Scripture: Acts 13:6-12. He was not your average magician. He was also a false prophet and deceiver.

This was a miraculous sign, so strictly speaking it is not a healing or deliverance, except for the proconsul who came out from under the false prophet’s spell.

Such signs and wonders are designed to draw people to the Lord, and the people must be reinforced by the teaching about God. It is never signs and wonders without right teaching and doctrine.

The translations are mine, but if you would like to see many other translations, please go to biblegateway.com. I include the Greek text to bring out the nuances, but readers may ignore the left column, if they wish.

Let’s begin.

Saul Verbally Strikes Magician with Blindness (Acts 13:6-12)

6 Διελθόντες δὲ ὅλην τὴν νῆσον ἄχρι Πάφου εὗρον ἄνδρα τινὰ μάγον ψευδοπροφήτην Ἰουδαῖον ᾧ ὄνομα Βαριησοῦ 7 ὃς ἦν σὺν τῷ ἀνθυπάτῳ Σεργίῳ Παύλῳ, ἀνδρὶ συνετῷ. οὗτος προσκαλεσάμενος Βαρναβᾶν καὶ Σαῦλον ἐπεζήτησεν ἀκοῦσαι τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ. 8 ἀνθίστατο δὲ αὐτοῖς Ἐλύμας ὁ μάγος, οὕτως γὰρ μεθερμηνεύεται τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, ζητῶν διαστρέψαι τὸν ἀνθύπατον ἀπὸ τῆς πίστεως. 9 Σαῦλος δέ, ὁ καὶ Παῦλος, πλησθεὶς πνεύματος ἁγίου ἀτενίσας εἰς αὐτὸν 10 εἶπεν· ὦ πλήρης παντὸς δόλου καὶ πάσης ῥᾳδιουργίας, υἱὲ διαβόλου, ἐχθρὲ πάσης δικαιοσύνης, οὐ παύσῃ διαστρέφων τὰς ὁδοὺς [τοῦ] κυρίου τὰς εὐθείας; 11 καὶ νῦν ἰδοὺ χεὶρ κυρίου ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ ἔσῃ τυφλὸς μὴ βλέπων τὸν ἥλιον ἄχρι καιροῦ. παραχρῆμά τε ἔπεσεν ἐπ’ αὐτὸν ἀχλὺς καὶ σκότος καὶ περιάγων ἐζήτει χειραγωγούς. 12 τότε ἰδὼν ὁ ἀνθύπατος τὸ γεγονὸς ἐπίστευσεν ἐκπλησσόμενος ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ τοῦ κυρίου.

6 They went through the whole island until Paphos and found a man, a certain Jewish magician and false prophet named Barjesus. 7 He was in the entourage of the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of good sense. Summoning Barnabas and Saul, he desired to hear the word of God. 8 Elymas the magician (for that’s how his name is translated) opposed them, by trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 Saul (also Paul) was filled with the Holy Spirit and stared him down 10 and said, “You are full of all deceit and all trickery, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness! Will you never stop twisting the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, look! The hand of the Lord is against you, and you shall be blind and not see the sun until a certain time!” Instantly misty dimness and darkness fell upon him. And he sought to be hand-led around. 12 When the proconsul saw what happened, he believed because he was amazed at the teaching of the Lord.

Comments:

“Jewish magician and false prophet”: he still remained within the Old Covenant, so he is about to be punished by Old Covenant standards and with an Old Covenant punishment. Barjesus means “son of Jesus / Joshua.” Barjesus is about to find out about the power of the risen Jesus.

“He was a magos in the more popular sense. Luke calls him a false prophet, not (probably) in the sense that he foretold things which did not come to pass, but in the sense that he claimed falsely to be a medium of divine revelation. Elymas, the alternative name which Luke gives him, is probably a Semitic word with a similar meaning to magos; it cannot be an interpretation of “Barjesus” (Bruce, comment on vv. 6-8).

“proconsul”: this was very high up in the Roman ranks. He stood in for (pro-) the consul, and apparently the island of Cyprus came under the jurisdiction and care of the upper levels in Rome.

“a man of good sense”: it is the adjective sunetos (pronounced soo-neh-toss and appears only 4 times in the entire NT). It means “intelligent, wise, with good sense” (Mark 11:25; Luke 10:21; Acts 13:7; 1 Cor. 1:19). It is odd that an intelligent man like the proconsul would listen to a false prophet, unless Bar-Joshua had some really impressive demonic power backing him up.

“stared … down”: it comes from the verb atenizō (pronounced ah-teh-nee-zoh) and also means “stare intently or intensely” or “fix one’s gaze.” Luke is fond of it: Luke 4:20; 22:56; Acts 1:10; 3:4; 3:12; 6:15; 7:55; 10:4; 11:6; 13:9; 14:9; 23:1. Then Paul uses it twice: 2 Cor. 3:7, 13.

Now judgment is pronounced.

“son of the devil”: correlates with his name Barjesus or “son of Jesus / Joshua”! He really was not the son of Jesus, but the son of the devil! Clever. A little irony does not hurt, once in a while.

Occasionally I hear a report that a fiery evangelist pronounces this kind of judgment, say, on a journalist who criticizes a meeting the journalist considers wild (and it possibly is, even by God’s standards [1 Cor. 14:33, 40]). Nothing happened to the journalist as it did to Elymas, but the evangelist did get laughed at.

What 1 Corinthians 14 Really Teaches

What went wrong? Please understand that Barjesus (a Jewish name) lived in the Old Covenant, and he got an Old Covenant punishment. Barjesus was controlled by a demonic spirit. On the other hand, the journalist may not live in the Old Covenant or be under the dominion of a demonic spirit to the extent that he does magical signs and speaks false prophecies. He may simply be skeptical that your wild meeting is on the level. Paul was filled with the Spirit; the fiery evangelist may be merely filled with anger and arrogance and soul power. Now at this point someone will say that he actually saw the same thing done to a witch doctor in Africa or to someone somewhere else. That may be true (or not), but use caution and be sure you are not filled with soul power, as I concluded when I heard of this in an American context. The evangelist had to humble himself and confess that he stepped out of line. Embarrassing.

Please click on the next link:

Why Did Ananias and Sapphira Drop Dead?

“hand-led”: it comes from the compound Greek verb cheiragōgeō (pronounced khay-rah-goh-geh-oh). Cheir– means “hand,” and the second half means “lead.

“teaching”: it comes from the Greek noun didachē (pronounced dee-dah-khay). It also means “instruction.” It indicates that Paul and Barnabas stayed a while to teach Sergius Paullus, because he was influential. If the two missionaries converted him and could keep him in the kingdom by sound teaching (Matt. 18:23), then he in turn could influence many. Never be afraid of influential people—they need the gospel too.

Application for Ministry Today

I believe we can learn how to minister as the apostles did, because of the nine gifts of the Spirit are available to all believers (1 Cor. 12:4-11). Three gifts are discernings of spirits, the workings of miracles and gifts of healings, as the Spirit distributes them. All Bible-based leaders should pray for and welcome these gifts and the seven others in that passage, when people needs healings and deliverances. Let me number my points in this section for clarity and order.

1.. There is a warning here. Satan through false messiahs and prophets can deceive people, even believers (Matt. 7:15; 24:11). To distinguish the false ones from the true ones, use your Spirit-filled anointing (1 John 1:20, 27).  Finally, ask leaders at the church to help you discern truth from falsehood.

2.. Paul was instantly re/filled with the Spirit, to do this difficult assignment to pronounce judgment on Barjesus / Elymas. He had already been filled around his conversion (Acts 9:17). Renewalists believe that the filling of the Spirit can happen often in a believer’s life, when he asks or has immediate need of empowerment. Ask, seek, knock. Be expectant.

For a deeper look, please click on this post:

Baptized, Filled, and Full of the Spirit: What Does It All Mean?

3.. Let’s get back to staring someone down. You know you have God’s authority when you can stare at satanic attacks right in the face (so to speak). If you cannot, please pray for the inner strength and grace and anointing to be able to stand and not to fold or flag during satanic and broken human attacks (I pray this almost every day). In the power of the Spirit (not soul power), stare down this kind of opposition. Don’t flinch.

4.. Paul was filled with the Spirit when he spoke those words leading to blindness. To go deeper, Jesus never presumed as much power as the faith teachers claim for themselves. He never went in for “name-it-and-claim-it.” Instead, God the Father through his Son who was anointed by the Spirit performed miracles of healing. Even Jesus himself did not arrogate this much power to himself. He clarified that he does only what he sees his Father doing (John 5:19). He lives because of the Father (John 6:57). He speaks only what the Father taught him (John 8:28). He does what he sees the Father do (John 10:37).  What Jesus says is just what the Father told him to say (John 12:49-50, John 12:57). Perhaps the most important verse about miracles: “Many good works I have shown you from My Father” (John 10:32 NIV). (In John’s Gospel, “good works” = miracles, at a minimum.)

And so the Father through his Son, anointed by the Spirit (Acts 10:38), performed all miracles during his Son’s ministry. The Son obeyed and followed his Father.

We too should develop life in the Spirit (Gal. 5), so we can hear from the Father through the Spirit. We will never heal as Jesus did, because he is the Anointed One, but the Spirit can distribute the gifts of healings as he determines (1 Cor. 12:11).

5.. Don’t presume that because you have a fiery personality and are used to yelling at people from the platform that you can call down blindness on your opponents and critics, as some super-charged evangelists (or evangelists who pretend they’re pastors) have done–wrongly and misguidedly. Be genuinely filled with the Spirit and be sure to live the crucified life, as Paul did.

I have been crucified with Christ; 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 for me. (Gal. 2:20, NIV)

6.. If someone turns people away from the faith that is rooted in the word of God, he is a false teacher and prophet. Stay clear of him. This is why Paul was about to take action against him.

Stay away from supernatural magic and fortunetelling.

Magic, Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Fortunetelling

Be prepared to lead the person away from the occult, and be prepared to deliver him from a demon.

Bible Basics about Deliverance

For fuller commentary, click on the chapter:

Acts 13

Scroll down to the right verses.