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Okay. I’m going to invite you this morning to Acts chapter 22 is where we’re going to be together today in in Acts chapter 22. And we’re actually going to pick up at the last few verses of Acts chapter 21, because the story that unfolds in Acts chapter 22 really begins at the very tail end of Acts, chapter 21. We’re not going to be able to read all of this together. We’re going to I’ll just allude to verse 22 to 29, but we’re going to read all the way up to Acts chapter 22, verse 21 together as we just consider this particular passage of Scripture and what it means for us as believers. If you remember, as we’ve gone through the book of Acts together, we have really learned how the early church saw itself established. How in the world did the gospel go from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth, where really the entire known world, the gospel, spreads among the entire known world within really the first 30 years of Christianity, the book of Acts records for us the first 30 years of Christianity after the resurrection of Jesus. And it gives us kind of the thesis idea of Acts chapter in Acts chapter one, verse eight, that God calls his people to go from Jerusalem, Judea to the uttermost parts of the earth. And the same, I hope you know, is true for you today, that this wasn’t just something God gave to the first century church, but this is first church throughout all time that God created his church for a purpose bigger than itself.
And as we give our lives to the Lord, as God transforms our lives, he uses us to glorify him and bless others. So as we walk with Jesus, we grow in that relationship with him, and the Lord uses us to bless others in this world. And we. We honor him as we do that. And so here at Alpine Bible Church that as we find ourselves together, I hope this is a beautiful time where we’re an encouragement to each other. But we recognize that this gathering really is a rally cry for a beautiful story that God desires to do through us in this world as we serve him. So as we surrender our lives to the Lord, what does that what does that look like for us to then take what we’ve received in Christ and then just honor him and the things that we do as we as we celebrate the joy of knowing Jesus today and we live for him tomorrow. And so Paul is really he’s demonstrating that for us, especially here at the end of, of the book of Acts. If you remember, we’ve been following the Apostle Paul really from Acts chapter 12. His conversion was in Acts nine, but he starts to go on his missionary journeys in Acts chapter 12. And up until this point, we’ve followed the Apostle Paul through three missionary journeys, Acts, records for us only three of his missionary journeys.
We know after the Book of Acts ends. He then continues on on these journeys. But the book of Acts is showing us how the gospel went from Jerusalem all the way to the capital of Rome and influenced all of the Roman Empire. And so he goes to these three missionary journeys. And here in Acts chapter 21, Paul is on his way back to Jerusalem. And it’s when he gets to Jerusalem that he’s imprisoned, and he spends the rest of his time in the book of Acts being imprisoned. He spends a couple of years in Israel being imprisoned, and then he spends a couple of years in Rome being in prison. But he he ends the book of Acts in the imprisonment. And here in this moment, we’re finding the time where where Paul is captured by a mob. And then he’s taken into custody by some some Roman soldiers. And this leads to his imprisonment, where he’s going to spend the next four years. But Paul does something incredible here in this story that in this moment when this mob is coming against us and and he’s being maligned and attacked rather than react the same way, or out of all the ways we could say Paul could react, he chooses to respond for the glory of God to the benefit of others. Now, seeing Paul respond in this way, we should ask the question, what does that look like for me in my own life? Because if we’re being honest, like some of us might even have a difficult time just wanting to honor the Lord, just in typical conversations of life, like we might.
We might get too shy or maybe embarrassed, but regardless, we. We lack the boldness to honor Christ in the day to day, let alone when. When contentious moments arise. But here’s Paul in one of the most contentious of moments. And rather than react in a way that maybe he could despair, maybe he could just quit. Maybe he could get defensive. A lot of times we get attacked, we feel defensive. Or maybe we just respond in anger. He uses this moment to glorify God and bless others. How can we learn from the Apostle Paul Paul’s life to respond in a in a similar way? Today we’re titling the message My Story for God’s Glory. And I want you to know there was a bit of this that I wrestled with because there’s somewhat of a misleading idea when it comes to my story for God’s glory. And that when you see it as you just simply representing your story on behalf of the Lord. It’s putting a lot of attention on yourself, and part of the struggle we have as people to really honor God in any situation in life, is that we already have too much attention on ourselves.
When we share our story for God’s glory, it’s we. We step in it more boldly, more bravely when we recognize that it’s really not about my story, but it’s about God writing his story in me. And so I’m not really putting the attention on me. I’m putting the attention on God and the beautiful work he’s done in me. And anytime we learn how to better take the attention off ourselves in order to put it on God, I think it emboldens us to represent him and in a more powerful way, and also and emboldens us to represent him in a more genuine way as we talk about representing the Lord. I think one of the things that I really want us to take away from this is, you know, we we realize, I think we should realize if you’ve walked with Jesus any amount of time, that the beautiful work God does in you, he wants to do through you in the hearts of other people too. And he wants to use you as the catalyst or the conduit for that. That is, as the beautiful work of God’s done in your life, that you get to become this point place where other people can see how Jesus can transform people by seeing how your life has been transformed. And when you have a genuine walk with Jesus, it becomes more endearing when you share it with others because you’re sharing it from this genuine place, not this place where I feel obligated to have to share it, but rather, I realize what Jesus has done in my heart and in my life.
And so I’m just naturally sharing it because it’s a part of who I am, and it’s really not putting the attention on me, but putting the attention on God who’s working in me. And so what does that look like? My story for God’s glory. Let me give you point number one, and we’ll start to read this passage together. And I got to move pretty quick through this today. But number one is this start with courage and connection. Start with courage and connection. And Paul does both of these things. I would say even with that connection, it’s a place of compassion where Paul rises above the circumstance, not not reacting out of anger towards the other people, not getting defensive in and of himself. But he’s making this connection because he has compassion for people, because he knows what God’s done for him and where God met him, how he was adverse to who Jesus was. God radically transforms him. And now he’s looking at people who who are reacting towards him the same way he reacted before he knew the Lord. And so it says to you in Acts chapter 21, as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks. So if you remember, he was in the temple, a mob rises up and wants to kill him.
And some Roman soldiers see this, and they come down to his rescue and they bring him up from there, and it says he’s about to be brought into their barracks. He said to the Tribune, May I say something to you? And and the the the leader said to him, do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian? Then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led 4000 men to. Of the assassins out into the wilderness? Let me just say, just recently in history, there was an Egyptian who went to Jerusalem who led a revolt, got the Jewish people to uprise, and they attacked Rome. They attacked the Roman leadership that was there. And so now this individual leading the Tribune, these these Roman soldiers think that this Egyptian has returned. And when this this Egyptian originally came up and led this revolt, it led in the death of hundreds of people and the capture of hundreds more. But this Egyptian got away. And so this individual, this Roman leader, thinks that this person has returned. So now that he’s captured Paul, he’s he thinks in his mind this is probably who the apostle Paul is. But now that the Apostle Paul is speaking to him in Greek, this individual would have known that the Egyptian would have spoken in Aramaic. So this is this is not that person he thought he was because Paul speaking to him in Greek. And so he asked him, May I respond to the crowd? And he gives him the opportunity.
In verse 39, Paul replied, I’m a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia. I’m not that Egyptian. He’s saying, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people. And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people, and there was a great hush. I wish I knew exactly how Paul motioned here like this would have. This should be the art of every teacher. He gets. Your unruly class. You’re like, silence, children, try to gather that classroom again. There’s a couple of ideas of what Paul would have done here in his time of day. Anytime a public communicator was about to orate something that people should know, he would either raise his hand or they, they think maybe broadly brush the the crowd this way to say he’s about to speak, to recognize it. And likely Paul probably would have done one of those things. It says, and there was a great hush, and he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying, brothers and fathers, hear the Here. The defense that I now make before you. And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said, and we’ll talk about what he said in just a moment, but I want you to see that that Paul, he responds here with with incredible courage.
I mean, on one hand, he’s got a mob that wants to kill him. It tells you in Acts chapter Acts chapter 22, verses 22 to 29, there’s a mob that wants to kill him and not understanding why this mob wants to kill him. The Roman soldiers want to flog him. In fact, it goes on through that passage, verse 22 to 29, where the Paul tells the Roman soldiers, he’s a Roman citizen. You can’t just flog a Roman citizen. You have to go through due process to find him guilty. The. The Roman soldiers are amazed. He’s a citizen. They want to know how he got his citizenship, because that’s a prestigious thing in the Roman Empire. And so there’s there’s this discussion. But on either side, Paul’s got a group that wants to kill him and a group that wants to flog him. And Paul, an incredible Courage turns and responds to the crowd to connect with them with a heart of compassion. How does he do that? Guys, can I tell you, the only way that that truly happens is incredible confidence in your own identity in the Lord. So much so that when other people are attacking you, that you don’t wear that personally because you already know who you are, because you know who you are in Christ. It’s different than what our culture tells us in terms of how you find courage. Because in a humanistic way, the way our culture and other cultures will commonly say to it is, you can do it, you know, just believe in you, look deeper in you, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and, and for like five seconds in different points of life that works.
But what you find eventually is that you come to the end of yourself and you don’t possess all that you need to do what God has created you for, really, to live the kind of life that God has created you for. It takes a supernatural power. And so the only way you discover that honestly is is in the Lord. I can think in times of my life, I was a kind of a punk kid, and there were times in my life where I learned some humility. I mean, the earliest memory I was trying to think about this as a kid, like the earliest memory I have, where I just came to the end of myself really quick was when I was ten years old. My parents had purchased a trampoline for my siblings and I and my cousins. We would all play in the back of our yard and and I remember I was the oldest of my cousins. So it was my job to always play that game. You ever play Crack the Egg as a kid where it’s I don’t know, many parents today are like, you need a helmet and, you know, but but back then it didn’t matter.
He just we didn’t have nets around the trampoline. You just did it right. You just crack the egg. And and I remember bouncing all my cousins and I, to be honest, I always saw it as a great delight to torture them. And so I didn’t care about just cracking the egg. I wanted to see how high I could get that egg to launch. So it was me that was typically the one that was bouncing all of my cousins. And you know, I would get them so high that they would just panic and scream and lose their mind. And I remember I would always just chuckle and laugh so loud, not just with them, but at them. And this one particular time, I remember my mouth was just wide open and I’m like, ha ha, belly laughing. Like just extreme laughing. And at that particular moment, I realized that the only thing that, that my, my cousins weren’t the only thing that I had bounced. Also, there happened to be the largest ant on planet earth. I felt like that was in the air, and I didn’t realize it was in the air until it was about about two inches from my mouth. And my mouth is so wide. I’m laughing so loud that that ant went straight down my throat and it grabbed a hold of that dangly thing in the back of your throat. And I was a kid.
Like I get bit by a mosquito stung by a bee. You instantly swell. And all I could think about in this moment is, oh my gosh, I’m going to die. Like I got an ant on my dangly thing and I don’t know what to do. And I can just picture in my mind is going to swell. I’m going to stop breathing. This is it. So like we go from this place of laughter and then all of a sudden I’m just dead serious and I run in a panic into the house. Now, you know, you know how the story goes. I didn’t die, right? Like, and fortunately, nothing swelled so much that it just closed my throat off. And it took some creative moments to figure out how to get in and out of the back of your throat. But any given moment in life, if you said to me, do you have the courage to take on an ant, I would have been like, of course, like me versus I win that every time. And then I found out there’s possibly one scenario where that just doesn’t work out, right? And it’s the same for all of us. Like, yeah, you can find some temporal courage and certain things you do in life, but then there becomes moments where you realize, man, I may not have it in me. I mean, even yesterday I decided I don’t know what I was thinking, not in my right mind.
I needed to jog six miles. So I did that yesterday at five. Yeah, I used that to soft brag for a minute. But don’t don’t worry. It gets gets worse from there. At about five and a half miles into my run, there is a bulldog that decides that it really likes the look of my chicken legs, and it’s not chained. And And at that exact moment, there’s a part of you when you catch a bulldog running behind you at the corner of your eye, you realize, oh, this is it. I just, after running that much, I don’t have anything in me. But just seeing that last minute, I don’t know what happened, but I learned I had abilities that I thought left me in my 20s. Right? I there was a car that pulls up at a stop sign as I’m crossing the street behind it, and at the same time that bulldog comes behind me to eat me. And after running five and a half miles, you would think to yourself, I don’t have it in me anymore. But I managed to jump on the back of that car, and that bulldog just kind of skated past me, and then it turned at me, and I’m looking at it. It was looking at me, and we’re determining how we’re measuring one another up over who’s about to die here. Fortunately, the owner showed up in that moment and nobody, nobody had to die.
But but those temporal moments, like you maybe for a moment find the courage. But. But eventually in life, you’re going to realize I don’t have everything that it takes. Just trusting in me. If Paul, in this moment where he’s being attacked, is trusting in himself, we know the reaction Paul would have because we’ve all had it. Despair. Anger, defensive. That’s what comes in us when we’re depending on us. But that’s not the way Paul responds. And it’s teaching us that he’s depending on something greater. He’s finding his courage in something more powerful. And what we know with the apostle Paul is it’s the Lord. Because what Paul discovered is, is the promises of God and the presence of God wherever he went. And he knew his God was faithful so that no matter what he went through, he knew there was a God who went before him and a God who walks with him and rather than react, he’s able to respond with incredible boldness and boldness. Get. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’re loud. Boldness can be this quiet confidence because you know who you are. And when we think about representing the Lord in this world, it starts with this place of courage in that way. And this is what Paul does. And, and so he, he reacts in that courage. And by the way, let me just throw a couple verses out for you. Like you see this throughout the, the, the scriptures that when it comes to anyone representing the Lord, the place that they rest themselves, no matter how difficult the day might be, is, is, is who the Lord is.
And if I just three verses up here, these are in your notes. If I just gave you one for time’s sake, let’s say the bottom here. Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? It’s like no matter what life brings to me, I’ve got the trump card. I know what’s greater. It’s the Lord and his strength, his courage, his presence, his promises. It’s not about me impressing people with who I am, but. But it’s about recognizing the greatness of who God is wherever, wherever I go. And Paul, he responds this way with courage and conviction. I mean, it tells you in this passage that he speaks calmly, though, that one group wants to kill him. The other one wants to flog him. He turns to the leader of the the Roman soldiers and says, can I address them? And he says that in Greek. And then he turns to the group and it tells you he speaks to them in the Hebrew language. I think it’s better translated as the language of the Hebrews, because at this particular point in the in the Jewish people’s lives, they’re not regularly speaking Hebrew, they’re regularly speaking Aramaic.
This is likely what Jesus taught in. He predominantly taught in Aramaic. Hebrew was still important because their scriptures were written in it. So it was considered their religious language, but the common trade language. Because of the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish people went to Aramaic had dominated the day. And so Paul is likely speaking to them in this language. So here’s a guy. He’s just wanting to connect with him, and he relates to them as being a fellow Jew, brothers and fathers. So here’s here’s Paul. Even though he’s being treated poorly, he still respects them. He still speaks boldly. He still seeks a way to to identify with them and, and connect to them. So point number one, start with courage and connection. Please know that it’s not by putting attention on you, but on the Lord. That’s where courage comes from. Number two is share your past honestly, share your past honestly. And this is what Paul does. And so when you think about just sharing what God’s done in your life, we call this testifying or sharing a testimony. How do I do that? Well, in order for people to see the need for Jesus in their life, they got to understand why they have that need. And Paul talks about his past life. He says, I’m a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in the city, educated at, at, at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as.
As all of you are to this day, I persecuted the way to the death. So. So here’s what Paul saying is like, you guys think you’re Jewish. I’m Jewish. Like we we are related. I’m the most Jewish. And Paul shares, you know, the path that he followed. He’s the Hebrew of Hebrews. He says in the book of Philippians chapter three, but then he says, I want you to understand how extreme I went with this. I persecuted the way to the death, binding them and delivering them to prison. Both men and women, as the high priest and the Council of Elders can bear witness of me from them I receive letters to the brothers, and I journeyed towards Damascus to to take those. And who were there and. And bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. And Paul saying, I was so devout, I was so enamored by this, that I had this sincerity that drove me to the point that I was willing to kill people for it and, and imprison people for it. Like he’s looking at this crowd saying, I get where you’re coming from because I was there. And he recognizes just how far he was willing to walk that road. Now, when it comes to us sharing about our past, honestly, I want you to know there’s a way you can do this well and a way you can do this poorly.
The way you can do this well is just to recognize that you’re not above anyone else that you needed Jesus, just like everyone else needs Jesus. The way you can do this poorly is you talk about your the details of your past so much that people start to think you might try. You might be trying to glorify your sin rather than honor the Christ who rescues you. Right? So this is not an opportunity to say, oh, I was a terrible person. Let me get into every detail of every bad thing I’ve done right? That’s not what you are called to do as God’s people, but to recognize we all have need. And I understand where you’re at because I’ve, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve been there too. And only by God’s grace have I ever have I been able to find a different path in life. And this is one of the beautiful things about coming to know Jesus is realized that it’s not about you coming to know Jesus, but Jesus coming for you. You know, Paul’s story is about Jesus meeting him, and the gospel message is about God pursuing us in our sins. Like we don’t do things to avail ourselves to God. What can we offer in our sinfulness that God can’t already do for himself? But it’s realized how gracious God is that he wouldn’t give up on us and still pursue us to give us his life.
It’s not about me making myself so lovable that God just couldn’t turn me down. It’s about understanding the depth of of God’s love and the way he pursued me and my sin. And so Paul is acknowledging this. He’s sharing his past honestly. And then let me move on. He, he, he explains, let me say it this way. Explain your encounter with Christ. And this is what Paul does. He talks about the way he came to know this Jesus and in the midst of his of his life that was opposite to him, to the point that he was even killing God’s people. In verse six, I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, talking about on his journey to imprison Christians. About noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, arise, and go into Damascus. And there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do. And since I could not see, because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand of those who were with me and came into Damascus.
Now Paul is about to point to to Jesus in all of this, but I want you to recognize that Paul’s been brought to this place of humility, and the gospel does this in a wonderful way. The gospel is got to bring you to the place of utter humility, the end of yourself. But but at the same time, the gospel is incredibly empowering in the way that it lifts you up in all that you are in Christ because of what Christ has done to you. It brings you to this place of brokenness and realize before a holy God, you’re sinful and you need forgiveness. But God also not only forgives you, but he gives you a future and a hope in who he is, this brand new identity. So it’s humbling and empowering altogether. And Paul’s saying to us in the beginning as he’s sharing this gospel, he had that humbling moment. He thought he was great. He thought in his own power he was going to end this problem with these Christians. But he’s brought to this place of weakness to the point he can’t even see. He’s dependent on other people. And as Paul is sharing this story, he tells us a couple of things that I think are important to, to highlight for us as we think about how we talk about the the Lord with others. And it’s, it’s in verse seven and, and, and again in verse eight, as Jesus identifies himself as Paul saying this one thing he’s certainly teaching us is the power of the resurrection.
And some people know Jesus was crucified. But not only was Jesus crucified by without even saying the word resurrection, Jesus or excuse me, Paul is telling us that Jesus still lives, rules and reigns as. As he had his own encounter with who Christ is. And even more than that. You see the interest of Jesus as he’s talking to the Apostle Paul, and I find this incredibly enriching for me as a follower of Christ and an even emboldening for me in in living for Jesus in this world. And that is seeing how Jesus views his church. When he says to Paul, he says to him, at this time, he’s called Saul, but Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? What what Jesus is actually saying is Jesus sees what’s happening to his people, and he cares so deeply about his people that the way that they’re treated, he sees as an affront even to himself, that Jesus receives that personally. It’s not, oh, you’re attacking my people, Paul. It’s you’re attacking me by attacking my people. And so I think this is critical for all of us to think about in your own relationship with the Lord. Like, how much does Jesus love you? So much so that the pain that you go through, Jesus wears it as if it is his own pain.
Jesus deeply cares for you and cares about you. And even as you think about your journey in life and all the adversity and all the successes that might come along with it, when you’re walking a hard road, Jesus wears that with you. Jesus cares about you in that way. And so this is a very sobering moment for Paul, that he’s not just attacking people, he’s attacking the Lord himself. But then Paul discovers in these in verse 12, it says, and one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing by me, said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight not this very hour I received my sight, and Saul and he. And he said, The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous, the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth. For you will be a witness for him. To everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you? Why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins. Calling on his name. There’s a couple things I want to highlight here. He’s definitely bringing it to a place to say, look, we need Jesus. And. And here was the moment I came to know Jesus. And I would say the same for all of us.
Are we all we all need that place where we can look back on our life and say, out of all the things my life could have been about here, here came the moment that defined everything that I would be as a human being, everything that I would live for. It was rooted in my identity in Jesus and guys for all of us to come to know Christ, we all have to come to this place where we’re humbled before the cross of Christ and we call out to God for salvation. Now, for some of us, we might be able to point it to a specific moment. For others, we just know at some point I, I, my life became about that. I surrender to that. Maybe it doesn’t come to a specific spot, but there is this time, this place in our lives where we came and to a moment where we we trusted in Christ and what he did for us. And this is critical for us to consider because the Bible tells us sometimes people might assume, you know, I just have known the Lord forever. I’ve always belonged to the Lord. And I want you to know that’s not what the Bible says. In fact, in John chapter one verse 12 to 14, it very clearly says to as many as received him, to those he gave the right to become the children of God. Meaning just because you’re born doesn’t make you a child of God.
In fact, when you’re born, the Bible tells you you’re not a child of God, but rather you’re a child of wrath, meaning you’re under the judgment of God, because we’re all born sinful as human beings, and we choose sinful things. But if we want to become a child of God, God gives us all the opportunity to do that. That’s why Romans chapter eight tells you that you you have been received or adopted to him. If you belong to Jesus, right? There’s this adoption that takes place in our life. And the reason we’re able to have that is because the cross of Christ. So it becomes a place in our life where we. We turn from anything else and say, Lord, I’m a sinner, but Lord, you pursued me and you gave your life for me. So forgive me of my sins. Give me new life in you. And the Bible says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You don’t add into to anything that Jesus has done for you on the cross. You receive what Christ has already done for you. That’s why the Bible refers to this as grace. To try to add to that as an insult, to add, to add religion on top of that, as an insult to to what Jesus accomplished to you. As believers, we receive. And then we respond joyfully in everything we do as we serve the Lord in this world.
But it’s not to earn, but it’s to to be given what Christ has given to us. As Paul is saying this, I love that he talks about Ananias because he’s recognizing that one of the, one of the most powerful ways and beautiful ways God works is through his people, that God wants to use you as a conduit in this world to honor him. And for Paul, it was Ananias. And if you remember anything about Ananias, Ananias was reluctant to go to Paul. And he’s like, are you kidding me? God, he’s killing people. Don’t you know who this God is? This guy is. I’m not going to him. But here you see a man incredibly emboldened for the Lord and still ministers to the apostle Paul and Ananias. He. He sees this radical transformation. When I when I think about my own life, like what it took for me to come to know Jesus, I was a pretty stubborn, broken individual, hard hearted, living for this world and in my life. I can think back. There was a guy in the military. There was the the chief of police in my city and a pastor in my hometown. All three of those speaking into my life about the goodness of who Christ was and being patient with me. Because if you had seen me before Jesus, you would have said let’s, let’s try someone easier. Like we, there’s got to be a lot of other people in this world that probably need Jesus or will listen about the Lord before this guy.
And it took time, but their patience in Christ and example helped me come to know the Lord conduits for his glory. And it’s the same for you. Just think of the opportunity is to come to the Lord. And, and Paul talks about this. And when he shares this message that was given to him by Ananias, Ananias says, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. I’ve, I’ve talked about this extensively, this, this phrase in Acts, when it comes to the idea of baptism, one of the things I think is important for you to know and remember is that when the Bible talks about baptism, there’s a few different types of baptism. The Bible talks about one. One big type of baptism is water baptism that we’re familiar with, and the other is a spirit baptism. In Luke three, when John the Baptist was baptizing people, he said, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I, that I, excuse me, is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Now some of you might be wondering, what is that fire? Because when I got baptized, I don’t remember anybody lighting me on fire. But if you read the next verse, it’s a fire of judgment saying, Because of Christ and His forgiveness, you’re judged in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and you’re preserved.
And so this Holy Spirit baptism is different than water baptism. And when we read the New Testament, what we discover is like when the Bible talks about a Holy Spirit baptism, it’s talking about you being indwelt by the Spirit of God, God being in you. And this is critical as a believer to understand because for us, what this means is wherever you go as a believer, you’re you’re a walking temple. The presence of God goes with you because the Spirit of God indwells you and you have a relationship with Jesus forever. You don’t have to wait until you’re in heaven to have a relationship with God. Eternity. Your relationship with God starts the moment you trust in Jesus. You’re indwelt by the spirit. In fact, first Corinthians chapter 12, verse 13 says, all are baptized into one body or Ephesians chapter four, verse five, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Right? So the minute you trust in Christ, everyone in Jesus is baptized in the Spirit of God. This is why as Christians, we don’t build temples because we are the temple. And wherever we gather, the presence of God has made known in us. And so when Paul is in this particular passage, when it talks about baptism, one of the things I think is important to recognize is it is talking about water baptism.
Here he’s saying, rise and be baptized. And here’s why in the early church, and this would be true today when you come to know Jesus spiritually, you’re spiritually baptized. You would immediately follow that up with water baptism, because water baptism is this public profession to the world that you’ve trusted in Jesus. And it works like this. Jesus publicly professed his life for you, and so now you have the opportunity to publicly profess your life in him, that as Jesus has given you new life spiritually, you’re proclaiming that through the physical that I am now being baptized, symbolizing what I’ve received in Jesus. And so Paul is saying, this becomes a marker for us and recognizing the goodness of who God is. As we’ve been baptized spiritually, we get baptized in Christ physically. So we explain that encounter with Christ. And then finally in your notes, last point is this end with purpose and mission, end with purpose and mission. And God created his church for a purpose greater than ourselves. Right? And in thinking about going in this world, how do I do that? Because I don’t feel like I’m a professional. You know, I’m not a pastor, but but God wants to use all of us just to share the beautiful work he’s done in us. It’s not about pointing to me. It’s about pointing to Him and His grace in our lives.
And so we do this boldly and with courage, seeking to connect with people, not because we’re better than, but we highlight, you know, where we’ve been without Jesus, but but who we are now because of Jesus and what how God has made my life different, what my, my life looks like now because I know Jesus. And Paul ends this by, by sharing that purpose and mission, he says, when I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance. So this is he’s talking about immediately after he was converted, he went back to Jerusalem and he falls into this trance. And it says, and I saw him saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in synagogues and after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him. And he said to me, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. And I was at this moment when he made this statement, the crowd goes in an uproar and starts to react to to Paul, because they know the part that Paul’s going to the Gentiles is not what frustrates them. It’s knowing that he’s telling the Gentiles, you don’t have to be circumcised or obey the old covenant law in order to be saved, because they want salvation to still depend on their own effort, not what Christ has done.
And so they get angry with the apostle Paul. But here’s here’s Paul in this moment saying, this is what my life is about, my story for God’s glory. He’s radically transformed me to use me in this world. And I’m not really here to point to me. I’m here to point to him and what he’s done in me so others can have that opportunity too. I need to share this way and close with us. We have enough time for communion together. But there’s this story in Matthew chapter 16 of the Apostle Peter, if you remember in verse 22. This is right after Jesus told his disciples that he’s going to die. And Peter does typically what all of us do, like over my dead body, right? I’m going to pick myself up by my bootstraps, and I’m going to show you how strong I am. And Peter says this to Christ. He took him aside and began to rebuke Jesus. It’s never a good idea. Guys began to rebuke Jesus, saying, far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you. Peter, thinking in his own strength. But even Jesus in that moment responded, but he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.
And this is where Jesus tells Peter, even before the the the rooster crows, you will have denied me. And Peter, if you know this story, when Jesus is being taken on trial, Peter sees Jesus being beaten. He denies Christ, and he runs away weeping like a baby. Here he was thought he was so tough. But he finds out in the end he’s not as strong as he thought he was. But then there’s something that changed everything for Peter. His life rested in the resurrection of Christ. He saw Jesus, who could not be defeated by death. And in so doing, rather than become one who runs away as a coward, weeping, he was incredibly emboldened with the gospel. This God who loved him so deeply that defeated death on his behalf. And Peter used his life to proclaim that. You know, it’s interesting when you read throughout the New Testament, you’ll find in the letters in the New Testament, there’s often prayers for the church. And the Apostle Paul is one who regularly writes prayers for you. And I included one here at the top of the screen in Ephesians. But of all the prayers, Paul could have prayed for us. It’s interesting. You could think to yourself, maybe before you read a prayer of Paul, what is it? Paul would pray for us. You know, what would he really want us to be better at? Better, better Bible memory.
You know, better. Better at understanding systematic theology. Like what are all the things that that Paul could pray that we would have as people? Do? You know, one of the central things Paul focused on, he just said, you know, out of all the things you could be about God’s people, if you could just get this one thing, this one thing radically transforms everything. And it’s not better Bible memory, it’s not systematic theology. And those things all have a place. But he just says this, that you would know the love of God if your life could be rooted in the depth of God’s love for you. If you could truly understand the way that Christ cares for you, that love changes everything. And in a life that’s radically transformed in that grace, that’s what compels us as people to use my story for his glory. Because truth be told, it’s not really my story, but it’s God’s hand all over my life. And so when I share that with people, I’m not afraid to do it because I’m not resting in me. I’m resting in him. I’m just pointing to the one that’s transformed my life from a broken past and enriched in him, and now giving me a mission for his glory in this world. And I can do that compassionately towards you, no matter how you treat me. Because I know just not long ago, I was in your shoes. If it weren’t for the grace of God.