Acts 1:7-8 "It's About Going, Not Just Gathering"

                When I finish something I like to stop and ask myself several questions.  What is it that I just saw?  What was actually accomplished here?  How did this experience change me or my outlook on things?  Was this something that was impactful or was it just a waste of time, energy, resources, etc.?  In other words, I like to try and figure out the differences in myself, the world around me, or the thing I’m dealing with from beginning to end.  Did a book I just read change the way I feel about something?  Did that particular experience open my eyes to something new?  I recently built a table out of some old pine boards that Amy and I repurposed.  I enjoyed being able to see that I had taken this group of old canning room shelves and turn them into a table that our entire family can eat at.  There was a sense of accomplishment to my finally being done with that table (although I won’t tell you how long we had held onto those boards before beginning that project).  The transformation from stained and tattered boards to a 9 foot farm table was tangible and easily identifiable. 

                Well, we’ve spent the past seven months looking at the growth of the early church.  However, we really haven’t stopped to think about how far it has come.  We’ve spent so much time lately talking about Paul and his missionary journeys and imprisonments and trials that some of us have probably forgotten how this all began.  Remember, the book of Acts began in the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ resurrection.  Fast-forward thirty years later and we have Paul sitting in Rome proclaiming the gospel (something that would have been out of the question at the start of Acts).  The questions that I want to both ask and answer today about Acts are the same ones that I mentioned just a moment ago.  What is it that we’ve just seen?  What was it that was actually accomplished?  How did this experience change things?  And was this impactful or just a big waste of time?

                What is it that we’ve just seen?  Well, in short, we’ve just seen the spread of the gospel.  As I said, Paul teaching about Christianity in Rome would have been unimaginable thirty years earlier.  It would have surely ended up with his execution taking place much quicker than it actually did.  It’s commonly thought that Paul spent an additional 5 years in Rome after his imprisonment teaching prior to his being martyred by Nero.  What we see over the course of the 28 chapters of Acts is people convert, leaders emerge, missionary journeys…in short, we see gospel expansion.  We could also say that these same things answer the question about what was actually accomplished.  Remember Jesus’ words to the apostles that we read just a moment ago, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  That’s exactly what happened.  Chapter 2 tells of the coming of the Holy Spirit and his descending upon the apostles.  The rest of the text from then through the end of chapter 7 is about witnessing in Jerusalem.  Chapters 8-12 are about witnessing in Judea and Samaria, and chapters 13-20 about witnessing in other areas (the end of the earth).  So, what we see over the course of the book of Acts is a fulfillment of Jesus’ final words to his disciples.

                It almost seems comical to ask the questions of how this changed things or if this was all just a waste of time doesn’t it?  However, I think that the answer to these questions is a crucial one.  You see, it is without debate (in my opinion) that the single most significant event in human history is the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Even for those who don’t believe that it happened; it is still the most significant historical event.  Why?  Well, it’s because that one event became the dividing line so-to-speak for entire groups of people.  Think about it in terms of today and think of the number of groups out there that hate Christians.  In other words, there are people who hate those who simply come down on the other side of the argument from them as to the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Well, the book of Acts is really the first generation of this division and distinction playing itself out.  The book of Acts is but a foretaste of the persecution and hardships that Christians have known ever since Jesus’ ascension.

                I’ve got a good friend of mine who about once a year me and him, along with several other friends, try and get together at his family’s fishing camp in north Louisiana.  We spend all day running trot lines, fishing, smoking barbeque, and just enjoying each other’s company.  Now, when we’re all out there, his dad will usually gives us a list of things to do while we’re there around the house.  Usually it’s basic maintenance things that we don’t mind doing since we’re all using his place.  However, there was one time a few years back when he wanted us to move a pile of scrap wood from one place to another.  Notice that I said he just wanted us to move it.  He didn’t want us to burn it, use it, stack it neatly, or anything else that might be noticeable or productive.  He literally just wanted us to move the stack from one spot to another that was only about 10 feet away.  Now, we did it, but after completing it none of us felt like we had really accomplished anything.

                I don’t get that same sense when I think about the book of Acts.  Even though there seemed to be hostility towards Christians from beginning to end, I feel like something had changed.  It just seems that when we see the growth of the church over the 28 chapters of the book of Acts that even though Christianity had not become what we think of today, it had still reached a pretty substantial point by the end of Acts.  So, things changed greatly and obviously it wasn’t a waste of time.  In fact, even if no one in the book of Acts was converted to Christianity it wouldn’t have been a waste of time.  Remember, Jesus didn’t say that his disciples would convert others, but that they would simply be his witnesses.  Their mission wasn’t to convert but to proclaim.  It’s just like our mission isn’t to convert but to proclaim.  I said a few weeks ago that one of the great comforts that I have come to take as both a pastor and a Christian is that I know that it’s not my job to convert people to the Christian faith.  My only job is to be a faithful witness and proclaimer of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It’s God’s job to convert someone, not mine.  I would be in a world of trouble if it was up to me and my abilities, but it’s not.

                Now, getting back to the task at hand, what really happened during the book of Acts?  Just think about what you would say if someone asked you to quickly explain what took place within this particular book.  Well, we could quickly say that the gospel went forth.  However, if they wanted a little more detail we could give that to them.  We could talk about the sermons, the signs, the healings, the preaching, the apostles, and the martyrs.  We would certainly mention Paul’s conversion and his subsequent ministry and travels.  We would probably give great attention to the life of Paul in describing the book of Acts.  However, remember what I said last Sunday; the book of Acts is about the gospel and not one person or a group of people.  I heard a phrase this past week that brilliantly summed up the view that we ought to take of any biblical figure other than Jesus:  “the man goes in the ground and the message moves on.”  You see, the point, the theme of the book of Acts really is the going forth of the gospel.  The book of Acts is both the initial spread of the gospel after Christ’s resurrection and the establishment of Christ’s bride as well.  Remember that it’s in the book of Acts that we first find Christ’s followers referred to as Christians (11:26). 

                As we’ve looked at the book of Acts, one of the questions that I have been encouraging each of us to keep in mind is how the practices and focuses of the early church ought to shape our views, outlooks, and goals for our own churches today.  Now, we saw things that gave order to the church; we saw Deacons established to care for the needs of the congregations.  We saw Paul go and establish churches and put leaders in place.  We even saw regular times of worship practiced by each church.  However, I want to tell you what we didn’t see (and these are just my observations).  We didn’t see a lot of bickering and fighting over trivial things.  Sure, we know that it took place; we can tell that from Paul’s letters.  However, it wasn’t something that Luke (as the author of Acts) focused upon.   Even the things that were disputed were serious theological matters, as opposed to the fact that most of the fighting that we see in churches today (which is over music selections or what we keep the thermostat set on).  The church in Acts seemed to be focused upon the entirety of the life of the church instead of just the Sabbath day worship.  The Christians of this time seemed to display their faith much more on a daily basis than just a once a week type of thing that ashamedly many Christians today practice.

                However, as I look at Acts and I think about things that I see and don’t see when compared to the church, there is one thing that stands out above all:  the focus was on “go” much more than “gather”.  Now, let me explain this statement.  As I’ve already said, there’s no denying that we see the early church gather regularly for worship.  There’s no question that we’re called to gather together for regular corporate worship.  However, the congregations in the early church seem to have a much higher view of “going out” with the gospel.  They seem to have a greater importance placed upon the taking outward and proclaiming God’s word.  You see, that’s one of the great fallacies of the modern American church in my opinion.  We’ve come to look at ourselves so much like businesses and pastors as CEOs and Sessions as Boards that we’ve lost sight of what we are supposed to be founded upon.  Instead of gospel proclamation and kingdom growth being the intended goal we’ve come to focus upon just maintaining the company.  There’s more thought given to building improvements and upgrades than how we’re ministering to the community around us.  There’s more attention paid to whether or not budgets are sufficient than to the work that supported missionaries are doing.  There’s a sense that the focus in on simply continuing to gather together for worship is more important than proclaiming God’s word to those outside of the church.  I think that many churches in America today have chosen to make their mission statement “Lord, just let us continue to exist” instead of “Lord, use us however you see fit.” 

                I was talking with a pastor friend of mine several months ago and he was telling me about his church and that he had looked at the numbers and he thought that they could squeeze about 10 more years out of their resources if things went right.  They cut all programs and everything because they needed to in order to survive.  Not trying to insult my friend, I simply asked him, “So, how are y’all glorifying God?  How are you reaching out into the community?  How are you fulfilling the Great Commission by running the church that way?”  My friend looked at me with what was at first an angry look and said, “We’re not.”  He quickly began to weep and sob and confess that he had focused upon just existing instead of proclaiming.  We prayed, we talked honestly, and he thanked me for helping him to refocusing his priorities.

                Now, y’all I’m going to do something that I’ve gone back and forth about all week.  You see, we’re not in a place to dissimilar from my friend’s church.  This very church is at the crossroads of simply existing or actually going out into the world.  I want to ask you a tough question:  what do you do for the kingdom?  What do you do to take God’s word out into the world?  Is your faith more than just gathering for worship on Sunday mornings or is that the extent of it?  Now, I know that the answering machine may be filled up when I come in to the office tomorrow, but I don’t really care.  Part of my calling is to say the things that we need to hear and not just what we want to hear.  Y’all, we’ve spent 7 months looking at the formation and work of the early church.  How has it affected us?  Has it stirred us to a greater emphasis on getting back to that mindset of going out and being God’s witnesses, or has that central message fallen on deaf ears?  You see, to me it’s pretty clear, between Jesus’ words in the Great Commission and what we have here in the book of Acts, I know that our mission as a church, as the bride of Christ, is to be much more than simply existing, making budget, maintaining, etc.  I know that our mission is to boldly take God’s word and the good news of the gospel out into the world.  The question now becomes, are we actually doing that, or are we failing in our mission and focusing upon something else?  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Acts 28:17-31 "Unconditional Faith & Praise"

                Before we begin to dive into the latter half of the final chapter of the book of Acts, I want to tell you what we’re not going to do today.  We’re not going to have a series concluding look at the entirety of Acts; that will come next week.  We’re also not going to see what happened to Paul for the remainder of his life.  In fact, we’re really not going to see how this situation with the Jews that led to his trial completely turned out in the end.  You see, the book of Acts isn’t concerned with giving us the story of Peter or Philip or even Paul.  The book of Acts, with Luke as the author, is not about any individual or apostle, but about the spread of the gospel.  So, next Sunday, we will take a more comprehensive look at what we have seen as we’ve moved from Christ’s ascension to Paul’s standing trial here in Rome; a timeframe that lasted somewhere around 30 years in all.

                However, for today, we have this final chapter, this final text about Paul and the various struggles that he endured as a result of his proclaiming the gospel across the earth.  We looked last Sunday at Paul’s voyage to Rome as a prisoner awaiting trial before Caesar.  We saw a massive storm cause the ship that Paul was aboard to have to crash along the coast of Malta instead of making it to the desired port.  Now, we’re skipping over the first half of Acts 28.  We’re skipping over Paul being bitten by a snake and the people thinking that it’s God’s way (or some other god’s way) of punishing Paul.  At least they thought that until Paul didn’t die, and then they changed their minds and thought that Paul himself was a god.  So, they viewed him as condemned one minute and a deity the next.  It’s amazing how prone to change people have always been.  However, despite the confusion on the part of those on the island of Malta with Paul, the journey to Rome continued.  Now, along the way, Paul continued to do what he had always done:  teach, preach, and heal.  He healed a man with fever and dysentery.  He healed people all across the island during his three months shipwrecked there before leaving for Rome once again after the weather had turned back to favorable sailing conditions.

                So, Paul finally arrived at Rome.  Now, it’s worth noting that it wasn’t as if Paul was kept in a prison while in Rome.  No, he was allowed to stay in a house as long as there was a guard watching his home at all times.  Paul’s imprisonment was really more like that of a house arrest than anything else; a luxury that was largely afforded to him because of his Roman citizenship.  After taking a few days to sort of shake off the effects of his travels (which took a total of about 5 or 6 months), Paul called together the local leaders of the Jews in Rome.  He began much the same way as he had done previously at other defenses and appeals.  He stated that he had done nothing wrong in terms of Jewish customs and traditions and that the main reason why he was facing such charges was because of a personal vendetta that some Jews had against him.  He even went into the explanation of why he had to appeal to Caesar in the first place, because it was the only way to put an end to the constant persecution.

                Now, where this story gets a bit odd is the response made by the Jewish leaders.  Verse 21, “And they said to him, ‘We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you.’”  Now, it seems quite odd to me that of all the government officials that we’ve looked at (Felix, Festus, Agrippa), that none of them would have either reported themselves or sent word about Paul’s testimony.  After all, by this time it had been several years since Paul first stood trial before Felix.  However, they seemingly deny that they have heard anything about Paul, but they continue on by adding, “But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”  In other words, they said to Paul, “Well, we really don’t know anything specifically about you, but we have heard a lot about this Christianity thing (which they always referred to as a sect).  We really don’t know what it is all about either but everyone that we’ve heard talking about it has had nothing good to say.”  Paul had to be sitting there thinking that that was the best news he had heard in a while.  “Oh, you want to know my thoughts regarding Christianity?  Well, how much time do you have?  This could take a while.”

                We’re told that a few days later an even greater number gathered to hear Paul and “from morning to evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the prophets.”  In other words, Paul spent an entire day teaching about Jesus and the kingdom of God.  He didn’t just focus upon Jesus’ earthly teaching, but he gave them the full scope of things.  He taught the entirety of Scripture that existed up until that point.  He didn’t spend any efforts on winning his freedom, but only on proclaiming the truth of the gospel.  He taught from the Law and the prophets and showed Christ in them.  He showed how Christ both fulfilled the Law and the prophecies about the coming Messiah.  Now, some of the Jews were actually starting to believe Paul and some of them weren’t, but they were still there listening.

                However, those who didn’t believe Paul began to leave after he made one particular statement.  He quoted Isaiah 6:9-10 to them (Acts 28:26-27).  And after he finished reciting these words to them, he clarified his intentions by saying, “Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”  Paul pointed to the fact that the Jews had grown deaf and their hearts dull when it came to God.  Paul spoke to them about how they had taken the blessing of being God’s chosen people and had changed it from being a privilege to an excuse.  He was telling them that that had all changed, and now Jesus, the power of God, the salvation of the cross, the good news of the gospel was just as much for the Gentile as it was for the Jew.  Notice that he didn’t take anything away from the Jews (except exclusivity), but was merely including the Gentiles into God’s blessings.  However, this was the very thing that the Jews had repeatedly gotten made about over and over again when it came to Paul and the other apostles and deacons of the early church.  They wanted to be God’s exclusive chosen and covenant people.

                I was reading an article last week about a seminar given at the recent meeting of the World Council of Churches.  The seminar was about the shift that we have seen and possibly will see again in the geographical center of the Christian faith.  While the percentage of Christians has steadily been declining in both North American and European countries, it has grown rapidly in Africa, Asia, and South America.  One of the presenters said that we shouldn’t be surprised by these numbers, since that’s the way Christianity works so often.  Now, this doesn’t happen overnight, but there does come a sense of complacency with the gospel in areas where there is little resistance and persecution.  In both America and Europe particularly, Christianity became so completely entrenched in the way of life many years ago that it lost its edge.  It’s kind of like even the most skilled marksman after not firing a gun for an extended period of time; sure he’s still going to shoot very well, but he’s not going to be as precise as he once was without the continuous practice the he once did.  Christianity in our country has become a slow burn instead of an all-consuming fire.  It has become a part of who we are and not who we are in our entirety.  We’ve come to not be awestruck by God.  We’ve come to expect God’s blessings instead of expecting punishment.  We’ve come to a point where quite honestly we no longer fear God.

                You see, that’s exactly what the Jews were experiencing during Paul’s time (and Jesus’ too for that matter).  For so long, they had been God’s chosen people that they had settled into their narrow view of thinking and had adapted their faith around their own personal views.  They no longer viewed God as the one who could say who His blessings were for, but they thought that somehow they dictated the recipients of God’s blessings.  However, that is the exact thing that Paul is trying to show them is an error.  That’s the same thing that we saw Jesus teaching against during his earthly ministry.  And to a certain extent, it’s something that many Christians are having to teach against today.  We’re reminded at various places in Scripture, spanning from Exodus to Revelation, that only God knows whose name is in book of life.  Who are we to try and place restrictions on God?

                Now, let me sort of reign things back in for a moment because I feel like I’m getting a little off track here.  I want us to turn our attention from exactly what Paul was teaching (at least specifically) to the fact that he was teaching the gospel.  As I briefly said earlier, Paul wasn’t pleading for his life.  He had never tried to talk his way out of his prior imprisonment and captivities, nor was he about to start doing it there in Rome.  You see, it would have been a great opportunity for Paul there in Rome to speak to the Jewish leaders.  He could have spoken with them about why he didn’t need to be on trial and made it about him.  He could have taken the golden opportunity that he had to negotiate some sort of deal.  “Hey guys, I’ll agree to do my proclaiming of Christ away from temples and make sure it doesn’t affect you or your taxes or your worship.”  Well now, that wouldn’t sound very Pauline at all does it?

                No, Paul isn’t concerned with himself; he’s only concerned with the gospel.  He’s only concerned with proclaiming God’s word.  Remember what we said last Sunday about Paul’s primary concern being such, and that he had an assurance of faith that helped him to know that the words that he wrote in Romans 8:28 weren’t about prospering financially or situationally.  Instead, they are about God’s will and God’s plan unfolding for our own good even when we cannot see a bit of good in it.  The writer of Hebrews says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1).  You see, Paul had faith that never wavered during the entirety of his trials.  He had a conviction that God would deliver him through whatever he was going through.  Like we said last Sunday, he had that win-win view of either living and continuing to proclaim the gospel or dying and entering into heaven.  There was an unflappableness to Paul’s faith that we are called to emulate.

                You see, we do this a lot.  We look at the faith of someone like Paul and we say to ourselves, “Man, I just don’t know that I could ever be as convicted as him or as enlightened as he was” and so on and so on.  However, what we so often forget is that not only should we try and duplicate Paul’s conviction for the gospel, but weren’t expected to.  And not only are we expected to duplicate his conviction, but we’re called to go beyond it as well.  Now I’m not talking about being someone who simply does the right thing even in difficult situations, that’s just being a moral person.  I’m talking about being faithful.  I’m talking about praise God, worshiping Him, adoring Him, in both times of suffering and times of celebration.  I’m talking about praising Him for creating and sustaining us even as we watch a family member slip away from us.  I’m talking about adoring Him even as our financial situation at home dwindles.  I’m talking about worshiping Him even as bad news pounds us like waves crashing along the shoreline in the midst of a storm.  And you see, that’s what it’s all about.

                Christ died for us.  God sent His Son to die for us.  In response, we are to simply believe it.  We are to have faith that not only did Jesus die, but that in his death he accomplished all that he said he did.  That faith, that belief, is how we’re saved.  The good works that we do aren’t our salvation; they are our right responses to the saving faith that we have in Christ.  Friends, let me close with this challenge modeled after the apostle Paul:  have faith.  Have faith in good times and in bad.  Have faith in times of prosperity and times of struggle and want.  Have faith that quite honestly isn’t affected by anything.  Have faith that the God who created the heavens and the earth is who He has revealed Himself to be through the Law, the prophets, His Son, the apostles, and the rest of His word.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Acts 271-44 "Beyond Weathering the Storm"

                Now, I’m going to preface all that I have to say today by stating up front that I have no idea what it’s like to be in a situation like the one we have in our text today.  I’ve spent a lot of time out on boats in my life, but I’ve never been through anything like this.  I know some of you have, but the roughest rides that I’ve had have all been matters of simply not having enough warm clothes later in the evening after the sun went down and the waves being just a bit rougher coming in than they were going out.  However, I will tell you that this chapter of Acts has been greatly studied both for its theology and teaching as well as its nautical accuracy.  If you’re interested, there’s a book entitled The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul written in the mid 1800’s by a Scottish man named James Smith that goes into great detail about the conditions surrounding Paul’s voyage.  So, as far as the factual information that I’m going to give you today, you’re just going to have to trust me.

If you recall, last Sunday we saw Paul make an appeal to stand trial before Caesar.  Well, after speaking before Agrippa and Festus, Paul had to get to Caesar.  Nero wasn’t coming to Paul, and unfortunately, he was on the complete opposite end of the Mediterranean Sea from where Paul was at the moment.  Another factor to consider is that it was August, which meant that it was cold and windy.  Now, even in my limited boating knowledge I know that those aren’t a perfect combination.  Now some wind is a good thing, but these winds were more like hurricane force winds, which also resulted in massive waves.  Ships could still sail, but they had to stick to routes closer to the shoreline instead of heading out into open waters.  The primary downside to this was that it took longer.  Also, Paul, along with numerous other prisoners, a Roman centurion named Julius, Luke, Aristarchus, some guards, and several others, weren’t sailing on a military ship.  They were sailing on merchant ships that they found leaving one port and heading to another along the route to Rome.  It took several weeks for them to travel what looks like a relatively short distance on a map.  Before long, August had turned into September/October and the weather simply wasn’t fit for travel.  Paul (who mind you sailed an estimated 3000 miles during his lifetime) suggested to the centurion Julius and the other guards that they really ought to wait for a while.  However, they didn’t want to wait in that particular ports and the captain of one of the ships said it would be fine for them to sail ahead, so they did.

What happened was that Paul was exactly right; the weather was too rough.  Now, I won’t go through every detail, but they were having to tie ropes around the ship in order to make sure that it would stay together.  They were having to throw cargo overboard to lighten the load on the ship.  They couldn’t tell if it was day or night because the darkness never left the sky.  I mean, can you imagine hours and days going by without ever being able to tell if it was day or night?  And it wasn’t as if they could really rest or anything since they were constantly having to defend off massive storm surges and crashing waves.  Finally, the ship came crashing into the coast of Malta, where everyone departed from it and went about their business.  Like I said, I don’t want to explore every detail of what happened (mainly because I don’t have time), but there are some astounding things that took place within the span of this chapter.

Paul’s life was spared simply because there was a Roman Centurion on board who had to deliver Paul safely to Nero.  Paul was given a message that no one would die when “an angel of the God to whom [he] belong[ed] and whom [he] worship[ed]” came to him.  The angel told him, “Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar.  And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.”  Now, obviously the phrase “God has granted you” tells us that Paul had been praying for all those on this ship.  Immediately prior to Paul’s calming the men he told them they should have listened to him but then encouraged them to take heart.  Instead of Paul hoping that somehow all of this chaos would lead to his being freed, he was instead praying for the safety of all those on board.  There’s also the other intercessions made by Paul throughout this chapter that we could look at.  And that’s not even mentioning the reason for Luke changing the pronoun in the beginning of this chapter from “he” to “we”, signaling Luke’s presence on the ship.

I have to be honest with you; as I’ve looked over this passage for the past few weeks trying to decide what exactly to pull out from it I have struggled.  Then, I took a step back; I took a look at it from 30,000 feet as I heard one political analyst say during the election coverage this past Tuesday.  Our theme for the book of Acts as we’ve approached in over the last 7 months has been to look at the early church and to let our view of it help our understanding of what the Church (and Christians) ought to look like today.  Well, let’s do that with this passage.  Let’s back up and take up the question of what this passage here about Paul going through a storm and ultimately being shipwrecked teaches us about who we ought to be as both a Church and members of that Church.

One of the most commonly used (and even overly used) analogies that we find when it comes to interpreting Scripture is that of storms.  Any time we find a storm in Scripture, we’re quick to want to equate it to a storm of life, a season of personal difficulty for ourselves.  I’ll never forget my first Sunday evening as a youth director.  I was woefully unprepared and had spent so much time worrying about games, food, and all that other mess that I forgot to plan a Bible study.  When I got to the church, I ran to a resource shelf and grabbed a book called 10 Minute Prep Youth Studies (my kind of book I thought).  The very first lesson was on Jesus calming the storm in Matthew 8 (mind you I didn’t even take the 10 minutes to prep).  I’ll never forget the last line of that devotional, “If Jesus could calm the storm that day, what storms can he calm in your life?”  Now, it’s true that Jesus can calm the storms of life, but that isn’t exactly what that particular passage teaches; it teaches more the power of Christ and the power we have through faith in him.  And that’s just one example of storms being interpreted that way in Scripture.  However, what does all that mean for our interpretation of the storm in our text today?

Well, I want us to look at it like this:  what was Paul doing; why had he even begun this voyage?  Yes, he was on his way to Rome to stand before Caesar, but he was fulfilling the mission, the task that God had given him.  Remember what we read Paul saying last week?  “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am.”  Paul’s purpose and mission was to proclaim God’s word and to see others come to saving faith.  Now, this mission and Paul’s unyielding desire to see it fulfilled had caused him great difficulty.  We’ve seen him in prison.  We’ve seen countless plots devised to have him killed.  We’ve spent the past few weeks seeing him imprisoned by Roman officials.  Mind you, that’s just the information that we have recorded in the book of Acts.  That doesn’t even include the things that we know from extra-biblical sources about Paul’s journeys.  Add in all of the travel and you start to get the picture that Paul had it pretty difficult since his conversion.

Well, our text for today is no different.  Paul, as we saw earlier with the words of the angel, was fulfilling God’s mission to him by standing before Caesar and boldly proclaiming the truth of the gospel.  However, what the angel didn’t promise Paul was that everything was going to be perfect.  Just in this text alone we see that Paul had to endure captivity (although Julius did grant him a great deal of freedom), being made to sail in harsh conditions, weathering the hurricane-like storm, and also the threat of being killed by the soldiers on the ship.  Now, this doesn’t even take into account what happened to him after he was back on dry land in Malta (not the least of which was his being bitten by a snake), a text that we will examine next Sunday.  Yes, Paul endured some very difficult times and situations in his life, many of them coming as a direct result of his desire to share the gospel.

However, I want you to notice how Paul viewed things in his life, even the hardships.  Paul never for one second thought that God had abandoned him.  He never doubted that God was right there with him every step of the way.  Even in those moments where Paul thought that his death was emanate, he still felt God’s presence.  After all this is the same person who penned Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those that are called according to his purpose.”  You see, Paul knew that whether he lived or died, that God was using him to fulfill His will.  Paul had an assurance that no matter what, God’s will would be done.  Paul would either be seen safely through whatever the hardship was so that he could continue to proclaim the gospel, or he would be called home to reside with Christ for all eternity.  In Paul’s mind, and we know this especially from some of his other writings, he really was in a win/win position.  There was no possible outcome that could happen that Paul would view as him missing out or losing.

This past Wednesday, at our Women’s Bible Study, we looked at something called “conditional worship”.  This is when we praise God because we’re getting something.  It’s the thought of “as long as God is good to me and blessing me then I’ll continue to praise him.”  However, this type of worship and view of God doesn’t maintain when hardships arise.  The prosperity gospel (that if you love God He will shower you with prosperity) used to be real big in many parts of this country.  When economic times were good, faith was high.  However, when housing markets, stock markets, and employment rates plummeted, so did the faith of many supposed Christians.  You see, it’s a difficult thing to praise God even in the midst of the storm.  It can be a tough thing to praise God when you have a sick relative, when your family is literally falling apart, when your prayers have seemingly gone unanswered, or when bad news seems to be lurking around every corner.  However, that is exactly what we’re called to do.

My faith is something that I hold as unshakeable at this point, but it wasn’t always so.  There have been times in my life (even times when I was training to become a pastor) when I didn’t always worship God accordingly.  There were times when finances were running out, opportunities weren’t coming open, family was suffering, and bad news swallowed anything good that I honestly didn’t see how I could praise God.  But God, in his providence, placed people around me to help me praise him even during my struggles.  Some pointed me to the blessings that I could see and others helped me to see how God is just as worthy of praise in seasons of hardship as He is in seasons of struggle.  And you know what happened as a result of this continuing to praise God during my seasons of struggle?  My faith actually grew.  I truly understood that God is in control and that just because things don’t go the way that we want them to go doesn’t mean that they aren’t going the exact way they need to go.

I’m sure that Paul would have wished for an easier life, a smoother sea, or a more accepting audience.  We know from his own words that Jesus wished for forgiveness of sins to be achieved by some other means (Matthew 26:39).  We know that none of us like to suffer or endure hardships.  However, we all must go through them.  We all must endure them, but instead of just weathering them and riding them out, we need to praise God.  We don’t just need to wait until it all passes so we can starting praising God again, but we need to thank God for continuing to bless us and continuing to sustain us.  We need to follow the example of Paul and not be discouraged because things aren’t going the way we want them to, and we need to trust that they are going the way that God wants them to.  This trust, praise, and faith during the storms of life will help you to strengthen your own faith, and it will also be a faithful exercise of proper worship and adoration of God.  Yes, God can carry us through the storms of life and He does.  However, remember that it’s not always going to be wonderful times.  It’s not always going to smooth sailing.  Troubled times won’t always equal great blessings, at least not in an earthly sense.  Sometimes it’s about continuing to praise God even during the storms.  It’s about strengthening our reliance upon and trust in God to fulfill Romans 8:28.  It’s about praising God in good times or bad.  It’s not just about enduring, but praising God while enduring.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Acts 26:1-32 "Keep On Keepin' On"

                Last Sunday, we looked at Paul’s standing before Felix and making a defense against the charges that were put forth against him by the Jews.  We saw that Felix’s primary concern as governor of Jerusalem wasn’t to find out who was right and who was wrong so that justice could be done.  No, we saw that his primary motive was to please everyone.  He wanted to keep his constituents in Jerusalem happy, but he also knew that Paul really wasn’t guilty of any of the “crimes” that they were charging him with.  Ultimately, we saw that Felix’s attempt to stay neutral wasn’t possible, and we said the same thing is true today when it comes to the Christian faith.  It is impossible for us to remain completely neutral.  I had a seminary professor who always used to say, “When God’s word is preached, there is always a reaction; either a seed is planted or a heart is hardened.”  It’s what C.S. Lewis said about Jesus having to either be Lord, liar, or lunatic. 

However, as we said last Sunday, it isn’t up to us.  Yes, we are the ones who choose to listen to God’s word or tune it out.  We are the ones who decide whether we will stand for comments or portrayals of God that lessen Him and mock Him.  We are even the ones who make the choices about how serious we are when it comes to living out our faith.  However, the choice ultimately isn’t up to us.  We said that the choice is God’s; one that He made before the foundations of the earth.  Now, I won’t take time to revisit Ephesians 1 or look at Romans 9, but I encourage you to go and look at these passages if you’re struggling with this language.  This notion that it isn’t about our choice but God’s is the backbone of our statements about God being the only one who can change a heart.

I love being a pastor; however, it comes with a certain set of challenges.  One of which is that it’s always a tricky thing meeting new people when you’re a pastor.  You meet someone through a mutual friend or at a social gathering and you hit it off real well and eventually the conversation turns to, “So, what do you do for a living?”  Now, I’ve tried to think of some really cool ways to tell people what I do.  I’ve thought about saying, “I fight evil” or “I try and help people avoid the brokenness in the world around them.”  Although, I typically just stick with the simple statement, “Oh, I’m a pastor.”  Y’all, the way that peoples’ faces change when those words come out of my mouth are hilarious.  Now, most folks are nice about it, but you can tell that there has now been an invisible wall constructed almost instantly between myself and who they really are.  Others are more forthcoming with their feelings, “Oh, you’re one of those.  So, I guess you’re going to try and convert me or something aren’t you?”  I love these folks.  Not only are they afraid of me, but in their efforts to put me off they are actually presenting me with a golden opportunity for gospel proclamation and teaching who God really is.  “No, I wouldn’t even attempt to try and convert you to Christianity.  After all, it’s not like I can do any good; only God can cause a person’s heart to truly change.”

Our text for today takes us back to perhaps the most prominent example of God changing a heart that the world has ever seen.  As we ended with Felix’s indecision last Sunday Paul was sitting in prison, where he would remain for several years.  Eventually, Felix was replaced by a man named Festus.  Festus heard some of Paul’s case and also knew the plan of the Jews to kill Paul that we saw last week.  Festus was even willing to go along with the Jews plan so that he could be rid of the Paul problem for good.  However, Paul, during his standing before Festus appealed to Caesar for a trial, which ended any talk of his being moved and thus putting a stop to the plans of the Jews.   Although, before Paul can stand trial before Caesar, King Agrippa needed to hear what Paul had to say.  After all, had Caesar asked Agrippa what this entire thing was about Agrippa had to have at least some kind of information to give to Caesar other than simply saying that someone was mad at him.  Agrippa needed to know some of the facts and details about this particular trial.  So, Agrippa asked Paul to lay out his appeal.

Paul began his appeal by giving Agrippa the backstory of who he had been when he was known as Saul.  He spoke to him about his past as a Judaizer, as a Pharisee in training.  He spoke to Agrippa about his zeal for God and how even since his time as a young boy he had studied and trained to do the will of God.  He even stated very plainly that early on, much of his focus was aimed at opposing the name of Jesus.  Paul told Agrippa of how he sought out followers of the Way and punished them, even killing many of them.  Paul made it very clear that for his entire life, even before he could remember, he had been a devout follower of God and that there was no limit to how far he would go for Him.

Then, beginning in verse 12, Paul told what might be the most famous biblical story other than the death and resurrection of Jesus; Paul told of his conversion, Paul told Agrippa of how he was on the way to Damascus to carry out his work when a flash of light blinded him and took his sight.  He spoke of the audible voice from heaven that called out to him.  Paul told Agrippa that it was Jesus himself speaking to Paul and commanding him to change his ways.  He spoke of how instead of seeking out followers of Jesus to punish them, Christ had given him the mission of seeking them out to love them.  And not only that, Paul was to seek out those who didn’t know Christ as well so that he could tell them the good news of the gospel.  Paul was standing on the fact that he in no way sought the destruction of the Church, but that he wanted to further the true message of God.  Verse 19, “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.”  After telling where he has proclaimed this message, he then tells Agrippa, “For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.  To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass:  that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

You see, Paul didn’t stand before any of these officials (Felix, Festus, or Agrippa) and say that anyone else was wrong.  He wasn’t concerned with proving them wrong as much as he was just stating that he was right.  He was focused on speaking the truth about the gospel.  Now don’t misunderstand me, Paul was a man who was perfectly capable of refuting any other belief system out there.  In fact, he had done so numerous times throughout his ministry.  However, his focus here isn’t on refuting the false, but on proclaiming the truth.

Hearing Paul give his defense before King Agrippa, Festus (the governor who wanted to send Paul to Jerusalem) but in and said that Paul had lost his mind.  He claimed that through all of Paul’s rigorous studies that he had in essence caused his mind to snap.  Paul assured them that he most certainly not lost his mind and was very much sane.  And it’s kind of funny what the Apostle does here.  He spoke to Agrippa while addressing Festus.  “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.  For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly.  For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.”  In other words, Paul is speaking to Agrippa without speaking to him. 

The other morning I was getting the kids ready for school.  Ashby was still putting on her clothes and I told her that she needed to hurry up.  She asked me why I wasn’t getting on to Thomas since he still had things to do.  I spoke to her saying, “Obviously, Thomas is done with everything since he’s just sitting there playing right now.”  Thomas looked up and saw his sleeping clothes sitting in the chair, so he ran and grabbed them and put them in the dirt clothes.  This method that Paul employed of speaking to someone without directly addressing them can often be an effective tool.  However, there does come a point in time when we have to speak directly to a person, and that’s exactly what Paul did.  “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?  I know that you believe.”

I’m a firm believer in the belief that the best and most effective way for us to witness to and evangelize someone is for us to first build a rapport with them.  I think that there is great benefit found in building an open line of communication with someone based on something other than the gospel.  This allows us to communicate with someone on a different level.  As I mentioned earlier, the conversation between myself and others before they find out that I’m a pastor is a much less guarded conversation on their part.  Now, over time, we are able to build up to speaking about our faith and the gospel.  However, it’s usually done much like Paul’s speech with Agrippa, it’s mentioned in front of someone, but maybe not directly addressed to them.  Eventually though, there does come a time where we must follow Paul’s example and directly ask the question “Do you believe?”  It may not be met the way we want it to be met.  After all, Paul’s question to Agrippa wasn’t met very well either.  “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”  In other words, Agrippa was telling Paul, “Do you really think that the little that you’ve told me today is going to cause me to convert to Christianity?  Don’t you know that I’ve got a position within the Roman government; that I can’t be a biased Christian?  Don’t you know that even if I did believe the things that you’ve said are true that there is no way I could ever admit it publicly?  What are you hoping to accomplish here Paul?” 

Well, Paul tells him that “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.”  Well, there’s Paul’s humor isn’t it?  He’s saying, “I don’t care whether it takes a few minutes or a lifetime, my desire is that everyone know the truth that I’m living in and that they stand firm in it just as I do.  Oh, but I don’t want them to be shackled like I currently am at this moment.  I want everyone to know the truth of the gospel.  I want everyone to know the salvation and the life that we have in Jesus Christ.  How long it takes doesn’t matter to me, but what matters is that they eventually get there.”  Now, Agrippa eventually comes to the conclusion that Paul hasn’t done anything wrong and had he not appealed to Caesar he would let him go, but we’ll see all that unfolded next Sunday.

I want to end real quickly by just thinking about this whole interaction between Agrippa and Paul.  You see, we ought to be real familiar with it.  I think that many of us can relate to Paul here a little bit.  Many of us can relate to the method of witnessing that I described earlier where we build a report with someone before sharing the gospel with them.  We can also relate to the reaction of Agrippa.  Sure, we may not know anyone who is a king, but we know plenty of folks who give us “reasons” for why they can’t handle the gospel.  “It’s just not that simple to me.”  “I’ve got some beliefs of mine that Christianity just can coincide with.”  And then there’s my favorite, “I just don’t think that I’m good enough for what you’re offering.”  You see, there are a million things out there that keep us from the gospel.  Or perhaps a better and more accurate way of putting it is that there are a million things out there that we use as excuses for resisting the gospel.

Friends, let me give you some encouragement this day.  You’re efforts are not wasted, your time is not wasted, and you’re not just spinning your wheels.  I’ve been there when it comes to gospel proclamation and witnessing.  I’ve had folks who I’ve witnessed to for years who continued to resist God; some of them are still resisting Him as I’m talking to you.  However, we mustn’t give up; we must endure.  We have to continue just as Paul did to proclaim the gospel.  We can’t worry about disproving the value of the other things of this world, but we must continue to proclaim the value and truth of the gospel.  We’re going to be met with doubt.  We’re going to be met with hostility.  We’re going to feel disheartened and we’re going to feel like we’re just not doing any good.  However, we have to keep in mind the reason why we do this.  We have to remember the Great Commission that Jesus gave to his disciples.  We have to remember the words of Paul that whether it happens now or whether it takes years, we just want to see it happen.  But remember that it may take years.  It may take decades.  People that you witness to today may come to a saving faith after you’ve moved away or even passed away.  However, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t reach out to them.  We must continue to follow the example of Paul here and proclaim the gospel no matter what the situation and no matter what the consequences.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Acts 24:1-27 "You Have Already (Been) Chosen"

                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 5^th 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.

Acts 20:17-38 "Beware of Wolves"

                Well, we’ve only got a little over a month left in our study of the book of Acts.  I plan on finishing Acts the Sunday before we begin our Advent series, which only gives us this Sunday and the next five after that.  However, we have around nine chapters left to cover in the book of Acts.  I wanted to skip over a few chapters this week, but something in me led me to see a deep need for our hearing of the words that Paul spoke the Ephesian elders.  You see, Paul was nearing the end of his final missionary journey at this point.  We don’t know whether or not Paul knew that his days of traveling as much were coming to an end, but we see that he made sure that when he left Ephesus that he gave them some final instructions.  In verse 25 he tells the elders that this was to be their last physical encounter with each other.  We saw a riot in Ephesus last Sunday.  Well, Paul had to leave Ephesus for a bit after the riot was over and travel to some other areas.  After a time, Paul went back to Ephesus and called the leaders of the church together and gave them this farewell address.

                Paul did three things in this farewell address.  He gave a testimony about himself, charged the elders for their future work, and he prayed for them.  He spoke about how he had labored for the sake of the gospel since day one in Asia.  He spoke of how he never allowed the gospel to be hindered either by the ethnicity of the audience or the backlash that he received from it.  He made sure that the elders, the leaders of the church in Ephesus, understood just how much he had sacrificed for the sake of the gospel.  Verse 24 gives a great account of Paul’s view of his life, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”  You know; this notion of Paul not counting his life of any value and not seeing it as precious is confusing to us.  After all, we would view Paul’s life of great value and very precious.  He was one of (if not the) great teacher about God other than Jesus that has ever lived.  We also have a problem not viewing Paul’s life as valuable because we view every life as valuable.  The mere thought of someone giving up their life for any cause, even one as great as the gospel, seems horrible to us, but should it?

                No one likes to think about death.  No one likes to think about themselves, someone they love and care about, or even someone that they don’t really know dying.  It’s one of those funny things isn’t it?  In ministry, I’ve gone through seasons where I felt like things have come in abundance.  There have been seasons that seemed like endless weddings.  There have been times that were endless meetings, studies, and planning.  There have been seasons of constant health situations, and there have been those times of seeming like around every corner hid the passing of another brother or sister in Christ.  Now, I have told you before the story about the little girl who during the Columbine shooting professed faith in Christ and subsequently lost her life because of it.  I said at that time that I would hope that we would all make the same proclamation that young Cassie Bernall made that day.  However, I know that there are those who would rather have their own life, or the life of their loved one, preserved instead of proclaiming faith in Christ.  However, what Paul was telling the Ephesian elders here is that earthly life is secondary to gospel proclamation, regardless of who the person might be.

                Now, we may also want to think that Paul’s testimony about himself and his insisting that not his nor anyone else’s life is of account is a little odd, but there is a purpose for Paul going into this.  Well, what is that purpose?  It begins in verse 25, that same verse that I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, “And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.”  Paul was having to prepare this church to go on without him.  He was having to prepare the leadership of this church, the elders, to care for and shepherd the people of this congregation without him.  “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock...to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.  I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”  I don’t know about you, but when I read these words from the Apostle Paul my mind immediately shifts to the wolves in the church in 1 Peter 5 or the false prophets and teachers of 2 Peter 2.  In other words, the elders in Ephesus needed to be prepared for an attack upon the gospel from within the church.  It’s a warning that we need to heed today as well.  Many of the attempts to destroy the gospel have come from those who are considered to be leaders of the church.  Teachers and leaders who talk about prosperity as God’s approval, personal happiness being the primary thing God wants for His children, or salvation being something that we can earn as opposed to Christ achieving it for us.  Now, I’m not just speaking of pastors here, but any Christian who is considered to be among the church who promotes such atrocities.  Friends, such wolves must be stopped for the sake of the truth of the gospel.

                The question then becomes how we are to stop them, and Paul gives us the answer.  “Therefore, be alert, remembering for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.”  First off, we have to be alert; we have to be looking for it.  Secondly, we have to constantly be looking for it.  Paul spent three years without ceasing his defending the faith among them.  It’s not enough just to pay really close attention to the situation for a few weeks and then take a break.  We are to be constantly on guard for the truth of the gospel, ready to defend it at a moment’s notice.  I’ve got family in town celebrating Thomas’ birthday next week.  He’ll turn 4 on Wednesday.  His mama and I have spent 4 full years looking after him, protecting him, and trying to teach him the right way to live in accordance with God’s will for him.  Now despite our constant attention over the past for years, if we are to take a break for a week there’s a good chance that something bad is going to happen.  A week of nothing but French fries and donuts, loose change in an electrical outlet, or a week long without bathing; something is going to happen.  You see, as parents, we have to be constantly on guard until our children reach a certain level of maturity known as adulthood.  Well, in our faith, we don’t ever reach that adulthood until we enter into heaven.  Sure some of us grow to a more mature spiritual state of sorts, but that’s kind of like saying that Ashby, our 5 year old, is better equipped to take care of herself than Thomas is at 4.  Technically you’re right, but neither of them are really qualified for the job.

                The third thing that we know about how to care for God’s people and defend the gospel from Paul’s words comes from the words, “with tears”.  You see, Paul was emotional about the gospel.  I was reading an article the first part of this week about pastoral burnout and growth in preaching and it said that one of reasons why some preachers get better and some don’t is because of passion.  Well, you would think that all pastors would be passionate about the gospel (which most are but a shameful number don’t show it).  However, you would think that all Christians and Christian leaders would be equally as passionate.  Unfortunately, this is not the case.  I see people all the time who profess faith in Christ, but can pick it up and put it down like they can a jacket or a pair of pants.  In order for us to be able to rightly defend something, there has to be no limit to which we would go to see its success or continuation.  Hence the language that Paul used earlier about his life being of no account or value when compared to the progress of the gospel.  In order for us to be willing to lay down our lives for something, we have to be passionate and completely consumed by our love for it, much like the young girl at Columbine.

                Finally, Paul prayed for the people of Ephesus, and especially of the elders of the church there.  He asked for God to bless them.  He asked that God would build them up and give them the strength to do the things that he had charged them to do.  He prayed that the future of the church would continue on just as strong (if not stronger) than the past had been with him there.  The people knelt with him, wept with him, and prayed with him.  They loved this man and he in turn loved them.  Their tears were just as much from the fact that he was leaving them as they were from the words that he had spoken to them.  Then they accompanied him to a boat where he would continue on his travels.

                Now, I briefly mentioned the ways that the gospel comes under attack in today’s world.  Sure there are the open attacks like ISIS, the burning of the churches of the Coptic Christians in Egypt several months back, or the persecution of Christians in North Korea.  However, these are attacks from outside the gospel, outside the Church.  We expect those.  We know those are going to happen.  Jesus told his disciples numerous times throughout his earthly ministry that they would be persecuted and hated for his namesake.  We may not like these hardships and persecutions, but we know to expect them.  However, the persecutions that Paul told the Ephesian elders about, the ones that we mentioned Peter writing about, those are the ones that in my mind do the most damage.  I’ve briefly hinted at this over the past few months as we’ve look through the book of Acts, that the greatest threat and enemy of the gospel is found within the church itself.  I can promise you (and I’ve seen this with my own eyes) that more Christians stray from the gospel because of other Christians than anything else.  Whether it’s the folks that are overly harsh and turn Scripture into a mere moralistic rule book, or the line of teaching that just promotes that God loves us and Jesus died for us so we can do whatever we want without fear of losing that, great danger can be found within the Church.

                I want you to hear the words of Paul again, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock...to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”  I want us to notice some things here.  First off, if we are to pay careful attention to ourselves and all of Christ’s Church, then it must very much matter how we conduct ourselves.  If there’s nothing that we can do to find ourselves not “caring for the church of God” then they would be no reason to pay attention to our actions.  And secondly, we have been purchased at a great price.  Just think about that statement for a second, “which he obtained with his own blood.”  Christ bled for us.  Christ died for us.  And many of us won’t even sacrifice one thing or even one minute for him.  Yes, God loves us, but his love has come at great cost to himself.  Lucky for us, God is the only one who has the means by which to pay the cost, the debt that we owe to God.  Being a Christian isn’t just about doing the right thing from a morality perspective.  It isn’t about just shouting God is love and John 3:16 and then doing whatever we want.  Now, to a certain extent these teachings are true within the Christian faith, but they are woefully short of the entirety and the central message of the Christian faith, the gospel.  When we see people teaching these types of messages, we have to heed the words of Paul to the Ephesian elders and be willing to stop them at all costs.  But ultimately, the greatest way to stop them isn’t just by rebuking them, but by proclaiming the one true message.  It’s by teaching the actual gospel, completely unhindered and without agenda.  When one of my children make a mistake, it does little good to simply fuss at them and tell them what they did was wrong, but it does a world of good for us to show them why they were wrong and teach them what they should have done instead.  Let us all be on alert and arm ourselves to proclaim the right gospel this day and in the days ahead.  Let us be on guard, ready to defend the world from the false gospels that arise, even from within the church.  And let us know that God will give us strength for the task ahead, because “he obtained [us] with his own blood.”  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.W

Acts 19:21-41 "Reasons for Rioting"

                So often when we think of early churches in the Bible or some of the early churches of that era and the cities that they resided in, we think that it was more like a theocracy than anything else.  When we hear about the churches in Philippi or Galatia, we just imagine that nearly everyone there was at least somewhat a part of the church.  Well, the picture that Luke gives us today in Acts 19 tells us that that was far from the truth.  This text, which could be broken down into three parts, shows us the volatility that existed specifically in Ephesus during this time, just as it existed everywhere else as well.  While our text for last Sunday spoke about Apollos being an effective witness in Corinth, we’re told that during that same time Paul was having great success in Ephesus.  Paul was healing people, baptizing folks, teaching, preaching, and evangelizing.  This is the type of stuff that pastors dream of; having a ministry period like Paul was having in Ephesus.  Seemingly nothing was going wrong for him.  Even when some of the Jews who traveled around trying to discredit him attempted to drive out demons from a man, that turned out poorly for them and led to even more people coming to believe Paul’s message and confirm the gospel of Jesus Christ.  You know things are going well when other people’s mistakes are driving people to you.  And so often that is the extent of the image that we have of the early New Testament church.

                However, things weren’t always so positive for Christians during this time.  I remember sitting in Church History I on my first day of seminary and my professor talking about how the history of Christianity, while very much there in Scripture, really finds its fuller expression in other historical accounts.  I remember him talking to us about what were called “Roman Streetlights”.   These were Christians who were dipped in some sort of flammable material and hung on posts while being lit on fire.  They glowed like streetlights in the night.  It was the first time that I can remember thinking, “Man, I guess things really were rough back then.”  Now, part of that was my naivety and part of that was that we just don’t talk much about the early church, period.  That’s a lot of the reason why I felt it crucial to undertake this study of the book of Acts in the first place. 

When we look at our text we see the response to all of the gospel expansion in Ephesus experienced by Paul.  Verse 23 says, “About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way.”  I’m just going to point out that from this verse we know that it was much more than a few disgruntled folks sitting over in the corner.  This may or may not have been a minority, but it was much more than just an insignificant few.  There was a guy named Demetrius who was a silversmith; in particular he was a silversmith who made statues for the shrines to Artemis, who was Greek goddess of hunting, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity, and the protector of young girls.  She was said to be the daughter of Zeus.  She was one of the more venerated gods of the time, so statues of her were always in high demand.  After all, every time a child was born, either you wanted your boy to have a successful hunt or you wanted your little girl to stay pure and be protected.  And don’t forget that the mother was in need of Artemis’ protection too since she was the goddess of childbirth also.

Well, Demetrius got upset at Paul’s teachings.  You see, as Paul was going around proclaiming the gospel, what he was also doing (without having to explicitly do so) was proclaiming the falseness of the Greek gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus.  I’m going to make a modern-day correlation in just a moment, but I want to finish this thought first.  Demetrius gathered up all of his silversmith contemporaries and folks in similar trades that relied upon the belief in and worship of these gods and he turned them against Paul and the Christian message.  “These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”  Now, I’m not going to say that the reason why Demetrius was upset at Paul concerned income.  He really may have been deeply troubled that Artemis would no longer be worshipped by the people.  He may have really thought that spiritually and morally for the people of Ephesus to abandon Artemis and the worship of the Greek gods was to seek their destruction.  However, I’ll just say this:  Demetrius didn’t lead with anything about beliefs or spirituality or worship.  What he led with was talk about the pocketbooks of the silversmiths and other merchants being hurt.

What happened from that point is that Demetrius got all the folks riled up and a riot broke out.  Now, I’ve never been in a riot, but I’ve been in something close.  Last week when that college football team I don’t like to talk about that shares a state with my alma mater won and stormed the field, it was pure chaos.  I loved seeing pictures and videos from my friends who were there and I even heard some stories about husbands just telling their wives they loved them and running onto the field.  Back in 2004, I was at the Mississippi State game when we beat Florida and stormed the field and took the goalpost.  It was pure chaos and pandemonium, but that’s the closest I’ve ever come to a riot. The funny thing about it was that our “rioting” on the football field that day resembled (somewhat) the rioting of the folks in Ephesus that day.  We weren’t leaving Scott Field until the administration made us.  After all, that win brought our record to 10-32 since the beginning of the 2001 season.  Well, the rioting in Ephesus really doesn’t seem to have any order to it (probably because it’s a riot) until the town clerk stepped in.  He told the people of Ephesus that they weren’t doing away with Artemis, that Paul and his men had done nothing wrong, that if there was a disagreement then it could be handled in court, and that they were close to being found guilty of rioting.  Well, maybe that last one had already happened, but it was that the official charge of rioting was about to be issued.  Either way, it’s really kind of difficult to tell who came out on the “winning” end of this riot.  Was it Paul and the Christians, or was it Demetrius and those seeking to keep Artemis in her place of worship?  Well, we’ll just say for now that both groups took positive things away from this scuffle.

I mentioned a second ago that I was going to make a modern-day comparison to this situation that existed in Ephesus.  You see, people hate Christians.  No, I don’t mean that everyone hates us because we are Christians (although there are some folks who fit that description), but that people hate what it is that we teach.  Primarily it’s because what we teach by its very nature and definition goes against what most of the world teaches.  One of the fascinating things that I have seen at work in this world really over the last 10 or 20 years is the hatred of the Christian message.  Notice that I said only the Christian message.  You see, people still believe in God.  They believe that someone created the universe and all that is in it.  They may not want to use the name God, but their description sounds an awful lot like the one we have unfolded for us in Scripture.  People even like Jesus.  They talk about his earthly ministry and his teachings and parables and they say that there’s some really good stuff there.  However, many of these folks are only speaking about Jesus from a morality point of view.  And part of this has come because of our preaching and teaching morality more than Jesus.  Of this point, I think that C.S. Lewis in his famous work Mere Christianity put it best when he said that Jesus was one of three things:  Lord, liar, or lunatic.  In other words, Jesus was either exactly who he said he was and who Christians profess him to be, he was a liar who was completely aware of the falsities he was saying, or he was a crazy person who thought he was the Son of God but really wasn’t.  Of these three choices, none of them leave us with the option of simply taking Jesus as only a really good moral teacher.  None of these options leave us being able to say that he was merely a prophet or a really good guy, because if he were a prophet then he would have known for certain if he was or was not the Son of God.  We either have to have the view of Christ that he was 100% right or that he was completely wrong.

You see, what we fight in this world today is not really the problem of different religions.  Sure, they’re out there and occasionally we come in contact with them, but they are not our biggest concern.  Like I said, don’t think that I don’t view ISIS and other groups like them as not being enemies, because I do.  I just happen to think that there is a much greater enemy even closer to home.  To me, our biggest concern (and this is just my humble opinion) is the belief of self over all other things.  Now, let me explain this for just a moment.  This is nothing new.  In fact, this is really the oldest heresy or problem for the Christian faith.  This belief was around even before Paul began his ministry.  It’s the idea that the individual person decides what is right and wrong for them.  It’s taken many names over the years.  It’s been called by numerous different titles, most recently postmodernism.  It’s the sin that Satan preyed upon with Adam in the garden.  It’s the sin that Satan still preys upon with us today.  According to Scripture, there are things that are right and wrong.  It is right to worship God, it is right to defend oneself, it is right to marry and have children (these are just a few).  It’s wrong to murder.  It’s wrong for someone to be in a homosexual relationship of any kind.  It’s wrong for two individuals to have sexual relations outside the covenant bond of marriage.  Now, I happen to affirm all the things that I have said today as being truthful, but I haven’t done so on my own accord.  I do so because they are affirmed by God in His holy, inerrant, infallible, and inspired Word.  It doesn’t matter what I think.  However, to the person who places themselves and their thinking above anything else, ask them what they think of what Scripture does and doesn’t command.  I’m almost willing to bet that somewhere in the response, the first few words will contain the phrase “I think.”  But you see, it’s not about what we think, it’s about what is right and what is wrong.

You know, I wonder how many attacks upon the gospel that we see today are out of disbelief and how many are out of fear.  I get why someone of a different faith may reject the Christian message.  I don’t agree with it, but I understand why.  Maybe the time just hasn’t come for God to reveal himself to them and I pray that that day comes soon for them.  However, I think that many of the attacks that we find upon the gospel today come about much like the one led by Demetrius in Ephesus.  He was motivated (at least primarily) by something other than religious beliefs.  I think that a lot of the attacks that we see today aren’t because of religious matters, but other things.  Whether its lifestyle choices, political opinions, social causes, or something else entirely, much of the attacks upon the gospel are for reasons that have nothing to do with religion.  They are because the Christian message and the things that we are called to do in light of that message are in many case contradictory to how someone wants to live their life.  Now, instead of conforming one’s life to the gospel, many have just taken up the cause of attacking and destroying the gospel. 

Friends, this a dangerous and slippery road.  Y’all want a bit honesty?  Do I get excited when I read the things that Scripture calls me to do?  Nope.  I don’t want to pray for my enemies or clothe and feed the wicked.  However, that’s what we’re called to do in Scripture.  And that’s the difference between those who profess faith in Christ and those who don’t.  We know that it is us who are in need of being changed and transformed.  It is us who are in need of being conformed to a more perfect image.  It’s not the other way around.  The gospel doesn’t need to be changed or torn down so that it looks more like we think it ought to look.  You want to know what salvation looks like?  It looks like our Savior upon the cross; it looks like the table that sits before us.  When I read all the things in Scripture that I’m commanded to do, I come away with an even greater thankfulness for my Savior and the sacrificed he made on my behalf.  Because I know how woefully short of those standards I fall.  Know this, persecutions aren’t going to stop.  People looking down upon Christians and calling the Bible ignorant aren’t going to stop either.  However, what we must continue to do is exactly what Paul did in Ephesus.  We must continue to focus upon the task at hand.  We must continue to defend the faith, which requires us to grow in our understanding.  We must continue to proclaim the gospel, which requires our unbridled willingness to speak out.  We must continue to call upon and rely upon God to give us strength for the task at hand.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.