Exhibit A | Acts 21:37-22:21

Paul stands on the steps of the Roman barracks, faces the crowd that just tried to kill him, and tells them his story — how the man who once hunted down followers of Jesus met Him on the road to Damascus and was never the same. In "Exhibit A," Pastor Zach walks through Paul's testimony and reminds us that a changed life is still powerful evidence of God's grace — and that same Jesus is still calling people to Himself today.

Scripture: Acts 21:37-22:21
Series: Living by the Spirit, Following the Way

The Way Church KC is a community of misfits & saints in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City following the Way of Jesus & pushing back darkness — together. Join us Sundays or learn more at thewaykc.church.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Sermons from the Way Church KC, the community of listeners and saints in Kansas City, following the way of Jesus and pushing back darkness together.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Good morning. If you could stand for the reading of the word. We are in Acts 21, starting in verse 37. As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, May I say something to you. And he said, Do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness? Paul replied, I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people. And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying, Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you. And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet, and he said, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamelel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, as all of you are this day. I persecute 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 me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take all to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, Who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Rise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do. And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who live there, came to me, and standing by me said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth. For you will be a witness for him to every one of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. And when I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance, and saw him saying to me, Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by, and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him. And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

And amen. Thank you, Joshua. That was like 30-something verses. That was a lot. Good job. Well, welcome everyone to the Waychurch KC. If we haven't met yet, my name is Zach. I have the privilege of being the lead pastor here. And we are a two and a half-year-old church plant. Um, trying to figure this deal out. Um the Lord is building a sweet family, and we exist to follow the way of Jesus and push back darkness together. So that's the mission that the Lord has had us on for a couple of years now, and it's a fun, fun journey. And today is a great day because for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that Dolly is back in town, back in Kansas City. Um our brother Dolly went to Malawi, went back home to Malawi Africa to get married. His bride is still back in Malawi, so we need to be praying for the visa and all that stuff. Um, but we're so glad to have Dolly back, and it's a wonder that he's sitting in service and not serving somewhere today. I think if if anybody knew that he was getting back on Friday, he would have probably gotten like plugged in serving somewhere. So this dude, uh yeah, he goes wherever he is needed. So if you don't know Dolly, you need to get to know him. But that's not the sermon today. Um so we've been in a series walking verse by verse through the book of Acts. This series is entitled Living by the Spirit and Following the Way. We have some ground to cover, and so we're gonna jump right in. Um if you remember last week, we we left Paul at the bottom of a staircase. Uh a riot had broken out in the temple and in the temple courts, and the crowd was convinced that Paul had defiled the holy place. They they drug him out by his arms, they began to beat him, and really he was probably like one breath away from being killed right there on the pavement. And what happens is Roman soldiers they come in and break it up, they they chain him, and they start hauling him up the steps of the Antonia fortress toward the barracks. And they did this really because there was this riot, everything was in chaos, everything was in an uproar, and they need to needed to figure out what was actually going on and what, if anything, Paul had actually done. And it's right at this doorway, with the mob still screaming behind him and the blood probably still on his face, that Paul turns to the commanding Roman officer and he asks for a word. He says, Sir, may I say something to you? May I say something to you? And and this isn't exactly something you'd expect to hear from a man who had just survived a beating. Um, but Paul, he's not finished. Why he says that is because he's got a message to share. And that's what we'll see today, and that's what we'll see in the chapters that follow today's text. Um, Acts 21, 30, 37 through 22, 21. It's Paul's first defense speech in the book of Acts. He'll give two more before this book is over. We'll see that again in chapters 23 and 26. And each time, all three of these defense speeches, Paul is under threat and he's surrounded by a hostile audience. Um, but this one, this defense speech, is different because of who is listening. The the crowd isn't just Roman officials that are weighing a legal case, it's his own people. It's Jews from his own hometown, and some of them probably men that Paul had studied with. And what Paul gives them is a story. He gives them a testimony, he gives them his testimony. And so that's what we're gonna look at today. And think about this. We talked about this kind of illustration at the beginning of last week's sermon where you uh walk into a room and you're being judged before you even get there. People know about you before you even walk in. Well, let's take that a step further this morning. Maybe you walk into that room and you feel as though you have five minutes to change someone's mind about you. Not five minutes to explain your position on something, but maybe it's five minutes to undo a verdict that the room had already reached before you walked in. Maybe it's a job interview, maybe you're switching careers and it's a job interview where uh you can tell that your your last reference didn't do you any favors, right? Maybe it's an old boss that's got some uh less than good things to say about you. Um or maybe for you um it's meeting your spouse's family for the first time after them knowing a thing or two about your past. Um maybe it's you know uh an HOA meeting where you walk in there and you've been less than kind to a neighbor. I don't got an HOA, so I don't have that problem. Um but I think that most of us in that moment we would either go quiet or we'd let the verdict stand. Or we come out swinging, being defensive, combative, trying to out-argue people who've already stopped listening. Well, what we see in today's text is that the Apostle Paul, he does neither of these things. A crowd had just tried to beat him to death, and when he gets the floor, when he gets the audience, he doesn't try to defend himself with cleverness or he doesn't come out swinging with doctrine. He's not trying to uh argue for his theological stance necessarily. No, he tells them what has happened to him. He tells them what's happened to him. Like that's it in today's text. That's the whole defense that Paul presents. And I think that it's worth asking why that is the move. And if we're being honest in our heart of hearts, whether it's a move that at times we can forget to make. Here's our big idea this morning. Our big idea is this the most powerful defense of the gospel is a changed life. The most powerful defense of the gospel is a changed life. And with that, there's three movements that we see Paul make in today's text that we're gonna look at. Um, first, common ground before hard truth. Secondly, changed by an encounter, not an argument. And then thirdly, sent and not just saved. I'll pray and then let's dig in. Heavenly Father, we love you, we praise you. We thank you for your word that is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, Lord. I pray that today you would open our minds, open our hearts, and open our ears to the word that you have for us today, Lord. I pray that as I preach your word, you will move me out of the way and that you would you you would let your words be made clear. Lord, I pray that today you would make us more and more like your son Jesus. I pray that uh we would from one degree of glory to the next look more and more like him. God, thank you for sending your son Jesus to live, to die, and to rise where he's now seated at the right hand of you, Lord. I pray that today we would see your son Jesus clearly. We love you, we praise you. It's in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. And all God's people said, Amen. Amen, amen. So point number one this morning is common ground before hard truth. Common ground before hard truth. Uh 21, verse 37 through 22, verse 5, the last part of chapter 21 reads this. As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, May I say something to you? And he said, Do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the assassins out into the wilderness? Paul replied, I am a Jew from Tarshish in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people. And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hands to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying, Brothers and sisters, brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you. And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said, I am a Jew born in Tarshish in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaleel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, as all of you are this day. I persecuted this way to the death, building and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priests and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there, and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. So, what's going on here? The tribune's first move is to assume the worst. He he the tribune, they think that they have caught the Egyptian, is what it's referred to here. The Egyptian was a self-proclaimed prophet that Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us about separately, who led thousands out to the Mount of Olives a few years earlier, promising that the walls of Jerusalem would fall at his commands like Jericho's. So Rome crushed this uprising, and then this person known as the Egyptian vanished. And now what we see that the tribune thinks that Paul is this guy, that he's been resurfaced and caught. But Paul's answer is simply correction. He says, I'm a Jew from Tarsus, a citizen of no obscure city, and that's not to be taken as some sort of throwaway detail. It's important. The geography here is important. Tarsus was a genuine center of learning in the ancient world. Geographers of the day ranked it alongside Athens and Alexandria for philosophy and rhetoric. So, Paul, what he's doing is establishing in one sentence that he's not a rebel, but he is an educated citizen from a respective city, and he wants the floor. He wants to be given his chance to talk. Then comes the detail that changes the whole room. He asks to speak to the crowd, gets permission, and then addresses them in Hebrew. Or more precisely, Aramaic. And this was their heart language. This wasn't the Greek of commerce or the Latin of the Empire. He was speaking to them directly in their heart language. And so Luke tells us that this quiets them even further. Like a hush had just begun, and then an even greater hush begins to fall over the audience. And let's think about what this means. A man that they had just tried to kill for supposedly defiling the temple opens his mouth, and the first thing that they hear is their own language coming out of it. Before he says a single word, he's already told them something. He's saying, I am one of you, I am with you. We have similar backgrounds. And then he says it directly, brothers and fathers, this is a term of respect. This is the exact greeting that Stephen used addressing the Jerusalem Council back in Acts 7. Or rather, not the Jerusalem Council, but the same council, the same tribune in Acts 7. He says that I'm a Jew born in Tarshis, brought up in the city, educated at the feet of Gamalel. And Gamalel, he was the most respected rabbi of this generation. This is the same Gamalel who, back in Acts 5, urged caution before persecuting the apostles. So Paul, he's not to be seen or taken as some sort of outside agitator. No, he trained under and sat under the best teacher that this room that he's speaking in front of would have recognized. And then we see the line, the verse that should stop us cold in our tracks. He says, Being zealous for God, as all of you are this day. So Paul he looks at the very crowd that just tried to kill him and he says, I understand your zeal. I had it too. He says that I, Paul, persecuted this way to the death, binding, imprisoning, delivering people to be punished, and I can produce the paperwork, right? The high priest and the council can vouch for every word. They know how I used to live. And notice what Paul doesn't do. He doesn't open with, hey, you're wrong about Jesus. Here's my three steps of an apologetic argument to defend the faith. No, he doesn't even open with a doctrinal claim at all. No, he simply opens by finding every piece of common grounds that he can. You see, language, credentials, zeal, history. Before he says one word that it will actually cost him something with this crowd, he meets them where they're at. And I think that we can take that and see that as wisdom. He's earning the right to be heard before he says anything that requires being believed. What he's doing is this word called contextualization. He's contextualizing the gospel, in effect. He's showing them, like, hey, he's meeting them on common ground, he's speaking a common language with them before he goes into his gospel presentation. And I think that's if we're being honest as we look out into our city, as we look at our cultural moment, that we could say that we live in a city where most people have already decided what a Christian is before we open our mouths. Is that fair to say? I think a lot of times people are uh beginning from a place of judgment and uh looking, hey, that we're in this little Christian box. I recently had a conversation where someone had done business with a man who was a quote-unquote Christian, and because of the way in which that Christian carried themselves, he'd already made an assumption about me as a Christian. And so we're walking into conversations, we're walking into meetings with lost people, um, where we're we're we're they're already judgmental, there's be it's political, be it's behind the times, sometimes, you know, they may be wrong about us. But I think that like sometimes, if we're honest, like people aren't wrong about us. Like we do have these uh uh ways that we can carry ourselves. And regardless of what it is, you know, I think it's probably different for each one of us. I think that like either way, Paul's instruction here, his pattern, is something that we can take and apply. It's an instructive pattern. And um it's I think it's this encouragement to find the real, honest, common ground with non-believers before we interact with them. And that's not to be taken as like us watering down the gospel. No, I think it's how you uh get the ear of someone before you even get to the gospel. Because a truth that nobody will listen to has all the power of a truth that nobody said. Like we've got to gain the right to share the gospel first, and then the word of God does what the word of God does. And that's what we see in Paul's life, bringing us to point number two. Changed by an encounter and not an argument. That's what we see, this movement that Paul takes in this text. If you remember, if you were with us a number of weeks ago when we walked through Acts chapter 9, you already know the shape of this story, the light, the voice, the blindness. This is Paul recounting his testimony, right? He finds common ground and then he begins to recount his testimony with his people. We have Ananias, the sight being restored, and we're not going to walk through all of it here, but I think that there's some different truths that we can pull out of it. Um, because Paul, he's not retelling his testimony for the same reason that Luke first told it in Acts chapter 9. No, back in chapter 9, Luke, the author, was narrating history, showing us, the readers, how the church's fiercest enemy became its most unlikely apostle. So Paul standing here on these steps, he's doing something different. He's presenting a defense. And a defense only works if it's aimed at the jury in front of you. So let's look at what Paul adds and adjusts for this specific crowd. He tells them that Ananias was a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there. And Luke, the author, Luke, never bothered to establish this detail back in chapter 9. His readers didn't need it, but the crowd does. Paul is telling them the man who baptized me wasn't some fringe radical. He was a respected, law observant Jew, someone your own community in Damascus would vouch for. Then he shares Ananias' message. The God of our fathers appointed you. Not a new God, not a foreign God, the God of our fathers, your God and mine. That is what he's saying to these Jewish people in the town. Every phrase that he utters is calibrated to say this didn't happen outside of your story, outside of the story of God's redemptive plan through history. No, it happens inside of it. And then this line that's new to this telling of Paul's testimony, one that you won't find in chapter 9. It says, Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. And so, like, if we're not careful, we can take that verse and kind of misinterpret it, right? Like, let's, I don't want us to misread that phrase. It's the water itself, the waters of baptism don't do the washing. Baptism does not save, right? Baptism didn't save Paul any more than it saves any of us. Like I want to, as there's some people here who are uh considering baptism who are about to be baptized soon, like I don't want you to hear that. The waters of baptism do not save, right? But what saves us is calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. And Ananias, he says it plainly. And so this is a witness of what is already true, not the cause of it. So what is baptism? Baptism is where that inward reality gets a body. It's the sign and not the substance. So Paul's not telling this crowd to, hey, go get wet. No, he's telling them what it looks like physically when the same thing that you need happened to him. The way I like to put it, and maybe this is an oversimplification, but baptism is like, hey, putting on that jersey that says, hey, I'm on Team Jesus now. You know, it's like, I'm putting on that jersey, I'm identifying myself as a follower of the way of Jesus. And that's in effect what Paul is telling us. And what's so striking about this section of text is like there's very little arguing being done. Paul doesn't reason his way through his testimony. He doesn't, even back on the road to Damascus, like he doesn't win a debate with Jesus on the road. No, what he's sharing, what he's recounting, is that something happened to him. Something happened to him. And then he tells people what happened. And what happened is, you know, he became a new creation. The old man was dead, and the new man was now alive. And that's the whole engine of verses 6 through 16. This is an event that Paul is reporting. He's saying, Hey, I had a heart change. The Lord Jesus has radically changed my heart, and I'm telling you about it. And I think that like we can take that and apply it to evangelism. Because I think at times we we can make evangelism harder than it actually is. Like we can think about it that it's an argument that we have to win. But that's simply not what the scriptures outline to us. Like sometimes there is. There is a place for what is known as apologetics, that is making a defense of the faith, arguing for the faith. There's a place for that, but that's not all the time. I think that at times the most persuasive thing we have is not our logic, but our life. Back in Acts 4, way back near the beginning of the series, like a year ago, we talked about the healed men at the temple gate, and we referred to him as Exhibite. What he this healed man was as he went and shared with people what the Lord had done. He was a sermon in flesh, a living testimony. And because, like when that's the case, nobody can deny it. And nobody could deny what they were looking at as this man was healed. And that's Paul on these steps as well. He's not debating, like we say. He's the evidence himself standing right in front of the jury. And so for us this morning, the question that I think is worth sitting with is if the people who know you best, your coworkers, your family, your group chat, your best friends were asked to testify about what following Jesus has actually done in you, what would they say? If those closest to you were asked to testify about whether or not you resembled Jesus, what would they say? Because we can do a real good job of putting on the Christian face when we're in the house of the Lord on Sunday. But on Monday after a long night, or uh Tuesday after a long day of work, are you still living like a follower of the way of Jesus? You know, like that's I think the question that we should consider. Or to put it another way, I've said this a handful of times. Um but you the the the I'll put it inversely, you may be the only version of the Bible that someone reads today. How are they gonna see Jesus? And because of that inward heart transformation that we undergo, that Paul is recounting, we we see point number three that we are sent and not just saved. We are sent and not just saved. So this part of the story of Paul's testimony is new. If you look back at Acts chapter 9, you won't find any of these details. And I'll I'll read it over to you. Verses 17 through 21 of chapter 22. When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that it in that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him. And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. So what Paul's talking about, what happened, sometime after his conversion, Paul is back in Jerusalem. He's praying in the very temple that this crowd had just accused him of defiling, and Paul sees the risen Jesus again in a vision. He's in a trance. And Jesus tells him something that would have been surprising. He says, Leave. Go quickly. They will not accept your testimony about me. And Paul argues back with Jesus, with this vision of Jesus. And I love this because I think it's so human, it's so fleshy. He says, Lord, they themselves know. And Paul's like, he's making a strategic pitch to Jesus. Lord, Lord, think about this. I'm the perfect messenger for this exact room. They know where I've been, they know what I'm walking through. I persecuted the way harder than anyone in the city. I imprisoned believers in synagogue after synagogue. I was there when Stephen died. I held the coats of those who beat him. And it's as though he's saying, if anyone should be able to reach the people who are hurting your church right now, it's me. Paul's saying, hey, my resume is the argument. Let me stay here. And notice that detail that Paul drops right in the middle of his own defense. Stephen. Remember, we've talked about Stephen. He was the first Christian martyr. Paul then saw stood by as Stephen was murdered. And those who were there, they had heard the story. A faithful man, full of the Spirit, stoned to death outside these same city walls, while a young Pharisee named Saul stood there holding codes and nodding along, agreeing with this brutal beating. And Paula got to explain who Stephen was to this crowd. Some of them may have even been there. And that's like probably arguably Paul's worst moment. Fair? He's not hiding from it. He's putting it right in the center of his testimony. He's saying, hey, I once was lost and now I'm found. This is how I was, and this is who I am now. The man who approved of Stephen's murder is the same man now telling this crowd about the risen Christ who completely changed him. And what that is, that is the radical grace of our Lord Jesus with nowhere to hide. The radical grace. I was, um, oh, two, three weeks ago, I was uh at this young adult conference thing, and I spoke at a QA, and I don't even remember what the question was. That might be helpful for this, um, knowing this. But what I said was how I responded to this uh young adult was like, hey, I think that the grace of Christ is way more radical than we could ever imagine. Because if you read this, if you read the story of Paul and countless other stories throughout the scriptures, like that is radical grace. A man who once condoned the killing of Christians, now on trial, effectively, for proclaiming the name of Christ. That is radical grace in action. That is inward heart change beyond our imagination. But Jesus, he doesn't take that pitch. He's not like, hey, yeah, stay and minister to these Jewish people. No, he says, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. And if you keep reading past this passage, we'll we'll cover it next Sunday, we'll we'll see that that is exactly where the crowd loses it. Verse 22 says that they listened to him right up until that word interrupted, away with such a fellow from the earth. He should not be allowed to live. A hostile Jerusalem crowd could stomach a man defending himself. What they could not stomach was that very same man being sent by their own gods, the people that they'd written off entirely. And here's this the hinge of the whole passage, and maybe even of the whole sermon. Paul, the Apostle Paul, Pharisee of Pharisees, doesn't get to choose who he's sent to based on where he thinks that he'd be most effective or where he'd be safest. No, God overrules his strategy. The best strategy that Paul could come up with, God overrules that. The very testimony that this crowd almost believed detonates the second it becomes clear it isn't just for people like them. They lose it when they hear that Paul is to be the apostle to the Gentiles. And I think for us, like we we call ourselves misfits and saints in our vision statement. We're a family of misfits and saints who are following the way of Jesus and pushing back darkness together for the good of Kansas City and the sake of God's kingdom. That's our vision statement. And we we say that on purpose. We're planted in Rosedale on purpose. The Lord has placed us here. My biggest kind of qualm with uh church planting, like I'm a church planter, we are a church plant. My biggest qualm with church planting, at least in our city and I think many cities across um the country, is that oftentimes they want to go plant a church out in the suburbs, right? Where the getting's easy, if you will. It's easy to keep the lights on, it's easy to find a building and a salary and all that. But that's not where God's called us. We are in Rosedale. And Rosedale to me is like an urban neighborhood. That's what I see it as. And that's where we want to be, that's where the Lord has called us. We're not called to the burbs. And I don't think that the Lord, like, I mean, yes, the Lord calls people there, but the gospel doesn't stay inside of these humanly boundaries. The gospel didn't stay inside of Jerusalem. It didn't stay with the religiously respectable. No, it crossed into Samaria. It entered into Gentile households, it entered into prison cells and philosophers' courts, and it's still crossing lines today. Be it lines into recovery meetings, into apartment complexes, where maybe nobody's owned a Bible. Maybe it's the Belrose apartments where people are living with government assistance, and we're able to take a kids' club there. The gospel is crossing boundaries. Or maybe it's a job where you're the only Christian there, or maybe it's a room where you're the only one who knows Jesus. Well, what I my encouragement for you, wherever that place is, wherever that uh boundary marker that the Lord has placed you is, remember this. The same encounter that saves you, that saved you, is the encounter that sends you. Right? The Lord has taken you through whatever it is for you, be it addiction, be it a rough upbringing where your parents weren't the best, or maybe it's uh troubles that you used to have in your marriage, and the Lord set you free from that. Whatever it is for you, whatever your thing is, the Lord will use that. The Lord took you through that for a purpose. He saved you to send you. And I do not believe that you were necessarily sent to the safest room or the safest place. But you were sent to where God has placed you, to where God has actually has in mind, which is very often the very room that your comfort would have voted against. I think of your testimony this past Tuesday, Seth, and how you um encouraged us and encouraged us in in small groups to like get out of our comfort zone. The discomfort is where the growth happens. So as we land the plane, Ashton, you can come and close us in worship. What happens here? Paul he never finishes this speech the way that he wants to. The crowd cuts him off at that word Gentiles. And the rest of Acts 22 is Roman soldiers, a scourging that he avoids only by revealing his citizenship, and another trial the next day. His testimony didn't end in applause, it barely finished at all. But hear this: it was not wasted. Because nothing about faithfully telling the truth of what God has done in your life is ever wasted. Even when the room doesn't want to hear the last line. So here's where I want us to land. Here's what I want to leave you with this morning. Somewhere between the common ground you can find with people who don't yet know Jesus and the parts of your story that you'd rather leave out, and the room that God might be sending you into that you'd never pick for yourself, somewhere in that, there is a testimony that God has written into your life that others need to hear. How I put it at times is like we the Lord, for those of us who are in Christ, the Lord uh writes specific testimonies for us. And Jevin, you have a testimony that can impact lives that mine can't. And Jennifer, you have a testimony that can impact lives that Jevin's can't. And so, and Glenn, that you have a testimony that can impact lives that Jennifer's can't, and so on and so forth around the room to each and every one of us. It's our responsibility. Our responsibility is to share it, not keep it to ourselves. Because our testimonies are the gospel lived out. So as we walk out of here, and if you consider yourself a part of this church, here's what I don't want us to be about. I don't want us to be a people who have the perfect argument ready to go. You know, like, yes, let's be people who know God's word and are transformed by God's word. Let's not be the people who are just have our are super eloquent in speech but have no inward heart change. Let's just be a people who have an honest account of what Jesus has done in us. Is that fair? If you don't know him yet, that's okay. If this this morning you're you're more like the crowd on the steps than like Paul on them. Here's the offer that is underneath the whole passage. The same Jesus who stopped the persecutor on a road in Damascus at noon, who sent an ordinary, faithful believer named Ananias to lay hands on an enemy of the church, who forgives a man who held the coats at a martyrdom, that same Jesus is not finished calling people to himself today. Calling on his name is still where this begins. Not cleaning yourself up first, buttoning yourself up so you're presentable to the Lord. Not doing step A, A, B, and C so that you deserve the Lord, but calling on him. His grace is a free gift. Our job is just to call on him. So if that's you today, as usual, I'll be seated at the front, happy to talk with you about what it looks like to receive Christ. And if that's not you, if you're in the other end of the ship, my encouragement to you is to remember that part of your testimony. The place where you were when you were an enemy of Christ. Now, maybe you weren't standing by while Christians were killed, but you've lived in to your worldly self and Christ set you free. You were in the muck in the mire, and Christ plucked you out and set you on solid ground. Remember that moment when you called on the name of the Lord. So we'll close in worship. My encouragement is that you meditate on that or that you ask God to reveal his son Jesus to you. I'll pray and then let's close in worship. Lord, we love you. We praise you. We thank you for who you are. We thank that you are a God that sets sinners free from bondage. We thank you that you are a God who can take a man who was a martyr and make him a missionary to the Gentiles. Lord, I ask that you would continue to work in our hearts, continue to soften us, soften our hearts, break our hearts for what breaks yours, Lord. Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place. We love you and we praise you. It's in Jesus' name I pray.

unknown 42:36

Amen.

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