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.”

If you have been attending regularly in our Sunday morning services this summer, then you will know that I have been preaching over the last few weeks about the power of the gospel. I believe that is what Luke, the human coauthor of Acts is attempting to show us about the gospel of Christ. Way back in chapter 1, the Lord tells His disciples that they should wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then they would receive power to preach the gospel and to be His witnesses to the whole world.

So that is exactly what happened. On the day of Pentecost, as the disciples were praying, the power of the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in tongues of fire, and they began to speak in other languages, so that people from all of the various nations in Asia who were attending the feast heard the gospel preached in their own language. A language foreign to the apostles and foreign to the Jews.

Then immediately afterwards, we see the power of the gospel was manifested through the Holy Spirit as He worked through the apostles and dramatically built this great first church in Jerusalem. Then when persecution arose against the church the disciples began to spread out into the surrounding regions, throughout Judea, then into Samaria, and then into the far flung regions of Asia, and eventually even into Europe. And that is where we are today as we look in this chapter. The gospel has been taken by the Apostle Paul into Europe, and we have seen that the power of the gospel is undiminished even among the pagan European cultures.

So as we studied these last chapters we saw that the power of the gospel was able to save. We saw that the gospel is powerful to deliver from illness, it is powerful to deliver from not only the penalty of sin but also from the power of sin, that the power of the gospel is able to refute philosophy and science, that the power of the gospel is able to defeat anxiety and depression, and today we will see that the power of the gospel is able to deliver from demonic forces. The power of the gospel is greater than that of Satan. As 1John 4:4 says, “Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world.” There is no power in heaven or on earth that is able to defeat the power of the gospel. Jesus said, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” There is no power in heaven or on earth that is able to prevail against the power of God.

Now as I said, we are going to see the power of the gospel over demonic forces demonstrated in this passage today. And by way of introduction, Paul is in Ephesus, an extremely evil, pagan culture. One that practiced witchcraft and idolatry and every sort of depravity and sin. But by the power of the gospel Paul was able to establish a great church there which would impact the larger region with the gospel.

The text indicates that Paul started out, as was his practice, teaching in the Jewish synagogue. For about three months they were receptive to him and his teaching. But then as was typical, some of the Jews began to become resentful of his teaching, perhaps even jealous, and began to turn the Jews away from the truth so that they became hard hearted. So it says that Paul withdrew from them and began teaching in a school down the road.

Now we’ve seen this practice a couple of times lately haven’t we? Paul has some initial success, but the religious people start to resent him and are jealous and turn the people’s heart away from the truth, and so Paul leaves that company and goes down the street, or even next door as we saw in chapter 18 and continues to preach to those who will accept his message. We can learn a couple of things from that; one is that we should expect jealousy and resentment when we preach the gospel. We shouldn’t expect cheering crowds, at least not for long. We should expect people to get their feathers ruffled when they start to understand that one of the pillars of the gospel is repentance from sin. And especially when they understand that the sin you are referring to is their own. It’s one thing to speak about sin in a theoretical way, but when you rebuke their sin, then expect some people to get resentful and even try to affect others as well with their resentment.

So Paul met in a school house of some sort down the road and he began to preach daily it says.   Twice in this passage it describes Paul’s preaching as reasoning. I like that. As Peter said in 2Peter 1:16, “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” Peter goes on to describe the message as a more sure word of prophecy, and that prophecy is not of some private interpretation, but based on scripture which is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

There are a lot of so called prophets out there. There are a lot of people that would like to share their interpretations, their wisdom, their knowledge and especially their experiences. Some people love to hear themselves talk far too much. But the true messenger of God will realize that if his words are to have any real power at all, any power to deliver, then they must be the words of God as given in the scriptures by the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

So that is what Paul is doing. He is explaining, he is reasoning on the basis of scripture. That is what we saw Apollos doing in the last chapter. Refuting the Jews by scripture. By the wisdom of God, the truth of God. As Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” The word of God is the basis for all truth, and only the truth of God’s word can truly make you free.

Now Paul was preaching the gospel, the truth of God’s word for two years there in that school. And it says in vs.11 that God was attesting to the word that Paul was preaching by performing unusual miracles by the hands of Paul. Now I want you to notice that word, unusual. These miracles were not the usual, or ordinary miracles that one might expect. They were not only miracles, but were extraordinary miracles. And it goes on to say what these miracles were. There were handkerchiefs or cloths or aprons which were carried from Paul’s body to the sick and the disease or evil spirit went out.

Now let me hasten to add that this is not the sort of thing which you sometimes see on late night television with those televangelists who offer to send you a prayer napkin if you send them some money. Those people are frauds, playing on the superstitions and naiveté of gullible people. But notice that the word says this was God performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. Now why does God work this way at that time but not today? Well the answer is in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, in 2Cor. 12:12, where he said, “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” In other words, signs and wonders and miracles were the peculiar badge of an apostle, the means by which God authenticated their message.

See, God designed that the apostles would be the foundation of the church. That their doctrine, their word would become the written word of God which would be the basis for all that the church would stand upon and become. The church’s foundation is the word of God. And so in order to establish and show that the apostles spoke the truth of God’s word, God authenticated their word by miracles. That is why Jesus performed miracles. Jesus said to the men who brought in the paralytic to be healed, [Matt. 9:6] “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” Christ proved he was able to forgive sins because He had the power to heal.

You might also remember the woman who had hemorrhaging that could not be healed by any physicians, who said if I just touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, I can be made well. And so it was. It was God attesting to her faith in Christ whereby she received the miracle. And then in a previous chapter in Acts we saw that when Peter passed by his shadow falling on sick people caused them to be made well. All of those occasions, as well as the present occasion, were times when the authority of their word as the gospel was in need of being attested to by the power of God as a means of authenticating their teaching.

Now today apostles are no longer on the earth declaring “thus saith the Lord.” God has finished His revelation and it has been written down for us as a more sure word, even as Peter said. So there is no longer any need for apostolic gifts in order to attest to the fact that they were speaking God’s word. So therefore I can say with certainty that those late night charlatans who attempt to bilk old ladies of their social security income are frauds and cheats and there is no divine power in their handkerchiefs.

But I will say, that though God does not work such miracles by the hands of the apostles today, yet God still works miracles according to the dispensation of His will. And furthermore, I will declare that though God does not promise physical healing of every disease, yet God does promise spiritual healing of every sin. That much I know the Bible teaches. The power of the gospel is the power over sin. Paul said in Romans 6:6-7, “that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died [with Christ] is freed from sin.”

So all sin is subject to Christ’s authority, and all power, all angels, both heavenly and demonic are subject to Christ’s authority. And because Paul is the appointed spokesperson of Christ, His true apostle, God delivers people from sickness and from evil spirits even by an apron that Paul had worn which was taken to the sick or demon possessed.

Now I believe that even though the apostolic gifts of miracles has been done away with, because there are no more apostles today, yet there is still promised in the Bible that we can expect God to deliver from demonic influence or even possession. We are not commissioned to start an exorcism ministry. I do not believe that is biblical. But I do believe that God is able to deliver from demonic possession or influence.

Some of you are probably asking how is being set free from demonic influence different than being set free from illness, like cancer for instance? What is the difference? Well, I am glad you asked. Because I believe that the Bible teaches that demonic influence is directly related to sin in an individual’s life, whereas physical sickness in an individual is not necessarily related to sin in their life. (John 9: 2) Physical illness is the result of living in a fallen world, in temporal, human bodies. And God does not promise to deliver us from all physical illness.

But I believe the Bible does teach that demonic influence and possession are related to sin. I believe it is best expressed in the old adage, “if you give the devil an inch, he will take a mile.” That’s not in scripture, by the way. That is just a truism. But it is founded on spiritual principles. The principle is that when you harbor sin, it is corrupting, it is consuming. Sin cannot stay compartmentalized. So when you open yourself up to a sin, even what you might think is a minor sin, the devil uses that opening to get a foothold in your life, and then from that foothold he establishes a beachhead, and from that beachhead he can take over the whole body and soul.

Now that is born out in Ephesians 6:10-12 which says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For 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.”

See, what Paul is saying there is that our spiritual battle is against demonic forces, and to withstand those forces we need to put on the full armor of God. And then Paul goes on to describe those pieces of armor. But here is the thing. What happens when you give in to the schemes or temptation of the devil and deliberately sin, is you have in effect opened up a chink in your armor. Now you have this open weakness that the devil will exploit. And let me warn you of this. That is why it is so catastrophic when a person harbors their sin. Because the devil is going to keep on hitting you in your weak spot, and open up a greater hole there until he is able to completely defeat you and overcome you. That is the reason that it is so destructive to have unconfessed sin in your life. And what is even worse, is to tell yourself that your sin is not really sin. Now you have deliberately given place to the devil in your life, and you are basically quenching the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So when that happens, who is that person worshipping? Well you worship whom you obey. So who is that person obeying? You are obeying the devil. And that can lead to full blown possession in an unsaved person, but even in a Christian it can lead to a destructive influence which can cause your spiritual shipwreck and even physical destruction.

That’s why Paul in Eph. 4:27 warns against sins of anger and lying and stealing and other old corrupt practices by saying “do not give the devil an opportunity.” When we continue in unconfessed, unrepentant sin, then we give the devil an opportunity. We let our defenses down. We open up our armor. And the devil can take that opportunity and work through that sin and bring about all kinds of iniquity, with the ultimate goal of destroying you and your testimony.

I believe that many of the problems that face our society today find their root in a sin problem. Sin is the arena that all societal problems arise from. I’ll give you one very pertinent example and one that I am very familiar with. And that is the problem of drugs in our society. I don’t know if you realize it or not, but there is an epidemic of drug abuse in our culture, and our country is doing nothing to truly address it. Instead we are legalizing it. We attempt to say it really isn’t sin.

I saw an article on Fox News yesterday about the new DEA chief, Chuck Rosenberg, who said that heroin usage was the number one problem in all 21 jurisdictions. It’s use has jumped 150% in the last couple of years and casualty rates doubled as well. In fact, deaths from drug overdoses in America total 44,000 deaths a year, more than car accidents or gun violence. And yet I see more enthusiasm in restricting legal gun sales than I do in addressing drug addiction.

But what I want to point out to you is that the Bible speaks of drug use and equates it with demonic influence. Did you know that? Turn to Rev. 9:20-21; “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

Now I want you to notice the word sorceries. The Greek word for sorcery is pharmakeia. Pharmakeia is defined as the use or administering of drugs, sorcery and the magical arts. You notice it sounds like our word pharmacy which is obviously from where we get that word. Particularly in ancient demonic arts, in witchcraft and sorcery, there was a use of drugs in order to produce spells and so forth.

And what Revelation is saying there is that in the last days, men and women will not repent of their sorceries, or their drugs, nor of their immorality or their thefts. I don’t know about you, but I find that pertinent to my experience with drug abuse. I find that people who experiment with drugs tend to go off into all kinds of perversions, they turn against God, they become interested in dark things, demonic music, demonic influences. It promotes a culture of death. And sometimes I think that it leads to outright demonic possession. But without a doubt, I believe that drug use is a sin that Satan uses to control a person, and ultimately try to destroy them.

But what I want to impress on you today is that there is hope for the those under demonic control through drugs by the power of the gospel. Because at it’s root is simply sin. When Christ rose from the grave He triumphed over sin and death. The hope for this world in all it’s problems, in all it’s addictions, is not more government intervention, or more programs, or more money, or more resources. Those things may have some limited benefit. But the only real hope for the world, no matter how great the problem, is the power of the gospel. Only God can change hearts. Only God can change their desires. Only God can set free those who are held captive by Satan. As 2Tim.2:25 says, “God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”

Once again we see that the power of the gospel is found in the truth of the gospel. Only the truth can set you free. A watered down gospel, a social gospel, a hipster gospel is not able to save. In order for the gospel to be able to save it must be the truth. The truth will set you free. But only the truth, not a half truth. And the devil is always working to water down the truth, to give an alternative gospel. To make you believe that there are different versions of the truth. And that is a lie of Satan.

We see that back in our text. There were these guys traveling from town to town, not unlike some of these healing evangelists that set up tent meetings from time to time. And for the most part they operate on the basis of superstition, or the power of suggestion. I think many of them utilize a form of hypnotism. I have studied these people to some extent, and I was surprised to find hypnotism was a common practice by many of these false teachers.

But there was a traveling family which were the called the Seven Sons of Sceva. These guys were exorcists and they seem to have established a reputation as such and traveled from town to town. These guys were the original Ghost Busters. And it was customary then as it is now to claim all kinds of things as having some sort of demonic origin and they would then produce all these incantations and supposedly cast out the demons for a price and then move on to the next town before anyone was the wiser. But in this situation they actually come upon a truly demon possessed person.

Now they have obviously heard of Paul and his success in casting out demons by the power of Christ. So they say to this demoniac, “I adjure you to come out by Jesus who Paul preaches.” So they are using a formula. A formula of using the name of Jesus to bind a demon. There are a lot of people who claim to bind Satan that way today as well. I would suggest that we have not been given the authority to bind Satan. The Bible says Satan will be bound one day and thrown into the lake of fire. But for now he is loose, and he knows that his time is short, and the Bible says that he goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Jude warns against the folly of thinking you can bind Satan. Jude 1:8-10 “Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 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.”

So we are to be careful not to overstep our authority, or rely upon some incantation or ritual or rite of exorcism. No one in the Bible uses a formula to cast out demons. It is simply the authority of Christ over the demonic realm of sin. That is it. I’ll give you the only formula that Jesus gives. It is found in Matt. 17, a man comes to Jesus and begs him to heal his son who is demon possessed, he says he falls into the fire or in the water, and says your disciples were not able to deliver him. Well, at an earlier time the disciples had been given authority by Christ to cast out demons as they went through the country preparing the way for Him. But this is sometime later, after that event. And the disciples evidently thought that some sort of power to do this resided in them. But they could not cast them out.

So Jesus says, if you say unto this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and if you have the faith as of a mustard seed, it will be done. So here is this mountain, this impossible situation, this demonic beach head, but if you have faith not in your power, or in your word, but in the power of God, it will be cast into the sea. But Jesus adds, but this kind does not go without prayer and fasting. So the formula is intensive prayer, supplication to God that His power would be manifest over the power of darkness. And Jesus says that we have that resource available; the power of prayer combined with our faith in Christ to do what is impossible for men.

Well, these seven sons of Sceva said their little incantation, they said the name of Jesus, the name of Paul, and much to their surprise, the demon speaks back to them. I’m sure he spoke through the natural voice of the person he inhabited; “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” And the demon leaped on them and beat them up and sent them running naked through town.

Now that would have been fun to watch. I would love to see something like that happen to some of these televangelists one day. But here is the result that God used out of this; the fear of God fell upon the town and the name of the Lord was magnified. The townspeople recognized that demonic power was real, they recognized that the gospel Paul was preaching was true, and as a result they did two things.

First they confessed their evil practices, vs. 18. The whole town came out to church and started confessing their demonic practices, their idol worship. And then secondly, that repentance resulted in a change in practice. They brought out their books and so forth of the magic arts and burned them in the middle of the town.   And Luke tells us that their repentance had a price tag on it. I read somewhere that if you were to bring that sum up to modern standards it would be close to a million dollars worth of material that was burned up. We need to understand that; repentance often has a price tag. It costs you something to turn away from evil and turn to the Lord.

Some people here today need to have the fear of the Lord fall upon them. You know, the text indicates that this wasn’t just unsaved people that repented of demonic practices. It was believers, it says in vs. 18. Some of you folks here today may need to confess of some things that are demonic, that are idolatrous. Maybe some of you are holding onto drugs. Maybe you tell yourself it’s natural. It’s not addictive. You think you are in control. But today the Holy Spirit is convicting you of your drugs or perhaps alcohol which really has taken control over you. Satan is taking advantage of that sin, that weakness, and he is going to exploit it until he ruins you. Maybe it’s time for you to bring that and confess it to God as sin, and lay it down, burn it, be done with it and be free from it.

I don’t have time to address all the potential sins that could fall into this category. But I will briefly suggest that perhaps it may be music that glorifies Satan, it could be pornography that gives place to immorality, it could be movies or other media that promotes ungodliness. We could go on and on. The Bible says that whatever is not of faith is sin. I will leave it to the Lord to bring you under conviction of sin this morning. But whatever sin it is, I am here to declare to you that the power of the gospel is able to deliver you from the power of sin, and the power of darkness.

I will close by quoting from Isaiah 61. “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.” This is the favorable year of the Lord. God has provided salvation through Jesus Christ. God is able to deliver you today from captivity to sin. Won’t you humble yourself and pray and seek Hs face today that He might save you and deliver you.

In recent weeks, we have been looking at the power of the gospel. That the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to save from the penalty of sin, to deliver from the power of sin, is able to deliver from fear and anxiety, is able to overcome the wisdom and philosophies of man, and is able to defeat the schemes of the devil. And if you were not here for some of those messages, then I would encourage you to go on our website and read them when you get a chance.

So I will not review all of that today. However, I believe that our text continues that train of thought by elaborating on the nature of the power of the gospel. So what I believe this passage is presenting today, is that the power of the gospel is a person, and the person is nothing less than the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.

Now this text before us today is a very difficult text on several levels. It is very tempting to use this text as a trampoline to go bouncing off in a dozen different directions. And many preachers have done that to their own ruin. But for both clarity and the sake of time we are going to try to avoid tangents this morning. I want to show you from the scripture what I think is the primary message Luke is presenting here. Luke is not trying to teach the doctrine of the gifts of the Spirit. He is not trying to teach any number of doctrinal issues that might be touched on here in this passage. What I believe that the author Luke, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is trying to impress on us, is that the power of the gospel is not some vague purplish blob, like the boy who supposedly went to heaven and wrote a best selling book reported, nor is the power of the Holy Spirit some inanimate force, such as “may the force be with you,” nor can the power of the Holy Spirit be divided up and parceled out. But what Luke is illustrating here is that the power of the gospel exists in the third person of the trinity who is the Holy Spirit; through whom we are born again in our spirit, through whom we are given new life, through whom we are led and taught, and through whom we are empowered to live a godly life for the glory of God.

That is the point of this passage, I believe. It is to remind us of the necessity of the person of the Holy Spirit, without whom we cannot be saved. Listen to how emphatically Paul declares that fact in Romans 8:9 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” Did you get that? If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, then you do not belong to Christ. Jesus said it another way in John 3:5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

So that is the point of this passage, that the power of the gospel is the person of the Holy Spirit, who convicts us, transforms us, indwells us, and empowers us. Now Luke presents two illustrations to emphasize this practical theology. The first example is that of Apollos. First of all, Luke points out that Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria, so he was also a Greek citizen. Now Alexandria had the largest library in the world at that time, about a half a million books. And perhaps that is pertinent because Apollos is described as a man of great learning, an excellent orator, an eloquent man who also was learned in the scriptures.

Notice in vs. 25, it says he was instructed in the way of the Lord, he was fervent in scriptures, and he was teaching about Jesus. Now all that is quite impressive, is it not? An educated man, well spoken, an orator, who had studied the scriptures, and who was a teacher of the scriptures. That sounds like a description of many preachers today, doesn’t it? Surely then we could assume that this articulate, learned man who was teaching about Jesus was a Christian, couldn’t we? I would think that most people would just accept that someone with those kind of credentials was a Christian, a man who was truly saved if anyone was.

And yet, I believe Luke presents him here in this fashion because at this point in Apollos’ life, he was not born again. And the key to that is found in the phrase, he was “acquainted only with the baptism of John.” Now that is another way of saying he was acquainted only with the gospel of John the Baptist. At some point, Apollos had been in Israel and heard John the Baptist preaching the gospel of repentance. To get ready for the coming of the Lord. And Apollos believed and accepted that gospel. He would have been baptized in repentance. But then one way or another, he left Israel before Jesus began His ministry, and he found himself back in Europe. And so as a result, Apollos was still preaching the message of John the Baptist. He must have known something of Jesus, because vs. 25 says “he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus,” but he knew of Jesus only as far as John had presented Him which is that He was the One to come, the Messiah. That means he did not know about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Nor had he any knowledge of the coming of the Holy Spirit with power on the day of Pentecost.

So here is Apollos, probably 15 years or more since Pentecost, in a far away country, still teaching the gospel of John. That Jesus was the coming Messiah. But that was all that he knew. Now he is teaching that at the local synagogue in Ephesus and Priscilla and Aquila happen to be there that day. And when they heard him speaking, they realized that he did not know the full message of the gospel. So they took him aside after the service, maybe they took him home to have dinner or something. But they took him away privately and explained the gospel of Jesus Christ to him more completely.

Now I believe that was when Apollos was actually saved. Prior to that, he had knowledge, but not complete knowledge. He had zeal or fervency for the message he was teaching, but it was not the complete truth of the gospel. And so as a result, it didn’t produce salvation.

That is why I make such a point every week of quoting the words of Jesus who said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” For salvation to be effective, for the gospel to be powerful enough to save your soul for eternity, then it must be the truth. And a half truth is not the truth. Jesus said in John 8:31-32 “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

The other day I hurt my ankle on a rock surfing. And though it wasn’t a terrible wound, it scraped away a fair amount of skin. Now I knew I should stay out of the water until it healed, but I kept going surfing every morning and getting it wet and so of course it got infected. So I went to the doctor’s office and they gave me some antibiotics. Now these antibiotics were like giant horse pills. I got choked up just looking at them. So I proceeded to chop them in half and took them that way. Now just imagine if I had only taken half and threw away the other half. And suppose I continued doing that until I had finished the medicine. Do you think that the medicine would have been effective if I had only taken half of it? No, of course not. It says right there on the label, be sure to finish all medications. If you want to be made well, you have to take the full prescription.

Well, that is exactly what the gospel is like. It is God’s prescription for mankind’s sickness. And our sickness is deadly. The consequences of our sin is death. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” See, the penalty is death, but the antidote is the gospel of Jesus Christ.   And just like with my antibiotics, half a dose won’t save us.

And neither did it save Apollos. Oh, he had some truth. He had the truth up to John’s baptism. But he didn’t have the full truth and so therefore he was unsaved. He had some knowledge. He had fervency. He had zeal. But he was unsaved. And consequently, he did not have the Spirit of God indwelling him.

Now I wonder how many people there are like that in the world today. I wonder how many might even be sitting right here today. They have some truth. They hold to a form of religion. They certainly believe in God. They even know that Jesus is the Messiah. But they have come short of the kingdom of God. They have not truly been set free. They may have a fervency of spirit for religion, but they are still laboring in the flesh to abstain from sin, to be a good person, to go to church on a regular basis. Some may even be a preacher or a priest, teaching the scriptures in ignorance. And yet they are unsaved.

See it was possible that Apollos could believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and yet not have saving faith in what Jesus had come to do. Because the Jews were looking for the Messiah to set up the kingdom of Israel again on the throne of David and kick the Romans out. So Aquila and Priscilla took him aside and explained all the truth of the gospel. They explained that Jesus lived a sinless life, so that He could be the spotless Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world by dying on the cross in our place, bearing our sins upon Himself. And then that those who believe in Him and repent of their sins, will receive the transfer of Christ’s righteousness to them, so that they may become the sons of God, and then having been made righteous, they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who gives us eternal life, who lives in us to guide us and teach us, and empower us so that we might live like sons of God.

Now we know that Luke only gives us a summary here in this passage. But we can be certain that Apollos received the truth of the gospel gladly, because it says in vs. 27, that when he went to Achaia he greatly helped those who had believed through grace.   See, when Apollos understood the full gospel, then he understood that it was by grace you are saved through faith, it was the gift of God, not of works, and so everything clicked into place for him then. And as a result, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, who Jesus called the Spirit of Truth, He illuminated all those Old Testament scriptures that he knew so well and now he was able to powerfully refute the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. That Apollos was now saved was evident because his message evidenced the illumination of the Spirit of Truth, who is the Holy Spirit. That was the evidence of His salvation. And his salvation was made possible by the Spirit of Truth who manifested the truth to him through the scriptures. That is one of the primary jobs of the Holy Spirit as Jesus Himself said in John 15:26,”When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” And also in John 16:13 “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.” That is a characteristic of a true believer, he has an appetite for the truth, he understands the truth, and he is obedient to the truth as revealed in Scripture.

Now the other illustration follows immediately after this passage concerning Apollos, and it is directly related to it. It is unfortunate that some editors separated the chapters at this particular place, because really they should be considered together. Because what we have here in chapter 19 is a continuation. Apollos leaves and goes to Achaia, which is Corinth, and Paul now comes to Ephesus.

And as Paul comes to Ephesus, he meets some disciples. Now the text doesn’t clarify what exactly is meant by disciples. I would suggest that they were disciples of John the Baptist, or even disciples of Apollos who had been teaching the gospel of John the Baptist. Disciple simply means a learner or a student. And many rabbis were known to have disciples. So Paul meets these disciples of Apollos, and he is immediately has a question in regards to their salvation.

So Paul asks them in vs. 2, ““Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.”

So here we have a group of about 12 men in Ephesus, and Paul immediately discerns that something is amiss. So he asks them a strange question; “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Now that is a strange question, isn’t it? Notice he doesn’t ask them, “do you believe in God?” Or, “are you a believer?” But did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

And their answer reveals that they did not, but they had stopped at the same place that Apollos had stopped, which makes sense if they were his disciples. Now in their answer they reveal that they did not even know that the Holy Spirit had been given. I think the translation there is lacking. All Jews that were familiar with the Old Testament scriptures, as these men undoubtedly were, knew about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is mentioned numerous times in the scriptures, starting in Genesis 1 and in the Psalms and Isaiah and so forth. And John the Baptist taught concerning the Holy Spirit. So what they were actually saying was “we do not know whether the Holy Spirit has been given.”

So Paul asks, ““Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” See, they have the same problem that Apollos had. They did not understand the truth concerning the gospel. They had a partial truth which was still just a variation of Judaism. At the point which Apollos left Israel, he had only understood the baptism of repentance, so they were ignorant of the salvation which is by faith in Christ’s atonement. So Paul said, John only preached the gospel of repentance, telling people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is Jesus.

Now again, Luke is giving us the summary of what transpired and we have to fill in the blanks. Paul would have undoubtedly filled these men in on all that transpired since Jesus began His ministry. Namely, His atonement for sin by offering Himself as a sacrifice on the cross in their place, His death, burial and resurrection, and the subsequent gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And just as had happened with Apollos, these men believed, and it says they were baptized once again in the name of Jesus Christ. They had been baptized into John’s baptism of repentance but that baptism did not save them because they did not know and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, but now they were baptized again in the name of Jesus because they trusted in His atonement for the remission of their sins.

So once again, we see a group of people, who were dedicated to their faith, who had a form of religion, who believed in God and even believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but who were not saved. They were still believing in an old covenant theology, which was based on keeping the law and offering sacrifices for sin and basically the requirements of Judaism. They did not know the truth about the gospel of God that states God put the penalty for our sin upon Jesus, and transferred His righteousness to us by the gift of God to those who have faith in Christ for their salvation.

And Paul would have told them that is not the end of salvation. That is merely the new birth which is brought about through the agency of the Holy Spirit, who then indwells the believer, giving him the power to be transformed, and giving him the power to live the life that the Spirit instructs us to live. That is why Paul prefaced the conversation by asking, “did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Because new birth is impossible without the agency of the Holy Spirit. Because the power of salvation is through the agency of the Holy Spirit. And the evidence of our new birth is manifested through the Holy Spirit.

See, the Spirit within the new believer writes the laws of God upon their hearts and minds. That is what Hebrews 10:15-17 says, “And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, ‘THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,’ He then says, ‘AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.’” So the action of the Holy Spirit upon the believer will be manifested by a new heart, by a new mind, by a desire for the things of God, by a desire to do the will of God.

Listen, I want you to understand this much if you don’t understand anything else today. I want to suggest that there are a lot of people running around today in the “church” that sort of act like disciples. They have a knowledge about Jesus but it is an incomplete knowledge of the gospel. They have a belief in God. They may be fervent in their faith. But they do not have the evidence of the Holy Spirit in their life. They do not have the witness that they have received the Holy Spirit in their life. And consequently they are not saved.

They do not have the witness of the Holy Spirit because they have no interest in keeping the law of God. They show no evidence of becoming conformed to the image of Christ. And very importantly, they do not know the complete truth of the gospel. I’m afraid that for many people today they have been deceived. They have a partial gospel, which really is not the gospel at all. Listen, if the gospel has been watered down or emasculated of it’s full truth, then the sad fact is that it cannot save. A half truth amounts to just a whole lie.    And the devil is very talented at presenting a lie as a partial truth.

There are a whole lot of lies out there today masquerading as the gospel, and much of it is being taught in our mainline churches. The half truths being taught today may be a little different than these twelve men were guilty of. But the end result is just as damning. I think the big lie today is a complete neglect of the doctrine of repentance and the doctrine of sanctification. One cannot exist without the other, but in most cases today neither is being taught. The other false doctrine is just as damning, and that is that all you have to do is believe. Believe what is up in the air. It is presented as if it’s a personal choice what you want to believe about God or Christianity. That you can somehow believe whatever you feel is right, whatever you want to believe, and as long as you’re sincere, God will accept you. But I am here to tell you today that if you harbor any of those half truths, then you cannot be saved. The truth will set you free, but a lie that robs the gospel of the truth will damn you to hell. And that has always been Satan’s strategy ever since the beginning. Jesus said in John 8:44, “[Satan] was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Well, thankfully the 12 men recognize the truth of the gospel as taught by Paul, they believe it, are baptized in the name of Jesus, and they are immediately indwelt by the Holy Spirit and are given public evidence of it. Vs. 6, “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.”

Now I don’t want to take the time this morning to teach the doctrine of spiritual gifts, of which this text is often used as a jumping off point. I just want to emphasize a few things that I think are Germaine to the main point here. First of all, note that the Holy Spirit is given to them immediately upon salvation. There is not some extended time where they have to seek for the Holy Spirit. Remember what Jesus said, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he is not of Christ. So these men are saved by Christ, they are baptized in Christ’s name, and so there is an immediate indwelling of the Holy Spirit who then gives evidence in a public manner of their salvation. Not only as a visible confirmation that they were saved, and that they were now part of the body of Christ, the church. But the Spirit also gives them gifts so that they might be a witness to the power of the gospel.

Wasn’t that the promise of Jesus concerning the Holy Spirit which is recorded in Acts 1:8? Jesus said, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” So from the very beginning the power of the Holy Spirit was intended to make us powerful witnesses for the gospel to the whole world.

Now here is Paul and these 12 men, in the farthest reaches of the world, in Europe, in Ephesus, and the Holy Spirit is going to make them a powerful witness to the gospel. And so the Holy Spirit does that in two ways. Two distinct gifts. They are not the same gifts ladies and gentlemen. They are two gifts. The first is that of speaking in tongues. And for an explanation of that I would just point to 1Cor. 14:21-22 which says, “In the Law it is written, ‘BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME,’ says the Lord. So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.”

So what is that talking about? Well it is saying that tongues are not designed to be a secret prayer language to God which no one understands. But they are designed to be a sign to unbelievers. And that was what happened at Pentecost, if you will remember. There were Jews there from every nation in Asia and they all heard the gospel being spoken in their own language.   And by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers they heard the gospel being taught in their own languages, and yet they would not accept the word of the Lord so that they were saved. So then the first witness is given to the Jews. These twelve men are Jews and they are probably in the Jewish synagogue when this happens. So the Holy Spirit replicates the speaking of tongues or foreign languages that happened at Pentecost to be a sign to the Jews there of the power of the gospel.

And then the second gift is that of prophesying. Prophesying means to stand before the people and declare the word of the Lord. It’s not necessarily future telling, it’s forth telling. It’s speaking the word of the Lord, or explaining the scriptures. Now we don’t know exactly what these men said, but we do know that Paul said in 1Cor. 14, that tongues were a sign for unbelievers and prophesy was a sign for believers. So in some way, this prophesying edified the believers in the church by either expounding the scriptures through the power of the Holy Spirit, or by revelation of as of yet unwritten truth of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So the point being, that the salvation of these 12 men resulted in an immediate indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and that empowered these men to be His witnesses of the gospel to unbelieving Jews and to edify or build up the believers in the church. That is the evidence of the Holy Spirit that we still have available to us today. He empowers us to be His witnesses. He enables us to be able to preach the word. He gives us understanding of the scriptures as illustrated by not only these men but by Apollos. Ultimately, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, our Helper, who empowers us as He leads us and guides us as we walk by the Spirit of God in this life of faith.

So in conclusion, I would reiterate the same question to you that Paul asked of the 12. Have you received the Holy Spirit when you believed? Is there any evidence in your life that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you? Have you ever received new life, new desires, a new heart for the things of God? Have you the evidence of the Holy Spirit within you as you read the word of God? Does He reveal the truth of God to you through the scriptures? Or do you find the Bible dull and incomprehensible?

I would suggest that if you find yourself today with a knowledge of God, and a zeal for religion that prompts you to attend church and to try to live godly, but when you honestly consider it, you know that you don’t seem to have the power or even the desire to live the life of godliness, that there is no evidence in your life of the Spirit living in you, and you are not a witness for the gospel, then I would suggest you seriously consider this question. Have you received the Holy Spirit when you believed? Because He is the power that works within us, for the Holy Spirit strengthens us with power in the inner man, that we might know the love of Christ, and be filled up to all the fullness of God. Listen, that same Holy Spirit is available today, for everyone who believes by faith in Jesus as their Savior and Lord and repents and turns away from his sin. He is the power of God unto salvation. He is the power who works mightily in us. I would urge you to call on Jesus to forgive your sins and save you and fill you with His Spirit, to change you and make you a child of God, today. Today the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. Do not quench that calling of God. Today is the appointed day of salvation.

There comes different seasons in the life of every Christian of which some are harder to bear than others. And one such season is a time of weariness, of fearfulness, or even depression. Sometimes they are all of the above. Most often they come after an extended time of spiritual battle. Sometimes that may be compounded by physical trials such as sickness, or marital problems, or difficulties with children, or financial problems. I have known them all at one time or another. And chances are that if you are willing to admit it, if you are human and not some sort of avatar, then you have been subject to such times in your life as well.

There are a few sanctimonious types out there that will try to lay a guilt trip on those poor souls that are already discouraged, and say that such feelings are sinful. I do not agree. I think that they are indicative of our fallen nature. They are indicative of our human limits, our finite understanding. But as Paul said in 1Cor. 10:13 there is “No temptation [that] has overtaken you but such as is common to man; but 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.” In other words, such trials are common to the human condition.

And Jesus took on human flesh that He might be sympathize with our weaknesses, did He not? He suffered in all points like as we do, yet without sin. Notice, it says He suffered. Even for Christ, life was not a constant, cloud 9 experience.

I must confess I found myself in a sort of depression this last week. For some reason I started remembering hurtful things from the past, I started comparing myself with other preachers, other pastors, comparing our church with other churches, and horror of horrors, started looking at old facebook pictures of times gone by and people that are no longer with us, and before I knew it I was in a funk.

So I found today’s message particularly apropos to my own particular situation this week, and I have the sneaking suspicion that not a few of you folks have been dealing with anxiety and depression lately as well. So I am hopeful that this message will resonate with you, as it did with me, and that you will be encouraged as a result of being here this morning.

Now as we look at this passage we are going to have to go beyond this particular group of verses if we are really going to understand the context. What is not readily apparent is that as Paul finds himself now in Corinth he is suffering from a sense of fear and anxiety and even quite possibly depression. And that is born out by his letter written to the Corinthians sometime later when he describes this time when he first came to them. In 1Cor. 2:1-5 Paul writes, “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”

So Paul was weak (which usually indicates an infirmity), he was in fear, and in much trembling. And he had every right to be anxious and fearful and even a bit depressed. After all, he was once again alone. He has spent years laboring faithfully for the gospel all over Asia and now into Europe, and yet he found himself alone in Athens, and now alone again in Corinth. His message had been rejected out of hand by the Jews time after time, he had been stoned, he had been beaten, he had been locked up and run out of almost every town he had been in. And now here he is again, starting over again in a strange town, in a foreign culture, probably sick and no one was there to stand with him in this great battle he was waging for the kingdom. Not only that, but he now finds himself having financial needs which are not being met and so he has to go to work as a tent maker in order to support himself and yet is still trying to preach the gospel whenever possible.

I want you to know that many great preachers and prophets of God have found themselves down in the dumps, dealing with anxiety and depression. It is a common malady of those who are in a spiritual battle day after day. Moses was often discouraged in the desert during the 40 years of wandering. David was often depressed and anxious. You should read the Psalms of David if you are feeling anxious and depressed and you will find a kindred spirit in David. Elijah was so fearful at one point that he started running and didn’t stop running until he had gone 100 miles, and then he got depressed and despaired even of his life and asked God to take it from him. John the Baptist was depressed after spending his life in service to God only to find himself in a prison waiting to have his head cut off. Martin Luther said, “Because I seem to be always strong and merry, men think that I walk on a bed of roses, but God knows how it is with me.” John Calvin was so fearful that he did not want to preach but to hide in his studies. The great Charles Spurgeon was depressed and anxious especially towards the end of his life. And I could go on and on.

So I say all that to say to you today that are suffering from anxiety and depression; it is not a sin, what you feel is not a sin. What you may do as a result of your feelings may or may not be sin, but simply to feel fearful or depressed is not a sin. It is human to feel. And chances are the more you are trying to live for the Lord the more such feelings are going to be part of your experience.

The good news is that God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, but will provide a way for you to endure it. And that is exactly what we see illustrated in this passage in the life of Paul. God is going to help Paul. He knows that Paul is His man, His apostle. And so God gives Paul 5 things to encourage him. Five things that should also encourage us as we deal with the spiritual battle around us and the resulting anxiety and depression that are often the result of such battles.

First, God sends Paul some companionship. When you are sick or fearful or anxious or depressed, God provides the fellowship of other believers to be an encouragement to you. And that is the first thing that we see happen with Paul. He is in this corrupt, foreign city, where he knows no one, and somehow, God brings these two mature Christians to become his companions and co-laborers. It’s not clear when or how Aquila and Priscilla are saved, or how they came to meet Paul. But one thing is clear, they became dear friends of Paul and were a great encouragement to him at a time when he desperately needed fellowship and help.

My thoughts are that they were already established, mature Christians who had been saved in Rome, and when Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome they ended up in Corinth just in time to meet Paul. They had a common background as tent makers or leather workers. The word could be translated either way. But the point is that they took Paul into their home. They showed him hospitality. They shared with him their resources. They became his family in the Lord in a strange city.

You know I can attest to the value of sweet fellowship of a couple of mature Christians that have come alongside us in our ministry and showed us friendship and hospitality at a time when we most desperately needed it. Aquila and Priscilla became the pillars of the church there in Corinth, which was a great help and encouragement to Paul. And I would just point out the obvious, that perhaps that is your calling as well. To step up in the church and become the pillars, the mature Christian man or woman that is dependable, that is faithful, that stands with the pastor and church as partners in fellowship. So then for all of us, God has provided encouragement through the companionship that we can find in the fellowship of believers in our local church.

And then the second way that God brought encouragement to Paul was through the coming of Silas and Timothy. Now it would have been very encouraging just for Paul to see his two close friends and coworkers again. But I think there is more to the story than what is presented here.

In 1 Thessalonians 3 we read that Paul said he had sent Timothy from Athens to the church in Thessalonica in order to see how they were doing. And so now when Timothy comes to Corinth he gives a glowing report about the churches in Thessalonica and how they were growing in the Lord. So Paul is encouraged by Timothy’s report as he says in 1Thess. 3:6, “therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you an all our affliction and distress.”

Silas on the other hand had been in Philippi checking on the churches there. Paul writing later to the church at Philippi in Philippians chapter 4 says “When I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me as concerning giving and receiving but you only.” So they had taken up an offering and sent it to Paul by way of Silas in order to support Paul’s missionary journey. So Silas came to Corinth with a love offering for Paul, and Timothy came with a good report of the churches. So obviously it was a great encouragement to Paul.

Now one very practical reason that Paul was encouraged was because he now had the resources to be able to stop working as a tentmaker and devote himself fully to the Lord’s work. Vs. 5, “But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word.” You know, it can be discouraging for a pastor to have to work on the side in order to provide for his needs. It isn’t that a pastor is above doing manual labor, but the Bible makes it clear that he is to get his living from the church. Paul wrote later in 1Cor. 9:14 “So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.” But when that fails for whatever reason, it is yet another way for the devil to attack God’s servant and make him feel that he isn’t as good a preacher as he should be or some other such thing in order to discourage him.

I can attest to the great encouragement that we have received from people like those Philippians, people that don’t live here, yet from time to time they send an offering to support this ministry. I can assure you that if that wasn’t the case, then there would have been many a winter that would have done us in. So God uses the love offering of others as an encouragement to Paul, as well as the testimony of the perseverance of the saints. As the Apostle John said, in 3John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” That is a pastor’s great joy to know people he ministered to are still walking with the Lord. And on the other hand, there is no greater disappointment than to see people who you invested so much in fall away from the faith and make shipwreck of their lives. So God can use you to be an encouragement to others not only by your giving, but also by your testimony of faithfulness.

Thirdly, God encouraged Paul by giving him some key converts. When the Jews in the synagogue began to resist the gospel and blaspheme in vs. 6, Paul shook their dust off his cloak and said “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” You know, there are going to be people that reject the gospel. Far more in fact will reject it than accept it. And when they do some of them will undoubtedly become the enemies of the gospel. They may not see themselves that way, but that is exactly what they are. There are people in this community that are so incensed about what I am preaching that they will go out of their way to call or email or even visit people in this church and try to turn them against us. There are people that try to replicate what we are doing and hold their own services on the beach as a means to upset us and demoralize us. Yet I have to remind myself that they did it to Paul as well. That is part of the spiritual battle we are in.

But Paul says I am done messing with you. From now on I go to the Gentiles. And so he goes right next door and starts preaching in the house of Titus Justus whose house literally butted right up against the synagogue. So Paul begins to preach in the house of Justus as the synagogue is going on next door. And Paul probably was a really loud preacher like I am, and his voice must have been easily heard next door in the synagogue, because it says that the leader of the synagogue, Crispus, becomes saved. And not only was he saved, but so was his household as well as many others who heard Paul preaching. I can imagine the whole synagogue standing with their ears against the wall listening to Paul preach to the Gentiles on the other side. And the amazing result being that the people in the synagogue end up believing and are saved.

I have been told I have a loud voice. I have had a number of people tell me after a service that they were a couple of blocks away and they heard my message as clear as a bell. I can’t help but wonder how many lives have been impacted with the gospel by someone hearing it without actually sitting down here in front and joining the fellowship.

But the encouragement that really warmed Paul’s heart was seeing people come to know the Lord. Whole households came and then followed the Lord in baptism. To me that means that they were discipled. They were responsive and obedient to the gospel. Just a few weeks ago we had 7 people baptized here on the beach. Three of them were adults from one family. Two others were a husband and wife. I am so encouraged when I see families follow the Lord together. That is the pattern very often intended in scripture. Some one here today might come to be saved during this service and they might be the catalyst for their whole family coming to know the Lord. I hope so.

Fourthly, God encouraged Paul with the word of God. This is one we all can definitely benefit from. Vs. 9 and 10, “And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, ‘Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.’”

Now this is so rich I am going to have to break it down into 4 parts. The first part is this; “do not be afraid, for I am with you.” Oh folks, if we could just really get the principle into our heads that God is with us then it would remove so much fear and doubt. Lately I have been using Psalm 23 as a prayer guide. And when you meditate on the fact that the Lord is your shepherd, that He is with you and guiding you and protecting you in everything you do, then all sorts of comfort begins to open up to you.

God said Paul you are not alone, I am with you. And if you are God’s child, then you are never alone either, God is with you. I am comforted when I think of my kids out in CA, they may be out of my reach, but they are not alone, God is with them. When you consider that God is with us, no matter where we are, or how difficult the situation, that our powerful God of the Universe is with us, then that is an immense comfort. I would like to quote part of Psalm 139, which I would encourage you to bookmark in your Bibles to turn to in time of distress and depression.   It says, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,’ Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.” If you are a child of God, then the Lord is with you. That is your strength and comfort no matter what happens. Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

The second part of the word of the Lord is “don’t be silent, but keep on preaching.” I love that. Sometimes I hear the devil say in my ear, “you know if you just lightened up a little people might like you more.” “ Try telling a few jokes. Take some time off. Stop being so serious. Stop preaching repentance so much.” But God said, “don’t stop preaching.” Keep on preaching the gospel until God calls you home. And God will take care of the results.

The third part of the word of the Lord is, “no one can hurt you.” I like that. I’m not going to worry about some crazy person cutting short my ministry. I’m not going to worry about the government shutting us down. I’m the servant of the Most High God and He will protect me and keep me until He is done with me. And nothing can hurt you if you are the Lord’s child. Jesus said in John 10:28 “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

And the fourth part of the word of the Lord is, “I have many people in this city.” I love that. I love how that echoes what God told Elijah the mighty prophet of God when he became tired and scared and depressed to the point where he ran 100 miles and then despaired even of life. He wanted God to take him out. And God said, I have 5000 men in this place that have not bowed the knee to Baal. God has people who don’t know yet that they are God’s people. They don’t know yet that God has laid claim to them, chosen them before the foundation of the world. God has elected them to salvation and yet they are unaware of it at this point. But God knows, and He wants Paul to be encouraged because He has a plan to bring them to Christ.

So that is the encouragement of God through the word. And we have that same resource. We may not receive visions in the night from God, but we have, as Peter said in 2Pet. 1:19 “So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.” What Peter is referring to as a more sure word than the word of visions, is the written word of God. It is inspired by God and sealed by God and refined as pure silver. And it is written down for us that we might find encouragement and a word from God at any time, day or night.

Finally, the fifth way God brought encouragement to Paul was in defeating his enemies. You know, you can’t preach the gospel for 9 years in this town without creating some enemies. The gospel of God is offensive. And sometimes I have to restrain myself from wrestling against flesh and blood, if you know what I mean. But it is an encouragement to know that God is fighting for us and God has a way of vanquishing our enemies while we stand by and watch. I have to remind myself to let God fight my battles. When I do I find we achieve a greater victory I could have ever done if I tried to do it in the flesh. And that is exactly what happens with Paul.

One day when he is preaching, the Jews come in force and drag him off to the procounsel who was named Gallio. And they trumped up some charges against Paul saying that he was teaching things contrary to the Law. But just when Paul is about to open his mouth, God stepped in and intervened. Gallio basically dismissed the case. He said he wasn’t interested in judging matters about their religion. In other words, Gallio just gave Paul the green light to be able to preach the gospel without fear of the Jews taking him to court. Gallio is saying religion needs to deal with religion, we will not judge that in this court. And he ordered them out of his courtroom.

Now that was a great victory in and of itself. But the really cool part from my perspective is the prosecutor, the head of the synagogue, gets beat up by the rabble from his own group. They turn on the synagogue official and beat him up right there in the court, and Gallio could care less. So here is Paul, who is usually the one getting beat up in a courtroom or getting lashes or whatever, standing there watching his opponents not only defeated, but publicly humiliated and beaten for good measure.

But there is really another side of that story which is even more remarkable. Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, is publicly beaten, but it only serves to beat some sense into him. Some how or another, Paul must have reached out to this beat up enemy of his, Sosthenes, and led him to the Lord. Because listen to what he says when he writes the church at Corinth later on; 1Cor. 1:1 “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth.” Sosthenes may have been beaten up and kicked out of the synagogue by his own people, but he was saved by the very gospel that Paul was preaching and led to the Lord by the very man that he was persecuting.   What a testimony that is. And what an encouragement that ought to be to all of us when we are faced with enemies of the gospel. We do not know the way God will work in the lives with which we are connected with. But we need to stand fast and wait and see the salvation of the Lord.

So it says in vs. 18 that Paul remained in Corinth many days longer. His ministry was fruitful. It wasn’t completed until God said it was completed. And that is our encouragement. God has called us to ministry. Each and every one of us is called to participate in the ministry of the kingdom of God. And if you haven’t found your place of service in it yet then you need to do so. You may not be called to leadership. You may not be called to be an evangelist. But maybe you have been called to be a Pricilla or Aquila. Maybe you have been called to be the pillars of your local church, to support your pastor, to use your resources in business or in your home to minister to the needs of the church.   Or maybe you are called to be like the Christians in Philiippi who purposefully supported the work of ministry with their offering even while actively engaged in their church at home. Or maybe you just need to be encouraged today by a word from the Lord, that He will never leave you nor forsake you. That He is always with you. That no weapon formed against you will prosper. That no one can harm you if you are doing the will of God.

Or maybe you are one of those people who don’t know yet that you are the Lord’s. You haven’t yet made a confession of your faith, haven’t yet publicly committed your life to Christ and followed the Lord in baptism and joined with the local fellowship of believers. Maybe you have been hanging around the outskirts of the fire, realizing that the gospel is the source of light and life, but as of yet not committing to come in to fellowship with Christ. I hope that today is the day you surrender to give yourself wholly to Him who is able to save you and make you a part of His body and give you the encouragement of the hope of eternal life.

Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the power of the gospel to save, even to the uttermost regions of the world. We saw in chapter 14 the miraculous power of God to heal the lame man as an illustration of the power of the gospel to give life to that which was not. And we saw the power of the gospel in chapters 15 and 16 as it confronted demonic possession and idolatry in pagan societies, resulting in transformed lives and churches being formed in formerly dark cultures.

Today, we will see the power of the gospel in even advanced civilizations. In all the world, there was no place more considered the cradle of civilization than was Athens. It was the birthplace of intellectualism; of education, philosophy and the arts and sciences that was unequaled in the world. It was the home of such fabled philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Seneca. It gave birth to the sciences of medicine and art and literature and reason and architecture that are still studied in arenas of higher learning today.

Now Paul finds himself in Athens at this particular time alone. He has left Silas and the rest of his entourage in Berea. In Berea the Jews had stirred up the crowds against Paul and the church there had sent Paul away to Athens because they were afraid for his life. So as Paul is waiting for them to join him he begins to walk about the city and in so doing he becomes provoked in his spirit by the hopelessness presented by the pagan idolatry of this city.

It was said that the city of Athens was so filled with statues of idols that it was easier to find a god than a man. One estimate was there were 3000 idol statues or temples that were erected in the city on public property, not including the private buildings which had idols as part of their architecture. So as Paul walks around the city he is struck with the propensity of false religions that abounded at every turn. There was an idol of a god of every possible sort, even the foreign gods of other nations were to be found there, as one writer puts it; “their hospitality to strangers extended to the gods too, being very ready to receive any strange objects or forms of worship.”

I think it is possible today to see a parallel in many cities in America to Athens. New York or Los Angeles for example are centers of fashion, of entertainment, of great architecture, of great institutions of higher learning, of the latest technology and science. And furthermore, in spite of the moral decline in America, there is still virtually a church on every other street corner in most cities across our country. Though America was once thought of as a Christian nation, it cannot be said to be anymore. But as America has become the melting pot of the world, we have assimilated the religions and philosophies of the world, just as the Athenians did, so that you are likely to see every possible religion represented in the average city.

So I want us to keep that perspective as we study this passage today. Because the gospel is not just some ancient, out of date, out of touch religion that was only valid many centuries ago. But I would like to show that as the gospel was powerful to save even amongst the advanced civilization of Athens, it is powerful to save as well today. As Hebrews 13:8 says, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is powerful to save everyone, and it is relevant to every culture, and every civilization.

Now as it says in vs.16, the spirit of Paul was provoked as he observed this city full of idols. That means he became exasperated as he saw all these idols. Because Paul knows that they are powerless, that they are false gods that have no power to save, no power to deliver, and he is exasperated at this culture and the hopelessness of their religions. So he begins to preach the gospel. That is the answer to the exasperation we may feel about our culture, by the way. The answer is not politics, it’s not philosophy, it’s not cleaner water or better housing or education. But the answer to the hopelessness of civilizations, the hopelessness of Chicago, or inner city Baltimore, or the ghettos of New York City, is the message of the gospel.

So true to his custom, Paul begins with the Jews. He seeks out some God fearing Jews and proselytes who had a synagogue there in Athens. And he begins to share the truth of the gospel with them. Then he goes into the marketplace and begins to proclaim the gospel with people that he met there. See, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel, because he knows it is the answer to the problems of the world. It is the antidote that the world desperately needs. That is why he would later say in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation, to every one who believes, to the Jews first and also to the Greek.” Paul was proving that statement right there in the marketplace, in the public arena of Athens, the heart of civilization.

Now as he is preaching the gospel, certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers hear him and converse with him, and they are intrigued by his message. Some say, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” And others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

Now I don’t want to bore you with a philosophy lesson so that we might know exactly what Epicurean and Stoic philosophy taught. I am not here today to teach philosophy. I don’t propose to be an expert in philosophy. I propose to know only Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I know Him to the be truth and the life. I don’t need to study philosophy to be able to debate with philosophers. I need to study the scriptures, even as the Bereans who it says in vs. 11, who proved their nobility because they eagerly searched the scriptures to see if these things were so, and were convinced because of the authority of scripture.

It’s like the old adage about counterfeit money. Experts in detecting counterfeits do not study counterfeit currency. They study authentic currency and become so familiar with it that they can easily spot a fake. So it is with human philosophy and false religions. I hardly need to waste my time trying to keep up with it all. I just need to spend time studying the truth and then I will not be fooled by false religion.

But suffice it to say that Epicureanism and Stoicism are but twists on the same old lies that Satan has been selling since the dawn of creation and is still selling today under different titles. As Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun. The devil just keeps repackaging the same old lies for each new generation. Epicureanism acknowledged existence of a type of god, but they denied that they had any power or control over nature. They believed that life ended with death, and so their motto was to “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” They loved pleasure and considered happiness the highest goal of man.

Today that view is very much in vogue. Modern man may tolerate a view of god to some extent, but they don’t see much evidence of him, they don’t believe that he can really affect the events of the world or do anything to help us. And so the average person on the street is living for today, living for pleasure, living for things that they think will make them happy. They tolerate religion, but they haven’t got much use for it.

Stoicism believed in a multitude of gods. It was called pantheism. That accounted to some degree at least for the thousands of gods displayed in Athens. And a parallel to Stoicism in our society is the view that all roads must lead to god. What we call God, someone else calls Allah, another calls Buddha, and so there is not one way to God but many. All are right, therefore none can be exclusively right.

Now there were a lot of variations on each philosophy, but both were at odds with the gospel. These philosophies were popular among the intellectual elite, especially among the people of Athens. And so some proponents of these philosophies ask Paul to come to Areopagus, or what was also called Mars Hill, where there was a council of judgment so to speak, made up of philosophers who judged every new philosophy. This was the same court that condemned Socrates, and was responsible for his execution five centuries earlier. By this date their judicial powers had begun to wane, but they still had the authority to debate philosophy and render decisions, and it was to the very spot that Socrates had been summoned that Paul found himself ready to give his defense of the gospel.

But notice how boldly Paul proclaims the truths of the gospel. He is not speaking here to men who knew the scriptures. He was speaking to men of science, men of the arts and letters, at the greatest institute of learning in the world and which is still revered today in educational circles. And yet he unapologetically preaches the gospel. Because he knows that philosophy cannot save, science cannot save, the arts cannot save, and false gods cannot save. There is only one power that can save, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that is what he preaches.

Now I would point out that what we have here before us is only a synopsis of Paul’s message. I think he would have expanded on many points that we see just briefly touched on. But Luke gives us an outline of his message, and I would like us to look at it, so that we might know how to present the gospel in a pagan culture, and even in a hostile culture. Both of which I believe our present culture is fast becoming.

First of all, note that Paul said in vs. 22, ““Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.” Notice that Paul is respectful in his opening remarks. He is trying to win them to the gospel, not to repel them or even condemn them. I think that is far too often the course of evangelists today who try to interact with the culture. A couple of weeks ago I was watching online a surf contest in Huntington Beach, CA called the US Open. And it’s always a huge event, with hundreds of thousands of people and exhibits and so forth. It’s hedonism at it’s worst. And there are always these people there at this event that hold signs and so forth and basically picket the contest, and the signs and the message they present is typically one of condemnation and impending judgment on immorality and so forth. I don’t think that they are serving the cause of the gospel in that way, but only serving to further alienate those they are supposed to be reaching. Paul will speak of the coming judgment as well. But he doesn’t open up with it. He speaks of a commonality that they have between them. Paul was certainly very religious. It occupied his every waking moment. So he builds a bridge to them by acknowledging their obvious zeal for religion as well.

But in the Greek language, Paul uses a word which classifies their religion as having more of a superstitious nature. And that was evident in the pantheism of Greece. They did not know for sure what to believe, so they believed everything, and worshipped every so called god.

Now it is necessary that we come to believe in the existence of God; that God is. The Athenians had come to believe in a form of god. To recognize that god is, that he exists. And that much is true and necessary. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” So it is good and necessary to believe that God exists. But that alone will not save you.

Because Jesus added that those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. So we must not only believe that God is, but who God is, and what God says. That is what it means to believe in God. To believe in who God truly is, and what God truly says concerning Himself and our relationship to Him. If God is real, then He cannot be the object of our interpretation, or of our creation. We must worship Him in truth, or we do not worship Him at all.

So Paul says, you know it’s great that you guys are very religious. It’s evident on every street corner in Athens and in all the temples in this city. But I have to tell you the truth about your religion. Your belief is based in superstition and ignorance, and I want to explain the truth about God to you. So in vs. 23 Paul says “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.”

And this is a brilliant tactic on the part of Paul. He takes what they worship, what they agree already exists and is deserving of worship, and says I am going to explain this God to you.

Now there is an interesting side note about this unknown god that should be explained. And that is that several hundred years before there had been a plague in Athens, and the people of the city believed that the plague must have come upon them because a particular god was angry with them. But they had no idea which god. They had thousands of gods represented in the city. So they came up with a plan, which was to drive a flock of sheep into the city and they supposed that the offended god or gods would draw the sheep to them and then they would offer them as a sacrifice to that god. So as the sheep moved around and settled down in the city, if they laid down near an idol, then they sacrificed those sheep to that idol, believing that the offended god had drawn them to him. But there were some sheep that laid down in an area that did not have a idol in that spot, and so they built an altar there to the unknown god and sacrificed those sheep to that unknown god. So that is why there were altars to unknown gods throughout Athens.

So Paul capitalizes on this desire to appease an unknown god, their recognition of a God beyond their pantheon of known gods, and he appeals to that interest. He says what you have been worshipping in ignorance I will proclaim to you. He says, I want to introduce the unknown God to you.

So in vs. 24, Paul says I want to introduce this God to you. I want to explain who God is. Who is He? Well, first of all, Paul says, He is the Creator. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Paul didn’t start quoting from Genesis 1:1. But I don’t know that for sure. However, we do have the synopsis of what Paul said in vs. 24, “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.”

First point then is that God is the Creator of the world and all things in it. If you have been in our services for the last few weeks, then you know how often I have recounted the power of God as expressed in creation. God is the creator of the earth and the seas and the heavens and all that is in them. This is such an amazing statement and it is echoed in the scriptures so many times I cannot possibly recount them all. That is why the theory of evolution is so damaging folks. Satan struck a mighty blow to the church in America when he prevailed in the evolution debate and gained the education system of our schools and universities. I am convinced it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in creation, but the fact remains that our children are indoctrinated in it from the time they are toddlers. And as such, the gospel has lost one of it’s greatest testimonies as to who God is. Because according to Romans 1, the creation testifies of the invisible attributes of God.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, the fact that we cannot ascertain the fact that the earth is spinning at 1000 mph, and traveling through it’s orbit at 67000 mph, does not invalidate the facts of science that it is indeed traveling that fast. But for you sitting here today, it is virtually undetectable and cannot be ascertained by normal means. And in the same way, the God who made the world and everything in it can not be seen or felt or ascertained through human measurements, but He is and He exists and by His power all things have their life and being, whether or not we can deduct that through human senses or not. It takes just as much faith to believe science as it does to believe in God.

But that knowledge of God as our Creator is really the foundation of our faith. When we come to accept Him as our Creator, as the maker of everything, as the originator of everything, then we can come to the point of knowing God and knowing the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. If we believe in God who holds the earth in space and made the sun and the stars and who made all life, then it is but a small step to believe that He has the power to save and deliver man from sin and death. So Paul says that the unknown God is the Creator of the world.

And then secondly, Paul says, this unknown God is Lord of heaven and earth and consequently does not dwell in temples made with hands. I wonder if Paul would have quoted Isaiah 66:1”Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest?” So God is not only Creator, but Lord of all. Oh, that is where most people fall away, is it not? This would have been the point that the Athenian philosophers would have started to squirm. They were willing to recognize this unknown God, but they would have a hard time confessing Him as Lord of all. That there could be no other god before Him. Jesus, who was the physical manifestation of God would say in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Ouch! Paul’s judgment panel of philosophers probably winced at that one. He is Lord of all. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Confessing God as Creator, but as Lord of all, our Master and the Ultimate Ruler of all is the foundation of our faith.

Thirdly, Paul says not only is He Creator and Lord, He is the Giver of life. Look at vs. 25, “nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.” What Paul is teaching there is nothing less than the doctrine of the grace of God which is necessary for salvation. We cannot give God anything. He needs nothing. He is all sufficient. He is all powerful. He made everything on earth, so He owns everything. And there is nothing that we can give Him to endear ourselves to Him because He needs nothing.

But rather God is the giver of all life. James 1:17 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” He causes it to rain on the just and the unjust, so that as the scriptures say, the kindness of God calls them to repentance.

Next point in Paul’s sermon was that this unknown God controls man and his destiny. Vs. 26, “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.”

The point being that man is made for God, to know God and to have a relationship with Him. He made all the nations of the earth from the first man, Adam, with whom that relationship was broken through sin. But because God gave us the second Adam, even Jesus to be our substitute, we can have that relationship is restored. Augustine said in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” There is a God sized hole in every heart, which we cannot fill with anything other than Christ. Nothing else satisfies. And so God in His providence and grace, so orders the human psyche so that they should seek Him and turn to Him.

Then the last point describing this unknown God that Paul makes is that God is a revealer. God reveals Himself to those that seek Him. Jeremiah 29:13says “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” And Jesus said in Matt. 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Paul is making the point that as you see God in Creation and recognize Him, and as you understand that He is Lord of all and bow to Him, and as you realize that He is the source of all life and goodness and so seek Him and come to Him, then He will come to you and reveal Himself to you that you may know Him. That we might know Him that is Unknown. He has announced Himself in creation. He has manifested Himself in Jesus Christ. And He has revealed Himself in His Word. He is the Revealer of Truth as we are obedient to the truth that is revealed thus far.

That is the progression of the gospel of salvation. That we recognize the truth up to the point that it has been revealed to us, and then we are obedient to that truth, and then the Holy Spirit will continue to lead us and guide us into all truth.

And then like all good preachers, Paul quotes from a poem. For some reason or other, I haven’t advanced in my preaching to that point of habitually quoting poetry. But Paul quotes from two poets actually, Greek poets, not Christians by any means. But nevertheless Paul uses them to make a point and drive it home with these intellectualists. Vs. 28, “for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’” Now that poem was attributing that characteristic to a heathen god, but Paul is using it to say that your own poets have said that we have our being and life from God. And though you do not know this God, this Creator, this Lord of all, yet He is the source of all life, even eternal life, because He is the eternal God. And we are made in the image of the eternal God. In His likeness, in His image, we are made to be like Him, to be in fellowship with Him, and that fellowship is the source of eternal life and eternal joy.

See how high Paul sets the standard for God? It is not the purpose of man to live only for human pleasure, to live and let die, or to stoically endure the ups and downs of life without hope of eternity and without knowing the God who made them for His fellowship. To live that way is to live in darkness, to be blinded and miss out completely on the purpose of life.

So then Paul wraps up his sermon in one great sweeping closing argument, saying in vs.29 “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

Paul is contrasting the infinite God who is the Creator, the Lord of all, the Giver of life and the revealer of truth, to their finite dumb gods of stone and wood and metal, the image of God formed by the art and thought of man. This is the idol of our age; that we form god in our image, according to what we think God is or should be like. We define Him and box Him in, and minimalize Him with one word descriptions like “love” and say whatever does not fit our description cannot be God. And so we worship nothing more than an idol of our own design.

But Paul then inserts the other doctrine of the gospel. The first doctrine he presented was the doctrine of faith, was it not? Believing God is, and who God is. That is faith. But as I have said over the last couple of weeks, there are two pillars of the gospel. There are two elements of believing the gospel. One is faith, but the other is repentance. That is renouncing sin, renouncing idols, turning away from darkness and following God. That is repentance. So Paul says in the time past you were ignorant, but now God declares that all men are to repent and be saved.

This is the other great stumbling block to virtuous, religious and intellectual people. They want to philosophize about God and religion, but they do not want to repent of their sins. This is the stumbling block, the offense of Christianity. When we recognize who God is, and what we are; sinners. Outside of the fellowship of God. Unable to ascertain God. Unable to give God anything with which we may barter for our salvation. But utterly dependent on His grace to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And then Paul presents the judgment. Paul saves judgment for last. Because the judgment is the last part of the gospel. It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. If you reject the free gift of God, if you reject the saving antidote for deadly sin of which we all are guilty, then the judgment will be that we will be forever separated from God who is the source of all life. And that results in eternal damnation for those that reject God’s gift.

Paul said that God will judge the world through Jesus Christ, whom He appointed to be our Savior, and furnished proof by His resurrection from the dead. And when the philosophers in this great university of higher learning heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but some others said we will hear more from you later. And I think that is very much the case today. Some hearing this message will sneer and think it foolish. Others will be convicted or perplexed and say I’ll think about it. Maybe I’ll decide later. But chances are they will let the moment of decision pass away.

But I pray there will be someone here today like the men and women in vs. 34, who believed and followed Paul. That is what it takes for salvation. To turn away from false idols, from false relgion, and turn and believe in the true God revealed in His word, and then follow Him as you are taught the truth in His word. I pray that you will believe in the God of the Bible, accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord, and follow Him today.