Acts Part 3 Lesson 2

So, we are in a six-week series finishing the book of Acts, and I've said before that the great thing about studying the book of Acts together is that you've been getting the background for the whole New Testament of the Bible? And yeah, I myself keep experiencing that I was reading in Philippians this weekend thinking. Hey, I know these people and I know that story and have some sense of how it works. So, six weeks is going to bring us through chapter 28, and then we'll have to finish that whole book. Today, our Bible passage is acts 22 verses 1 through 29 and Lease van Harten is going to read for us today. Thank you, lease.

Acts 22 verses 1 through 29 brothers and fathers. Listen, now, to my defense, when they heard him speaking Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said, I am a Jew born in in Tarsus of cilia, but brought up in this city, I stuttered and studied under gamelia and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just a zealous for God, is any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this way to their death arresting, both men and women and throwing them into present prison as the high priest and all the council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their Associates in Damascus and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. About noon as I came near Damascus. Suddenly a bright light from Heaven. Flashed around me. I fell to the ground and Heard a Voice. Say to me, Saul Saul. Why do you persecute me? Who are you? Lord? I asked I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting. He replied my companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him. Who was speaking to me. What shall I do? Lord. I asked get up the Lord said and go in to Damascus. There. You we told all that you have been assigned to do my companions. Led me by the hand into Damascus because of the Brilliance of the light had Blinded Me. A man named ananias came to see me. He was a devoted Observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living. There. He stood beside me and said, brother Saul receive your sight and at that very moment. I was able to see him. Then he said, the god of our ancestors has chosen you to know, his will and to see the righteous one. And to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. And now, what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash away your sins calling on his name. When I returned your ruthelen and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord. Speaking to me. He said, leave Jerusalem Jerusalem immediately because the people here will not accept your testimony about me. Lord, I replied these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you, and when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed. I stood there give my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him. And the Lord said to me, go, I will send you far away to the Gentiles. The crowd, listen to Paul until he said this, then they raise their voices and shouted rid the Earth of him. He is not fit to live. As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air. The commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He was directed that he be flogged and interrogated 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 centurions standing there. Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn't even been found guilty? When the Centurian heard this, he went to the commander and he 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? If I am, he answered then, the commander said, well, I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship. But I was born a citizen Paul replied. Those who were about to interrogate him with Drew immediately. The commander himself with alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul a Roman citizen in Chains.

great, so, this is a Story that already in progress, we started last week, last week. We saw how the crowd all came to be and we got to this moment where Paul is about to speak and then that week's episode ended and we said, L, man. We got to come back to hear how the stories get in. So that's what we're doing. Now. We're back and we're hearing the speech that Paul gave. And so let's just engage with that story. So it starts out with a reminder of what what lifetimes episode was about. There's a little bit of overlap in what we read verses 1 and 2, but I can just put it this way. The setting is Paul is giving a defensive himself to a hostile crowd and a good way to summarize. This moment. Is that leading up to it? There were two things that went terrible and one thing that went perfect. The two things that went terrible are these the leaders of the Jews in Jerusalem told Paul to do a certain thing. And they thought that if he did that, it would work. And Tallwood the rumors that have been circulating about Paul would calm down and things would go well for him. So what they said to do was they said we want you to sponsor for men who are taking a vow in the spirit of Numbers Chapter 6 and Nazarite vow and Paul. If you sponsor them, we think that people will look at you and they won't be suspicious of you and they want they'll see that you're being a Jew and acting I could you. Paul did exactly that. And in the process of doing exactly that things went terrible. This is how the crowd game 22b and gathered around. Somebody saw us all in. It's it, it worked terribly. The other terrible is the companions of Paul who had been traveling with him. Toward Jerusalem had been hearing. That something bad a weighted Paul in Jerusalem. So they were begging and fall. Please don't go. But Paul said, I have to go, God is sending me there, and this now is their nightmare come true. They were afraid, that Paul would be arrested that he would be possibly killed and here's this mob screaming to kill him. So that's the to Terrible's. What's the one thing that went perfectly. The one thing I went perfectly is this is just what God. Orchestrated, he has the perfect person, Paul, where he wants him, Paul's perfect. Because Paul's is Metropolitan person who is able to speak good Greek. So he can interact with the Roman Garrison commander, and he's able to speak Hometown Aramaic, because he grew up in Jerusalem. So God's got exactly the right person. Ready to witness to him in this moment. And the other thing that's perfect is God has a big mob of people who hate him while who hate Jesus in one place.

God goes to mobs of people who hate him because he often wants to do something. They're so that's the setup and where we come in is Paul's about to speak. And now we've heard what people have to say. So the next thing is, the content of Paul's speech, is he gives his personal testimony heard. People talk about the fact that, when you give your testimony, people can argue with you about it. You're not inviting an argument about the Bible or about the existence of God or about anything like that. It's just you telling your story. So I wonder if that's what Paul thought. The thing I should do in front of this crowd of people is I should just tell them the story how it happened. So that's what he does send. Here's, here's my summary of it. Paul says, I was a top-performing Jew as good as any of you. For In This Crowd. I was trained under the Billy Graham.

Gamaliel. And, and I, and I was all-in, I was still a zealous as a follower of God, that I wanted to get my hands on those despicable. Jesus followers. And I, did I arrested them. I was standing there. When Stephen was stoned to death. I even had a letter, you can ask your leaders about it. I haven't had a letter from your elders, to take with me to Damascus because I was going the extra mile. I was going to go to Damascus and I was going to find Jesus followers, and are we going to bring the back to Jerusalem so that they could be tried. This is the person that I am, that, I was. But when I was on my way. To Damascus, Jesus. Adopt me. A big flash of light from Heaven. I look up. There's Jesus and he asked me. So, why are you persecuting me? And I say, who are you? And he says, I'm Jesus. And then because I had seen him in all of his glory. I was blind and I had to be taken by the hand to Damascus. And then Jesus sent a devout Jew that the people of Damascus would know, to come to my assistance and he mentored me. He said Paul. You're going to receive your sight and at that minute, I received my sight, and then he instructed me in what Jesus did for me to do? And then I came to Jerusalem here because Falls in Jerusalem. And I came to this Temple because I wanted to see God at the temple, like us Jewish people do and And I had a vision and then this Vision Jesus said, get out of town because these people are not going to like what you have to tell them, but I said to God, know, that's not true. I persecuted Christians. They're going to like me for the things. I did. God said. Stop talking and get. I'm going to send you to the non-jews. That's a pretty good testimony. I wonder if Paul had more to say and I wonder if Paul is mine. He was sinking at the end of this little speech. I'm giving an altar call. Everybody who wants to receive Jesus, you know, close your eyes would say a prayer, raise your hand, you know, maybe we'll even invite him to come down. Maybe there's some singers and they can sing some songs, like, Just As I Am Without One Plea, it'll be great. I wonder if you had some of those thoughts in his head, but if you asked whether this work, The truth of the matter is forget the altar call and call the police. That's how it went.

What was it, you know, they listen to everything until that line from Jesus. I'm going to send you to the non-jews and that they couldn't take. So you would expect that maybe God, who orchestrated, this would at this moment, send a lightning bolt down and Jesus would reveal himself and a bunch of these people would would become followers of Kim. And Jesus is even there. The way that Paul gets saved is not by the miraculous hand of God. He get saved.

By the government. He gets saved by virtue of being a Roman citizen, and he claims when he stretched out on whatever, he was stretched out on to be interrogated. He claims, isn't it? Illegal to do this to me? And when they found out what he was, they they change their plans but not because God showed up in some amazing way. But because the political realities of the day are, were that there are rights that Roman citizens have just we get it. There are rights that American citizens have and that's how at the end of this speech. Paul gets saved.

So, when I read this story. The question that I'm asking is where is Jesus when you need him?

I'm just dangerous moment. Yes, the governmental thing. The Roman citizenship saves him, but but where is Jesus? In this picture and the answer is? He's right there in the angry deceived, messed up world, ready to take the wheel. With or without your permission, but preferably with a thing first. Upholstery is not that he decided to reach out to Jesus. There was no kind of gradual feeling of regret in Paul. I've been persecuting these Christians and maybe Jesus really is the Son of God. There's no hint of that. He was going full speed pedal-to-the-metal pursuing Christians to persecute them. When God just took the wheel of his life had nothing to do with with whether Paul wanted to give Jesus a wheel. God just took the wheel of his life and changed him. But there was in God's mind, this desire that Paul would eventually learn to let Jesus have the wheel. And what we see here in the story is Paul knows what's going to happen in Jerusalem, but he goes there. Anyhow, he's willing to allow Jesus to have the wheel of his life. So he starts out with God just commandeering the wheel but he becomes a mature person who lets go have the wheel. Now, that metaphor of the wheel is in the Bible, anywhere where they come from. Well, for me, I was looking at this and thinking about this, and

Carrie Underwood started singing in my head. And I, I don't think very much about Carrie Underwood. But there, I was thinking about this song by Carrie Underwood, Jesus, Take the Wheel. So so I decided maybe it's a good thing. I'm just going to, I'm just going to go with it. So I found the official video of this 2005, raise your hand, if you've ever heard Carrie Underwood, okay, I thought that might be true, but I wasn't sure. Okay, you've heard it. The lyrics are a mom. Send the car for babies in the back seat on a winter night and the car spins out on the slippery Road. And as the car spinning around, she says, Jesus Take the Wheel. And in the video while that course is going on. There's a mom with a holding a baby and she looks like she's got all the stresses of raising this child on her mind. There's an old man. Who's crying and wiping the tears from his eyes, because his old wife. Looks like she's in a really bad way and there's a couple who are fighting. He's drinking. She's showing him papers and flinging them at him and they're yelling at each other. So I think the point is here are three examples of persons whose lives are. So out of control that it's one of those moments where we can do anything. But say Jesus Take the Wheel. And then you go back to the lyrics of the song and then the lyrics of the song, like spinning car stops at the side of the road and the mom looks in the backseat to see if the baby is okay, and the baby didn't even wake up. And the mom makes this transition this metaphor transition and says, to Jesus. I've been living my life ignoring you and resisting you. And now, Jesus, I want to let you take the wheel. I thought that that's pretty good. This story is just a bit richer. Paul experienced Jesus taking the wheel of his life. And now Paul has become after many years of following Jesus, is a person who's willing to let Jesus have the wheel everyday.

So, here's kind of where I end up. Whoops, I went the wrong direction. The world is full of people with a white-knuckle grip on the wheel bashing their way through as best they can. I think now that I wrote this while I Was preparing to race in a bicycle race yesterday, which I did. And today the fingers of this hand are sore. I don't really know what I did. Except that. It was just gravel road bike race. In my, I was hanging on to the steering wheel and I was pounded, the pedals as much as I can pound them. And hoping not to die. And somehow in that white-knuckle experience. My hands are sore. And I I think that's how Many of us, that's how the people of our world are making their way through life hands on the steering wheel, bashing their way through, right. We just were just trying to beat our way through whatever comes against us.

Maybe you've experienced Jesus taking the wheel without even asking your permission.

I didn't want to become a Christian. I definitely didn't want to become a preacher. but Jesus, just kind of took the wheel and wouldn't go away and kept getting in my face later on when I I wanted to follow Jesus and I sent that he was calling me to Ministry. I wanted to do it but that's not where I started. I experienced him grabbing the wheel without me asking him really and I wonder if you have experienced that he just took the wheel, whether you wanted him to or not. That's not his preferred ongoing plan. His preferred ongoing plan is the second part. I wonder if you've experienced prying your fingers off and letting him be Lord, right? You just

there's this control that you're prying your fingers off of, and Letting Jesus be Lord. This metaphor has a few problems that, you know, if nobody's driving a car, you're in trouble. But okay, maybe it's about a light-handed. Touch as Jesus shows the way, but this, this is true. This part is true. When like Paul learn to do you let your fingers go and allow Jesus to drive your life. That's where life really resides.

That's what I got. So how about you? Put your hands in front of you and we're going to pray.

and first of all,

Jesus. We put into our hands. Our sin and our resistance to you.

And as I put these things of mine in my hands, I lift them up to you and ask that you would take them from me. Thank you that you do.

and now, Put your empty hands in front of yourself again, and now, Jesus, we ask that you would Place yourself into our hands. And we ask you for faith.

To receive you.

Calling get to do an altar call, but maybe this is our altar call.

We've been wondering what you wanted to do and us today Jesus. And we just ask that you would be doing. Whatever it is, you want to do in us right now? In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

find a sing and