"The Tears Of An Apostle"

It is important to note that, in essence, everyone is an enemy of the cross. All of us are, by nature, such wretched sinners that, no matter how hard we tried, we’d never be able to reconcile ourselves with God. Jesus died to rescue Enemies of the cross, however, those that have not been reconciled with God; they remain in their sins.

Do we weep for them?

“For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

Do we weep for them, our tears the emotional release of a passionate desire that they too might know him? Are we a church that loves like that?

Show me a church where there is love, and I will show you a church that is a power in the community. In Chicago a few years ago a little boy attended a Sunday school I know of. When his parents moved to another part of the city the little fellow still attended the same Sunday school, although it meant a long, tiresome walk each way. A friend asked him why he went so far, and told him that there were plenty of others just as good nearer his home.

"They may be as good for others, but not for me," was his reply.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because they love a fellow over there," he replied.

If only we could make the world believe that we loved them there would be fewer empty churches, and a smaller proportion of our population who never darken a church door. Let love replace duty in our church relations, and the world will soon be evangelized. Moody’s Anecdotes, pp. 71-72.

Believers cry when:

When people refuse the love of Christ

When the pursuit of material things becomes one’s primary objective.

III. We cry, because we are homesick! “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control; will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Ever felt homesick? Longed for the company of family and friends? Of course you have! I picture Paul blinking through his tears, the tears that longed for people to embrace Jesus as Lord, rather than to remain enemies, the Tears that expressed the Apostles fervent desire that people understand that purpose comes from a relationship with the Lord, not the things we own or that seem so important to possess. Only to find that many times what we want to possess, possesses us!

I see him shackled to roman guard, looking around the area of his confinement…his mind, His soul, His heart are free, and he thinks of home…not Tarsus the city of Paul’s youth a city that was on the southern coast of what is now known as Turkey.

Tarsus was a significant city. It was the Roman provincial capital and an intellectual center. It was very Greek in nature, meaning Paul spoke Greek (among other languages), and he was familiar with Greek customs, literature, philosophy, etc.