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I want to invite you this morning, we’re going to be in Acts chapter 14. If we’re going to study the book of Acts chapter 14. And this particular chapter is critical for the life of the believer to be intentional in how you represent Jesus in this world. And what I mean by that is the Lord has called all of us to be ministers for him, to those that know him, to be ambassadors representing Christ and the way you carry yourself in this world. Acts chapter 14 is one of those chapters that really helps us think through how we do that. In a world that’s in some ways rapidly changing and in other ways more connected than it’s ever been, especially over these last five years. I don’t know if it was like Covid that helped spur some of this long. I’m not sure what it was, but people in some regards seem to have gotten way out in left field on some things. That’s been different lately than than times past and in other ways. We’re more united globally because of the way communication is made known. But in all those changes and it feels like it’s getting more and more rapid sometimes. As as a believer, if you’re not careful, the tendency might be just to say, I’m throwing my hands up, I’m just done with it. I’m going to stick my head in the sand and wait for all this to go by, right? And just and just step out of what God has called you to do for him in this world.
And and I want you to Acts chapter 14. If that’s you, you tend to be more of an anxious soul and and thinking about how things have progressed. Acts chapter 14 is a wonderful chapter for you to, to, to think through. And if you’re just a believer in Christ and you just want to honor God with your life, it’s it’s also a critical chapter for us to think about. Because in Acts chapter 14, this is the chapter where Paul is on his first missionary journey, which we started to look at last week, and we looked at how Paul began this journey from from Antioch, Syria. But this is the first missionary journey the Apostle Paul went on, and he went from Antioch, Syria, with Barnabas to Cyprus, and from Cyprus, they traveled north to what is modern day Turkey, and we read about how they went to Antioch, Pisidia, which is another Antioch, and then to Iconium. That’s where they end in, in chapter 13, in the beginning of 14. And then they travel and the rest of their journey to, to Lystra and Derby. And then after they finish in Derby, they go back to the cities and towns they were a part of before traveling back to Antioch. And as Paul goes from these, these particular cities they’re in, this predominantly in the region of Galatia is where they’re ministering, where we get the book of Galatians.
We’ll look at that in the weeks ahead, how that book was formulated. But Paul, when he writes to Galatia, he’s writing to all these churches in that region. And as Paul goes to these different cities, what you discover is each one of these cities has a particular uniqueness to them. And so something that that sets them apart from the other towns that are part of that was pretty customary in Roman society that every town you go to have would have a unique God in which that particular group of people would worship. There was a pantheon of gods that people worshiped in the Roman Empire, including Caesar himself, at different points. And so as Paul would go to these different cities, he would have to learn a different way in which to engage the people where he was, he was ministering to. Now, it didn’t mean Paul changed his message, but it does mean Paul adapted his methods to better minister to the hearts of people. And so when we think about the Apostle Paul on this missionary journey and seeing how he does this, he gives us a beautiful opportunity for us to consider where God has us and how we represent the Lord and the way we move in this world. And what is it God desires to do? So this is what we’re going to talk about. How to how to have a gospel impact in a diverse world.
And you have to know everything about everyone before the Lord can use you. I mean, how is this even possible? And all the different things people like to claim and do and belong to? How could you possibly see the effectiveness of Christ made known in the hearts of people, Acts chapter 14 is that chapter. Now let me give you a point, number one, and we’ll read this together. How are we effective for the gospel? Number one, is this care? You’ve got to care. It’s it’s hard to reach people when you hate them. In fact, we would just say it’s nearly impossible. And so if you want to be effective for the Lord, one of the first things you’ve got to do is care. And, you know, one of the things I think is beautiful about followers of Jesus that we learn is that a forgiven people are a forgiving people. Right. And it just it goes hand and foot with what it means to be a follower of Jesus that get this. If you claim to follow Jesus, your life should show evidence of looking like Jesus, right? To say you belong to Jesus but to live different is to contradict what you say you’re about. Your life as a follower of Christ should show evidence that you love Jesus and the things that you do. And one of the primary things that should be demonstrated in your life is the compassion. You care towards other people, even when they disagree with you.
Because get this, that’s what Christ did for you. He didn’t give up on you even when you were enemies of God. He pursued you. He surrendered his life for you so that you could find freedom and forgiveness in him. And so knowing that Jesus has done this for us, knowing that it took his continued grace in our lives before we would surrender to him. Now you get to represent him in this world and care as one of those beautiful opportunities that before people care and know, care about what you say they they want to. They want to know that you care about them as individuals. And so, Paul, as he goes on this missionary journey with Barnabas, this is this is what he demonstrates when he goes to the city of Lystra. Now, when Paul goes on this journey in Acts chapter 14, at the beginning, he tells it talks to us about Iconium, where Paul preaches a message there. And it’s not giving me the ability to click. So if you want to. There you go. Thank you. As he goes to Iconium, first he shares a message there. And what you see is when Paul first goes to Iconium, he goes to the Jewish synagogue. And the reason he goes to the Jewish synagogue. This is a common practice for the Apostle Paul. He would go to the Jewish synagogues because they had an understanding of the Old Testament.
And it became an easy basis for pointing to who Jesus was. He would he would talk to them about the Old Testament. He would show them prophetically the Messiah who was to come and tell them how Jesus fulfilled that. And so when Paul went on his missionary journeys, he would go to these particular areas, and he would he would begin in a Jewish synagogue. If a town had a synagogue, he would share the gospel. What typically happened was some of the Jews would believe, but before long they would run them out of the synagogue. And so then he would turn to the Gentiles. And so that was his approach in towns that had a synagogue. But then he would go to other towns without synagogues, and they would be predominantly then Gentile. And so we’d have a different basis for for beginning his message. And one of the things Paul does is he goes to the town of Lystra, which he begins in an area that doesn’t have a synagogue. He starts to immediately share who the Lord is tangibly through what he does, and he demonstrates this through care for the people. And so in verse eight is helping us understand, if I want to begin to reach hearts, what I need to have is a care for the people around me. And so now at Lystra, it says there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked.
He listened to Paul speaking, and Paul looked intently at him, and seeing that he had faith to be made. Well said. And a loud voice, stand upright on your feet. And he sprang up and began to walk. Now this this particular passage is a rather unique passage, in that this is a miracle that’s taken place. And, you know, when you read the New Testament, I think especially the very beginning of the church, the testimony, the gospel that was presented was supported by miraculous signs that took place. Now, I certainly believe God can do miraculous things today, but I think in the first century, the way that the message began to take root was through the demonstration of what happened through signs and wonders meaning? I think that that it was amplified. The miracles that took place in the first century compared to what we we would see today. God can certainly still do miracles, but in this moment, this was a demonstration of the power of the resurrection that they were proclaiming by seeing the healing that would take place. And this was a picture of ultimately what God desires to do in his second coming. Meaning, when Jesus first came, the miracle that he worked was the rescuing of your soul. God desires to redeem you, to to forgive you and help you belong to him by giving you new life and forgiveness through the cross. So his first coming was the miracle of rescuing your soul.
At his second coming, Jesus will restore shalom over the whole earth. It’s like going back to the Garden of Eden. He will bring peace and a way that God evidenced that that that was what he desired to do was through these miracles that would take place, especially in the first century. Now, looking at this, I want you to know God desires to work in a similar way in this fashion. Not that you’re going to go out and see someone miraculously healed necessarily, but God does want you to demonstrate who he is through his, through being the hands and feet of Christ, through your care for others. The evidence of Jesus made known your heart should be demonstrated through the way that you live. And one of the most important ways you could show your love for the Lord is seen through your care for others, because Jesus pursued them with his life. Jesus made them in his image and Jesus desires to remake them through the cross. So care is critical for the life of the believer. One of the things I think is important to identify here and I want to be careful with is, is verse number nine specifically because I have seen this particular verse where people have taken it, extrapolated it, and created an entirely, entirely abusive system of, of of belief out of it. And what I mean by that is this, this verse. Let me read it again.
It says this. He listened to Paul speaking, and Paul looked intently at him, and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet. People have taken this particular verse to say, well, you know, if you’ve ever got something wrong that you’re struggling with and you need some healing from the Lord, if that doesn’t take place, the reason that doesn’t take place is because the problem isn’t the Lord. The problem is you. You didn’t have enough faith in order to be healed. And I want you to know, to take that kind of thinking and extrapolate that from this verse, I think is not only wrong on what this verse is saying, it’s untrue for the rest of Scripture. Whether or not God heals you is is not entirely based on the thought of faith. Now, I think there’s some important to talk about in this verse, because I think what Paul is doing here is a bit of double entendre. And let me explain it like this. There are times in Scripture where where God heals people without any faith, and there are other times where people of faith ask for healing and don’t experience it. And the easiest way to see that, I think, is when you read the Gospels, Jesus at three different times in the Gospels raises people from the dead. And guess what? People from the dead can’t exercise faith.
There is no way they’re saying being dead. Lord heal me. They are dead. It is an impossibility. And so it’s not it’s not about you’ve got to have enough faith in order to be healed. At the same time, when you read passages like Second Corinthians chapter 12, verse seven and nine, the apostle Paul, a man of faith, says this I pleaded with the Lord three times that he would take away the thorn in the flesh from me. But God said to me, my grace is made perfect in your weakness, or even in second, or excuse me, first Timothy chapter five Timothy tells Paul that he’s got an ailment in his stomach, and Paul tells Timothy to drink a little wine to comfort his stomach. So here you got a couple of people of incredible faith with no divine healing. And then other times in Scripture, people that can’t even exercise faith who are healed. What I think what’s happening in this verse is, is Paul is using a bit of a double entendre to help us understand the power of the gospel, because that that specific word at the end of verse nine made well, can actually be interpreted two ways. It can be a word for made well from from spiritual healing, meaning salvation. Or it can be a word made well for physical healing, meaning you’re cured. When you think about the idea of healing in Scripture, there’s a particular passage in the Gospels where Jesus heals ten lepers.
Or let me say it like this he actually cures ten lepers, but only one of them returns and acknowledges who Christ is. And in that instance, I would say that individual was healed even when it comes to our own life and having physical ailments or or battles, we may ask God to cure us those things. The Lord may do that, but ultimately those things are just temporal. The state of your soul is eternal. And I think what’s happening in verse nine is Paul is looking at this individual who is believing the gospel, and Paul realizes this individual has been healed spiritually, but he’s also recognizing that this individual has come to know the Lord, that now this individual can be a mouthpiece for who has healed him. And so, Paul, he calls out to this individual and tells him to stand upright, because not only is he has he been spiritually healed in Christ, now he’s being cured. And now this person can go through this town pointing to Jesus as the reason Jesus is the hope of mankind. And so Paul uses this person as a demonstration for the care of God in the in the hearts of people. But not only do we as individuals need to care, and not only does Paul care, but point number two in your notes is this we need to contextualize. We need to contextualize. And what that means is not only do we care for people, but it really becomes a a further expression of how we care.
And that is being willing to meet people where they are. And so contextualized. By the way, I’m going to check your spelling later and make sure everyone got that correct. All right. But we’re going to we need to contextualize the gospel, which means we need to meet people where they are to love them as Jesus loves them, not expect them to meet us where we are. But we’re called to be the ambassadors of Christ. We’re called to be servants of the Lord. And so we want to understand where people are, to understand how the uniqueness of the gospel can meet them where they’re at. And this is exactly what Paul does. He goes into this, this town. He they see the concern that Paul has for them. And then in order to better communicate the gospel, he does it in a way that’s unique. From Iconium in Iconium, he went into the synagogues. He, as he preached the message of the Lord, he quotes from the Old Testament over and over again, because in the synagogues the people understand the Old Testament. But now when he’s going to Lystra, a predominantly gentile area. They’re not familiar with the Old Testament. So rather than begin with the Old Testament, Paul begins his message more general and the identity of who God is. It’s not because Paul’s changing his message, but rather he’s adapting the method to best meet people where they are.
And so in Acts chapter 14, verse 11, it says, and when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. So it’s not like this when they see these two individuals, even though Paul was the one that the Lord used for the divine healing of the individual, that was lame. They don’t see him as the primary leader. They see Barnabas. And the reason for that is Paul is a mouthy person and Hermes is a spokesman for Zeus. That’s what it’s teaching you a little bit about the personality of these two. Barnabas is more calm and docile. Paul’s always shooting off at the mouth, right? So he gets the title of Hermes, and then he goes on verse 13, and the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifices with the crowds in this particular region. The God that they are worshiping is are giving most praise to. Here is Zeus, right? They have a temple dedicated to him, and according to a first century tradition, these particular people had a belief that Zeus and Hermes once visited a town, and the people of that region didn’t recognize him except for an elderly, poor couple.
And when they identified him, they invited him into the home. And and they cared for them, ministered to them. And because of that, Zeus, they believed, blessed the lives of those individuals, and then turned around and cursed and destroyed everyone else. So believing that the town thought the next time they show up in a town, we’re going to be ready, right? And so here they are as as Paul goes into this town to minister and the people start to respond to it. And in response to it, they, they, they adapt it based on their worldview. And guys, it’s the same for us when you think about ministering to people in this world, all that we have to go off is, is our worldview, our understanding, the knowledge that we have. And so when Paul goes into this town, he’s starting to share the truthfulness of who the Lord is. But but we’ve got to understand that we come as, as individuals from all sorts of different worldviews. And so we’re introducing a new thought, a new idea in who Christ is, especially if the people aren’t familiar with it. And so it’s critical to not only meet people where they are, but to be patient. In fact, one of the things that we try to encourage people to here at ABC is, look, God doesn’t call you to be someone else’s Holy Spirit. And sometimes it takes people time to understand the truthfulness of who Jesus is because of their worldview.
And so, rather than be annoying to people, rather than press people, just be faithful to Jesus and just leave a pebble in his shoe. Something that when people walk away from you, they they can just churn in their own soul and let the Lord use that in their lives. And so Paul is coming into this environment, and he begins to to contextualize the gospel, to meet people where they are. And this is how he does it. In verse 14 he says, but when the apostle Barnabas and Saul heard of it, they they tore their garments and rushed out of the crowd, crying out, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, like nature, like nature with you. And we bring you good news. So? So Paul is immediately running into this crowd, and he. And he wants him to begin to understand that what he has to present to them is the word we as Christians would call the gospel or good news. I have an incredible message for you. And it’s different than than than what you’re you’re turning to right now. It’s different from what you’ve heard. And this is important for you to, to to know. This is why Paul is is willing to, to step out and and to meet the people where they’re at and begin to help them think through who the the true God is and why this matters for their lives.
And guys, it’s it’s the same for us in representing the Lord in this world to think through. What does it mean to best minister to the people in my context? Maybe we could think in terms of of finite down to family or just a close friend. Maybe we just think more regionally and in Utah County or the state of Utah. I don’t know if you know this, but Utah is unique from everywhere else in our country, right? So what does it look like to meet people where they’re at, rather than expect them to meet me where I’m at? How can I contextualize the beauty of Jesus in their life or or even in terms of globally. Do you know Missiologists put into practice that that thought of how do we how do we think through how the gospel ministers to regions even in this world? In fact, when I when I got my my undergrad in theology, I had some different tracks that I could put my focus on, like in getting a theology degree, there was a pastoral track you could go down and and there was even a youth minister track. There were several different tracks, but the one that I ended up picking was a missionary track, and I took pastoral classes. When you get a theology degree, it turns out you just learn a lot of pastoral things, right? But I took a theology distinctive, and the reason I did that is because I knew wherever I went in this world, I wanted to go where there were fewer Christians.
And in order to minister the gospel, well, I knew I needed to learn the importance of thinking like the people in that culture, because I wanted them to know who the truth of Jesus was. Even the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be on the East Coast sharing with missionaries from all around the world. And they’re going through training to be church planters globally, and they talk about different things people need to be considering as they go into different contexts with the gospel. I mean, they’ll even get as nuanced as thinking about your own diet. Not because they’re worried about weight gain or weight loss or anything like that, but but they recognize this, that when you eat a particular food, get this, you start to have a particular smell, like when you when you move to a different region of the world, sometimes it stands out to you that you notice that the people of that region eat a specific type of diet. And therefore there’s there’s a particular type of aroma that comes through the diet that you eat. Now, the reason they do that is, is not to tell people that you stink. And I’m not telling you this to tell you you stink. I’m saying this because what they’re teaching their missionaries is we have this way about us through our sense of smell, to start to categorize things without even realizing it.
Even the smell we get off as people. And when you want to be received by a culture, they start to teach missionaries to eat the diet of the people that you’re going to minister to before you even arrive, so that they begin to see you becoming like them rather than expecting them to become like you. Because what’s more important is the message of Christ. When we think in terms of our our own context, missiologists, even in studying cultures today, will say cultures primarily really fall into three buckets, one of three buckets. And it’s important to understand how cultures think through these three buckets, because the gospel speaks into those. And to be honest, all of us fall in all of these three categories at different times. But depending on where you minister the types of people you minister to, it’s important to think how those people think and therefore how the gospel ministers to their hearts. For example, if you’re from eastern cultures tendency of eastern cultures are to be based on honor, shame based or founded on an honor shame basis. And what it means, what it means is this in eastern cultures, they tend to think more in community and more in family. And what you do in your life is intended to represent that family. And you can do things to honor that family and the traditions they hold. Or you can do things that bring shame to you and to your family.
And and so when you do that, you’re shamed. And so we we should think through knowing cultures. Cultures think that way. How can I minister to the God the gospel to care to that particular culture, or here in our Western cultures, rather than predominantly being shame based, we’re more innocent, guilt based. And the reason for that is we’re more individualistic and so individualistic, individualistic cultures, the responsibility that you carry, the personal responsibility is a step of being either guilty and making the wrong Decisions are innocent because, well, you’ve made the right decisions. In fact, from a Western culture, when you read the Bible, words like justification and righteousness stand out to you more because those are those are judicial terms represented you as a as an individual trying to discover, am I guilty or am I innocent? Am I righteous, am I justified, or does the penalty come on me? And so certain cultures think in different ways, and it’s critical for us to consider how how they perceive themselves as we minister the gospel. Because get this, the gospel responds to all of these fear, shame, and guilt. I mean, you see on the map certain countries that are labeled that way, and then there’s a few countries that are gray that didn’t get a label. And I think the reason they didn’t get a label is because they were afraid. And so they didn’t say anything except for Greenland at the top.
And they just didn’t ask him because nobody cared. So that was that was that. I’m just kidding. But that was that was the the basis of these countries. So so let me just say this for all of us, when we realize as people we really wrestle in all three of those categories guilt, fear, and shame. But we need to understand how the gospel transforms all of those. That when it comes to your guilt, Jesus bore it all in the Christ on the cross so that you can be set free. When it comes to your shame, Jesus covers your past so that you can be forgiven. When it comes to your fear, we talked about that last week that you have a God that is greater and fear the Lord is far more important in knowing that he’s a good God. You recognize that God cares for you. So as we struggle in the idea of fear of guilt and shame, it’s important for us to even know, as followers of Christ, that the gospel is not something that you believe once for salvation. The gospel is something that transforms you every day, because the enemy always wants you to walk in fear. The enemy always wants you to walk in shame. The enemy wants you to walk in that guilt. But Jesus wants you to recognize how you’ve been freed from it all. And it gives us the privilege and the power and the authority in Christ to speak into the hearts of people and how Jesus transforms your life now and every day.
And this is the apostle Paul as he’s he’s coming to this environment. He’s he’s contextualizing the gospel in this sense and in helping him see the good news, the liberation in which Christ brings, so that we can get to point number three in your notes, which is this confront Paul confronts. Now, when we talk about contextualizing, it’s it’s taking the thought of the gospel, the knowledge and sharing it. But to be honest, our problem as people is not an intellectual problem. Our problem is a heart problem. We need to know the information of the gospel, but at some point you’ve also got to surrender your heart to it. And because of that, there comes this place where we’ve got to confront, and what we’re confronting is the idols that we’ve trusted, and we’re handing those over to the Lord and saying, but now, God, I trust in you. When we talk about confronting, I think it’s important to know that I am not talking about attacking. I’m talking about bringing things to a place where people need to know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And you can do that like a jerk, or you can do that tenderly. And God’s desire is for you to minister in a way that honors him. And when we move into this world, we want to represent the the Lord and the way that we carry him and, and concern for the people.
Now, having said all that, though, the Apostle Paul, when he confronts the people and the importance of who Christ is, he decides to go Hulkamania. And the reason I say that is because it tells us that he tears his garments, which in our culture you only do that in a wrestling ring now. But in his culture, apparently you did that whenever you you were lamenting over something. And so the Paul he tears his garments. But this is really just speaking to the importance of what he’s sharing. He’s trying to get the attention of the people to recognize how critical this is, to understand what he’s saying. And it’s the same for us. And when we get to that place of confronting, we’ve got to recognize, I’m about to step on some idols. I’m going to step on some idols that people have. And and when we do that, we should realize that people don’t take that lightly. And the reason they don’t is because they’ve found their identity in their idols. And for them to forsake it is a reorientation to who they are. They’ve got to surrender that and believe that Jesus is enough. And you, as a follower of Christ, should understand why it’s important to be gracious in that moment because you fought the same battle against the Lord too. And eventually you surrendered and Christ won.
The grace of God. The kindness of God is what leads you to repentance. And the Apostle Paul, as he’s contextualizing this, he’s sharing this. Look what he says. He says that you should turn from these vain things to the living God. These vain things are literally it’s idolatry to a living God who made the heavens and the earth and sea and all that is in them. In past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with with food and gladness. Even with these words they were scarcely restrained, restrained the people from offering sacrifices to them. And when Paul is sharing this message, I want you to recognize that what he’s saying, he doesn’t quote a Bible verse because he realizes they’re not familiar with the Bible. Now, he may have gotten to a place where he could have done that, but the people revolted against him too quickly. But where he starts is from a general worldview, and he wants them to understand this, that there is a God who didn’t give up on you even when you were moving away from him. He may have been gracious to you. He allowed you to do that. He was even kind to you and bringing you rain and genuinely, genuinely caring for you in this world.
But he also continued to pursue you. And so Paul is saying, this is why it’s important for you to give up this, this idolatry in order to to turn to him. And as we think about what this looks like in our lives, one of the things I think that helps us to be compassionate to people that follow, follow a path of idolatry, is just to acknowledge we all have idols in our lives. We all have idols that we uphold. And and one of the things that’s interesting when we talk about the the topic of idolatry is how blinded we can be to them. I mean, if you were to travel to another country and just get inundated by that country, it becomes very easily within, within a day or two to start identifying the idols of that country, because you’re not from there. But growing up in a in a specific country or being a part of a country for a long period of time, the idols that country start to become a part of who you are, and you begin to be blinded to it. So one of the things that helps us be compassionate to, to other people, and the idolatry they may hold is just recognizing even, even right now in our room, we we likely have some of us that hold to idolatry and in ways that we don’t even realize, if not all of us. And if I just for a moment just highlighted some of those, some of the hidden idols that Americans tend to hold to.
Let me just give you a few as as time permits. But number one, it would be this self autonomy, the idea of self autonomy. It’s the thought of be true to yourself. Self becomes the highest authority for truth, morality or or meaning. My feelings determine what’s right. My identity is self-constructed. It’s not received as one made from the image of God. Repentance is replaced by self-justification and the spiritual cost is this God just simply becomes a tool for personal fulfillment rather than Lord of my life. There’s the idol of success and achievement that your worth is measured by productivity, results and visible impact, which means we we seek after primarily career advancements. Even being a part of a church the size of your church, your grades, your resumes, your platforms, you start to believe the thought I am, what I accomplish, and the spiritual cost is this faithfulness and hidden obedience are devalued. Money and security, not just wealth, but financial control. Savings becomes our Savior. Fear driven generosity is what we’re led by, anxiety masked as responsibility. The lie is if I’m financially secure, then I’m going to be okay. And the spiritual cost is this trust shifts from God’s provision to personal planning, comfort and convenience. An idol of America. Americans uniquely idolize ease, avoiding suffering at all costs. Consumer Christianity is what it creates resistance to sacrifice, endurance or discipline.
Discomfort means something is wrong and the spiritual cost the cross becomes optional. The freedom as Americans is an idol. Freedom defined as no one telling me what to do. Can I just tell you that’s not freedom. That’s anarchy. Authority is suspect. Submission is weakness. God’s commands feel restrictive rather than life giving. Limits destroy my freedom. Can I can I just tell you? You will never be truly free. Until your life is surrendered to the one who created you for his purposes. Living a life of anarchy is annihilation of your soul. It destroys you. It’s not until your life is surrendered to the one that you’re truly free. And just a few more image and reputation curated lives from social media fearing of being exposed, canceled, or misunderstood. Protecting reputation more than integrity. The lie is being seen as good matters more than being faithful to the Lord. How about this and I’ll. I’ll end with this one. Politics and power. Politics becomes a functional savior. More moral hope placed in elections, opponents treated like enemies, not neighbors. Kingdom priorities confused with national ones and the lie. We believe if the right people are in power, then will flourish. But guys, can I just tell you, if the Lord has your heart, that’s how you flourish. And we have all sorts of idols. And I could continue to go on, but for time’s sake, I’ll stop there. And can I, can I just tell you, out of all the idols we could follow, the cure is simple.
There’s there’s really one, one way, one path. Proverbs three five and six says it like this. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. It’s the Lord. And there’s there’s contention in this world and in identifying the significance of Jesus. You’ll you’ll notice as you engage the world with with Christ, they’ll say things like this that I don’t like the exclusivity of Jesus. It feels arrogant that Jesus claims to be the only way, the truth and the life. And we could say in response to that, yeah, it could be arrogant to say that Jesus is the correct way. Jesus is the truth, that Jesus is the life. No one comes to the father but by me. Jesus says that it could be arrogant unless it’s true, and if it’s true, it changes everything. The most important thing I could share with someone, if Jesus is who he says he is, is the purity of the gospel. It’s helping him understand the significance of Christ like every other belief system in this world. If you just kind of rip away the foundation as if it were a lie, people, people could just still hold to the philosophy. Like they could just believe the basis of their religion isn’t true. Still hold to the philosophy of it. But if you rip away from Christianity the basis of the death, burial, and resurrection, then there is no Christianity.
Our faith is founded on what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. It has certainly philosophical teachings to it, but it’s far more than that. It’s about a historical event of what Jesus accomplished for you and for me. The second things people, people tend to say is, well, there’s a little truth in everything. And it’s. And so we can appreciate, you know, all things because everything’s got a little truth to it, even religions. I wish I could say, yeah, I would agree with that. There’s there’s half truths and nearly everything. That’s why people believe in religions, because the half truths get them to buy into it. But can I tell you one of the most destructive things for the soul is a half truth. And the reason I can say that is because if you start from the very beginning of the Bible with Adam and Eve, what they believed was a half truth, and what it brought was the destruction of their lives. And even when you read the Gospels, you find the, you know, the people that Jesus was most critical to were the religious leaders and the people that Jesus was most compassionate to get. This was the sinful people. And the reason Jesus was most compassionate to the sinful people was because the sinful people knew they were sinful, and in knowing they were sinful, they were in a place where their hearts would turn to Christ.
It was the people boasting in the pride of their performance that wouldn’t bow the knee to Jesus, and that led to their destruction. That’s why Jesus was critical to the religious people, because they couldn’t see their need for Christ in their life. The sinful people understood how much they needed the rescue of a Savior. Or last, I’ll say this one. Well, as long as you’re a good person, that’s all that matters. Typically, they’ll try to chalk it up to that. And let me just say, if people want to be good, great. Like I don’t want I don’t want to say you’re wrong, you should be bad, right? That’s the that would be terrible. But if people are going to be disagree with Jesus and be kind, wonderful. But but can I tell you the message of Christianity is not as long as you’re good, that’s all that matters. And if and if you agree to that, as a Christian, I think we are undermining the significance of what Christ has done for us. And the reason I say that is if being good is all that mattered, then what Jesus accomplished on the cross was unnecessary, and for me to agree with that is to spit on the sacrifice that Christ accomplished for me. If all that mattered was that you were a good person, Jesus would have showed up in the first century and said, every religious person keep being religious.
Great job. But he didn’t. He gave his life, and the reason he gave his life is because it was necessary for you and for me. We contextualize, we confront kindly. And the last is this we commit, we commit. And I need to share this fast. But I want you to see the Apostle Paul tells you that in verse 19, but the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and have persuaded the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby. This is the second greatest comeback in history. The greatest comeback was Jesus from the grave, right? The second greatest was Paul was thought to be dead. He’s like, just kidding. And then he gets up and walks right back into the town that that tried to kill him. Why would he do that? And most of us, we would wipe our hands clean and be like, okay, God, I tried. Time to go back home now, right? We would. We gave the old college try. We gave the effort. Right? But Paul doesn’t do that. And why does Paul not do that? Because the whole purpose of his life was not to get a result out of people. The whole purpose of his life was to glorify God regardless of what people did.
His commitment was not to the response of others. His commitment was to Jesus all of his days. And so rather than quit, he continued on. He was committed that regardless of what people chose to do or not do, he glorified God with his life. Now it tells us in the story he went back through those cities that he had visited previously. But I want you to see when Paul went to Lystra. He, as he was ministering there he met a young man named Timothy. And Timothy came to know the Lord. 20 years later, Paul writes to Timothy, two Timothy, and he talks about one of those moments that was impactful in Timothy’s life. And he says it like this. You, however, Timothy, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happen to me. Look at this. At Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured. Yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted. Paul wants you to know there is adversity, but the challenges aren’t the dictator of why you do what you do. It’s because the beauty of who Christ is. And here’s Paul saying, and as I was committed to Jesus, Timothy, you saw that and that impacted your life too. Because when you think about the way you follow the Lord, you may have an uphill climb.
There may be adversity around you. People may not always want to receive you, but you can still care for them. You can still contextualize. Meet them where they’re at. You can still help them see the greatness of who Christ is and how the gospel transforms our life. Because your commitment while you care for them isn’t ultimately about them, it’s about the Lord. I need to close with this last story. There was a young lady named Mary Slessor who in the 1850s, gave her life to serve the Lord in Africa. She went to Nigeria. She heard David Livingstone share about the needs in Africa. And in that moment, she decided that’s what her life was going to be about. And so she went to Nigeria and she ministered for decades there. She died in the early 1900s, and she was very influential in the way the Lord used her. She she helped put an end to infanticide in Nigeria. At that time, there was a belief that when someone had twins, that meant they were cursed and so they would often kill their twins. Women who were forced into marriages. She would advocate for children who were abandoned. She would take into her home, and she would share the love of Jesus, to the point that the tribal leaders began to respect her, and they would use her to arbitrate conflict among tribes, and the people were asked why they embraced Mary Slessor, why they let her come into their lives.
And they said, because she was like us. Even though it was apparent she was from Scotland, she looked different than them. She lived like them. She ate like them. She dressed like them. She became among them to minister the love of who Jesus was. People ask Mary Slessor how did she endure that kind of life, knowing she came from Scotland to live the way that she lived and do what she did? Mary Slessor said the person in her life that made the biggest impact was her mother, because as a child, she grew up in the home of an alcoholic. Her father couldn’t hold down a job, and by the age of 12 he drank himself to death. But her mother was a lady of faith, and despite the adversity they went through, she continued to seek after the Lord. And that, Mary said, gave her the grit to follow Jesus with her own life, even into some of the most difficult parts of the world. You never know the way God can use you, but the desire of her heart is not just birthed out of wanting to see a response of people. It’s this deep love of Jesus wanting to honor him and everything that we do. Because of that, we can care for others. We can contextualize the gospel and evenly, even boldly confront the idols of this world with compassion because of who Christ is.