SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/13/2018 8:44 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2
“Spiritual Opposition”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 13:6-8,
13)
Message of the verses: “6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, 7 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. 8 But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 13 Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia; but John left them and returned to Jerusalem.”
The Roman governor of Cyprus was “Sergius Paulus,” and
according to extra Biblical reports his name was found at Soloi which was at
the north coast of Cyprus, “in the procounsulship of Paulus.” (Sir William M.
Ramsay.”
Paulus would have heard about what was going on in Cyprus
as the preaching of the gospel went from one end of the island to the other and
so he desired to find out more about this new “religion” and so he sent for
Barnabas and Saul so that he could hear the Word of God. As we look on in the
text we see that this alarmed “Elymas the magician (for so his name is
translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the
faith.” We have to understand that
Elymas the magician was doing the biding of his evil master Satan. We need to understand that many Jewish people
had Greek names at this time and so Bar-Jesus’ Greek name is Elymas, and this
was the name he went by in the court of Sergius Paulus. John MacArthur writes “Luke’s parenthetical
note that ‘thus his name is translated’ does not mean ‘Elymas’ translates
Bar-Jesus. Instead, Elymas was
apparently the Greek transliteration of an Arabic word for ‘magician’ (Simon J.
Kistemaker).”
John MacArthur gives us an important lesson in the
following quote from his commentary: “It
is well to remember the lesson of these verses.
Leading someone to Christ is not merely an academic exercise, nor is it
a matter of making a successful sales pitch.
Rather, in involves all-out war against the forces of hell. Saul and Barnabas battled Bar-Jesus for the soul of Sergius Paulus.” Satan never wants to give up one of his own.
Another way that Satan attacks the church is from within,
inside the churches as can be seen through the writings of our Lord to the
seven churches in Revelation 2-3. This
pressure from within in this section comes from the decision that John Mark
made by leaving the team and going back to Jerusalem as seen in verse 13. Now as far as why John Mark left it is
uncertain, but many have suggested that it had to do with fear among other
reasons. All I can say is that in the
last letter Paul wrote he told Timothy to bring John Mark with him because he
was useful. At the end of the book of
Mark which John Mark wrote with the help of Peter and Paul we read about a
young man who had gone to where Jesus was arrested and that when he ran away
someone got hold of his clothes and so the text says he ran away naked. Many believe that this young man was John
Mark, and so he was very young to be going on this first missions trip and
perhaps that is why he became frightened if that is the reason he left the
team.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Keep on doing what is right for
the cause of Christ and even though you fail at times confess your failures and
then begin once again to do what is right for the cause of Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord for what is going on in our
lives the rest of this week as this week is filled with many things to do.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “John.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What did Elisha tell Naaman
to do?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/13/2018 9:14 AM
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