Super Natural Courage

Introduction

Good Morning! My name is Danny Watton and I am your service pastor. I want to start off by thanking you for being here this morning.

It is always a blessing to me to come together as the body of Christ and lift our hands up in worship to the ONE TRUE GOD who gives us everlasting joy and peace.

My prayer for everyone sitting here today is that as we go through the message this morning that God reveals to you the meaning of His word and that He gives you more of a desire to tell people about His death, resurrection and eternal salvation for those that accept His free gift.

Last week we looked at -38 and we saw Paul giving his farewell to the Ephesian Elders. We learned two things from that encounter. We Paul highlighted was what Christian ministry should be for the Ephesians and for us today.

He told them that they had to preach the gospel by first taking care of their spiritual fitness and by speaking the truth.

Our application from last week was in order for us as a church body and as individual disciples we need to know who God is which leads to knowing what true doctrine is and then we identify what false doctrine. And if we know the truth of who God is then we know the truth about who we are.

Which is, sinners in need of Jesus sacrifice on the cross, the Bible says that we all fall short of the glory of God. If we know that we are sinners and that we are saved through Jesus then we know our identities in Christ.

And this week we are going to be in . And what we will find is that If we know who God is and we know who we are in Christ then that truth necessarily brings boldness and courage to share the Gospel with others. We will see Paul address a crowd in Jerusalem and the courage he gets through the Holy Spirit is beautiful.

But before we jump into the text let’s Pray!!!

Paint the Scene before Chapter 22

Paul is back in Jerusalem and it is well known that he is speaking the Gospel and saying that you do not have to keep the mosaic law. You don’t have to obey the dietary laws and all the other requirements where not needed to be saved. In addition, he was even saying that the Gentiles could be saved

End of 21 Paul is being carried out after getting beaten. Paul asked the commander if he could address the crowd.

The commander looks at Paul and says, “Do you speak Greek? Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led four thousand men of Assassins out into the wilderness?

So the commander didn’t know who Paul was and Paul then speaks to the commander and tells him that he is from Tarsus. Paul spoke as a man of education and won over the commander and gained the opportunity to address the crowd.

Paul then addressed the crown in Aramaic which was brilliant because this was not the native language spoken in Jerusalem though everyone knew it but they had to listen carefully to hear what was being said.

And we will see what Paul says in chapter 22.

The sufferings of Paul

We will see through out the rest of Acts that the Over all theme that is given to us is that

“God can bring good out of evil and show the power of the gospel through it”

English Standard Version (ESV)

1 “Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.”

2 And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language,[a]they became even more quiet. And he said:

3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel[b] according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 5 as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

6 “As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. 7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ 9 Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand[c] the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10 And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’ 11 And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.

12 “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him.14 And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; 15 for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

17 “When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19 And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20 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.’ 21 And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

Paul and the Roman Tribune

22 Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

walk through

1 “Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.”

I just want to stop here for a moment and point out something incredible. Do you remember when we were in Acts Chapter 7? I know it was a long time ago but that chapter was about Stephen speech and then stoning? If you look back to the start of Stephens speech he addresses the high priests using the same language that Paul just used. Brothers and Fathers. Now just keep that in your back pocket for a little bit and we will finish talking about that point a little later.

2 And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language,[a]they became even more quiet. And he said:

3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel[b] according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women,

What Paul is doing here is giving them his pedigree. He is telling them that he was committed to the law just like they are and that he was brought up and taught by Gamaliel. He pointed out that he knows the law as they do if not better then they do. And for him to turn from his old beliefs had to be supernatural. Which it was! He saw the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Paul continues talking about his conversion but I want to jump ahead to verse 16.

16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

Paul tells them that they need to wash their sins away.

Christians knows cleansing from sin. Once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we are cleansed of who we were before, which was full of sin and no savior to make us clean, we are cleansed of all our unrighteousness and made righteous and clean because of Jesus. We then are baptized outwardly showing that we are cleansed and born into Christ. The act of baptism does not save us, only accepting Jesus saves us.

The Jews knew this. But they only baptized the Gentile converts. If a Gentile wanted to believe in the God of Israel they said,

“Fine, Great! But you need to be baptized in order to be a real convert of Christ.”

You Gentile peasant have to be baptized to wash your sins away. Why did they do that? Because the Jews looked at the Gentiles as unclean dogs because they never kept Gods Law.

They of course had the Mosaic Law and they were righteous on their own merit and power.

What does Paul tell them? That those born as Jews need to be baptized and cleansed of their sins too.

But when you look at verses 3-4 and 16 what Paul is giving them is the Gospel.

Because they are just as lost, just as corrupt, just as dirty as the filthiest pagan. They too were dogs without Christ.

You can imagine that angered them. They were called out and told that everything that they have been doing is meaningless without Jesus.

because you are just as lost, just as corrupt, just as dirty as the filthiest pagan. They too were dogs without Christ.

3

We finish up the verse

17 “When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19 And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20 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.’ 21 And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

Paul and the Roman Tribune

22 Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

The crowd upon hearing the Gospel wanted to kill Paul.

Application

As I said in the beginning that the courage Paul was given through the Holy Spirit is Beautiful. Paul shows remarkable courage in addressing the Jews and delivering the Gospel. He was being escorted by Roman guards but the crowd if they wanted to could have over taken the guards and killed Paul where he stood. To address people that don’t have salvation at the cost of physical harm was a display of a deep love for those who don’t know Jesus

How can we get the same type of courage?

Two Ways

The first way to get the type of courage Paul had is to

Look away from yourself.

Thats pretty counter intuitive in todays world. Everything we see about courage is not about looking away from yourself but instead its the opposite. Look deep within your soul and muster up the strength to ignore your fear. You have the strength hidden deep down inside of you and if you are given the chance you will rise to the occasion and you will surprise yourself if what you can accomplish.

The Bible says in English Standard Version (ESV)

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

The danger in relying in your own strength is destruction and failure.

: Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.”

When we look to ourselves for strength we will become tired and fatigued. And when we are fatigued we are plagued with self righteousness and pride. We think that we can keep the whole law ourselves and forget that Christs sacrifice on the cross was all we needed.

Jesus said, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

When we look away from our own strength we can find strength.

So in order to get Pauls courage we look away from our own strength and secondly we look too God for our strength and courage.

Look towards something to give us courage.

Christians know that the punishment for sin is death and that there is no way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven except through faith in Jesus Christ. We look to the hope of an eternity with out sin, without sorrow and without pain.

We look to God for our strength and courage.

When I was looking for a good example of how we could look to God for strength I thought it would be appropriate and the best example I could find in what Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus was about to go to the cross and die a horrible death.

In we see that Jesus is about to endure the most painful death and be a sacrifice on the cross for our sins. He goes to the garden of Gethsemane and he prays to God for this cup to pass from him. But Jesus looked to God and said but not my will but your will be done. You see Jesus knew what laid before him and the pain he was about to endure. The Bible says Jesus was in such anguish that he sweated blood.

But what gave Jesus the courage to go through with it?

He wanted to please the father and save His friends. He had a greater hope of eternity and saw the glorious victory on the other side of His fear. He knew that it was Gods will and that His love for us gave him the strength to endure what was before him. And we know the rest. He went willingly to the cross. Died a horrible death and was resurrected three days later.

Conclusion

Do you not see what we have learned through the book of Acts so far? That we do not have to fear anything. As Christians our debt has been paid and Christ didn’t stop there. He gave us the Holy Spirit to be with us as we continue living this life for strength, encouragement and courage.

God has had a plan from the beginning to redeem us. And it is evident through the work off His servants. In we saw that Stephen a servant of God was stoned to death. Paul was there. He said that he watched the garments of the men who killed Stephen. But as Stephen was being murdered we see that God was using that evil for good. Stephens death had such a great impact on Paul that he used his words as he addressed Jerusalem. Stephen became a mentor to Paul and at the time of Stephen death Paul didn’t even know that.

But Stephens courage, his willingness to die for the truth was a witness to even the hardest of hearts like Saul of Tarsus. Saul then became Paul and became the greatest evangelist this world has ever seen.

We all need to know that we don’t have to look to this world for strength or courage. We need to look away from ourselves and not rely on our strength. But instead look to God and our hope in His promises to give us the courage to speak the truth to a world that is dying.

This world is dying and we don’t know how much time we will have to tell people who Jesus is. On the other side of that coin, we don’t know how long we have to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. ‘

If you are here today and you don’t know who Jesus is the you cannot leave today without knowing that you have a God that loves you so much that He, despite his fear, climbed on the cross and died for your sins.

Come talk to me or the other chaplains in the chapel so we can tell you the greatest news you will ever hear on this earth.

Be bold like Stephen because you have no idea how your story of how Jesus changed your life will eternally change the lives of the people around you.

Pray with me!!!

Look toward Jesus for Hope