The Resiliency of the Resurrection
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The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut.
While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar.
He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
INTRODUCTION
I see people with no Hope
It is the Resurrection that gives that gives us the power to live that new life in daily pressure
The celebration of Christ’s victory is for every moment, relationship, situation, problem.
“easter people” who could not live thru an hour of any day of the year without the courage which come from knowing that Christ’s Resurrection has defeated death, frustration, and despair
The realization of Christ’s resurrection has enabled our own
We are alive forever and therefore truly alive right now;
We have died to our own control of our lives and have been resurrected to a new dimension of living
We have become the post-resurrection dwelling of the living Lord
We will never be along again, for he is with us and in us; we can face anything because the same power which raised Jesus from the dead is a work in us.
The Resurrection was his only reason to go to Jerusalem
The Resurrection was his only reason to go to Jerusalem
His only hope to withstand what would happen there
His only message to proclaim
Paul lived in 2 realms
the visible transitory,world of change, hatred, corruption, negativism, and death
Second, the invisible realm of the resurrection in fellowship with a risen savior who had defeated death, sin and the powers of darkness
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.
For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
The Cross without the Resurrection is just another tragic death; faith is empty; the Christian life is pitiful, self generated wish dream
But crowned by the Resurrection, and enabled by the resurrected Lord, the daily life of a Christian is liberated by the cross and has abundant assurance now and forever more
That fact alone enable us the understand the emotional stability,mental outlook, and incredible confidence in Paul when his faith was under fire in trial and imprisonment
Anyone with lesser hope would have been despondent and despairing
Not Paul. He had known persistent sickness, rejection by his people,resistance from fellow Christians, and constant physical persecution
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
Acts 21:15 - 26 gives us Luke’s dramatic account of Paul’s arrest, imprisonment, and repeated trials
Acts 21:15 - 26 gives us Luke’s dramatic account of Paul’s arrest, imprisonment, and repeated trials
THE HOPE OF THE RESURRECTION BROUGHT pAUL BACK TO JERUSALEM
tHE TRUTH OF THE RESURRECTION WAS THE CONCLUSIVE THRUST OF HIS WITNESS IN EACH TRIAL
THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION WAS HIS SOURCE OF STRENGTH IN PRISON
i want the show you how the Resiliency of the Resurrection we see in Paul’s faith can be ours today
The resiliency Paul showed with the Church leaders
We are free to be flexible and adjustable as a part of the fellowship
When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law.
They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.
What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come,
so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow.
Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.
As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”
The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.
Paul did not demand to do things his way
Look at the physical resilience of the resurrected Lord in Paul after being beaten
The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut.
While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar.
He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done.
Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks.
When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers.
The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!”
As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?” “Do you speak Greek?” he replied.
“Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the desert some time ago?”
Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.”
Having received the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic:
His body was swollen from beating and blood streamed down his face, but his full powers quickly sprang back to full force]
Not only does the indwelling Lord release latent untapped powers, he miraculously infuses us with strength beyond our own
When I am too exhausted to move, the Lord provides the strength to do what he has willed
When I am beaten by circumstances or problems and the courage to go on seems to have run out, I realize that I have used only the only surface resources of human energy and beneath are the limitless power of the Lord
Paul spoke about the resurrection
The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”
As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air,
the commander ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this.
As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”
When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”
The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes, I am,” he answered.
Then the commander said, “I had to pay a big price for my citizenship.” “But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.
Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.
I thank God everyday I live in America.
We do not have perfect justice, but probably the best in the world
They were going to beat Paul to get a confession out of him but he called on his right as a Roman Citizen
Paul uses the Resurrection to divide those who were charging him
The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”
What encouragement to know the Lord stood with him.
God also speaks to us when we search his Word each day
“Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues.
On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.
But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,
for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Paul stood before all of these leaders by the power of the resurrection and pomp and proclaimed the resurrection of the Lord
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