Acts 12:25-13:12

13:1-3 | At this point the focus of the book shifts from Peter’s ministry to Paul’s. The leaders of the church – the prophets and teachers – submitted themselves to spiritual disciplines, with worship, fasting, and prayer as the cornerstones of their missionary work. When leaders are marked by these characteristics, the cause of Christ will be carried out with power.

13:1 | Of the five men Luke mentions, four were Hellenists – jews born outside of the Holy Land who spoke Greek: Barnabas was from Cyprus, Simeon was from Africa, Lucius was a Cyrenian, and Saul was from Tarsus. Only Manaen was from Israel.

13:3 | By laying hands on them, the three other leaders were identifying with Barnabas and Saul’s mission. The text says they sent them away, but the wording is literally, “they released them.” They selflessly broke their emotional ties to them and freed them to do God’s will. Barnabas and Saul became the Christian church’s first two missionaries.

13:4-5 | Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean, was Barnabas’ home. It had two main cities: Salamis, the commercial center on the eastern side, and Paphos, the political center on the western side. Barnabas and Saul arrived first in Salamis and preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. As a Jewish scholar, Saul was permitted to speak to those who knew the Scriptures – a perfect way to begin a ministry in a new area.

13:6 | Barnabas and Saul encountered a Jew who was a sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was also called Elymas, which means “The Enlightened One.”

13:7 | It was not uncommon for the governor of a district to send for visitors. It was the proconsul’s job to stay on top of all the latest “news” in his area.

13:8 | Elymas recognized the Word of God as a threat to his own “ministry” of deception and false power (2 Tim. 3:8). He did not want the governor to be converted to Christ because he would lose his position within the city’s power structure.

13:9-11 | Saul’s verbal rebuke of the sorcerer is one of the most dramatic denunciations of demonic power in Scripture. Instead of calling the sorcerer Bar-Jesus (“Son of Jesus”), Saul called him son of the devil. That play on words described him accurately as the enemy of righteousness – an opponent of everything Barnabas and Saul represented.

13:9 | From this point on in Scripture, Saul is called Paul. Perhaps out of pragmatism (his birth name was infamous) or out of grace (he was a new man), his name was changed from “Asked For” to “Small.”

13:11 | Besides labeling Elymas for who he was, Paul caused him to go temporarily blind, a fitting picture of his spiritual blindness (2 Cor. 4:4). The supposedly all-powerful sorcerer was reduced to being led around by the hand.

13:13 | Through 13:7, Luke referred to this small missionary band as Barnabas and Saul, but beginning here, Paul is mentioned first – he had become the leader of the group. John Mark was Barnabas’ cousin who had accompanied Paul and Barnabas from Antioch but returned to Jerusalem when they arrived at Perga. John Mark’s departure did not sit well with Paul, but in time their relationship was healed (Col. 4:10; 2 Tim. 4:11).

13:14 | The Gentile church that sent out Paul and Barnabas was in Syria, near the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. Antioch is in the interior of Asia Minor. To reach this city, travelers had to traverse a rugged mountain range some 3,600 feet above sea level. Antioch was first a strategically located outpost of Rome, and then of the gospel.