Don't Miss Jesus
Defensive Posture • Sermon • Submitted
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· 10 viewsBIG IDEA: There are two groups of people coming at Paul, one armed with a twisted ideological idea of religion, the other armed with false assumptions and accusations of treachery. Paul's defense avoids ditches on both sides by focusing on what truly matters, his life transforming encounter with Jesus and what that means for his life.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Whats up, friends! Welcome back to NXT. Super stoked to be with you tonight as we start a brand new series titled Defensive Posture where we’re going to be talking about what it means to take a defensive posture in a culture that is coming after Christianity. We’re picking right back where we left off last week with Paul’s defense. Now, before I recap I want to talk about a few quick things...
If you have to get up and leave for any reason during the message feel free to use the doors to my sides, but know that they’ll be locked behind you. The only way to get back in is through the Underground cafe!
This is our last week of having to wait for Kids Ministry to dismiss before we can head upstairs. So if you’ve been tired of our messages being crazy long, know that starting next week they’ll be much shorter and more palpable!
Ok, back to the recap. Last week we talked about yet another uprising in a city where Paul was in the temple preaching the Gospel. This time in the city of Jerusalem. We read that rumors and assumptions were spread about Paul throughout the city, that weren’t true, but caused the whole city to flock to the streets in an uprising. It says that they grabbed Paul from the temple and dragged him down the steps of Antonia, the huge fortress protecting the temple, closing the gates behind him. As this murderous crowd was taking Paul the tribunal, a Roman official, rallied over 200 soldiers to go and rescue Paul from the crowd. As the soldiers were dragging Paul back up the steps he asks for permission to speak to the crowd that was just trying to kill him. So he stands back up after being released by the soldiers, and while standing on the steps he motions with his hand and the crowd that was just trying to kill him becomes completely quiet. We’re gonna pick back up in Acts 22:1. This is going to be a lot of scripture so lets get comfy while we read it.
“Brothers and fathers, hear 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:
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 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.
“As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, 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, ‘Rise, 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 by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.
“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.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. 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; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’
“When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and 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 one synagogue 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.’ ”
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.” And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this. But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?” When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.” So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.” So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.
Content
Content
So as we dig into this I want to introduce this evenings big idea for you- There are two groups of people coming at Paul, one armed with a twisted ideological idea of religion, the other armed with false assumptions and accusations of treachery. Paul’s defense avoids ditches on both sides by focusing on what truly matters, his life transforming encounter with Jesus and what that means for his life.
So what can we learn from this? Simple - It MUST be Jesus at the heart of our defense or we will go wildly off course.
In a culture that, like we talked about last week, is coming after our faith and calling what we believe ignorant, stupid, or even evil, we must be absolutely positive that Jesus is the center of our defense.
Not a good rhetorical strategy.
Apologetics are important and have a valuable place in Christianity, theology, and the life of the Christian. But a focus on apologetics has created in many people an operating belief that if they just win an argument they’ll be able to convert whoever they are arguing with. But, what saves people is not an argument: Its Jesus.
Not a grandiose testimony.
Testimonies are important, we see here that Paul’s whole entire defense is his testimony. We’ll talk more about the implications of that in a moment, but even though his testimony is wild he focuses more on Jesus than what he used to do. Your testimony is not about you and the things you’ve done, its about Jesus and what He has done!
So, knowing that Jesus must be the heart of our defense (or we will go wildly off course) funnels us into our points for today. We have 3 points that I want to focus in on from the narrative, and then 2 takeaways from them.
First, lets hone in on the accusation of Paul: A battle on two fronts.
Paul is fighting a battle with the Jews:
Paul defiled the Temple/indicated salvation was available to the Gentiles.
Paul is fighting a battle with the Romans.
They believe Paul is an Egyptian revolt leader of 4,000 wilderness assassins.
It says this in Acts 21, we read it last week.
When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”
and,
Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”
Second, Because of their accusations, Paul was led to defend himself, and it was authentic.
“I’ve done religion super well!”
“Brothers and fathers, hear 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:
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 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.
2. “DOING religion was my problem!”
“As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, 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, ‘Rise, 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 by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.
3. Paul saw the same God - but had the correct posture
“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.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. 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; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’
4. Paul’s renewed Life and Mission
“When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and 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 one synagogue 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.’ ”
Third, the Crowd’s response was culturally correct…but not Biblically correct.
They were angry! Why? Because they firmly believed that Israel was God’s only people and that gentiles could not be a part of God’s plan.
And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”
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.”
They didn’t understand was that their own Bible speaks directly opposed to this.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
Israel was holy to the Lord,
the firstfruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it incurred guilt;
disaster came upon them,
declares the Lord.”
(First fruits implies that the harvest is larger)
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son,
(Firstborn implies more children)
So…with all of this being said. Let’s talk about what we can takeaway from this.
1. Do NOT settle for cultural Christianity . Do NOT let your Christianity become religion. Listen carefully, hold everything up to scripture and THEN make your judgements.
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Let me ask you a question, how do you handle the issues you are seeing in culture? Or, if we make it corporate, how do we handle the issues we are seeing in culture?
Listen
Study the Word.
Be careful not to make decisions too hastily.
You may not know this, but letting the word change you is hard. Its like relearning to walk after an accident. It is very possible that you are wrong. In fact, I would argue that each person in this room is wrong about something as it pertains to their beliefs about Jesus, the world, theology, esc. I know I certainly probably am and I know for certain I have been in the past. For instance, I can recall an instance a few years ago when a theological framework I had built up came crumbling down. When I began to rebuilt that framework it was hard! I had to change the way I thought about God to some extent, and I certainly had to change how I talked about him. Letting the Word change us is HARD.
2. When giving a defense, preach the Gospel with your testimony. Let the Gospel be what offends people, not your attitude.
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Testimonies are powerful & important to share. God intends them to be one of the strongest tools in our belt for fulfilling the great commission. Tell your story often and always.
Paul could identify with his audience and he said as much, but he went through the life changing reality of the Gospel because the Gospel reality had changed his life…I wonder, is it changing yours?
Conclusion
Conclusion
I’ll leave you again with a quote I read last week, because I think it is prophetic for your generation.
The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians--when they are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.
Friends- your generation can be the one that can right the wrongs of the past. What do I mean by this? I don’t mean that the generations before us have failed or have brought Christianity in the wrong direction. But, we are living in a world that is vehemently opposed to Christianity. I think its for two reasons,
Because the Bible tells us they will hate us. So naturally, we shouldn’t be surprised when the world does indeed hate Jesus followers.
But also because of how Christianity has been represented.
Christianity is a religion, but it doesn’t need to be religious. It is filled with grace & mercy, but also filled with truth & fact. We can hold grace & mercy while also holding truth & fact and not be people who are just religious snobs and elitists.
Lets pray.