January 17, 2016 - Sermon - Acts 21:1-15 - Here is the live audio version: https://catmsermons.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/ready-for-anything/
Today we’re continuing to follow the very dramatic journey of Paul, and we’re nearing the last bend of our tour through the book of Acts. Acts is an early biography of the church. It lets us in on many of their joys and many of their struggles and hardships.
Acts is a very human book, at times filled with deep emotion, as we looked at last week, at times filled with harrowing stories about the risks that these early Christians took in order to share the story of Jesus, Jesus who had completely changed their lives.
Jesus who commanded them to go and make disciples of all nations and all peoples.
In today’s passage, the narrative is speeding up and there is an atmosphere of approaching storm as Paul comes nearer Jerusalem. It begins on a similar note to last week’s.
Paul had said goodbye the the Elders, those he was closest to, in Ephesus. There was great sadness at his leaving.
What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. That was at the end of Acts chapter 20.
Today’s reading begins with another indication of how hard it was to separate. “After we had torn ourselves away from them...” Luke says. Have you ever had to do that?
Tear yourself away from someone you care about, someone you love? It’s always brutal, but it is an indication of shared affection, for sure.
Paul and his group, including the book’s narrator Luke, eventually land in Tyre and they seek out and stay with fellow followers of Jesus, disciples, for a week.
“There is the wonderful fact that wherever Paul went he found a Christian community waiting to welcome him. If that was true in Paul's time, it is still more true today.
One of the great privileges of belonging to the Church is the fact that no matter where follower of Christ goes, they are sure to find a community of like-minded people into which they may enter.
The one who is in the family of the Church has friends all over the world” (Barclay).
And then after some back and forth they end up in Caesarea.
While there Agabus the prophet gives an ominous object lesson. Agabus is an interesting figure. Jewish prophets had a certain custom.
When words were inadequate, they dramatized their message. There are many instances of this in the Old Testament (e.g. Isa.20:3-4; Jer.13:1-11; Jer.27:2; Eze.4; Eze.5:1-4; 1Kgs.11:29-31.
The prophet Agabus lets Paul know that he will face persecution in Jerusalem and be handed over to the Gentiles. Again, the people plead with Paul not to go to Jerusalem. They tug at his heart, making his decision all the more difficult.
Then Paul says these powerful words: I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
The disciples gave up trying to persuade Paul otherwise and said, “The Lord’s will be done”. then Paul and company head to Jerusalem.
So what we have here is Paul, the Apostle. Former enemy of the church. Converted to Christ. Became its chief apostle, led countless people to Christ, established directly, or through those he taught, a great many churches.
The fragrance of the gospel was spread everywhere Paul travelled.
A powerful writer, he have us much of the New Testament and wrote deeply and beautifully of what it means to have a relationship with Christ, to live IN Christ.
His letter to the Ephesians is one of the most beautiful pieces of literature on the planet, inspired as it was by God.
But now...now at an age - around 65 - that you’d think he might be ready to retire, Paul is not done. He has not decided to rest on his laurels.
He had worked very hard for a great many years, endured countless hardships, and has many hardships yet to come. He doesn’t know what’s ahead of him in Jerusalem.
He knew that the Christian movement, The Way as it was called back then, was not welcome in that great city.
He knew that Jesus had been put to death outside the gates of that city.
Paul says: I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
And that leads me to ask this question. Paul was ready for anything...even death, if that’s what serving obeying and serving the living God meant for him, if that’s what God called him to do.
Instead of growing wearier by the hardships, and instead of giving in to fear, Paul used the difficulties to build a richer resolution to continue in Christ till the end.
So it makes me want to ask: What does it take...to be ready...for anything?
It takes a firm grasp of who God is
When it comes to anything about God we need to know that there’s nothing about God that we can understand; there’s nothing about God that can be understood apart from Him revealing it to us.
On the one hand, the question: Who is God? is impossible to answer, if we’re relying on a human capacity to grasp WHO God is, how vast His knowledge, how perfect He is, how able He is to do anything at all; let alone beginning to wrap our minds around his glory.
When we do that, consider the glory and majesty of God the best thing we can possibly do, and the thing that can quickly come to us, to simply to worship. Worship Him in the beauty of His splendour.
So if we can’t begin to probe who God is, what can we do? Are we stuck? Do we have to rely on our imagination? No, actually.
To begin to grasp who God is we start exploring the Word of God. By that I mean two things: we look to the revelation of God in the Bible.
Those things which God has chosen to reveal to us about His character He’s revealed in His Word.
As well, with open hearts and mind we can also look at nature through the eyes of faith and begin to see what God is like.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Rom 1: 20
So we have the Word of God, which the Bible calls itself. And more deeply, more intimately, we have the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who is also in the Bible referred to as The Word.
So, by the act of God in authoring the Bible through human people, we have the Bible.
And from the Bible we learn about God. From that same Bible we have the record of Jesus Christ, God the Son. And as we read and study and consider all that Jesus says and does, we are learning about God.
We are growing in our grasp of Who God is. And, even more than grasping Who God is, Jesus leads us into a personal relationship with God.
Jesus breaks down the walls separating us from God. He dies as the perfect sacrifice to atone for my sin and your sin.
Jesus reveals Who God is in His life, and then He brings God into our lives through faith in Himself. God reveals Himself not just by head knowledge of Who He is, but by drawing near, by drawing us to Himself, by calling us by name, calling us His very own children through faith in Jesus.
We need to know God to live our lives in the best way, with the most purpose and the most joy.
To be ready for anything, or to even approach being able to handle well the things that are going to happen in our lives, we need to know God. We need to have a solid sense of the nature and character of God.
It Takes a Firm grasp of who you are in Christ
And then, as we grow in our knowledge of God through being in this vital relationship with Him, through investing our energies in reading and considering His Word, we actually come to understand who we are in Christ.
We learn that we are adopted into the family of God as we received Christ as our Lord and Saviour. That means we belong. We learn that we are free from condemnation (Rom 8:1,2).
We learn that we are a citizen of heaven (Phil 3:20), that we are hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3). We learn that we HAVE been redeemed and forgiven of all our sins (Col 1:14), that we have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit Who indwells us (Eph 2:8).
And there is so much more. We also discover that on top of being on the receiving end of these amazing gifts from God and more, that we are intended to living on the giving end.
We’ve been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16), that we are God’s co-worker (2 Cor 6:1), that we are ministers of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:17-21).
We learn that we are God’s workmanship, CREATED in Christ Jesus to do good works, works that God has prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
This is amazing stuff. God cares about our salvation...that we come to Him in faith, trusting in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. That’s true. But then He gives us an assignment,
He calls us to go and bear fruit in our lives, to live as God’s own co-worker! To serve as a minister of reconciliation.
That means a lot of things, including that we always be ready to give an account of God’s faithfulness, that we take opportunity to lead others to Jesus so that they too can be reconciled with God, restored to right relationship with him.
And God wants us to do that which we were created to do...the good works, the good things that God has already prepare for us to do.
I’ll have a sheet at the back that you can pick up on your way out today that lists some of these Scriptures that talk about who you are in Christ. I encourage you to take one.
Take one and study the Scripture references to learn more. As you grow in understanding what God has revealed to us about Himself in the Bible and in Jesus Christ, and as you begin to appreciate who you are as a devoted follower of Jesus, you are getting ready.
As Paul grasped these truths, his resolve grew to the point where he was ready for anything.
What else does it take to be ready for anything, to be willing to obey God no matter what?
It Takes Experience with God
It takes experience with God, and a faithful lens with which to view of experience of God. As a young believer I had no history with God. No Sunday school in my past.
No building blocks of faith that I turned to as a young adult. The upside of that is that I viewed everything about the Christian faith with fresh eyes. Noting was old hack, nothing instilled from a young age.
Many here in this room were raised in the Christian faith and at some point chose to follow Christ yourself.
The promises of God you heard about as you grew up became His promises to you when you personally chose to follow Jesus. Which is awesome!
The downside of things being taught at a young age is that they get taken for granted.
I recall sharing with a person who had been raised in the Christian faith that I really wished I had been as well, as it would have saved me a lot of pain growing up.
To my surprise, they didn’t affirm that. Learning about the faith by rote from the cradle up, this person said, made it harder to have a personal faith, harder to really appreciate the good things of God.
They struggled with a lukewarmness toward God due to what they saw as over-familiarity with a Christian worldview. That was a perspective that surprised me.
But as a young believer I had no experience with God. As I grew in the faith I learned that you always have to be turning your head around.
You’re looking forward...into the new thing that God will do, and you’re looking backward, where you see that God has always been faithful to you.
THAT gives you the confidence to go forward, to take smart risks, to step out of your comfort zone.
And with experience, you lose some arrogance. As we trip up, as we sin, as we fall flat on our face, we learn that our hope is in Christ, who has saved us and who continues to forgive us as we ask to be forgiven.
Our sins remind us that our life in Christ is by His grace, and not by our righteousness.
It’s His goodness, His love, His extreme patience (they call that long-suffering) that is the fertile soil in which we grow from seedlings into healthy branches.
We stay connected to the vine, who is Jesus, through worship, through repentance, through fellowship and through serving others in his name.
Paul had a lot of experience with Jesus at the point in his life that we find him in in our passage today. He had learned humility.
He had learned to depend completely on the mercy and grace of God.
He knew that God is always faithful, despite Paul’s own failings. And this helped to make Paul ready for anything.
But, what if I find myself lacking in one of these areas? Or all three? What do I do?
Here’s where you jot down some notes in the middle inside of your bulletin.
1. Commit your ways to learning who God is. All that you need to know about God is contained in the Bible. His heart, His justice, His mercy, His immense patience and love.
How he interacts with humanity. And in the Holy Scriptures we also catch a glimpse of His majesty and glory.
So, I strongly encourage you to read the Word of God as a regular rhythm in your life. If you’ve tried to do that without much consistency, ask a friend to journey with you through the Bible.
Hold each other accountable. Share what you learn together. Join us as we have our Bible Studies on Tuesday nights and on Sundays after service. Again, the next one starts on February 7.
2. Commit yourself to learning who you are in Christ. This comes also by revelation. It comes as you read God’s Word with an eye to BOTH what it says about Him and what it says about those who are in Christ.
As you read and discover God’s promises to you and God’s mission for you, pray for His leading, pray that He show you how you can serve Him.
And step out in faith in ways that you haven’t before.
3. Grow in Your Experience of Serving Others in Christ’s Name
Experience comes by doing, obviously. It can’t be read or studied. Seek out ways in which you can gain experience with God by serving others.
That can mean volunteering. There are endless opportunities to give of your time in this city, serving worthy causes that positively impact people’s lives.
The Yonge Street Mission alone has over 100 ministries where you can get your feet wet as you serve God and serve people.
For the apostle Paul, the key to being ready for anything and everything was was knowing who God is. It was in knowing who he is in Christ.
And it was it gaining and then reflecting on experiences with God, experiences with people.
With his passionate commitment to Jesus, Paul was prepared to do whatever God wanted him to do.
May that be said of us. And may we continue to grow as a community, as a family of believers, who love and serve God with everything we have.
And as we come to communion now, let’s do so with gratitude for God’s mercy and love. Let’s celebrate the willingness of Jesus to go to the cross on our behalf, to reconcile us to God. Amen? Amen.
