This
past weekend my whole family went to Vicksburg, MS for a presbytery
meeting. No, that’s not really our idea
of a good time, although we did have one.
Amy grew up in Vicksburg and wanted to go see her home church that we
haven’t set foot in in probably 5 years.
When we travel in the car, our kids all watch movies in the backseat
together. What’s funny is that no matter
how long the trip, each one of them wants to watch just one movie. It’s a different movie each time, but they
just want to watch the same one on repeat.
We’ve often sat in the front seat and thought, “When are they going to
get tired of this movie?” We’ve even
used some of them so often that the discs quit working and we’ve had to buy new
ones. As I listened to the same movie
for the 5th time in 2 days yesterday I thought about my own
childhood and if I had a movie that I liked that much as a kid. I have several that I can quote almost
verbatim, but there was one that myself and my parents used to always watch
together. Ok, it wasn’t one movie, but a
collection of them. You see, we used to
love Ernest P. Worrell. For some reason,
that character, played by actor Jim Varney, always had a way of keeping us
laughing no matter what was going on in the world around us. If you don’t know what I’m talking about,
well I’m sorry.
One
of our favorite ones was called Ernest Goes to Jail. In that movie (you guessed it) Ernest was
wrongfully sent to prison, and the movie follows him as he is let free and the rightful
bank robbers arrested. Well, as we bring
our study of the book of Acts to a close, much of the final chapters could be
entitled Paul Goes to Jail or more aptly, Paul Stands Trial. You see, the Apostle Paul had, at this point,
completed his third and final missionary journey. He had become one of the leaders in the
church. He had become one of the primary
missionaries of the church. But he had
also become one of the most hated men in the world by those outside of the
Christian faith, particularly the Jews.
Since our time last Sunday looking at Paul’s farewell address to the
Ephesian elders, Paul endured a lot of hardships. Paul went to Jerusalem and while being there
was arrested. He spoke to some the
tribune in an effort to gain his freedom, but it didn’t help. While he was in custody, there were some Jews
who devised a plot to kill Paul during a prisoner transport of sorts. Finally, it became apparent that Paul couldn’t
just be held without a trial. Paul was
one of those people that everyone had an opinion on, so they brought him before
Felix, the governor of Jerusalem. And
it’s there where our text for today begins.
We
see that as the trial began, Tertullus, the one prosecuting Paul, spent as much
time flattering Felix as he did actually presenting the case. Now, amidst the flattery, he eventually laid
out what were three charges against Paul.
He said that Paul was a plague, stirring up riots; he was the ringleader
of a sect; and that he tried to profane the temple. So, he was essentially charging him with
disturbing the peace, cultivating heresy, and desecrating the holy temple of
God. You know, it’s kind of funny when
you think about it. These charges were
essentially the same things that were brought against Jesus during his trial. I have to think that Paul found great
satisfaction in this fact. Now, I’m sure
that Paul didn’t enjoy his being arrested and put on trial, but at least he
could take solace in the fact that he was facing the same charges that Jesus
faced. You can pretty much know that
you’re doing something the right way when your actions lead to your being put
in the same company as Jesus. Also, it
shows how the world really hadn’t changed that much from the time of Jesus’
trial to Paul’s imprisonment. After all,
it hadn’t been that long since Jesus’ time, but think about if it happened
today where we live. Yes, I know that
the world is a completely different place, but I would be willing to bet that
if we showed the same zeal for Christ that Paul showed, then we would gain a completely
different opinion. However, that is an
entirely different discussion for a different day.
After
hearing the charges brought against him, Paul was given the chance to respond
and defend himself. Beginning in verse 10 Paul goes through and debunks each of
the charges against him, and notice that nowhere in his defense did he attempt
to flatter Felix the way that Tertullus had before making his arguments. Paul wasn’t concerned with his freedom, but
his only concern was remaining true to the calling that God had placed upon his
life, to share the gospel. Summing up
Paul argument, he simply stated that he most certainly was not a plague, not a
troublemaker; he was merely a follower of the Way and not the ringleader of
some heretical sect; and that he was not desecrating the temple but that he was
performing the acts commanded of those prior to worship. Paul even added that the only reason why he
was on trial was because of the personal vendetta that some Jews had against
him.
After
hearing both sides of the argument, Felix did his best impression of a
politician during an election year and stalled.
I saw a commercial the other day for a race here in Louisiana and the
candidate basically threw out a few topics, but said nothing other than that we
need to fix them. Well, he may be right,
but how did he plan to fix them? I don’t
know, he never said. Now he may have a
plan and I may just be uninformed, but his commercial didn’t seem to really
indicate any choices that he had made or would make going forward. Perhaps an even better analogy would be to
compare Felix to the Supreme Court of today and their selected inactivity on
some cases recently. You see, Felix knew
that Paul was innocent of what he was being charged with. He knew just as much as Pontius Pilate knew
that Jesus was innocent. However, like
Pilate, Felix was also faced with outside pressure. Felix was just a man trying to get by. We know from historical records that Felix
wasn’t really fit for this job. The end
of our text tells us that he lasted only two more years in this role before
being removed. You see, Felix was just
trying to please everyone, but he knew that a decision (one way or the other) would
cause him problems. He knew that Paul
was innocent, but he also wanted to make his constituents happy.
A
couple of weeks ago, Brian Houston, the senior pastor for Hillsong Church,
which is based out of New York but has a network of churches across the globe,
made national news by straddling the fence when it came to the issue of
homosexuality. What happened was that he
was asked about the recent indecision of the Supreme Court that I referred to
earlier and his response was that the issue of homosexual marriage was “an
ongoing conversation.” Of course this statement
prompted follow-up questions about what he stance on the issue was and if it
had changed from what he previously believed.
Houston tried to side-step the issue, but as he found out rather
quickly, he couldn’t. Back in June, Al
Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, had stated that
there is no third view of same-sex marriages.
You either view them as acceptable or they aren’t. It’s the same thing that we said about C.S.
Lewis’ view of Jesus in Mere Christianity;
he is either Lord, a liar, or a lunatic.
There is no other way to view it.
In essence, everyone has to decide between a limited set of choices, and
that just makes us mad because we don’t like having limits placed upon us.
I can remember
my parents letting me choose my punishment when I was a kid. “Tommy, you can either give up your car for a
week or you can stay home for the entire weekend; those are your two
choices.” I remember many times trying
to spring for a third option and come up with something that wasn’t nearly as
harsh. However, my father would always
quickly correct me by saying, “I’m sorry, I could have sworn that there were
only two choices, so pick one before you get both of them.” You see, I really didn’t want to decide, but
I had to make a choice. Felix really
didn’t want to decide here either.
However, his choice to not act was really a choice to act in favor of
the Jews, even if it didn’t go as far as they might have wanted. It’s just like the Supreme Court’s inaction,
which favored one side over the other even though it wasn’t exactly what the
winning side originally wanted.
You see, there
is no such thing as indecision. Even
when we seek out neutrality, we still end up promoting one side over the
other. Even when we don’t want to make a
choice, we’re making one. We are all
going to have to decide; WE MUST DECIDE.
However, the ultimate decision that we have to make isn’t between two
bad choices. It’s not like a political
election where we’re just kind of picking between the lesser of two evils. We are faced with a choice between life and
death. We’re faced with the choice
between salvation and condemnation.
We’re faced with the choice between Jesus and the fallen world. We’re faced with what the Apostle Paul refers
to in his epistles as the spirit vs. the flesh.
Now, that may not seem like a difficult choice to you and I will
acknowledge that some would say that my terminology stacks the deck for one
side over the other, but that’s exactly the point. You see, to me it’s not even really a
choice. To me it’s like if my parents
had given me the choice between completely overlooking whatever it was that I
had done or being punished rightly for it.
I wouldn’t hesitate for one second to take that deal before going with
the forgiveness option and neither would you.
Well, those
actually are our choices. On the one
hand we have Christ, the forgiveness of sins, the cross, and the salvation
applied to us by the Holy Spirit. Or on
the other hand, we have worldly desires,
instant rewards, pursuits of the flesh, and the punishment that should rightly
befall upon each of us. You see, the
problem doesn’t come in with us saying which one we choose; that’s easy. The problem comes with our actual choosing of
it, and that’s why I say that the choice of indecision is still a
decision. When we commit our lives to
Christ, we commit to living the Christian life.
How that looks isn’t necessarily a list of do’s and don’ts, but a
submission to God and to his Word. It’s
in essence an agreement that we make to submit ourselves to Scripture and God’s
will of our lives. The problem comes in
when we find something in Scripture that we don’t like. When this happens then we want to throw that
part out or ignore that command, but we still want to have Jesus and all the
benefits and blessings. Well, in the
words of my dad, “I’m sorry, I could have sworn that there were only two
choices.” We’re faced basically with the
same options that Dr. Mohler put forth back in June, complete acceptance or
denial. You see, to commit our lives to
Christ isn’t to commit ourselves to following him only when we want to because
that wouldn’t be commitment at all. That
would be like saying that when I married my wife that I was agreeing to be her
husband only when I wanted to be.
Instead of our vows saying for better or worse, in sickness or in
health; they would have read “during times where you’re both healthy and
everything is good and money isn’t tight and life is easy.” That’s not what they said at all. Amy and I made a commitment to each other
that no matter what happened, we were going to be faithful to one another, love
one another, and support one another. We
pledged to place each other, along with our marriage as a whole, above our own
individual desires.
My father has
this friend who he and his wife were having problems. They separated, saw a marriage counselor and
seemed to be on the right track. Then,
they just suddenly filed for divorce. I
can remember me and my dad running into him at the golf course and my dad asked
him what happened. “Y’all seemed to be
doing so good?” my dad asked him. Dad’s
friend replied, “Yeah, we were able to agree on pretty much everything except
for one thing.” My dad said, “One
thing! That’s not so bad, my wife and I
disagree on at least one thing per day.”
His friend replied, “I know, but she just would not budge on me keeping
my girlfriend.”
Now, we may
want to laugh at my dad’s friend (which we did but it was mainly to cover up
the shock that we were both feeling at the time), but that’s exactly what many
of us do when it comes to our faith. We
want to have that marriage, that union with Christ, but we don’t want the true commitment
that goes with it. We don’t want the
hard choices or the expectations that accompany that relationship. However, when we are fully committed, we
actually enjoy those expectations and don’t worry about them. I’m committed to my spouse just as many of
you are. I don’t get upset at things I
miss out on. I’m committed to my God; I
don’t worry about the things that I supposedly miss out on because of it. You see, I’ve decided and am completely happy
in my decision. I wouldn’t change my
mind for anything in this world.
But you see,
there is another side to this notion of our making a decision. Some of you probably know where I’m going
with this and you’re probably the same ones who have had the same question
ringing in your head since the words “choice” and “decision” got thrown out
there. I want to turn your attention
very quickly to the Apostle Paul’s words at the beginning of his letter to the
church in Ephesus. He writes, “Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in
him before the foundation of the world…In him we have obtained an inheritance,
having been predestined according to the purpose of him works all things
according to the counsel of his will.”
You see, we do have a choice to make, but the choice of whether or not we
come to Christ is already made. Now, I
don’t really have enough time to flush this out like I probably need to, but
let me just see if I can quickly elaborate on this.
If we look at
Paul’s words we find terms like “blessing, inheritance, and gift.” You see, faith ultimately is not a virtue,
it’s a gift. Christ died for us upon a
tree, satisfying the debt owed to God.
There’s nothing else to our salvation.
We don’t add one bit to our being saved; it’s completely a work of
Christ. Now, if it all ultimately hinged
upon our acceptance of Christ’s offer then we would absolutely have something
to do with it, but we don’t. You see,
(and I understand that it’s a tricky and confusing subject) this is the
doctrine known as irresistible grace.
Irresistible grace means that the saving grace of God is
effectually applied to those whom he has determined to save (the elect)
and, in God's timing, overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of
the gospel, bringing them to faith in Christ. So you see we do make the choice because God
chooses us first.
Friends, Christ
chooses whom he chooses for reasons that are known only to him. To many this sounds cold; to many this sounds
harsh. To some of you it may sound cold
and harsh, but Scripture isn’t just about making us feel good and warm inside;
it’s about revealing God to us. I know
no other way to describe it other than to say that once you’ve felt that call,
once you’ve received that gift of faith, there no longer stands before you a
choice. Give me life or give me death;
give me Christ or give me nothing. Use
the gift of faith that you have been given; hold it dear. Make your life one where the gift of God is
on display at all times. Glory be to
God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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