. Verse number 12, then the broken soul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. Wow, God's a great teacher. I've said it over and over again.

If you take the miracles out of the book of Acts, there isn't much left. There isn't much left at all. And it's surprising to me that some in this day and age who study the Bible, who have the title minister or pastor, for some reason believe that the age of miracles has passed.

Challenging Cessationism and the End of Miracles

I guess they haven't seen any in their lives, obviously, which is something to think about there. The age of miracles has passed. We shouldn't expect stuff like this today. There's not healings. There's not miracles.

There's none of that kind of stuff today, because there's one verse we found in the Bible that says, when that which is perfect comes, all these gifts will cease. And so they've concluded that the perfect is the completed New Testament, and so after the New Testament was completed, then that's when all the miracles ceased, because we didn't need miracles anymore, because we had the New Testament.

Well, that logic is flawed, so flawed. I think even a child can see how flawed that logic is. And if you're able to receive it, join me next time in our next segment, and I'm going to show you why it's so utterly flawed.

I'll see you next time.