Overcoming the Stuck Places
Acts 20:22-27, 21:27-33
We all encounter “stopping places”, places where the obstacles are so huge that they stop our forward progress in life. Often these become “stuck places”, places where we never get moving again. In today’s scripture, the apostle Paul came to a possible major “stopping place”, possibly a “stuck” place that tested his resolve for his God-given mission and a place where his ministry was radically changed.
To put Paul’s experiences in contempory contexts, here are three very likely examples happening today.
A bright young man from an extremely dysfunctional family married a beautiful lady and, as a bonus, he was included in a wonderful, loving family that taught him so much about marriage and family. He and his wife visited his family often with very brief visits but the occasion came that they must make an extended visit. During those days they endured arguments and word fights that were hard for them to sit through. On one of those occasions, the young man tried to settle the quarrel. A fight broke out, the police were called in and he was arrested as the trouble maker.
A student went away from home for his first year of college. He had been raised to faithfully attend and participate in a very formal, ritualistic, liturgical church. When he arrived at college, he began to attend a spirited, joyful Christian gathering very different from his church experience. He discovered he could have a personal experience and relationship with Jesus and he enjoyed the free, charismatic worship services they held. He came home for a vacation time and returned to his home church. He began to talk with members and leaders about what he had experienced, how things were done in his group and asking why that could not happen there. Soon the church officials tired of his talk and questions and asked him not to come back.
A bank officer of an older, traditional bank was being groomed to be the next president and was sent to a banker’s training course in a major city. There he learned how other, more progressive banks were doing things that made sense and were good business practices. When he returned home he began to talk up these changes, implement those he could and debate with his fellow junior officers why these things could not work. Soon his peer officers, not wanting change, accused him of embezzlement, had him arrested and fired.
Paul’s story, wrapped around these scriptures, was remarkably similar. He was raised a loyal Jew, educated by the very best teachers, entered the ranks of the Pharisees at a young adult age and began to prove his leadership abilities by persecuting Christians. God had other plans for him! God had met Paul on the Damascus Road, dramatically saved him and called him to the pioneer task of becoming a missionary to the Gentiles.
At this time in the story in Acts, Paul had conducted two missionary journeys to Gentile lands and gathered a strong supporting group of both Jews and Gentiles. In his heart he felt the need to return to Jerusalem, the center of his past life and of Jewish religious heritage, and plead with them to consider accepting Jesus as their Messiah. His friends tried to stop him, knowing the danger he faced. Ray Steadman, a respected New Testament scholar, has declared that Paul made a major mistake in doing this.
Paul visited with James, the leader of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. A plan was accepted that Paul would go to the temple, the Jewish holy place, participate in a renewal dedication ceremony called a “Nazarite Vow” and sponsor four others who wanted to do the same. This was Paul’s way of being acceptable to his old friends and peers in the Jewish hierarchy. He was quickly recognized by the leaders of the group that contested his teachings in the synagogues in the Gentile territories. The leader and others organized a massive revolt to his presence in the temple. The Roman guards were called in to restore peace and Paul was arrested.
Paul’s ministry was radically changed. He spent the rest of his life going from jail to jail, defending himself and his faith before governors and kings, writing to people he had hoped to physically visit and later marched to his death an older, weakened man. Paul spoke of being “bound by the Spirit” to go to Jerusalem. He left the city bound by Roman chains. The contrast he offers is the difference between “religion” and living with Jesus. The word religion comes from the Latin word “religie”, which means “to bind.” Everyone is bound by their convictions, culture and interpretation of life. The Book of Acts describes a life of spirit-led freedom and the last verse of the book speaks of the gospel preached “unhindered,” that is “not bound”!
What are the characteristics of the Apostle Paul that gave him the freedom from being “stopped” and “stuck” in these circumstances? What are the resources he had that we can develop in our lives as Christ’s followers?
First, I suggest that Paul had a “Decided Heart.”
This phrase comes from the book, “The Traveler’s Gift,” by Andy Andrews. In his seven characteristics of a successful life, this is the central one, number four of seven. The “Decided Heart” is not concerned with “I might, I ought or I can’t.” Perhaps the youth chorus, “I have decided to follow Jesus” says it best, “No turning back.”
In his novel, “The Mended Heart,” Andy Andrews describes two people thrown together by chance. The girl was a recent widow of World War II who came to the gulf coast to care for her dying aunt and to nurse her own broken heart. The man was a German soldier from a submarine that invaded the Gulf of Mexico to sink ships carrying supplies to soldiers in Europe. He had been wounded, swam ashore by night and lay dying on the beach. She discovered him and hated him because his people had killed her young husband. The story brings the two together to marry. In his research of the story, Andy Andrews had consulted an older couple in his church for facts on the case. Later he discovered that this older couple was the two characters in this story. Their hearts mended by their love of each other and the “Decided Heart” is developed by the hard circumstances of life and their decision to forgive that either make or break any of us.
A second resource that enables Paul to be the victor over these obstacles is his God-given mission. When he met God on the Damascus Road, God told Paul he was to be “missionary to the Gentiles, kings and all Israel.” Such a calling is a powerful force in life. It is a fact that all of us have a calling, a mission for life. The business principle may fit here, “begin with the end in mind.” We may not know, as Paul did not know, exactly how the end will be but when we begin with His mission as ours, the end will be good. The Taylor family, living in England in the early 1800’s, had two sons. The older son became a lawyer, a member of parliament and gained prestige. The second son, Hudson, felt his mission in life was to be a missionary to China. He made a covenant with God, sailed to China and went into the inland where missionaries had never been. He learned the language, dressed like the people, ate their food and lived among them. His most prominent characteristic was “unreserved commitment.” The first son’s name is never mentioned. He is always described as “a brother to Hudson Taylor.” There is power in our mission for life.
A third characteristic of Paul and others who have a “decided heart” and do life with their mission in mind, is that they accept life as God directs them. A life directed by God has movement and meaning. It may not be the plans we want, the circumstances or the results that we would chose, but it is a life lived for God.
Perhaps 500 years ago the Durer family lived in Nuremburg, Germany. There were 18 children in the family. The father was a goldsmith and did other chores to provide for his family but there was no way for the children to advance beyond the wage-earner life. Two of the boys, Albert and Albrecht, vowed to move ahead. They agreed that one of them would go on to higher education supported by the other and then they would reverse order. They flipped a coin to decide who would go first and Albrecht won the toss. He went to an arts academy while Albert worked in the mines to support him. Albrecht learned well, became a noted artist and earned large fees for his work. He returned to his village and family in celebration of his success. When Albrecht rose to speak, he told about the agreement with his brother and said, “Albert, now it’s your turn.” Albert began to say no and finally stood to speak. “I cannot go for training. In the last four years my hands have been so damaged. My fingers have been mashed and I cannot hold a brush to do the fine lines necessary for art. It is too late for me.”
You may not be familiar of the art work of Albrecht Durer’s other art work, but you know of one. Albrecht drew his brother’s hands, scared, twisted fingers, palms together and fingers painted upward in prayer. We know of it as “Praying Hands”, a memorial to the life of his brother. God takes our circumstances, our resources and directs them in such a way that they are His masterpiece, not ours.
The fourth characteristic of Paul’s life and ministry was his championing of God’s grace, not law. His visit to the capital of legalism, Jerusalem, is reflected in all of his writing, especially the Book of Romans. Martin Luther discovered this truth in Paul’s word, “for by grace are you saved.” The church Paul planted in Corinth is a demonstration of what grace can do. The people we meet in those two books are former pagans, today’s converts and tomorrow’s saints. They found it hard to overcome their behavior of paganism, their selfishness, human pride and their old ways of thinking. Paul coached them, criticized them and prayed them into being a workable “body of Christ.” He reminds these and others by listing a number of the worst sins of the flesh and saying, “and such were some of you.”
Our final characteristic of Paul’s life that comes from his Jerusalem experience was this: He knew the end of his story, and it was good. He truly “began with the end in mind” and rejoiced in that moment. Often, in the midst of his hard life, he would wonder if it might be better to go be with God than to be in his circumstances. However, when the moments came that his death was near, his body tired, his execution scheduled, he could write, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course… and there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.”
Are you stuck? Find yourself in a stopping place? Wondering what God wants from you? Here is a simple four line poem that may help you.
You ask, what is the will of God?
Well, here is the answer true.
The nearest thing that should be done,
That He can do-through you.
(Illustrations taken from other SermonCentral sermons)
