Showdown at the Cyprus Corral
Turning opposition into opportunity through the power of the Spirit
i. We will be having a business meeting tonight and sharing what we have heard God say.
1. Now most folks avoid business meetings like the plague, because they see them as contentious experiences.
2. But I believe that business meetings are a place where God’s people get together and say, “Hey, it looks like God is working in this area, let’s allocate resources so we can join with Him there and meet a need that He has exposed.”
ii. Normally we do the business meeting first, and then do our Shepherd ministry.
iii. But I believe it is very important for us to share what we have heard God say to us over these past couple of weeks first, and then have our business meeting after that.
iv. Please make this a priority to be here tonight. If you fasted, God has spoken something to you. If you prayed, God has heard you. Don’t make the rest of us miss what you have been learning from God.
i. We have to listen for His voice for our lives
ii. We have to listen for His voice for our church.
i. Join me in Acts 13, and lets re-read the passage. (New Living Translation) “Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul. One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work I have for them." 3So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.
ii. Notice that once those in Antioch heard God they didn’t just jump up and call a travel agent for Paul and Barnabas.
1. In v. 3, they “fasted and prayed” some more, THEN they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
iii. Why did they do this? I think it was….
1. To be sure they heard God right?
2. To be able to anoint power to them (that can only come through “prayer and fasting”)
i. The first place they traveled on their new journey was a place called Cyprus.
ii. “Sent out by the Holy Spirit, Saul and Barnabas went down to the seaport of Seleucia and then sailed for the island of Cyprus. 5There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogues and preached the word of God. (John Mark went with them as their assistant.)
iii. 6Afterward they preached from town to town across the entire island until finally they reached Paphos, where they met a Jewish sorcerer, a false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7He had attached himself to the governor, Sergius Paulus, a man of considerable insight and understanding. The governor invited Barnabas and Saul to visit him, for he wanted to hear the word of God. 8But Elymas, the sorcerer (as his name means in Greek), interfered and urged the governor to pay no attention to what Saul and Barnabas said. He was trying to turn the governor away from the Christian faith.
iv. 9Then Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked the sorcerer in the eye and said, 10"You son of the Devil, full of every sort of trickery and villainy, enemy of all that is good, will you never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord? 11And now the Lord has laid his hand of punishment upon you, and you will be stricken awhile with blindness." Instantly mist and darkness fell upon him, and he began wandering around begging for someone to take his hand and lead him. 12When the governor saw what had happened, he believed and was astonished at what he learned about the Lord.
i. REBUKE:
1. How strange though Paul’s words sound to our modern ear
2. Paul is in a local dignitary’s home. What kind of Christian is Pual acting like? Isn’t God the God of love….?
3. Notice also that Paul has no “warning” that this is going to happen. He doesn’t prepare for the encounter.
4. When the showdown happened, he didn’t ask Barnabas, ”Hey, do you think I better shout this guy down?”
5. No, he had already been equipped and empowered by the Spirit of God who led him into a God sized situation.
6. Within seconds of Paul’s rebuke, Elymas is blind. And the room erupts in a gasp. The debate is over. He was amazed at the teaching.
7. Who wouldn’t yield to the Lord when the teaching is backed up by such a demonstration of God Power?
i. The power of God is related to His holiness.
ii. God’s anger and wrath toward sin is directly proportional to the display of His power toward obstacles men place to prevent people from repenting and coming to a knowledge of the truth.
iii. Imagine, if you will, that you pay the ransom for someone who is kidnapped. It has cost you everything you own to pay for their freedom. But the messenger who is carrying the ransom is hijacked and there is an attempted robbery of him. How would you react to the robber? Your anger toward him would match the anger toward the kidnapper, because he is blocking the way to freedom for the one you love.
iv. This is the case with Bar-Jesus. He is trying to hijack, to rob, to prevent the proconsul from receiving his ransom and freedom.
v. We shouldn’t be surprised that God displays His power in support of the message of the gospel.
i. Paul and Barnabas are going through open doors, they are sharing the gospel and they encounter opposition.
ii. When God opens a door for you to impact people’s lives with His love, you can expect to encounter opposition.
1. EXPAND?
iii. It goes with the territory.
iv. What did you expect Satan to do? Cheer you on?
i. The word for filled means to be controlled.
ii. In other words, to be filled with the Spirit means to be controlled by the Spirit.
iii. How do we do this?
1. Some of you may remember my illustration last week with the balloon.
a. If I were to blow into this balloon, most of you would say that this balloon is filled. It may appear to be filled with air, but in reality, it would only be “containing air.”
b. For it to be filled (in a biblical sense) means that its actions would have to be controlled by its contents.
2. The only way that a balloon’s actions are controlled by its contents is when it releases its contents.
a. When what is inside of it comes out.
3. In the spiritual realm, to be filled with the Spirit means to have the Spirit released in our lives.
a. If you are a Christian, you are a container, a vessel for the Holy Spirit of God.
b. He dwells within you in your Spirit.
c. You have as much of Him inside of you as you ever will.
d. You can do nothing to get more of God. You already have as much of God living inside of you as you ever will.
e. In other words, when you came to Christ, you got all of God, and He began to dwell inside of you.
4. But like that balloon, that which is inside of you will not exercise power in your life unless it comes out of you.
a. What this means is that your response to an obstacle will be under the control of the Spirit of God instead of under the power of the flesh.
i. When have you been in a challenging situation and been tempted to push back when challenged.
ii. But calmness covers you and so you find yourself asking God…”Lord, what would you have me to do?”
iii. That is a glimpse of being controlled by the Holy Spirit.
iv. I think it results more often in gentleness rather than a reaction like Paul’s.
v. Most of us would love to TELL SOMEONE OFF in the power of the Spirit wouldn’t we?
vi. But it takes as much power to be gentle in crisis as it does to give a rebuke in confrontation.
vii. What matters is not the response itself, but the POWER BEHIND the response.
i. Most Christians I know wish they had the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
ii. But most of us are not willing to pay the price to have that power evidenced in our lives.
1. Most people would like “instant power” like an instant milkshake or an instant “power bar” that you consume and get energy for the task ahead.
2. But the power of the Holy Spirit is much different than that.
3. Even a battery takes hours to recharge, do you think that the human life is much different?
i. The secret to moving from wishing to having is found in Galatians 2:20
1. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
2. This is composed of the “breaking of the inner man.”
a. The bible calls it living the “crucified life.”
b. Most churches don’t like to talk about it.
c. It doesn’t fill up the seats of a church.
3. Let me explain how and why this principle works in our lives.
i. The appetites of the flesh are the first thing that God deals with.
1. In a non-Christian, the appetites of the outward man rule the person.
2. But in a Christian, it is God’s plan that the inward man rule the outward man.
ii. This is because God wants our outside to reflect what is inside us.
1. So for most new Christians, the first areas of battle, and victory, are victories over appetites of the flesh…sensuality, alcohol or drug consumption, bad habits, etc.
iii. But as these external issues come under God’s control in their lives, most Christians look at themselves and say, “Gee, I’m pretty good now. I don’t smoke anymore. I don’t get drunk anymore, I don’t chase women anymore. I don’t even cuss too much anymore.”
1. And as a result, they feel like they have accomplished some legitimate level of holiness…as if God is really pleased with them because they have overcome some of the ravaging appetites of the flesh.
2. What they don’t realize, is that is a more significant area He desires to change.! (see drawing)
3. And when a Christian stops at just changing the Outward man, and only makes changes that affect his appearance and moral behavior, he or she misses experiencing the life Jesus came to give him.
a. When a Christian is preoccupied with the don’ts of life, with the boundaries and the rules, their spiritual life becomes dry, they lose the joy that Jesus brought, and they actually become quite difficult to be around.
iv.
v. The other area God wants to work on is that called the Inner Man, or the Soul (defined as the mind, the will and the emotions).
1. Why? Because it is not enough to have our Outer Man controlled by our Inner Man. There are many good people in the world who have accomplished this.
a. There is no power in this. There is only human strength.
b. You see, there is another area of Man that we cannot ignore.
c. It is called His Spirit. It is here that the Spirit of God comes to dwell.
d. And the Spirit of God flows through our mind, our will and our emotions.
e. But He only flows through a surrendered mind, a surrendered will and surrendered emotions.
f. It is God’s plan that our Inward Man is ruled by the Spirit of God, which will flow to our outward actions.
2. Our thoughts, our feelings, & our will need to be subjected to Christ.
a. Romans 12:2 talks about “renewing our minds.”
b. We are told to bring “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
3. This battle ground is the battle ground of the soulish part of ourselves.
a. This battle is won only when our Inner Man is broken.
b. The power of the balloon is released only when the balloon is broken. The air comes out and propels the balloon to its destination und the power inside it.
c. The same with us.
d. Our soul, the mind, will and emotions, needs to be under the control of the Spirit of God deep within us, instead of the other way around, which is called “grieving the Spirit.”
i. If we are not “broken” then our work becomes “soulish”
ii. That is, if we are smart people, and operate strongly in our mind, then our minds govern our work.
iii. If we are compassionate people, then our emotions control our work.
iv. While on the surfaced our labor looks successful, the result is strictly human powered.
v. It is soulish instead of spiritual.
e. Last week I read to you the passage from 1 Cor 2:1, 4-5 which says, “When I came to you brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
f. Paul was determined not to work in his own power, (and he had an amazingly keen mind).
i. Paul was determined to work in the Spirit’s power, so he sought God’s power to be released in his life.
ii. Paul was broken outwardly and inwardly so that the power within was released.
iii. He had learned through his experiences with breaking that he could only depend totally upon God.
4. Many of us are not broken.
a. We resist breaking.
b. We hate pain.
c. We don’t like to not have our way.
d. We find it easier to operate in the strength of our personality, our mind or will or emotions than to die to our strengths and experience instead, the strength of God.
e. We expect God to give us a comfortable life.
i. Yet if God did not spare His own son, should we expect Him to spare us on behalf of a world that needs to know His love?
ii. That love will not come from unbroken people.
f. Watchman Nee, a well known writer has said, “The Spirit’s Power is released only according to the degree of our brokenness. Whenever we desire to save ourselves and hold back certain areas from God, in those very areas we are spiritually useless.”
5. Consecration…that is what folks do here at the altar on Sunday morning during our ministry time….is only the beginning of the task.
a. Offering yourself to God is the first step on the journey to the power of the Spirit. Some of you may wish to do that this morning.
b. But remember that the discipline of the Holy Spirit is the process of brokenness, which makes up the rest of the journey.
c. Brokenness is the work of the Cross.
d. There is no power without brokenness.
vi. What are the tools that God uses for brokenness?
1. He uses our circumstances. The things that don’t go our way. It may be our health, our finances, a loss of job, etc.
a. There are folks here who God has put through a furnace of affliction over the past several years. And I can see a difference in your lives as you have sought God (instead of walking out on Him).
b. When we choose to resist the trials, we miss the lesson they bring us.
c. Our prayer ought to be, “Ok God, what is it I must learn here?”
d. Some of the most Godly people I have known are those whose lives have been through the furnace of affliction.
i. They have been broken of every strand of self-sufficiency.
ii. And when all they have is Jesus, then the world sees Him in His glory.
2. He uses people that hurt us.
a. So often when we are in the furnace of affliction, the troubles of life…we only see the hand of man.
b. When in fact, we need to see the hand of God, trying to produce in us the brokenness He desires.
i. As long as we think it is so-and-so making life hard on me, then we will take offense and derail and delay the work God is trying to do in us.
ii. That is why in churches, when someone takes OFFENSE that the power of God in that church is depleted.
1. Offense is when the soulish man rules.
2. There is no flow of the Spirit through a soulish man.
c. But like Joseph, whose brothers had sold him into slavery, who had every conceivable right to be angry and offended, said, “But God used you”
d. Most of the book of Job is about a relatively righteous man being broken in his inner person. He had to come to the end of himself. So must you and I to experience the power of God in our lives
i. Why is this so?
1. First, we have the illustration of the passage where Jesus has to cast a demon out of a person because his disciples could not. When they ask him why they could not, he replies, “This kind only comes out through prayer and fasting.”
a. In other words, spiritual power comes through the process of self-denial and crucifixion.
b. As we mentioned several weeks ago, fasting is the action of humbling oneself, and it is the most common example in the bible of people who have been brought to humility before God.
2. But at the root of releasing God’s power in our lives, there is a core issue.
1. That issue is known as the
2. What must we do?