Witness Pt. 19

A study into the book of Acts with Pastor Jesse Carr

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Well, every day at Mud Creek is a good day. But this one's just a little bit better than others. And I thank the Lord for the privilege of being here this morning. Take your Bible, if you would, please, and join me in the New Testament book of Acts, chapter number nine. Acts chapter nine and verse number 23. Acts chapter 9 and verse number 23. Every Tuesday afternoon at 1 o'clock, we have a staff meeting here at Mud Creek. We meet on the third floor in our conference room, and all of our staff gets together, and we do the kind of things that you would expect to happen in a church staff meeting. We plan ministry events, we talk about recent things that have happened, life in the church, even how we're going to coordinate and plan worship services week to week and all those sorts of things. And I want to say to you today, Mud Creek, you are served by the most capable, the most competent, hardworking staff of any church that I've ever been a part of. You are blessed to serve or have this staff serve alongside of you. We're basically the 2009 Lakers, basically, is what you've got here. And I will say about the staff that I have learned so much from them. It's remarkable how they teach me week in and week out. And I have learned from them that you can love Jesus and you can serve him and be used by him even if you have attention deficit disorder. Because every single week in our staff meeting, it's like dogs chasing squirrels. It's just here and there and everywhere. But a highlight of the staff meeting, one of the most critical components of our staff meeting that we do every week, is when Pastor David, who is our congregational care pastor, goes over a list of names of people in our church that need a little bit more intensive pastoral care. And I've got our staff meeting agenda from this past week, and there may be some doodles on there, but just ignore that. Let me just talk about some of the needs. We have a dear sister in our church caring for her husband who doesn't speak very much because his mind is being ravaged by dementia. Praying for her. We have a gentleman in our church that likely does not have very, very long left in this world because of a terminal cancer diagnosis. Senior citizens in our church that have fallen, and at certain points in life, a fall, if it is not life-ending, can certainly be life-changing. Men who, in their minds, are still 14, but the hard work of decades catching up to them, they're not able to work the way that they used to. Gentleman in our church who has become a caregiver for his wife that takes up most all of his time. We had at Moda Creek a funeral on Friday. We have one this afternoon. And we'll be at the Veterans Cemetery in Black Mountain on Wednesday. That's life in our church. And that's only a small glimpse of the pain, the grief, those that are mourning, the person that they love the most, the person that they love more than life itself that is no longer here. It's the lives that we live. And that's only a small sampling of the needs in our church. There are people that came to church this morning in spite of immense physical pain. People that because of stiff joints, frayed nerve endings, inoperable tumors, hurt every waking moment of their life. And I am a firm believer that because of pain medicine, it is better to be high than to hurt. But you take that kind of medicine day in and day out, year after year, it affects your quality of life. People are forced to live a life that they never would have expected and certainly never would have chosen. But then there are some scars that are certainly deeper than the physical scars, things that doctors can easily x-ray. People in our church that live with chronic depression. Sometimes it makes it hard to sleep at night. Sometimes it makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning. People whose minds are fraught with anxiety. People that deal with any number of mental health diagnoses. Then there are those who, in spite of relatively good mental health, relatively good physical health, have a family in shambles. Some of you know what it's like to pray week in and week out for a prodigal child that you haven't talked to in years. You know what it's like to have grandchildren that you don't have a relationship with. You know what it's like to be hurt and to be harmed by the very people that should have supported you and cared for you. Life is hard. Life hurts. It's true for all of us, to different degrees at different times. And it's going to be true for the Apostle Paul for the very first time as a Christian in this passage of Scripture. And yet I believe that this passage is the perfect place for us to sit with Paul in the middle of his pain and learn about the importance and even the beauty of suffering in our lives. Let's read Acts chapter 9, verse number 23. The Word of God says, Now after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abideth forever. Acts chapter 9 records for us the very, very first steps that a man named Saul of Tarsus makes in his walk with Jesus. Now, when the Apostle Paul, as we will call him, steps into the pages of Scripture, he is not a Christian. In fact, he's very violently opposed to the church. The Bible says that he's breathing out threatenings to the followers of Jesus. He's living and breathing for no other purpose than to destroy the name of Jesus from history and write the followers of Jesus out of the future. That's his whole life's work. And yet the Bible says on his way to Damascus to persecute the church, he found out that he could not make Jesus disappear to history because Jesus was the resurrected Son of God. And Jesus had a specific plan for his life. And the Apostle Paul is converted. We might say that he was saved and he begins a new life as a follower of Jesus. This chapter tells us how the apostle Paul is baptized. Like we saw today, he takes that first public step of his relationship with Jesus. The Bible shows us the Apostle Paul doing things that Christians today still do. He connects with another group of disciples. He's praying with them. He's likely going to Bible studies, going to worship with them, the same kind of things that Christians today do. And later in Acts chapter 9, we find out that the Apostle Paul connects with a man by the name of Barnabas. Barnabas is one of the most well-known and well-loved Christians in the early church. The Apostle Paul has the right people who have taken him under their wing. Everything is set for the Apostle Paul's incredible growth. He's surrounded by good people, he's obedient to the Lord. He's learning. He's even stepping out and preaching, evangelizing, telling people about Jesus. He is growing by leaps and bands. But there's one critical element of Christian growth that is present in these verses for the first time in Paul's life. And that's pain. God is going to use suffering, weakness, and vulnerability to shape the Apostle Paul into the man that God saved him to be. Now, today we're going to study this passage of Scripture, just a handful of verses, along with some others, because I think it's imperative that you know, with no ambiguity, that life is going to hurt. That when life hurts, our God has a plan to make us into the people that he wants us to be. And so what I want to do today is use Paul's story in these verses to offer you simply the ABCs of suffering for the Christian life. Paul in this story is quite literally a basket case. He is quite literally at the end of his rope. And yet with Paul at the end of his rope, we learn lessons that we need today and that we will need until we go to be with the Lord. So let's walk through these ABCs together. First, I want you to see in this passage of scripture that suffering, pain, has been appointed. It has been appointed for Paul. It's not an accident, it's not a mistake. This was and is part of God's plan for all of his people, including the Apostle Paul. Now the Bible says to us, beginning in verse number 20, that the apostle Paul has stepped out in faith and that he is sharing the message of Jesus with people around him. The Bible says that people are amazed by it. The Bible says that the Apostle Paul is growing in strength, that he is arguing and proving that Jesus is the Son of God. He is proving without any doubt, with logic that cannot be conquered, with arguments that cannot be answered. The Apostle Paul is proving as easily as you could prove that two plus two equals four, that Jesus is who he said he was, and he could do what he said he could do. And everybody's happy about it, right? Well, not why? The Bible says that his Jewish opponents determine that they're not going to listen to Paul preach anymore. And it's so often the case in the book of Acts, because they cannot stop the message of the gospel, they want to stop the messenger. And so they begin to hatch a plot to kill the Apostle Paul. I think this is important for us to think about today because the Apostle Paul is going to suffer in this passage. But he is not suffering because he's done anything wrong. He's not suffering because he's out of the will of God. He's not suffering because he's disobedient. He's not suffering because he's let sin grab a hold of him. Far from it. He's suffering because he's walking the path that Jesus wants him to walk. Now, I do want to say today that sometimes we're stubborn and we're stupid and we do things that make ourselves hurt. Alright, sometimes we go through life and we have these moments where we hurt greatly and we wonder why. Why is this happening? Why? Sometimes the reason why is because you're dumb and you make bad decisions. That's true for all of us, okay? But not that's not true for Paul here. What's true for Paul here is that Paul is being faithful to walk the path that God has laid before him, and yet the path that God laid before him is a path that is fraught with problems and filled with pain. I remember years ago, if you'll forgive me while I tie my shoe, I don't want any more pain. I just want to preach about it. So I don't want to fall. I remember years ago when I lived in Burke County. I'm going down to Interstate 40 East, there was a church right off the side of Exit 107, which is Dreck, so you'd know that if you're from Burke County. And there was a church there that had a massive billboard that hung out over the side of the interstate. And the billboard was this large black billboard, and front and center was a picture of the pastor's smiling face. And it was a distinct, very distinctive face. And you knew that because it's one of these pictures where you could tell, uh, like he had this million-dollar smile that he had spent a lot of money on. He had this really bad spray tan that he should have spent more money on. And in these massive yellow letters on the billboard said, Jesus is the answer to all of your problems. And I so appreciate the sentiment behind that. But the Apostle Paul would tell us that Jesus has created a whole lot more problems for him. Because following Jesus meant a life of pain for Paul. And church, I want to say to you today that every follower of Jesus is going to experience pain in their walk with him. The Bible tells us in Job chapter number 5 and verse number 7 that man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, as inevitable as sparks ascending upward when a blacksmith strikes a piece of iron, so too our lives are filled with pain. The Lord Jesus taught us in John chapter 16 that in this world we will have tribulation. Yes, he has overcome the world, and yes, you can have good cheer in your suffering, but you will suffer. The Apostle Paul knew what it meant to suffer. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, he talks about his suffering in his life, and he talks about how he has been beaten by the Jews. Look at what he says. He says, From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. That's 195 scars on his back due to persecution. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. Now listen. All due respect to the Apostle Paul. I think after the second time, I'm gonna fly. But three times he was shipwrecked. And night and the day I've been in the deep, journeys often, perils of waters, perils of robbers, perils of my own countrymen, perils of the Gentiles, perils in the city. He said, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brethren. He goes on and on and says, In weariness. I wonder how many of you are weary today. Toil, hard work, sleeplessness, often hunger and thirst, fastings, often cold and nakedness. And no, I can't explain the naked part, but Paul said, I know what it's like to be deprived, I know what it's like not to sleep at night, I know what it's like even from the man who said in Philippians chapter 4, be anxious for nothing. He said, I have the daily anxiety of care for all of the churches. Paul said, I know what it's like to be attacked in mind, I know what it's like to be weak in body, I know what it's like to be hungry, I know what it's like to be lied about, I know what it's like to be misrepresented. Paul says, I know what it's like to hurt. And yet, for the Apostle Paul, this was the plan God had for him. If you read back to the Lord's conversation with Ananias before Paul is baptized in verse 16 of Acts 9, Jesus says, I will show him how many things he must suffer for my sake. Suffering did not catch Paul off guard the way it does us because he knew this was God's plan for him. You need to know this is God's plan for you. And I want to tell you why you need to know that. Because most of us as modern American Christians have a terrible understanding of suffering in our lives. We have a terrible understanding of the purpose of pain in our stories. On the one hand, as Americans, we think that anything that inconveniences us, anything that makes us uncomfortable, is something that has to be fixed immediately. If I go to Engels and they don't have my favorite kind of ice cream, it is a crisis of faith for me. That's where we live. And we believe, truly, that Jesus exists to solve my problems. And so that when I do hurt, what Jesus is there to do is to fix it. Fix it. And even if he's not going to fix it, we think Jesus is kind of our heavenly therapist that's going to describe for us some providential pros act, so that even if he doesn't fix the problem, he's going to make me feel better in the middle of my problem. That's what Jesus is for, right? And yet we continue to hurt, continue to suffer, not understanding that there's a purpose to it. And when we don't understand that God has a purpose in suffering, often bigger than what we can understand, it will be fatal to our faith. Here's why. Because if we believe in this kind of transactional mindset about life, that most of us have been discipled, that if I pray and if I believe and if I obey, then God owes me good things. That's why some of you are here today and you're tortured in your mind because of some tragedy that you've gone through in life, and you look back and you beat yourself up saying, if only I would have believed more. If only I would have prayed harder. If only this, something may be different. You'll beat yourself up thinking, I did not do enough to solve this. Or even worse, you will look at suffering and you will say, Well, I did pray. I did believe. And God did not answer. God did not fix it. And you'll walk away from him because he did not hold up his end of your bargain. Church, I want to tell you today, God has a much deeper purpose in suffering beyond the transactional way we think of it. God is not transactional in our pain, God is transformational with our pain. And that's what's going to happen in this passage of Scripture. So understand that pain is appointed. Suffering is appointed. Let's move to the letter B. I want to say this, and some of you are hurting so much today you're not going to believe it, but suffering really can be beautiful. The Bible says that the Apostle Paul is lowered because of this threat. Because he's heard that he's about to be the victim in a true crime podcast and he's about to be killed, that he's lowered from the city walls in a basket. I want you to put yourself in that basket with Paul for just a moment if you can. Some of you have hidden from the church gossip when you're shopping for ice cream at Ingalls. Some of us know what it's like to run from the highway patrol. Sorry, Kyle. But few of us have ever been in a situation where we're truly hiding for our lives. And yet this is Paul. Imagine him. Afraid? Imagine him holding his breath. Imagine the feeling of his heart pounding and his neck so loud that it feels that basket of terror, wondering, will I make it? That's where Paul's at. Now think about how Paul leaves the city of Damascus and how the Apostle Paul had tried to enter into the city of Damascus. The man who went to Damascus was a man who knew everything. The man who went to Damascus was a man who could solve everything. The man who went to Damascus was a man who was better than you, and he knew it and wanted you to make sure that he knew it. And yet the man who leaves Damascus is a man who's weak, a man who's vulnerable, a man who's hiding for his life. And what God is doing in suffering here is God is using it to transform the Apostle Paul into the man that he saved him to be. How is it that today God removes envy from me? How does God remove pride from my life? How does God remove jealousy? How does God remove self-centeredness? How does God remove that stubborn need I have to be in control of everything? God removes those things that dishonor him through the ministry of pain. And friends, that's the beauty of Christian suffering. The beauty of Christian suffering is not that I could suffer with kind of a stiff upper lip, with a stoic mindset, like I'm a noble hero fighting in a lost cause and I never be affected by it. That's not the beauty of Christian suffering. The beauty of Christian suffering is not that you can weaponize your suffering and make yourself into a victim or a martyr to control everybody else around you. The beauty of Christian suffering is that when we suffer, God is at work. And I know that because the Apostle Paul told me so. He tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter number 12, these amazing words. He said, Lest I should be exalted above measure. Think about this. The Apostle Paul, with his mind, with his ministry, with his accomplishments, the Apostle Paul could have become so conceited and so proud that nobody ever could have stood him. Incredibly brilliant, incredibly gifted, incredibly hardworking. He said, But lest that went too far, he said, there was given to me this thorn in the flesh, which was a messenger of Satan, to buffet me. Now, a lot of people have tried to discern what was this thorn in the flesh. The Bible does not say. Some people think that it was a physical problem, others think it was some sort of satanic assault. I think it was probably both. But you also see in this passage that it was a gift from God. It was given to him. He says, This concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord, as he should have, three times that it might depart from me. Lord, fix this. He's praying the way some of you are praying now. Lord, solve this problem. Lord, make the pain go away. But the Lord responds, not by fixing it, but by saying this to him My grace is sufficient for You and my strength, the Lord says, is made perfect in weakness. Then Paul says, therefore, because of that promise, I will gladly boast in my weakness. Why? So the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, Paul says, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecution, in distress. For Christ's sake. Why? Because when I am weak, then I am strong. And I'm preaching to people this morning that have been praying for months, maybe even years, maybe even decades. God, fix it. God, this is killing me. God, I cannot handle it. I cannot endure. This is tearing up my mind. It's tearing up my body. My body is keeping score of the emotional havoc that these problems in my family are taking on me. God, I'm tired of hurting God. Where are you? God, why are you not here? God, will you please fix it? I want to say to you today, if you're a child of God and you're in that place, that is the best possible place for you to be. Why? Because when we are weak, that's when God's power meets us at the end of the rope. When we do not know what the future holds, that's when God's goodness meets us at the end of the rope. When we do not know how we are possibly going to carry on, and we feel like we cannot hold on to Him, that's when God meets us at the end of the rope and says, I'm holding on to you. And so for the child of God, we have hope today, and you should have hope in this. Your suffering is not wasted. Your pain is not wasted. I can't tell you exactly what the reason for it is. One of the hardest things about being a pastor for me is sitting with people week in and week out that are going through the hardest days of their lives, and I can't tell them why. I don't know why. But if I did know why, you know how much money I'd make. But I don't know why. And yet at the same time, I do know who. I do know who has promised that my pain is never random and my pain is never wasted. I do know who has told me that not only has he overcome the world, but he can give me cheer in the middle of suffering. I do know who has said to me that his grace is greater than my sin, and if his grace is greater than my sin, then his grace is surely greater than my pain. And I do know the God who says that even with that thorn in your side that I'm not going to remove for your own good, God is always interested in the good of his people. And this is what Paul's learning to believe in this basket. And beyond all of that, child of God, I would simply say to you today that for Paul, afraid, lonely, overwhelmed, weak, vulnerable, holding his breath and hoping for the best, at the end of his rope, the landing was safe. And so, for children of God today, one thing I know for all of us is that the landing will be safe. Paul made it through the other side. And you will too. God may not give you the answer that you want. He didn't give it to God. Or he didn't give it to Paul. But Paul made it through. I know he made it through because he told me right before the end, when the persecution mounted to the point that he would lose his life, he would write in 2 Timothy chapter 4, I'm ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand. And I know that on the other side of this there is waiting for me a crown of righteousness that the Lord will give to all those who love his appearing. Do you know today, child of God, that even though we may sail some rough waters, the landing will be safe? Do you know today that even though you may be facing contrary winds right now, the landing will be safe? And do you know that even if the ship is breaking apart, the anchor still holds and the landing will be safe? Say, Pastor Jesse, from where I'm at, fighting for my life and trying to dog paddle my way home, I don't feel like the landing is going to be safe. How can you possibly tell me that I'm going to make it safely through the other side? Here's how I know you're going to make it through the other side. Because our Savior stepped out of the halls of glory into a world of suffering and pain. And for 33 years the Lord Jesus lived as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And he carried a cross up Calvary's Mountain. And there the Lord cried out in the worst pain that any human being has ever endured, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But three days after he died, when the world turned its back on him, and when heaven walked away from him, he stepped up on resurrection ground and he came forth in victory and in power, and he has made it safely home. And because he has made it safely home, he says to us from the other side, I have gone to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also. The anchor for the child of God has been fixed beyond the veil, and he will pull us all the way home. We may get there waterlogged, we may get there exhausted, but one day, thank God, we will step on the solid shores of glory because he has made it home and he's taken us with him. Now, I'm done, preacher. I'm done. There's one more sub-point, one more epilogue that I want to add to this. The ABCs of suffering. Suffering is appointed, suffering can be beautiful. I want to say third in this passage, suffering should be communal. It could be communal. And what I mean by that is that the apostle Paul's threatened, he's in danger, his life is on the line, living under the pressure of a credible threat, and he's got to get out of town. But he doesn't jump out of the window. No, watch the text. This is not the most important thing in the text, but it is something. The Bible says, verse 25, then the disciples took him by night and led him down through the wall in a large basket. Who helped Paul to get through? Who helped Paul make it safely to see another day? Who helped Paul to keep carrying on and moving forward? The people on the other end of the rope. Listen to me now. Every person in here is going to suffer. Every person in here is going to find themselves curled up in a basket. Probably metaphorically, but nevertheless. We're all going to experience that. And you better have somebody on the other end of the rope. You better have somebody who says, I've got you, and I'm not going to let you fall. I can manage. And you lay back and trust me. And I'm going to hold the rope for you. And so there are people all over this sanctuary this morning that are hurting, suffering, in pain, dealing with physical pain, emotional pain, past traumas, family drama, financial hardship. There's no end to the suffering that is in this place today. And God's people need somebody every now and then to come around them and say, Listen, I love you. And I'll hold the rope for you. I'll hold the rope. I'll pray for you. I've got your back. You're going to make it. And even if you don't believe it right now, I believe it strongly enough for you. And I've got the rope. Mutt Creek, we ought to be the kind of church that can say to other people, listen, we've got the rope for you. We're going to hang on tight. We're going to leave you in God's hands. And insofar as it's in our hands, we're going to hang on tight to you. We're going to make sure nothing happens to you. We're not going to let you go. We're not going to lose you. We're going to hang on tight.