Power & Faithfulness

Intro

What are some things that when people predict they will happen they actually happen?

What about some things people have guaranteed?

Why do we believe those things? Because of the people that said them.

Tonight we are going to kind of work backwards so turn to

The Promise (,

What did God promise Paul in this verse?

That is promise we are to be looking at, but Paul is still in Jerusalem and in what seems like big trouble.

Paul was just finishing the Nazirite vow he took in order to show the Jewish Christians that he wasn’t teaching against their heritage. Paul was after all a Jew himself.

He comes to the temple and what seems like as soon as some of the non-Christian Jews see him it is all out dog pile wrestle mania. These people were mad!

Why were they so mad? Basically it comes down to Paul was saying their religion is wrong. Paul preached faith and trust in Jesus for salvation. Jews thought keeping the law and works for salvation.

So this fight breaking out in the temple which was the Jewish church. Fight in church and this Roman army commander hears about it. The army doesn’t take side their job is to keep peace. Soldiers roll in fighting stops and Paul is arrested. Why was Paul arrested and not the others? They started it right?

Remember our promise. Paul will go to Rome

Without Paul being arrested and taken to safety, which is away from all Jews, Paul would have been killed.

Pauls First Appeal

Throughout the ending of Acts Paul makes many appeals that prevent him from being killed.

This first appeal is to his own people in an effort to explain that he is not against him.

He begins by says look I am a Jew! I was as strict in the law as anybody. Even to point of killing people like you want to kill me.

Then he goes into his testimony about how Jesus saved him. Does anybody remember it?

Then he reveals to the people the vision he had about him being a witness to the gentile people. At that point he lost the crowd because the Jews did not like the gentile people because they were different. The crowd again was seeking to kill Paul so the commander brought him back in and decided it was time to get some answers. What is the best way to get answers from somebody? Physical harm. They were going to torture Paul.

However, Paul appeals again on the basis of him being a Roman citizen. Roman citizens could not be harmed unless they had a proper trial. This appeal works and saves Paul.

I want to point out something. Do you see how God was at work in Paul even before Paul was born? Without Paul being a Roman citizen he would have been dead by now. But what is the promise we are looking at? So even before Paul was born God was working to fulfill a promise that was to come!

Examples events in my life

Paul’s Second Appeal

After Paul appeals to the commander about being a Roman citizen the commander decides to get the religious leaders together since this seems to be a religious issue.

That doesn’t start off to well because from the being Paul is punched in the mouth.

What happens from there is Paul appeals to the Pharisees which he was once a part of. See the Pharisees believed in the resurrection and in angels and the Sadducees didn’t. They ask Paul why he was there and he says because of the resurrection and then a fight breaks out between the Sadducees and Pharisees because one finds Paul innocent the other guilty.

The commander again seeing the chaos take Paul out to keep him alive and back to the barracks Paul goes.

This is where Paul hears the promise.

Paul Saved by Non-Believers (Again)

The Jews are having no luck. They really want Paul dead. So much that forty of them took an oath to neither eat nor drink until he was dead. Paul’s nephew learns about this and tells the commander so the commander decides to get Paul out of town because this is just crazy. He is like i’ve had enough I’m done not my problem.

He gets together an army and they sneak Paul out at night and they send him to Felix the governor of Judea. The commander also sends a letter that says Paul is innocent of Roman Law. The charge the Jews are bringing against him is about Jewish Law but that even those charges are nothing that deserves imprisonment or death.

Once the governor reads the letter he decided that Paul deserves a real trial.

From all these events God’s power is displayed in keeping Paul safe. God made a promise and he must keep that promise. What if God broke the promise he made Paul? We couldn’t trust any other promises. What other promises has God made?

Turn to

Because God is faithful we can be sure he will keep this promise.

Turn to

This is parable about soil and seeds which illustrates people who hear the Gospel

The first seed is sown on a beaten path and the seed is eaten by birds. This is people who hear but Satan quickly cause them to not believe

The second is sown on rocky ground. This seed sprout but has no root and therefore when it it is time to live out their faith they cannot because they never truly believed.

The third is sown among thorns and thistles. This is where people have too much care for stuff and things around them that they cannot give up anything or any time they have even for God.

But the fourth is sown among good soil and begins to grow and produce. Only these people are true believers because they believed and trusted in the Gospel in Jesus and their lives are showing it. This too is a promise from God that if you have believed and trust in Jesus Christ as your lord and Savior then your life should show it. You life should be producing love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. You should have a desire for God.

As we end think about God’s promise to Paul. God was faithful to fulfill it. If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ think about God’s promise in . That promise is for you tonight and it is true. If you want to take that step and believe and trust in Jesus Christ Les and Shelly are at the back they would be happy to talk with you.

If you have already taken that step then think about the parable of soil. If you are a Christian you should be producing evidence of the Holy Spirit living inside of you. If God’s promise to Paul was true then God’s promise that those who are believers will produce evidence is true to. Think about your life. Are you producing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. If not then pray that you would. Pray that God would work in your life and that you would submit to him and that your life would be honoring to him.