The Courage to Preach: A Study of Paul's Boldness

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

Well, we're going to go ahead and be in the book of Acts, Acts, chapter 22.

Acts, chapter 22.

We're continuing on in our sermon series, Authentic Church through Scripture.

And we are tracking, really at this point, many of the struggles of Paul because he was told by his peers not to go to Jerusalem.

Why?

Because they had word that he would face persecution there in Jerusalem.

But I don't believe that God was telling him not to go to Jerusalem.

We know that through his obedience, and we know that through his testimony here where, when.

When he says he doesn't have issues with his conscience.

We're going to see that in Acts, chapter 23.

But I do think that there are times in our life where people can see that we will go through difficulties and assume that those difficulties are something that we should avoid.

But the Bible actually tells us that there are certain difficulties that we are to go through for the cause of the Gospel.

And we see that certainly that's what Paul is doing here.

So Paul goes to Jerusalem, and the prophecies were correct.

He.

He did get persecuted.

He was put in bonds, which we're going to see here now.

And last week we saw what he did when he was persecuted.

Basically, they put him in chains.

They were leading him up to the Antonio Fortress, and he turns to the Roman guard and in Greek basically asks him, can I preach to the people that are persecuting me?

And he grants that request.

And Paul turns to his people, the ones that are persecuting him, and speaks in their native tongue, Hebrew, and essentially preaches the Gospel.

And what does he do?

He gives his testimony as a way to preach the Gospel.

He gives his testimony to him.

They were actually in many ways going along with what he was saying until he said, I have been called to preach the message of God to the Gentiles.

And we see the response to that in verse 22.

And they gave him audience unto this word, the word Gentile, and then lifted up their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live.

And so they listened until Paul mentioned the Gentiles.

And then the Jewish mob was outraged.

And they basically said, he doesn't deserve to live.

Why?

Because he's preaching the message to the Gentiles.

And the Gentiles are unclean.

The Gentiles are not equal to us.

The Gentiles cannot find God the same way.

And, and that's really the message that Paul was preaching.

Paul was preaching a message that said that Jews and Gentiles could find salvation the same exact way through Jesus Christ.

Now, Paul was not preaching that the Jews should turn their back on their traditions, even on their ceremonies.

He said, that's fine, go ahead with those, that's totally fine in your culture to do that, but don't expect that to save you.

And the Jewish people were okay with hearing that they were saved through all the things that they were doing.

And the Gentiles were saved with how they can do it.

But they were not okay with hearing that the Gentiles and the Jews were same, saved the same way.

And so that's why they're upset.

That's why they're upset with Paul.

Not so much that he was preaching to the Gentiles, but that he was preaching the same message to the Jews and the Gentiles, Jesus Christ alone.

And that's important for us to learn from here because there's a lot of temptations in our world today that can draw us to a place to preach a message of Jesus, plus something else.

And we have to go back to the understanding of what Scripture says, that we are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ.

There are other things that are added to our faith.

We're very clear about that in Scripture.

Right?

Spiritual maturity is a process that happens after salvation.

But we can't expect someone to be spiritually mature to understand Christ.

We can't expect people to adhere to our way of doing things to come to Christ.

We preach Jesus Christ and him alone.

And that is truly what the Gospel message really is.

And so here, in this case, they're upset.

They want to kill him.

And what, what is Paul going to do here?

We're going to see that Paul is led away because they're trying to pull him away from this mob.

Because really the, the Roman soldiers, all they're about is just not causing chaos here in, in the public square.

And so we're going to see what happens here, that eventually the Romans begin to scourge Paul.

But Paul is going to appeal to something else here.

And I think that what we can see is that Paul uses discernment here to claim something that he wasn't claiming in other places in his life.

And that is that he is a Roman citizen.

And so go with me to verse 23.

And as they cried out and cast off their clothes and threw dust into the air, this is all their way to show that they're upset with Paul, that they want him dead, that ultimately they're mourning over what he's preaching.

Verse 24.

The Chief Captain commanded him to be brought into the castle.

That's the Antonio fortress.

Remember we talked last week.

That's the tower, that's on the corner of the Temple Mount.

That basically is the watchtower over what's going on.

They said we're going to rush him up to the castle and bid that he should be examined by scourging.

Now that's a fancy way to be examined by scourging.

And basically they're going to beat him until they get the truth.

And, and we're going to talk a little bit about what Roman scourging look like.

Some of you are familiar with, with the situation with Jesus right before he went to the cross.

But Paul is going to go through the same procedure here and be scourged.

And it says that he might know wherefore they cried so against him.

They want to know why they're upset with Paul.

They, they want to know what's going on.

What are you preaching, what's causing such a stir with the people?

Verse 25.

And as they bound him with thongs.

And so essentially what this is, is they're, they're taking each arm and they're stretching his arms around the pole so his back could be fully exposed to the, the flogging.

And, and they're going to beat him and, and persecute him this way.

So it says that they bind him with thongs.

Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?

And Paul knows the answer to this.

It was against the Roman law for them to scourge someone who was not guilty, and specifically in this case, a Roman citizen.

And so the commander orders Paul to be scourged to get the truth out of him.

And that phrase they're examine under scourging essentially just means that they're going to try to beat it out of him.

And this was more than just a rod or a whip.

It was done to basically cripple someone.

It was done to be.

In many, in many cases in history, people died through this scourging.

So this wasn't just a little slap on the wrist.

This was going to be a serious beating that he was about to undertake.

It was customary, though, but only upon people who were not Roman citizens.

So Paul is a Roman citizen.

There's something very unique about Paul in the concept that he is a Jew of Jews.

He.

He is.

Was at one point a Pharisee.

So he was in culturally a Jewish person and biologically, physically a Jewish person, but also he is a Roman citizen.

So this brings a lot of diversity to Paul's ministry because we know that Paul has a heart for the Gentiles, we know that he has a heart for the Jews.

What better person to have a heart for both than someone who can identify with both sides?

And so the idea here is that Paul is a Roman citizen, and they're going to actually doubt that at first.

Verse 26, when the Centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, take heed what thou doest, for this man is a Roman.

Now they.

So they don't doubt that he's a Roman citizen, but they're going to doubt how he became a Roman citizen.

The reason why they don't doubt that he's a Roman citizen, because if Paul said he was a Roman citizen and he wasn't, he would be put to death.

So that was that serious of a thing.

They know that no one would lie about that because they'll.

They'll research it, they'll know.

And so they don't think that he's lying, but they think that he came about it in a different way.

Verse 27.

Then the chief captain came and said unto him, tell me, art thou a Roman?

He said, yeah, yay.

Yes, I am a Roman.

And the chief captain answered, with a great sum obtained I this freedom.

Meaning this.

The chief captain said, I had to buy my freedom.

I had to pay a lot for this.

What did you have to pay?

Because obviously he's looking at Paul and he says, what did you pay?

And Paul said, but I was born free.

Paul has already gone through his background where he was born.

It says back in chapter 21, verse 39, that he was a Jew of Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city, meaning this.

He.

He was born in a Roman province.

And.

And what we can understand through this is that at some point, someone in Paul's family either maybe bought their freedom or did something for a Roman soldier or Roman citizen that allowed his family to be considered a Roman citizen.

So that's what Paul is here.

And Paul claims that.

Paul doesn't always claim this, but he claims it in this case for a certain reason.

And he says, I, I was born free.

And so the leader here, this, this captain says, hey, I, I've bought that.

How could you buy that?

He says, I, I didn't buy it.

I was given it in my birth.

And so the Roman citizen, Roman citizenship was given to Paul through his birth.

And some commentators would speculate that Paul's parents or grandparents must have been awarded the rights of citizenship for something that they did in the past.

We don't know entirely for sure, but Paul was a rare, rare individual in the fact that he was educated and intelligent as a devout Jew, but also had exposure to Gentile culture and Gentile ways of doing things as a Roman citizen.

And so God would use this unique background in Paul in a special way and equip him to minister both to the Jews and the Gentiles.

And I thought about that this week, and it could just be a historical fact, or we could look at God's providence in his design for Paul to prepare him for what he's going to call him to do.

And I do believe that there are no mistakes.

I believe that God prepares us for where he calls back in many cases in my life to say, lord, I know exactly why you allowed me to go through what I went through so that now I'm able to understand how to minister in this way.

And I think all of us could have somewhat of a testimony that during the time that we were going through something or the place that we came from, we didn't know why that was the case.

But again, there's no accidents.

And I do believe that God ordains a path for us to go.

And I think that he equips us in the place that he calls us to minister.

So that's exactly what we can see here as a lesson that Paul was prepared to do such a thing that he is called to do.

And we know ultimately Paul goes to Rome.

We're studying in the book of Romans that Paul had a heart to go to Rome to minister to those people there in the capital.

And God does call Paul there and he ministers to many people, but we're going to see his path to get there here through the book of Acts.

And so let's go back here.

Verse 29, he says, I was freeborn, I was born free.

Verse 29.

Then straightway they departed from him, which should have examined him.

So the basically the people that were about to examine him through scourging, they back away.

And the chief captain also was afraid.

Why is he afraid because if he punishes Paul, and Paul's a Roman citizen, he could get in trouble for the very same thing that.

That Paul was going through here.

And so after he knew that he was a Roman because he had bound him.

So he knows he's in trouble.

He knows he did something he should not do.

And so we see here, though, I believe God providing a victory for Paul in this case.

Obviously, God has a plan for Paul, and Paul's not done with.

With what God has him to do yet.

And.

And I think that, you know, one of the things that I.

I try to tell people, and it's kind of a silly way to go about it, but it's true.

I think it's biblical that if you're still drawing in breath, God's not done with you yet.

And I think that's true.

I think that if God calls us home, then he's.

He's done, we're done, the race is over.

But if we still have breath, God is calling us to do something.

It might be different than it used to be.

I might not be able to minister like I used to, or I might be not able to minister in a way that I used to minister.

But here at this case, God has a plan for Paul.

And.

And so God preserves Paul through this difficult time, and God's going to preserve you through that difficult time as he has a plan for you.

I know sometimes the race gets difficult.

Paul talks about life being a race, the Christian walk being a race.

Micah was out running, and he's in this series where they race, okay?

And so they have this mile race, and it's amazing to watch him run, because inside of me, I don't.

I didn't know the word to say because I didn't want to say I had pride, okay?

But all of you that have watched your children do something that you enjoy, you have that joy in your heart, okay?

It's just like, wow, look at him go.

And as he was running around that last stretch, I was looking at him and he was looking tired.

And then as soon as he saw our family, it was me, Alicia, Nora, and Silas.

And he saw us, right?

And he.

And he got an extra burst of energy, right?

And I think that's sometimes what we need in our life.

Sometimes we get tired in our race.

Sometimes as we're running, we get that fatigue and we feel that pain, and we think, you know what?

It's just not worth it.

And then all of a sudden, we see in scripture what God has called us to do.

We see those other Christians doing the same thing and we get excited and we push forward.

And as Paul says, I press toward the mark, I, I push forward.

And I think that's something that we have to understand.

Paul here, probably in his, in his life was doubting some things.

I, I don't know for sure.

But in, but in any case, Paul is going through some severe persecution throughout this period of his life.

But yet he pushes forward.

And so I believe that there is this opportunity for us to see that lesson here.

So look at verse number 30 with me on the morrow.

Because he would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands and commanded the chief priests and all the council, all their council to appear and brought Paul down and set him before them.

So he says, before we say that Paul is guilty, we need to pull him before their council.

And this is specifically talking about the Jewish Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin was basically the leadership council of the Jewish people, specifically their religion.

So he says we need to pull Paul down before them and we need to see what they're actually accusing him of.

We need to make sure we're not falsely accusing Paul for something that he hasn't done.

Okay, so that's what we have to understand.

That's what he's doing here.

Now you have to know a little bit about the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin was made up of two groups.

It was made up of the Pharisees, which you all are probably familiar with.

You've heard that term before.

Paul was a Pharisee.

The Pharisees were by the book, they were by the letter.

They did believe in the afterlife, they did believe in eternity, they did believe in spiritual things.

But there was another group of people named the Sadducees that made up the council as well.

The Sadducees has some other varying viewpoints.

And so what we can see here in this case is that there are two different groups of people and Paul is going to actually.

Cause there's going to be some division here.

And Paul's going to have some division as he meets before them.

And actually Paul's not going to have division.

What he says is going to stir some division with the group here.

And so verse number one, and Paul earnestly beholding the council, said, men and brethren, I have lived.

This is verse 1 of 23.

Have lived in all good conscience before God unto until this day.

And so in this case, what we can see is that Paul is giving his testimony that he's living in a good conscience.

He hasn't done anything wrong.

He says, I don't believe that I have done anything wrong in what I have done so far in my life.

Now they think he's done wrong.

They think that he's telling people basically, hey, you can be Gentiles, live like Gentiles, don't be Jews.

Remember, they even called him an anti Jew, basically.

So he says, I'm living in good conscience and that's the way that we all should live our lives.

By the way, I hope that obviously none of us are perfect.

Paul wasn't perfect.

But there is a place in our life that we can live with a good conscience.

We can live before God with clarity and freedom.

And that's what Paul says that he's doing here, verse two.

And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mount.

So what does Paul do?

Paul gives his testimony.

Paul says, I believe that I'm living with a clear conscience.

And what does the leader of the group do?

He says, hit him in the face, Hit him in the mouth.

Now obviously he is not acting the way that he should act.

And so Paul is before the council, Paul is giving his testimony.

And ultimately Ananias is not happy about that.

And Paul's claim of a good conscience offends this high priest.

And he thought that someone who would do this should, should, should face their punishment.

And so he says, hit him.

And they do strike him actually here.

So verse 3.

Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall.

Now you might not know what he's talking about here.

Why did wall was.

What's he, what's he saying here, whited wall?

Well, he's essentially explaining to them that hey, you look pure on the outside, but obviously on the inside you're corrupt, you're a hypocrite.

Basically, you look religious, you hold the religious position, but in your heart you're not living the way that you should live.

And this is a echo of what Jesus said to the religious people at that time.

He said that your whited sepulchers basically clean and pure on the outside what it looked like, but on the inside, not clean.

He says, for sit us down to judge me after the law.

So he says, you're trying to practice the law.

And Paul knew the law, by the way.

It's not like he was surprised by this.

He knew the law and commandeth me to be smitten contrary to the law.

And so Paul exposes the Hypocr guilty can be beaten.

And they hadn't found him guilty yet.

And so Paul had not been found guilty of anything, but yet they strike him.

And so Paul's words back to Ananias.

We don't know how Paul said it.

I like to think that Paul said it with some passion.

But either way, Paul says, hey, you know what?

If you're going to strike me, God's going to strike you.

And he speaks to this understanding of sowing and reaping, obviously, that we know in Scripture that he says, if you're going to live this way, God's going to hold you to that.

Verse 4.

And they that stood by said, revilest thou God's high priest?

They're like, how can you say this to this leader?

Then said Paul, I wish not, I knew not, brethren, that he was the high priest.

For it is written, thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.

And so this is interesting here.

They ask him, how could you say evil to the leader?

And Paul basically excuses himself saying that I didn't know the man who commanded me to be punched was the leader.

And I, I, I, I thought about this because I'm like, is he, is he lying here?

Is he just saying like, he's not acting like the leader, so I'm not treating him like the leader.

But I, I looked it up and I was reading a little bit about it, and it's not unreasonable since Paul had been away from the council, that maybe he just didn't know that this was the leader, or maybe he didn't recognize him.

Some, some.

Actually, I was reading one commentary that said that Paul's eyesight was so bad that he didn't know who said it.

And so maybe it was just the fact that he literally didn't see the person who said that.

But either way, Paul says, hey, you know what?

I didn't know that you were the leader.

I know that I'm not supposed to say bad about the leader, even though the leader is acting in a sinful way.

Verse 6.

But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council.

So Paul is going to use his wisdom of their beliefs to talk to them and really get them to fight against each other.

And so he reads his audience, which I think is an important thing to do.

We should know who we're speaking to.

We should know who's accusing us, we should know who's coming against us.

And so he saw that they were not open to the gospel.

He looked at their actions and obviously they had made their feelings plain and clear about what they thought about Paul.

And so Paul isn't going to preach the gospel to them at this point.

He's already done that.

What he could do now is try to get, get out of there and, and use God's wisdom to have them get divided here.

So Paul knew that one of the sides of the council were Sadducees and one of the side was Pharisees.

So Paul's desire here, his plan was to divide.

The saints didn't.

And he knew that this would cause a great controversy between the two party parties.

And even though he's not lying, this is a true claim.

The, obviously the, the centerpiece of the gospel that Paul was preaching was a resurrected Jesus and ultimately the resurrected saints.

So Paul's not just saying something that he doesn't believe.

He's preaching the gospel.

He knew that there was going to be a resurrection of the dead one day, ultimately because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If you don't think that he does, read First Corinthians, chapter 15.

But we see the outcome of this because one side is for the resurrection, the other side's not.

Verse 7.

And when he had said so, said there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the multitude was divided.

And so Paul picked the issue that was a hot button issue for them.

And the way that he put it was in such a way that the Pharisees would ally with him.

And he led them to argue out with those Sadducees that were there.

And so the Sadducees were considered to be more of liberal in their theology, liberal in their theology of their day.

They denied the reality of the afterlife, they denied the concept of the resurrection.

And we can see that through the book of, well, you see in the Gospels and you can even see it here as it's described in verse number nine.

Well actually verse eight.

Let's go, let's go back one.

For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees confess both.

And there arose a great cry.

And the scribes that were of the Pharisees part arose and strove, saying, we find no evil in this man, but if the Spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.

And so usually in this case the Sadducees and the Pharisees were enemies, but now we're seeing that that's actually coming to pass.

And they said, let's not fight against God because he's saying the right thing.

The Pharisees basically said, hey, let's.

Let's not get into this tussle.

Let's go ahead and let him go.

Let's not allow this to happen.

And so Paul gets out of it.

And so that's important to see here.

So obviously we see the dissension that happens in verse 10.

And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down and to take him by force from among them and to bring him into the castle.

And so we see Paul is pulled away from the conflict, verse 11.

And the night following, the Lord stood by him.

And so I want you to see here after this conflict because.

Because remember, set yourself in Paul's shoes for just a moment here.

Remember, Paul is traveling.

He's told by a bunch of people, don't go to Jerusalem.

Paul says, I know God has told me to go to Jerusalem.

I'm bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.

But now he goes to Jerusalem and faces all this conflict.

If.

If it was me, okay, if I was Paul, I'd start to be doubting.

I'd start to say, you know what?

Maybe I.

Maybe God doesn't have what's best for me.

May.

Maybe the struggle is difficult.

Maybe it's too difficult.

Maybe I misread what God had for me in my life.

There's been times in my life where I've thought that same thing.

I've thought, you know what, Lord?

I thought that you wanted me to do this.

But now when I'm looking around and seeing what's going on, I'm not sure.

But as Paul goes through this storm, as he goes through this trial, we see God assuring him at the end that he's with him.

And I think this is important for us to see that sometimes in the midst of the storm, God is silent.

But God does speak to us in the.

Even sometimes in the midst of the trial.

But in this case, when Paul gets through this, God speaks to him in verse 11.

And the night following, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou has testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

And so Paul is rescued by the Roman commander, and he's taken there back into bonds.

And that following night, which obviously was a difficult time for Paul, and.

And you know, because Paul had a heart for the Romans, but he Also had a heart for the Jews, Paul had a heart for the Gentiles, but he had a heart for his own people.

If you question that, read Romans chapter nine.

And, and so Paul is preaching to his people and they reject him.

And so he probably in many cases was the discouraged, defeated, perhaps even to the point of thinking that he had wasted his time.

And, and so what we can see here is that the Lord comes and meets him right in his need.

And so it says that the Lord stood by him.

And, and we see the presence of God there with him.

And so Jesus promises that he's going to be not just with Paul, but he's going to be with us.

Think about the Great Commission.

The great commission is that we are to go and make disciples in this world and preach the gospel, teach people.

And at the very end, verse number 20 of Matthew 28, Jesus says teach, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever, whatsoever I've commanded you.

And the last thing that he says after the command is this.

I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

So what God does promise us, he doesn't promise us perfection.

He doesn't promise us complete circumstantial peace.

He promises us his presence which brings the peace of God in the midst of difficulties.

Think about the story of Jesus and his disciples on the boat in the storm.

What did Jesus say before they got in the boat?

We need to go to the other side.

We're going to the other side.

So the promise of God to the disciples was this, we're going to get to the other side.

And everything was okay until they got out into the water.

And what happened?

The storm came, the difficulties came and, and, and so those storms were coming in on them and collapsing on top of them.

And they began to fear and they began to doubt God.

Why?

Because of this circumstances.

The presence of God in Jesus Christ was with them.

He was with them on the boat.

They didn't feel like he was doing the right thing at the right time.

Jesus was sleeping, if you remember, how can you be sleeping?

You don't care that we die.

And obviously we know that Jesus was there.

But the, the test was, are they going to trust Jesus in the midst of the storm?

And all Jesus has to do is say, peace, be still and it's over.

And he says, you know, you don't have any faith.

What's going on?

The same thing here with Paul, right?

He's tested in his faith to preach the Gospel there in Jerusalem.

And ultimately, as we're going to see here, Preach it even on to Rome.

But what we have to understand is that sometimes in the midst of the test, God is silent.

A while back, I said, you know what?

A good teacher teaches and prepares an individual for a test.

But during the test, the teacher is silent in many cases.

In most cases, a good teacher should be silent.

I don't think a good teacher should be telling their students the answers to the test, you know, trying to pad their stats, so to speak.

Okay, that's not a good teacher.

A good teacher would say, I'm going to be silent.

Now, the beauty of the Christian faith is this.

And I think Brother Bob mentioned this to me one time.

He said, yes, God is sometimes silent in the midst of the test.

But we have an open book test.

It's right here, okay?

We've got everything we need right in front of us so he doesn't leave us alone.

But the truth of the matter is, is that sometimes we know that there's going to be those times of testing, but then we always know that God is going to comfort us.

And he says, be of good cheer, Paul, because you testified for me here in Jerusalem, and so you will need to testify there in Rome.

And so Jesus's presence for Paul here was an opportunity for him to know that God is with him in the midst of all of this.

And sometimes that's all we need to be reminded of, is that God is with us in the midst of this.

And so Paul might have felt alone.

He was literally alone, at least in the concept of him being physical and not having any of his friends there with him.

But he wasn't alone.

Even if everybody on his team forgot about him, even if his own country forgot about him, Jesus was enough.

Jesus was better than anything else.

And so we could say it this way.

It was better for Paul to be persecuted and in jail and be in the will of God than to be anywhere else in his life.

He could have run.

He could have been like Jonah and run from his call.

But we even know in the story of Jonah, he couldn't run away from the call of God.

And it's the same thing with our life.

The safest place to be, the best place to be, the most peaceful place to be, is to be doing what God has called us to do.

And so Paul says, you know what, God, you've called me to do this.

He was encouraged.

He had that second win, so to speak.

And we know that from this point on, from this point on in the book of Acts, basically, Paul is in bonds.

He is not going to be what we would call a free man for the rest of the Book of Acts.

We know he is a free man in Jesus Christ, but from here on out, he's going to be bound, he's going to be shipwrecked, he's going to have all these issues, but we don't see it hold him back at all for preaching the gospel.

And so Paul had been miraculously delivered from jail cells before.

You remember that with, with Paul and Silas, he.

They sang and.

And obviously God pulled them out of jail.

And a lot of times that's what we expect to happen in every sense.

Right?

We love that story.

We love the story when Paul is in jail and he cries out to God and God breaks the doors open and he can come right out.

But that's not always God's will.

It's not always God's will for us to have that type of victory.

Because if it was God's will in every case, why is Paul ever in the bonds?

Why is Paul ever, ever in Roman control?

Well, we know that ultimately it was God's plan for him to go this way.

And so we often demand or expect that God would deliver us from our circumstances in every case.

But sometimes God wants us to be in the midst of those circumstances for us to, number one, learn lessons and number two, to be tested in our faith, and number three, to proclaim the gospel in the midst of difficulty.

If you go back to the beginning of the Book of Acts, what spread the gospel the best?

Persecution, Pressure.

When we become complacent in what we believe and by what we do, we often lack in our fervency for spreading the gospel.

And so we sometimes think that when we surrender to Jesus, we're surrendering from all problems.

But sometimes God is going to allow problems to happen so that we can push forward.

And.

But what does he say?

He says, be of good cheer, Paul.

He says, I'm with you.

I want to comfort you.

Jesus was there to give him the understanding of his love for him and to spur him on for service.

And that is what we believe God is doing in our life.

And so we can be of good cheer in the midst of difficulty.

Jesus is not asking Paul to do something impossible here and again.

Remember, he just was betrayed by his own people.

He was thrown in jail, he was scourged again, basically lied about and now thrown back in the jail.

And what does Jesus say?

Jesus doesn't come and say, okay, Paul, pout about this, make people feel sorry for you.

He says, be of good Cheer.

And I don't believe God asks us to do something that is impossible to do.

So he says, paul, have, have cheer.

This is exactly why, if you read the book of Philippians, this is exactly why Paul can say, rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say rejoice.

Paul understands that it's not his circumstance and his location that gives him comfort and peace and joy.

It's who he's with in the presence of God.

So Jesus, even this echoes what Jesus teaches in Matthew chapter nine.

He told the bedridden paralytic guy to be of good cheer.

Jesus tells many of the people that he heals be of good cheer.

And as Christians, I think that we have to be the same way.

We have to be characterized by our joy.

Why?

Not because our life is going the way we expect it to go, but because we are walking with God and we're being used by God.

So he says, you testify for me in Jerusalem.

What is he essentially telling Paul here?

Good job.

And, and we wouldn't think that Paul did a good job.

If, if we sent Paul to Jerusalem and said, paul, preach the gospel in Jerusalem, we would expect him to come back and say, hey, all these people got saved.

But we would, we would look at Paul's preaching there in this.

And so I think that that's what God is telling us.

God is telling us that there's more to do.

So where's our Rome?

Where's our Jerusalem?

Our Jerusalem's right here.

Sometimes our Jerusalem is in a place where we can be heard.

Think about that.

I mean, even Jesus, when he goes back to Nazareth, they have a hard time listening to him because he's so familiar.

And sometimes the people that are around us, the most familiar people, it's the hardest people to minister to.

But at the end of the day, sometimes we're called to go out further.

We're called to go into Rome, we're called to go into opposition.

And let's just say here we, we live in modern day Rome, we live in a corrupt culture.

But God is calling us to go and to proclaim the gospel.

So Paul, you know, Paul's gonna face his enemies with, with joy, knowing that they've completely, they're completely powerless in contrast to God and God's strength.

And so this is what Dr.

I believe this is one of the instances that drives Paul forward to do some wonderful things here in the next few chapters by proclaiming the gospel to people that normally wouldn't get the gospel.

We're going to see a guy named Felix, we're going to see a guy named Agrippa.

And those individuals are not going to be individuals that Paul would naturally have their ear.

But because of this, Paul is going to have an opportunity to preach the gospel to some very influential people.

And we never know who God is calling us to preach the gospel to.

And we don't know what doors God's going to open for us.

And Paul is going through a difficulty here, but to have more doors open for the gospel to be preached.

So you might be going through a difficulty now, and you might not know why you're going through that difficulty.

It might be that God is opening doors for you to preach the message of the gospel to people around you.

Folks, I can tell you that there, there isn't necessarily a lot of excitement for me when maybe God exposes to me that, hey, you gotta go through this difficulty to win people.

To me, I say, why me?

Why do I have to go through this pain?

Why can't I be somebody else?

But hey, you know what?

God has called us for a specific thing to do in our life.

And, and I think that none of us are, are called to do what Paul did here.

I don't think maybe you are, but God is calling you to something unique.

And it might be that there is some apprehensions of that because we think that the.

I mean, I.

I know for me, one of the things that I thought about when I was praying about going into the ministry, specifically vocational ministry, was, Lord, if it was almost like I didn't want to make a deal with God because I knew that was wrong.

I knew that was wrong.

But it was almost like this unwritten thing that say, lord, if I commit to you, I understand that everything.

I believed everything was going to go smoothly.

I thought everything was going to be okay.

I thought that the trials would go away.

I thought that temptations would go away.

That's how ignorant I was, okay, at the point where I thought, well, I have a lot of trials now and I have a lot of temptations now, and these temptations will just fly away once I become a pastor, because I'll have that.

Because it was the position.

It was, it was the thought that that position will protect me.

Folks, we know that no matter what position we hold within this earth, we're attacked.

The Bible says that that is part of the process of being a Christian.

But the beauty is this, that God can be with you through it.

And some of you understand that peace that passeth all understanding.

And that is the greatest, one of the greatest Gifts that we can have as Christians that we can look to him in the midst of a trial and say, I still love him, I'm still thankful.

And, And I know that the more we proclaim that, the more we will be tested in that.

I, I will say that a lot of times in our life, we, We.

We take the Christian life and we make it something that's theoretical.

Like, I don't know about you guys, but when I get to family events, what do they say?

The two things you're not supposed to talk about at family events around the table is religion and politics.

Right.

I'm going to tell you that those are the first two things that we bring up at all of our family events.

Okay?

And so I gotta be careful with that.

So if you invite me over, I promise you I probably will talk about at least the religion aspect of it.

But the truth is, is that we start talking about things.

We start talking about what we believe, we start talking about what's in the Bible.

And you know what happens usually is we start talking about theoretical situation.

Well, if this was to happen, what would you do?

And we sit there and we, we wax eloquent about what we think we would do.

But at the end of the day, you know, a lot of times is like, it sticks in our Christianity and our faith sticks in the theoretical side of things.

But what happens when the rubber really meets the road and someone stands up against you?

Or what happens when that gospel opportunity is standing right in front of you?

Sometimes the reality of the fear of.

Of man sets in.

And the Bible says the fear of man is a snare.

And so Paul could have used every reason to use, like, hey, I'm fearful.

I'm going to back out.

I'm going to not do this.

But he said, you know what, Lord, I'm going to be.

I'm going to be more bold.

The more I'm persecuted, the more bold I'm going to get.

And I think that's what we have to think about as Christians.

I mean, the more we face opposition, the more we just keep trusting.

The more we're tested, the more we trust.

And that's the idea of facing our fears.

And really, we face our fear with faith.

Faith and fear don't mix.

And so I look at Paul's life, and sometimes I put myself in his shoes and I say, man, I would be so scared.

I would be so fearful.

But really, Paul was not.

I sometimes think Paul is a superhero.

I don't know if you ever read the passages of Scripture and you're like, wow, Paul just was a different breed.

He was not a human being.

He was like some kind of super Christian.

Paul was just like another human being like us.

God gifted him as an apostle.

God gifted him with many things, but Paul was just another human being like us.

And the Bible says, you ever think about, yeah, like Elijah, man, look at Elijah.

Some of the powerful things he did in God's name.

The Bible says in the book of James, he was just another human like us.

But he trusted in God and had faith.

And so I think that we sometimes sell short what God can do in our life because we lack faith.

And at the end of the day, it's really that, that faith in God to trust that he's going to take care of it for us, not the way that we expect it.

Who knows if Paul expected to do this.

I don't know if he did or not, but I wouldn't have.

But God led him right here to a place in verse number 11 to say, be of good cheer.

You testified for me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

Now some of you know the rest of the story.

Okay, what happened eventually, eventually, historically speaking, what happened to Paul when he went to Rome, the ultimate end, yes, the ultimate end of Paul's life was that he was martyred for his faith.

Now we would look at that and we would say, wow, I wonder if Paul would have moved forward and done that if he knew.

My answer, I think biblically speaking, is yes.

Remember back he says, I'm not just willing to go to Jerusalem to be in bonds.

I'm willing to die for my faith.

That's the kind of conviction Paul had.

And there's no way that we can live this life of faith unless we're willing to say, I am all in.

Paul.

Paul was all in.

If anyone was all in, it was Paul.

And he knew that there was a risk of going before a guy named Nero.

And some of you that are studiers of history know how evil these individuals were that were leading Rome, specifically Nero and, and Paul was like, I'm going to go preach.

I'm going to go preach to these leaders.

And he wanted to do that.

And we live in a world today that we have opportunities to preach the gospel to.

I would venture to say less evil than Nero, less.

If you know any, just.

Just do a Google search on what some of the things Nero did.

I can't repeat some of the things that Nero did in mixed company.

Okay?

The reality is, is that, hey, if God has called People to preach to people like that.

He has equipped you to preach to people that are around you in your life.

And you can do it, we can do it together, and we can preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So I wish I could tell you at the end of verse 11, Jesus comes and says, be of good cheer, Paul.

Everything's going to be okay.

They're all going to accept you tomorrow morning when you walk outside, know what happens?

Verse 12, when it was day.

So the next morning, just after Jesus speaks to Paul, certain of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.

Okay, so that's where we're going to pick up next time.

After all of that, they even push harder.

They say, we're not going to eat or drink until Paul is gone.

And so he has a whole band of his own people turning against him.

And so next week we're going to look at what happens here.

How does Paul, how.

And we do see the deliverance of God here.

And I think this is the beautiful picture that nobody can do anything to us.

If God has a plan for us, nobody can.

So, so Paul has a whole group of people, whole band of people that were like, we're going to do everything we can to kill Paul.

Paul is delivered.

He's taken to a place called Caesarea.

He's gonna have an opportunity to speak to a guy named Felix, and he's able to defend himself before Felix.

And then ultimately Paul is going to appeal to go talk to Caesar, and he's going to go through some different steps.

There's an interest, there's an interesting fellow named Festus, there's a guy named Agrippa, and there's all these different people that Paul is going to have a chance to talk to.

And I think that this is a divine providence that God is going to allow for Paul to get to where he needs to go and the time that he has.

And that's the same thing for us.

You know, I, I, I'll close with this.

You know, I think that some of you might be similar to me in the fact that you like to plan things.

You like to have a direction.

You like to know what's next.

I like to know what's next.

I do not like surprises or other people like surprises.

I, I, I, I can't understand that, but I under, I, I understand that you like surprises.

I don't understand how you can like surprises.

I like to know what's happening.

If someone comes up to me and says, hey, can I talk to you in like two weeks about something really important?

I'm like, two weeks, I'm going to, I'm going to like literally not sleep till I talk to you about this.

Like, I want to take care of this right now.

So, so I say all that to say this.

Ten years ago, the.

I would have never planned for my life to look the way that I wish I could tell you that I, I did, I planned this all out.

But God has ordained certain things to happen in my life and not happen to my life for the good that I didn't understand.

I didn't know why things are happening in the way that they are happening.

But ultimately now I can look back and say, thank you, Lord, because you have the perfect plan in the perfect way and the perfect will.

And so I think that that's something that we need to look back on and see.

But then also you might be in the midst of something right now that you don't understand.

You might be able to say, now I don't understand it.

And I get that.

But who knows, in the future maybe you'll be able to look back on this period of your life and say, hey, look, now I know why God allowed me to go through that.

Because it's a testimony for his goodness and his grace to get me through this.

And even what Paul says is, he goes, look for me.

To live is Christ okay, to die is gain.

So Paul says it's basically a win win, no matter what he's like, if God keeps me here and preserves me, I get to preach the gospel.

If God takes me, I get to be with my Savior.

So he's like, I can live in a win win situation no matter what I'm doing in my life.

And so that's what we have to think about.

We have to think about the concept of, as a Christian, everything's a win for us.

If we get to stay, we get to minister.

If we go, we're with him.

And so that's what he's, that's what Paul, that's, that's, that's Paul's perspective.

And I think all of us to some degree must grow in that perspective in our life to understand what it means to truly be walking in the peace of God.

And I know that for me, I have to, I had to think about that daily.

I have to think about that more than daily.

I had to think about that, maybe even on an hourly basis, just reminding myself that to be a believer in Jesus Christ means so much more than what I'm living for now.

It's for the future.

It's for eternity.

And so we're going to look more about that as we continue our study here in the Book of Acts.

If you have any questions about this, this book of the Bible, there's so much more that we can get into, historically speaking.

And as a studier of history, I would like to do that more.

Um, but also I'd like to get through the Book of Acts before the Lord comes back, which it might be tomorrow.

Okay.

But what we have to do is we have to kind of get through things.

And so if you're like, hey, I'd like to discuss more about the.

The instance here in Jerusalem or more know more about the temple or whatever it is, I'd love to talk to you more about that.

And if I don't know the answer, I'd love to point you in the direction that we could find that answer.

And that goes for all the lessons that we're going through.

I want you to understand it.

Um, I also don't want to give you too much.

Right.

So I.

I think I mentioned this before.

You know, I like steak, but there's a certain part point in time in my life where I eat so much steak that I just can't eat another bite of steak.

And I don't want to eat steak for the next few days.

I want to.

Maybe the next few weeks.

I want to just go ahead and fast from that.

And that's sometimes how it is.

I.

I'd love to sit and talk to you for like.

Like days, but that's just not going to be the reality of it.

Yesterday, I'll give you one quick story.

I got to tell you the story.

Okay?

Yesterday, we went to this Memorial Day service at the cemetery up here in Bear the Trail.

Life guys went, and we were.

We were volunteering, we were passing out flyers, and I showed Micah, but, Micah, I love you, buddy, but I gotta tell you this story.

It's more picking on me than you.

So he was looking at all the speakers, and there was like, the governor was there, the lieutenant governor was there.

This.

This.

This general was going to be speaking.

He's like, dad, we're going to be here all day.

Because he's used to one person speaking for, like an hour as it's on.

These politicians are only going to talk for a few minutes.

He's like, no way that that guy's going to preach forever.

And I'm like, I.

I've scarred my son to think that all all speakers speak long, but but the reality is is they're really short.

So the point I'm trying to make is I'd love to talk to you more.

So if you'd like to grab some coffee, if you'd like to talk more about what we're talking about, I like that kind of stuff.

So just let me know and we that let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer and then we'll have a few announcements and you'll be dismissed.

Lord, I thank you for this time that you've given us.

Thank you for this opportunity to continue to study the life of Paul.

And I just thank you for the opportunity to see a great testimony for the cause of the Gospel.

Lord, may we live boldly in our lives in confidence, knowing that we can be of good cheer because of the call of the Gospel in our lives.

Lord, I thank you for this church.

I thank you for those folks who over the years have sacrificed and shown the love of Christ to many people.

And I pray that we can continue that in the time that you've given us.

I pray that you keep us safe as we go our separate ways this evening.

We love you and we thank you for all that you do in Jesus name, Amen.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro middletownbaptistChurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.