There is no doubt but that John is the author of the Gospel of John. John was younger than his brother James, who were both known as the Sons of Thunder. And of the 12 disciples, John was the youngest as well. His mother was Salome, who had enquired of the Lord if her sons could sit on either side of His throne when He came into His kingdom. His father was Zebedee, who was a fisherman, and who had passed on his trade to his sons. He would seem to have been a disciple first of all of John the Baptist, but left him and followed Jesus after Christ’s baptism.

Perhaps it was the fact that John was the youngest, or perhaps that he was a relative of the family of Jesus, but for whatever reason, John seemed to have a special relationship with Jesus, describing himself as the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” He seemed to share a special closeness with Christ, being seen as leaning his head upon His shoulder at the Last Supper. That closeness was born out by Christ at his crucifixion, by Jesus committing to him the care of His mother Mary. And just as indicative was the fact that when Jesus separated certain disciples from the rest, He always included John with Peter and James. They constituted Christ’s inner circle.

So without a doubt John was very close to Jesus. He most likely knew Jesus while growing up. But certainly for three years he was with Christ 24/7, eating, sleeping and traveling with Him everywhere He went.

Now as you know there are four gospels in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark and Luke are what are called the synoptic gospels. That means that they shared common themes or incidents in their accounts. But John’s gospel, being written many years later when John was an old man does not follow their pattern. John writes from a completely different perspective and focuses on many things that are not found in the other gospels. For instance, John doesn’t detail the birth of Christ. And there is no mention of parables in John’s gospels, which account for much of the teaching of Christ in the synoptic gospels.

But the best indication of the purpose of John’s gospel is found in his own words, in John 20:30-31, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” Note that John says the reason for his writing was to show that Jesus was the Messiah, (that is what the word Christ means) and that Jesus was the Son of God, so that you might believe He is the Messiah and the Son of God, and be saved unto eternal life.

Now that purpose is clearly substantiated starting with the first verse of his gospel. And I don’t wish to rush over this point too quickly. Because it would stand to reason that if someone were a close, intimate friend of the One he was writing about, had spent 3 years of living with Him on a day to day basis, it would not be likely that this would be the way in which you would begin His biography by ascribing to Him deity. But in spite of that closeness, yes, even because of that closeness, John begins by declaring the divinity of Jesus Christ in a bold declarative statement. John leaves out the familiar details of Jesus life which reveal His humanity, such as His birth, but focuses on His divinity, His attributes of being God.

So as John begins his prologue, he begins not with the birth of Jesus as would be expected in a biographical book, but he begins in the beginning, in the beginning of Genesis 1:1, and he declares that Jesus existed before creation began. And that is a tremendous thing in light of the fact of his intimate knowledge of the human nature of Christ. Living 24/7 with Christ did not diminish his view of Jesus as God, but it only served to prove it to him, and so his purpose is to establish that for us at the outset, and it will continue to be the theme of all the book.

The fact that John alludes to Genesis 1:1 in his opening statement is fundamental to the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ. We know that the NT is the best commentary on the OT. Consider then Genesis 1:1, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and compare that to John 1:1, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”   And what we find is that Genesis 1 is explained by John 1; the eternal existence of God, who God is, what He is like and what was His purpose. In Genesis 1 we see the origin of creation, and all creatures. In John 1 we see the originator of all life and the origin of light. John makes it clear that from the beginning, from the beginning of eternity, the Word existed. Before time, before creation, the Word was. He was not created, but He existed before creation.

So after establishing His eternal nature, John establishes His identity. Not His name but His identity; which is the Word. Perhaps you think that the Word is an ambiguous title, hardly a name for God. In the original Greek the word is logos; which means the word. But the fact is that to both Jews and Greeks it was a familiar way of referring to God.

In the Old Testament, we often see reference to the word of the Lord, or the word of God came to a certain prophet. In the mind of the ancient Jews, the phrase “the word of God” could be used to refer to God Himself. The word of the Lord was synonymous with the will of God, the law of God and the mind of God. And even in the Genesis account of creation, we see the Word of God active in creation, with the phrase, “and God said…” over and over again being the operative agent in creation.

Then among the Greek philosophers, the word logos was the way they described the reason, the thought behind the cosmic power of the universe. They saw the logos as the “Ultimate Reason” that controlled all things, that kept order in the world. Though the translation of the term logos is the simple term word, in the ancient Greek world it meant a lot more than that. Ancient Greek philosophers were concerned with answering the ultimate questions of the universe. They were seeking to find ultimate truth. They debated and argued among themselves in order to find the ultimate reality that lies behind the universe.

Over time, as philosophers such as Plato pondered these questions, they came up with a term to describe this ultimate reality, and the term they came up with was logos. The logos came to be understood as the thought and reason which gave life and meaning to the universe. Within the realm of Greek philosophy, however, this logos was largely understood to be an impersonal force, not a personal being.

But John taps into their understanding of God by saying Jesus is the logos, the eternal God of creation, of order or truth and reason. Rather than an impersonal force, the logos revealed in John’s gospel is a personal being who can be received or rejected by other people as we will see when we come to vs. 11–12. This logos became flesh as a human being and manifested the glory of God to man in v. 14. John explains that Jesus is the personification of the Word. He is a person, not an it, not an impersonal force.

Not only does the logos refer to the identity of God, but obviously it refers to the very words of God. Jesus said in John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The word of God has been written down for us in the Bible, and it is holy and eternal. As Peter said in 1 Peter 1:25, “The word of the Lord endures forever.” The words of God cannot be separated from the essence of God. That is why Jesus would say, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” God has not only manifested Himself in Jesus, but He has manifested Himself in His word.   He is inseparable from His word, and that is why we can trust His word. His word cannot be broken. His word according to Psalms 12:6, has been refined as silver 7 times. It is pure, it is truth, it is life.

So John alludes to all of the attributes of God in this title, but brings them to life in the person of Christ. So in the beginning was the Word. Then John tells us who exactly the Word is. He says “and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Now that is so important because it lays the groundwork for our doctrine of the trinity. It tells us is that not only is the Logos the eternal God, but He is distinct from the eternal God. And this is where we come to understand that there is one God and yet there are three persons.

Now I cannot explain how that is possible. But the scriptures make it clear that it is so. It is the triune nature of God; to exist in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We see that expressed again in Genesis 1:26, when God said, “let Us make man in Our image.” Plural. In the beginning God created, then the Spirit of God moved across the face of the waters, and then God said. God, Spirit and Logos. Three in One. Jesus is God in the flesh, the Holy Spirit is Jesus in the Spirit. God made visible in the Logos, Jesus made invisible in the Spirit. So then God became flesh in Jesus. Both Peter and Paul refer to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9 and 1 Peter 1:11). John 16:13-14 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” And then even we become sons of God by the Spirit of Jesus indwelling in the flesh of man (us).

So clearly presented in this verse is the doctrine that the Word was with God, but also that the Word was God. Many false doctrines such as the Mormons or the Jehovah Witnesses reveal their apostasy on this doctrine. They insert the article “a” before God so that Jesus is presented as a god. But according to practically all Greek scholars, that is not a proper rendering of the translation. And even if they were to make that claim, then what do you do with Hebrews 1:1-3 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

Or how about Col. 2:9 “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” Or how about the Old Testament, in Isaiah 9:6 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” Or how about Jesus’ own declaration to Philip, when He said, “if you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” Or “I and the Father are One.”

The whole rational of our salvation depends upon God Himself becoming flesh in the person of Christ to become our substitute by dying on the cross and paying the penalty for sin. Only the innocent could pay for the guilty. And only the Holy God could atone for the sins of all the sins of the world. No good man could even atone for one person’s sins other than His own, much less the sins of the world. Christ had to be God in the flesh to buy our redemption. Either Jesus was God or He was an imposter, and worse, a blasphemer and deserved to be crucified. But we believe the Bible, that He was the exact representation of God, existing with God, who was God and yet distinct from God, identified as the Word of God.

Vs.2, “He was in the beginning with God.” Or as the KJV says perhaps more literally, “the same was in the beginning with God.” This same Word not only was coeternal with God and coexistent with God, but was eternally in active communion with Him: “not simply the Word with God, but God with God.” John not only reiterates the fundamental truth for emphasis, but to add emphasis to the fact of their unity.

And then in vs. 3, as we have already noted in Genesis 1, all things God created came into being through Him. “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” God spoke through His Word, and all things that were created came through the Logos. That’s what the author of Hebrews said as well as we just read while ago: “in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” And consider what Paul said in Col. 1:16 “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

Here is the proof of His self-existence. Everything that exists came into being through Him. That’s a positive declaration, simple, clear evidence, that the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal deity. Everything that exists, He made. It all came from Him. He didn’t come from anyone, or anything. Everything came from Him. 1 Corinthians 8:6 “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”

Notice that “all things” – that includes us, we were made for Him, we exist for Him. We were made to share His glory, to have intimacy with Him, to walk with Him, to talk with Him, to be the bride of Christ. That is the purpose of creation. Creation was made for man, and man was made for God. Such was the declaration of one of the church’s earliest theologians, Augustine, who said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” We were made with the spark of divinity, in the likeness of God, in the image of God. All things created were brought into being by simply the spoken word of God. But man was brought into being by the hands of God which formed us out of the clay, and given life by the very lips of God when He breathed into us the breath of life. We were made to be gods, according to Psalm 82:6 , where God says, “You are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.” But unfortunately the fall killed that divine spark, and it lay dormant until the Son of God our Creator breathes again in us the Spirit of Life.

And that principle of spiritual life is what John lays the foundation for in vs.4, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” That is such a profound statement. “In Him was life.” The word used is not bios, because He’s not just talking about biological life, which is the rudimentary form of life. But the word is zoe, which has to do with spiritual life, the life principle, the reality of life. The Word is the source of life. We already quoted Jesus saying that in John 6:63, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” And “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Jesus is the source of all life.

Paul said in Acts 17:28 “for in Him we live and move and exist.” Hebrews 1:3 says, He “upholds all things by the word of His power.” Jesus Himself said, “I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.” He was talking about zoe, the real, spiritual life, even eternal life of which He is the source.

Near Geneva, Switzerland, buried under the ground in a 17 mile wide circular tunnel is what is called the Hadron Collider. And this scientific machine’s purpose is to discover the smallest particles of subatomic matter, in order to find the origin of life. To get these protons to break apart they have to smash these particles together at the speed of light. They have been conducting these experiments for years, and the result is that they continue to discover even more subatomic particles and mysteries upon mysteries in their hope to reveal the source of life. But here in John 1 God declares the source of life and light, which is Jesus Christ, the Logos. He holds all things together.

This life is the light of men, speaking of spiritual light as well as natural light. It isn’t that the Word “contains” life and light; He is life and light. John is connecting life and light. The one who was the life of men became the light of men. The light to lead them out of darkness. In the beginning of creation God said, “Let there be light.” So in the new creation the pre existent source of life is the source of life that illuminates creation. That’s why He came into the world, to shine light into the darkness, to reveal God that we might see the truth of God. Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world,” whoever “follows Me will not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Therefore, without Jesus, we are dead and in darkness. When man became separated from God because of the fall he became spiritually dead, he lost his spiritual life, so he became dead and in darkness. He became lost.

But thank God for the last phrase of vs.5, “ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” The KJV says comprehend it. That is an unfortunate translation which is understood to mean that man could not understand the light. But what it should read is the darkness could not overcome it. The light prevailed over the darkness, not the other way around. The light can not lose against the darkness; the darkness will never overcome it.

The darkness refers to the realm of darkness, the realm of Satan, the powers of darkness. Jesus said in the hours before the cross that this hour belongs to the power of darkness. Eph. 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” But the darkness cannot overpower the Light. The Light shines in the darkness. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. Though all the forces of hell conspired to keep man in darkness, the Light has come into the world so that man might be saved from death and darkness and dwell in the light for eternity.

John has made it abundantly clear concerning the doctrine of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is eternal God, the Word of God made flesh, that we might know God, that we might know the truth and that the truth would be the light by which we come to have life in Him. I hope that you have received Him as your Lord and Savior. That is why He came, to give hope and life to a world lost in darkness. Today light has shown on you. Come to the Light and believe and you will have real life, and have it more abundantly.

So this is the last chapter in the book of Acts. And I really struggled with how we should finish this book. I suppose I could have broken down this series of events and exegeted each one, tried to find a parable or outline in each and preach a sermon. But as I considered it, I could not help but feel that the Holy Spirit was telling us something that was greater than the summary of each individual event. I couldn’t help but wonder how this grand epic of the gospel could just kind of wind down with a series of little events without any preaching, without some new doctrine, and just kind of fade out without coming to a conclusion like we might expect? It felt kind of like the way those movies make you feel that never conclude the story but just leave you hanging at the end, wondering what was going to happen next.

But I don’t think it’s because the Holy Spirit is a bad writer or because He could not figure out how to finish the story so He just fades to black and leaves us to figure out the end on our own. I think the solution is to consider the bigger picture, rather than focus too much on these little vignettes as independent subjects.

And so at some point I found myself asking some questions about what the Spirit was indicating in this passage and the preceding chapters leading up to it.   Like for instance, why at the end of his ministry, not to mention his life, is Paul left to practically fade into obscurity, without seeing` any great harvests of conversions either among pagans or among Jews? Where are all the thousands upon thousands saved in a matter of a few days such as had been the case with Peter in Jerusalem when the church first started?

Why did God use the storm to drive Paul to the shores of a tiny 12 x 20 mile long island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea? Of all places in the world where God could have sent Paul, why is he shipwrecked on Malta, a barbarous island peopled by a few superstitious natives?  This was after all the greatest apostle of Christ. And furthermore, why does God allow his servants to die ignoble deaths alone and practically forgotten by the world?

And as I answered those questions I felt the truth of this passage begin to dawn in my mind. I considered for instance, that all of Christ’s apostles were arrested at some point and spent much time in prison. And all of the apostles save John were eventually martyred and from our perspective died an ignoble death, practically alone, alienated from family and friends, by the hands of brutish men.

But the full answer goes back all the way to the beginning of Acts. As the Christian church was born, there was a great blossoming of fruit and a great harvest of souls, culminating in thousands upon thousands of Jews becoming saved and being added to the church. And great signs and wonders were being performed daily in the church and in Jerusalem, and everyone, Luke tells us, held the first Christians in high esteem and they were well spoken of in the community.

Today when we talk about the characteristics of the first Christian church, that is what we think of, isn’t it? Great crowds, admiring congregations, apostles with tremendous miraculous power, and Christians being well respected in the community.   Sounds like a Joel Osteen or Billy Graham crusade. But that is not an accurate picture of the first century church. And I would go so far as to say that is not an accurate representation of what God’s template for the church truly is. Now we know that to be a fact, because the popularity and profusion of conversions and subsequent church members did not last long. The diaspora began soon after that beginning with the martyrdom of Steven in chapter 7, and in chapter 8 vs.2 it says, “And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” The honeymoon period of the church was over.

Now after that point, the focus of Acts begins to look away from the church at Jerusalem and starts to look at the developing church in Gentile territories. And in those territories we no longer see the mega church example that we see in Jerusalem, but instead we see small house churches. We see the gospel taken to individuals, to families, and small gatherings of believers meeting in rooms and homes. We see the apostles and disciples encountering more and more persecution from both Jews as well as pagan cultures.

Now I have to say that I saw that really for the first time just this week as I was preparing for this message. It wasn’t that I did not know it, but I hadn’t really seen it before in that way. A classic example of not seeing the forest for the trees. And when I saw this I was greatly encouraged. Because to tell you the truth, both the world and the Christian culture seem to equate success as bigger churches and more people. The question of how many members you may have, and how big your organization is, and how fast you are growing, and how many programs you are running, are the ways in which we quantify and validate successful ministries. And if you don’t fit that template then you are left to question the validity of your church.

But what I found when I began to look at this is with the exception of the brief honey moon period when the church at Jerusalem was started, there is not another example of a mega church in the New Testament. And furthermore, there is no record of apostle worship in the Bible either, at least on the level of the admiration and followings of the great “Christian” leaders of today. When you compare the 60,000 people filling up a football stadium to hear Joel Osteen with the ministry of the Apostle Paul then you will see a major discrepancy. When Paul was last in a huge stadium in Ephesus the crowds were calling for his head. They were not lining up to shake his hand and ask him to sign a copy of his latest book.

Now I point this out because I think that what the Holy Spirit is illustrating one last time as He winds up the book of Acts is the template of the church. From a human perspective, this is not the way it’s supposed to look at this point. After all, Paul is the greatest apostle of all of Christ’s apostles. If anyone should have been a mega church pastor it should have been Paul. If anyone should have had a 60,000 member church and dozens of satellite churches streaming live his messages every Sunday it should have been Paul. Furthermore, from the human perspective, if Paul was really God’s man then he wouldn’t have been in chains. He wouldn’t have ended his life in relative obscurity. He would have been elevated to the position of the Cardinal of Europe or something like that with his own disciples serving churches under his supervision. I mean, if Peter supposed to be the Pope, then Paul should have been the Cardinal.

But instead we see a different model acted out in these last chapters of Acts. We see the apostle beleaguered by constant harassment, chased from town to town, ridiculed by the elite in not only the intellectual world but the religious world. We see him stoned, beaten, imprisoned. We don’t see him lauded by the media, hosted on the Today Show, appearing on the television talk shows, but instead having to sneak out of town by being let down from a wall in a basket to escape certain death. We see him being stoned and left for dead. We see him in prison almost more than we see him out of prison. And yet in spite of appearances to the contrary, I would suggest that Paul is the embodiment of the church. In 1Cor.12:28, Paul said that God after God raised Jesus from the dead and He ascended on high, He gave first of all to the church apostles. And in Eph. 2:20 Paul says that the church has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone. And then again in Eph. 4:11 it says, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”

The point I think then is this; that as we look at the events in this last couple of chapters in Acts we see that Paul is the church. He was the foundation of the church. He was traveling with Luke and Aristarchus. And you will remember that Jesus said where two or three are gathered together there I am in the midst. The church is not characterized by buildings or organizations, but by people. And that starts with Christ as the cornerstone, the apostles word as the foundation, and then preachers and teachers building up the body or the church brick by brick, person by person.

I recently had a woman call me who had attended our church during the summer and she is writing a book about churches on the Eastern Shore. She was originally intrigued by the church buildings and started to think about the stories behind them. But when she discovered our church on the beach one Sunday almost by accident, she felt that there was something here that needed to be investigated. And so as Susie and I spent a couple of hours with her, we were able to share how God doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. But how God’s church is comprised of His people, not characterized by architecture.

Well, how was the church template laid out in Acts? Well, as we look at Paul’s ministry we do not see the thousands upon thousands saved like we saw in the honeymoon period in Jerusalem. Instead we see individual conversions such as the jailer and his family being saved who was in charge of the prison he was incarcerated in. We see him casting out demons from people who were accosting him as he preached. We see him meeting with small groups of people by the riverside, or in the market places or in homes or upper rooms, with some or a few people being converted.   We see Paul having to work with his hands to raise his own money to support his ministry. Paul’s life is one of hardship, persecution, small gatherings of Christians, trials, incarcerations, preaching, and lots and lots of rejections of his gospel. And yet Paul said “be imitators of me.” (1Cor. 11:1)

Now that may sound uninspiring to some people. But personally I find it encouraging. Because there are times when I find myself comparing our ministry with what the Christian culture and the world tells me are the marks of a successful church, and feeling like we keep coming up short. Just the other night I was speaking with someone and they asked what I do, and as I tried to tell them about our church I found myself feeling almost embarrassed because we do not have many of the trappings of what society calls a successful church. And their response didn’t help either. Because they proceeded to tell me about the church that they went to, which happens to be a church of several hundred people and is very popular in the community. And this man said they went to this church because they had a large children’s ministry . Then to add injury to insult, they told me a story about how their pastor and his wife drove up to the middle of Pennsylvania to attend his mother in law’s funeral and how that sealed the deal for them in regards to church membership.

Well, I can’t compete with that. We don’t have a children’s ministry. And I dislike going to hospitals or funerals and to tell you the truth would never even consider driving three hours one way to attend a funeral of a person I didn’t know (even if my car would make it) just so I could seal the deal for someone’s church membership. Besides we don’t even have church membership. So I guess I will never pastor a mega church.

But thankfully, according to the template given to us in Acts, that is not necessarily God’s plan for us anyhow. Paul was the greatest apostle in the New Testament and as we have seen in our recent studies he has been in chains for the last 2 ½ years, under house arrest, never even formerly charged with a crime. But in that time God used Paul to preach to very small audiences, although at times made up of kings and governors and rulers of the Jews. However, those messages were not received, but rejected. For the most part, it would look like from our perspective that those were very unproductive years for Paul. But we are looking at things as they appear outwardly. We don’t know, and perhaps neither did Paul, all the lives that were affected by his messages. What we do know is that God’s ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts like our thoughts. And what often seems like a tragedy to us in a triumph in Christ. Even our Messiah only had a few disciples and He suffered and was crucified before He was exalted in resurrection.

Now the passage illustrates this template of God’s church in a series of small vignettes of Paul’s ministry here in this final passage. And we will look briefly at each of them for additional clues as to the nature of God’s plan for the church as it continues on until the return of Christ. First we see that Paul has endured the storm only to be shipwrecked on the island of Malta. This was a small island, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, only 12 miles by 20 miles wide. It was a Roman colony, but more than likely populated by a simple, rather superstitious native people.

And it’s interesting to me that God used the storm to bring this great apostle to this tiny island and leave him there for 3 months. Certainly, you would think that God would have used him for greater purposes than that. In fact, there isn’t even a mention that anyone on that island became a Christian. But I cannot help but think that Paul would have laid the seeds for a church there on this island among these simple people. By the way, the word barbarous is the literal word used there in vs.2 and 4 translated as natives in the NASB. Barbarians was a word that was used by the Greeks to denote anyone who did not speak Greek. Paul himself uses the word in Romans 1:14 when he says “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.” It simply means non Greek speaking.

But I think that it can be surmised that Paul did in fact preach the gospel there by the fact that the Holy Spirit enabled him to first of all be healed of a snake bite. That got the attention of the population. And it also is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus in Mark 16:17-18 “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Now a lot of charismatics have misinterpreted these verses to say this promise includes all believers. But if you look at the context of that passage, Jesus is speaking to the 11 disciples, who would become His apostles. They had not believed Him when He had foretold His resurrection, nor even when the women came to them and reported it. And so Jesus rebukes them and then He commissions them as His apostles saying these are the signs that will accompany His apostles. Those signs of an apostle are born out as well in 2Cor. 12:12 “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” These were the attesting signs of an apostle, not devises by which we today can attest to our spirituality or serve our personal needs.

And Paul would have used such miraculous powers to proclaim the gospel. That was the whole point of miracles, to confirm the word preached. Paul never used miraculous powers for his own benefit, but only to authenticate the gospel that he was commissioned to preach. So though the text does not say Paul preached, you can be sure he did, attesting to the authenticity of his message with signs and wonders and miracles. So that as the word spread on the island, all who were sick came to him to healed. And though the scripture does not tell us of conversions, tradition does say that a thriving church was started there.

Now this is an example of the mercy and compassion of God, in that He sent His apostle to this remote island especially so that these few natives might hear the gospel. And it would seem from the kindness and the response of the natives that they did respond to the gospel. This small island far from the rest of the world was not forgotten by the Lord, but singled out for a divine appointment by one of Christ’s greatest prophets. Here is the principle; God often uses great men to perform humble tasks in dark places to small audiences.

I’m reminded of the story of Eric Liddel, told in the movie Chariots of Fire, which told how this Olympic athlete became famous for his stand for his faith by not running on Sunday even though that was when his 100 meter race was scheduled to be held. But after some deliberation, he was switched to the 400 meter race later in the week, and consequently won the gold medal in a race he had not prepared for. That made for exciting storylines. But the real story is that afterwards, Eric Liddel accepted a call to be a missionary in China, to a people who never really appreciated his sacrifice or his athleticism.

If modern Christians would have scripted the story, Eric Liddel would have moved onto the Christian conference circuit, heralded as a great example of a successful Christian athlete, and receiving large offerings and speaking to great crowds. He would have written a book about successful Christian athleticism and how you can use it to influence the world. But God had different plans. He sent Eric Liddel to the darkest continent on the planet, to a people that would never appreciate his Olympic gold medals, and Eric Liddel lived out the rest of his days there teaching the word of God. He died in China in 1945 after being incarcerated for the last two years in a prison camp. God’s ways are not our ways.

The next few verses of our text detail the voyage of Paul and the others as they sailed to Rome. And one point of interest is that they met some brethren, that is fellow Christians in Puteoli and they were allowed to stay there 7 days. Notice the providence of God in this. Here are believers in a town where there is no record of having received the gospel, and yet there are already a few Christians there. Again, this is such an out of the way place that Paul would have probably never visited these people under normal circumstances. But God knew that this small band of believers were in this city, and He arranges it so that they will come there, and not only be there for the day, but for seven days. Furthermore, the text says that Paul was allowed to go to them. He stayed with them. This is an extraordinary indication of God’s providence seeing that Paul is a prisoner, and yet the centurion so trusts Paul and is in fact indebted to him so that he gladly allows Paul to stay with his friends. Such an example of how God is concerned about small audiences. This little group of believers are visited by the great apostle and given the benefit of his preaching for 7 days. What a boost that must have been to that little church there, and what an encouragement as well it must have been for Paul to see that the gospel seeds that he had planted elsewhere had blown even to this remote spot.

I was looking at the colors of the trees on our lane yesterday and noticed a young cedar sapling growing in the woods at the end of the lane. And I realized how far it was from the two cedar trees that border our house lot. I don’t know how a seed from those trees made it all the way down to the end of the road, perhaps a bird dropped it there and it found root and grew. But I couldn’t help but think of how Jesus relates the preaching of the gospel to a farmer casting seeds, and some fall on good soil, and some do not get rooted deep and do not produce. But our job is to cast the seed, and let divine winds blow it where God has prepared the soil to receive it.

I think of all the people that come in and out of our church, many times for just a few days or maybe a week at a time. And yet during that time we are able to minister to them and they to us in a special way. Some people we will never see again perhaps this side of heaven. But God uses our church to minister to traveling visitors, and infrequent guests, who hopefully go away refreshed and with a new sense of purpose back to their home communities and perhaps even bringing new life to their churches.

Then note in vs15, it would appear that two different groups of Christians came out to meet Paul as he came near to Rome. You know, Paul was a great apostle, but we must not forget that he was human as well. He became tired, hungry, fatigued, worried and even fearful. Some pious people like to say that being fearful or worried is sinful. But I disagree. I think it just means you are human. There is nothing wrong with being afraid. Courage is not the lack of fear, but the willingness to go on in spite of your fears. Paul had been on a long hard journey. And now he is finally near his destination. He has no idea what is going to happen when he arrives. Only that the Holy Spirit has told him he will stand before Caesar. Where Nero was concerned that usually had a way of not turning out too well for most people. And so I’m sure that Paul was concerned, even a bit fearful as he approached this capital of the world, to be judged by the highest official of the Roman Empire.

Now we can be assured he was fearful, because it says when Paul saw the brethren who came outside the city to meet him that he thanked God and took courage. I cannot tell you the numbers of times that some visitors to our church have given me an opportunity to thank God and be encouraged just at a time when I needed it most.

And the reason that Paul is so encouraged was that these people were the fruit of the gospel to the Romans that he had written years earlier. People that he had never met, but that had read his letter and received it as the gospel of Jesus Christ. No wonder Paul thanked God and was encouraged. That is another characteristic of the template of the church, encouragement. Even as we are reminded in Hebrews 10:24 “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

I remember a few weeks ago really struggling with preparing my message, and when I delivered it I kind of felt deflated, feeling like I wasn’t sure if it had really accomplished anything for the kingdom. And a couple of days later I got an email from a woman telling me how much the message had meant to her, and how it had spoken to a particular need she had. I’m not even sure who this lady is. For some reason, I cannot remember what she looked like or anything about her. But I was encouraged by her note. And I think that every Christian who is serving the Lord has that hope, that something you said to someone about the Lord, or someone you reached out to in Christian kindness, was genuinely moved by your words or your actions. You may not see the fruit of that work in this lifetime, but there will come a day when what you whispered in secret will be shouted from the rooftops. And what was done for Christ will last for eternity and be rewarded in heaven.

Well, Paul finally gets to Rome, he is given his own rented quarters to live in with just a personal guard. That is an exceptional privilege for a prisoner. He is allowed unrestricted access to friends and visitors. But nevertheless he is still a prisoner. And this is really incredible; Paul calls upon the very group of people that are responsible for his incarceration in the first place to come and visit him. It’s almost like he is inviting trouble. The Jews in Rome have not heard about Paul, or of any charges against him. You would think that Paul would have tried to avoid these guys, much less invite them to his house.

But this illustrates another important principle: our spiritual adversaries are not our enemies, but they are our mission field. So Paul invites them to hear the gospel. He explains the gospel from the OT scriptures for 8 to 12 hours and presents them with evidence that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and that He had to die and be resurrected to fulfill God’s plan of salvation.

Luke tells us that some of the Jews were being persuaded by Paul and some weren’t. And that resulted in them having a sharp disagreement and leaving. The idea that some were being persuaded does not necessarily mean that they were saved. I think there was a disagreement, similar to the times when Paul preached to the Jews before and the Pharisees and the Sadducees ended up arguing amongst themselves. The point is though that they left without being saved, as Paul’s parting remarks make plain.

Paul quotes from Isaiah 6:9, saying, ‘GO TO THIS PEOPLE AND SAY, “YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; AND YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, AND WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES; OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT SEE WITH THEIR EYES, AND HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.”’

I don’t quite understand the compassion of God, but He continues to call His prophets to preach to a people who will not understand, to a people who have hardened their hearts and closed their eyes. But yet that is the commission of the church. Only God can open hearts and open the eyes of the blind. Our job is to preach the gospel, whether or not they will accept it or not.

I will say this, my experience is confirmed by the scriptures in saying that the majority of people will not understand. The majority of people will not be saved. But a few will turn and believe. When I consider the number of people that we have presented the gospel to that were almost persuaded, but eventually went on their way I can easily become discouraged. However, we must not allow small numbers or the lack of results to discourage us as we fulfill the commission of Jesus Christ. The gospel has never been popular, contrary to what we sometimes are told. Christians have always been in the minority. But I can say this with absolute conviction. The kingdoms of the earth rise and fall into obscurity, but the kingdom of God endures forever. Caesar and the Roman Empire have faded away. Ancient Judaism and the temple are no more. But the gospel has endured, and flourished and is still saving souls 2000 years later.

Well the book of Acts concludes without coming to a conclusion. Because the story of the church is not finished. Paul continued for two years there teaching and preaching out of his home to all who would come to him. And that I think is the final part of the church’s template; the consistent preaching and teaching of the word of God in Paul’s house. He would have never had a great crowd. It was a rented home after all and would not have held more than a couple of dozen people at a time. But the church continued. And when Paul eventually met his death, someone else picked up the baton and continued to run the race. That baton has been passed down through the centuries from church to church, from generation to generation. Today we still meet in our homes, and today small groups of Christians meet all around the world, sharing the truth of the gospel to all who will come.

I believe the true church of God is still following that template, doing the same thing that Paul did, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness. The preaching of the word is the hallmark of the church, it’s our purpose, and nothing can stop us except the Lord’s return. Let us be found as faithful as Paul was, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, to be about the purpose of the kingdom of God, never ceasing to preach Jesus Christ.

The story we are looking at today shows a godly man, a man chosen and used by God as an apostle, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, yet who suffers incarceration, deprivation, a nightmarish couple of weeks at sea in the midst of a major nor’easter, and ultimately ends up being shipwrecked and having to swim for land. It’s an amazing account of hardship, but I hope that you will see why the Holy Spirit gives us this story in this passage. I hope to show you that God allows His people to go through storms and even shipwrecks in order to use them for His glory.

Now this principle is contrary to practically everything you will hear today on Christian radio, or on so called Christian television, or from most pulpits in the modern evangelical church which seem to try to seduce people to the gospel by means of the enticement of a better life. And I hope you will not just discard this message as another one of Roy’s rants about how dire everything is. But I hope you will see that this is a Biblical principle that is illustrated over and over again in the Bible. It is not something that only happened in Biblical times, but it is something that happens in our lives as well. So it’s important that we understand that in the last days difficult times will come. I hope you will consider 2Tim. 3:12 which says, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Or as Paul said in Acts 14:22, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

The point being, that you should not expect that the Christian faith guarantees you a life of comfort and ease and pleasure. Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but take courage, for I have overcome the world.” Jesus said in Matthew 5 that God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. So there are going to be storms in your life. They are unavoidable. And sometimes those storms end up causing shipwrecks. Many times they are beyond our ability to avoid either. But what is important is to know that God is with us in the storm, even in the shipwreck, and He will preserve our soul and use it for His glory if we trust in Him.

Now let’s consider something else that’s important to realize right at the beginning of the story, and that is God’s timing. Paul was told by the Lord way back in chapter 23 vs.11, “Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also.” But here is Paul over two years later and he still hasn’t gotten to Rome. He has spent the last two years languishing in prison. A fairly nice prison by most standards of that day, but still a prison nonetheless. Now he’s finally on a ship sailing to Rome, still under guard, and they get caught in this massive storm at sea, and eventually shipwrecked on an island.

And what I think we can take from that is the principle of God’s timing. The Lord said in Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” God has His own time table. And if we are not careful in considering his timing, we can easily out run God and end up finding ourselves in a mess.

Now I emphasize that because many times Christians come to a point in their life where they want to know God’s will. They may seek God’s counsel in regards to a decision that they are about to make. They want to know God’s will, if He is with them or not, or will bless them or not. And I want to emphasize that we have to be careful about judging things based on human timetables and what seems rational or natural to us. God has His own timing and purposes. It doesn’t mean we don’t plan or strategize, but we should not mistake the seeming silence of God as an indication of a green light. Or neither should we suppose that God is not working simply because we don’t see immediate results. What we have to depend upon is the word of the Lord. In Paul’s case, 2 ½ years later he was still trusting in the word of the Lord that promised he would go to Rome even though it had not come to pass yet.

Remember that Abraham was 75 years old when God promised to raise up a son from him which would result in a great nation coming from his loins, but he was 100 years old when Isaac was born. And in similar fashion, Joseph was 17 when he was taken captive, but 30 when he was elevated to second in command over Egypt.   Thus Hebrews 6 tells us to imitate those patriarchs who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Now if we are going to go through these trials in such as way as to inherit the promises, and avoid the peril, then we must be careful to conduct ourselves according to the will of God, which is admittedly difficult to do as we just described. It’s difficult because God’s will is not always determined according to human intellect or the way we would naturally suppose things to be. So we are given this passage I believe to help establish some principles to guide us as we go through the storms and even shipwrecks of life.

First note that Festus decides that Paul is to go to Rome to stand trial before Caesar, even though he admits that Paul has done no crime. And so he determines that he will go by ship, and puts a Roman centurion in charge of his transport named Julius. The centurion would have had 100 soldiers under his command. And the text tells us that there were other prisoners on the ship as well as the author Luke and Aristarchus who accompanied Paul, so all told there were 276 people on board the ship.

God’s providence allowed for Paul’s doctor as well as his friend, Aristarchus, to travel with him. Though Paul was a prisoner, he had been given special consideration for the last couple of years, and it would seem that continued even aboard the ship. The centurion Julius shows Paul kindness, even allowing him to visit other Christians in Sidon. But notice vs. 3 says he allowed him to receive care. It’s not unlikely that Paul was ill during this time. That would account for Luke and Aristarchus traveling with him. We don’t know what illness Paul had for sure, but we do know that the Galatians were willing to give Paul their very own eyes if possible. So most commentators believe that because of that passage as well as others that Paul had a serious illness in his eyes that limited his vision.

And that is a testament to God’s provision and care for our needs. Though Paul asked three times for God to remove this thorn in his flesh, yet God did not heal Paul, but He did give him a doctor and a companion to help him. 1 Cor. 10:13 promises that “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” I cannot overemphasize the fact that God a human touch to accomplish a divine purpose. God desires to use us to comfort and strengthen and minister to one another.

Now at Sidon they were put on another ship and this is when they start running into trouble.   They already had contrary winds up to this point, but now the wind was really against them. So much so that they finally find themselves forced to land at a port called Fair Havens. Now it’s interesting to note this, because we have already determined that it was God’s will that Paul go to Rome, and yet at every step of the way he is being delayed, the wind was contrary, and they had difficult going.

We have difficulty accepting such circumstances as God’s will, don’t we? I have had similar experiences at 7:30 in the morning with contrary winds and bad weather just before church starts. And I have asked myself many times what God’s will could possibly be in such a case. There have even been times when we had to cancel services because of a storm. I have to admit that at such times I have a hard time accepting that it is God’s will. I tend to think in such times that Satan has won the day and we lost. And yet we know that is not the case in Paul’s situation, even though it goes from bad to worse. Just because it is God’s will does not mean that there will not be opposition or even delay. That’s why we are told to persevere, to endure under trials. Opposition is often more of an indicator of God’s will than fair winds, as we will see in a moment.

By the time they made port and waited for the wind to change it had become an unfavorable season for ship travel. It was after the feast of atonement, sometime in mid October, and in that region the winter was considered a very dangerous time for sea travel. And so Paul, who I think was under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, advises the centurion and the captain that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to continue on. Paul said, ““Men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.”

But the centurion, though he favors Paul with some kindness, doesn’t think that Paul knows as much about seafaring as the captain does, and so he disregards Paul’s advice. I get that from time to time myself. I sometimes offer advice to someone in my church about a career choice, or marriage counseling, or financial advice. And many times I think they feel that I don’t really know much about such things so they disregard my advice. They may concede that might be able to teach the Bible, but for practical advice they will go to a trained counselor or advisor and listen to them. I don’t think Paul claimed to be a sea captain, but I do think that he had the immeasurable advantage of the input of the Holy Spirit. And in like manner, I may not be a trained counselor or advisor, but I do have access to the truth of the Holy Spirit and can relate godly principles set forth by Him in the word of God. The Bible is practical advice. It is our guide for daily life. It is sufficient.

Now notice that they disregard Paul’s advice not necessarily because it isn’t sound, but because it’s contrary to their carnal desires. They want to go to a more interesting, more comfortable winter quarters.   And this is the beginning of their trouble and of ours as well: when we turn away from godly counsel in search of counsel which conforms to our desires. Paul would later warn Timothy about people’s tendency to do that in 2Tim. 4:3-5 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

But unfortunately, they failed to follow Paul’s advice. And instead, when a south wind sprung up, thinking that this signaled fair weather and was a good omen, they set sail once again. And of course, Paul is taken on board. The Bible says no man is an island. Your actions affect others. Your decisions about where you will work or live or what you might do affect others. And God will hold you accountable for the way in which your actions affected others. As parents, your leadership affects your children. Our thinking today is too much influenced by pop culture, like the song by the Kinks, which says, “It’s your life, And you can do what you want, Do what you like, But please don’t keep-a me waiting, Please don’t keep-a me waiting, ‘Cause I’m so tired, Tired of waiting, Tired of waiting for you.” So you have on the one hand the declaration that you can do whatever you want to with your life, but on the other hand another declaration of the impatience of waiting. In other words, we want what we want, and we want it now.

So be aware that when you are pursuing something like a job or where to live, or marriage, that we don’t read favorable circumstances as an indication of God’s will. As silly as it sounds, I know of several times when people interpreted a certain cloud formation as a sign from God, or a song they heard on the radio, or the sun came out from behind the clouds, and off they go to the races to do what they had already purposed in their mind to do, and were just looking for an excuse to do it. For example; getting approved for that loan may not be an indication of God’s will.

How do we avoid such mistakes? Simple; seek God’s word and then trust it. Paul’s word was as a prophet of God. And the centurion probably knew by experience that Paul’s word could be trusted as he had been with him in Caesarea for two years. But as Christians we are told we should lean not on our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct our paths.

Well, the fair south wind that signaled good weather for the ship didn’t last long, and a nor’easter sprang up which made making any headway practically impossible. I don’t know how many of you came down to the beach during the recent nor’easter we had a few weeks ago. But if you did you realized the tremendous power of those storms. They are every bit as dangerous as a hurricane, probably even more so in some cases because people aren’t expecting as much destruction as they can create. Ours lasted about 6 or 7 days if I remember correctly. The one in this story lasted 2 weeks. That is a tremendous storm, and quite a long time to be dealing with the effects of such a storm on a ship.

Notice that Luke says that they gave up trying to sail the ship into the wind and allowed the ship to be driven along by the wind. He says the same thing again in vs.17, that they let down the sea anchor after undergirding the ship with cables and let the ship be driven along. I may be stretching it a bit here, but I cannot help but see the connection to a wrong choice leading to a situation in which you are no longer in control, but the situation is controlling you. You find yourself caught up in this maelstrom of activity that is driving you. A good illustration is addiction. I think that people caught in addiction are driven by something, perhaps even demonic presence that is driving them, hurrying them to destruction, not heeding any warnings, actually unable to do anything to stop themselves. They may slow themselves down temporarily by dragging an anchor so to speak, but they are being moved inexorably to destruction.

But it may not be something as obvious as addiction to drugs or alcohol. Maybe it’s a decision you made in your career, and now you find yourself caught up in this rat race that is driving you and controlling you, and ultimately will destroy you either spiritually or physically. Or maybe it’s financial decisions which has obligated you and now controls you. We make such decisions thinking we are utilizing our prerogative for self control, self determination. And for a while we tell ourselves we have it under control. But sooner or later the situation which is not of God ends up controlling us.” Ephesians 2 tells us that Satan has designed the course of this world to control us, by getting us to indulge the desires of the mind and flesh. The course refers to a river bed that controls the swelling river, sweeping everything along in it’s path to a particular end. That is what Satan designed the things of this world to do, to sweep us along in the path of destruction.

I just heard yesterday of an acquaintance of mine that was tempted at work and then caught up in the snare of adultery, and now is suffering the destruction as the truth has become known to his family. Satan tries to convince us that we can make independent choices about our lives with impunity. But it’s a lie and a trap and a snare and often impossible to get out of once he gets you caught up in it.

Well, the storm went from bad to worse. The sun and stars could not be seen, and so the sailors lost track of exactly where they were. For two weeks it was unrelenting wind, waves and rain. Day after day, night after night it continued. One night a few years ago I was tracking a hurricane on NOAA which has buoys strategically placed along the Eastern Seaboard anywhere from 26 to 70 miles or so off shore. These buoys supply real time information regarding wind speed, wave height and so forth. And I’ll never forget seeing this one buoy reading off of Cape Hatteras late at night which was over 50 feet in height and just getting a mental picture in my mind of being out there in waves 5 stories tall in the blackness of the storm and breaking out in a cold sweat. I don’t know how big the waves were during this storm depicted in Acts, but we cannot imagine the fear and despair of being lifted up to these tremendous heights and then crashing down into the depths of the sea as they went over them, wondering every minute if they will make it over the next swell.

Well, you can imagine they couldn’t eat in those conditions. So when they had gotten to the point that they had no more hope of surviving the storm, Paul stands in their midst and addresses them. Now let’s not forget something. There were three Christians on board that ship as well. The centurion and the captain may have brought this on themselves by not heeding Paul’s advice, but God allowed Paul, Luke and Aristarchus to go through this storm with them. And even Paul I think had been terrified by this storm. Acts 27:21-26 Paul said, “Men, you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss. “Yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. “For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.’ “Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told. “But we must run aground on a certain island.”

Notice the words, “God has granted you…” That shows us that Paul had been praying. He may have been frightened, but he answered that fear with prayer. And God responded to his prayer. And when the angel of God spoke to Paul, he reminded him of God’s earlier promise to bring him before Caesar. That is where we find our comfort in the storm, ladies and gentlemen. First we know that we have God on our side. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” No matter where we are, no matter what time of night or day, we can pray to God and He hears us. I like the fact that the angel of God was able to appear before Paul in the middle of the night, on a ship in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of a raging nor’easter. The captain of the ship didn’t even know where they were, but the angel of the Lord had no trouble finding Paul. The longer I live the more convinced I am that our prayers are a mighty weapon that God has given us.

And furthermore the angel had said, “God has granted you all those who sail with you.” Paul had been praying that the sailors and soldiers accompanying him would be spared as well as that his own purpose would be accomplished on this trip. God heard his prayer and granted him their lives.

This incident is given to us in order to show us the tremendous power that a man of faith exercises. I wish I could get this across to you today. I have a feeling that none of us, myself included, has any idea of the amount of power God has committed to us through the instrument of prayer. He does such mighty things if we will but ask him. Remember that James 4:2 says, “You have not because you ask not.” God is able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think. One commentator said that the church is really the secret government of earth, and that it has power to affect the current events which happen around us. We sometimes feel that we are helpless, drifting through our lives, waiting to get to heaven some day. But the Scriptures never portray a Christian that way. He is intimately related to the events happening around him and through God is able to exert great control over them. This is why James also says, “The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (James 5:16). So God granted this one man, because of his prayer, the lives of the two hundred seventy-five individuals who sailed with him. They were spared because Paul prayed for them. I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in that. If God gave Paul 276 people, then maybe I can count on Him to give me a couple.

And of course the other principle that we should learn from this is that in life’s most difficult circumstances, we can rely on God’s promises. That is really the basis for our faith; the written promises of God. Not faith in our feelings, or faith in our wishes, or faith in the size of our faith, but faith in what God says. Let me remind you of what I spoke of last week. Faith is not just accepting intellectually certain facts or knowledge. Faith is trusting in that knowledge to the point of placing your complete weight upon them. Trusting your life to the facts of the gospel. That is faith. Paul trusted in the word of the Lord. He cast all his care upon the Lord.

Paul was exposed to the same peril as these other men, and yet God strengthened him with His word in the midst of the trial. God didn’t take him out of it. The storm was no less severe for Paul than it was for anyone else. The danger was just as evident, the waves were just as high, the darkness just as intense, the apparent hopelessness just as great. Everything was the same except that God granted to him a promise, a secret knowledge that the others did not possess. He didn’t lessen the trial but he gave an inward reassurance that enabled Paul to trust in God’s deliverance. This is the testimony of the Christian faith. It is a way for you to live and to act and react differently from those around you so as to bring glory to God.

As the story continues, it’s interesting to note that some of the sailors try to escape and Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, “Unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved.” I think that indicates that we if we are going to be delivered in these storms then we must commit wholeheartedly to deliverance by God. In other words, we cannot be relying on human wisdom or ingenuity, and at the same time expect God to take care of us if something goes wrong. That is not how God works. We are told to “cast all our care upon Him, for He cares for us.” To trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. Some of the men wanted to go this way, and some that way, but no, Paul said, unless you all commit to the Lord’s way, you cannot be saved.

It reminds me of a popular song a few years back which had a line which said, “I will do down with this ship, I won’t raise my hands in surrender. There will be no white flag upon my door…” James said in James 1:5-8 “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” If God said it, then we need to commit to it, to obey it, and come what may, stay with it. Go down with the ship if necessary believing in a God who can rescue you from the depths of the sea just as surely as he rescued Moses from the sea, or Noah from the sea, or even Jonah from the depths. I will go down with this ship. I won’t surrender my faith to human reason. The worst that can happen to me is that God will have to raise me from the dead.

Well, they do go down with the ship. On the fourteenth day, Paul encourages them to eat something so that they will regain some strength for what is coming. He took bread and broke it and gave thanks to God. There are some who see in that indications of Paul leading the ship in communion but I think it’s simply a picture here of salvation. Paul’s message from God is the basis for their faith. They have to believe Paul and totally commit and trust in his word. And through God’s word Paul promises that not a hair of their head will perish. Paul offering up thanks to God and breaking the bread is a picture of salvation. Jesus is the bread of life that was broken for us, offered up for us, that we might receive eternal life. And in that promise we have hope. So these men were given hope by the faith that Paul proclaimed in God.

And in yet another metaphor of salvation, they throw all the cargo overboard. They throw out their means of making a profit. Everything is committed at that point. They have abandoned all tackle, all extra weight, and even the cargo which was their sole means of making a living. You know, God wants us to surrender everything to him, not only at salvation, but everyday, in every circumstance choose to trust God rather than rely on human resources.

I’ve was looking at the original 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous the other day. And number 3 is “I will make a decision to turn my will and life over to the care of God.” That’s what it AA requires as part of it’s 12 steps to sobriety. Number one is to admit that you are powerless, out of control. Number 2 is to believe that only God can deliver you. And then 3, commit your life and will to the care of God. Total commitment. Full surrender. There was an attractive young mother who attended our Christmas party a couple of years ago who had two beautiful little girls there all dressed up in little dresses. I didn’t really know her at that point, but remember thinking how nice they looked. But I found out later this woman was a heroin addict, and a month or so after our party she abandoned her children to go after the drug again. I lost track of her not long after that. But just yesterday I saw a post she had put on facebook that a friend of mine commented on. And all she wrote was just three words in all caps; GOD I SURRENDER.   Listen, that’s what God requires for everyone, not just addicts. He wants you to surrender everything and trust Him.

Well, that’s exactly what God required in our story. The last thing these guys on board this ship had to throw overboard was themselves. They ran aground as they hit the reef outside the island and the ship began to break up. The soldiers were going to do their customary duty and kill all the prisoners because they were afraid they might escape and they would be held accountable. But the centurion by this point realizes that Paul is to be taken at his word and so he dismisses that order. So some grabbed onto planks and whatever would float, and others who could swim jumped in as well and headed for the beach and by a miracle of God all 276 persons made it safely to shore.

Listen, that is what God’s purpose is in bringing us through these storms and shipwrecks of life. To come to the point of complete dependence upon God. To cast your entire person upon the providence of God. Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” And then to teach us to wait for the Lord. To be patient, to wait for him and not run ahead with our plans. Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.” And Psalm 37:5 “Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

And finally to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, regardless of the situation we find ourselves in believing that He will answer us and hear us. Phil. 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I have been in many storms and even a few shipwrecks in my life. And I can vouch for the fact that your trust in God will not be ill founded. Cast yourself on the mercy of God and He will sustain you. He will never leave you, nor forsake you. And in that confidence brought about by being in the will of God we are able to pray effectively for one another, pray for our children, pray for the unsaved, and have hope in the promise that God will give us souls, that not one hair of their head will perish. Trust in the Lord, commit your way to Him, for this is the path not only to salvation, but our sanctification, and one day our glorification. So that we might sing the words of this old hymn,

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

we have already come;

‘Tis grace hath brought us safe thus far,

and grace will lead us home.

As you all are aware, yesterday was a major holiday that is celebrated in the United States. Halloween, or as it was once known, All Hallows Eve. Believe it or not, All Hallows Eve was originally a religious holiday. When I was a kid, we just thought of it as a time to dress up in costumes. It was pretty harmless. Unfortunately, today it seems to have gained an association with the dark side that I do not think is beneficial. I won’t go so far as to say that I think that Christians cannot participate in some way, but I would say that we need to be careful with the things with which we associate or in some cases, glorify.

However, how many of you are aware that there was another holiday yesterday as well? Any guesses as to the nature of that holiday? It was Reformation Day. It is celebrated as the day in 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses or objections to certain Roman Catholic practices and doctrine on the door of the church in Wittenberg. His act was credited with the start of the Protestant Reformation.

Luther’s theses began by criticizing the selling of indulgences, which were fees paid to elevate one’s loved one through stages of purgatory. Luther declared that the Pope had no authority over purgatory and that the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the gospel. As the Reformation gathered steam though, the protestant position would eventually incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura and sola fide; or by scripture alone, and by faith alone.

And it’s important to realize that Reformers made further distinctions when they spoke about faith. They spoke about faith as composed of three elements: in Latin; notitia, assensus, and fiducia. Notitia means the content of faith, or those things that we believe. We place our faith in something, or more appropriately, someone. In order to believe, we must know something about that someone, who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Assensus is our conviction that the content of our faith is true. You can know about the Christian faith and yet not believe it to be true. Genuine faith says that the content — the notitia taught by Scripture — is true.

Fiducia refers to personal trust and obedience. Knowing and believing the content of the Christian faith is not enough, for even demons can do that (James 2:19). Faith is only effectual if, knowing about and assenting to the claims of Jesus, one personally trusts in Him alone for salvation. So in order for a man to have true saving faith, he must have all three; knowledge, assent, and trust.

Today we are looking at a man that had a certain degree of faith; primarily knowledge and a degree of assent, but he was lacking the crucial element of trust. Paul himself said that King Herod Agrippa was an expert in all customs and theological questions of Judaism. Paul said in vs.27 that he knew that King Agrippa believed the prophets. That was a reference to the prophetical books of the Old Testament who wrote concerning the Messiah. So he knew the scriptures and he also had a position as king that gave him the authority to ordain who would be high priest in Jerusalem. So we can fairly assume he assented to the facts of the Jewish religion concerning God as the scripture indicated. And yet we can also fairly assume from his answer in vs. 28 that Agrippa did not have saving faith. He said in vs. 28; “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.” A better possible translation of his answer is “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” He is not a picture of someone who is on the cusp of becoming a Christian, but of someone who is backing away from the possibility. But irregardless of how you translate it, by his own words he admits he is not saved. Almost persuaded, but lost.

And I am afraid that there are many people sitting in evangelical churches like that today. People who have a certain knowledge about the gospel, and have given a degree of assent to the gospel, but they have not trusted the gospel by submission of their lives to Christ’s rule, and therefore they are not actually saved. As I said last Wednesday evening at Bible study, trust is stepping out on the bridge of faith, believing that it will support you. Not just seeing a bridge and thinking that it would probably hold you, but walking out on it. That’s trust.

Just this week, I was reminded of some people that have been in our church at one time or another, but no longer attend regularly. And I found myself questioning, wondering if somehow I had failed to explain the gospel thoroughly enough. Because from my perspective, I have to wonder if some of those people that came regularly for weeks, or months or even years are truly saved. There is very little evidence today to suggest that some of them ever came to a saving knowledge of Christ. And yet I feel that I preach salvation so explicitly and continuously so as to sometimes be offensive and even so people manage to come to church for a while, nod appreciatively from time to time, and then fade away without ever apparently coming to Christ. They may take away enough knowledge about Christianity to feel educated, but never transformed by the truth of the gospel. And that is a tragedy.

And so I want to use this text today to speak to the nature of true Christianity. I want to cause each of you to really examine yourself. If necessary, I want to make you uncomfortable and start asking questions that you really need to be able to answer. And I do all this in hope that perhaps somehow God will open the eyes of the blind. And just let me add this; I was listening to an online seminary lecture the other day and the professor was saying the same thing that I am saying now, but to seminary students. Men that already should have been saved. Men that claimed to be called by God into the ministry. He was urging them to consider the source of their salvation, to make sure of their calling and election. He talked about an occasion when he presented that lecture to seminary students in the past and had someone approach him later and give their heart to God. So please understand something; even preachers, pastors, priests can be unsaved. It’s possible to be very religious, to be a really nice person, to be absolutely sincere, and be lost. Don’t rely on the fact that you have been in church all your life. Don’t rely upon some ritual like baptism or church membership. Don’t rely on some experience that you had in a time of crisis. You need to understand what it means to trust in God. You must be born again into new life in Christ.

Now that is my introduction and much of our time has already gone. I do not plan on exegeting the text today. It is a story, and we read the story. I’m sure you are able to follow a story without me retelling it. But what I do want to do is in light of the text examine what is in fact a Christian. What constitutes salvation? And then I want to look at three examples of why people do not become Christians.

First of all, what constitutes becoming a Christian? Well, the outline to the answer to that question is found in vs.18. Five points to Paul’s message of salvation. Acts 26:18 “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” This is the message that Christ gave the apostle to preach to the Jews and Gentiles. This is the whole message of the gospel.

So first of all, there is the need to open the eyes of the blind. There is a need for eye opening truth. Not just knowledge, but truth. It’s possible to be puffed up in knowledge and yet somehow escape knowing the truth. Paul as a Pharisee before conversion had great knowledge of the scriptures and the traditions of Judaism. He studied under Rabbi Gamaliel. That’s was equivalent to having a divinity degree from Yale. Yet Paul equates it with being blind. In fact, God also equated it with blindness, by striking Paul blind on the road to Damascus. A blinding light came down out of heaven as Paul was traveling to persecute Christians and a voice called out to him, “Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting Me?” And Paul had to ask “Who are you Lord?” Paul was so blind that he did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah and was in fact persecuting Him.

This is the primary reason for the people I spoke about earlier that sit in church for extended periods of time, sometimes even years, and yet go away unsaved. They have not had their eyes opened. Paul said in Corinthians that is because the devil has blinded their eyes. 2Cor. 4:3 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

So the first thing you need your eyes opened to is the truth of the gospel. You need to see it as the truth of God which is essential to life. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.” When Peter confessed that Jesus was the Son of God in Matt. 16, Jesus said, “because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” So it is a miracle of grace by which God opens the eyes of the blind to see the truth.

Secondly it means that you have your eyes opened as to your sinful condition, the repugnancy of your sin, and that it is an affront to God and separates you from God. It means that God shines a light on your sin, through the preaching of the word of God, that causes you to recognize your sinful condition and how desperately you need a Savior. That is the light of the gospel. That God saw man in his depravity and hopelessness and so He provided the means for man’s salvation by the substitution of Jesus Christ, who paid for man’s sin with His blood on the cross that we might be saved. According to John 16:8, the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” So the Holy Spirit convicts the blind of their sinfulness and need of a Savior.

The second fact of being a Christian according to Paul’s message in vs. 18 is that they have turned from darkness unto light.” If you look down at vs. 20, you will see that Paul summarizes his message by saying, “that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.” Notice that Paul equates repentance as turning. That is what repentance is; turning away from sin. Turning away from deeds of darkness to the light. In the Greek the word translated repentance is metanoia, which means a change of mind. Repentance is described by F.F. Bruce this way, “”Repentance involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness.”

Notice what Bruce says; repentance is the condition needed to accept forgiveness. It is the plow that breaks up the hard stony ground so that it may receive the seed of new life. Where there is no repentance, no turning away from sin, no contrition, then there is no forgiveness. This I think is very often the culprit with those people that tend to fall away from the church. I have to wonder if they have attempted to establish some sort of relationship to God based as a result of finding themselves in a predicament or crisis at some point in their life. Maybe there was a time when they cried out to God to help them, and maybe God in His compassion did help them. But they failed to understand what Romans 2:4 says, “that the kindness of God leads you to repentance.” So then when the crisis is past, their emotions respond to some new stimuli, and their relationship with God grows cold because they never truly turned away from sin to God and received forgiveness of their sins and a new life in Christ. 1Peter 2:9 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

See, that new life in Christ is the third aspect of Christianity according to Paul. To be transferred from the kingdom of dominion of Satan to the kingdom of God. Now that simply means that you are a citizen of a new King. You live by a new creed, you follow a new constitution. You are no longer ruled by the old passions, no longer ruled by the lusts of the flesh, but you are ruled by the Sovereign of the Universe, the Lord Jehovah, the Almighty God. Instead of being enslaved to sin, you become a servant of the Most High. As Christians we have been called out of the world to live godly lives for the glory of Christ. This is often the most telling evidence of a lack of true salvation. This is where we not only believe, but we trust and obey, forsaking all that was before, and following after that which is new.

As Col. 1:13-14 declares; “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” That brings us to the fourth point of Paul’s message; “that they might receive the forgiveness of sins.” Now forgiveness of sins is first of all purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. That is what makes it possible. God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now that act of God predicates our forgiveness. But how forgiveness is made efficacious for us is by repentance. Listen to what Peter had to say in two different sermons regarding that principle. In Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Listen to that – how do you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? Through forgiveness of your sins. The Holy Spirit cannot indwell you until you become holy. And if you don’t have the Holy Spirit then you cannot live holy lives, because He is the strength that God gives us to enable us to live holy lives. Listen, the Holy Spirit is not a feeling or a force field to be experienced. I sometimes hear people talk about feeling the Holy Spirit, that the air was thick with His presence or some such nonsense. As if He is a force to be felt and then you can move in or out of that place. The Holy Spirit is a person who dwells in you, He is the Spirit of Christ who lives in you, if you have been born again by the Spirit, and have been made holy by the transference of your sins to Christ and His righteousness to you.

Peter says again in Acts 3:19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” That’s the new life found in Christ, a new spirit, a new heart, a new life. And all of that comes from forgiveness, which comes from confession and repentance. 1John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Fifthly, Paul says the last affect of being a Christian is receiving an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Christ. Now there is so much in that phrase that I cannot possibly address all of it in this message. But suffice it to say that our inheritance is in heaven. We are promised a citizenship in heaven, reserved for us, when we will receive the reward. Now we received a deposit of that inheritance now – that is the Holy Spirit who has already given us new life, even eternal life. But at the resurrection we will receive the full inheritance. We will be changed into His likeness. We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. Furthermore we will rule and reign with Christ. The church is the bride of Christ, and we will be seated at His right hand as co –inheritors with Him. Pretty amazing stuff.

But there is a practical, earthly application to this as well. We are sanctified, Paul says, by faith. There are two aspects of sanctification. One is positional. We have been set apart at the moment of salvation- our sanctification- which means we have been made holy. But we are also to be holy even as He is holy, that is, sanctified practically by walking in the Spirit, not according to the flesh, so that we might become conformed to the image of Christ. 2Cor. 5:7, 9 “for we walk by faith, not by sight—“ and then vs. 9, “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” And so we walk to please Him in all that we do, knowing that our inheritance includes receiving a reward when we see Him, as described in vs.10; [2Cor. 5:10] “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Now that is the message Paul received from Jesus directly as a result of His conversion. And he summarizes what our response to that message should be in vs. 20, that they should repent and turn to God, and do the deeds appropriate to repentance. Now that is the response that is necessary for the gospel to be efficacious for you. You can hear that message and agree to it on an intellectual basis. You can acknowledge that it is true. But to be saved you must trust and obey that message. Repent, turn away from your sins, turn to Christ, and do the deeds of repentance. When you respond in that manner, then you are saved according to the gospel, and then there will be no uncertainty as to your salvation. The problem is that this message is rarely preached in most ecclesiastical circles today. But don’t be deceived, this is the gospel, and the gospel hinges on repentance.

Now as Paul wraps up his message, there are people who responded as recorded in the text. The first is that of Festus. Vs. 24, Festus says in a loud voice, ““Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you mad.” Festus leaves little to the imagination as to his thoughts about the gospel. He says it’s lunacy. He recognizes that Paul is a greatly educated man, but he thinks that he has gone crazy in his learning. He has become a fanatic. And the fact that Luke emphasizes that Festus speaks loudly indicates that there must have been a measure of mockery in his response.

The second response is that of King Agrippa. Paul knows that Agrippa is familiar with the story of the gospel. He knows that the King is familiar with the prophecies of the Old Testament. And so Paul says to him, Acts 26:26-27 “For the king knows about these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you do.”

And suddenly King Agrippa is put on the spot. It was one thing to listen to Paul speak. It may have thought it a certain measure of entertainment to hear him. He may have been curious about the gospel. But now suddenly the spotlight is upon himself and he is decidedly uncomfortable. He wants to dodge the question. He wants to avoid the light of the gospel. It’s getting much too hot. And so he says in an offhand or even sarcastic way, “Do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian so quickly?”

And Paul’s response is that he does indeed wish to persuade all of them of the necessity of becoming a Christian. But let’s consider for a moment what stopped Agrippa short of salvation. Why did he almost become a Christian and yet turn away from the gospel in the end? Well there are three possible answers to that question, and they are illustrated by three people that were there that day.

The first stumbling block could have been the person sitting next to him – Bernice. She was his sinful, immoral companion. She was actually his sister and he was reported to be living in an incestuous relationship with her. He probably correctly realized that becoming a Christian would mean losing her and his other immoral friends. He was unwilling to make that sacrifice! How many men and women come short of the kingdom of God because they love someone more than they must love God. Adam chose to love Eve rather than obey God and he forfeited all that God had prepared for him. I know more men that have fallen because of a woman than I can even count. Jesus said in Matt. 10:37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. That is why it is so important that men especially be the spiritual leader in their homes. Our allegiance must be to God above all else.

Then on the other side of Agrippa sat Festus, the governor. A colleague, a friend, a person of consequence. And someone who thought Paul was crazy. Perhaps Agrippa thought, “I can’t become a Christian! Festus will think I’m crazy too!” And because he wanted the praise of men, he rejected Jesus.

And in front of Agrippa is Paul – a man Voltaire the famous 18^th century philosopher called an ugly little Jew. Paul, a man despised by his contemporaries. A man with the reputation of a trouble maker. No body seemed to like Paul. And furthermore, he was a prisoner. The fact that he was innocent of any crime may not have mattered. Agrippa just sees a man in chains. So Agrippa might possibly say, “Well, if I became a Christian, I might end up in chains like Paul!” Or at least he thought I don’t want to associate with him! He will hurt my reputation. If I want to stay popular then I can’t be associated with people like that.

Spurgeon said, “O that men were wise enough to see that suffering for Christ is honor, that loss for truth is gain, that the truest dignity rests in wearing the chain upon the arm rather than endure the chain upon the soul.”

Well, unfortunately, King Agrippa’s only real legacy to the world was this tragic statement, made famous in the KJV; “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” Such a sad and tragic statement. To have come so close and yet still be so far, and to die without receiving the gift of salvation. King Agrippa’s famous words were the basis for a hymn written years ago which I quoted from last week. And I would remind us of them again this week as we consider the author of those words.

“Almost persuaded” now to believe;“Almost persuaded” Christ to receive; Seems now some soul to say, “Go, Spirit, go Thy way, Some more convenient day on Thee I’ll call.”

Almost persuaded,” harvest is past! “Almost persuaded,” doom comes at last; “Almost” cannot avail; “Almost” is but to fail! Sad, sad that bitter wail— “Almost—but lost!”

I pray that is not a statement that is true of anyone here today. The gospel message is so clear, so simple; repent, turn to God, and do the deeds appropriate to repentance. Forgiveness has already been purchased and is waiting for you to trust and obey.

Be now persuaded, oh, sinner, hear! Be now persuaded, Jesus is near; His voice is pleading still, Turn now with heart and will, Peace will your spirit fill—Oh, turn today!

I don’t know about you, but I think a lot of people have a problem with procrastination. Putting things off. Speaking for myself, it’s one of the few things I am really very good at. I put the “pro” in procrastination. I’ve been working on renovating my bathroom for almost a year now. Maybe longer. I try not to think about it. It makes me feel guilty. I just tell my wife that God is using me to teach her patience. My latest excuse is that I’m waiting for winter when I will need something to do indoors.

But the truth is, I’m just a sorry procrastinator. And while procrastinating on finishing my bathroom renovations may cause some irritation for my wife, there are other things which if we procrastinate in can really get us in trouble. Things like filling up your gas tank (Randy), or filing your taxes, or paying a speeding ticket. Some things you don’t want to procrastinate about.

I heard a fictional story about the devil and a group of his demons who got together to try to figure out some way by which they could deceive as many people as possible, and win the spiritual warfare against God. So Satan said that he would like for someone to volunteer to go to earth and to seek to win the victory for his kingdom. And one of the demons raised his hand to volunteer and the devil said, “Well, what are you going to do?” He said, “Well, I’m going to go to earth and convince them there is no God.” And the devil said, “That won’t work because the glory of God’s creation will convict men that there must be a God.” Another one raised his hand and said, “I will go to earth and convince them that there is no heaven.” And the devil said, “That’s not really a good idea either because God has planted eternity in the hearts of men so that they will hope for heaven.” A few other excuses were offered and summarily rejected and finally one demon then raised his hand, and he said, “I’d like to go.” And the devil said, “Well, what are you going to do?” The demon said, “Well, when I go down to earth, I’m simply going to tell them that there is no hurry.” And the devil said, “That will work! You’ve got the job.” That is the essence of procrastination. That there is no hurry. It’s not that urgent. There is always tomorrow. It’s a strategy that has slain thousands and thousands of people for all of eternity.

Today we are introduced to a man that is a great example of someone that procrastinated and lost out on his greatest opportunity. That man is Felix, a Roman governor to whom Paul has been sent to be tried. This man was quite a sordid character. His name however meant happy. That’s another classic strategy of the devil by the way. The world calling something freedom which ends up trapping you. Calling something fun which kills you. Calling something true which is a lie. Be wary of the devil’s schemes. Anyhow, Felix had been a slave at one point, but his brother’s political connections with the emperor of Rome had resulted in being set free and given political appointments which eventually landed him the job as Pontius Pilate’s replacement as the governor of Judea. He was married to a beautiful Jewish woman named Drusilla who was the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I. Her father murdered the Apostle James. Her great uncle, Herod Antipas, slew John the Baptist. And her great grandfather, Herod the Great, killed all the babes in Jerusalem under 2 years old. She had been married to another king in Syria when she was 15 years old, but Felix seduced her and made her his wife. And Felix had already been married twice before her.

Now Felix as Roman governor is the acting judge of Paul’s case. Paul has been sent to Felix by the Roman commander Lysias in Jerusalem in order to keep Paul from being assassinated by the Jewish leaders. So our story picks up in chapter 24 with Paul’s accusers coming to make their accusations to Felix. It’s interesting to me that the chief priests and members of the Sanhedrin have come on short notice to make their case about Paul, and they hired a Roman lawyer named Tertullus to represent them.   They had their own lawyers, but they hire a Roman lawyer to present their case to a Roman judge. It proves once again my point I made last week concerning the ancient proverb, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Over and over again we see the Jewish religious leaders conspiring with their enemies, the Romans, in order to kill Christians. False religion and politics make strange bedfellows, but it’s something we see presented over and over again.

So Tertullus starts out by flattering Felix in an obvious attempt to butter him up. This illustrates another aspect of false religion. Flattery is associated with false teachers. They tell you what you want to hear in order to take advantage of you. Jude 1:16 says “These [false teachers] are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.” And so we will see that this same man that flattered so effortlessly also lies just as effortlessly. He brings false charges against Paul.

The first charge he brings against Paul is that of sedition. He says, “we have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world.” The second charge is that of heresy; “a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.” And the third charge was profaning the temple; “he even tried to desecrate the temple.” Now that third charge is interesting in light of the unrest in Israel right now. Just because of an unfounded rumor that Israel is going to try to take over the temple mount the Palestinians have been attacking Jews by dozens of stabbings over the last week or so and the whole region is close to erupting in war. So the temple has always been a subject of tension, and no less so than in the days of Paul. And it was obvious that Felix would understand this being the governor of Judea.

Now I don’t want to belabor the judicial proceedings here. I want to move on to the latter part of the text and talk about Felix’s response to the gospel. But let me summarize quickly what Paul’s defense was, because it left the Jewish leaders and their Roman lawyer speechless, from what we can tell in the text.

First of all, Paul does not lower himself to flattery. Paul is not some servile, fawning servant of the court. Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ. I love the quote by Charles Spurgeon who said, “if God has called you to be a minister, do not stoop to be a king.” Paul is polite, even courteous as is expected behavior to a judge and especially to a governor. And Paul says what is true and probably the only good thing that can be said of Felix, which is that he had been governor a long time. That was a good thing for Paul, because it meant that Felix had to be familiar with Judaism, had to have some knowledge of Christianity, and would be familiar with Jewish history to some degree.

Then Paul said it had been only twelve days since he arrived in the city of Jerusalem and obviously some of those days have been spent out of Jerusalem in Caesarea. It’s apparent the apostle didn’t have time to raise sedition against the Roman Empire. So the apostle simply pleads there is insufficient time for this charge of sedition. There was no evidence for sedition.

The second thing that he responds to is the charge of heresy. And in verse 14, he says, “But this I admit to you, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets and have hope toward God.” So he points to his worshipping the God of their fathers. He points to his beliefs, his conduct. He says, “I believe all that is written in the law and the prophets; having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.” So he says they believe in the same God and trust the same scriptures. And then I love the fact that he throws in there again the statement which cost him getting punched in the face before: I have a clear conscience before God and man.

Boy, I think if the majority of Christians could say that then there would be a different perception by the world in regards to Christianity, would there not? The biggest complaint by the world is that the church is full of hypocrites. People who claim one way and live another way. Paul would tell the church later in one of his epistles, “be imitators of me.” Can we say that as well? Can we say that to our kids, to our wives, husbands, co workers? Imitate me, because I imitate Christ. Well, that should be our goal. We are to be holy and blameless even as He is holy. We are to live godly lives so that we do not bring reproach upon the name of Christ.

The third charge was that of desecrating the temple. And this is the one that had started the riot to begin with which caused Paul to be arrested. So Paul carefully details how he purified himself in accordance with temple laws, how he came to bring alms to his nation, how he brought sacrificial offerings, and that at no time did he instigate a riot or uproar. But the Jews from Asia who had caused the riot were not there at this hearing, and if they had charges to that affect they should have been present to make them. He went on to say that the only thing he had done was to cry out “For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today.”

So in effect, Paul showed that the charges against him were bogus, they were without warrant, they had no witnesses of any crime. And I believe that his argument fully convinced the judge because the text says that Felix had a more accurate knowledge about The Way. He knew that what Paul believed did not constitute a criminal act. But Felix was not an honorable judge. He was looking at the situation and trying to figure out how he could profit from it. And so he put them off, and said he would wait until Lysias the commander came before making a decision. This was obviously a delaying ploy because Luke said in the last chapter that Lysias had written a detailed letter saying that Paul had done nothing wrong, but their disputes were solely about their religion. So this is the first time we see Felix postponing, procrastinating making a decision, in hopes of making some money off of the deal.

Then Felix orders that Paul be kept in custody, and yet given a certain amount of freedom so that his friends can minister to him. Now that was a unique situation. It’s interesting that God would allow Paul to languish in this sort of relaxed house arrest for two years under the remainder of Felix’s reign. From a human perspective, this must have been the most unproductive time of Paul’s life. Certainly this was a mistake for God to leave this great man in prison when he could have been establishing churches on foreign lands, and preaching to people all around the world. And yet we must believe that in the sovereignty of God this was His plan for Paul, even though God’s purposes were not clear to us.

I have counseled people who are dealing with all sorts of issues in life, from marriage issues to drug addiction, and one constant element that I have to address is the matter of time, of waiting, of dealing with what seems like delays. Time is one of the primary means by which God proves or tests a man or a woman. I do not mean he tests you to see what you will do. But what “ to prove” means is God uses time to sort you out, to refine you, to change you, to enable you to know Him more fully, more intimately. To come to depend solely and fully upon God. And unfortunately, many people fail that test by trying to circumvent it. Young people especially are often in such a rush that they spoil God’s plan. But God uses time to refine us, like a vineyard uses time to refine fine wine.

Dr. F. B. Meyer has written these words: “So often we mistake God, and interpret his delays as denials. What a chapter might be written of God’s delays. It is the mystery of the art of educating human spirits to the finest temper of which they are capable. What searchings of heart, what analyzings of motives, what testings of the Word of God, what upliftings of the soul, ‘searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of God signified.’ All these are associated with these weary days of waiting which are, nevertheless, big with spiritual destiny. But such delays are not God’s final answer to the soul that trusts him.”

We aren’t privy to all that God did in Paul’s life during these two years. But we can be certain that it was not wasted time. The years the field lies fallow produces a better crop in the future. We do know that his letters to the Ephesians, the Colossians, the Philippians, were all written after this. And in Philippians there is a passage which I think grew out of this situation. In the fourth chapter the apostle says, “Not that I complain of want; for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13) Undoubtedly, Paul proved this truth while in Caesarea these two years.

One thing we are told concerning this time Paul spent in prison is the procrastination of Felix to the offer of the gospel. It’s interesting to see the contrast between Paul and Felix. Paul has to wait for two years. God uses the time to refine him. It is not wasted time, it’s time invested. But Felix procrastinates for two years. He wastes time. He hears the gospel from one of it’s greatest teachers for 2 years and yet he wastes that opportunity. His procrastination costs him the greatest opportunity of his lifetime.

Well, it says that a few days after putting Paul under house arrest, Felix’s wife Drusilla comes to see Felix, and so he brings Paul out to speak to them together, to hear more about Christianity. I think the text indicates there is a real interest on Felix’s part to learn about faith in Christ. It was said about this Way that it was turning the world upside down. And we can see from Felix’s response that Paul’s message really shook him up.

But let me say something first about what Paul had to say. A lot of people would have looked at this situation as an opportunity to restate your innocence and try to use this private audience to get released from prison. After all, there is a lot more that you could do for the Lord out of prison, or so it would seem. But Paul does not attempt to do that. Or some people might have been more noble and said I will use this as an opportunity to get to know Felix and Drusilla. Make friends with them, relate to them, and maybe if they see how nice I am and what a regular guy I am, then I will be able to introduce them to the gospel later. But Paul doesn’t do that either. Paul uses the opportunity to go right to the basic doctrines of the gospel; righteousness, self control, and the judgment to come. Not exactly how to win friends and influence people. But exactly what was necessary.

You see, Paul had no illusions of the luxury of time. He understood the urgency of the gospel. He knew he was going to eventually go to Rome because the Lord told him. But he didn’t know when or how. All he knew was that right then he had the opportunity to preach the gospel to the governor and his wife and probably a palace full of court attendants. And so Paul preached hellfire and damnation. Not much “just have a relationship with Jesus” in that message. Because Paul knew that unrighteousness cannot have a relationship with God.

So he preached on righteousness. What is that? That is the standard of God. It’s the law of God. The law that condemns us to death. The standard of God’s righteousness that we can never measure up to. He preached on the righteousness which is counted to the believer on the basis of faith. The faith of Abraham which was counted unto him as righteousness. He preached on 2Cor. 5:21 which says, “[God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” He preached that Jesus died on the cross taking our sins upon Him, so that His righteousness could be transferred to us.

And then it says he preached on self control. Wow! I like that. Don’t hear a lot of messages today on self control, do we? What is that mean? I think he is talking about sanctification. “The sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14. And probably threw in a couple for Felix and Drusilla’s benefit about immorality such as 1Thess. 4:3-4 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.” Bet that went over well. And then to wrap up sanctification he probably closed with Rom. 6:22 “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”

And then Paul wraps up his message with a section on the judgment to come. And maybe Paul quoted Jesus Himself on this one, perhaps Luke 12:2-5 “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. “Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops. “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”

Well, after Paul’s message it says Felix trembled in fear. He became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.” This was the second time Felix procrastinated. This time he was under conviction. The Holy Spirit obviously shook him up. But Felix says I’m going to wait to a more convenient day.

You know, when a man refuses the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and rejects it, having received the ministry of the Holy Spirit that leads to trembling, when he begins to turn away from it, another thing begins to work in his heart; and that is his heart becomes hardened. And it becomes more and more difficult for an individual who has once received the conviction of the Holy Spirit and rejected it to turn to the Lord.

Not only does he make the tragic mistake of rejecting the Holy Spirit, but his greed springs up and sees this as an opportunity to maybe make some money off of Paul. Perhaps he thinks that the churches will offer to buy his freedom. So he brings Paul out from time to time to hear him more, but the Holy Spirit’s conviction fades away with each rejection until he no longer feels fearful. He no longer feels the trembling in his soul. He imagines that he has a more convenient day still in his future.   And little does he know that he will never get that opportunity again. They say that the same fire that melts wax hardens clay. It is a dangerous thing to reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Listen, today is the accepted day of salvation. If you hear this call today, if the Holy Spirit is convicting you today, then it is not too late. Simply call on the name of the Lord in repentance and faith and you will be saved from the wrath to come. We used to sing this old hymn when I was a boy called “Almost Persuaded.” I will close with a couple of verses from that hymn and then we will pray. I hope that you will not wait another day. There is no more convenient day. Today is the acceptable day.

“Almost persuaded” now to believe;“Almost persuaded” Christ to receive; Seems now some soul to say,“Go, Spirit, go Thy way, Some more convenient day on Thee I’ll call.”

Almost persuaded,” harvest is past! “Almost persuaded,” doom comes at last; “Almost” cannot avail;“Almost” is but to fail! Sad, sad that bitter wail—“Almost—but lost!”

Be now persuaded, oh, sinner, hear! Be now persuaded, Jesus is near; His voice is pleading still,Turn now with heart and will, Peace will your spirit fill—Oh, turn today!

For the sake of context, let me remind you of the circumstances which have occurred prior to this chapter. Paul had arrived in Jerusalem, and gone to great extremes to try to make sure he did not offend the Jews, even to the point of helping certain Jewish men consummate their Nazarite vows, which Paul may have participated in as well which included purifying himself, shaving his head and making a sacrifices in the temple. But certain Jews from Asia had come as well and having seen a certain Greek man in the city with Paul assumed that he had brought him and other Gentiles into the temple and defiled it. Or if they did not assume that, they used it as a pretext to accuse Paul of a great crime against the temple. So the whole city ends up in a riot in which Paul was being mobbed literally to death.

Someone ran to the Roman garrison and told the commander there was a riot occurring at the temple mount, so he took a group of soldiers and rushed to the temple area and took Paul prisoner. Unable to find out why the riot had started or what Paul had done he took him away to question him, and when Paul spoke to him in the Greek language the commander was surprised to find that Paul was not some Egyptian terrorist leader that he had thought him to be. So Paul asked before he went into the barracks if he could speak to the people. And the commander agreed. Paul saw it as an opportunity to preach to the Jews at Jerusalem. The whole city was gathered there and became dead silent when he began to speak to them in Hebrew.

So Paul started out by giving his testimony. He told how he had been one of them, even a leader of the Jewish religion, a Pharisee taught under the famed rabbi Gamaliel. He told them how he was on the road to Damascus to persecute the Christians when a voice from heaven called out to him and a bright light blinded him. He told how it was Jesus Christ, who they had put to death. He told how he was saved by faith in Christ and was baptized. Now the Jews listen quietly to him of all that he had to say up to the point where he said that Christ had told him to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And at that point they burst into another riot. Once again the commander of the Roman soldiers had to intervene and take Paul away in order to prevent him from coming to harm.

The commander still didn’t know what all the ruckus was about. So at first the commander thought he would just start to scourge Paul until he confessed whatever crime he was guilty of. But when Paul told him he was a Roman citizen and it was not lawful to scourge an uncondemned man, then he ordered for the chief priests and the Council to assemble so that he could find out what they had against him.

Now then our text today picks it up at that point. Paul is brought before the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews made up of 70 leaders, plus the high priest.   Now I have entitled today’s message “The Gospel on Trial.” If you look at our website, you will notice that a large portion of my messages in Acts have been about some effect of the gospel. In Defense of the Gospel, Bound for the Sake of the Gospel, The Power of the Gospel, and many more if you care to look. Following that pattern, today is the Gospel on Trial. And for the sake of breaking down this chapter into sections, I have made an outline as follows; the Council, the Commendation, and the Conspiracy. We are going to start of course with the Council.

As I said, the Council is hurriedly called to the commander’s headquarters for a hearing, a makeshift trial of the Apostle Paul. It’s interesting that Paul’s accusers are the leaders of what is really the church of God which had become apostate. Judaism was the national religion of Israel. The Jews were allowed a certain degree of self rule under Rome’s authority. So on the one side you have 71 of the most esteemed leaders of Judaism, on the other side you have the Apostle Paul, and acting as the judge and jury is the Roman commander, who would have been in charge of 10 centurions and 1000 Roman soldiers. He was the face of the martial law Rome imposed on it’s territories such as Israel, who were allowed a certain degree of self rule, but they were superintended by the Roman government who settled any problems that the Jews were not able to deal with, or had not been given authority to handle. So it is a trial of sorts, and Paul is defending himself against what amounts to 71 lawyers, with a biased judge sitting on the seat of judgment who has the power to condemn Paul to death if he desires.

And it’s interesting that Paul is given the floor first. I’m not an authority about judicial proceedings, but I believe it is customary to announce the charges, or to bring charges against a person before you hear from the defense. But in this case it is as if it’s a foregone conclusion that Paul must be guilty of some grievous crime, and though they do not know what it is, they will give Paul the floor in order to try to establish his innocence. It is a reversal of proper procedure. He is guilty and has to prove his innocence. We are going to see in the next few chapters that they never do come to a point of having anything to formally charge Paul with. They will set him before kings in order to try to find something to accuse him of, and eventually even send him to Caesar, but they will never have a criminal charge against him.

Paul’s situation is very similar to that of Christ. Wrongfully accused, wrongfully arrested, beaten without being found guilty, tried in kangaroo court and the Roman judge repeatedly says I find no fault in this man, and yet the Jews cry out for His blood. And finally Pilate goes along with them and orders Christ’s execution. It will be a couple of years before Paul is executed, but there are many parallels in his ordeal to Christ’s. Paul would write the Philippians later and say, in Phil. 3:10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” He would indeed know the fellowship of His sufferings. And I would suggest that as believers, we too must share in the fellowship of His sufferings if we are going to share in His glory, even as Hebrews 2 makes clear. We may not be thrown in prison, but to some extent we will learn obedience from the things which we suffer, if we are truly followers of Christ. Suffering is the means by which God sanctifies His people. Heb. 12:6 “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”

Perhaps Paul realized the irony of these events as he looked intently at the Council gathered together before him. He used to be a part of the Sanhedrin, though 20 years earlier. Now he looks intently at them, and says earnestly to them, “Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.” Notice he calls them brethren, acknowledging that he was one of them. And another point that should be noticed is the word translated “lived” technically should be translated “lived as a citizen,” or “conducted myself as a citizen.” Now that’s important, because he is not talking about achieving spiritual perfection here, but about being a model citizen of the nation of Israel. He had broken no laws. That is what he had originally been accused of. And so Paul defends his actions. He says he has a clear conscience before God.

And in response the high priest orders him to be struck in the mouth. The word there is a stronger word than a slap. It means to beat someone.

Now there are a lot of Monday morning quarterbacks out there that seem to love to take this instance as well as some other things that Paul did during this time and say that Paul sinned. That he loses his temper. Some say that his whole desire to go to Jerusalem was a prideful, egotistical thing which caused him to be unnecessarily arrested. But I do not happen to agree with the critics of Paul, even though many of them are men that I have great respect for.   I tend to think that unless specifically indicated by scripture that Paul was in error, we should give him the benefit of the doubt.

But specifically, most of them find fault with Paul’s response to getting punched in the mouth. Perhaps that’s because they haven’t been punched in the mouth themselves, and that makes them a little less compassionate towards those that are. Have you ever noticed that? Have you ever noticed how people who haven’t ever had a particular problem tend to be less compassionate towards those that have a problem such as alcoholism or drug addiction or things like that? It’s easy to become judgmental and look down on those caught up in such a thing as having somehow been more deserving, that they must have brought it upon themselves. But I would remind you that we are all sinners. And the sins of some men go before them, and the sins of others follow after. But we are all sinners. And sooner or later, your sins will find you out.

But I want to defend Paul’s answer and response as not being sinful. He says in vs. 3 in response to getting punched in the mouth, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to try me according to the Law, and in violation of the Law order me to be struck?” Now a lot of Bible scholars say that Paul lost his temper here. But I would remind you that this is supposed to be a court of law. Paul is acting as his own lawyer. And I think that he has every right to yell, “Objection!” I think he has every right to be angry. We don’t know if he was angry or not, but I can assure you that I would be angry if I got punched in the mouth for no reason whatsoever.

But for Paul’s innocence I will appeal to the example of Jesus who entered into the temple on two separate occasions and made a whip of cords, and kicked over the money changers tables and drove out of the temple the scoundrels that were soaking the poor people who came to make sacrifices. I would have to say that Jesus was a little bit angry. When you start kicking over tables and chairs and beating people with whips I think it’s safe to say that you’re angry. So Jesus got angry. He had a righteous anger. He said the zeal for My Father’s house has consumed Me. I think there is a place for anger. Eph. 4:26 says, “Be angry and sin not.” Jesus had a right to be angry because the Sanhedrin and the chief priests were prostituting the temple and taking unfair advantage over people who were coming to worship.

And Paul had good reason to be angry. The Sanhedrin were claiming that Paul had violated the law of the temple, and yet they were violaters of the sanctity of the temple. They not only robbed people of their money and their sacrifices, but they robbed them of the truth of the scriptures. They had adulterated the scriptures for their profit. Furthermore they had put to death the Messiah of the Jews because He had threatened their position, their power and their profit center. So they murdered the Son of God.

So I believe Paul rather vehemently responded, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall.” Well, how about that response, the critics say? Maybe Paul should have turned the other cheek. He should not have said that. After all, whitewashed wall refers to a whitewashed tomb which had dead man’s bones in it. It looked white and clean on the outside, but it is corrupted on the inside. And Paul didn’t have to be so mean. He didn’t have to call them that. He wasn’t very loving.

Well, once again Jesus said basically the same thing to the Pharisees in Matt. 23:27-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” That actually is only one of eight “woes” that Jesus gives in that chapter, all directed at the scribes and Pharisees. So we might argue that Paul essentially is following the example set by Jesus and perhaps even tones it down a bit.

Now the question of turning the other cheek is a fair one and we should explain the difference here. As I said earlier, the Sanhedrin represented the rulers of Judaism which was supposed to be the church of God. They claimed to represent God, to teach the truth of God and lead the people to faith in God. And that is the reason that there is a harsher judgment towards those that are teachers than those that are followers. Jesus had nothing but compassion towards the lost sheep of Israel. And Paul as well is in Jerusalem for the sake of bringing the gospel to the Jews, and for the hope that some of them will be saved he is willing to risk his life. But for the religious leaders both Jesus and Paul had scathing criticism, because they saw through their hypocrisy. Consequently, as a pastor I have compassion towards those that are trapped in churches that are not teaching the gospel, or that have been led astray by false teachers. But I have harsh criticism for those that teach a false way and put stumbling blocks before the people. And the Bible backs up that distinction. James 3:1 “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.”

So Paul makes the point that the High Priest was guilty of breaking the law for having Paul struck before even being charged or certainly found guilty of a charge. And Paul was absolutely correct according to Duet. 25 which says that a man has to be found guilty to be beaten. And according to historians, Paul’s words ended up being prophetic. The corrupt High Priest’s final days – despite all his scheming and bribes – were lived as a hunted animal and ended by being brutally assassinated by the hands of his own people.

But the Jews rebuke Paul for his response, and say “Do you revile God’s high priest?” And Paul apologizes by saying, “I was not aware, brethren, that he was high priest; for it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT SPEAK EVIL OF A RULER OF YOUR PEOPLE.’” Again, the critics use this as an example that Paul realized that he had done wrong, and was guilty of losing his temper. But there are a couple of things that counter that argument. One is that the Council was not seated in it’s usual quarters, nor more than likely wearing their ceremonial robes. So it was just a guy in the crowd as far as Paul was concerned that told them to strike him. He would not have recognized him without his ceremonial robes or his seat in the Sanhedrin. And secondly, there is the issue of Paul’s eyesight. There are at least a couple of places in Paul’s epistles where he makes reference to his eyesight, and the idea seems to be that he had very poor vision, possibly due to his experience on the road to Damascus. Though God had healed him, yet it’s possible that God left a tangible reminder which Paul later called his thorn in the flesh which God did not take from him. But again, it’s a good possibility that Paul was unable to see well enough or determine from the situation that the man speaking was the high priest.

Well, I think at that point that Paul realizes he is not going to get a fair trial. He is having to defend himself for something he didn’t do. Whatever he says is going to be used against him. The Roman commander is going to let his accusers beat him up right in his courtroom. And they are not going to even formally charge him. So Paul comes up with another tactic. He is well versed in the politics of the Sanhedrin. He knows it is made up of two political groups that are essentially at odds with one another doctrinally, but politically they are allies in their resentment towards Rome. And Paul is astute enough to know that they are united in their resentment towards Christianity. Even more so than they hated Rome they hate Christ. Remember when Christ was being examined they cried out, “We have no king but Caesar!” They feigned allegiance to Rome, but their hatred for Christianity was obvious.

So Paul’s strategy was to use his opponents differences against one another. It was basically a strategy of “divide and conquer.” There is an ancient proverb which says, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” And that encapsulates the restrained animosity of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two groups that made up the Sanhedrin. But Paul as a former member realizes how deep the division is. And one of the main points is that the Sadducees do not believe in spirits, or angels, nor in the resurrection. But the Pharisees believe in all of them. So it was as if there was a conservative branch and a liberal branch of the Sanhedrin.

Paul, perhaps realizing that if he is going to get out of there alive he has to get the whole case thrown out of court, says, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!” And that started another near riot, with the Pharisees saying “We find nothing wrong with this man; suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” The argument became so heated, that the commander was afraid that they would tear Paul in pieces. Each side was literally pulling him apart. So once again the commander has to rescue Paul by force and take him to the barracks in order to keep harm from happening to him.

Now I have spent all this time covering my first point, and I have two more points to go. So I will just briefly say something about each of the remaining points. In a way, they are sort of the application to this story. Paul is on trial for the gospel. And in some way, sooner or later we will all be on trial for the gospel if we really are contending for the faith. We will encounter opposition. We will encounter hostility. We will be attacked. Sometimes we will find that even enemies of one another will unite in their hatred for us. Many times like Paul we will find ourselves alone, seemingly abandoned, feeling like everyone is against us. Wondering where God has gone when we needed Him. Wondering why God doesn’t answer. 2Tim. 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

One thing I love about the Psalms is that David often talks about those very kinds of things. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” (Ps. 22) Or Ps. 3, “O Lord, how my adversaries are increased! Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, ‘there is no help for him in God.’” David cries out to God to vindicate him because he is righteous, in Ps. 7. “Arise O Lord, in thine anger, Lift up Thyself against the rage of my adversaries.” He says in Psalm 6 that at night he makes his bed swim with his crying, and he dissolves his couch with his tears. In Psalm 56 David says that God keeps his tears in a bottle. I read that it was a custom in the ancient Mideast, when people mourned at a funeral, to catch their tears in a bottle and give them to the person they mourned for as a token of their affection and care. What a picture that presents of God’s care for us when we are afflicted.

So here is Paul, probably quite dejected, bruised, feeling abandoned perhaps, overwhelmed by the hatred towards him, and he is in the prison and probably considering that his life is soon to be over. I’m sure a godly man such as he was praying some of the prayers of David. And suddenly in the middle of the night, in the darkness, the Lord appears to him. Luke isn’t big on dramatics, he just states the facts. But what a dramatic thing. Twenty years after the Damascus road experience, the Lord appears at his side and says, “Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also.”

I love the fact that it says the Lord appeared at his side. Not way off in a vision in heaven somewhere. Not far off, but at his side. Proverbs 18:24 says, “there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” Psalm 34:18, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, And saves those who are crushed in spirit.” And Psalm 145:18“The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.”

I was talking to a young man the other day about prayer and he was asking if he should pause for a while when he is praying to try to hear if God is answering him. And I said if you want to hear from God, then read His Word, don’t listen for voices in your head. God speaks through His word. Paul was an apostle. And this is one of the special times that the Lord manifested Himself to Paul and spoke to him. But we have the written word of God which Peter says is a more sure word of prophecy. Besides, as I told this young man, if you think you hear a little voice in your head, how will you know if it is of God? It has to be corroborated with the word of God, in order to know it is the word of God. That is the problem with the pope speaking ex cathedra. They claim that his words are the words of God, therefore they supersede the written word of God. And that is how they get the doctrine of the assumption of Mary and other false doctrines. So we can rely on the written word of God.

But Paul is comforted by the word of the Lord. He recieves commendation from the Lord. He knows that he will not die before he gets to Rome. His commission is confirmed by the Lord, he is meant for Rome. And I’m sure that was a great comfort and encouragement to Paul. When we are discouraged, that is where we need to go. To the word of God. To the promises of God. Psalm 12:6-7 “The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. You, O LORD, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever.”

Finally, the last point quickly, the conspiracy. We read the story, I will not retell it in the little time we have left. But I want to point out one major principle. What we see here is the providence of God. We don’t see a miracle. A miracle is when God breaks through the natural world, the natural processes, and performs a supernatural event. Providence is when God performs His will using natural circumstances to accomplish His purposes.

There is a great debate in theological circles between Calvinism and Armenianism. And I hate the exclusiveness of both of those titles. As if one necessarily excludes the other. Basically, when you hear those names used, they refer to the sovereignty of God versus the free will of man. I do not have time to debate the merits or detriments of each of those doctrinal positions today. But I will say this. Providence is God using His sovereignty to work through man’s free will in order to achieve the purpose and provision of God.

And we see that illustrated here. The evil conspiracy of the Jews is to murder Paul. But providentially God has placed Paul’s nephew nearby to overhear their plot. And in turn he tells Paul, and Paul has him tell the commander. And then the commander makes a military decision, a tactical decision and arranges for 470 solders to escort Paul out at 9pm at night and marches 35 miles to Antipatris arriving the next day. Then the soldiers return and the horsemen continue on with Paul to Caesarea which is another 35 miles or so, which is a Gentile city. And Paul is delivered to the Governor Felix. And Felix has Paul put up in Herod’s Praetorium, which was the former palace of Herod. Not a supernatural miracle in all of those proceedings. People seem to be making decisions on their own, and yet God superintends all these random circumstances to bring about His purposes. That is a greater miracle than sending an angel to sweep Paul up and deliver him. And I believe that is the predominant way that God uses today to work out His will in the world; through providence.

I can’t help but remember Psalm 32:6-7 which we sang part of earlier, “Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.”

I think this story of Paul being moved from Jerusalem to Caesarea is one of the greatest illustrations of the providence of God. And I just want to close by encouraging you that as you go through trials and tribulations, to lean not on your own wisdom, but rest on the promises of God. And the God of Providence will work out His plan for you as you wait on Him. Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Paul was on a mission from God, and so he could expect God to see him through all the tribulations that happened in the course of his mission. And when we are living our lives as a witness for God, then we can expect God to providentially work all things together for good as well. But a word of warning, providence does not necessarily cover us when we pursue our goals and live our lives for our pleasure or benefit and then expect God to get us out of the mess we make of our lives. When we live for ourselves, we do so to our own peril. God is not bound to extract us from the mess we get into as a result of our waywardness and selfishness. But when we live for God, for His purposes, then we can trust in His providence no matter how dire the circumstances may seem.

William Cowper wrote these words many years ago, but I believe they are still true for us today; “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill He treasures up His bright designs And works His sov’reign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy and shall break In blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,But trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.”

Last time we looked at how Paul was bound for the sake of the gospel. You will remember that he considered himself a prisoner of the Lord, first and foremost. The chains of the Romans, being arrested by the Jews, being held in prison by the Romans, none of that superseded the fact that Paul first and foremost had given himself up to be bound by God. He was the prisoner of the Lord. He had renounced all that had been of benefit to him in the world, to become a bond servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. So his physical bonds did not really faze him. If that was God’s plan, then Paul was just fine with physical bonds, if it produced spiritual gains.

And so Paul was content because he had committed himself to the Lord’s will. He trusted the Lord’s will and plan for his life. And in that respect he is an excellent role model for us. As I said last week, the whole Christian life can be summed up in the idea of trusting in God’s plan for our lives. All rebellion, all sin is really just an attempt on our part to try to do it ourselves, to make our own decisions, to think that we can handle life on our own and do it on our own terms. Romans 14:23 says, “whatever is not from faith is sin.” So the Christian life is coming to the point of surrendering to God’s plan and trusting that His plan is good, and we can rest in His wisdom and His purpose. So Paul did not worry about imprisonment because he believed that it was in God’s plan.

Now as we noted in the last chapter, Paul has been arrested by the Romans, but that arrest actually served to deliver him from being beaten to death by the Jews. But then Paul asked the commander in the Greek language if he could address the crowd, and he was surprised to find that Paul spoke Greek, because he had thought that he was an Egyptian revolutionary. So he gives Paul permission to speak, and Paul addresses this riotous mob of Jews from the steps of the garrison.

Paul’s address here is a recounting of the events of his conversion and commission by God to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And we looked at that conversion experience in detail in chapter 9. So I don’t think it’s necessary to go back over all of that again. But what I would like to point out this morning is the fact that when most people would be relieved to be delivered from the mob, even if it meant being arrested, and would have been rushing to get out of there away from the murderous intent of the crowd, Paul wants to stop and preach to them.

Paul saw this as an opportunity. As I said last week, God often uses adversity as a ministry opportunity. We need to recognize that in difficult times, God has a purpose for us, and often that is so that we can be a testimony to others who are watching us in that adversity to see what we will do. Everyone goes through adversity in this life sooner or later. But our true character is revealed in tribulations. How we deal with adversity as Christians is often our greatest testimony. Our greatest witness to the world is not how many blessings we can claim as Christians, but how we live out our faith in the midst of adversity.

So Paul saw this persecution as an opportunity to preach the gospel. Now that is really amazing when you think about it. He was close to death, close to being beaten to death by this mob and had narrowly escaped by the hands of the Roman soldiers. And now he asks the commander to stop retreating so he can turn back and address the Jews. He reminds me of the heroic first responders during 9-11 that were running for the burning buildings when everyone else was running from them.

And why does Paul do this? Does he have some sort of death wish? No, but he has a burning desire in his heart for the salvation of his people, the Israelites. He recognizes that he is not the one who is in danger here. These Jews are the ones on the verge of catastrophe. In just a few more years, in 70AD the Jews in Jerusalem will be massacred. Their temple will be destroyed by fire. Paul knows that they are the ones who have form of religion and yet are unsaved. They are condemned to die without Christ and face eternal judgment and the wrath of God. And Paul’s love for his people far outweighs his concern for himself. He is willing to give up his life for his friends, his countrymen.

Please understand this principle; Christian love is not as the world’s concept of love. Christian love is sacrificial love. And I think we miss that far too often. I think far too often our so called love is only in effect as long as it doesn’t interfere with our success, as long as it doesn’t cause our discomfort, as long as it doesn’t crack our thin veneer of respectability. And so we stop short of truly loving others as Christ loved the church, because we are not willing to lay down our lives for the sake of others.   Well, you don’t see that sort of callousness illustrated by Paul. You see him willing to sacrifice his life if necessary for the salvation of people who hated him and who were trying to kill him.

Now this is really the whole point of my message; to use Paul’s example for our own admonition to reach the lost, to reach family members, friends, colleagues, countrymen who are dying without Christ and are one day going to face the wrath of God without hope.

I’m afraid that we have lost sight of that fact, ladies and gentlemen. We have lost sight of the fact that our family members and friends who are lost without Christ, will one day wake up in hell, in a fire which cannot be quenched. Jesus portrayed what that looked like in his story of Lazarus and the rich man. Luke 16:22-24 “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.”

Folks, I am afraid that the church doesn’t talk about hell any more. And consequently the world doesn’t really believe that hell is a real place. Furthermore, even most Christians do not really think about it as a real place, where our unsaved loved ones and friends will one day find themselves in eternal agony, in eternal flames. It seems too bizarre to be real. And unfortunately even our theology doesn’t endorse the possibility in view of what we think must constitute a loving God. The former mega church pastor Rob Bell recently wrote a book called, “Love Wins”, in which he says that hell does not exist, because the concept of hell cannot be reconciled to his view of a loving God. And I’m afraid that a large part of the contemporary church agrees with him.

But Paul knew that hell is a reality for the lost. And he knew that even the ultra religious Jews who worshipped the One True God were going to find themselves separated from God by that awful chasm between Hades and Paradise unless someone told them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. So Paul is running for the burning buildings, so to speak, in hopes that he might save some of them, even if it meant possibly losing his own life.

We need to remember the purpose of the gospel. The purpose is not so that we can belong to a group of like minded people who share our interests, who are part of our social class, who have houses like ours in the better neighborhoods, and who share our values. But the purpose of the gospel is stated by Jesus in Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Not to save good people, even righteous people, or people of good social standing. But Jesus came to seek out and save those who are lost, the drug addicts, the prostitutes, the drunkards, the sexually perverted, the God-haters, those without hope, those without prospects, without a future, those that are down and out. And those are the ones we are told to go out into the highways and byways and compel to come in.

And yet I am afraid that often the contemporary church is at odds with Christ’s purpose. I am afraid that we have lost sight of what it is that we are to be about. And so we work at being successful in our jobs, we come to church for an hour or so once a week if we’re lucky, and we think that the purpose of the gospel is to benefit us, to bless us, to make our lives better, to enrich our lives and secure a better future for ourselves. Meanwhile the world around us is dying and going to hell. Everyday in Sussex County it seems someone is dying of a heroin overdose. But it isn’t just drugs that are killing people. Everyone is dying or in the process of dying, some are just on a faster track than others. And so many do not know the Lord as their Savior. But God has chosen you to proclaim the good news of His salvation. God has put you in the path of hundreds of people every day who are dying without the Lord. God has put you there to be a witness, a bold proclaimer of the good news, to run for the burning buildings and save those that are trapped there. Jude 1:22 says, “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”

God has commissioned us to be the good Samaritans that will stop what you are doing, get down from our high horse and help the lost, the unfortunate, spending whatever time and money and resources necessary to bring them to the ultimate healing of salvation.

Now I want to look briefly at the way Paul goes about this and try to draw a couple of points out that we can apply to ourselves as we reach out to the lost. I’m not going to exegete his testimony, per se. As I said we have looked at his conversion experience in detail before and I think his testimony speaks for itself. But I mainly want to focus on his introduction. Because I think there are some principles there for us which could be helpful when we reach out to our families and friends with the gospel.

First of all, notice that when Paul addresses them, he spoke their language. He had just finished speaking Greek with the Roman Commander, but when he turns to speak to the gathered Israelites, he spoke Hebrew. And when he does, they grow quiet. In verse 40 of the last chapter, it says there was a great hush on the crowd when he raised his hand to speak to them. I think they were amazed by his courage, to turn and face his accusers, to face the mob that tried to tear him to pieces.

I don’t know how many of you saw Netanyahu speak to the United Nations the other day. But he accused all those nations of being silent about the atrocities perpetrated upon Israel by Iran and the fact that Iran had publicly declared it’s intention of wiping Israel from the face of the earth. And so he stood there and stared at them in silence for about one full minute. It was amazing. It was uncomfortable. And perhaps that is what it was like when Paul raised his hand and prepared to speak. A great hush came over what had been a riotous mob.

However, I should point out the difference between animosity towards the Jewish nation and animosity towards Christianity. In Israel’s case, their enemies are to be defended against, even to the point of war if necessary. But in the church’s case, the enemies of the gospel are not our enemy, but our mission field. They are who we seek and save. And so we do not vilify the enemies of the gospel and justify or recommend harm coming to them, but if necessary we offer our own lives as a sacrifice for the sake of winning those that are lost. That is what Jesus did, and that is what we do as His disciples. And that is what we see Paul doing. He is risking his life for the sake of possibly saving some Israelites. That’s what he was saying in Romans 9:3 “For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” That should be our attitude as well, our concern for their salvation should outweigh our sense of self preservation. It should outweigh our desire to live a comfortable, self centered life. Our concern for the salvation of the lost should be paramount in our lives and our primary focus.

So back to our point, Paul speaks their language. I think that a modern day application of that is our need to speak to people in a language that they can understand, whereby we can communicate effectively the gospel of Christ. That means we may need to rethink theological terms that perhaps aren’t part of the daily language of the people. I’m not talking about in church necessarily. For the most part, the church is for saints, for the edification of believers. And in the church we need to use terminology that clearly delineates certain doctrines and theology. But when we reach out to the lost, we should make sure that we are speaking their language. Now that doesn’t mean coarse language. We shouldn’t let any coarse or profane words proceed out of our mouths. But we do need to talk to people in a language that they can understand. That’s why tongues are unprofitable for the church or for those that are unsaved. That’s why we don’t deliver homilies in Latin. But even more to the point, when we are witnessing, we need to make sure we are speaking in a way that people can understand what we are talking about. That’s pretty basic, but in a day when a lot of people have been brought up with no theology at all, we have to be careful not to talk above their heads. We just can’t refer them to John 3:16 without telling them what John 3:16 says. I’m amazed when I see these bumper stickers or billboards that just put scripture addresses on them as if the unsaved know what it says there.

Notice next, he addresses them as men, brethren and fathers. In other words, Paul sought to show his kinship with the crowd, even with the enemies of the gospel. Were it not for the grace of God, we would all be enemies of the gospel. Col 1:21-22 “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”

The point to be made by this is not to proclaim the gospel in a condescending way, as if we are righteous and way up here, and unsaved people are despicable and way down there. But to recognize the kinship we have to one another. All men and women are of the same family of Adam. Every race, every color and every creed shares with us a common ancestry. None of us received mercy and grace because we somehow were better or more deserving than others.

Paul didn’t see this angry, murderous crowd as his enemy, but as brothers and fathers, sharing a common ancestry. He saw them as bearing the likeness of God. And so he loved them enough to reach out to them with the gospel, even if it meant risking his life. Paul is looking for areas of commonality in this situation. And he is not afraid to take advantage of it and use it to gain their attention.

You know, I realize that speaking to family members about salvation can be very hard. There can be years of misunderstandings, hard feelings, wounded pride and so forth to overcome. But I would urge you that are mature to humble yourself and do what is necessary to repair that breech in your relationships with your family members so that you can witness to them about the gospel in hope that they might be saved. I would encourage you to pray for them without ceasing in anticipation of the next time you will see them, and ask God to give you the opportunity to witness to them. I should not have to tell you that it is a matter of eternity – of eternal life or eternal death in hell.   Your family should be your first priority in presenting the gospel.

Thirdly, Paul appealed to their common nationality. He appealed to their common heritage as Jews, as a native of Jerusalem, of graduating from what we might consider the local university under the most well known teacher, Gamaliel. I’m afraid that our heritage in this country is no longer popular as it once was. There are a lot of history revisionists that want to play up our nation’s shortcomings and expound on all the supposed atrocities committed in our country. Be that as it may, I am not advocating getting into politics here or expounding so called American values. None of that is the gospel. Hell doesn’t care if you are Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, or American for that matter. Politics are not helpful in winning the lost.

But what we can take from this is finding areas that we have in common with the lost and using that to our advantage to gain an opportunity to present the gospel. Maybe it’s the fact that you are both from Texas and that gives you an appreciative audience. Maybe it’s just the opportunity afforded by being your neighbor in your development. Maybe it’s your common interest in golf, or surfing or motorcycles. But whatever opportunity you can find to gain an audience, use it to maybe see their defenses drop a little, and then from there introduce them to the gospel.

We may not find much results today by walking up to a stranger on the sidewalk and trying to take them through the Roman’s road in the first 3 minutes of conversation. But if we take our salvation seriously, if we take the prophecies of scripture seriously, then we will start thinking strategically about how we can open up a conversation with people we know about the gospel. And one way to do that is use a common interest to be able to open communication with them.

Finally, Paul appeals to a common theology. He appeals to the God of their fathers, the law of Gamaliel, which was the respected law of the land. And he says that he was zealous for God even as they were. If you can believe statistics out there, then a majority of people in America believe in God, or so they say. The difficulty is what kind of God they believe in. Paul said in Rom. 10:2 “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.” And I’m afraid that is still true today, especially in the evangelical movement. But nevertheless, it is a point of agreement by which to start a conversation about eternity. Most people don’t like to talk about God. But as I pointed out last Wednesday evening, there will be some times in life when people will start talking about God, when they are more receptive to talk about matters concerning eternity.

I think that is one of the things that happens in a national crisis. It’s interesting that two weeks ago I said that it was unlikely that in your lifetime someone would ever point a gun at you and tell you to deny Christ or die. I was suggesting that we often deny Christ for much less reason than that, sometimes simply because it may be uncomfortable to do so, or because of the fear of social rejection. But just two Friday’s ago in Oregon, someone did stick a gun at people’s heads and ask them to declare if they were a Christian or not, and if they were he shot and killed them. So unfortunately, though I would still say that it is unlikely that you or I will have to face that question, I am afraid that it is happening with greater frequency as our society becomes ever more anti-Christ. However, this national crisis presents an opportunity to discuss the gospel with unsaved people that we know.

Another opportunity that might present itself is the death of a friend or loved one or a serious illness. Those are often times when people are more receptive to talk about God. A good thing that happens as a result of such a crisis is that we often have an opportunity to talk to people about our faith in Christ, and they get a chance to see our faith lived out when we have a crisis of our own to deal with.

Paul even went so far as to identify with the crowd by saying that he also used to persecute the church, or the Way, as he refers to it. And that simply goes back to the idea that all of us were at enmity with God before we became converted. We all were held captive under Satan’s dominion, to do his will, to work against the gospel. I think of some of the things I did before I got right with God. People that I caused to go astray, people I hurt. Things I did to promote sin and wickedness. And I think if you were honest you would have to admit things you did as well that caused immense damage to the cause of Christ.

I visit a man in prison every other week, and this guy is facing a life sentence in prison, but he is now a Christian. So I try to be a light in his life in a very dark place where he has very little hope. And he is doing pretty good. He is growing in the Lord. But one thing he has to live with is all the lives he helped ruin when he was a drug dealer for years in Baltimore. He knows that he caused ruin in hundreds of lives, hundreds of families. And so he feels remorse over that. He now knows he is forgiven, but it should serve as an impetus for him to serve Christ now with the same zeal that he once served Satan.

Yes, we thank God for His grace by which He saved us and forgave us. But never forget that our sin didn’t just get blown away like some dandelion fluff in the wind. But our horrible sins were put on Jesus’ scarred and shredded back, and he went to the cross and died a horribly painful death to pay for our sins. And if we really are grateful for His sacrifice that we might receive eternal life, then surely we will sacrifice our temporal lives to live for Him and His glory.

Well, let’s try to wrap this up. The next thing Paul does is he tells the story of his conversion. Listen, you may not know all the high doctrines of the church, you may not be a theologian, but if you are truly saved, then you have a story to tell. You can tell how Jesus saved you and what He saved you from, and what He saved you for.  Paul was a master theologian. He explained every doctrine of the church in His writings to the churches. But when he speaks to this crowd, he doesn’t speak about the doctrine of predestination, or the doctrine of limited atonement. No, he simply tells the story of how he was saved on the road to Damascus. How God found him, and called him, and spoke to him. And then he tells about his response to that call. How he called upon the name of Christ for the remission of his sins, how he was baptized, and how God called him to be a witness to the Gentiles.

I would encourage you folks to do some homework this afternoon or tonight. I would encourage you to write down your testimony, how you were saved. When you were saved. How you know you are saved. I can’t help but wonder if someone might be afraid to do that because they don’t really know if they are truly saved. Perhaps you can’t really say how you were saved. I would urge you to think carefully about your salvation. As Paul said in 2Cor. 13:5 “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you–unless indeed you fail the test?”

Hopefully, you know well how you were saved. You will never forget when you called upon the Lord and trusted in Him for forgiveness of sins. And you have the testimony of the Holy Spirit living in you that convicts you and teaches you and helps you as you continue to follow after Christ. And if that is your testimony, then I would encourage you to share it with as many people as you can. Share your common ancestry, share your commonality as a sinner, talk to your friend or loved one in a way that they can understand, and tell them how you came to know the Lord and how He changed your life.

I’ve said it at least a dozen times lately, there is no greater testimony than the testimony of a transformed life. The life you live now should be ample evidence of the truth of the gospel and the power of the gospel. And if you cannot say that about your life, then you really need to get down on your knees and get right with God, so that your walk matches your talk. That is the testimony that God desires.

Well, one final caution. I wish I could tell you that when Paul did all these things the result was that thousands of Jews became saved that afternoon. But the sad fact is that they ended up shouting “away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!” Unfortunately, the vast majority of the world will reject the message of the gospel. The Jews revolted when Paul said that the Gentiles were now going to be the recipients of God’s grace. They wanted to believe that they only were the chosen people of God. They alone deserved God’s favor and blessing.

The point of irritation which Paul stirred up was the idea that God would even consider going to the Gentiles and bring them into the same blessings the Jews had enjoyed. Their rejection of that idea was visceral. But what a twisting and distortion of God’s purposes. The fact is that the nation Israel had been called of God to be the witness by which the nations of the world would be reached. But instead of obeying that call they had selfishly harbored God’s grace all to themselves and condemned the rest of the world as undeserving sinners by neglect. But the fact is that Christ came to save sinners. And so we need to reach out to sinners. The church is not a country club for respectable, religious people, but a mission of mercy to the lost and hopeless and helpless.

To a great degree we are guilty of the same neglect as those Jews. We act as if God is not interested in the world, that he wants only us, that we are the favored people of God. We have gathered our robes of respectability about ourselves and withdrawn into our Christian country clubs and in effect are saying, “Let the world go to hell! We are the object of God’s favor and blessing.” And we have neglected and even resisted the chance to reach out to the lost, hopeless humanity around us.

In closing, please understand an important principle. God uses human instruments in divine intervention. He has always used human instruments to perform His will. And God has chosen us, as testaments of His grace, to be the human instruments by which the lost can know the truth of the gospel and be saved. I pray that you will receive this commission from the Lord, and act in defense of the gospel even as Paul did, regardless of the cost to personal pride or even safety. Let’s win the lost for the sake of our Lord. Let’s start with our families, and then our neighbors and coworkers, and then our communities. Let’s run for the burning buildings, that we might by some means, save some, snatching them like brands from the burning.

Acts has 28 chapters. We are in chapter 21. The last one-fourth of the book is devoted to Paul’s imprisonment, the occasion of it and then the details of it, and, finally, the last chapter deals with his reaching the city of Rome. These chapters, and chapter 21 in particular, are difficult to preach in that for the most part they present a narrative of the details of Paul’s imprisonment and travel to Rome and lack some of the doctrinal principles that are easier to form a message from.

But in looking at this chapter as a whole, we see Paul move from the position of a free man, to a prisoner. And the word that seems to come to my mind as a result of reading this chapter repeatedly is the word bound. Paul is warned twice that he would be bound as a prisoner, and then in vs. 33 he is bound in chains, and from that time on as far as we know, Paul is a prisoner, bound in chains for the rest of his ministry. So this is an important transition in the life of Paul, and the narrative spends the remainder of the chapters detailing those final years of Paul’s imprisonment.

But I think it’s important that we establish something right off the bat as we look at this new chapter of Paul’s life. In two of the epistles which Paul would write while in imprisonment, Ephesians and 2 Timothy, he referred to himself as the “prisoner of the Lord.” And that is essential to understanding this passage and the subsequent chapters. Paul does not consider himself a prisoner of Rome, but a prisoner of the Lord.

Now that is significant, because if you don’t understand Paul’s mind set, then you may make the interpretative mistake of many theologians and Bible teachers, in claiming that Paul made a mistake in this chapter, and as such he caused his imprisonment, and though God worked through it, his imprisonment was not necessary. And some theologians, emboldened by their declaration of Paul’s supposed error, have taken an even greater liberty and gone so far as to say his actions in the temple in regards to observing the vow and the feast are also a mistake and he was guilty of going against his own admonitions about not being under the law.

So we have to be careful in how we look at this chapter, because though it may seem to be just a travelogue, a poor interpretation can lead to bad doctrine. Personally, I think that Paul is exemplary in all that he does after his conversion. And I believe his actions here are exemplary as well. And I think realizing that Paul did not consider physical bonds as anything limiting his spiritual effectiveness is fundamental to understanding this passage correctly. Paul already considered himself bound to the Lord, and as such the physical bonds could not hinder his ministry whatsoever. In fact, he said in Philippians 1:12 that “my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.” And he goes on to describe that progress as a result of his imprisonment. So Paul’s imprisonment in my opinion is not a mistake. But it was used by God for the greater progress of the gospel, even greater than he could achieve as a free man.

Now that is a great lesson in and of itself. That sometimes, the trials that we find ourselves in can achieve more for the kingdom than times of peace and prosperity. And when you come to recognize that, then when you find yourself in difficult, trying situations, rather than falling apart or having a pity party, perhaps you should consider it a ministry opportunity, and start looking around you at what God might want to accomplish through you as you go through your trial. Contrary to the teachings of the prosperity gospel proponents, God uses adversity more than He uses prosperity to accomplish His purposes.

Now as I alluded to, this passage is difficult to build an expositional message from, and a more astute preacher than I might skip right over this one. But I’m a little bit pig headed I guess, and I can’t help but think that there are some things here which are written for our instruction and admonition. We just may have to dig a little deeper. The late Dr. S. L. Johnson had the following to say about expositional preaching of such difficult passages. He said, “In final analysis, it seems to me, that the point of preaching is not to preach to the problems of a particular congregation; but rather to preach the Word of God so that you may become knowledgeable in the Scriptures and thus able to apply the Scriptures yourself to your problems. In other words, to bring you to a certain maturity in the understanding of the Word of God.” Now I think that is good and a worthy goal. It is very popular today to preach messages such as 7 Steps to a Better Marriage, or 10 Characteristics of a Successful Church. Those type of messages may propose a formula for you to emulate, but they can fail to give you a sound basis on which to be able to rightly discern the scriptures and correctly apply them to your daily lives.

Now before we delve into chapter 21, let’s set the context and at the same time dispel the idea that Paul was in error by continuing on to Jerusalem by referring back to the previous chapter, 20:22, 23; where Paul said to the elders at Ephesus, “And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there; except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.” So he goes forward after being told by the Holy Spirit that imprisonment will await him as he goes towards Jerusalem, and then to Rome. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Holy Spirit didn’t show him all of that in some detail, so that he knew exactly what was going to happen.

So my title today is “Bound for the sake of the gospel,” and I have four points just to give us a little outline for our exposition, and they are bound in the Spirit, bound by fear, bound by love, and bound yet delivered.

I’ve already alluded to the first point. Paul considers himself even before his imprisonment as bound in the Spirit. Throughout Paul’s writings, he refers to his ministry as being compelled, constrained to preach, saying woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. Paul’s salvation was such a dramatic conversion, after having persecuted the church for years to becoming an apostle of the Lord to the church, that he considered himself bound to serve Christ and the church with everything he had to offer. He would later say that I consider all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ. Nothing else mattered.

The Bible says that before our salvation we are all bound to sin. We served sin, and by extension, we served the devil. We served our flesh and our base passions. But now that we are saved, we are to serve the Lord. That is what it means to be bound in the Spirit. Recognizing the depravity and hopelessness of our sinful condition, and grateful for the grace God has bestowed upon us, we now serve Him joyfully, obedient to the leading of the Spirit, forsaking all the pleasures and profits of this world, for the sake of our love for the Lord.

Then our second point is bound by fear. So Paul is traveling towards Jerusalem, en route to Rome, and he is bringing an offering to the church at Jerusalem which he has gathered from the churches in Asia and Europe that he established. And I will spare you the geography lesson as we read of Paul’s travels by ship. But as pertaining to our outline, he lands in Tyre and stays there 7 days.

And while there Paul searches for any disciples that might be in Tyre. And when he does, they warn him through the Spirit that he should not set foot in Jerusalem. Now this is where supposedly Paul errs. However, I would suggest that the Spirit is not forbidding Paul to go to Jerusalem. I think that the Spirit was leading him to Jerusalem and had been for some time. That is why Paul was resolved to go there. What the Spirit was warning was to expect to be afflicted and imprisoned. And these warnings were not meant to alarm Paul, but to prepare him.

I believe that is why the scriptures warn us of tribulation and trials as Christians. Jesus warned us that if we follow Him then we will suffer. Jesus certainly does not want us to not follow Him because we will suffer. But He wants to warn us; forewarned is forearmed. That is the purpose of much of the prophecy in scripture. It’s not to give us a code that we spend inordinate amounts of time on, trying to figure out every detail and the day and time indicated. But it is simply to forewarn us that we are going to experience tribulation in this world, even as Jesus said. But take courage, for He has overcome the world. He knows what is going to happen before it happens, and He lets us have a glimpse of it, so that we might be prepared.

Then further along in the chapter, we read that Paul leaves Tyre and travels to Caesarea. And as he is there, a prophet named Agabus gives another warning to Paul. This one is even more explicit. He takes Paul’s belt, and in the style of the Old Testament prophets uses it to illustrate how the Jews will bind Paul and deliver him to the hands of the Gentiles which are the Romans. Now as I said, all of this was not to discourage Paul, but to strengthen him, and even to corroborate the previous prophecy that Paul had concerning Jerusalem given by the Holy Spirit in Acts 20 which I read to you earlier. And one important point in that is that prophecy needs to be corroborated. If you come to me and say you have a word of prophecy by the Holy Spirit, I don’t care how spiritual you may sound, I don’t care how esteemed you may be in the church… I will not accept it on that basis alone. It must be corroborated by scripture, or at the least by 2 or 3 witnesses. Paul said test the spirits. There are many deceiving spirits out there and even if an angel were to tell you something different than scripture you are not to accept it. Everything has to be corroborated. Now this was especially true in the early church when they did not have the finished scriptures such as we have. Now that prophecy is complete, God is not giving new revelation. His word is sufficient for all knowledge, for all instruction in righteousness.

But the main point is that we are not to be bound by fear. We are told to trust the Lord, lean not on our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge Him and He will direct our paths. Listen, the whole Christian life can be summed up in the idea of trusting in God’s plan for our lives. All rebellion, all sin is really just an attempt on our part to try to do it ourselves, to make our own decisions, to think that we can handle life on our own and do it on our own terms. That is sin because it is not of faith. But the Christian life is coming to the point of surrendering to God’s plan and trusting that His plan is good, and we can rest in His wisdom and His plan. That is what Romans 8:28 is talking about. Trusting that God’s plan will work out for good to them that love God and are called according to His purposes.

And we should not allow the fear of persecution or affliction to keep us from being witnesses of the gospel. Paul said, “For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” I would that we all had that sort of courage for the Lord. Not in some future, imaginary scene where we are asked to renounce Christ or face the firing squad. But in our everyday, common lives, that we were so bold as to be a witness on our jobs, in our schools, to our neighbors, not fearing the condemnation or scorn or derision. We don’t typically face death, ladies and gentlemen, for the sake of the gospel. We just face society’s reproach, and that is enough to silence us.

Now there is a side issue in this section that I am need to address. It is one of those passages that have caused or added to the controversy about the gifts of the Spirit as well as the roles of ministry. And so I will skip over that part. No, not really. But let me forewarn you that many controversial passages are such because there is not sufficient evidence to speak clearly on a subject. And so you have what is called an argument of silence. I would suggest that you do not build doctrine on an argument of silence. One passage taken out of it’s context does not make for sound doctrine. So let’s look at this, but realize that there is not sufficient evidence to be too dogmatic about what some might like to think they see here.

The difficult section is the one referring to Philip’s four virgin daughters who were prophetesses. Now let’s consider what it says; first of all, it says they were prophetesses. It does not say they were preachers. It doesn’t say they were elders. Luke never relates a prophecy given by these women. Second it says they were Philip’s daughters, virgin daughters. That means that they were under the legal authority and headship of Philip. Now Philip is described as having two offices; the first is he was one of the seven. One of the seven men appointed by the church of Jerusalem and the apostles to serve the church. Second, he was an evangelist; that would be a preacher of the gospel, particularly associated with traveling to churches, going to far away areas to preach the gospel and establish the church. So Philip has the office, and his 4 daughters have some sort of gift that is called prophecy. My position is that they did not preach, because that would violate Paul’s instructions in 1Timothy 2:12 that he did not suffer a woman to teach, but to keep silent in the church. So what purpose did these women serve? I would suggest they served Philip and through him the church as a source of revelation from God, in a time in which there was not the written New Testament scriptures, and in a land where there was probably not even sufficient availability of Old Testament scriptures. And so for practical matters God provided prophetic revelation through this evangelist’s daughters which he then gave to the church. And the fact that there were four of them is important, because they would have fulfilled the command that every fact was to be confirmed by at least 2 or 3 witnesses. See, there can be false prophets. There can be false prophecy. And in regards to new revelation, sometimes that cannot be immediately corroborated as coming from the Lord. But in this case, the plurality of testimony could confirm revelation. And so I think it was a unique gift to the early church, particularly in this church in Caesarea, in a remote area where they did not have adequate scriptural resources.   But note that when Paul comes, the 4 daughters were there, but they did not prophecy to Paul. Paul was an apostle first of all. He had direct revelation from Christ. That is what the requirement of an apostle was that he had seen Christ and been taught by Christ. And Paul had that by revelation.   But God brought a prophet named Agabus, a man to prophecy to Paul in the church. So this is a perfect illustration of the principle that in the church women are not to hold a position of authority, which is in keeping with Paul’s letters.

The third point then is bound by love. Paul finally arrives at Jerusalem. I can’t imagine how he must have felt, anticipation, maybe some apprehension, even some anxiety. But I think Paul most of all felt adrenalin. He wanted to get it on. Paul is like a combatant, like a prize fighter. He wants to go to battle. And he is biting at the bit to do it.

But don’t forget in all that his motivation for going to Jerusalem. And that is he loved the Jews. He knew he was going to be afflicted and imprisoned. And yet he loved them so much he was willing to suffer for them. He said elsewhere, I would to God that I was accursed for the sake of my brethren, the Israelites. That is an amazing thing to say. That is like a parent saying, I would to God that He would take my life, for the sake of my child’s salvation. And maybe some of you have said that. That is love.

And Paul proves his love for them by going out of his way to not offend them. The elders come up with a plan to keep Paul from harm by taking these four young men who were taking the Nazarite vow and helping them fulfill that vow. And this is where some have mistakenly criticized Paul again. Because in this passage he is seen attending the feast of Pentecost which lasted 7 days, he purifies himself according to the Jewish law, he may have even shaved his head, the other guys certainly did, and he offers sacrifices in the temple! Now at first glance that is like a Christian going to mass and confession. But it’s even worse than that, because Paul rails against that sort of thing in Romans. But we need to consider not what Paul did but why Paul did it.

First of all, he did not do it to establish righteousness that he might be saved. He knew that he was saved by grace, not works. The reason he did it was so that he could preach to the Jews. So that he could enter the temple and preach. If he was defiled ceremoniously according to Jewish law, he could not enter the temple. And during the feast, this would be his greatest opportunity to be a witness to the truth of the gospel.

Now Paul explains that in 1 Corinthians 9:20, “And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law: To them that are without law, as without law.” He goes on to say that he becomes all things to all men that he might by all means save some.

Now that is an illustration of love. That is the love that Jesus had for us. He became like us, a human. He humbled Himself to receive spit and blows and rejection of men which He had created. And that is exactly what we see Paul doing here. That is why Paul could say be imitators of me, because he was an imitator of Christ. And that is what we are to be; imitators of Christ. That is how you become conformed to the image of Christ, by acting like Christ acted.

Now Paul understood freedom. He is the one who declared the freedom we have from the law. But true freedom is not only the freedom from the law, but the freedom to observe the law. There are times when you may need to restrict your freedom for the sake of a brother in Christ who is weaker. You may feel that you are free to have a glass of wine at dinner. But there may be times when you restrict that freedom for the sake of a brother or sister that may be tempted to go back to the bondage of alcohol that they once suffered under, if they were to be eating with you. That is why in the church, and at a church function, we will never allow alcohol. Not because we are legalists, but because we love the brethren more than we love our freedom, and certainly more than we love alcohol.

Well, the last point is bound yet delivered. In spite of the best laid plans, in spite of all the church’s precautions and in spite of Paul’s efforts not to be offensive, it turns out that some Jews from Asia, probably the same group that had caused a riot in Ephesus before, showed up near the end of the feast and they saw Paul in the temple. And immediately they tried to start another riot, with the intention of blaming it on Paul and using it to have him arrested. Their hatred for him and the gospel had not disippated.

So when they saw Paul, they started this riot on the assumption that he had brought a Gentile into the temple, when in fact Paul had gone out of his way to do the exact opposite thing to attempt to appease them. And the whole city becomes involved in this riot, they dragged him out of the temple and started beating him to death. But someone reported it to the Roman commander of the garrison, and he got some centurions and soldiers and ran down there and basically rescued Paul. When they saw the Roman commander, they stopped beating Paul, and notice in vs. 33 it say that he bound Paul with chains.

Now we read the story, so I don’t want to retell it. But the fact is, that Paul was being murdered, and being arrested and put in chains is actually the means by which God delivered him from death. Now that should be a lesson to us. Sometimes, the thing which we are most afraid of, is the very thing God uses for our deliverance. See, the Jews have been trying to kill Paul all along. And we’re going to see in the coming chapters that they will continue to plot to kill Paul. If Paul was not arrested, and held under Roman guard, then it would have only been a matter of time before he was murdered.

But God wasn’t done with Paul yet. And so God delivered him by having him arrested. God would end up using Paul more in bonds than he did when he was free. Paul would write most of the epistles from prison. He would actually have the freedom to do that unhindered and unafraid of being secretly ambushed and murdered. He would end up preaching to governors and kings and all of Caesar’s household. And in the long run, the gospel would advance far more due to this ministry of Paul than it did when Paul personally went on three missionary journeys. Now obviously, God used Paul’s missionary journey’s. But I would suggest that Paul’s writings reached millions upon millions more people than he ever could have reached in person.

So we see that God used bondage to accomplish deliverance. And I think it comes full circle. Because when you are in bondage to Christ, then nothing can come upon you that does not first come through the hand of God. God will not allow you to be finished off until He is finished with you. That is the promise of God for the person whose life is committed to the Lord.

The crazy thing is Paul ends up being a prisoner for the next several years, and most of that time he was not charged with a crime. In fact, King Agrippa says later that Paul would have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar. But Paul only appealed to Caesar because a sorry governor who did not have a charge to hold him with wanted to turn him over to the Jews to judge him. But God had a plan for Paul’s life, and Paul knew that he could trust God’s plan. He knew that his usefulness and effectiveness depended on being in God’s plan, even when it seemed at odds with human reason.

Folks, I hope that you will consider being bound to Christ today. I hope you will consider the baubles and trinkets of this life as worthless as compared to the surpassing knowledge of Christ and serving Christ no matter what the cost. I hope you will not be bound by fear, but be courageous even as Paul was. I hope that you will be bound by love, giving up your freedom, your liberty, your time, your resources, for the sake of the brethren. I pray that your love for the church would prohibit you from putting any stumbling block in front of a another Christian. And then I pray you will know the bondage that leads to deliverance. There is no safer place than smack dab in the middle of God’s will. Trying to do your will and yet appease God, or trying to keep up Christian appearances but live in the world are some of the most dangerous places you can be. There is no better place, no safer place that fully committed to Christ. You will never know true deliverance until you completely surrender to Him.

Over the last couple of months, we have been looking at many characteristics concerning the power of the gospel. I will not review all of those messages, but just to prod your memory I’ll remind you of some of the titles; the power of the gospel over demons, the power of the gospel over anxiety and depression, the power of the gospel over philosophy, the power of the gospel over lameness, and the power of the gospel to save. And today is perhaps the last one; the power of the gospel is the life of the church.

Now if you have read ahead, you will probably suppose that I’m going to talk about the young man that fell to his death and use that somehow as an illustration or metaphor for the life of the church. But I doubt that is an accurate way of exegeting the text. Rather, I think I will let that example simply be a warning to some of you here today who may have already put your shades on and are planning on catching some z’s during the message. I should warn you that if you fall asleep and if by some reason or another you die in your sleep here this morning, I do not have the apostolic gift of raising the dead such as the Apostle Peter or the Apostle Paul had. So go ahead and sleep if you want, but consider yourself forewarned.

However, what I do think this passage illustrates is the power of the gospel in the life of the church. This whole passage taken together shows a slice of the daily activity of the church, the way the church was conducted. In fact, in verse 7 we see the first time that Sunday services are really described in the New Testament church. Some people have claimed that Saturday services were not changed to Sunday services until much later during the rule of Constantine and by his decree. But according to this scripture that is not true. This text clearly describes what would have been a church service in Troas on Sunday.

Notice in vs. 7 it says on the first day of the week, when they were gathered together to break bread. Now that is a reference to communion, to the Lord’s supper. And many theologians believe that the Lord’s supper was a weekly part of the service in the early churches. So you have here a description of a typical Sunday service at a typical New Testament Gentile church.

But just for the sake of clarification for anyone who is not a regular at our services, let me point out that when we talk about the church, or church life, we are not speaking of a building, nor a denomination, nor an organization nor a program. Ekklesia, the Greek word for church, means the called out ones. The assembly of believers. It refers to the body of Christ. And we are the body of Christ, if indeed the Spirit of Christ dwells in you. Do you understand that? We are the flesh and blood body of Christ, you and I, if we have the Spirit of Christ living in us, using us for His glory and His purposes. That is the reason for the gospel; to make us righteous, so that we might be filled with His Spirit and do the things which He tells us to do.

That is the purpose of being saved. Not just to escape hell, though that may be sufficient motivation. Not just to be forgiven of our sins, though we should desire that. But that we might do the works of God and so that we might have fellowship with God which was impossible when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Now that we are made righteous through the blood of Jesus Christ, we are made temples of the Holy Spirit, we offer up acceptable sacrifices unto God in our bodies which is simply by obedience to the Word of God.   We are now by the grace of God made a part of His body.

But listen, remember what Paul told the Corinthians; no part of the body can exist without the support and connection to the other parts of the body. No man is an island. We were made part of the body, the church of God so that we might join one another in a local fellowship, in a local assembly. And all the parts are made to work together, just like in your human body. The hand, Paul said, cannot say “I don’t need the rest of the body. I just want to go off and do my own thing.” But it finds it’s life in the body and usefulness and purpose in the body. So each of you are called to be part of a local body of believers. And that is exactly what we see going on here in Troas.

Now there are several characteristics of this church presented here which should be emblematic of the church today. And some of these I just want to mention in passing, and some we will spend a bit more time on. But let’s follow the order in which they are presented.

First of all, there is the matter of giving. Church life is revealed by their love for one another, and one major way is by giving to supply the needs of those who are in need. And the church in Jerusalem was in dire need. They were being persecuted by Jews and Romans alike, people could not hold a job because they were excommunicated from Jewish life, there was no way to feed their familes, or support their families. And so Paul in 1 Corinthians 16 says that he was collecting an offering from all the churches in Asia and in Europe as he traveled and his intention was to deliver it to Jerusalem by the feast of Pentecost. 1Cor. 16:2-3 “On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem.” You might note in that passage a reference again to the practice of meeting on the first day of the week, Sunday. So that is the day they would take up an offering. And notice back in our text in vs. 4 that Paul is accompanied by various members of churches who will make up that delegation to Jerusalem.

Jesus said they will know you are my disciples by your love for one another. And love offerings are one tangible way that we show love for one another. James said in chapter 2:16, if you say “’Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?” So a characteristic of the body of Christ is that we will supply the needs of one another and give freely even as Christ gave Himself to the church.

Secondly, a characteristic of the church which we have already alluded to was that they met on the first day of the week. Now that is not the only day that the church met. In the last chapter, we saw that Paul was teaching daily in the school of Tyrannus and we have often read how they met in houses and were taught throughout the week. But there is a definite description here of corporate worship on Sunday. Hebrews 10:25 tells us to be mindful of “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Listen, church is the assembly of believers. I already went over that. We are to be part of a local body. Today in this age of technological advancements, there is a tendency among some to think that you can watch a TV show or download a message on the internet or something and accomplish church without having to get out of your bathrobe. But folks, that is not church. Church by it’s definition is a physical assembly of spiritually and physically connected parts of Christ’s body in a local congregation.

Some pastor once said to me that if you do not have membership then you do not have a church. He was talking about being on the church rolls. Well, I beg to differ. But I will say that if you are not deliberately participating in and regularly in the assembly of a local body, then you are probably not a part of the church of Christ. Local church participation and fellowship is essential to the Christian life. It is not optional. In fact, if you want to become a backslider, if you want to fall away from the Lord, if you want to fall into temptation and the snare of the devil, simply stop going to church. You will do so to your ruin.

Thirdly, we see the characteristic of the life of the church is communion, or breaking bread, or the Lord’s supper. I would take issue with the idea that the Lord’s supper has to be taken every week, or even should be taken every week. Jesus said on the night before His crucifixion, “As often as you do this, do it in remembrance of Me.” And what were they doing? They were celebrating the Passover. And how often did they celebrate the Passover? Once a year. Now there is no prohibition against celebrating the Lord’s supper every week, but neither is there any command to do so. There are commands however as to how it should be conducted.

But more importantly than how often we do it is what it represents. It is a physical reminder of the Lord’s death. 1Cor. 11:26 “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” So what does that mean then? It provides us with an opportunity for introspection and repentance, for getting right with God. Vs.29 “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.” Then Vs.31 “But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.” Now that introspection and repentance is the essence of the gospel, and it is illustrated in communion which is part of the life of the church. You can’t do that at home alone watching television by the way.

Fourthly, the life of the church is characterized by the preaching of the gospel in vs. 7. Now I would love to camp out on this one. But I won’t belabor it. However, notice that Paul preaches until midnight. Modern Christianity cannot suffer a preacher to speak longer than about 20 minutes on average. And even then, you better keep it interesting and tell lots of stories and jokes or you soon won’t have much of a congregation.

1Cor. 1:18 says “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” You know, the preaching of the word of God is sort of like taking your spiritual temperature. If you can’t really stand to hear the gospel preached, if you find it boring, or can’t understand it, or are disinterested, you should be as alarmed as if you have a 104 degree temperature. Because if you have the Spirit of God in you, then you will appreciate the Word of God being preached. It will be your food, your drink, your sustenance that will be life to your spirit and sustain you throughout the week.

In fact, if you find it that boring and uninteresting, then perhaps you are like the young man sitting in the windowsill named Eutychus described in vs. 9 who fell asleep and fell down three floors and was dead on arrival. Maybe you too are spiritually dead. Maybe you need to be revived by the Spirit of the Lord. Becoming spiritually alive is a supernatural event, ladies and gentlemen. Eutychus is lying there dead, he cannot pick himself up by his bootstraps. He cannot speak life to himself. He needed the supernatural miracle of the Spirit of God to give him life. And if you are unsaved today, if your body is not the temple of the Holy Spirit, then you must be born again by the Spirit of God. That is not something you can do by coming to church, or trying to be good, or by cleaning yourself up. It can only occur by the power of the Holy Spirit as we are forgiven of our sins and given new life by the gift of God.

Well, in the interest of time let’s move on, I don’t want any of you perishing along the way. Luke changes gears from the church at Troas to the church at Ephesus in vs. 17. Paul has left Troas and is on his circuitous route to Jerusalem, and he stops in Miletus and sends for the elders, that is the pastors, of the church in Ephesus. Now these probably were pastors from several churches in the city of Ephesus. And Paul gives a message to these pastors. We could easily spend a Sunday just studying this message of Paul’s. But for the moment I want to continue our train of thought concerning the characteristics of the life of the church as a result of the power of the gospel. And there are some characteristics of the gospel presented here which I want to point out.

The first thing of note in Paul’s message is he explains or describes the gospel that he has been faithfully preaching. And Paul starts by saying that he has been serving the Lord and them even through tears, through trials and persecutions. Nothing has deterred him from preaching the gospel. That is his calling, his stewardship, and nothing would stop him from faithfully declaring the whole truth of the gospel.

I find it kind of sad that Paul always seemed to have to be in defense mode about his ministry. He sacrificed everything for the sake of the gospel. He says in vs. 24 that he gave his life for the church, for the sake of the gospel. That doesn’t necessarily mean he died for the church, but it means he died to everything else in life for the sake of the church and the gospel. And I believe that is a mark of a godly shepherd of the flock. I find myself feeling jealous sometimes of these pastors that can take off for several Sunday’s a year for all kinds of reasons, conferences, sabbaticals, vacations, you name it. I have a book at home that was given to me which is called “On Being a Pastor”, written by a couple of guys who I really respect, but I was floored when they talked about the time off that they expected to receive, and what many pastor’s routinely get as part of their benefits. They talked about a month long sabbatical – goodness, I had to look up the word sabbatical to make sure I wasn’t missing something. I don’t know, I guess that would be great. I don’t want to start a pity party, but I haven’t missed a Sunday in 9 years of preaching. And I think I have taught at least 50 Wednesday’s a year for I don’t know how long. I don’t say that to make you feel sorry for me. I want to be here. But I do say that to make the point that a true shepherd willingly gives his life for his sheep. I dare not leave my flock any more than I can possibly help, even if my flock is but a little one. It is still my charge. And I believe that is what Paul is saying in so many words. He spent his life preaching and serving the church above all other considerations. Acts tells us that Paul went on 3 different missionary journeys over the course of his life, lasting many years. And coming up we will see that he spent the rest of his life in and out of prison. But I will tell you something. You will never read that Paul went on vacation. Never happened. Nothing wrong with a vacation. I hear they are fun and quite relaxing. But you don’t see Paul doing it.

And then notice the nature of the message Paul was preaching. It’s one thing to say he preached the gospel, that we are saved by the power of the gospel. But what is the gospel? And what makes it powerful? I would hope that those of you that have been faithful here this summer could answer that question. But if not, Paul reiterates what I’ve been saying all summer; the gospel rests on two essential pillars – repentance and faith. And that is the message that Paul was preaching. He makes it very clear in vs. 21 , he was “solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is the gospel. And that is the power of the gospel which gives life to the church. That is the way to have life in Christ, to be supernaturally made part of His body, through repentance and faith.

Now please forgive me, but I cannot move too quickly from this point, because it is so essential. I’m afraid that the gospel is being misrepresented today and as such it is robbed of it’s power to save. And the way that it is being misrepresented is by an over emphasis on faith alone and neglecting to preach on repentance. First of all, there is a reluctance to preach about sin at all in the modern church. But if you preach on sin, then you must preach about repentance, in order to receive forgiveness of sin. The great disconnect between faith and practice so often seen in contemporary Christianity hinges upon the lack of repentance.

The great English preacher Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “Repentance and faith must go together to complete each other. I compare them to a door and its post. Repentance is the door which shuts out sin, but faith is the post upon which its hinges are fixed. A door without a door-post to hang upon is not a door at all; while a door-post without the door hanging to it is of no value whatever. What God hath joined together let no man put asunder; and these two he has made inseparable—repentance and faith.”

Now let me try to define repentance briefly for you by saying what repentance is not. Repentance is not merely feeling a sense of shame because your sins have become exposed. Repentance is not merely grief because of the consequences of your sin. Repentance is not simply a horror at the future prospects of punishment of sin. All of those may be felt at the exposure of your sin, but they are not necessarily repentance.

Let me say clearly what repentance is. Repentance is the realization that you have greatly offended God. When David repented of his adultery and murder in Psalm 51, he said, “Against You and You only have I sinned.” Sin is first and foremost a grievance against God. It is recognizing our rebellion against our Creator.

And to extrapolate on that idea, repentance is recognizing our neglect of God. God designed us for His purposes, and instead we served our purposes, even when it caused our own destruction. Though you may never have been convicted as a murderer or an adulterer, yet you are guilty of neglecting God all these years and serving yourselves. You have robbed God of what was due Him as your Maker.

And we must not compare ourselves to one another and so excuse our sin as less than someone else’s. Repentance requires that we compare ourselves to God’s standard of righteousness, which is no less than the spotless Lamb of God.

Furthermore, repentance is increased as your faith is matured. Some people think that because they repented when they were converted, that they need not repent any more. But the truth is that the greater the faith, the deeper the repentance. That is why Paul said, “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?” As righteous as Paul was, he was ever more aware of his own weakness, and found himself doing the very things that he hated.

Repentance and faith will each grow as the other grows: the more you know the weight of sin, the more will you lean upon Jesus, and the more will you know his power to uphold to you. Repentance is looking at the way you have been living – at fulfilling your fleshly desire, at your dependence upon the old nature – and changing your mind. That is what repentance means. To repent means to stop thinking and acting and living the way you have been. Instead, step out in faith. Trust the living Lord who is in you to operate through you, and walk in obedience.

The Bible tells us that when we are born again there are still two natures, the old man, and the new man. Faith is choosing to live according to the new nature, and repentance is putting to death the old nature.

So you see, there are the two basic steps, and you must take them over and over again. The way you begin the Christian life is to repent and believe. And that also constitutes your walk through the Christian life. A walk is more than a single step. When faced with a situation, you should take the first step and repent, think through the old way of life and say to yourself, “I’ve been going at this the wrong way.” But that is not yet a walk. You must take the next step and believe, have faith in the Spirit of God who leads you through the Word. Then, on the next occasion that comes, you go through the same procedure over again — you repent, and then believe — repent and believe — repent and believe — and you are walking! That is what the Christian life is all about. In every circumstance, every situation, this is the two-fold way by which the Christian lives in the power of a living God: repent of the old way and act in faith in the new way.

Now that we are Christ’s body, our body is not our own, we are bought with a great price, the price of Jesus’ blood. So we live from now on no longer to fulfill our desires of the old man, but to fulfill God’s desires as we live in the new man. And we find the strength to do that by the Spirit who is within us, as we lean on Him and trust in Him.

There is one final aspect to Paul’s message that just bears mentioning for now, I will not go into great detail as it really needs very little explanation. As Paul gets ready to depart from the elders of the church he expects that he will not see them again. Some commentators say that he did in fact see them once more. But at that moment, they were preparing for the worst. And so Paul gives them a warning. The first warning was to feed the flock. Vs. 28, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” The Greek word used for shepherd the flock there is better understood as feeding the flock. And pastors are to do that by preaching the word of God, the whole counsel of God, undiluted, unadulterated. Not trying to please people, but telling them the truth, because only the truth can set you free.

And secondly, he tells them to guard the flock because savage wolves will come in to devour the church. Vs. 29-30 “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” Jesus said that too. He talked about wolves in sheep’s clothing, unregenerate men and women who, talking and acting like Christians and perhaps even thinking they are Christians, but who are not born again, will come into the church. They will be religious but will deny the power of true faith, they will deny the fundamentals of the gospel, and they will disturb and try to ruin the church of God. They rob people of the truth, and so they deprive them of the salvation that comes from truth.

So he says, be on the alert. The devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. You know wolves tend to prowl around the edges of the flock, looking for stragglers, looking for ones who are weak, who are not within the safety of the flock. That again emphasizes how essential it is to stay in fellowship in the church and not go off on your own.

And then stay in the Word. “I commend you to the Word,” he said. Everything you need is in the Word. It is the life of the church. It is able to build you up and complete you. It contains the power of the gospel which is able to give you life, life in Christ, the power to walk the walk. It is able to convict you of sin. It is able to lead you in righteousness. And so Paul concludes with that emphasis, to preach the word, to stay in the word, and to obey the word. That is the source of life in the church. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. I hope that you have that life in Christ. If not, you can receive it through repentance from your sins and faith in what Jesus has done for you on the cross by paying the penalty for your sins so that you may be forgiven and made righteous. Call on Him today and trust Him, and commit to live no longer for the flesh but for God by the power of Christ which is given for you.

If there are times in my life when I might wonder at the wisdom of attempting to be an expositional preacher, then today might be one of them. Today’s passage is not one that I think lends itself well to an expositional approach. It is primarily a narrative, and as such it doesn’t present an easy subject to get an outline from.

But nevertheless, I firmly believe that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for rebuke, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And so I want to try to understand with you why the Holy Spirit led Luke to include this passage. And after thinking and praying about it, I must conclude that it builds on our previous message from last week. Last week, if you will remember, we saw the power of the gospel over demonic activity. Now this week, we see the counter attack by the devil’s forces.

If you recall, Paul’s preaching resulted in evil spirits being cast out of many people in Ephesus. About the same time, a traveling exorcism troupe by the name of the Seven Sons of Sceva rolled into town and begin to practice exorcisms for profit, and in attempting to use the name of Jesus and Paul the demon responded, “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?” And the demon overwhelmed these false religionists and sent them running out of town bruised and bloodied and naked.

Now God used that to great effect in Ephesus, so that the fear of God fell upon the city, so much so that the townspeople began coming out in droves to burn their occultist books and materials. They burned what amounted to in today’s money about one million dollars worth of books about the occult and sorcery. And verse 20 says that the end result of Paul’s preaching the gospel was that, “the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.”

Now that is a great spiritual victory. That’s what we all hope for when we preach the gospel. That is the goal of the church, to see the word of the Lord growing mightily and prevailing in the community, to see people confessing and repenting of their sins, to see people being saved, bringing their idolatrous and occult practices and laying them down and destroying them, renouncing them publicly. That is what we pray for, what we strive for.

But from this narrative we see that when the church gains ground and has a great victory, the devil does not necessarily roll over and play dead. We need to understand that we are engaged in a spiritual battle. And the danger oftentimes in the church is we think that because we are saved, because Jesus triumphed over death and hell, that we have been guaranteed now a trouble free existence. But the truth is, that we are in a battle against the spiritual forces of darkness in high places, and they never sleep, they never give up, because they know their eternal destiny is at stake. And so when we think we have achieved some sort of victory, and are ready to sit back on our laurels and savor for a moment or two our winnings, the devil and his cohorts are already mounting a counterattack. It reminds me of that bumper sticker I’ve seen on a few cars which says, “Keep honking, I’m reloading!” When we are celebrating our spiritual victory, the devil is actually reloading and getting ready to counterattack.

I’ve seen this happen in the lives of Christians time and time again. We see someone come to Christ and get their heart right, renounce their sins and commit their way to the Lord, and somehow there is this expectation that everything in the world now is going to be in harmony. Everything is going to click into place. All your problems are going to disappear. And in fact, the majority of the time is that immediately the devil mounts a counter attack. And before you know it, the Christian has fallen into sin, or become discouraged and if not for the grace of God they will end up falling right back into the same pit they were in, or another pit that is just as bad. We somehow forget that very basic proverb, “when you think you stand, take heed lest you fall.”

We should not be surprised when we find ourselves under attack. Peter warned of that very thing in 1Peter 4:12 saying, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” In other words, we need to expect persecution, trials, attacks against us, against our loved ones, attacks against the church, because if they persecuted Christ unto death, what should we expect as His disciples? And furthermore, when I say that Satan counterattacks the church, I do not mean that he counterattacks the edifice of the church. He does not attack the brick and mortar, but he attacks the people who are the church. We are the living stones that make up the church. And so he attacks us, he attacks our children, our wives and husbands and friends. Satan attacks individuals who constitute the church.

So that is exactly what we see here in this passage. And I believe it is instructive for that reason, that it should remind us to be prepared for the counterattacks of the devil, so that we are not ignorant of his schemes, and that we should not be surprised when those attacks come. But when they come, we might remain steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Now let’s look at this narrative and see if we can pick out some common characteristics of how the devil counterattacks the triumphs of the gospel. I believe this event illustrates some common themes in the devil’s schemes.

First of all note as I pointed out earlier, that this counterattack comes on the heels of a great victory in the church at Ephesus. Paul has been there about two and a half years at this point. And as we saw, the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing in the community. The entire region was being turned upside down. Paul’s fame had spread to the point that even the demons knew his name, and false religionists were trying to use Paul’s name for profit.

So as they reach this point there is a sense perhaps that they can let Timothy and Erastus, two of the other ministers of the church, leave and go into Macedonia to check on other churches. Paul himself is making plans to leave, to go first to Jerusalem, and then he believes the Lord is directing him to go to Rome. And he will eventually go to Rome by the Lord’s will, in the Lord’s time. But he still has a few battles left here in Ephesus that he isn’t aware of yet. They were experiencing perhaps a time of peace. A time of growth. A time when they sat back and were thinking of plans for the future. And suddenly there is a great disturbance that seems to almost threaten the very existence of the church and it’s leadership. We see that expressed in vs.23, “About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the Way.”

No small disturbance is an understatement. It ends up being a city wide riot. The Way is just another way of referring to the gospel. And a riot breaks out in town because of the gospel. Now that speaks volumes about the power of the gospel. It caused a riot. This is no little riot in a back street somewhere, but this thing erupts in the theater, which holds upwards of 25,000 people. So that is some kind of riot.

Now what started this was the gospel had affected the economics of the people of Ephesus. We already saw how a million dollars worth of occultist books were burned in the town square. And in vs. 24 we see that a man named Demetrius, who was a silversmith that made his living making idols of the god Artemis, rallies the other craftsmen of his trade, and those who made their living serving the great temple to Artemis, and he speaks to them a highly inflammatory message.

You should understand that the temple to Artemis or Diana, same thing, was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It was supported by 127 pillars, each 60 feet high, and was adorned with great sculptures. Kings and nations from all over the world actually used this temple as a sort of bank for their treasures under the protection of the goddess. So it was visited by people from all over the world and as such the trade in idols and miniature copies of the temple were a substantial part of the economics of the townspeople.

So there is this great temple, which served to supply not only the religion but the economics of the people of Ephesus. And when the spread of the gospel was perceived as threatening their income, the townspeople revolted, resulting in a riot. They picked up two of the prominent members of the church, Gaius and Aristarchus, and the whole town rushed into the theater, which as I said earlier could hold upwards of 25,000 people.

Now I want to make a point here that I think is integral to understanding the text, but isn’t immediately apparent in our English translations. And that is that Luke uses the word assembly several times in this passage to describe this riot, this huge mob of people who have gathered in the theater. And the interesting thing is that the Greek word translated assembly is the word ekklesia, which is the same word elsewhere translated as church. Luke is calling this mob, this riot a church. And I don’t think he does so without purpose.

I think the purpose of Luke choosing that word ekklesia is because he is trying to contrast the church of our Lord with the church of the devil. And even though the mob does not seem to constitute what we normally think of as a church, I believe it fills the bill on several levels.

I believe scripture makes it clear that worshipping idols is equivalent to worshipping demons. Paul said in 1Cor. 10:19, “What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.” Jesus said that Satan is the father of lies, and so we see here that he even lies to his own people. He disguises himself under the title of a false god, an idol, or a false religion, but in effect they are worshipping demons. 1Tim. 4:1 Paul again equates false religion with demon worship saying, “the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.”

So Satan’s church is not usually advertised as such. To the contrary, it is usually advertised as an arbiter of truth. It’s presented as a means to God, as a means of finding personal happiness and peace. And yet if it is not of Christ, faithful to the word of Christ, then it is of the devil. And consequently, people that worship there are worshipping the devil in ignorance.

So Luke through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is indicating that this counterattack on the Lord’s church is actually of demonic origin, fomented by idol worship and an idol’s temple which serves as the church of Satan, and that brings persecution and trials against the church of God.

Now we’ve read the narrative, and I don’t want to just regurgitate that and call it exposition. But rather I think it would be good to take some characteristics of this event as illustrative of the typical type of counterattack to the gospel of the church. What kind of characteristics are true of false religion. What kind of characteristics are common to the counterattacks of Satan on the true church of God.

First I would point out the monetary motives of false religion. Demetrius clearly appeals to the economic reasons for maintaining their religion. It was a source of great income for the townspeople. They had a thriving business as a result of the temple and idol worship. And so they were motivated by money. Jesus said that money and God are in opposition to each other, saying in Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

And love of money is true of false teachers today. They are always asking for money. They are always using the ministry to defraud people of money. And such were the excorcists we saw earlier in this chapter. Such are the televangelists who promise you blessings if you will send in your offering, while they fly around the country in their private planes. Peter warned about those types in 2Pet. 2:1-3, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” In their greed they exploit you… So that is the first characteristic of false religion, the church of Satan, is money is their motivation.

Secondly, the false religionists appeal to the veneration of edifices, statues, temples and tradition. Notice how Demetrius appeals to the national fervor surrounding the temple of Artemis, the international veneration of her religion, the magnificence of their religion’s prominence in the world due to the splendor and opulence of the temple.

False religions love to emphasize the brick and mortar of their religion. They love their great churches, their vaulted cathedrals. They appeal to your awe to support those great architectural wonders, to give to their building programs, their universities, etc. They focus on the physical structures, but God isn’t there. Paul in his message recorded in Acts 17 said, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.” God dwells in the hearts of righteous men and women, who are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are the true church. No building can contain the God of the universe. But Satan loves to focus our attention on edifices and property and statues, which are nothing more than repositories of idols.

Then closely related to that is the appeal of pride. Demetrius appeals to the pride of the craftsmen, the pride of the Ephesians for their great temple. The pride of the work of their hands. But pride has no part in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Unless a man humbles himself even as a child, he will not be exalted in the kingdom of God.

Then notice in vs. 28, the characteristic of demonic counterattack is anger. They were filled with rage. Christianity makes people mad. Because people don’t like to be confronted with their sinfulness. And they don’t like to have to face the fact that their entire way of life and their entire system is wrong. The more they have invested in the false system the greater their rage against the authority of the Bible.

The gospel is not designed to be a theoretical exercise we do on Sunday mornings only. It’s supposed to impact your livelihood, your day to day life, the way you conduct business. And when it does that, you should expect people to get mad at you. A lot of churches spend a lot of effort to make sure that they don’t offend anyone. But the truth of the gospel is by nature offensive. We should not batter people to death with it, but neither do we try to mitigate the destruction of the defenses it is designed to break down.

Then in vs. 29, we see another characteristic of the demonic church’s counterattack is confusion. “The city was filled with the confusion.” Paul said in 1Cor. 14:33, “God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” Listen, make no mistake; if a church is a place of confusion, it is not a work of the Lord. It may very well instead be a place of the doctrines of demons. God is not the author of confusion in the church.

Paul said that because in the church at Corinth everyone was running around with a word of prophecy, speaking in tongues, singing songs, etc, and there was no order. So if it is true that God is not the author of confusion, then conversely, the devil is the author of confusion. And he especially likes to confuse the gospel, to twist the word, to add new revelations and prophecy to the word. To add words of knowledge to that, and holy laughter to that, and barking like a dog to that, and glitter falling from the ceiling to that, and people falling out on the floor to that, and the whole thing is just one big batch of confusion. And such is not of God. Period.

In vs.32, we see another characteristic of the false religionists, and that is ignorance. Some were saying one thing and some were saying something else. And most of them didn’t even know what they were rioting about. They were just caught up in the euphoria. False religion plays on people’s ignorance, superstition and emotions.

The Bible says that people perish for lack of knowledge. False religions are built on half truths and flat out lies, so there is no truth, no saving truth. Jude warns that those false prophets will be destroyed by the things that they do not understand. “But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.” The church of the Lord, on the other hand, is built up on sound doctrine, and is unified in doctrinal purity, being saved by the knowledge of the truth. God’s word is the truth. It only is reliable, and authoritative.

And the last characteristic of a false religion, of the counter attack of Satan’s church, is closed mindedness. Notice that in vs. 33, the Jews put up this guy named Alexander, who was probably going to try to make sure that the riot wasn’t blamed on the Jews, but when he opened his mouth and they recognized him as a Jew, the whole mob started shouting for two hours straight, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” They didn’t want to listen to anything. They wanted to just shut up any perceived opposition to what they wanted to believe.

I can attest to closed mindedness being a hallmark of the false religions. I’ve noticed that such people often are unteachable. They take their stand on a vision they have seen, or some word of special revelation that they had, or on some experience that they had or what some priest said. And it doesn’t make any difference what the Bible may say to the contrary. They put tradition or experience above God’s word.

Well, this huge assembly vastly outnumbered the disciples. They out yelled them, out chanted them, and just attempted to intimidate the church of Ephesus as much as they possibly could. But Paul wasn’t afraid of them though. He wanted to go in there and face them and perhaps preach the gospel. I would say that wasn’t foolishness of Paul. That was his assurance that God had promised to do certain things in his life, and he was sure that God would keep his promises. God had indicated that he would go to Rome. So Paul knew that if he went in there and it turned bad, somehow God would deliver him.

But God had other plans to deliver His church. And we must remember that God promises to deliver His church from the attacks of the devil, and even from false prophets. Denominations may fall, temples may crumble, church buildings may become vacant, but the word of God will endure forever. Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

So God used an unsaved man to dismiss the mob. He didn’t need to use Paul to do it. God preserved Paul by having what amounted to the mayor of the town come out to the assembly and quiet them down by reasoning with them. He assured them that Paul and his companions had not defiled the temple of Artemis. He said they were neither robbers nor blasphemers of the goddess Artemis. And then he ended up reminding them that there were lawful ways to handle disagreements in the courts, and they were subject to the judgment of the courts as well, if they did not disperse and prevent a riot. So by a miracle, the crowd disperses. After hours of chanting and shouting and so forth, God brings about Paul and his disciples deliverance.

Listen, we need to remember that the battle is the Lord’s. He will fight for us. It is His church. When we try to fight in human means we end up ostracizing the very people were are called to win to Christ. There are surely some things we are to do. But for the most part we are told to stand firm, to speak the truth in love, to be steadfast, immoveable. We are not told to form political action committees or to seek to win over people through legislation or force. But rather we should wait on the Lord. Let the Lord fight our battles while we stand by and watch.

Moses said that very thing in Exodus 14:13, “But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. “The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.”

We need to remember Eph. 6:12 which says, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” There is a good possibility that when John wrote 3John the Demetrius that he mentions there is the same Demetrius that is leading the riot here. If so, he eventually became a Christian by the steadfast, faithful witness of the church. We need to remember that is the goal of our endeavors as the church of Christ.

Satan will rage, and his assembly will attempt to dissuade as many as possible to join their ranks, they will counterfeit the truth of the gospel, but ultimately, the gospel of Jesus Christ will prevail. We need to stand fast in the word of God, stand together as the church of the Lord, and be a witness to the truth of God’s word. And when we do that, the gates of hell will not prevail against this church. Let us be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves, so that we may win the lost.

1Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”