The Proclaimed, Opposed, Believed Word
Acts: The Mission of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT
INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT
Last week, we saw two missionaries called by the Holy Spirit and commissioned by the local church in Antioch.
We saw them set apart by God and sent off by God’s people.
This week, we will see the beginning of their mission trip, as Paul and Barnabas set sail for Cyprus.
The Apostle Paul famously takes three missionary journeys in the book of Acts.
The first is here in Acts 13 and carries over into chapter 14.
He and Barnabas launch out from Antioch and then they travel to and through Cyprus, as well as Pamphylia.
The second is in chapters 15-18, and makes its way through Galatia, Macedonia and Achaia.
The third weaves through Asia Minor and Ephesus and ends in Jerusalem.
This week, we see Barnabas and Paul in Cyprus in Acts 13:4-12.
The Gospel is impacting a powerful man, and Satan rises up to try and stop it.
As we look at the text, we will have three teaching points as we go along:
1. The Word is proclaimed (v. 4-6)
2. The Word is opposed (v. 6-11)
3. The Word is believed (v. 12)
And along the way, we will see a model for the sort of resolve that we must have as Gospel-proclaimers in the wilderness of the world.
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
THE WORD IS PROCLAIMED (v. 4-6)
THE WORD IS PROCLAIMED (v. 4-6)
The text begins with more evidence that the mission of the church belongs to the Lord. The Spirit who called the church at Antioch to set Paul and Barnabas apart is sending them out in verse 4.
They are sent down to Seleucia and then they sail to Cyprus.
Seleucia was a port town about 16 miles west of Antioch.
It was an important harbor for trade.
From that port city, they sail for Barnabas’ stomping grounds of Cyprus.
That would’ve required 60 miles of sailing—a long day’s journey on the water in favorable winds.
Then they head to Salamis (v. 5), which was another harbor town—this one on the eastern coast of Cyprus.
And you can see what they do there.
Luke says in verse 5 that they proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of Salamis and in verse 6, you see they are working their way throughout the entire island.
Teaching Point #1: The Word of God is proclaimed (v. 4-6).
Teaching Point #1: The Word of God is proclaimed (v. 4-6).
Paul and Barnabas are making their way throughout all of Cyprus, but they start at Salamis and they specifically start in the synagogues there.
This becomes a pattern throughout Paul’s missionary work—to start with the synagogues.
When he comes to a town, he goes to the Jewish community first.
Why is this?
To answer that question, consider his words from Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In the Old Testament, God chose to reveal Himself to Israel.
The nations were in darkness and unless they came into contact with Israel, who had the light of God’s revelation, they remained in that darkness.
And when God revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus is born from the family of Abraham—from the line of Judah--Abraham’s great, great grandson.
And when Christ came, He came first to His own people, the Jews.
He described Himself as being sent to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24)
In John 4, when Jesus speaks to the woman at the well, He says:
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
And yet, despite His mission coming first to the Jews, we see Jesus healing, forgiving and accepting Gentiles throughout the Gospels.
When He commissioned His disciples in Acts 1:8, the Lord instructed them to start the global Kingdom mission in Jerusalem and in all Judea, before Samaria and the end of the earth.
So then, it is Paul’s practice to go to the Jewish people first, as well.
It was his conviction that the lost sheep of Israel—those the oracles of God were entrusted to-- should be gathered before he took the light to the Gentiles—a conviction that is in line with words and actions of Christ.
You really see this later in chapter 13, in Pisidian Antioch, when Paul and Barnabas issue a warning to Jewish opposition regarding their rejection of the Gospel:
And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,
“ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
It’s not that salvation does not belong to the Gentiles.
Instead, Paul’s pattern and his words from Romans 1 simply show that the light of revelation comes through the Jewish people to the Gentile world, therefore, Paul took the Gospel to the Jewish people before the Gentile people.
But it was always going to go to Gentile people.
The fact that there are multiple synagogues shows there was a large Jewish community in Salamis, making it a very natural place for Paul and Barnabas to begin their work on Cyprus.
But from there, Paul and Barnabas launch out into the rest of the island and cover a 112 mile stretch from Salamis to Paphos (v. 6).
This is some serious proclaiming work.
Along the way, they would have probably done work in the cities of Kition, Amathos, Neapolis and Kourion.
The journey would have included 7 days of walking—covering about 15-20 miles a day, plus however much time they spent in each city.
Luke doesn’t say much about what happens in between Salamis and Paphos, but there is no reason to think that it was a failure because he is silent.
In Acts 15:39, Barnabas and John-Mark return to Cyprus and that indicates there were probably new churches that Barnabas wanted to go and strengthen.
THE GOSPEL ON THE MOVE
THE GOSPEL ON THE MOVE
This is the nature of the Gospel and the Word of God.
It is not to be put out of sight, but proclaimed.
It is not to be hidden, but heralded.
God’s saving message is not meant to stagnate, but be sent out.
We see this in the way that the Word of God speaks of itself.
In the Old Testament, Isaiah says the Word is like rain that falls to the earth and produces fruit, not returning void:
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Jeremiah speaks of the Word like a fire that will eat up his bones if he doesn’t proclaim it:
If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
In the New Testament, Jesus speaks of the Gospel as:
A light that is to be shone.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Seed to be sown.
As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
The writer of Hebrews speaks of the Word as a double-edged sword to be wielded for the piercing and dividing of the heart.
James speaks of the Word as a mirror to be used and paid attention to.
We are rich with resources as Christians in the Western world.
There has never been another time in history where there are more Bible studies.
The Bible has never been translated into more languages and in English it has a multitude of versions, many of which are good and acceptable.
We have thousands of hours of phenomenal preaching and teaching available to us for free on YouTube.
We have books galore.
Early church fathers and medieval scholastics, translated into modern English.
The brilliant Reformers and Puritans and Baptist divines—much of their work available for free online. or very cheap.
Catalogued teaching from brilliant minds like Spurgeon and Moody.
The writing of present-day gems like Joel Beeke and John Piper and RC Sproul and Kevin DeYoung. Jen Wilkin and Nancy Guthrie and Roasaria Butterfield and Nancy Pearcy.
But we have to be careful that we do not simply consume all of this knowledge, with no intention of carrying it to the world.
We cannot eat with no intention of evangelizing.
We cannot listen with no intent to leverage.
The preached Word is meant to be received and obeyed—this is true.
But it is also meant to be proclaimed—not to flame out in our own hearts.
We cannot be spiritually stuffed and malnourished when it comes to mission.
Like Paul and Barnabas, we must faithfully take the Gospel of Christ to nations.
Whether it is a 112 miles stretch in Cyprus or its Robanna Dr. or Chisman Landing or Winsome Haven—the Gospel of God’s Word is meant to be proclaimed.
A BRIEF WORD ABOUT JOHN-MARK
A BRIEF WORD ABOUT JOHN-MARK
Before we move on, I wanted to briefly touch on the mention of John-Mark in v. 5.
This shows us how he is on this mission trip as a helper of sorts with Paul and Barnabas.
If you skip ahead one verse from today’s passage, Luke says this in Acts 13:13
Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem,
This will be the breaking point between Paul and Barnabas in Acts 15.
Barnabas will want John-Mark to have a second chance on the team, but Paul will say no.
And yet—John-Mark will have his redemption.
He is a useful brother here, and in 2 Timothy, Paul finds him to be useful again—apparently getting past John-Mark abandoning ship in Pamphylia:
Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
THE WORD IS OPPOSED (v. 6-11)
THE WORD IS OPPOSED (v. 6-11)
Paul and Barnabas and John are proclaiming the Gospel throughout Cyprus, but as we come to the end of verse 6, the proclaimed Word is receiving opposition.
This is our second teaching point:
Teaching Point #2: The Word is opposed (v. 6-11).
Teaching Point #2: The Word is opposed (v. 6-11).
The opposition comes from a “certain magician.” “A Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.”
The words “Jewish” and “magician” go together about as well as “Washington” and “Dallas.”
Any Jewish person who was seeking to truly live holy, according to the Lord’s standards, would not want to be associated with sorcery.
There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
A magician would have been a person who used incantations with the hope of influencing or controlling powers above and beyond themselves in order manipulate public and private affairs.
It was blasphemous for any Jew to participate in such things.
Luke also calls him a “false prophet.”
This means he claimed to have words of divine authority and access to divine insight, but in truth, he was misrepresenting himself and God.
His Aramaic name is “Bar-Jesus,” which means “son of Jesus.”
But he is a counterfeit.
In reality, he is what Paul calls him in v. 10— “a son of the Devil.”
Luke also says his name means “Elymas.” This is likely derived from the Arabic word for “wise man” and is probably his Arabic name.
The bottom line is that this man stands in opposition to the Gospel and he is a true enemy to the preached Word.
He stands in contract to Paul and Barnabas.
They hold fast to the teaching of the Lord, as v. 12 shows.
He is a false prophet.
Their ministry is accompanied by real miracles.
This man is a counterfeit magician.
He is like the magicians of Pharaoh opposing Moses and Aaron in the time of the Exodus.
In verse 7, we find out that he is with a man named Sergius Paulus.
Paulus is the proconsul to the province of Syria.
This is the equivalent of a governor in our own times.
If you are familiar with Canadian politics, he would be like one of their “premiers.”
He is described as a man of intelligence, which comes from a Greek word that can also translate to “discernment.”
And when he hears about Paul and Barnabas, he discerns that these are men he would like to have some interface with.
Maybe he heard of their work throughout Cyprus.
Maybe there was news of miracles.
Maybe the missionaries struck his curiosity with their preaching of God becoming a man.
Regardless, he wants an audience with them. He wants to hear their teaching. He wants to hear the Word of God.
But you see in verse 8 that Bar-Jesus—Elymas—opposes them and seeks to turn Sergius Paulus away from saving faith.
He is likely doing this because the Roman leader is his cash cow.
If Paulus becomes a Christian, he won’t want to hear from this false prophet any longer.
Bar-Jesus knows that and he is doing all he can to stop his boss from being converted.
PAUL’S REBUKE (v. 9-11)
PAUL’S REBUKE (v. 9-11)
But Paul is having none of it. He issues a scathing rebuke to this false prophet.
This rebuke contains some of the first words we really hear Paul speak as a minister of the Gospel in the New Testament and he comes out of the gate STRONG.
Before we get into the rebuke, it is worth pointing out that we have our first interaction with Luke using Paul’s Latin name.
Up until now, we have known him as “Saul of Tarsus,” which is his Jewish name.
But now Luke uses Paul’s Latin name, which he would have had as a Roman citizen.
It makes sense, in the immediate context, for Paul to use his Latin name as he is witnessing to a Roman proconsul.
It also makes sense in the greater context of Paul’s calling for him to use this name because he is the Apostle to the Gentiles and his Latin name would be more readily received in the Non-Jewish parts of the Roman Empire.
In verse 9, he is filled with the Holy Spirit.
His words and actions are truly prophetic and miraculous, compared to this fake, Bar-Jesus.
Paul’s denouncing rebuke has five elements to it:
1) He calls him a “son of the devil” and an “enemy of righteousness” (v. 10).
This is similar to the language Jesus used when talking to hypocritical Pharisees in John 8:44
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The Devil opposes all that is good and true and so does this man.
Like his father, Satan, he is an enemy of righteousness.
Again—this stands in contrast to the man speaking the rebuke.
Paul is full of the Holy Spirit.
2) He says Bar-Jesus is full of all deceit and villainy (v. 10).
He is a liar and a fraud.
3) He says that Bar-Jesus tries to make the straight paths of the Lord to be crooked (v. 10)
Paul says, “Will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?”
The straight path of the Lord is none other than His Son, Jesus Christ.
If you are lost and cut off from God, the only way back to Him is through Jesus.
Jesus is way and the truth.
Jesus is the Wisdom and the Righteousness of God.
There is no other name given among men under heaven by which one may be saved.
In attempting to deter Sergius Paulus and others from the truth of the Word of God and from turning to Christ, Bar-Jesus is making the path crooked.
He is perverting the Gospel and the Word of God.
And Paul tells him this using truly prophetic language. He is echoing Micah in Micah 3:9, as Micah warned of the impending judgment that was coming to Israel at the hands of the Assyrians:
Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
This is a warning to Bar-Jesus that will be followed by a devastating sign.
That leads us to v. 11.
4) He announces God’s opposition of Bar-Jesus (v. 11).
This sorcery-practicing, false prophet, is not just making an enemy of Paul and Barnabas.
Paul makes it clear that the hand of the Lord is upon him—but not in a good way.
In Acts 11:21, the hand of the Lord was with the brothers who were preaching the Gospel in Antioch.
And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
Here, the hand of the Lord being upon Bar-Jesus means that he will be “blind and unable to see.”
5) He announces the punishment of Bar-Jesus (v. 11)
This man will not be able to see—not even the sun—the brightest body in all God’s creation in this galaxy.
And immediately, mist and darkness fall upon him and he goes around asking people to lead him by the hand.
This is ironic, considering he is supposed to be a wise sorcerer with special divine insight.
Now he needs someone to hold his hand to do the most basic thing of walking.
We should note the difference between the punishment to Bar-Jesus, as opposed to the punishment to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 or the punishment to Herod in Acts 12.
Their punishment was permanent.
God took their lives and most likely, they were destined for the 2nd death.
The punishment for Bar-Jesus is “for a time.”
We have to assume that God makes this humbling punishment temporary in order that this man would repent.
Instead of making straight paths crooked, the hope is that he will make crooked paths straight.
We don’t find out one way or the other.
But hopefully we see Bar-Jesus in heaven as a true son of Christ.
CONSISTENT WORLDVIEW REGARDING OPPOSITION TO THE WORD
CONSISTENT WORLDVIEW REGARDING OPPOSITION TO THE WORD
But regardless of whether or not this false prophet repented, this passage reveals to us the true source of opposition to the Gospel and to the preached Word of Christ.
Ultimately, this opposition is from Satan.
It is from people.
It might be from governments.
It might come from other religions or cults.
But at the end of the day, Satan is behind the tree of opposition, bending the branches to interfere with the truth.
Back in Genesis 3, there is a pronouncement that a Serpent-Crusher will come from Eve. Speaking to the Serpent, God says:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”
When the Serpent-Crusher was born of one of Eve’s daughters—the Virgin Mary—the Serpent unleashed the power of Hell to try and destroy Him.
From inspiring the actions of Herod in murdering the young baby boys...
To the wilderness temptation in the desert of Judea...
To the flurry of demonic activity that surrounded the public ministry of Christ...
To the stress of Gethsemane...
To the betrayal of Judas...
To the death on the Cross itself...
Satan was on a mission to destroy the One who had the power to stomp on his miserable head.
But he did not succeed.
Through His life, death, resurrection and ascension, Christ single-handedly broke the power of the oppressor. Satan lost his suffocating rule over the nations. The balance of power was turned. In the Old Testament era, flashes of light appeared in the darkness. But now, in and through Christ, the light has dawned. Christ abiding light and glory now outweigh Satan’s remaining evil and darkness.
Joel Beeke
But Satan, in his hardened pride, does not want to admit defeat.
Having failed in his battle with Christ—the Head of the Church, he strikes at the church itself.
He continues to oppose Jesus—his enemy—by opposing the servants of Christ and the Good News of the Gospel that they preach.
We saw and example of this in Acts 5 with Ananias and Sapphira.
I mentioned their punishment, but who is it that filled their heart and led them to lie to the Holy Spirit? It was the devil.
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
We shouldn’t be surprised at this because what Martin Luther said was true:
The devil hates the Word of God more than any other thing.
Martin Luther
So then, when we look at church history and we see:
Nero setting Christians on fire and using their burning bodies as light for his extravagant gardens...
Or Mary Tudor burning hundreds of dissenting Protestants at the stake...
Or believers in present-day Nigeria being martyred for their faith...
We know what this is. It is the Serpent—the Dragon—chasing the Bride of Christ through the wilderness of the world in hopes of destroying her.
John gives us this picture in his vision in Revelation 12...
Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.
Bar-Jesus was a son of the devil because he opposed the truth of the Gospel, just like his father, the devil.
But understand that he didn’t have a shirt on that said, “Spawn of Satan.”
In fact, he had fooled Sergius Paulus into keeping him around.
Paul had the discernment to recognize him as a false prophet who perverts the truth, but that doesn’t mean everyone else did.
We have to remember that Satan will disguise himself.
And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
Jonathan Edwards agreed with Paul. He said:
There are many false spirits, exceeding busy with men, who often transform themselves into angels of light, and do in many remarkable ways, with great subtlety and power, mimic the operations of the Spirit of God.
Jonathan Edwards
Sometimes opposition looks like a sword. Sometimes it looks like a velvet tongue in a false actor that has people fooled.
But it is always from the same source.
It is from the enemy.
And we must keep this in mind.
As those who preach the Word, we must have a thoroughly Christian worldview regarding Gospel opposition.
It comes from Hell and one day it will return there.
But in the in between, this is the battle we face.
THE WORD IS BELIEVED (v. 12)
THE WORD IS BELIEVED (v. 12)
But dark as all that is, we get some rays of brilliant sunshine in verse 12. Sergius Paulus believes.
Teaching Point #3: The Word is believed (v. 12).
Teaching Point #3: The Word is believed (v. 12).
The miraculous sign of Bar-Jesus’ punishment convinces Sergius Paulus that Paul and Barnabas preach a message worth listening to.
And yet, it is not the sign that leads him to faith.
Look at what Luke says:
Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
It is not the supernatural sign that converts the proconsul.
His true astonishment was reserved for the teaching of the Lord.
It was the Word that converted his heart.
This is consistent with what Paul teaches in Romans 10.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Faith comes through hearing.
EVANGELISM MOTIVATION
EVANGELISM MOTIVATION
Seeing this should motivate us to be vigilant in evangelism.
It is tempting to read the book of Acts and think, “I wish God still worked that way.”
Well there are parts of Acts that we would say are descriptive.
Luke is describing God’s work in the early church.
And as he does it, there are certainly elements that were unique to that time and we should not expect to be normative in the church today.
However, what hasn’t changed in 2000 years is that the power of God is still in the preached Word of God.
Faith came from hearing in the first century.
Faith comes from hearing in the 21st century.
Throughout the years, so many evangelistic methods have come and gone. If you’ve been around the church for a while, you’ve seen them all.
Evangelism Explosion
The Bridge Illustration
Way of the Master
Four Spiritual Laws
Three Circles
And don’t get me wrong—they can be helpful guides.
I still use so much of what I learned from Way of the Master when I evangelize because it taught me to take someone through the Law of God to show them their need for the grace of God.
I am grateful for that.
But with all that said—nothing is more powerful in evangelism than the Bible.
In fact, one of your biggest goals in evangelism should be to just read the Bible with unbelievers.
Why? Because the the teaching of the Lord still astonishes the hearts of sinners.
Because faith still comes through hearing the Word of God.
Do we have that sort of faith in the power of God’s Word?
Do we believe that there is power in the Gospel of the Word?
Just as we need a thoroughly Christian worldview regarding opposition, we need a thoroughly Christian worldview regarding proclamation.
Be faithful to preach the Word and God will be faithful to see His Word believed.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
In the Great Commission, we see a promise of Jesus’ presence, but we don’t see a promise of prosperity.
Jesus says He will be with us, but He doesn’t say opposition will be absent.
Sergius Paulus was a powerful man.
For God to pluck this flower from a world of weeds and make him a part of His garden of grace was a massive win for the Kingdom.
Satan didn’t take it lying down.
He deployed Bar-Jesus—one of his soldiers who had climbed into the court of a proconsul.
What great things might this church do? What conversions unto eternal life might this church see?
What eternal impact might our preaching and heralding have?
We don’t know.
But we have enough faith in the Word of God to believe He will indeed use us as His instruments, if we are faithful to preach the Word without wavering.
But understand—this means opposition will come from within and without.
Doing the right thing is not easy or everyone would do it.
And preaching the Word in season and out of season is one of the most right things we could possibly do.
Satan won’t take it lying down.
But take heart—he will soon be crushed under our feet.
Until, we continue to proclaim in the face of whatever may come—knowing that God will bring faith from hearts of rock through the divine power of the preached Gospel.