WEBVTT 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:12.720 This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:30.239 You've heard me say many times that Acts is far more than a history book. 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:31.839 It is history. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:33.119 It's church history. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:36.479 It's our history, but it is far more than that. 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:46.719 It tells us the story of the early church, but more than that, it tells us the story of Christ after the Gospels. 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:52.960 The Gospels themselves are the biographies of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:00:53.359 --> 00:01:11.519 They show us that he is the God man who left behind the glory of God's unstained holy presence to enter his stained creation to redeem it from the dominion of sin and Satan. 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:22.959 So the first testament of your Bible, that first part of the Bible, tells us how God started that work. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:33.359 He chose a particular people, the Jewish people, through whom he promised that he would send a redeemer for the whole world. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:38.480 And so the Gospels, as you know, recount that coming. 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:44.319 They recount his life, his ministry, his death, his resurrection. 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:52.159 And then when we get to Acts chapter 1, all of a sudden that Redeemer King leaves. 00:01:55.280 --> 00:02:02.640 He ascends into heaven, where he will remain until he returns to gather his church to himself. 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:12.240 But if we read and listen closely, we will see that Luke tells us the church is not left alone, is it? 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:26.800 For Jesus promised and then fulfilled his promise to send his spirit to work in and through his people, to accomplish God's eternal purpose and plan. 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:31.919 Now the book of Acts then is focused on one step in that plan. 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:33.680 Think of that. 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:38.800 All of the different little parts of the book of Acts are one big step. 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:41.680 Think about it like this. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:51.120 You can imagine God the Father, as a grown man, adult, long legs, takes long steps. 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:57.520 But his children have to take several little steps for each step that he takes. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:01.520 The book of Acts is one long step. 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:11.039 But as that is worked out in life, in time and space, God's people take lots of little steps. 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:32.240 If God is going to redeem his sin-cursed world, not just people, but the world, all of it, then that work has to expand beyond what happened in the first testament. 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:37.120 It has to go from Israel to the world. 00:03:37.360 --> 00:04:01.520 That's why the Lord Jesus at the end of the book of Luke told the eleven disciples that it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations. 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:05.840 Beginning from Jerusalem. 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:11.599 Those 11 disciples with Jesus that day were the first witnesses. 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:34.319 They are the witnesses with him at the beginning of the book of Acts, who then become 120 and then thousands of people who begin spreading across the face of the globe, taking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as witnesses for repentance and the forgiveness of sins in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:45.120 Those nations were represented at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, where people heard the good news of Jesus Christ from all over the globe. 00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:47.439 All the known world at that time. 00:04:54.160 --> 00:05:01.600 The book of Acts shows us how the gospel continued to expand in different regions. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:13.279 And then Paul was arrested by Jesus Christ and called into apostleship, leading him to a life of suffering for Jesus in the cause of the gospel. 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:24.560 But that progress, that exciting progress, is about God's work. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:35.680 And as you trace God's work throughout the book of Acts, we continually see in expanding ways a foil. 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:37.680 Do you know what a foil is? 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:43.759 I'm not talking about that shiny stuff that comes out of a roll and you use it for baking and cooking. 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:52.240 A foil is something that writers employ, it's a tool in narrative. 00:05:52.720 --> 00:06:04.480 So a foil is an aspect of a story that is set against something positive and good that a writer wants to highlight. 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:08.879 So think of a bad guy in a story. 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:17.920 A bad guy in a story is often used to highlight how great and good the good guy is. 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:20.399 The bad guy is a foil. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:28.639 Sometimes it's not necessarily a character, sometimes it's a situation or a circumstance. 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:37.519 A foil is often negative or disturbing or confusing and often evil. 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:42.959 And it highlights the positive elements of the story. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:07:02.240 In the book of Acts, especially beginning in chapter 21, through to the end of the book, very religious yet unbelieving Jews are the foil to God's work. 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:07.279 They're the foil to God's work. 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:16.399 You see, from here till the end of the book of Acts, Jewish unbelief gains strength and momentum in Luke's narrative. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:24.000 On the whole, their ears are closed to the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:26.879 But that unbelief isn't Luke's point. 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:37.199 He's not wanting to highlight the foil, he's wanting to highlight the greatness and the awesomeness and the fulfillment of God's purpose and plan to take the gospel to the ends of the world. 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:52.240 And to show us how great and awesome that is, Luke employs a foil to show us a negative side that serves to highlight how powerful God's work is. 00:07:54.240 --> 00:08:00.639 But that doesn't mean that the gospel isn't proclaimed to those who don't want to hear. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:06.079 From the very beginning, the gospel was proclaimed to everybody. 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:10.879 Some were interested in hearing, others didn't want to hear at all. 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:21.360 And so at the end of the book of Acts in Acts chapter 28, Paul issues a prophetic condemnation of that unbelief. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:26.720 Imagine saying this to your family. 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:28.399 Okay? 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:31.839 Think about yourself saying this to your family. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:34.080 This is at the end of the book of Acts. 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:40.639 Paul is speaking to Jewish people, specifically Jewish religious leaders. 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:48.480 And after speaking to them, they're disagreeing about what Paul says, and they left Paul after he made this statement. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:09:07.360 The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet, quote, Go to this people and say, You will indeed hear, but never understand. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:12.320 You will indeed see, but never perceive. 00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:29.759 For this people's heart has grown dull, and with ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they've closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:48.240 At the end of the book of Acts, Paul is done with his ministry to the Jewish people because they have fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy about closed ears. 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:10.559 Acts 21 is the first time that Luke tells us about this corporate, almost national refusal to hear the good news of Christ. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:16.639 It takes place outdoors, on the steps of the temple. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:22.480 If you want to imagine what that looks like, imagine me preaching from the stairs on either side of the room here. 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:31.279 Except the stairs are full of Roman soldiers gathered around Paul to protect him from the mob. 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:36.159 And he asks for an opportunity to speak to them. 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:40.080 A religious mob wants Paul dead. 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:45.919 And he takes that opportunity not to run away, but to give an apology. 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:48.559 Literally a defense. 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:53.200 Our English word apology is from the Greek word meaning defense. 00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:57.919 He's defending himself before this mob. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:12.799 He tells his kinsmen that faith in Jesus is not some way-off, strange religion distinct from Judaism. 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:19.759 That you can be a Christian and still be Jewish. 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:28.799 He says God's program is to redeem people from all nations, not just the Jews. 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:31.519 Isn't that what Luke showed us at the end of his book? 00:11:31.759 --> 00:11:32.879 Luke 24. 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:38.639 Repentance and the forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations. 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:41.919 That's where we're headed at the end of Luke. 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:49.600 In the book of Acts, we begin to see that taking place, and the Jewish people want nothing of that kind of good news. 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:55.279 Now that's the story of our text in very condensed form. 00:11:56.399 --> 00:12:03.600 But Luke structures this account to make us focus on Paul, not the Jews. 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:13.440 The unbelieving Jews are in the background, they're the foil that serves to highlight the Apostle Paul. 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:27.919 And because we know the end of the story, we know that the unbelieving Jews in Acts 21 and 22 mirror those Jews in the time of Isaiah who had ears to hear but did not hear. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:40.320 So as Paul is standing on the Jerusalem temple steps proclaiming the gospel to the mob, he is preaching to closed ears. 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:45.519 Closed ears that belong to people who want him dead. 00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:54.559 Every faithful Christian will be in this situation sometime. 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:05.200 If you are not in this place at some point in your life, then there is some element of your life that is not faithful. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:15.679 You will feel compelled to tell someone about the Lord Jesus Christ, and they will have no interest in hearing you at all. 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:19.200 They may even be combative about it. 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:21.679 They may disown you. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:29.919 So watching Paul gives us some insight into how to face similar situations today. 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:33.759 So let's consider Paul's defense a little more closely. 00:13:46.559 --> 00:14:02.159 First, we see in chapter 21, beginning in verse 27 and following, that Paul, I'm sorry, 37 and following, that Paul was ready to make a defense to the people. 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:10.879 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, Can I say something to you? 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:14.879 And ultimately, he wants permission to speak. 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:24.080 And in chapter 22, verse 1, he says, Brothers and fathers, hear the defense, the apology that I now make before you. 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:29.759 He says, Listen, I'm on trial before you all, so let me make my defense. 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:34.000 Let me tell you why I'm here, why I'm in the temple, what I'm doing. 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:35.840 You've accused me of doing wrong. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:37.600 Let me make a defense. 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:47.519 What we find here in this section is that Paul was ready to defend who he was, first of all, before the Roman authorities. 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:17.039 That he was one of the Sikari, the assassins, who had gathered together a fighting force to remove Rome from the realm of Judea and the Roman Empire and take back their country for the Jews. 00:15:17.919 --> 00:15:24.080 Apparently, there was an Egyptian who gathered them together. 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:27.759 Paul says, Listen, I'm not a criminal. 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:30.639 I'm not a leader of the criminals. 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:38.480 Instead, in verse 39, he says, he's an educated, cultural, cultured man. 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:47.519 See, Romans tended to look, look down their noses at Jews, looked at them contemptuously. 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:53.039 But Paul circumvents that by saying, Listen, I wasn't even born here. 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:57.840 I was born in a different region. 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:10.000 Not even in this city, not even in this region, but I was born in Cilicia and even in Cilicia, in Tarsus, a citizen of no obscure city. 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:14.559 Tarsus was a big deal in the Roman Empire at this time in history. 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:19.120 It was what was known as a free city in the Roman Empire. 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:30.639 We don't know exactly what it all entailed, but somehow, because of his birth in that city, Paul was born as a Roman citizen. 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:35.039 Only a handful of people could be Roman citizens. 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:40.559 A handful is many, many tens of thousands or across the Roman Empire. 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:42.960 You had to meet certain qualifications. 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:47.279 Part of that may be that Paul was born in Tarsus. 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:57.440 It may be that his father, being most likely a wealthy man, purchased his own citizenship, and then because he was a citizen, Paul became a citizen. 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:04.720 Nevertheless, Paul uses that to his advantage here in defending himself before the Roman authorities, saying, Listen, that's not me. 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:07.599 Who you think I am, that isn't me. 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:17.359 He was also ready to defend who he had been, not before the Romans this time, but before his accusers. 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:27.039 He tells them, brothers and fathers, chapter 22, verse 1, hear the defense that I now make. 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:34.160 And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, language there is the word dialect. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:38.240 So there's one of two possibilities here. 00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:52.960 One is that Paul is speaking to them in the Hebrew language, in which case he would most likely be addressing the Jewish leaders, because Hebrew was not the common language spoken by Jewish people at this point in time. 00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:55.279 The common language was Aramaic. 00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:03.279 So if he's speaking in Hebrew, he would be addressing the leaders who would have some knowledge of Hebrew. 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:25.119 If he's just speaking to a mob of temple goers, he's probably speaking in the Hebrew dialect, which was Aramaic at the time, which was the standard operating language among Jewish people in the region, general region of Palestine, all the way from Syria down to Egypt, they spoke Aramaic. 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:31.839 That's probably what's going on here, which helps them know hey, he's one of us. 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:35.680 Now, how would that say he's one of us? 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:48.960 Well, if Paul has just said, and anybody's heard him, that he's from Cilicia, he's from Tarsus, that makes him one of those Hellenized Jews, which means he's a Greek Jew. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:51.279 Sort of a misnomer. 00:18:51.440 --> 00:19:00.640 He's somebody, he's a Jewish person who's been born outside of Israel, and therefore he's been raised in a Greek culture and he speaks Greek. 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:09.039 Most people, Jewish people who were raised Greek, couldn't speak Aramaic. 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:19.279 But now here's Paul, who speaks Greek and Aramaic, and he understands Hebrew. 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:24.160 So he's telling them, I'm not an outsider. 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:26.319 I'm one of you. 00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:28.559 He goes a step further. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:31.839 He says, I'm a strict Pharisee. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:38.160 I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the greatest teachers in Israel's history. 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:42.720 He's a zealous Jew, so zealous that he was a persecutor of the way. 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:46.880 That was a phrase applied to Christianity. 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:50.799 It was known as the way, the way of Jesus, the way of the Messiah. 00:19:52.319 --> 00:20:00.160 Paul is defending himself first before Roman authorities, then before his accusers, saying, I'm not who you think I am. 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:13.440 Now, most of us would be able to defend who we are, or maybe are not, in the way that Paul did before the authorities. 00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:15.920 I'm not that criminal. 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:18.799 I'm not a leader of criminals. 00:20:20.799 --> 00:20:33.599 But knowing who you were, past tense, before believing in Jesus, is a key to sharing the gospel with those who have closed ears. 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:46.799 Paul identifies himself as a Jewish, strict Pharisee who persecuted Christians. 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:49.759 That's all past. 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:54.720 That's all opposed to Jesus. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:02.079 Now, very few of God's people will have the kind of drastic life change that Paul did. 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:03.440 Some will. 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:09.279 Most Christians today are what we might call generational Christians. 00:21:09.440 --> 00:21:12.400 We tend to come from families with believers in them. 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:18.079 And so many believers come to faith in Christ at a younger age. 00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:28.640 And if that's you, you have an incredible blessing because you didn't have much time in life for your life to become a runaway freight train to hell. 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:35.839 You were spared much of the hardship that comes from living a life given to sin. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:48.160 Some of you, though, have a clearer perspective of what your life was like before you trusted in Christ. 00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:55.920 But either way, it's important to know who you were before you believed in Jesus. 00:21:57.279 --> 00:21:59.200 In fact, let me tell you who you were. 00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:06.400 And if you have not come to faith in Jesus Christ, this is who you are. 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:08.960 This is who the Bible says you are. 00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:10.880 Every single one of us. 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:14.160 You're a self-focused, prideful sinner. 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:20.079 That's who you were, or that's who you are. 00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:25.920 Because that's who we all are without Christ's transforming work. 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:28.640 Paul knew this about himself. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:34.240 And he could describe how that worked itself out in his life. 00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:41.039 In fact, he goes on to say that he was even ready to defend his own Jewish zeal. 00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:52.880 He says, Listen, I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are this day. 00:22:53.119 --> 00:22:55.519 He's ready to defend who he was. 00:22:55.599 --> 00:22:58.559 He said, Listen, I know exactly what you're feeling. 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:00.799 I know exactly what you're experiencing. 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:03.599 I know exactly why you're angry with me. 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:05.599 Because that was me. 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:09.359 It's not anymore. 00:23:09.599 --> 00:23:11.279 That's not who I am. 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:26.319 So Paul is ready to make a defense of who he is now contrasted with who he was. 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:31.039 Can you make that defense? 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:41.440 To give somebody an idea of the difference that has happened in your life because of who Christ is. 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:50.559 Now, beginning in verse 3, we see a change, a shift here where Paul told how Christ arrested him. 00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:59.519 So he starts out, right, with telling how he was a zealous Jew. 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:03.759 He says, I understand your zealousness this day. 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:09.920 You are wanting to keep the temple pure, you are wanting to keep the law of Moses strictly. 00:24:10.079 --> 00:24:12.160 I get it, I understand that. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:18.240 And so he goes on to say that he was an indiscriminate purifier. 00:24:18.960 --> 00:24:28.559 Didn't matter who it was, he would go and arrest men and women, probably even children who were Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem to be beaten and imprisoned. 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:32.240 Because you want to talk about zealousness for your faith? 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:33.440 That's me. 00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:39.759 He persecuted people to the end. 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:49.279 He could look back on his life and see how sin in the form of religious zeal drove him to more sin. 00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:59.279 Friends, we can all tell stories of how sin worked itself out in our lives. 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:13.359 Even if you came to faith as a child, if you think about it, you will be able to give examples of how sin was present and on display in your life. 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:18.319 Sadly, in my life, it was by deceiving my parents. 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:22.720 It didn't work very often, but I tried. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:25.680 I didn't want to obey. 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:28.160 I wanted my life my way. 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:29.440 I was right. 00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:36.400 That self-focused, sinful pride is in every single one of us. 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:43.680 Hopefully, by God's grace, not many of us were murderers like Paul. 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:50.960 But sin is always at work in us before we come to faith in Christ. 00:25:51.279 --> 00:25:52.880 Paul told them that. 00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:55.200 He said, I get where you are. 00:25:56.079 --> 00:26:03.279 Preaching to closed ears is helpful if you identify with where they are. 00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:08.160 Paul also then told how Christ arrested him. 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:14.079 He's on his way to Damascus, verse 6, verse 5 and verse 6. 00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:18.240 He's on his way to arrest believers. 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:24.799 He journeyed toward Damascus to take those who were there and bring them in bonds. 00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:32.000 That means he's going to use ropes and chains to bind them up and haul them back to Jerusalem. 00:26:32.799 --> 00:26:42.640 He's on his way to arrest Christ's disciples, but Jesus Christ arrested Paul before he ever arrived in Damascus. 00:26:44.640 --> 00:26:50.480 Every genuine conversion of a sinner is a dramatic thing. 00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:53.920 I've heard people say, I have a boring testimony. 00:26:54.079 --> 00:26:55.519 No, you don't. 00:26:56.079 --> 00:26:56.880 No, you don't. 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:01.519 Every conversion story is dramatic and glorious. 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:07.920 Now, few experience something as transforming as Paul's experience. 00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:16.480 But if you've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have been arrested by his grace to encounter him in a saving way. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:19.599 Can you express that? 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:28.799 Can you express how Jesus arrested your heart, soul, and mind? 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:36.000 I'm not talking about the act of praying a prayer or something like that. 00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:54.960 I'm talking about what God did in your heart, soul, and mind to make you aware of your wretched sinfulness and how God then made you aware of his saving grace and what that awareness did to your heart, soul, and mind so that you reached out to Christ in faith. 00:27:58.240 --> 00:28:00.640 It's not gonna be like Paul. 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:07.119 Not gonna be a blinding light in the sky that blinds you physically and all of that. 00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:11.440 But it's gonna be amazing grace. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:18.480 Like you, unlike me. 00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:26.240 You see, friends, we all have closed ears of one kind or another. 00:28:27.279 --> 00:28:30.480 Paul says in another place that there's no one who seeks after God. 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:32.000 No, not one. 00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:40.720 We don't want our happy place of self-focused pride and sinfulness to be exploded by God's holiness. 00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:52.880 So people with closed ears need to hear how others had closed ears, opened by the good news of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. 00:28:55.839 --> 00:29:00.640 My friends, if you have closed ears, let them be opened. 00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:11.839 Let them be opened to hear the good news of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection so that you might repent and receive the forgiveness of sins. 00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:21.440 After Paul told how Christ arrested him, he told how Jesus identified himself. 00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:33.039 He says, A great light appeared that everybody with him also saw, and a voice spoke that others did not understand. 00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:41.039 Both the voice and the light are common signs of divine intervention in the ancient world. 00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:56.880 Verse 8, Paul doesn't know who this is, and he says, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:00.240 Do you get what he's saying? 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:12.000 Paul is on his way to Damascus to arrest followers of the way, and the people of the way are now identified with Jesus of Nazareth because Paul is persecuting the people of the way. 00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:14.400 Now Jesus says, You're persecuting me. 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:25.359 If somebody is persecuting a disciple, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are persecuting Jesus because Jesus is identified with his people. 00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:33.440 Paul says, I didn't understand what I was doing. 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:38.319 In my unbelief, I was opposing Jesus. 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:41.279 Now who's Jesus? 00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:44.559 Well, he's from Nazareth. 00:30:46.880 --> 00:30:49.200 Okay, but there's more. 00:30:49.519 --> 00:31:00.640 Paul now tells how the way, and therefore faith in Jesus, is faithful to the God of Israel. 00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:25.920 When he gets to Damascus, a law-abiding man, that is a Mosaic law-abiding man, a Jew who is faithful to his Jewish culture and Jewish faith, who has a good reputation among all the Jews in the community, became Christ's messenger to an arrested man. 00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:48.960 Healing the eyes of the blind, that is the apostle Paul, places Ananias in the legacy of Jesus. 00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:56.960 He functions as an Old Testament, now New Testament prophet who communicates God's word and God's will to Paul. 00:31:57.039 --> 00:32:04.240 And in case there's any doubt, Ananias clarifies what had happened to Paul. 00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:06.880 So this isn't just Paul's opinion. 00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:13.279 This is now a prophetic revelation of what has happened to Paul the apostle. 00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:23.359 He declares that Israel's God had appointed Paul to know his will and to see and hear him. 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:28.160 Hope you get what that means. 00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:36.880 Paul says, listen, I came to know the wretchedness of my own sin. 00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:44.400 And then I got introduced to Jesus of Nazareth. 00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:54.160 And this Jesus of Nazareth is the God of Israel, the God of the Old Testament who has marked me as his own. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:57.839 Notice how this happens. 00:32:59.759 --> 00:33:02.559 Jesus is speaking to him in verse 8. 00:33:04.799 --> 00:33:19.119 Then if you look down at verse 14, Ananias says, The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth. 00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:21.599 Jesus is the voice who speaks. 00:33:21.839 --> 00:33:27.599 Jesus is the righteous one who speaks to him, and the righteous one is the God of Israel. 00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:37.039 Paul in an instant understands that the one he's been persecuting is Israel's God, whom they've been looking for forever. 00:33:41.519 --> 00:33:44.480 Why are those with closed ears so unhappy? 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:53.519 Because they don't know, see, and hear Jesus Christ. 00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:04.240 Not an antagonist, not an arrestor. 00:34:04.799 --> 00:34:08.159 He was arrested to turn around and be a witness. 00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:15.760 How is it that God made you aware of the person of Jesus? 00:34:18.079 --> 00:34:45.199 I'm talking about when you came to understand that Jesus isn't just a fun, interesting Sunday school story, but when you came to know that Jesus is the God man who came to die as a sacrifice that satisfies God's eternal wrath against my eternal rebellion, and in exchange for my faith and trust gives me forgiveness. 00:34:46.639 --> 00:34:51.119 Can you express that to someone whose ears are closed? 00:34:55.920 --> 00:35:07.039 In the last part of this section, Paul told how God's prophet, Ananias, led him, led Paul, to complete God's cleansing acts in him. 00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:11.599 And verse 16 says, Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. 00:35:11.679 --> 00:35:15.840 He says, Listen, Paul, you now know who Jesus is. 00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:27.360 Let's finish out this symbolic process of trusting in him, being baptized as an emblem, as a symbol of God's cleansing work in your life. 00:35:29.519 --> 00:35:34.239 To now go and direct your heart and worship to the proper place. 00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:38.960 Jesus of Nazareth, the God of Israel. 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:48.239 Everything's fine on the temple steps up till that point. 00:35:49.280 --> 00:35:53.119 We don't have even an indication of any commotion. 00:35:54.880 --> 00:36:06.000 Paul is told to rise and be baptized and wash away his sins, calling on his name, that is Jesus' name, the name of the righteous one of Israel. 00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:12.639 And now from here, Paul leads them from himself to Christ's work. 00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:19.440 He says, I've been a faithful Jew. 00:36:20.800 --> 00:36:28.559 But even after my conversion, even after coming to faith in Christ, he is still a faithful Jew. 00:36:29.119 --> 00:36:32.000 He comes back to Jerusalem in verse 17. 00:36:33.119 --> 00:36:34.800 And what's he doing? 00:36:35.440 --> 00:36:38.880 He's praying in the temple. 00:36:40.559 --> 00:36:49.039 The apostle was arguing that believing in Christ doesn't necessarily change ethnic customs. 00:36:50.559 --> 00:36:53.280 In this case, it was just the opposite. 00:36:53.679 --> 00:36:58.719 Paul's prayers in the temple were now focused in the proper direction. 00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:15.039 We probably all know people who spent most of a lifetime in church, in Sunday school, worshiping, praying, learning, not really having a true awareness of who Jesus is. 00:37:15.599 --> 00:37:19.599 And when that changes, everything changes. 00:37:19.840 --> 00:37:20.800 That's Paul. 00:37:20.960 --> 00:37:22.559 He said, I get it now. 00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:23.679 I see. 00:37:24.400 --> 00:37:25.360 I hear. 00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:37.360 Paul's praying in the temple also displayed to those antagonistic Jews that day that he wasn't interested in defiling the temple as they thought he did. 00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:43.360 He wants to honor it through proper worship of Israel's true God. 00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:52.719 And so Paul now becomes obedient to Christ as the God of Judaism. 00:37:54.239 --> 00:38:00.239 Notice in verse 18 where he sees Jesus saying to him, Make haste, go quickly. 00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:04.719 Get out of Jerusalem, because they will not accept your testimony about me. 00:38:06.239 --> 00:38:09.679 Paul returns to Jerusalem after his Damascus trip. 00:38:10.159 --> 00:38:13.119 He was converted to Christ in Damascus. 00:38:13.360 --> 00:38:21.599 Now it's there, back in Jerusalem, that the Lord Jesus appears to him again, this time to save his life from antagonistic Jews. 00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:28.800 And to initiate Paul's service of taking the good news of Jesus beyond Israel. 00:38:29.679 --> 00:38:32.000 Notice the reason, verse 18. 00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:36.559 Paul, you need to know this. 00:38:37.920 --> 00:38:39.760 They're not going to hear you. 00:38:41.119 --> 00:38:43.039 They're not going to listen to you. 00:38:43.360 --> 00:38:46.079 And they're not going to accept what you have to say. 00:38:50.400 --> 00:38:54.480 That made no sense to the Apostle Paul as a young believer. 00:38:56.079 --> 00:38:58.960 Everyone knew how much he hated Christians. 00:38:59.679 --> 00:39:12.800 Everyone in Jerusalem by now had surely heard about how persistent and zealous he was of finding Christians and dragging them back and beating them and imprisoning them, men and women indiscriminately. 00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:17.840 Everyone, apparently, in Jerusalem had learned of his complicity in Stephen's murder. 00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:19.679 So why would they ever reject him? 00:39:19.840 --> 00:39:22.079 Why would they not listen to what he had to say? 00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:28.880 They would reject Paul because they also rejected their Lord and King, Jesus Christ. 00:39:29.199 --> 00:39:43.920 And in that moment, Paul could choose the familiar and become a quiet, closeted Christian living a life of seclusion, not talking about his faith. 00:39:45.199 --> 00:39:47.599 Or he could choose to obey Christ. 00:39:50.239 --> 00:39:55.440 That decision was made more difficult, I think, by a lack of response to Paul's objection. 00:39:55.840 --> 00:39:56.880 Did you see his objection? 00:39:57.039 --> 00:39:58.000 Verse 19? 00:39:58.239 --> 00:40:01.280 But I said, Lord, they know who I am? 00:40:01.679 --> 00:40:03.039 They know what I've done. 00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:09.119 And there's no response from the Lord Jesus. 00:40:13.599 --> 00:40:18.320 Jesus did not respond to Paul's reasoning in verses 19 and 20. 00:40:18.880 --> 00:40:21.280 There was only a response of command. 00:40:23.039 --> 00:40:23.360 Go. 00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:31.119 Go, for I will send you away to the Gentiles. 00:40:32.559 --> 00:40:35.519 I think it's safe to say we all want reasons, don't we? 00:40:35.679 --> 00:40:40.480 It's much easier to obey when you have reasons and the reasons make sense. 00:40:42.880 --> 00:40:52.320 It's much much easier to follow the Lord's will when we understand it and all of the things line up and everything is logical and makes sense. 00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:58.480 If a legitimate reason exists for obedience, we can be more inclined to obey. 00:40:58.639 --> 00:41:01.679 But often God may not give us a reason. 00:41:02.079 --> 00:41:04.400 He may only give us the command. 00:41:05.440 --> 00:41:05.760 Go. 00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:26.000 Like Isaiah's response to Christ's question of who will go for us in Isaiah 6 to those with closed ears, Paul was to obey the command to leave those with closed ears and go to those with open ears and receptive hearts. 00:41:26.239 --> 00:41:34.159 Paul was to display what a proper response to Jesus looks like: faith, trust, and obedience. 00:41:35.039 --> 00:41:37.519 I like the way Steve Wellham has said this. 00:41:37.679 --> 00:41:44.719 He said, Given who Jesus is, Paul now knows this, he must be our glory. 00:41:45.599 --> 00:41:48.320 He must command our obedience. 00:41:48.639 --> 00:41:52.559 He must receive our complete trust and devotion. 00:41:53.039 --> 00:41:56.480 Yeah, there's lots of good things in life to be concerned about. 00:41:57.119 --> 00:42:03.280 But none so central as knowing rightly our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:07.199 Well, I'm out of time. 00:42:07.519 --> 00:42:21.920 So let me summarize our last section where Paul is unafraid to suffer while making full use of the legal code. 00:42:22.800 --> 00:42:32.159 So we have really three components here: the Jewish antagonism, Paul's actual suffering and his Roman privilege. 00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:40.960 So first, Paul says in verse 21, Jesus said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. 00:42:41.599 --> 00:42:49.119 And notice it says, up to this word, singular, they listened to him. 00:42:52.079 --> 00:43:00.159 They didn't want to hear anything that Paul had to say about Gentiles, non-Jews. 00:43:01.119 --> 00:43:12.719 If you remember from our last study, their accusation to him, against him, is that he brought a Gentile into the temple, defiling it. 00:43:14.320 --> 00:43:22.000 So hearing that Jesus, the God of Israel, is now directing Paul to the Gentiles just blows their minds. 00:43:22.880 --> 00:43:26.400 And as a result, they want him dead. 00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:29.679 They're treating him as Jesus was treated. 00:43:29.840 --> 00:43:33.039 They want him dead just as they wished Jesus dead. 00:43:33.199 --> 00:43:36.719 And so the result is that Paul is suffering. 00:43:38.079 --> 00:43:46.960 He's bound and carried into the barracks and ordered to be flogged, to be whipped as a lowly criminal. 00:43:47.920 --> 00:43:53.519 He's treated as a criminal based on the outrage of others. 00:43:54.000 --> 00:43:58.719 Others are outraged at what he says, so he gets treated as a criminal. 00:43:58.960 --> 00:44:03.360 By the way, that's Not so outlandish and outrageous as it might feel. 00:44:05.280 --> 00:44:20.960 Just this week a European country passed through part of their legal system to make it a criminal act to preach the truth about sexuality in their country. 00:44:21.199 --> 00:44:25.039 It hasn't yet become law, it has one more step, but it looks like it's gonna happen. 00:44:25.599 --> 00:44:29.119 The outrage of others will make it a criminal act to do so. 00:44:29.679 --> 00:44:30.880 That's not that unusual. 00:44:30.960 --> 00:44:32.239 It's not that unexpected. 00:44:32.880 --> 00:44:33.440 That's Paul. 00:44:33.519 --> 00:44:37.360 He's being treated as a criminal based on the outrage of others. 00:44:40.159 --> 00:44:42.960 And he's kept in bonds until the next day. 00:44:43.119 --> 00:44:50.400 If you look at verse 29, Paul was a Roman citizen, he bound him, verse 30. 00:44:50.480 --> 00:44:56.239 But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he's being accused, he unbound him. 00:44:56.480 --> 00:45:02.400 Paul is kept bound up as a prisoner that day, that night, until the next day. 00:45:03.119 --> 00:45:08.159 But Paul is also making full use of his Roman privilege. 00:45:08.400 --> 00:45:26.159 As a citizen by birth, he is protected from certain kinds of treatment, which means you can't flog, you can't whip a Roman citizen without a proper trial, a proper examination to make sure that he is doing things uncitizenlike. 00:45:30.079 --> 00:45:43.440 Friends, God may make use of all of the details in your life to fulfill his purpose in his world, to proclaim the good news of salvation in Jesus, and to make you more like him. 00:45:45.119 --> 00:45:46.400 That's what's happening here. 00:45:47.840 --> 00:45:52.480 The Lord Jesus takes each one of us down a different kind of path in life. 00:45:53.920 --> 00:45:58.159 The path itself is going to vary from person to person to person. 00:45:58.800 --> 00:46:01.119 And the details will be different. 00:46:01.440 --> 00:46:12.559 All of Christ's people are going to face joys, sorrows, trials, sufferings of all kinds, pains that conform them more and more to Jesus Himself. 00:46:13.280 --> 00:46:17.039 The Apostle Paul's path was to go to the Gentiles, to the non-Jews. 00:46:17.119 --> 00:46:24.400 And that means God used to bring about, the means that God used to bring that about was the rejection of his own people. 00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:33.440 God used Paul's citizenship and his place of birth to protect him from flogging, to save his life at this moment. 00:46:33.599 --> 00:46:38.239 God used his ability to speak Aramaic to communicate the gospel to his own people. 00:46:38.559 --> 00:46:45.679 God used every single detail of Paul's life along the path that he had chosen for Paul. 00:46:47.280 --> 00:46:51.840 And his own people rejected the Lord Jesus and they rejected Paul. 00:46:52.159 --> 00:46:54.639 They had closed ears. 00:46:56.719 --> 00:47:01.519 Yet even in their rejection, Paul wanted them to hear. 00:47:02.880 --> 00:47:07.679 And he was ready to tell them of the hope that's found in Jesus Christ. 00:47:09.360 --> 00:47:12.239 Our takeaway then is very obvious, I think. 00:47:14.239 --> 00:47:25.519 Number one, we must have ears to hear the good news of Christ that calls us to believe in him, to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow him. 00:47:27.280 --> 00:47:36.960 But that means we have to have eyes to see and ears to hear the glory and majesty of the exalted Christ that moves us to follow him and obey. 00:47:38.480 --> 00:47:58.719 And we must also then be ready to make a defense of how Christ arrested us so that we can lead others from our story to his work within the freedoms provided to us while enduring suffering as we follow Jesus. 00:47:59.199 --> 00:48:00.000 Would you pray with me? 00:48:00.480 --> 00:48:02.400 Lord, help us. 00:48:03.280 --> 00:48:11.119 Help us to be confident in your work by your Spirit. 00:48:12.719 --> 00:48:20.800