When Everything Goes Wrong
Series: Acts
Chuck Sligh
October 15, 2017
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com.
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Acts 21
INTRODUCTION
Did you ever have one of those weeks when EVERYTHING went wrong?
Illus. – I remember while on missionary deputation one trip I’ll NEVER forget— Traveling from a church in West Virginia, both Chris and Jon, our first two sons, got sick in the car and neither of them made it to the window—making a big mess! We had to spend the night in a motel, causing us to miss our next meeting in Ohio. The next day, in Ohio, our radiator went out and we had to stop and get that fixed.
The next day, on our trip to Missouri we thought, “Surely nothing else could happen!” Well, it could, and it did! In Illinois we had a flat tire, so we stopped and got it fixed. In Indiana, we had ANOTHER flat tire, so we stopped and got that one fixed. In EASTERN Missouri, ANOTHER tire blew out. On the final leg of the trip, Susan developed a high fever and flu symptoms.
When we rolled into Kansas City, we looked and felt like a band of refugees who had just traveled through a war zone! It was one of those times when EVERYTHING went wrong.
I think we can all relate to times in our lives like that—when everything goes wrong.
That must have been how Paul felt in our text we will read today in Acts 21.
I only have two points this morning, so let’s look at them:
I. FIRST, LOOK AT WHEN EVERYTHING WENT WRONG FOR PAUL
To understand what happens here, I need to give you a little background information. The Jerusalem church leaders had listened to false rumors that Paul was encouraging Jewish Christians not to follow the Old Testament Law. As long as it was understood that following the Law was not tied to salvation, and as long as the Gentiles were not expected to follow the ceremonial and dietary aspects of the Law, Paul didn’t care if the Jews continued in the Law or not.
What he did care about and what grieved him greatly, was a growing rift he was witnessing between Jewish and Gentile believers. He did everything he could not to offend the Jews, and even sought ways to extend an olive branch to them. When he heard of a famine in Jerusalem, he challenged all the churches he had founded to give sacrificially to help the needy believers in Jerusalem and had amassed a large offering to give to the needy of Jerusalem. And now here in Acts 21, Paul has come to Jerusalem to give the gift to the Jerusalem church and report on his work among the Gentiles.
Let’s pick up the story now at verses 18-19 – “And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present. 19 And when he had [“greeted”] them, he declared particularly [or “one by one”] what things God had done among the Gentiles by his ministry.”
So Paul recited all that the Lord had accomplished through his ministry to the Gentiles, detailing his experiences one-by-one. That must have been a stirring, inspiring missionary report to anyone with an ounce of love for seeing people come to faith in Christ.
One commentator describes what the report must have been like:
[Paul], no doubt, told of his first visit to Galatia and told the thrilling story of his three missionary journeys. The names rolled off his tongue like a roll call of the nations—Salamis, Paphos, Perga, Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus,…and not just places, but people. Thousands upon thousands of people saved by faith.…And not only the places and people, but… anecdotes—stories of prison and persecution, stories of Mars’ Hill preaching, stories of miracles and magicians and mighty movements of the Spirit. Never had these Jerusalem Christians, with their narrow, parochial interests, heard the like. (Exploring Acts, Loizeaux Brothers: Neptune, NJ, 1991, p. 418.)
So, what kind of reception did Paul receive for this stirring missionary report?
Note verses 20-22 – “And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, ‘You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe; and they are all zealous of the law: 21 And they are informed of you, that you teach all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. 22 What then is to be done? the multitude will certainly hear that you have come.’”
Verse 20 says that when they heard it, they glorified the Lord…but notice the next word—“AND”. That one word, “and,” spoils it all!
No sooner had they gotten the niceties out of the way that they launched into an attack upon Paul’s ministry and methods. They belittled Paul’s ministry by saying about their own converts in Jerusalem, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe; and THEY are all zealous of the law…”
That was like a slap in the face! “Thousands saved in Asia among the Gentiles? That’s NOTHING. We’ve had thousands saved right here in this one TOWN! “And,” they added, “unlike YOUR disciples, they’re all zealous of the law.”
Imagine how Paul must have felt? He had done everything he could to mend fences with the Jewish believers. He had taken up a great sum of money to give to the needy in Jerusalem. He had just reported the indisputable working of God in his ministry.
They didn’t even mention the Gentile churches’ sacrificial gift, thus exhibiting not the least bit of gratefulness for their sacrifices, nor Paul’s part in it. They denigrated Paul’s work and criticized him because he didn’t dot his “i’s” or cross his “t’s” just right.
Well, that wasn’t the only thing that went wrong for Paul. In verses 23-25, the leaders came up with a scheme for Paul to satisfy the legalists in their midst by going through a Jewish ceremony with four other Jewish men in the temple—and to pay for all of their own fees as well.
The purpose of this scheme was to show that Paul was a pro-Judaistic Christian. Though Paul knew this was silly, he was trying to be conciliatory. So, in hopes of bridging the gap of misunderstanding, he went through with it. Unfortunately, that led to a cascading series of mishaps that sounds strangely like one of those bad weeks we have from time to time.
Note verse 27-29 – “And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, 28 Crying out, ‘Men of Israel, help: This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place: and further [has] brought Greeks also into the temple, and has polluted this holy place.’ 29 (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)”
What happened was a total misunderstanding.
Have you ever been misunderstood? It’s a terrible feeling when someone takes what you have said or done and misunderstands or misrepresents it.
Illus. – I remember once as an assistant pastor telling a man that my family came before the church in my priorities, not my time, but my priorities. The church secretary completely misrepresented what I’d said to the pastor, saying I was not putting in my hours of work and visitation. I clarified what I’d meant, and tendered my visitation records, proving I had more visitation hours than any anyone else on the church staff. But it hurt me that she had so totally misunderstood my words and misrepresented them to mean something different.
I think we’ve all experienced that, so we understand how Paul must have felt. He had gone to all this expense and trouble to placate Jewish believers, so Paul must have thought, Okay, NOW maybe we can get along and love one another.
So, he did this temple ceremony—but then some people recognized Paul coming out of the Temple with these four men who agreed to participate with Paul. They had seen Paul with some Gentiles earlier that day and immediately jumped to the conclusion that the four men who came OUT with Paul were the same Gentiles they had seen before, and that he had taken them into the inner courts of the temple, something strictly forbidden for any non-Jew upon pain of death.
I can just picture Paul as a mob quickly forms. He thinks to himself: This just isn’t my week!
Unfortunately, the worst was still to come!
Note verses 30-32 – “And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and [dragged] him out of the temple: and [immediately] the doors were shut. 31 And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the commander of the Roman troops, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they [stopped] beating of Paul.”
So now Paul’s bad week just got worse. The mob is beating him to a pulp and a local Roman captain, hearing about the disturbance, immediately sends a detachment of soldiers to see what’s going on. As the soldiers arrive, those beating Paul make a run for it.
“Thank goodness!,” thinks Paul. “NOW maybe my week will improve!”
Unfortunately not—for instead of arresting the perpetrators of the beating, THEY ARREST THE VICTIM! – verse 33 – “Then the commander came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done.”
Could it possibly get any worse? It could and it did, for not only was Paul arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, but he suddenly discovered that he was the victim of a mistaken identity! – Look at verses 37-38 – “And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the commander, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Can you speak Greek? 38 Are you not that Egyptian, who before these days made an uproar, and led out into the wilderness four thousand men who were murderers?”
Wow!—What a TERRIBLE week! Now, everything in the Scriptures are written for our learning, so what can we learn from Paul’s bad week when everything went wrong?
II. LESSONS FROM PAUL’S BAD WEEK
I see three main lessons from Paul’s bad week:
1. The first is: Do not let the failures of Christians hinder your spiritual growth.
I think I would’ve been devastated, disheartened and disillusioned if I had done all these things to accommodate and help the Jerusalem believers, only to be rebuffed and insulted the way Paul was by the them. But you’ll read in vain in the rest of the Acts and in all of Paul’s letters to find so much as a HINT of resentment or anger or bitterness. To me, this is nothing short of amazing!
And later, when Paul was sent to Rome a prisoner, instead of being gladly received by the brethren there, for the most part he was shunned, according to the book of Philippians, and some spread lies about him to undermine his authority. Yet as you read the book of Philippians, you find that he writes with joy and rejoicing literally dripping from his pen.
How was Paul able to be unaffected by the failure of other Christians? What was his secret?—Two things…
a. First, Paul was not preoccupied with people but with the promotion of the gospel. – In Philippians 1:18, writing from his cell in Rome, Paul considers his situation and says, “What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether [my brethren speak of me] in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.”
He didn’t care if Christian preachers lied about him or told the truth about him— as long as the Gospel went forth. Wow!—I’ve seen it time and again that when a person or a church becomes focused on self and their personal feelings instead of evangelism, then strife, disagreements and relationship problems ensue.
The best weapon against discord is an emphasis on evangelism. Paul was so absorbed with reaching people with the Gospel that he simply didn’t have time to be trivialized with hurt feelings or disappointments with Christians’ petty, unkind or unchristlike actions.
b. Second, Paul focused not on CHRISTIANS, but on CHRIST – He said in Philippians 1:21 – “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Illus. – Have you ever used a 35mm camera? – If you look in the lens, it can only focus on either the foreground or the background, unless you set it to a special setting or lenses. If you focus, say, on the FIELD IN THE BACKGROUND, the FLOWER immediately before you becomes unfocused. But if you focus on the FLOWER, the FIELD IN THE BACKGROUND gets slightly out of focus.
The same is true in your Christian life.… If you focus on people and their faults and failures, JESUS will get out of focus in your life. But if you focus in on Jesus, and really live just to please Him, and let Him become the source of your joy and peace and fulfillment in life, then people and their foibles and sins and inconsistencies just fade into the background.
So, lesson 1 from Paul’s bad week: Don’t let the failures of Christians hinder you.
2. Lesson 2 is that God has a larger purpose in things that go wrong in our lives.
As Paul sat in a Jerusalem prison reviewing his bad week, he didn’t know what God was up to. Up to that time Paul’s ministry had been in the Greek provinces. But the center of power was Rome! There was a saying that “All roads lead to Rome” and if all roads led TO Rome, that also meant that all roads OUT OF Rome led to other places. What an opportunity if a great soul-winning station could be organized in the CENTER of the civilized world—ROME ITSELF! From there the Gospel could go out to the far reaches of the Roman empire.
Well, Paul didn’t know it, but God was working things out for Him to receive a free, all-expense paid trip to Rome, complements of the Roman government! But he wouldn’t get there the way HE would have planned it. God had a bigger idea.
Paul had long wanted to go and preach to the church already established in Rome. He said in Romans 1:13, 15 – “Now I would not have you ignorant [to misunderstand], brethren, that often I purposed to come unto you, (but was [“hindered”] hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.…15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.”
But he was not to go as a preacher, but as a prisoner! That may seem to us unfortunate, but actually it was GOOD, and here’s why: Turn with me in your bibles to Philippians, written from Paul’s jail cell. But guess where in Rome that jail cell was?—Note Philippians 1:12-14 – “But I want you to understand, brethren, that the things which happened to me have fallen out rather for the furtherance of the gospel; 13 So that my bonds [i.e., “chains”] in Christ are manifest [or “well known”] in all the palace, and in all other places; 14 And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”
Paul said that his bondage was well-known in all the PALACE. Scholars believe that Paul’s case was so special, and his position so important, that he was imprisoned in the Caesar’s own palace.
From this vantage point Paul began to witness and pretty soon he had a band of believers right there IN CAESAR’S PALACE! And they were becoming bold—speaking the Word without fear— right in the palace itself.
Scholars debate whether Paul died in Rome or went from Rome to Gaul and ministered. One thing’s for sure—a beachhead was established in the heart of Roman paganism, a fact that had repercussions through the centuries—and it all began with a bad week in Paul’s life.
Oh listen, if we only knew what God is trying to do through troubles and trials in our lives, we wouldn’t complain when we go through them!
3. The third lesson is this: God often uses bad people to accomplish His larger purposes.
Here God used judgmental Jewish Christians, rabble-rousing lost Jews and pagan Roman soldiers to carry out His plans. Later in Acts we’ll see how God used wicked governors and kings and various other rulers to get Paul to Rome. All of God’s purposes were accomplished by bad Christians, lost Jews or outright pagans!
I wonder—is there someone who has done or is doing bad things to you? That person may indeed be evil and ungodly, or just plain stupid. But be assured that God will use their bad to accomplish good for you, for Paul says in Romans 8:28 that “All things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.”
CONCLUSION
Do you see what I’m trying to show you? When you have a bad week, or a bad experience, or a bad relationship—don’t give up! Hold your head up and don’t get discouraged! All you see is one little piece of a very big puzzle, but God sees the BIG picture!
Paul could’ve been discouraged in his cell that day in Jerusalem. I don’t know if he was, but you could hardly blame him if he was. But two years later he was in a different cell in a different city doing more from that little cell in Rome than he ever did traveling through all the Greek cities.
So when you have a bad week or a bad experience, remember these three things:
1. Don’t get your eyes on PEOPLE.
Keep your eyes on the LORD. The writer of Hebrews exhorts us, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:2)
2. Second, remember that God has a larger purpose in your trials and troubles.
Cooperate with Him; remain steadfast and faithful; don’t quit or give up. Paul says, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9)
3. And finally, remember that God’s instruments to accomplish His purposes are often people—sometimes even evil people.
Don’t resist God’s tools in your life. Submit to God’s working and let God finish the final picture—a wonderful mosaic of His power and grace.
