SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of Acts, chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to cover today, bless your Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 21, beginning in verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to go through all the way through 22, verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, I'm not going to be able to preach every single verse here.
SPEAKER_00: We're coming to a part of the book where it's going to be a little bit redundant.
SPEAKER_00: All beautiful passages.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to summarize a lot of this, but on each of the passages for the next several weeks, we'll be pointing out one specific thought, generally speaking.
SPEAKER_00: So Acts chapter 21, beginning in verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: If you have it, say amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: One of the main differences between failure and success is perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Any athlete will tell you that, any business owner will tell you that.
SPEAKER_00: In 1930, Colonel Sanders took over a service station where he began serving that now famous chicken recipe to weary travelers.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, it didn't take long for that restaurant to completely fail.
SPEAKER_00: And Sanders lost almost everything.
SPEAKER_00: But this was one determined man.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted, I mean, he believed in this chicken and he wanted the world to know that chicken.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what he did.
SPEAKER_00: He began traveling the country, sleeping in his car, trying to find someone who would sell that chicken.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted a franchisee.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know that it is reported that he was rejected 1,09 times across the globe before he found that first franchisee?
SPEAKER_00: And do you know that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we know the story now.
SPEAKER_00: It started with that one.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that happened when he was in his 60s.
SPEAKER_00: He stayed with it that long and he created an empire.
SPEAKER_00: There are now over 30,000, I think, KFCs across 150 countries and territories.
SPEAKER_00: Now I tell you that to just I want you to think about this.
SPEAKER_00: What if Colonel Sanders would have stopped at rejection number 10?
SPEAKER_00: Would have been understandable.
SPEAKER_00: Or what about 100?
SPEAKER_00: Or what about 500 broke and sleeping in his car?
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if he would have stopped at 1,09.
SPEAKER_00: But thank God he went to one more person.
SPEAKER_00: And that changed his life in the world forever.
SPEAKER_00: So success came to Colonel Sanders not simply because of his chicken that's finger-licking good, but because of his perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's relate that to the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: How many know that uh through many dangers, toils, and snares, the Christian life is lived?
SPEAKER_00: And it can be difficult and we can be, you know, hated on and misunderstood and all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, the Christian life is not really about how you start, it's about how you finish.
SPEAKER_00: It's a marathon.
SPEAKER_00: And we are called in our Christian life, we're called to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: Today I want to preach a message entitled Faithfulness Despite Adversity.
SPEAKER_00: Because perseverance is not optional.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read you Matthew 24, 13.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Himself says, the one not who starts off well, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: So we are saved, or we have been saved, we are saved and we will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That final salvation is inheriting the earth, essentially, uh ultimate salvation to be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: But the person who is finally saved is the one who perseveres to the end.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to tell you, we live in a post-Christian culture, really more accurately, a post-Christendom culture.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not the cool kids anymore in this country.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we used to really be respected Christians, but day by day the hate for us is getting worse and worse, more intense, let's say.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what the future holds, but if it continues on this trajectory, here's what I believe one day we'll lose our tax exempt status.
SPEAKER_00: One day I might even be in prison because for preaching the gospel, because that will one day, it's close now, be considered hate speech.
SPEAKER_00: We got to prepare.
SPEAKER_00: So I we've been looking for several months now at the story of Paul as he has gone throughout um Asia Minor and Europe, and it's it's a crazy story.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he is persecuted at every turn.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what?
SPEAKER_00: Beaten, imprisoned, falsely accused, mocked, scorned.
SPEAKER_00: He was stoned and left for dead.
SPEAKER_00: Some scholars think he died and Jesus raised him.
SPEAKER_00: But I love Paul because Paul has continued to be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I would have been in those moments tempted to quit.
SPEAKER_00: But you never get that sense with the apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: So here we are again in another passage in chapter 21 where Paul is in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit has led him to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: We saw this a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: And all the Holy Spirit said to Paul is this.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say what he's going to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You're, oh, by the way, you're going to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Like, imagine if God puts that call in your life to go somewhere, to go to some mission field.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'm not going to tell you what you're doing there, but here's the word of the Lord for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be awful in some ways.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul goes because he's faithful.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm willing to lose everything and even die for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He says that in chapter 21 earlier on.
SPEAKER_00: So now Paul is in Jerusalem, and let's look at verse 27 together.
SPEAKER_00: When the seven days were almost completed, now Paul had been with James, the brother of Jesus, half-brother of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And James said that some of the Jewish Christians were kind of upset with Paul, assuming that he didn't want anything to do with the Jewish traditions anymore.
SPEAKER_00: So the elders of the Jerusalem church.
SPEAKER_00: So listen, Paul, uh, we've got four guys here that are partaking in this what's called a Nazarite vow.
SPEAKER_00: And their vow is almost up.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I think you should do: I think you should go into the temple, and uh I think you should pay for these men's sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the vow ended.
SPEAKER_00: And that would have been very costly.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, then the people will know hey, I'm pro-Jew, I'm pro-tradition, Jewish tradition, I'm pro-Moses and the law.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul does this.
SPEAKER_00: So it says, when the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, so these are not the Christian Jews, these are unbelieving Jews that met Paul and ran Paul out, tried to kill Paul actually in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: And they said that seeing him in the temple, they stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think was laying hands to pray.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted his life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here we go again.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it never lets up, guys.
SPEAKER_00: He's been in Jerusalem like a week and trouble finds him.
SPEAKER_00: Did anybody ever feel like that?
SPEAKER_00: Like everywhere you go, you're like, new job, great.
SPEAKER_00: Man, the old one, it was rough.
SPEAKER_00: And then three days later, the honeymoon period's over and trouble finds you.
SPEAKER_00: It comes knocking at your door.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And so they bring these Jewish non-Christian Jews, bring these false accusations against Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what they're saying.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Crying out, men of Israel, help! Dramatic munch.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, really, this is the man who's teaching everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Like they act like he's some kung fu master or something.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul.
SPEAKER_00: This is the man who's teaching everyone, listen to these accusations, everywhere against the people and against the law and against this place.
SPEAKER_00: That would be the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, he brought Greeks into the temple and he has defiled this holy place.
SPEAKER_00: So three accusations here.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, Paul's against the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, is that true?
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is himself a Jew, and he loves his Jewish people so much, in fact.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read you just quickly, Romans 9, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Paul says within the context of the Jews who have rejected Jesus and are therefore forfeiting salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he writes: For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: This is his Jewish brothers, his Jewish family.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I would give up my own salvation if that were possible, because I want them to be saved so greatly.
SPEAKER_00: So my question is this who's turning their back on who here?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Paul's there to so that they might find salvation.
SPEAKER_00: They're there to kill Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Accusation number two, uh, Paul's against the law.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're saying.
SPEAKER_00: That one of the rumors, we saw this a few weeks ago, is that uh he forbade circumcision, which was the covenantal sign of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, they said, well, he just doesn't want them to follow the law at all anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But as we saw a few weeks ago, it's not the case.
SPEAKER_00: Not the case.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, what Paul said was that the Gentiles, and this was decided at the Jerusalem Council, the the Gentiles, non-Jewish believers, don't have to be circumcised because they are brought into God's family not by this covenantal sign, but by grace through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they don't have to become Jewish in order to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul did not tell the Jews, well, you can no longer circumcise your children anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he said: he says, circumcision nor uncircumcision count for anything.
SPEAKER_00: You want to circumcise your children, you have that conviction, do it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't, don't.
SPEAKER_00: But neither of them count for anything.
SPEAKER_00: What matters is the circumcision of the heart, that your heart is pierced by the Spirit, that you are born again.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you get saved.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a rumor that is simply not true.
SPEAKER_00: And then number three is that Paul is against the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is really uh comical to me.
SPEAKER_00: Where is Paul at right now?
SPEAKER_00: The temple.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, he has just paid for four men's sacrifices, and he himself went through purification rituals when he went into the temple.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, the reason Paul went was in a hurry to get back to Jerusalem was because he wanted to celebrate Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why, by the way, these Ephesian, these Asian Jews are in there in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He's not against the temple.
SPEAKER_00: The charges are outrageous and bogus.
SPEAKER_00: So why would people be saying this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, look at verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, with him in the city.
SPEAKER_00: They supposed that Paul brought him into the temple.
SPEAKER_00: So they said he defiled the temple by bringing this Gentile into the inner courts, which Gentiles were forbidden to do.
SPEAKER_00: Paul didn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if the if the Gentile went in there by the law, it would be the Gentile who would be executed, not Paul.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to just point out a word in that verse, two words.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: They supposed.
SPEAKER_00: Every accusation here, you know what it's based on?
SPEAKER_00: It's based on assumption.
SPEAKER_00: I would just argue that we've got a guard from assuming things about people without finding out the facts.
SPEAKER_00: Has your name ever been tarnished at all?
SPEAKER_00: Because someone assumes something about you that wasn't true.
SPEAKER_00: These assumptions here, there's no investigation.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Paul's in the temple, have a conversation with him.
SPEAKER_00: None of that, just assumption.
SPEAKER_00: And the assumptions lead to when you read the text, mob violence, they they literally form a mob, attempted murder, they're trying to kill him, and imprisonment.
SPEAKER_00: All because of assumption.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to encourage you this morning, never ever be like these people and assume something about someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Take time to find out the facts.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine uh that uh a church member sees another married man from her church out to eat with a beautiful woman who is not his wife.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And the church lady just kind of sees them through the window, and she thinks, oh we don't have any church ladies like this in the church, do we?
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
SPEAKER_00: She goes to a prayer meeting.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's never gossip because I just have a burden.
SPEAKER_00: Just have a burden for this person.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's a disguise, ladies.
SPEAKER_00: I just tell you, I've never heard men do this.
SPEAKER_00: Umbody has tomatoes, do they?
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
SPEAKER_00: This lady, this lady goes and she spreads these rumors.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I just care so much about him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: I have his poor wife.
SPEAKER_00: Come to find out a month later, maybe, or a week later, or days later, after his reputation's been tarnished, find out this is his estranged sister.
SPEAKER_00: Come to build a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Or let's let's do another one.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, uh, Jared, do we can we put that movie?
SPEAKER_00: Would it be too much to put that movie picture up again?
SPEAKER_00: If it is, just tell me.
SPEAKER_00: You remember the movie picture that was up there for Young at Heart?
SPEAKER_00: So somebody in here sees that and they don't understand AI and they see Jan sitting between two uh two men.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, don't assume anything.
SPEAKER_00: That picture is bogus.
SPEAKER_00: All right, there it is.
SPEAKER_00: Nikki saw that and she goes, Bud's gonna wonder who those guys are, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get involved in assumption and gossip and slander.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord hates it.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the other thing.
SPEAKER_00: You can take that picture down there.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you won't hear anything else I say.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the other thing.
SPEAKER_00: We listen, don't we do this with politicians?
SPEAKER_00: Don't we don't we spread news articles that we see uh about, you know, if you're Republican, you do this about Democrats.
SPEAKER_00: If you're Democrat, you do this about Republicans, um, or sometimes people of your own party.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when when we don't actually know the facts.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you I hope you don't engage in that type of behavior, but I want you to know if you are a Christian in this day and age in this country, false assumptions will be made about you because people are out to destroy you and to destroy me in our testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself was falsely accused.
SPEAKER_00: So that's you, like you are in good company.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read you Mark 14, 55 and 56.
SPEAKER_00: Now the chief priest and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death.
SPEAKER_00: Watch this, but they found none.
SPEAKER_00: For many bore false witness against them, and the testimony did not agree.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's what people will do.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, people are watching you.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you better watch and guard everything you say, everything you do, because non-Christians, some of them, are looking, waiting for you to fail.
SPEAKER_00: But here's you know this.
SPEAKER_00: When they can find nothing, they'll make stuff up because they want to destroy you.
SPEAKER_00: That's tragic.
SPEAKER_00: Prepare for that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, faithful Christians would be called hateful and intolerant and exclusive, and that's that's so bogus.
SPEAKER_00: We're called to love not just the people who love us, but our enemies.
SPEAKER_00: We're not exclusive.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is the only absolute inclusive religion in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Every other religion says you do this, you do this, or you do this, X, Y, Z, A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, and then perhaps you can get to heaven or have salvation or whatever the religion is offering.
SPEAKER_00: But that means that only the most capable and moral people can make it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what Christianity says.
SPEAKER_00: It says we're all messed up and none of us can make it by merit, but Jesus Christ died for you and me, no matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, no matter your past, no matter your present, if you will come to the cross, to the feet of Jesus, you can be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's inclusive.
SPEAKER_00: And then they say, Well, you're intolerant because we stand for biblical truth.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know what's funny about this?
SPEAKER_00: These extremists who say, Well, you're intolerant, they claim to be tolerant, right?
SPEAKER_00: But if you're intolerant of intolerant people, that's what they call us, then you're not tolerant.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about it.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So we need to, how do we respond?
SPEAKER_00: How do we respond when accusations are made against us?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's look how Paul responds.
SPEAKER_00: He responds in with faithfulness, despite adversity.
SPEAKER_00: Paul remains faithful to God and to his calling, regardless of what happens.
SPEAKER_00: He's first, we see he's faithful to God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Paul could have grown bitter by this point.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, don't we expect sometimes when we're following God's law or his the Bible, his word, and we're following, trying to walk in God's calling, that things might just go pretty well for us.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes when you do that, one thing happens after another, and you start to question God.
SPEAKER_00: Some people shake their fist at God.
SPEAKER_00: Many people in those moments, they do not stay faithful to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Many people, when trouble comes, it's like they can't take it and they walk away.
SPEAKER_00: But watch this Matthew 13, 20 and 21.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus has just told the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_00: And he talks about the seed of the gospel falling on different types of soil.
SPEAKER_00: And in the in the parable, he illustrates in one of those scenarios that when some profess to receive the gospel, it says they even receive it with joy, but then tribulation and persecution comes and they fall away.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a there's a man, let's see, I think his name is Demas in the Bible, that his love for this world, he walked away.
SPEAKER_00: Says he's no longer with us because he loves this world.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, we need to prepare for tribulation and persecution because it's coming.
SPEAKER_00: I hope it's not uh to the point of what they're experiencing on the other side of the world, because I don't even like comparatively to call what we're going through persecution.
SPEAKER_00: But but there are people in here who have lost their jobs because of their faith and their biblical convictions.
SPEAKER_00: That's only going to get worse.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's this rapture idea that says that people think that, you know, before it gets too bad, that they're just gonna be poof, taken away, because God would never let them go through suffering.
SPEAKER_00: The whole book of Revelation is about suffering and persecution.
SPEAKER_00: The whole thing is about that.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole message is to the churches stay faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Don't take the mark, don't go with the world to make your life more comfortable, persevere to the end, even if they kill you.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh, you know, tell somebody on the other side of the world, like the dozens of people in Nigeria and that now probably hundreds who have just been beheaded because of their faith.
SPEAKER_00: You think they're saying, Oh, God's not gonna let us go through anything.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: We need to prepare for it, but we've got to prepare so that we know we've got to hang on to the Lord, we've got to hang on to faith.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is faithful to God, but then he's faithful to proclaim Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: Paul has just been taken out by a Roman commander from the temple because they're ready to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: This commander would have been over a thousand.
SPEAKER_00: And troops, and he's kind of a serious guy.
SPEAKER_00: And he takes Paul to the barracks.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul actually says, He's like, Um, hey, you know that mob that was trying to kill me?
SPEAKER_00: If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd like to address them.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy acquiesces, he finds out he's actually, you know, Paul's a Jew himself.
SPEAKER_00: And then so Paul actually gets to address the mob.
SPEAKER_00: And when Paul does, he's brilliant.
SPEAKER_00: He starts speaking in Hebrew, their native language, to identify with them.
SPEAKER_00: And they a hush comes over.
SPEAKER_00: Hush comes over them.
SPEAKER_00: And watch this.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he shares.
SPEAKER_00: He'll eventually share the entire gospel with them, but he he does this in a little bit different way.
SPEAKER_00: You know what Paul gives them?
SPEAKER_00: He gives them his testimony.
SPEAKER_00: And I and he intertwines the gospel in with it.
SPEAKER_00: But watch this, this is so cool.
SPEAKER_00: He starts out, he he he gives three this uh testimony in three movements.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, his life before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 3 in chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to these Jews who are not Christians.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, Jerusalem, educated at the feet of Galamiel.
SPEAKER_00: I always say his name wrong, the most respected rabbi of the day, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: So he said, Listen, I was trained under the best of the best.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, he's like, I followed the law to a tea all 613 commandments.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'm zealous for the law.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.
SPEAKER_00: These Jews who rejected Jesus and want to kill Paul, they think they are doing so for the name of God.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, watch this, he says, I was just like you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how I love this.
SPEAKER_00: In verses four and five, he said, I persecuted this way.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Christianity was called, the way.
SPEAKER_00: All right, to the death.
SPEAKER_00: I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear witness.
SPEAKER_00: From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed towards Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them to bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to totally wipe Christianity and all of Jesus' followers off the map.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: This is brilliant, and this is helpful when you share Jesus with somebody.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, you know what, here's what you need to know that you've sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: He says, We've sinned.
SPEAKER_00: We've all sinned and we fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: That disarms people.
SPEAKER_00: So we're not coming in to conversations with unbelievers with this posture of moral superiority.
SPEAKER_00: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_00: When we come to believers, the broken and the sinful, it's a good thing to say, I might not be guilty of exactly what you're guilty of, but I was a sinner like you.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we call this church real life community church.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm tired.
SPEAKER_00: I was tired of going to churches and being part of churches where everybody in the church acted like they were okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's only after I left, you know, I grew up in a strong, powerful, wonderful church.
SPEAKER_00: But growing up, I thought I was the only one with issues.
SPEAKER_00: And oh, I found out a few years later, especially after Facebook came about.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was good compared to them.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I found out.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Don and Lynn are starting this marriage matters class today.
SPEAKER_00: And I encourage you to go and be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: And Lynn was in the kitchen and she told me before, she said, I'm going to start by telling our story that after 22 years of marriage, we separated, and there's a lot to that.
SPEAKER_00: And can you imagine reliving that over and over again?
SPEAKER_00: How painful that must be for them?
SPEAKER_00: I've heard the testimony over and over and over.
SPEAKER_00: Why do they do it?
SPEAKER_00: Because they want you to know, those of you who might even be struggling in your marriage, they want you to know it's not been easy for us either.
SPEAKER_00: We've messed up too.
SPEAKER_00: But by God's grace, God can work a miracle in your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul, he identifies with them by saying, Listen, I the same thing you're wanting to do to me, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to kill Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Probably more than you.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I went to Damascus looking for them.
SPEAKER_00: Bring them back to Jerusalem so that they could be imprisoned.
SPEAKER_00: So he moves from his past to his encounter with Christ that we read about in Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: So here's 22 verses 6 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I was on my way and drew near to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: So again, he was going to kill Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, About noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me, and I fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: And I answered, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, I'm Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_00: He tells these people, Listen, I didn't believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I thought the resurrection of Jesus that people were talking about was hogwash.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought Jesus was leading people away from God.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was just like you.
SPEAKER_00: I rejected it all.
SPEAKER_00: I hated this person called Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But I was on the road to Damascus and I encountered the risen Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I and the implication is this this Christ that you've denied, he actually is who he claimed to be.
SPEAKER_00: And he actually is raised.
SPEAKER_00: Like the grave really couldn't hold him.
SPEAKER_00: This is the best news of the world to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on in verse 16, and he says, Um, you know, that the offer was made to him.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Why do you wait?
SPEAKER_00: This is uh uh Ananias there, the the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: He he says, Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.
SPEAKER_00: Paul encounters Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, could you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, I've been killing the Messiah's people.
SPEAKER_00: And then, but but he's offered by grace from this prophet.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Listen, your sins can be washed away.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says, be baptized, wash your sins away, calling upon his name.
SPEAKER_00: And here's again the implication.
SPEAKER_00: You who are so far from God, you you thought like I was that you're close to him, but your hearts are far from him, and you are persecuting your own Messiah in the king of the world, the king of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: But I've got great news like me, you can call upon his name, be baptized, and have your sins washed away.
SPEAKER_00: What an offer! And you know that people are still up to this point?
SPEAKER_00: Man, they're taking this in.
SPEAKER_00: The mob is pretty quiet, but it all changes when he talks after that about his life after meeting Christ, particularly about his calling.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This is Jesus' words to him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Jesus told me to go, for I will send you far away to whom?
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where the crowd goes a little bit crazy.
SPEAKER_00: It erupts.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews, you if you don't know this, I'll just give you a quick synopsis.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews despised, generally speaking, the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles were considered unclean, that the Gentiles could not fully go into the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a lot to that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, now, God's plan from the beginning was through Abraham's lineage to save both Jew and Gentile, but the most of the Jews had forgotten that.
SPEAKER_00: Even Peter had forgotten that.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says, Listen, um, so Jesus saved me, but uh, by the way, you know where he sent me?
SPEAKER_00: He sent me to the Gentiles, those people whom you despise.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, the Samaritans.
SPEAKER_00: You know what they felt like?
SPEAKER_00: Why did they get so angry?
SPEAKER_00: They felt like Paul changed teams.
SPEAKER_00: They felt betrayed.
SPEAKER_00: And I get this.
SPEAKER_00: You know, last season, if you're a Kentucky fan at all, you know this, John Calipieri left the left the Kentucky basketball team.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody got a Kleenex to go to Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00: And many fans had grown to despise Cal and his coaching style and all this.
SPEAKER_00: They were just done, and uh, I was not one of those, but um they were the majority of Wildcat fans, and so they were quite happy about his departure quit.
SPEAKER_00: You know what they didn't like though, the fans, what upset them wasn't that Caliperi left.
SPEAKER_00: It's that Kentucky players and new recruits went with him.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't there to play for Kentucky, they were there to play for Cal.
SPEAKER_00: And so you had players, current players like Fiero and Wagner, and recruits like Knox and Richmond who've just been unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: And they come that first time last year.
SPEAKER_00: Remember this?
SPEAKER_00: Arkansas comes to rub, and Kentucky fans blowed these college students.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: People thought, man, this is really mean.
SPEAKER_00: They felt betrayed.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's what's happening to Paul here.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to know this.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you might come from an atheist family or an agnostic family.
SPEAKER_00: You might have friends who hate Christians, and you might have been right with them, you know, maybe on the campus or at your job or just people you hung out with.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know, listen, when you come to Christ, when you came to Christ, I promise you some of those friends felt betrayed.
SPEAKER_00: I just know of a husband and wife who were staunch atheists, and the husband came to Christ, and his wife just felt so betrayed because they came into the marriage with these shared values.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing when that happens, you've got to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say, Well, I don't I don't want to lose these relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said if you do not hate brother, sister, mother, father, friend, whatever, and he doesn't mean literally hate them.
SPEAKER_00: It's if you do not love me more than all these people, you're not worthy to follow me.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul loses the many of the people that he loves, these relationships, but he remains faithful.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to close just very quickly because we're gonna talk more about this in the weeks to come.
SPEAKER_00: I want to look at the result of this adversity.
SPEAKER_00: So you got adversity, you got Paul staying faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Now watch the result.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews begin shouting again, right?
SPEAKER_00: And they want, they they want uh Paul gone, they want him dead.
SPEAKER_00: It actually says wiped off the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul reveals that he's uh to the commander, by the way, the Roman commander gets him again.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Man, we gotta uh we we gotta beat this guy and whip him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it that's what the commander says, because we it's kind of like black site, uh CIA black site.
SPEAKER_00: They want to whip him and get information out of him.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta figure out why he's stirring up so much trouble.
SPEAKER_00: But then they find out Paul's a Roman citizen, born in Tarsus, and they go, uh oh, there's a process.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be in trouble with Caesar if we do this.
SPEAKER_00: So so Paul um he is chained, he is taken to the barracks, but he he's not whipped.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but here's the thing that I want you to see.
SPEAKER_00: All this is gonna continue to happen, imprisonment after imprisonment, trial after trial, but the gospel has never stopped.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, it it's a it's a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: How does the gospel do you remember Jesus in Paul's call?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he said He goes, You're gonna go to the Gentiles, which Paul's already done, to Kings, you're gonna stand before kings to preach about me, and to the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in the next chapter, we'll look at this God willing next week.
SPEAKER_00: He's in front of the Jewish council, and he's just been preaching to a mob of Jews.
SPEAKER_00: How's he gonna get to kings?
SPEAKER_00: Through chains.
SPEAKER_00: The chains, the imprisonment will actually lead him all the way to Caesar himself.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the thing: when people come against you, when they try to take your job, when they try to take your health, when they try to take your money, your family, your reputation, know this.
SPEAKER_00: They cannot take your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And they cannot stop the gospel from going forward.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the outline of the rest of the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in Acts 22 and 23, Paul's before the Jewish council.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts 24, he's before governors.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts 25, he appeals to Caesar, and in Acts 28, he proclaims the gospel in Rome, which in that day was considered the ends of the ancient world, the ends of the earth, the good, the great commission uh that was given particularly to the disciples, is finished.
SPEAKER_00: How does it happen through change, through adversity?
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul stays faithful.
SPEAKER_00: That's the biblical pattern.
SPEAKER_00: This is the story of Joseph, the story of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about this.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest evil ever committed was the crucifixion of the Son of God, but yet it became, it is through that horrible sin, that atrocity, that we have salvation.
SPEAKER_00: What the enemy means for harm, God means for good.
SPEAKER_00: All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a man by the name of Rich Richard Wormbrand.
SPEAKER_00: He was a Romanian pastor, and he was imprisoned under communist rule in 1948.
SPEAKER_00: He was tortured in prison repeatedly.
SPEAKER_00: I mean brutally tortured.
SPEAKER_00: Fourteen years he was in prison for preaching the gospel, often in solitary confinement.
SPEAKER_00: And he was beaten for preaching Christ in prison.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm I'll preach Christ out here, you arrest me, I'll preach Christ in prison.
SPEAKER_00: And he was beaten repeatedly for it.
SPEAKER_00: But let me give you his own words.
SPEAKER_00: He said, it was strictly forbidden to preach about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of silencing him, here's what it did.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what his adversity did.
SPEAKER_00: Prisoners were converted.
SPEAKER_00: He later founded this wonderful um magazine that's still published today called The Voice of the Martyrs.
SPEAKER_00: His testimony strengthened persecuted believers and has continued to do so around the world.
SPEAKER_00: And the underground church, the secret church, grew stronger.
SPEAKER_00: Communism tried to crush the church, but it only refined it.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot stop God's purposes.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel will continue to be moved forward when God's people continue to be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And that happens, by the way, by the grace of God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: So here's my final words to you: prepare yourself for adversity.
SPEAKER_00: It's coming.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm, trust God, proclaim Christ, endure to the end.
SPEAKER_00: Your adversity may be the stage of your greatest witness.
SPEAKER_00: The path to fulfilling your calling, the means by which the gospel advances.
SPEAKER_00: Faithfulness despite adversity is one of the marks of a true believer.
SPEAKER_00: My final word to you is this endure.