Leading a Rebellion: Saul

Leading a Rebellion: Saul/Paul

Acts 8:1-4; 9:1-9

Rebel:

-A rebel is a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition.

The Story So Far:

-In Acts 7, we have recorded for us Stephen’s defense before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish version of the Supreme Court. He was put on trial for being a Christian—literally for blasphemy for saying that Jesus was in fact God.

            *Side Note* If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would they have enough evidence to convict you? Bible studies? Evangelism? Prayer? Church attendance?

Throughout Stephen’s entire defense, he is simply recounting the history of Israel in order to prove two points: He was a good Jewish man who knew his history; and Jesus was the fulfillment of all of the messianic prophecies. At the end of his defense you can sense that Stephen is getting more and more fired up as his audience became more and more angry and riled up. It was beginning to look like an European futbol match in that courtroom.

Acts 7:51-60

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, ⁵³ you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

⁵⁴ Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” ⁵⁷ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together^[a] at him. ⁵⁸ Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

            Verse 58 says all of the members of the Sanhedrin threw their coats at a young man named Saul. Saul was a prized student of the greatest teacher in Israel—a guy named Gamaliel. He was basically an intern, a rising star in the Jewish world. The greatest student studying under the greatest teacher, but for now he was simply a coat rack for the elder members of the Sanhedrin.

Acts 8:1-4 begins to tell of the destruction that Saul would wreak on the new Christian sect. “And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. ² Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. ³ But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”

            I should be able to go up to each member of Ferris Hill Baptist Church, or any church for that matter, and ask, “What ministry are you involved with?” And everybody should have answer. Just here at FHBC we have the Clothes Closet, Food Give-away, Cold Weather Shelter, Nursery, Worship team, Media, and a bunch of different outreach efforts. Everyone should be involved in some ministry. If you are not involved in a ministry it’s like sitting in a boat and asking everyone else to row. That being said, Saul’s ministry was to ravage the Christian church, seek out all Christians—men and women, drag them into the courts, where they would either face imprisonment or death. That was his major contribution to Judaism. He was zealous for it.

The Rebellion:

Acts 9:1-9

“But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³ Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. ⁴ And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” ⁵ And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶ But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” ⁷ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. ⁸ Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹ And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.”

            Saul was a Jew’s Jew. A prodigy. Everyone knew Saul. He was going to be the next big thing, but when he had his conversion experience on the way to Damascus, and became a follower of Christ he lost everything. His family disowned him. He lost all of his friends. He spent his entire life in school studying to be the next big thing in the Jewish circle. When he came to know Christ that all went down the drain and he had to find a new way to earn a living. His entire life was changed so much that Saul even changed his identity and came to be known as Paul.

            *Side Note* What has it cost you to be a Christian? Rabbi Tokajer, who came an spoke to us a while back was cut out of his parents’ will, which was worth millions, and they had a tombstone carved and put up complete with his date of death, the day he became a follower of Christ. What has it cost you?

            Paul lost everything, but as he wrote in Philippians 3, he considered everything he lost garbage compared to knowing Christ. Phil. 3:7-11

“⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Application:

-What have you lost by becoming a Christian?

-What are you afraid to lose, which is the reason you are not giving up everything to Christ?

-Even if you have trusted Jesus to get you into Heaven, have you given up control and let Him be lord of your life?

-Paul said in Acts 20:24 that he considers his life worth nothing, if only to finish the race Jesus set out for him. Paul gave up all of his hopes, dreams, and plans. I know, because I’m right there with you all, we say things like, “I’ll serve God as long as….” Then just fill in the blank. “As long as I don’t have to quit smoking pot.”  “As long as I don’t have to quit having sex.” “As long as I don’t have to break up with Pretty Patty or Handsome Hank.” “As long as it doesn’t interrupt my plans to be a professional bull rider.” Everybody, and I mean everybody, has an “As long as….” We have to get over it.  

Leading a Rebellion: The Thief on the Cross

Leading a Rebellion: The Thief on the Cross

Rebel:

-A rebel is a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition.

The Story So Far: Most of what we’re going to be talking about involves the 12 hours leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. I want to set the scene a little bit before we get into our rebel for the evening.

-Mark 14:32-42 Jesus is under serious distress and takes His three best friends and asks them to go off into the woods a little bit and pray for Him, as He goes a little further into the woods. Three times He came back to find them sleeping.

-Mark 14:43-52 Jesus was betrayed by one of His twelve disciples, He was arrested, and watched all of His closest friends run away and abandon Him at His greatest hour of need, including the author of the Gospel of Mark, who when grab by his clothes fled away naked into the town.

-Mark 14:66-72 One of Jesus’ closest friends, Peter, denied three times to a slave girl, the lowest of the low on the social totem pole, that he even knew Jesus.

-Mark 15:16-20 The roman soldiers mocked Christ.

-Matthew 27:39-44 Everyone who passed by mocked Jesus. The religious leaders mocked Jesus. The thief crucified next to Him mocked Jesus.

-The only people standing there watching Him that were not mocking and insulting Jesus was three different Marys, and the apostle John. Everyone else had abandoned Him or was mocking Him.

-We also need to understand that the Roman Empire crucified people to make a point. When they crucified people it was in a very public place, and the person being crucified was naked. Imagine being nailed up on two beams of wood, naked as the day you were born, in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  

-Psalm 22 was written by David several hundred years before Christ was even born, but describes perfectly what Jesus suffered through on the cross. We could talk extensively about this Psalm but tonight we’re just going to focus on the scene and not what He went through.

Psalm 22:6-8 But I am a worm and not a man,
    scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me;
    they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
⁸ “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
    let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

12-13 Many bulls encompass me;
    strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
¹³ they open wide their mouths at me,
    like a ravening and roaring lion.

16-21 For dogs encompass me;
    a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet^[b]—
¹⁷ I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
¹⁸ they divide my garments among them,
    and for my clothing they cast lots.

¹⁹ But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
    O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
²⁰ Deliver my soul from the sword,
    my precious life from the power of the dog!
²¹     Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued^[c] me from the horns of the wild oxen!

The Rebellion: Now that we understand the scene a little bit better, and we can grasp just how popular of a guy Jesus was on that particular day, we can get into the rebellion.

-It was at the height of the hatred towards Jesus that one man, an unlikely hero of the story spoke up and defended the condemned Christ.

-Have you ever found yourself in a situation where everyone is ripping on someone? Picking on a defenseless kid, or the outcast for no reason at all? Everyone is piling on that person, the most one-sided mob scene ever? This type of behavior is not uncommon in school. Have you ever stood up and defended the person? Have you ever thought, “Hey, this isn’t right. I should say or do something,” but then you don’t do anything. Just sit there and watch a helpless person get humiliated.

-Also being crucified that day were at least two other people.

Luke 23:39-43 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him,^[a] saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” ⁴⁰ But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹ And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴² And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” ⁴³ And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

-One of the two criminals joined in the mocking and said, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us?” At best he was only interested in saving his skin. At worst, he was piling on and joining in on the mocking.

-But the second one, knowing that there was no one else jumping in to stop the mocking of Jesus, knowing that he was the only one with the guts to say anything said, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹ And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴² And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

-Have you ever thought about this thief’s life? Who was he? What did he do? What was his purpose in life? We can look at JBAP and say his purpose in life was to prepare the way of the Lord. We can look at Paul and say his purpose was to reach the gentile world for Christ. We could even say that the purpose of Judas’s life was to betray Jesus. Was this thief’s purpose in life to repent, and receive salvation, verified by Jesus Himself, at the very end of his life to establish the validity of deathbed conversions?

-Many people receive Christ on their deathbed. It is the first time that the ever really looked death in the face and had to actually consider the claims of Christ. If the thief on the cross didn’t ask for and receive salvation then it would leave the door wide open for all kinds of questions like: “How could he be saved if he didn’t get baptized?” or “How could he be saved if we never saw the fruits of his salvation?”

            -Nope. This cat died without getting baptized, and without doing any good deeds upon salvation, and Jesus still said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Application: There’s a real temptation to say, “Hey I’m young. I have my whole life ahead of me. I can live the way I want and get saved right before I die.” The problem is we’re not guaranteed another week, day, or even another breath. Christ could return in the snap of a finger. You could die on the way home tonight. We don’t know.

-A few years ago, we had a young man stay with us at the Cold Weather Shelter named Tommy. He stayed with us a lot. He used to use my phone in my office. Pastor Brian used to give him rides to work. We used to help him get warm clothes that would fit him, because he was a bigger guy. We even offered to help him get into a very effective center to help him get off of alcohol. Brian shared the gospel with him, and asked him several times over the weeks that we knew him if he was ready to accept Christ. He kept saying no because he was a young man, only in his 20’s, and would accept Christ when he was older and done having fun. A few weeks after the shelter was closed we got a report that a body washed ashore behind Crabs on Pensacola Beach. It was Tommy. We can only hope that in the last few moments of his life that he accepted Christ, but with the alcohol coursing through his veins, the chances of that are slim.

-You can’t wait to accept Christ. You may never get another chance.

-If there is anyone here who knows that if they died tonight that they would go to hell, please come and see me.    

A Review of What Matters Most

A Review of What Matters Most by Leonard Sweet

By Adam Koppin

            What Matters Most: How We Got The Point But Missed The Person, previously released as Out of the Question… Into the Mystery, is a scholarly work by Dr. Leonard Sweet. Sweet is the founder of SpiritVenture Ministries, a professor of Drew University, a visiting professor at George Fox University, and as the reader will find out through reading, he has, and had his finger in several other pies.

            The book is 199 pages long, 12 pages of chapter-divided “Questions for Personal Contemplation and Shared Conversation,” and several pages of endnotes. Many people dismiss the number of endnotes as evidence of the scholar’s research, but it is something I look for in a work. The author clearly has done a lot of research, and has a wealth of knowledge, that he put into this book.

            What Matters Most focuses on the Christian’s relationship with others and the world around him, so it has that awkward feel of a cross between a devotional read, and scholarly effort. I would have a hard time finding a lay Christian reading this as a devotional, it is more of a scholarly read for vocational ministers and pastors. There were a lot of passages that really made me stop, and reconsider how I have been reading scripture. Sweet asks a lot of thought provoking questions, and fills the pages with anecdotal evidence and quotes. This is what I really appreciated about the book.

            What I didn’t like about the book is that I kept having to ask myself, “What’s the point?” At times I had trouble finding the connection points between anecdotes, passages, chapters, and sections.

            The book is divided into eight sections. The first sections describes that faith is a relationship, and each section after that breaks down our relationship with God, God’s story, other people of faith, those outside of the faith, God’s creation, symbols, and spiritual world. Personally, I turned off when I got to our relationship with God’s creation as I felt it got a little “green.” But again Sweet has the ability to ask questions that really makes you think. For instance, “Why do we have more of a problem with people worshiping trees, than we do when people worship money, titles, and possessions?” That’s a good question, but my answer would be, “Because they are actually worshiping that tree.”

            The book has a lot of redemptive qualities, but on the whole, I won’t read it all the way through again, and probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone either.

                I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.