The Insainty of God

Introduction

Acts 9:19–31 CSB

And after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul was with the disciples in Damascus for some time. Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.” All who heard him were astounded and said, “Isn’t this the man in Jerusalem who was causing havoc for those who called on this name and came here for the purpose of taking them as prisoners to the chief priests?” But Saul grew stronger and kept confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah. After many days had passed, the Jews conspired to kill him, but Saul learned of their plot. So they were watching the gates day and night intending to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the wall. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, since they did not believe he was a disciple. Barnabas, however, took him and brought him to the apostles and explained to them how Saul had seen the Lord on the road and that the Lord had talked to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. Saul was coming and going with them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He conversed and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. When the brothers found out, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. So the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

The Insanity of God … It’s the story of a guy we’re going to have here later in the year who served in Somalia. He talks about how after he’d answered the call of God things in his life got really difficult—it seemed to him like God was insane! I love the title, because it captures how we feel sometimes. How I feel. That God himself is not insane for He knows exactly what He is doing, but how he does it we do not always agree with it and rarely do we understand it.

From the world’s point of view the cross of Jesus will always be a stumbling block. From the world’s point of view God does not come and die, God comes to control and destroy. From the world’s point of view, if we were God, we would act from a position of power, not from a stance of love and humility. Today, as throughout all of history, a God who “so loves the world that he gave his only begotten son” is an act of insanity.

For those of us who know Jesus, we want to model such insanity to all the peoples of the world because it is an insanity motivated by love, sacrifice, and obedience. It is an insanity motivated by going not staying. It is an insanity motivated by giving not receiving. It is how the world looks at God. This should be how the world looks at us.    Join the insanity.

I want to show you a few things that happened to Paul right after his conversion that probably left him asking those same questions.

● Hopefully as a comfort to you …

● Paul would later say in 1 Timothy 1:16 that his conversion and calling was a pattern for all of us … which means there are things about his story that should help you make sense of yours.

● (And if you’re not a Christian, btw, maybe you’ll see what God is trying to do in your life.) Acts 9:15–26 God was telling Ananias not to be scared to go and talk to Paul, because, remember, Paul had been public enemy #1 of the church. God says, [9:15] “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. [16] For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

● Those two things don’t seem to go together. Chosen … to suffer?

● Suffering is what the enemy causes, right? Or isn’t it what happens when you do stuff wrong?

1. Chosen, yet opposed

● People rejected his message; impugned his motives, and tried to kill him.

● Sometimes this is your biggest surprise: people are supposed to listen! ○ I’ve experienced this

● Probably the worst of this for Paul was that most of this came from his fellow religious Jews. They were supposed to understand! ○ It was the religious studies department of the college I went to that led in our being removed. ○ The worst names I’ve been called around here have come from other so-called religious people ○ 8 years ago I served on this thing called the Baptist World Alliance: trending left … statement on evangelism. With an extraordinary amount of restraint … booed by every tribe, tongue and nation at once.

● Even the church didn’t have Paul’s back! vs. 26 says, “They were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.” CAN I ASK YOU A QUESTION? Are you ready for this—to be criticized, belittled, to have your motives impugned? And when it happens, will you keep preaching? Notice in the next few verses how often the word “boldly” was used: [27] At Damascus Paul … preached boldly in the name of Jesus. [28] So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. [29] And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him.

● Question for you: What if Paul had not continued to preach boldly? You and I would not be sitting here.

● Whose life is depending on you being bold? ○ FInd a illustration.

“Freedom lies in being Bold”

More people would be saved and more Christians were bold.

● There are some things so important that they are worth people thinking you are out of your mind!

● God give us more people to study and learn to defend the faith. Who can dispute, like Paul … who can withstand the mockery and keep going! ○

2.Chosen but had to be Prepared (but had to be confirmed) Heavenly CHoice , Human confirmation

Something you don’t immediately see here … there is a lot of time that passes in these verses. In vs. 23 it says, “After many days had passed he escaped from Damascus and went to Jerusalem …” (vs. 23). Many days is 3 years.

How do we know that? Paul tells us himself in Galatians 1:15–18: [15] (Right after I was saved) [16] I did not immediately consult with anyone; [17] nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. [18] Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas (Peter) and remained with him fifteen days. 3 years passed before Paul met the first Apostle! What did he do during those 3 years? Spent time with Jesus; brought Jews to Jesus one by one. Then, after 3 years he got his first introduction to the pastor, Peter … then he left again. For fourteen years. How do I know that? Paul explains in Galatians: [1] Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. (Galatians 2:1) Well, what happened during those 14 years? Again, we’re not sure, though we get clues in his epistles: he had some visions in which God clarified his calling and gave him some crucial insights about Jesus; and we know he was persecuted, a lot. 2 Cor 11:24–27, Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. (“minus one”: Jews didn’t want to break law … During the last half of Acts he suffered at the hands of Gentiles, not Jews … which means that these happened in these first 14 years! [25] Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. (Not stoned to deal with the pain, but pelted with baseball sized rocks until people think you are dead. Raudel said, “If all this was happening to me, I’d probably be getting stoned a lot, but the other kind). Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; How many times would that have to happen to you before you’d quit getting back on the boat? [26] on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; [27] in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

in that little white space in your Bible between vs. 26 and 27. And even after vs. 27, Paul really fades out of the spotlight until chapter 13, when he’s given his first official assignment. There is some question as to what happened exactly when, but we know that there are 17 years between the time God called him in Acts 9 and when he is officially commissioned as a missionary in chap. 13. God took a minimum of 17 years to prepare him. “But God,” I’m sure he said, “why are things moving so slowly?” This kind of delayed preparation is so common in Scripture I’d almost say it’s standard:

● God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt; then had him tend sheep for his father-in-law for 40 years.

● David was anointed by God to be the king of Israel, but then was sent back to the pasture to shovel sheep dung. Later, when he got his first big break in the palace, he was falsely accused and would spend the next decade running for his life as a fugitive.

● God told Joseph he was going to use him to save Israel … and then sent him off to slavery and prison for two decades.

● Moses: 40 years. David: (15 years) Joseph, 20 years. Paul: 17 years. Are you complaining about how long God is taking with you?

● Billy Graham, “If I had it to do over again … I would spend more time in spiritual nurture, seeking to grow closer to God so I could become more like Christ. I would spend more time in prayer … I would spend more time studying the Bible and meditating on its truth, not only for sermon preparation but for life.”

○ Don’t waste your white space! It’s where you learn character; it’s where you learn patience. ○ It’s where God teaches you. Preparation gets you ready for Gameday.

*Preparation also confirms the call. Paul in the text received a Heavenly Choice Human Confirmation.

3. Paul was chosen, yet he suffered.

If you have to choose one word to characterize those first 17 years, it is “suffering.” That’s what God had said: “He is a chosen instrument of mine … and I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (9:15) Suffering one of God’s primary training tools for his people.

● It doesn’t mean something is wrong. Hardly. He is preparing you.

● The word “instrument” that God used (“he is a chosen instrument of mine”) literally means “vessel.” (It is the same word used in 2 Corinthians 4:7 where Paul writes, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”) ○ Vessels have no power or worth of their own; they are conduits for power from something else. They hold something valuable. ○ Up until his conversion, Paul had seen himself as a capable tool for God. God wanted Paul to become a vessel of his power. Saul the mighty needed to become Paul the small. So God took time to humble him. ○ As I read Paul’s epistles, I see this humble dependence on God’s power … Where did Paul learn that? Not through triumphs and successes. He learned them through suffering. ○ Mesopotamian poetry.

■ Remember this statement? “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” A. W. Tozer

■ If dependence is the objective; then weakness is your advantage. Weakness is how you learn to operate in the power of God, and suffering helps you get in touch with your weakness.

● Suffering is also where God purifies your heart, and strips you of your idols. I think of ABRAHAM: ○ Abraham had left everything to follow God. ○ God had told Abraham that if he followed him, he’d make him a great nation.

■ Problem was that Abraham, at the time, was childless—he and Sarah his wife had always wanted a son, but he was about 90 years old and she was 80, and they had, understandably, given up. At that age, not even the blue pill offers much hope. ○ But God kept his promise and gave him a son in his old age.

■ This son was the most precious thing to Abraham: Abraham’s greatest earthly treasure. It was also the locus of all his hopes for the future. At 90, he ain’t having no more kids. This was it! ○ Gen 22, an angel appeared to him and says, “God wants you to sacrifice your son.” No explanation.

■ Imagine being Abraham: what had he done wrong? God, why are you punishing me? ■ To all of this God gave no answer.

■ Abraham obeyed, but the angel stopped him: “Now I know that you love me.” There is nothing you prioritize or depend on more than me. Suffering doesn’t mean you are doing something wrong. Quite the contrary—it’s how God prepares you. And by the way, sometimes what God is preparing you for is mainly himself. See that phrase: “He is a chosen instrument of mine.” (?) Not every bad thing that happens to works out with some silver lining. (Didn’t get into med school at UNC but got into Elon and met my wife …) Some things God does simply to prepare your heart more for himself …

● He wants your heart to belong fully to him. To love him. To trust him.

● You see, we glorify God not just by what we do but who we become.

● Write this down: What God is doing in you is just as significant as what he is doing through you.

● He’s preparing some of you for himself through your singleness; in your pain; in your disappointment. In your obscurity. So quit fighting God on it. And you can’t demand to always understand. (Sometimes we’re willing to suffer if God is willing to explain. It’s like a contract: “God, I’ll suffer anything, but you have to tell me in advance why it’s happening!” He may not. Sometimes you just have to trust him.)

Paul was chosen, yet he was opposed. Paul was chosen, yet God took many years to prepare him; Paul was chosen, yet he suffered. CHOSEN Let me end this by reflecting for a few minutes on that word:

CHOSEN. It’s the key to understanding all the rest.

● It’s easy to look at Paul’s life and see that Jesus chose him. Paul was not looking for Jesus … he hated Jesus. Jesus knocked him off his horse and Jesus chose him.

● Your conversion may not have been that dramatic, but the same patterns were at work. If your heart belongs to Jesus, it’s because he chose you. Paul’s conversion was a pattern for ours.

● Now, as I said, that raises some really difficult questions: “If God chose me, did I not have free will?” “Why doesn’t God choose everybody?” ○ I’m not going to unpack all those things here, and I’m not even sure I know enough to unpack it …

● But two things I know: a. God doesn’t owe mercy to anyone; b. the sweetest doctrine in my life is knowing that God chose me.

I had no good in me; I was just like Paul, against God’s rule in my life when God pursued me.

■ And here’s why that’s comforting to me: if I didn’t begin to follow God because of my goodness; then God is not depending on my goodness to keep me following him.

■ You see, if it was a good moment in which I found God, what would happen to me if I have some bad moments? One thing I have learned over and over … my flesh is evil. And if God took his mercy from me for even a second, I would turn away.

■ But I have this assurance that what he has begun in me he surely will finish (Philippians 1:6).

○ Spurgeon: “I have no questions that God chose me, because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I should never have chosen him; and I am sure he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards; and he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love. So I feel like I am forced to accept that doctrine.”

● Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound—that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I’m found. (didn’t find myself!) I was blind but now I see. I couldn’t give myself sight!

● That God chose Paul also shows me that he is fully in charge of the world evangelization process.

Don’t you think God will be faithful to you as he was to Paul? You are a chosen instrument, and God’s purposes for you are unstoppable!

So when I am opposed, I’ll respond with boldness. When he delays (taking ‘many days’ to accomplish what he’s promised), I’ll respond with faith. And when I suffer, I’ll respond with resurrection hope.

[8] We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; [9] persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; [10] always carrying about in our bodies the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies … (2 Corinthians 4:8–10)

[36] As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” [37] Yet, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:36–37)

[12] So then death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Cor 4:12)

how did God save the world? Through Jesus’ rise to power? No, through Jesus’ humiliation and cross. That’s how he’ll keep saving the world through you. And as sure as he brought Jesus’ body out of the grave, he will turn your suffering into triumph! You are chosen. Will you trust him?