SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: Please take your Bible with me to Acts chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: If you are our guest this morning, I want to welcome you.
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad to have you.
SPEAKER_00: We are nearing the end of our study through the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 21 this Sunday, if everything goes as planned, we'll finish this the end of August.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 21 begins with, begins a long section of Acts that is a tense and challenging portion of early Christian history.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 20 ends with an emotional departure.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul leaves some familiar territory and friendships that he's developed in the city of Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: He leaves with tears, everybody, shedding tears, because they're grieved that they won't see him again.
SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't see him again because Paul is now headed toward his second home, Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: His first home, where he was born, the city of Tarsus and the region of Cilicia.
SPEAKER_00: But he grew up in Jerusalem as he was trained to be a Pharisee under an expert in the law of God.
SPEAKER_00: So we might think that a joyful homecoming would follow Paul's painful, sorrowful departure from those who loved him, and as he goes home from his missionary journeys.
SPEAKER_00: But the following chapters of Luke's historical account reveal that the Apostle Paul did not have a joyful homecoming.
SPEAKER_00: In God's goodness, the apostle would experience an unwelcome homecoming.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning we're going to look at the first three sections of chapter 21 of a detailed recounting of the apostle's experience of following in Christ's steps.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see that resting in Christ's grip enables us to follow Jesus contentedly in the strength that he provides.
SPEAKER_00: The first section, verses 1 through 16, recounts Paul's homeward progress.
SPEAKER_00: We often refer to that as a travel narrative.
SPEAKER_00: The second section, verses 17 through 26, describes the preparations that are made for Paul's homecoming.
SPEAKER_00: And the third section, verses 27 through 36, relates what I've called the hometown proscription.
SPEAKER_00: So let's first review Paul's progress toward home.
SPEAKER_00: This progress is filled with predictions.
SPEAKER_00: And it sounds initially like we're listening to someone recount their family vacation.
SPEAKER_00: You ever been in that situation where you are kind of forced to sit and listen to somebody tell you all about their vacation when you have no clue what happened, you really weren't on their trip, you don't really care that much about somebody else's family vacation.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Luke mentioned some of the friends they met along the way.
SPEAKER_00: You may or may not have heard of some of their friends, and if you haven't, it makes it even less personal.
SPEAKER_00: But the difference with this travel narrative is that it isn't from that acquaintance at church or that neighbor down the street or even a close family member.
SPEAKER_00: It's from Luke, the author of about 25% of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: That means it has a bit more significance to you than a friend's travel stories.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to hear it with greater interest than any vacation that we haven't experienced.
SPEAKER_00: This travel story also isn't about Paul setting out on a challenging missionary journey.
SPEAKER_00: He's finished with those.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's going home.
SPEAKER_00: And tracing that homeward progress helps us identify the significance of that journey.
SPEAKER_00: These first 16 verses cover approximately three to six weeks based on the average sailing time between stopping points and whether or not there was a ship immediately available to jump onto to go to the next leg of the journey.
SPEAKER_00: Each of the stopping points, though, would have been familiar to Luke's first century readers, whether they were Christian or Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: And there were Jewish populations in each of these locations.
SPEAKER_00: So each stop would provide an opportunity for Paul to associate with other ethnic people similar to him in order to, in each synagogue, proclaim Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But Luke doesn't talk about that.
SPEAKER_00: It probably happened, but he doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, there are Christians mentioned later when they get to Tyre and Ptolemaeus and Cayria, and of course, Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So in a span of a few weeks, Paul and his companions went from Western Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, to Syria, and then south to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But why does Luke see tracing that travel journey as necessary?
SPEAKER_00: And why should we know it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there are at least three reasons.
SPEAKER_00: I think there are more than that, but maybe three primary reasons are number one, this section serves as a transition.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's major missionary journeys are complete.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're moving from all of that church planting effort and that evangelizing effort to Paul's imprisonment and then his transfer to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: And Jerusalem is the hinge point between those parts of the apostle's life.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke needs to show how Paul went from Greece and Asia Minor back to Jerusalem so that we can get to the next major section.
SPEAKER_00: But reason number two is to show us the progress of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: This all started in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And from Jerusalem, an evangelist by the name of Philip went to some Samaritan people and regions around Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He went south of Jerusalem to meet up a guy from meet up with a guy from Ethiopia, whom he led to faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That man took the gospel to Ethiopia.
SPEAKER_00: While Philip, that evangelist, went northward back through Israel, north to Caesarea, where now he's met up with by the Apostle Paul, the same apostle who took the gospel all throughout the Middle East and into Europe.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel has progressed across the known region of the time.
SPEAKER_00: But number three, and the primary reason that Luke includes this travel narrative has something to do with the predictions of what Paul would encounter when he arrived back in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul knew that going home would not be filled with fun and games.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know what that's like.
SPEAKER_00: You may not have great relations at home, and you may sense that dread, the discomfort of needing to go home.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said to the Ephesian elders back in chapter 20, verses 22 and 23, he says, I'm going to Jerusalem bound or constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that I am that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you or wouldn't I then turn around and go the other way?
SPEAKER_00: But he says, God has bound me such that I have to go, knowing it's not going to be fun when I get there.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we find in this first section of chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: Paul already knew what was going to happen, and now every stop along the way, there are more predictions.
SPEAKER_00: And they continue as he travels, each stop reminded of what's awaiting him.
SPEAKER_00: When he gets to Syria and he stops in Tyre, the disciples there had some awareness or some expectation as a result of the Holy Spirit's bringing that awareness to them.
SPEAKER_00: They stayed with the disciples there for seven days, it says in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, they went on from Tyre, they arrived at Ptolemy's.
SPEAKER_00: This prophet Agabas reminds us of an Old Testament prophet like Jeremiah, who used object lessons to teach the people.
SPEAKER_00: I've often wondered how he does this.
SPEAKER_00: Does he go up to the Apostle Paul and undo his belt off of his cloak and take it off of him?
SPEAKER_00: That would be kind of awkward.
SPEAKER_00: But he uses Paul's belt to wrap around his own wrist to say, when you get to Jerusalem, they're going to use chains to do this to you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but that would make me want to say, should I make this trip?
SPEAKER_00: Is this a really wise thing to do?
SPEAKER_00: The result is that Paul's ministry team, including Luke in verse 12, urged him not to go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere he's being told, warned, it's being predicted, when you get there, this is what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: But don't forget, Paul already knew this.
SPEAKER_00: He already expected it.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit was compelling him to go.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, back in the early chapters of Acts, had already told him that he would suffer for his name.
SPEAKER_00: And now everyone in his circles, everyone around him understands by God's work in them the coming danger, and they are begging him to not go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: If everyone is begging you to not do something, don't you stop and think about whether or not it's a wise thing to do?
SPEAKER_00: So the tension is rising with each stop, closer and closer to Jerusalem, and with each prophetic warning.
SPEAKER_00: Now it doesn't seem as though there are indications that Paul shouldn't go, but there are predictions of what will happen when he gets there.
SPEAKER_00: And when these predictions become clear to Paul's friends and co-workers, they pressure him not to go.
SPEAKER_00: And that pressure gets even stronger.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the weight becomes heavier when we get to verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's friends are weeping about what's been predicted, and his heart is broken.
SPEAKER_00: But his resolve is unfazed.
SPEAKER_00: He's grieving not because of what's going to happen to him, he's grieving about what's happening in his friends.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no persuading Paul differently.
SPEAKER_00: He says, What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?
SPEAKER_00: For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And since he would not be persuaded, we, Luke says, including himself, we ceased and said, Let the will of the Lord be done.
SPEAKER_00: There's no persuading Paul differently.
SPEAKER_00: So they they resign themselves to the sovereignty of God and decide we can't let him go alone.
SPEAKER_00: So after these days, verse 15, we got ready and went up to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So we see here the dedication of the Apostle Paul to the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We see the perseverance of the Apostle Paul in the face of impending pain and hardship.
SPEAKER_00: And we see the heart of his friends and co-laborers.
SPEAKER_00: All three of those aspects take on greater weight with each prediction and each step closer to the Holy City.
SPEAKER_00: So what do we do with that?
SPEAKER_00: It's a travel narrative.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may have been in some of these places.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may be able to imagine the road that Paul took.
SPEAKER_00: But for most of us, it's like listening to somebody else's vacation.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to end badly.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, God's purpose and his plan are highlighted in Luke's travel narrative.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the Lord Jesus is working from heaven to fulfill his kingdom purposes.
SPEAKER_00: And that includes sometimes intentionally taking his servants through suffering and trials, both expected and unexpected.
SPEAKER_00: So I suggest that Luke leads us through the tension of this travel to show us Paul's attitude and perseverance so that we too might run the race set before us with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: How do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first, we must consider our faith attitude.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not speaking about faith as a church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking about your attitude in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: If Paul is our example as he should be, then our attitude must be one of complete trust in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Paul knew what was coming.
SPEAKER_00: He knew exactly what was coming.
SPEAKER_00: In general terms, suffering and imprisonment.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know exactly what that looked like, what form that would take, but he knew that there was going to be suffering and imprisonment.
SPEAKER_00: But he also trusted in what God said at the very beginning when he came to saving faith that he would suffer for Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Repeated or even continual reminders of the cost of following Jesus require an implicit trust in the word of Christ, that these are part of his purpose and will.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you face suffering and uncertainty in your life, the first place you need to go is to rest in the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Trust in it that he is purposeful, and he has planned for you and your life that is good.
SPEAKER_00: Second, our perseverance must be focused on the superiority of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How do you face this like Paul?
SPEAKER_00: Think about your faith attitude.
SPEAKER_00: It needs to be one of trust.
SPEAKER_00: You also persevere with a focus on the superiority of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I know this is hard for us to imagine in our free country, but if you are a Christian, you have embarked on a lifelong journey of death.
SPEAKER_00: You have taken up Christ's cross and his sufferings as your own.
SPEAKER_00: Like Paul, you are walking in the steps of your Savior, your forgiver, and your sustainer.
SPEAKER_00: So if you face trials and suffering and pain without a sincere focus on the beauty and the glory and the magnificence of Christ, you're going to sink like Peter in the waters of the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: But growing in your faith understanding of the glory, greatness, and wonder of Jesus Christ will spur your perseverance so that you can echo Paul's words in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: I am ready.
SPEAKER_00: We can then face and endure all things with contentment because we can face life in a fallen world with the strength of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot to learn from a travel narrative, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: But it's rich.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me now at the next section.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's homecoming preparation, which is all about his purity.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17 ought to surprise us.
SPEAKER_00: And it sets up another surprise later.
SPEAKER_00: The last section left us contemplating our trust and perseverance in the face of severe obstacles, as Paul plunges headfirst into the waters of persecution.
SPEAKER_00: And then Luke writes, When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly.
SPEAKER_00: Wait, what?
SPEAKER_00: Everything that we've heard so far is what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is happiness?
SPEAKER_00: How does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we expect, so we have to look carefully and remember.
SPEAKER_00: It's the brothers and sisters who received us gladly.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul got to Jerusalem, it was the Christians who received them gladly, not the non-Christians.
SPEAKER_00: We're also told that they meet with all the elders, not just some of them, but all of them.
SPEAKER_00: Then they fill in all the Jerusalem elders and all the things that God has done through Paul, and everybody rejoices.
SPEAKER_00: Notice in verse 19, Paul related one by one the things that he had done.
SPEAKER_00: No, the things that God had done.
SPEAKER_00: See how Paul's focus is on the Lord Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: And Luke is recounting for us what Jesus is doing from his place in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Faithfulness is expressed by what God does through us, not what we have done.
SPEAKER_00: And so in return, verse 20, the elders relate how God worked in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: There are now thousands of believers in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But therein lies an unexpected point of difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: When you have thousands of believers, thousands of Christians in one community, it's likely that there are going to be rumors.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's status, his reception, and his reputation among Jewish believers in Jerusalem hinges on rumors.
SPEAKER_00: On rumors.
SPEAKER_00: Look what they say.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21 They've all been told about you.
SPEAKER_00: That you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses.
SPEAKER_00: It's all rumor.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing of the sort happened.
SPEAKER_00: Paul proclaimed Jesus as the fulfillment of Moses' prophecies, of all that Judaism pointed to, but he didn't tell Jews to no longer be Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Luke shows us all throughout the book of Acts how Paul followed Jewish prayer customs.
SPEAKER_00: He spoke in synagogues.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was a Christ follower, but not anti Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Paul was at the Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 15, where the elders of the church gave instructions to the Gentiles, not Jews.
SPEAKER_00: They told non-Jewish believers in Jesus that they didn't have to become Jewish to be counted among God's people.
SPEAKER_00: But the rumor became that Paul was telling Jews, stop being Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Paul was in Jerusalem because he had a desire to be there for the Feast of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to worship in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And he followed Jewish charity patterns by bringing an offering for the poor people in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So it's all rumor.
SPEAKER_00: The elders' wise conclusion, verses 22 and 23 and 24, consists of showing rather than telling.
SPEAKER_00: We sometimes think that show and tell is the best choice to make.
SPEAKER_00: This is a situation, just show them.
SPEAKER_00: Just show them.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was encouraged to demonstrate to the Jewish believers that he hadn't abandoned Jewish heritage.
SPEAKER_00: How could he do that?
SPEAKER_00: Participate with some other brothers who are maybe under a Nazarite vow.
SPEAKER_00: You can look that up in your Old Testament sometime.
SPEAKER_00: Because the end of their purity time was to shave their heads, which is what a Nazarite did at the end of his vow.
SPEAKER_00: Join them in a purification rite, a common Jewish custom, to show that he was dedicated to God.
SPEAKER_00: That Paul had no problem purifying himself before the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: He had no problem worshiping in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: He had no problem offering offerings to God in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's a Christian, but he has no difficulty joining in a Jewish custom while maintaining his faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He could be Jewish and follow Jewish customs and Jewish laws, even though they're already fulfilled in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: All while proclaiming that faith in Jesus is the only way of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I think what's happening here is that Paul is seeking to become all things to all people.
SPEAKER_00: But he follows through not to cause problems with Jewish unbelievers, but Jewish believers who are believing rumors.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a salvation issue.
SPEAKER_00: This is a unity concern.
SPEAKER_00: And for the sake of unity in the body, Paul follows a Jewish purification process to show he's not opposed to the law of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: He still believes in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: He is Jewish and he thinks well of Jewish customs.
SPEAKER_00: It's a challenge, I think, to us to consider how we can pursue unity with other believers over non-essential matters.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wasn't teaching that the temple was now useless, even though Christ's temple is now among his people.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't teach that Jewish Christians must move on from Old Testament patterns.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he demonstrated that even Old Testament purification acts can be acts of worship followed for the sake of unity and truth.
SPEAKER_00: That's a challenge for us.
SPEAKER_00: But the ultimate issue here is the irony that's behind all of this.
SPEAKER_00: The irony is that Paul is preparing himself for this homecoming by purifying himself, by demonstrating to everyone that even though he's been going all throughout non-Jewish areas, he is still a righteous Jew.
SPEAKER_00: And that sanctifying act doesn't affect unbelieving Jews, but believing Jews.
SPEAKER_00: So at the end of verse 26, Paul is a purified Jew.
SPEAKER_00: He's gone through the process to demonstrate that he has taken care of his sin, whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the unpurified Jews who create the problems.
SPEAKER_00: We see that in the next section where we find Paul's hometown proscription, which is a kind of purging.
SPEAKER_00: So our third section, verses 27 through 36, describe a temple uprising.
SPEAKER_00: I've called this section a hometown proscription, and I think that probably needs some explanation because we're familiar with prescriptions, but maybe we're not so familiar with proscriptions.
SPEAKER_00: The clearest definition I could find comes from the Columns Dictionary.
SPEAKER_00: The proscription of something is the official forbidding of its existence or its use.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the better for our purposes is how Princeton University describes it.
SPEAKER_00: Interestingly, proscription was a legal but somewhat underhanded political way of getting rid of personal and political opponents in the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: It had been employed in Roman political circles for at least a hundred years by this point in time.
SPEAKER_00: Those who were the targets of proscription were considered outlaws, and anything they or their families possessed could be taken from them, and they were either banished from the empire or executed.
SPEAKER_00: In the worst cases, people were hunted down and executed, and their families were forever punished.
SPEAKER_00: Said differently, around the time of the first century, proscription was a means of purging.
SPEAKER_00: It was a way of eliminating someone you didn't want around.
SPEAKER_00: Now Luke doesn't call this temple uprising a proscription.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, what Paul experienced amounts to a kind of rejection and banishment, first from the temple, second from Judaism, and third from any aspect of being Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: And they reject him because of a misconstrued accusation.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everywhere against the people and the law and this place.
SPEAKER_00: Now it wasn't the local Jews who were initiating this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27, it tells us that there were Jews from Asia where he had just come from.
SPEAKER_00: Somehow, people, Jewish people from the region of Turkey and Greece, the area that he's just been ministering in, have come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: They are there, they recognize Paul, and they stir up everybody who is from the area against him.
SPEAKER_00: Their perception of his teaching was that it ran contrary to Jewish law and customs.
SPEAKER_00: That's a misconstrued accusation.
SPEAKER_00: But they also reject him because of a faulty assumption.
SPEAKER_00: They saw Trophimus the Ephesian in verse 29 in the city of Jerusalem with Paul, and they automatically assume that Paul has brought him into the temple beyond the court of Gentiles, into the court of men, which would defile the whole temple.
SPEAKER_00: And so they grab Paul, they drag him out of the temple, and they shut the doors to the temple.
SPEAKER_00: To put this into a mathematical equation, they added one plus one and got six six six.
SPEAKER_00: It's a faulty assumption.
SPEAKER_00: They stir up the whole city, it says.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: They were all stirred up, and everybody's running to the temple intent on carrying out an act of prescription against a former Pharisee turned Christian.
SPEAKER_00: They seize him, they drag him out of the temple, and they begin to beat him.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, the Roman officials think he must have done something bad.
SPEAKER_00: He must have done something illegal.
SPEAKER_00: So they arrest him, they bind him with chains, they take him for questioning, while the riled up Jews cry out, away with him.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Paul is the purified one.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is the unjustly accused one.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is unjustly arrested.
SPEAKER_00: He's unjustly beaten, chained, and soon to be questioned.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's rejected by his own people.
SPEAKER_00: Does any of that sound familiar to you?
SPEAKER_00: Because it should.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus told the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, and ultimately to be handed over to the Gentiles, so Paul was compelled to go to the holy city to be rejected and handed over to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus was unjustly accused, arrested, and beaten, so Paul was wrongly accused, beaten, and arrested.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus came to his own people and was not received by them, so Paul came to his own people and was not received by them.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus is the pure one, the sinless and undefiled one put on trial for the good news of the kingdom, so Paul was a purified ambassador for the king, put on trial for the good news of the kingdom of Christ the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus was content to rest in the love of the Father for him, for the purpose of the Father for his world, and entrust his life to the loving kindness of the Father, so Paul had to rest in the love of Christ for him, in the purpose of his king for his world, and to entrust his life to the loving kindness of his Lord.
SPEAKER_00: All of that was spoken beforehand in the life of Christ, and so it was predicted for Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Luke shows how this man that we know as the Apostle Paul could do all things through Christ who strengthened him.
SPEAKER_00: He could face the predictions, he could purify himself as an act of worship, and in effect be purged from his people because he had learned in whatever situation he was to be content.
SPEAKER_00: His contentment came from submitting himself to the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was a chief of sinners, rescued by the word of God's grace, and mercifully used by God's grace to speak of him wherever he went and to endure whatever the Lord laid in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: His contentment came from submitting himself to the will of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was a messenger to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: He was God's means of spreading the gospel and building churches among non-Jewish people, but that came at the cost of being misunderstood and rejected by his own people.
SPEAKER_00: And his contentment came from submitting himself to the truth of the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what that meant for the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Even as you consider what it might mean for you to seek contentment in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to Christ and not to us.
SPEAKER_00: We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed.
SPEAKER_00: We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
SPEAKER_00: We are persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested on display in our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake.
SPEAKER_00: For the life of Jesus is always manifested in our mortal flesh.
SPEAKER_00: This is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase in thanksgiving to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: So we do not lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
SPEAKER_00: For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
SPEAKER_00: So we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that we can't see.
SPEAKER_00: For the things that are seen are transient, they're here and they're gone.
SPEAKER_00: But the things that are unseen are eternal, and we know that if the tent that is our earthly dwelling, our bodies, if it is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: And because of all that we endure in this tent, in this house, in this body, we groan, because we long to put on our heavenly dwelling.
SPEAKER_00: If indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked, that would be embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened, not to be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
SPEAKER_00: For he who has prepared us for this very thing is God who has given us his spirit as a guarantee.
SPEAKER_00: So we can always be of good courage.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that while we are at home in the body, we're away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so we walk by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are of good courage.
SPEAKER_00: And we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: To be with Christ is always better.
SPEAKER_00: But whether at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.
SPEAKER_00: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether evil or good.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the Apostle Paul could know what's coming and face it all with perseverance and contentment because of his focus on Christ and eternity.
SPEAKER_00: A seeming boring vacation journal.
SPEAKER_00: Travel narrative that speaks right to the heart of every single Christian who faces life in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_00: What's your focus going to be?
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, draw us closer and nearer to you each day, that we may be challenged to be content.
SPEAKER_00: So that our hearts and our minds might be drawn to you and you might fill us with your spirit to do all things in your power for your praise and your eternal glory.
SPEAKER_00: And in the meantime, Lord, we ask that you would even come soon.
SPEAKER_00: Take us home to be with you and restore all that is wrong to be right again.
SPEAKER_00: So that all may know you in your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.