Acts 24 "The Solution to an Accusing Conscience"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful

that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either

by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for

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deal with the types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

Let's just bow our heads in prayer. Father, we give you thanks and praise for Jesus. We give

you thanks and praise that He died on the cross as our substitute to be our Savior. We give you thanks

and praise that there is no human being so far from you, no human being who has done anything so evil

that your Son's death upon the cross is not sufficient to save them. That you have and can and will forgive

even the worst when they come to you, asking for your forgiveness and for Jesus to be their Savior and

their Lord. So Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would bring these precious truths home to us in a

very powerful way as we look at your Word. May they form our heart and how we live. And we ask these

things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

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guilty person or stop the bad thing from happening.

And most of the more popular books in that genre

have a bit of a semi-tortured hero.

Somebody who in fact is struggling

because they've done some horrible things

and they're a bit uncomfortable with their conscience,

so to speak, as they try to deal with that other issue.

And so it's just, I think it's now viewed as a very

common place of contemporary wisdom that people need

to learn how to forgive themselves.

But the problem is, like why is it that this is going on

in the culture?

And you know, the problem is, and many of us are probably

living with this right now, some of us have seasons

in our lives and sometimes those seasons of our lives

can last a very, very, very long time.

When we have a conscience that accuses us constantly.

Our conscience isn't quiet and it isn't settled.

But it's as if there's something inside of our head

with a loud voice that accuses us over and over and over again.

And it affects how we relate to other people.

And it affects our sleep.

It just deeply affects us.

And on top of that, some of us maybe live with,

it's not just a voice inside of our head which is accusing us

very shrilly.

But we actually might live or see regularly somebody who accuses us.

And that is how a lot of us live.

And I think it's in that context that our cultural wisdom

is that we have to learn to forgive ourselves.

It's an attempt to quieten that conscience which accuses us,

which says you are no good.

You are terrible.

You always do terrible things.

Did you see what you just did?

That just shows how bad you are.

I am bad.

You are bad.

It's just over and over and over in our head.

So how do we live with that?

Well, actually, believe it or not,

the Bible text that was just read by Josiah,

on one hand, probably some of you find the text very, very boring.

And in some ways, it is a bit of a boring text for a lot of us Canadians.

It might not be boring for lawyers

because of the two legal arguments summarized in it.

And I don't know if you picked up that actually within that,

there's not only something which is in the midst of that story,

which some of us would have found boring.

It's actually a thing that if you understood what he just said,

you'd go, whoa, whoa, he just said that?

Because he touches on something which for many people in our culture,

we find, they find is a problem with Christianity.

But it's actually in this story,

if you actually enter into what's going on in the story,

there's a key building block of solving the problem of accusing conscience.

And the key building block is vastly better

than the futile attempt to forgive yourself.

So open your Bibles.

Let's have a look and see what it says.

And we're looking at Acts chapter 24.

Acts 24 · chapter mention

And if you're watching or you're here

and you haven't been to our church before,

we preach through books of the Bible.

We're going through the book of Acts.

It's an...

And we've started chapter one.

We're going to go right till the end.

And we're looking at chapter 24.

And what has just sort of happened here

is that Paul, who's an apostle,

he's in Roman custody.

He's been accused of things that he hadn't done.

There's been a mob that tried to kill him.

There's been a plot to try to kill him

and to save him from the plot.

The Romans, when they discover he's also a Roman citizen,

they've brought him into still not protective custody.

It's still criminal custody, not protective custody.

It's criminal custody.

And they've brought him to the capital of the whole region

before the governor of the whole region

so that there could be a type of trial

about what should be done about Paul.

And that's where we are in the story.

And so let's begin at chapter 24, verse one.

And here's how it goes.

And after five days...

So the five days is the plot to murder Paul.

So five days after the plot to murder Paul,

the high priest Ananias came down with some of the elders.

They're sort of...

Elders is a good translation,

but what you should understand,

it's a bit of a formal title for the nobility.

Okay, so Ananias, who's the high priest,

has come down with some other people of the priestly elite,

and he's also brought some of the secular elite,

so to speak, down for this trial.

So they're very invested in finding Paul guilty

so that he will be killed.

That's...

If you don't understand that it's all about Paul being killed,

you won't understand the drama of the text.

By the way, I planned it exactly

that there'd be kids coming in at a dramatic moment like that.

It takes lots of extra planning to do that.

So verse 21 again.

And after five days,

the high priest Ananias came down with some of the elders,

or the lay nobility,

and a spokesman, one Tertullus,

basically a lawyer,

because it's going to be a trial.

And they laid before the governor

their case against Paul.

And when he had been summoned,

Tertullus began to accuse Paul,

saying...

Now, just before we go any more into it,

just a bit of an aside,

in terms of the historical accuracy of the book,

Ananias, the high priest,

is...

They know a lot about him

because a Jewish historian wrote about him.

And at the end of this,

we're going to discover that it's Felix,

who was the Roman governor,

and they know a lot about Felix

because the Roman historian Tacitus

talked about him.

And if you're very curious,

you can go into some academic commentaries,

and they'll talk about how Tacitus lived

and Ananias lived

and their conflicts

and all of that other stuff.

There's this whole other subtext going on

in the bottom of it.

But the bottom line is

that if you know the historical record

about these two men,

you'll understand that what happens in this story

is completely plausible and reasonable.

There's no reason historically to doubt

that this actually happened

and that this is an accurate state of affairs.

So what's their argument

as to why Felix should put Paul to death?

This is life and death.

It begins then in verse 2, halfway through.

Tertullus says,

Since through you we enjoy peace,

much peace,

and since by your foresight,

most excellent Felix,

reforms are being made for this nation.

In every way and everywhere,

we accept this with all gratitude.

So basically, this is just a summary.

Like in real life,

he spent 20 minutes, 25 minutes,

shameless flattery.

That's what he would have done.

And by the way,

we know that flattery works.

Otherwise, people would stop using flattery.

But it's just shameless flattery.

They just summarized it very briefly.

And then it continues, verse 4,

But to detain you no further,

I beg you in your kindness

to hear us briefly.

For we found this man a plague,

one who stirs up riots.

Sorry, that's verse 5.

For we have found this man a plague,

one who stirs up riots

among all the Jewish people

throughout the world,

and is a ringleader of the sect

of the Nazarenes.

Now, just pause here.

The word translated is plague.

It's a very good word,

but it's actually a technical legal term.

And so what the charge is,

is they've said,

the word for plague

could also be translated

as public enemy.

And so the charge that they're going,

they're not going after anything

religious with Paul.

Paul knows that it's,

for religious reasons,

that they're after him.

But they don't use that.

They don't use anything spiritual.

They go after a very, very,

very serious crime,

and it's the crime of sedition.

That Paul is a well-traveled public enemy.

That's what the word plague is.

And so you can get it.

It's a plague.

He's a public enemy

that's just going to spread

and spread and spread

unless you put him to death.

And even when they say

that he's a ringleader

of the sect of the Nazarenes,

that's furthering their claim

that he is a public menace.

Why?

Because they say you follow Jesus.

And who's Jesus?

Well, Jesus was executed

20-some years earlier

for being the king of the Jews.

He's been accused of sedition.

Verse 6,

he even tried to profane the temple.

So now they're sort of

giving him some arguments.

He even tried to profane the temple, right?

He's a troublemaker.

But we seized him.

We're the good guys.

We're the good guys.

We seized him.

Verse 8,

By examining him yourself,

you will be able to find out from him

about everything of which we accuse him.

The Jews also joined the charge

affirming that all these things

were so offering of our evidence.

And the thing to remember

in all of this

is that in Roman trials,

you are not innocent

until proven guilty.

That's why Paul is still

not in protective custody,

but in criminal custody.

He is not innocent.

They've made this accusation against him.

In Canada,

at least,

I think still primarily,

I don't have to say a single word

in my defense

if I'm accused of that.

They have to prove the case.

Not there.

Paul has to prove his innocence.

It's a very, very clever legal ploy.

So what's Paul going to do about it?

Well, verse 10,

And when the governor

had nodded to him to speak,

Paul replied.

Paul has trained in rhetoric.

He's going to defend himself.

And he says this,

Knowing that for many years

you have been a judge

over this nation,

I cheerfully make my defense.

Now, by the way,

we don't know if when he says cheerfully

he's, like most of us,

his knees are going like this

and there's sweat pouring down,

you know,

but he said at least cheerfully.

That's, I guess,

maybe his aspiration

rather than what he's actually

really feeling right then.

We'll say that again.

I cheerfully make my defense.

You can verify

that it is not more than 12 days

since I went up to worship

in Jerusalem

and that they did not find me

disputing with anyone

or stirring up a crowd

either in the temple

or in the synagogues

or in the city.

And what Paul's going to do

is he's going to try

to ignore the sedition thing.

He's going to just say

there's no evidence of this

and he's going to try

to bring it back

to a type of religious issue.

But here's the point.

Unless you're a lawyer

and you're really interested

in the strategy,

we're coming to the part

which is that

we just read over

but actually

we should understand

that that's like a woe moment.

Okay?

Verse 13.

Neither can they prove to you

what they now bring up against me.

But this I confess to you

that according to the way,

it's an early way

of describing Christianity

as the way,

which they call a sect,

I worship the God

of our fathers,

believing everything

laid down by the law

and written by the prophets.

That's why Christians,

I sometimes shock

some of my Jewish friends

or acquaintances,

they don't,

there's a lot of Jewish people

who don't understand

that Christians believe

the Old Testament

is part of their Bible.

I mean,

I say that to some

and they go,

like,

they make a bit of a surprise

to me.

But it's,

Christians believe

the Old Testament

is part of the Bible.

Verse 15.

Having a hope in God,

now here's the hope,

which these men accept,

okay,

what's Paul's hope?

which these men themselves

accept,

the Jews,

that there will be

a resurrection

of both the just

and the unjust.

Now,

pause here.

That's,

this is a woe moment.

Woe.

This is the language.

Paul

is a nobody.

Paul's a nobody.

I mean,

it's sort of one of those

ironies of history

that today,

unless you happen

to go to a church

and they happen

to preach on Acts,

or unless you're

into ancient Roman society,

you have no idea

who Felix is

or Ananias.

Paul has schools

named after him,

cities are named after him,

but back then,

he's a nobody,

complete and utter nobody,

surrounded by all

of the powerful people

in criminal custody,

and he's looking,

the governor,

whose nation

has conquered

the Jewish people,

and he's saying,

this is my hope.

My hope is

that there will one day

be a true

and greater court,

and every human being,

the implication,

you too,

are going to stand

before the triune God

and be judged,

and not everybody

is going to be found

innocent,

and by him saying

it's a hope,

his belief

is that when

that final,

true,

and greater court

comes,

called by the triune God,

every single person

who's ever lived

is going to appear

before it,

some will be found

guilty,

and this leads into

the whole doctrine

of eternal punishment,

but my hope is

that I will stand

in that judgment,

and he says that

to the Roman governor.

That's a woe moment.

I bet the Jewish people

went,

woe,

and then they probably

chuckled,

now we got him.

He's just insulted

Felix.

He's just called

into question

everything that

Felix is doing.

He's implying

that there's a chance

that Felix,

when he appears

before the triune God,

will be found guilty

and judged by God.

They're chuckling

to themselves,

and who knows,

maybe some of Paul's

friends are thinking,

Paul,

that's not a smart move.

Paul is playing

for bigger stakes.

In a sense,

what's going through

Paul's heart

is what does it

profit me

to stand justified

before God

on the judgment day

when I didn't give

Felix an opportunity

to also stand

and be found

justified

on the last day

of judgment.

What's far more

important?

In Felix's mind,

he's probably going,

hmm,

this is interesting.

I'm a Roman.

You're a Jew

under my thumb.

I'm a governor.

You're a nobody.

I'm rich.

You're a nobody.

I'm powerful.

You're a nobody.

My brother

personally knows

the emperor.

Da-da-da-da.

You're a nobody.

You're in my court.

You're a nobody.

I get to decide

your fate.

You're a nobody.

That's probably

what's going through

his mind.

But Paul makes

this very,

very bold claim.

And as we're going

to see for a moment,

it's going to be

something that he

doubles down on

in a couple of minutes.

Let's look what happens.

Verse 16.

So,

this is what he says.

And here's where

it touches in

with what I said.

It's actually something

which is important

to understand

the issue

of a severely

accusing conscience.

Look what he says

in verse 16.

So,

he has this hope

that every single

human being

will appear

before the judgment

seat of the triune God.

This,

by the way,

is not a popular

doctrine in Canada,

in case you're not

aware of that.

And my hope is

that when that happens,

I will be declared

innocent.

And then,

look,

he directly connects

this to his conscience.

Look at verse 16.

So,

I always take pains

to have a clear conscience

before both God

and human beings.

Continues.

Now,

after several years,

I came to bring alms

to my nation.

In other words,

rather than coming

to bring trouble,

I brought money

to help the poor

and to present offerings.

While I was doing this,

they found me purified

in the temple

without any crowd

or tumult.

It's a religious question,

not political.

But some Jewish people

from Western Turkey,

they ought to be here

before you

and make an accusation

should they have

anything against me.

In other words,

none of these people

actually witnessed

the thing

that got me into custody.

All of their testimony

is completely

and utterly valid.

The lawyers amongst

will say that it's hearsay

and hence doesn't have

any place in the court.

Verse 20,

or else let these men

themselves say

what wrongdoing

they found

when I stood

before the council.

Other than this one thing

that I cried out

while standing among them,

it is respect.

Look at this again.

To the resurrection

of the dead

that I am in trial

to you this day.

He returns to it,

although obviously

in a bit of a different tenor,

hinting at why

he has a conscience

before him.

Now, how does it all

play out?

Well, I'm going to get

into this whole issue

of the judgment,

but we need to see

the rest of the story

because it's going to

come up a third time

in the text.

Look at verse 22.

But Felix,

having a rather

accurate knowledge

of the way,

put them off,

that's the Ananias

and the Jewish elite,

by saying,

when Lysias,

the tribune,

comes down,

I will decide

your case.

Then he gave orders

to the centurion

that Paul should be

kept in custody

but have some liberty

that none of his friends

should be prevented

from attending

to his needs.

Paul is still going

to remain

in criminal custody.

Verse 24,

after some days,

Felix came with

his wife Drusilia,

who was Jewish,

and Felix sent

for Paul

and heard him speak.

Now, what does

Paul speak about?

Third time,

he talks about

faith in Christ Jesus

and as Paul reasoned

about righteousness

and self-control

and the coming judgment.

Felix was alarmed

and said,

go away for the present.

When I get an opportunity,

I will summon you.

At the same time,

Felix was hoping

that money would be given

to him by Paul.

In other words,

he's hoping for a bribe.

So he sent for Paul

often and conversed

with him.

For two years,

when two years had elapsed,

Felix was succeeded

by Porcius Festus

and desiring to do

the Jewish elites

a favor,

Felix left Paul

in prison.

So,

what's going on?

Well,

on one hand,

what's going on here

in this story

is,

here's the problem.

So,

on one hand,

how you can read this story.

This is a story

that,

on one hand,

probably none of us

have been in

this exact situation,

but many of us

have been in situations

which are similar,

which is that

you're innocent,

you have the evidence

on your side,

but your enemies

are powerful,

they are insistent

upon your defeat,

they will not listen

to reason,

and the ones

who can judge it

are corrupt.

Or,

in other words,

what,

they're corrupt,

that's maybe a strong word.

Sometimes we've all been,

and maybe it's been

in a church,

maybe it's been

in school,

maybe it's been

a place of our employment,

where the person

who makes the decision,

rather than looking

at the facts of the case,

does this,

and sees which way

is the wind blowing

from the powerful.

And that's what's

going on in the story.

So,

on one hand,

it's a very,

very human story.

We've all probably

been in some situations

similar to this.

But the big issue

is,

what does this have to do

with accusing conscience,

and how on earth

can this idea

that human beings

are going to appear

before the judgment seat

of God,

and be judged by Him,

every single human being,

how can this actually

be helpful to anything?

In fact,

I think if you'd ask,

and it wouldn't matter

if you were in

the most trendy coffee house,

it wouldn't matter

if you were in a Tim Hortons,

or everything in between,

it wouldn't matter

if you went into

an elite cocktail bar,

or like a low-level pub,

many people would say

that they could never

believe in a God

who judges.

That's one of the problems

I have with Christianity,

George.

You believe there's going

to be a final judgment,

some people are going

to go to eternal punishment,

others are going

to be saved,

I could never believe

in a God

or a religion

that talks about

stuff like that.

Paul is tripled down

on this particular topic.

So how can this actually

be part of the help?

Well, here's the first thing

to think about,

and this might be something

you might want to say.

Maybe if you're thinking

these very things yourself,

this is something here

you'd consider.

Or if it comes up

in conversation,

it's come up in conversation

with me, by the way.

Sometimes people,

after I've talked to them

about Christianity

for a while,

have brought this issue

up to me,

and in a second way,

because they'll also say,

okay, by the way, George,

you actually think,

you think you're going

to stand in the judgment day

and I won't?

And you can sort of

see them smirk,

like, really?

You think you're

that much better than me?

Like, really?

And the implication is

that I'm very deluded.

But here's some things

we could say.

The first one is this.

Everybody wants to live

in a moral universe.

We want to live

in a moral universe

at a very fundamental level.

If you watch

the Netflix series,

it's very, very dark.

I'm not recommending it.

It's called

American Primeval.

But one of the things

which makes that series

so dark

is it's a fundamentally

amoral place.

And when it's

an amoral world,

all that matters

is who has the gun,

who will kill

to get what they want.

We want to live

in a moral universe

at a very fundamental level.

But here's the question.

How on earth

can we live

in a moral universe

if there's not

a final judgment?

You can't have

a moral universe

without a final judgment.

If there's no final judgment,

even if there's morality,

it's not a moral universe.

I'm not going to give you

any spoiler alerts,

but occasionally,

there'll be movies

that you can watch.

And, you know,

in hindsight,

I'll go back and think,

oh, it's one of those movies

that had like a 96%

critics liked it

and 4% viewers liked it.

And that should tell you

something right off the bat

if you have a movie

that's reviewed like that.

And it's a movie

where at the end of the movie,

the victims die,

the persecutors live,

the oppressors live,

those oppressing die.

The people who do

horrendous things,

they live,

and the people

who've been trying

to do the good thing,

they all die.

And you end up

watching a movie like that

and you think,

this is not like

a moral movie.

Like, I think to myself,

I've wasted my time

watching a movie like this.

If there's no type

of final judgment

in the world,

and all you have

is this life,

even if you have a sense

that there is right and wrong,

it's not a moral universe

unless there's

a final judgment.

People don't think about that.

And then the second thing

about it is about,

and it goes without

being a moral universe,

is you can't have

a moral universe

if there's no guilt,

if there's nothing

like conscience

which is built into you.

And here's a problem

for our culture.

You know,

the most successful species

are like ants

and cockroaches

and they have no conscience.

Conscience doesn't do anything

to increase your chance

of your species surviving,

but we have consciences

and we actually really

need to have a conscience

and we need to have guilt.

I've told some of you

this story before.

I haven't used it

for a couple of years,

but a couple of years ago

there was an interview

with a well-known actress

and they said

if there's one thing

you could change about life,

what would you change?

And she said

if I could change anything

in the world,

it would be to get rid of guilt,

that I have no sense

of guilt whatsoever.

And the interviewer

sort of nodded.

I mean, obviously,

I'm reading it,

but you could tell

they were nodding

with approval,

but she just said

she wanted to be

a sociopath.

I don't know

if it's a sociopath

or a psychopath.

Whatever one it is

that has no guilt.

She just said,

I want to be a psychopath.

And the other person

nodded as if,

like, this is a really good idea.

It's not a good idea

to be a psychopath.

Psychopaths don't have

that experience of guilt.

You see,

part of our rejection,

the human rejection

of the idea

that there is

a final judgment

is the sense

that if there is,

you won't pass.

Only the raging narcissist

think,

oh yeah, that's good.

I'm looking forward to it.

Look at my dimple.

Dimple?

I don't know if I have dimples,

you know.

You know, look at my scars.

God, I'm in for sure, right?

And especially, you know,

for those of us

who have accusing consciences,

this whole idea

that we will appear

before the judgment seat of God

just seems to

even be more depressing

and create even more despair.

But is Paul a narcissist?

Like, as I said,

when I've talked

to some people occasionally,

it hasn't happened

in a couple of years,

they directly asked me,

do you think I'm going

to go to hell

if I don't believe in Jesus?

I wasn't expecting

that question.

And I started

to give an answer.

And the person said,

so you think you won't?

You'll pass the judgment,

but I won't?

And that's when

they just looked.

like there's something

hopeless about me

if I think that's

what's going to happen to me.

Well,

the Bible is wise.

I mean, I've already

pointed out to you,

you can't live

in a moral universe.

You want to live

in a moral universe,

but you can't live in one

if there is no final judgment.

Then by death,

it is not going to be

a moral universe.

And you need to have conscience.

If there's no type of conscience,

then you want to live

in a world filled

with psychopaths.

And if there's in fact

something in your conscience

that knows that

if you actually stood

before the God

as described in the Bible,

you wouldn't pass.

Well,

you see,

here's how Canadians

think a little bit

about this whole question,

about whether I would stand

or not,

or they would.

The average Canadian

thinks something like this.

We sort of think

a little bit

as if God

is going to rank people

sort of the way

he ranked stadiums.

If you go to a hockey game,

how the stadium is ranked.

And so the rich people

can afford the seats

really close to the ice.

And the poor people

get the seats

in the nosebleed section.

And so how God's

final judgment

is going to be

is that

at the end of the day,

everybody's seated

in the stadium.

And the line goes

horizontally across

all human beings

and those human beings

which are below this line

in the expensive seats,

the good seats,

they pass.

The people in the

not good seats,

well,

they're the ones

who are going to fail.

But the Bible

says something

which is in fact

why our conscience,

only the Bible

actually explains

how that type of thinking

is not accurate thinking.

It doesn't even fit

with human experience.

You see,

because the Bible

actually says

that the line

between good and evil

goes right down

every human being.

It's not

a horizontal line.

It's a vertical line.

And you see,

the Bible doesn't say

that human beings

never do anything good,

but it does say

that we can never

only do things

which are good

because there is

this line down

the center

of every human being.

And so I would have

to say to that person

who said to me,

you need to understand

something about Christianity.

I know that in and of myself

I could never stand

before the judgment seat

of God.

And in fact,

actually,

if I have ever acted

in such a way

that I

looked like I thought

that somehow

just because of who I am

I would stand

before that,

I apologize to you.

Because that's not true.

It goes right down me.

And it goes right down you.

See, the other type of thing

which makes this doctrine

a little bit hard

is that

is the whole idea

of presumption.

You see,

as the average Canadian,

even if they think

about this as a topic,

what they tend to think of

is that it's sort of

like university students

at the beginning

of a term.

And if a university student

at the beginning

of a term said,

I already know

that I got an A plus,

you'd go, what?

Like, you're still

having to do the papers.

You haven't done the exams.

The final mark

isn't in yet.

But once again,

the fact that we are

troubled about

standing before God

in fact is a hint

that what the Bible

says is true.

And the Bible says

is that for every one

of you,

both in Christ

and out of Christ,

the final mark

has already been given.

Paul says to the church

in Rome,

for all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God.

The final mark

has been given.

My hope of not failing

is not based

on my performance.

See, what is the biblical...

The biblical hope

is this.

That unworthy

and as undeserving

that I am.

I don't know

who first said this,

but somebody said

that mercy

is not getting

what you deserve.

So, you get shown mercy

when you deserve something,

but you don't get

what you deserve.

But grace

is even greater.

It tops up mercy.

You get

what you don't deserve.

You get

what you don't deserve.

And my only hope

in life and death

is that I have one

who's taken my place

and died in my place,

who lived the life

that I should live,

but wasn't able to live,

who died the death

that I deserve,

but he taps me

on the shoulder.

And if you're here

outside of Christ

and if you have

a visual imagination,

as you hear me,

I am now speaking

as his ambassador,

his representative,

and I want to tell you

that he is tapping you

on the shoulder

right now

and saying,

Bob, Sue,

I'm willing

to take your place.

let me stand for you.

I will take the doom

that you deserve

and I will offer you

the destiny

that I deserve.

And I will do it

because I love you.

Because I love you.

And you might say to God,

Jesus,

Jesus,

do you realize

what I've done?

Do you realize

how terrible

a person I am?

I don't want to say

this to other people.

To other people,

I say that I'm a good person,

but do you realize

in my heart

I know that I have done

horrendous things?

Do you realize

that I have a conscience

that screams at me

every night

so that I cannot sleep?

Sometimes I can hardly

hear you

because my conscience

is screaming at me

so loud.

Do you realize

what I have done?

Do you realize

what I have failed to do?

And I can only speak now

as the herald of Christ

and say that Christ

will say to you

as he taps you

on the shoulder,

yes,

I know.

Yes,

I know.

And he'll show you

his hands

with the nail print

and maybe he'll show you

the side

where the spear went in

and he say,

I did these for you.

I will take your place

if you will but let me.

If you will but let me.

You see,

the thing is about

the whole story

of Christianity

is it fits this riddle

of our existence

that on one hand,

yeah,

that God himself

who sees all things

that only he

can truly forgive

and it's not just

a matter of forgiveness

of the bad things

having been dealt with

in Christ

as he takes our place,

but it's also a matter

of him clothing us

with his accomplishment.

Paul might have had

in the back of his mind

is one of those times

when he spoke

to Felix.

Felix,

I'm sorry I didn't have it

put up on the screen,

but if you have your Bibles,

it's a very famous text.

It's Isaiah chapter 53.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

I'll just read part of it.

It's verses 1 to 6.

Who has believed

what he has heard from us

and to whom

has the arm of the Lord

been revealed?

This is a prophecy

600 years before Christ

and Isaiah prophetically saying

for Jesus,

for he grew up before him

like a young plant

and like a root

out of dry ground.

Speaking of Jesus,

he had no former majesty

that we should look at him

and no beauty,

humanly speaking,

that we should desire him.

Jesus was a nobody

from Nazareth,

which is nowhereville.

And Jesus was despised

and rejected by human beings.

He was a man of sorrows

and acquainted with grief.

He would have buried his father.

And in those days,

who knows how many brothers

or sisters that Mary bore

that died in childhood

that Jesus would have helped

to bury

as the oldest son.

He was despised

and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows

and acquainted with grief.

And as one

from whom men hide their faces,

that's what they did

on the cross,

he was despised

and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows.

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was wounded

for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement

that brought us peace.

And with his stripes,

we are healed.

You are healed.

If you put your faith in him,

you are healed.

All like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Brothers and sisters,

this is the Christian hope.

You will appear

before the judgment seat of God.

There is no hope other than this.

There is no moral universe

without a last judgment.

There is no explanation

of your conscience

unless it is part of God's good gift

to call you to himself.

And there is no savior

and no salvation

other than him taking your place

there is none.

But he offers it for you.

There is no sin so bad

that he did not die to cover it.

None.

And that is why

it is the beginning

of the quietening of our conscience

to know this.

A couple of things in closing.

If you struggle

with a conscience

that screams at you,

there is the body of Christ

who can pray for you.

Share that burden

and ask people to pray for you.

Sometimes this problem

is a truly spiritual problem.

there is a devil.

There is a devil.

And one of the names

of the devil

and all of the evil spirits

is the accuser.

The accuser.

Once again,

you have your own authority.

You can say,

in the name of Jesus,

evil spirit,

be gone from me.

In the name of Jesus,

be silenced.

In the name of Jesus,

don't speak.

And if that does not help,

you have brothers and sisters

in Christ

who can pray for you.

There is freedom.

And a third thing you can do

is to meditate upon

the finished work of Christ.

Meditate upon texts

like Romans 8.

There is no condemnation now

for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Meditate upon the end

of Romans 8.

Will this separate me

from the love of God

or this or this or this or this?

No, nothing will.

Meditate upon it.

Claim that as your promise.

Ask people to pray

that you will take that heart

as it brings the gospel home to you.

What Christ has done for you.

And a fourth thing

that you can do

is very,

it's a thing we can do today.

It's the wonderful thing

about celebrating

the Lord's Supper.

The Lord's Supper

is a reminder to us

of what Jesus did

for us on the cross.

And that when we put

our faith and trust in Him,

it's like you enter

into a new covenant with Him,

one where He will never let you go.

And it's not,

I'm not going to get up

and say,

by the way,

only the people

in the expensive seats

can come forward

for communion.

All you losers

in the nosebleed section,

you have to stay back.

I don't say,

by the way,

all of you really,

you know,

scummy people

who haven't had

a very good week,

like you have to stay

in your seats.

No.

The Lord's Supper

is this visual reminder

of what Christ has done

for us on the cross.

It's an opportunity

for us to reflect again

upon what the gospel

has accomplished for you.

And it is an invitation

for you to come and say,

you know what,

that person probably

isn't any better than me

and they're receiving communion

and that person

isn't any better than me

and George isn't any better than me

and they're all receiving communion.

And Jesus is,

George is being Christ's herald

and say,

come.

And I will come

and I will feed on Christ.

And it reminds me

that it's,

his blood has covered me

and entered me.

His body has entered me.

I can feed on him spiritually

and I can remember

with the invitation

that the words of the accuser

is wrong.

That Christ welcomes me.

One final piece of advice.

I mean,

you know,

part of the whole problem

with accusing conscience

is we can't go back

in time to fix things.

And one of the things,

upon all those other four things

which I've told you

is that one of the things

that we can just do

is pray.

If there's some other thing

of amendment of life

that we can do,

then the Holy Spirit

should lead you into it.

You see,

the wonderful thing

about the gospel

is that once it becomes

more real to your heart,

it doesn't become an excuse

for you to do more

bad things.

It becomes a secure,

emotional,

and intellectual place

to stand

where you can ask

the Holy Spirit,

you can ask Christ

to make clear to you

what you did

and what you did not do wrong

and ask for his help

to make things right

and to walk towards it.

And if there's nothing

you can do,

well then,

just to at least pray

into the situation.

You see,

the gospel doesn't give you

a license to sin.

It provides this strong

emotional and intellectual place

and communal place

because we are a congregation

of the cross

to support each other.

So sinners,

if you're in Christ,

you are redeemed.

And when it comes time

for communion,

come on up

and remember Christ.

I invite you to stand.

Let's pray.

Father,

your Son is a wonderful

and beautiful Savior.

We give you thanks

and praise

that though evil

runs through the center

of every single human being

and will be there

to some extent

until we see you

face to face

and are glorified

to be like Christ

and to see you

face to face

unashamed,

basking in your beauty,

the beauty of your smile

and of your goodness

and of your love

and beauty

and all of that,

Father.

We give you thanks

and praise

that your Son

died to save us,

that he died

to take away

that sin

and that shame

that he dealt

with it on the cross

and that he clothes us

when we put our faith

and trust in him,

that not just him,

he doesn't just take away

the sin

and the punishment

our sin deserves,

but that he clothes us

in his righteousness,

he clothes us

in his beauty,

he clothes us

in his goodness

and that he calls us

to be part of his people

in a covenant

with him forever.

Father,

we are not worthy

of anything like this.

We are dependent

completely upon

your goodness,

completely dependent

upon your goodness

and we ask,

we are so thankful,

Father,

that you do not

have us walk alone

but that we can be part

of a community

centered around the cross

in Christ

and that week by week

we are invited

to remember

what he did

for us on the cross.

We are reminded

to meet other people

that we can ask

to pray for us

and we can come

and receive

and feed spiritually

upon Christ

Sunday after Sunday.

Father,

we thank you

for the grace

in Christ

and the means

of grace

in Sunday services

and Holy Communion

and we ask,

that you bring

the gospel home

more and more deeply

to us

so that,

Father,

out of that,

out of that,

we might deal

with the crap

in our lives

knowing what

the final judgment

is.

And we ask all

these things

in the name

of Jesus,

your Son

and our Savior

and all God's

people said,

Amen.

Amen.