The Path to Courage
Acts 21:27-22:22
The Bible tells us there will be times when “nations are in uproar” (Ps 46) and when “nations rage” (Ps 2).” However, in my lifetime, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much international uproaring and raging as I see going on right now in our world.
(Here, I’ll describe situations in Israel, Iraq, Ukraine, as well as the rioting going on in Ferguson, MO.)
How do followers of Jesus live in the midst of such trouble? How do we pray about such things? In the western world, we often seem to act as if, when there is trouble, God has lost control and that we need to pray harder to help him regain strength. But that way of thinking is surely anti-biblical. In the Bible, God is in control – of good things and bad. And, we know that God promises “to work together all things” – ALL things – to bring about the good he intends for our lives and for our world (Rom 8:28). It is that conviction that should make us people of peace and courage in the face of whatever happens in our world. Right?
But, let’s face it, often we who claim to know the God who is sovereign over the entire universe as our Father do not have the courage and peace that the Bible says we should have. Of course, we see that peace-filled courage in the lives of many people in the Bible. One of them is the Apostle Paul. Beginning with Acts 21, the rest of Paul’s life would be filled with trouble: angry crowds, false accusations, repeated imprisonments, interrogation by kings, and shipwrecks.
Today, we will focus specifically on a day during which Paul faced an angry crowd that wanted to kill him. He was in Jerusalem and was falsely accused of desecrating the Temple. Read Acts 21-22 and you will see just what a bloodthirsty blood scene it was. But, you will also see from Acts 21:10-15 that this was a part of God’s plan. It had been prophesied that this trouble was to happen to Paul. And you will see that Paul was not anxious, or shocked or even afraid of the trouble. No, he was very much at peace. He saw this crisis as an opportunity. (John Kennedy quote – “When written in Chinese the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”)
From where did this courage with peace come? Let me propose this: Those who have peace-filled courage in the midst of life’s challenges have an ongoing personal experience with the living, almighty God.
When you meet God, you begin to walk with him. It’s like being on a journey. That’s why the first Christians were called “the Way”. A few years ago, my friend my friend, Pastor Edmund Chan, laid out for me a way to remember how God meets us and fills us with courage. The process toward courage and peace Edmund showed me seems to be true to the experience of many great men and women of God both in the Bible and in history. He used four parts of the experience with God – break in, break with, break through, and break forth. Let me show you how this happened in Paul’s life in Acts 22. May God meet you today as I do.
I. Break In: A Personal Experience of God’s Sovereign Presence and Power (Acts 22:6-9, 17-18a).
As Paul stood in front of the mob that wanted to kill him, he did not panic. At the heart of his message, he wanted them to know that he had personally experienced life-changing encounter with God through Jesus Christ. Paul began by letting the crowd know that he once did what they were doing. Just as they wanted to kill him for being a Jesus-follower, he had wanted to kill Christians. More than that, he had been a leader of those who were killing Christians.
But, one day on the road to engage in this kind of murder, something happened to Paul that turned his life around. Paul met Jesus. Or, to put it more accurately, Jesus met Paul. Vv. 6-8a. The impact of this encounter stayed with Paul for the remainder of his life. In Acts alone, Paul’s story of meeting the risen Son of God is told in ch. 9. Then, Paul himself gives his testimony before the angry mob. And, you will find that Paul told it again before a king and governor in Acts 26. I imagine Paul told about how God broke into his life countless times. Bottom line: Paul had personally met God through Jesus. His faith was real because he had really met God. This reality was the basis for the peace and courage he had. He knew God and trusted God.
Listen carefully here. I say to you today that this is the point where your own commitment to God for whatever your future holds must begin. Please note that Paul recounts a 2nd personal meeting with God in vv.17ff. And, among other encounters Paul had with God, the prophecy given to Paul in 21:10-14, though different from the others, was evidence that God knew him and had a plan for him. It’s clear to me that Paul experienced regular times of being with and hearing from God.
So, let me tell you this: The God whom we worship today is the same God Paul met. God is greater than any trouble or evil in this world. In fact, Jesus took on death and overcame it. So, he knows what he is doing and his sovereign plans to make everything right in this world includes all things – he works all things for the good he promises to bring about. When you know that, you don’t have to run from trouble or be anxious in the midst of tribulation.
And let me tell you this: God still meets people. Often, he does it in way like he did with Paul, i.e., very unsought and unexpectedly. More often he seems to meet us when we open up our minds and hearts to him.
What am I saying to you today?
· Church is a place where you are to meet God – Jesus promised in Mt 18 that when 2-3 are gathered in his name, he is present in some special way. In my own life, my most profound experiences with God have come when I’ve worshipped in church. So, I say to you -- when you come to church, come with a longing to meet God and a readiness to hear from him. In the Psalms, the people began praising and worshipping God as they marched up to the meeting place. When they arrived, they were ready to hear from God. Did you come today hoping to hear from him? When we meet God, it is the powerful, blindingly majestic God made known in Jesus that we meet.
· In your personal life, I urge you to set aside time to meet with God each day. Set aside distractions – find a time and place to meet God.
· Consider having one day of seven in which you have a special time of meeting with God. Expand your time of silence and solitude and seek the Lord.
You will find that from those times of meeting with God will come the peace-filled courage to face whatever each day holds. Jesus broke in to Paul’s life so that Paul knew from that day without any doubt that Jesus knew him, had not given up for him, and had a future for him. The rest of Paul’s life was lived in the light of having met God. Read through the rest of the book of Acts and through Paul’s letters. You will see that his life is shaped by his relationship to God. After God broke into his life, he found the courage to challenge governors and kings to their faces. He was able to take God’s message to a world in which the followers of Jesus, the people of “the Way”, were deeply in the minority. He was able to speak with confidence to a bloodthirsty mob.
Where do you get this kind of fearlessness and commitment to do difficult things with such confidence and shalom? Where will you get the courage to stand for Christ even when almost everyone else at work or in the community wants nothing to do with Him? You need to stop today to see who is truly in control. Once you have been confronted by a glimpse of this kind of God, you will find there is no situation on earth that can ever terrify you in comparison.
That’s where it begins: with a personal experience of God breaking into your life.
II. Break With: A Turning from Self and Sin to God(22:3-5,8, 16)
In Paul’s testimony in vv.3-5, Paul placed his encounter with Jesus in contrast to his life before meeting Jesus. What did Paul see? He saw that with all his education and influence and passion, he really was a misguided, ill-informed, imperfect, and murderous human being not worthy of being in God’s presence. The same thing happened in Isaiah 6 when a young Isaiah met God in the temple. Isaiah thought he was going to be destroyed. He said, “Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips.”
In v.8, Jesus told him of just one area of his sin. Paul was actually persecuting Jesus! That’s what Jesus said. And Paul knew it was true. He became aware of the fact that he had been angry man who wrongly killed people who were serving the one true God. Paul knew he had to change. He needed cleansing for his past. And he needed the crack and scars from sin to be healed up. For the rest of his life, Paul deeply believed that he was the “chief of sinners”, that if God would forgive and use him then there was hope for anyone. And Paul knew that for him to be used by God, he would have to break with his old way of life.
When you receive Christ into your life by faith, you will find, as Jesus said, it will be like springs of living water gushing up inside your heart. You receive the Holy Spirit into your unholy life and there is quite a work God has to do – and promises to do – in your life. In fact, when you allow those cracks of sin to remain in your inner being, the water of life within us will seem like its leaking out! So, you need to break with the patterns of the past. Paul had to do that. You and I will as well. Jesus leads us into new lives. As Ananias told Paul, your sins must be washed away.
I am convinced that a significant part of your growth in faith comes from identifying and confessing your sins to God -- and, through his power, turning from them. I call you today to look carefully at those areas of sin, those addictive behaviors and unhealthy habits that require healing, and surrender them daily to the Lord. You need to “break with” those patterns that destroy your life with God and your effectiveness as a witness to him in the world. Jesus did not die for our sins to leave you in our sins but to set you free from them.
But, let me tell you, that liberation from sin is a process. When you place your faith in Jesus, you are declared as being right with God on the basis of what Jesus did on the cross. He died for your sins. At the same time, you are told to begin to live no longer as children of darkness but as children of the light. This is a process. It is a path you are on that will eventually find you healed up and complete in Christ. So, now, in your times of meeting with God, take time to do what Paul did, i.e.. Take time to identify the cracks – the sins – in your life. Confess your sins to him. 1 Jn 1:9.
III. Break Through: An Intentional Decision to Surrender to God (22:10,18b21a).
Over the past few months, I keep meeting people who have started coming to LAC but who have not yet simply said, “I believe. I am a follower of Jesus. I will no longer live for myself but for him who died and rose again for me.” Some of you are still seeking – but not yet surrendered.
I want you to see that when Paul saw his need for cleansing from sin, and he knew that Jesus both knew him and was ready to forgive and welcome him, Paul simply surrendered in v.10: “What shall I do, Lord?” Paul would later say about this, “When I met the one who died for me, I could no longer live for myself but for him… (2 Cor 5).” And I love Ananias’ directness in v. 16: What are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on Jesus’ name.’ And Paul did just what Ananias said. For the rest of his life, Paul would be a committed follower of God.
Listen carefully again: What made Paul so ready to do whatever God wanted him to do -- and so quickly? I think that Paul was shocked to see himself as having done so much wrong after his years of self-centeredness and pride. And, he was even more shocked that the Jesus who knew all he had done still love him and forgave him. As Tim Keller puts it, He learned that he was “more wicked than he had ever dared to imagine and, at the same time, more loved than he ever dared to hope.” So, let me tell you a basic biblical truth that I speak often about: The main motivation for Christian commitment is gratitude.
Do know the story in Luke 7 of the woman who bathed the feet of Jesus with her tears, not even caring what other people might think about her? Jesus’ verdict about her was this: “She loves much because she has been forgiven much.” Those who sense that they are forgiven little, love little. This is why new Christians are often the most passionately courageous in their walk with God. They are so grateful to God for His gift of salvation that they will do anything for God.
I have found that, in my walk with God, I need to surrender my life again and again to God. I am learning to take time to remember in my quiet times that God’s grace toward me is as amazing now as it was the first time I believed. An, I surrender my life anew and fully to God. I call these decisions conscious and intentional acts of faith. We begin our walk with God by surrendering in faith to him. And, we live each day in such faith. When trouble comes, I think you will have to go to meet God – to remember his love and grace to you – and then to tell him, “Lord, I don’t know what you are doing but I trust you. And I will obey you until I know more. Lord, I surrender all.” That’s a breakthrough.
IV. Break Forth: A Personal Experience of God’s Sending (22:10b-15,21),
Read vv.10b – 15. Then there was a 2nd meeting with God and see v. 21. The result of God breaking through into our lives is always that he calls us into service -- always to give witness to Jesus in this world – and always to show his love and justice to others. That surely was true of Paul. It’s almost unimaginable: This Jewish trained rabbi, educated as a Pharisee, was to carry the gospel to Gentiles. It was an unlikely calling as the world sees things. Even Paul thought that surely his main calling from God would be to carry the gospel to the Jews. He kept saying that to God. He told God, “I used to be just like these people here in Jerusalem. I’m the one they will listen to.” But, God sent him to the nations. And he went – and we know how God used him.
It is quite amazing, when we think about it, that this same Lord Jesus who could have called 10,000 angels to do his bidding chose instead to send a flawed man who had killed people to do his work. That’s very encouraging to me and I hope it is to you. God uses ordinary people who are surrendered to Him to do His extraordinary work.
But what God called Paul to do was very hard. As I told you, ministry would continue to be hard from this mob scene in Jerusalem through to the end of his life when he probably was beheaded by the emperor Nero. Would you have continued to obey God joyously and courageously as Paul did? I think there would be quite a few who would be willing to be this kind of committed Christian as long as the hard parts would not last long. But Paul had no doubt about the fact that for the rest of his life he would be placed into challenging places. He would not have many times of ease in his ministry. Amazingly, the hard times he faithfully endured opened the door to his greatest word. Paul’s imprisonment after this Jerusalem mob scene was the first step in his being able to meet a governor and king and give witness to Jesus. His times of unjust incarceration led to many of the books in the New Testament being written, books that nourish our souls and direct our lives. But, Paul could not see all that when the trouble was at hand. He only knew he had to live for Jesus and to give witness to Jesus no matter what happened in his daily circumstances.
There are some in the Western world who say that God would never call a person to such hard tasks and places. What do you think? What do you think God might be calling you to do right now? Are you open to anything and ready to say, “What would you have me do, Lord?”
I travel to so many places in the world and see how hard it is for many people to be faithful to Jesus. Anywhere in the world, you can ask the faithful Christian wife whose unbelieving husband is no nearer Christ than he was ten years ago about whether its always easy to follow God’s call. Ask the missionary who has invested his or her life in an unresponsive area and has yet to see the first convert to Christ. Ask our brothers and sisters in Egypt and Iraq whether it is always easy to remain faithful to Jesus. All of these people will understand the kind of commitment Paul had to have to bring God’s message to his nation.
Now, sometimes, we see great success. Sometimes, our businesses flourish and we attain awards. Thank God for those things. But I am asking in the light of this Word today whether you will be committed to Christ even when the going is tough.
And I’m convinced that you will only possess the peace-filled courage that should be a consistent part of a Christian’s life is when you have allowed God to break into your life, have begun to break with the sins for which Jesus died, have had that break through of saying, “All that I am is now yours, O Lord – and are ready to break forth as his representative to your family, friends and community.
Those who have peace-filled courage in the midst of life’s challenges have an ongoing personal experience with the living, almighty God.
Do you? Are you meeting with God and finding strength in him. Then, the nations may rage and the world may seem to be crumbling -- but you know the God who made the world and is working all things together for good. When you know him and fear only displeasing him, then you will have nothing to fear.
To His glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor
Greg Waybright • Copyright 2014, Lake Avenue Church