Gospel of Grace, Redemption, and Suffering

Introduction

Context — 8:1-2

Read Acts 9:1-22

Explanation

The gospel is about God’s track record of grace, not your track record of goodness (v. 1-9)

v. 1 — “still breathing threats and murder” (while we were still sinners)

v. 2 — this is premeditated, willful sin if you’ve ever seen it

v. 3 — while he’s walking into his sin

Isaiah 64:6 — “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”

Paul knew this as much as anybody

Phil. 3:1-9 — Paul considered his good deeds dung

To feel like God doesn’t accept you because you’ve fallen short is like thinking God is more pleased with someone else’s garbage bags. It’s all garbage!

The gospel is about letting God redeem our worst moments, not hiding our worst moments (v. 20-22)

The further someone seemed from Jesus, the more dramatic the change seems.

The truth is, we’re all so far; some of us are just able to cover that up better.

Paul couldn’t cover it up because his worst moments were public.

Some of us are hindering God using our worst moments because we want to keep them private (don’t have to broadcast it, but shouldn’t hide it either)

Some of us are stuck in our worst moments because we want to keep them private

This is a reflection of our temptation to trust in our goodness, not Jesus’

The gospel is about suffering for Christ, not just that Christ has suffered for us (v. 10-19)

Eph. 3:8 — part of his grace is to suffer

How could it be good to suffer? Because it’s what leads us to know the true source of our joy.

Phil. 3:10 — do you want to know Jesus badly enough that you want to suffer like him?

If your life ambition is to get a comfortable salary, to live in a nice home, to stay healthy, to have kids that nothing bad ever happens to, you will not fully know Jesus and the joys of following him.

If you pursue Christlikeness, you will receive comfort, but if you pursue comfort, you will not become Christ-like.

The goal is not to pursue suffering, but to pursue obedience, and accept the suffering that comes along the way.

Samuel Moffet, a historian born in North Korea, and whose father was present in the Pyongyang Revival, tells it this way: Just as they were about to come into the meeting, one of them said, “We will be the first Korean ministers of the Korean church. But a real church has more than ministers. It has missionaries.” And they looked…at young man who had come a little late into their [meeting]… “You stoned the first missionary you ever saw, didn’t you,” they said. “Then you are going to be our first missionary,”… And the [leader of the class], my father, who happened to be the missionary that man had stoned sixteen years before [and survived], ordained the man who had stoned him, and the church sent him off as their own first missionary, to a strange island off the southern coast where he in turn was stoned when he first stood up to preach the gospel.”

He also survived, and planted 17 more churches in his lifetime, but he got there because he pursued sanctification > safety.

Exhortation

Review…

God’s track record of grace > mine of goodness

redeeming our worst > hiding our worst

Instead of whitewashing our lives into good Christian people with no real messes who live in our comfortable Christian bubble…it’s about knowing what he suffered to save me from + suffering to lift up his name

Sinner — Have you surrendered to Jesus as Lord, or are you still hoping that your garbage bag of “good deeds” will get you eternal life?

Saint — Where do you need to get uncomfortable to bring glory to Jesus’ name?