Living Waters of Grace 12.03.25

This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark

Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,

County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he

continues teaching through God's Word.

I enjoy, I'm sure you do do, telling people what you were

like before you were a Christian, because aren't you

glad that you're not the same way anymore?

The good news is that your life's been changed and it's

still being changed. We can look back and say, man,

I, I was a scoundrel. I was this, I was that, and all

those things are true. But God chooses to forgive us

and to give us a new life and to remember our sin no more.

And there's nothing like that, is there?

It would be a pretty boring story if I said Once Upon a time

I woke up, ate breakfast, did my chores, went to work, came home

and went to bed. The end.

Every good story needs some kind of Arc to it.

It needs some kind of tension and resolution.

Today in Pastor Clark's message, he encourages you to tell others

this story of how Christ completely changed your life.

No matter what that story is, I know it has a beautiful arc to

it that once you were dead in sin and now have been made alive

in Christ. Now here's Pastor Clark in the

book of Acts Chapter 21 with today's edition of Living Waters

Acts 21 · chapter mention

of Grace. We are in the book of the Acts

today. If you turn in your Bibles to

Acts chapter 21, I want to read the last few verses of the 21st

Acts 21 · chapter mention

chapter to get us up to speed on what we're going to talk about

in chapter 22. So let's pray Father, we just

thank you Lord again for the scriptures that guide us, that

show us Lord, your will, that direct us Lord and everyday

life. God, you speak to us through

your word and we're so grateful that your Holy Spirit is with us

today and you are the teacher Holy Spirit and our hearts are

open to hear what it is you want us to understand how it relates

not any to history and and the relevance of everything written

in the scriptures, but also how it can apply to our lives today.

So God be glorified and blessed Lord your people.

And we ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

So in verse 37 it says, then as Paul was about to be LED into

the barracks, he said to the commander, May I speak to you?

And he replied, Can you speak Greek?

Are you not the Egyptian whom some time ago stirred up a

rebellion and LED the 4000 assassins out into the

wilderness? But Paul said, I am a Jew from

Tarsus and Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city, and I implore you,

permit me to speak to the people.

So when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the

stairs and motioned with his hand to the people.

And when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the

Hebrew language, saying there was a big riot in Jerusalem

because of Paul and his influence with the Gentile

Christians. The Jewish people were very

uptight that Paul was spending time with Gentiles.

The Jewish people didn't like Gentiles.

There was a lot of prejudice. They didn't think they were

worthy of knowing the Messiah, let alone being brought into the

the church. And so Paul suffered a lot of

struggles because of his position and his call by Jesus

Christ to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

And yet he he did love the Jews. And so in order to communicate

to the Jewish people, he spoke to them in their own dialect.

Now, Greek was the primary language that people spoke, but

he was going to speak to the Jewish people because their

heart language was Hebrew. And I found out like down

through the years when I was trained to be a missionary,

Cindy and I many years ago, that when you went into an area that

had a national language, whether it was French or German or

Indian or whatever, every people group would have their own

special dialect. You know, like in Pittsburgh,

it's Yens, right? If you're from Pittsburgh, you

know Yens, how Yens doing today? You say that somewhere else.

No one knows what you mean. But if you say that, they say,

oh, he's from Pittsburgh. He knows like what I think and

what I like and all that kind of stuff.

So to speak to the Jewish people in the Hebrew language was a

great way to get to their heart. So as we study in chapter 22

today, we're going to learn a little bit about again, Paul's

position and how he led his life many times, obviously under the

Lord's authority, but there was times when he led himself like

we do too. Paul was warned several times by

the Holy Spirit not to go to Jerusalem.

And I don't know about you, but sometimes the Lord tells you and

I not to do certain things and His will when we see it in the

Word. But do you ever not listen to

the Lord? I mean, we all have those times

where we think we know better. We're going to do what we think

is right. And so the Lord allows us, gives

us that liberty to, to make decisions.

And I remember growing up as a young man and I'd get in jams

once in a while and my parents would always say, well, you

brought this on yourself. You can't blame it on anybody

else. You brought this on yourself by

the decisions you've made, and we all can make a decision

sometimes that aren't that great.

So we're going to see a little bit about the jam that Paul was

in because he was warned not to go here.

Nonetheless, he went here anyway.

Now, as he's speaking to these people, they're they're pretty

uptight. It's a mob situation here and

starts out in verse one, brethren, Paul speaking, the

specific police force at the time was called the Antonio

Fortress and so on the Temple Mount, there was an elevated

area where there was a lot of soldiers, especially at the time

of Pentecost, because things could get out of control quite

easily and people would start to ride and do all kind of things.

So they had to have a multitude of soldiers there to keep people

in line. And so this is the folks that

came to Pauls rescue when the people wanted to basically kill

Paul. And so they gave him an

opportunity to seize up on the steps there with these soldiers

to speak to the crowd. Now this was Pauls dream, to

speak to his own people about the Lord Jesus Christ the

Messiah, to tell them what he had done for Paul.

And so he says, Brothers and fathers, hear my defense before

you now. Now the defense he has is from

the Greek word apologia, meaning apologetics.

That's where we get our word to serve the Lord and always be

willing to, as it says in Jude 3 verse 3, only 1 chapter in Jude

verse 3, content earnestly for the faith that was once

delivered to the Saints. So every time you and I are in a

position where people want to argue or disagree or not listen

to what it is we have to say about our relationship with

Jesus, we're like Paul. We're going to give a defense of

the faith that is really important for people to know

about. And so Paul is in the process

here of beginning to give this defense.

And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew

language, they kept all the more silence.

So as I said, they were hearing Paul speak in their own heart

language, and they were tuned in.

Then he said, I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but

brought up in the city at the feet of Gemaliel.

Gamelio was the famous rabbi who taught people about the Old

Testament and the history of the nation of Israel.

Highly respected teacher, Paul was trained by Gamelio, and he

taught according to the strictness of our Father's law

and was zealous toward God as you are today.

So Paul's complimenting them even though they don't know

Jesus yet and they are having a difficult time with Paul's

position with the Gentiles, their understanding that Paul

was once like them and and he's trying to become all things to

all people. He's trying to find a bridge

where he can talk to them and they'll be open minded to listen

to what he has to say as opposed to trying to alienate them.

And that's something we can learn from whenever we're

talking to people about the Lord.

Got to find places of commonality, especially in

regard to the way you used to live before you came to know

Jesus, because everybody that doesn't know Jesus is living

usually in ways that are contrary to the will of God and

the Scriptures. They don't know any better

because they're lost. And so you have to have a place

of meeting them and just not pounding them with the gospel.

You have to find a way into their hearts.

And this is what Paul's attempting to do here.

And he's telling them that he was taught by someone who

believed the very same things that they believed.

And, and honored the Jewish tradition, the Old Testament

law. And there was this rumor going

around that Paul didn't respect the Old Testament law or Moses

or their traditions. That was never true.

Paul was a Jew and he still allowed himself to be a

participant in some of their traditions.

There anything Paul was upset about in regard to how the Jews

understood the truth of God was that they didn't believe that

Jesus was a Messiah #1 and #2 the Jews, and to this point

would be believing to the point that they have to do something

themselves in order to receive forgiveness from Elohim, the God

of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They have to do works.

They have to follow kosher rule, they have to follow all the

laws. They think their justification

comes by the works of the law. And we know in the New Covenant

that the Lord knew it would be impossible for any of us to

become justified or forgiven based upon something we would do

or some rules we would follow, like the 10 commandments.

We honor the 10 commandments, but we break the 10

commandments. Every one of us have broken the

10 commandments. We still break them at times.

We've broken all 10 and you might say, well, I've never

murdered anybody with the Bible says if you hate someone, you've

already murdered them in your heart.

That's pretty radical, isn't it? He says that's not commit

adultery. But if you've ever looked upon a

woman with less men, I'm sure everyone of you have had that

problem. I know I have.

And you got to ask the Lord to help you right all the time and

keep your eyes looking in the right direction, right.

He says if you look at a woman with less in your heart, heart,

what have you done? You've committed adultery from

God's perspective. Now you might be self-righteous

and say, well I never did it all the way.

Well, God looks at the heart and the heart is desperately wicked

and it needs redeemed. No matter what you think about

your own heart. God sees our heart as being

impure, and that's why he had to send a Savior to die and forgive

us and pay the price for our sin on the cross by shedding His

blood. We're all forgiven if we've come

to Christ and trusted in what He's done for us and received

that forgiveness of his blood, cleansing us from all of our sin

and all of our unrighteousness. And He's justified us because of

what Christ has done, not by anything we could do.

So this is the whole message of what Paul wants to communicate

to them. So he tells them, I was zealous

toward God just as you are today.

So he's complimenting them for their zeal in regard to what

they believe the truth is, and then he begins to tell them a

little bit more about his life in verse 4I persecuted this way

to the death. In other words, the way is the

capital WAY is the a gospel of Jesus Christ and everybody

identified with Christianity as the way and it's right here the

way WAY Jesus said I am the way I am the truth.

I am the life. No man comes to the Father but

by me. And so Paul hated people that

proclaimed the way he binded them and delivered them into

prisons, both men and women, as also the high priest bears me

witness on all the counsels of the elders from whom I also

received letters to the brethren and went to Damascus to bring in

change, even those who were there to Jerusalem to be

punished. So Paul was a bad dude.

He hated Christians and he was involved in in persecuting them.

And so he's telling them what he was like his life before Christ.

And I enjoy, I'm sure you do do, telling people what you were

like before you were a Christian, because aren't you

glad that you're not the same way anymore?

The good news is that your life's been changed and it's

still being changed. We can look back and say, man,

I, I was a scoundrel. I was this, I was that.

And all those things are true, but God chooses to forgive us

and to give us a new life and to remember our sin no more.

And there's nothing like that, is there?

And that's good news. That's what you want to tell

people that are all hung up in their sin and bondage and

depressed and discouraged and overwhelmed and drinking and

drugging, trying to kill the pain or whatever, because

they're hopeless. They don't think there's an

answer. And sin has a way of damaging

life and it ruins people's lives.

And so Paul's whole focus here is to tell them, this is the way

I was. But let me tell you what God

did. So it happened in verse 6 as I

journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon.

Paul was just living his life like he always did every day.

Little did he know that God was going to intervene and change

the very course of his life for the rest of his life.

Suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me and I

fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul,

why are you persecuting me? So right away they're able to

think as they're hearing this, that Paul did what we're doing

right now to Paul, you wonder how they they process that.

How are they thinking about that?

And he's beginning to tell them the story of how he had become a

Christian. And this is a witness.

And you can learn about witnessing your faith by this

reading this chapter. How did Paul talk about what

happened to him? You and I can do the very same

thing, and I'm sure many of you have.

When you have an opportunity to have a conversation with someone

about your faith, you tell them how you came to know Jesus

Christ. And this is exactly what he's

doing. He's being a witness and telling

the story of what the Lord had done for him.

And so he hears this voice, Who are you, Lord?

He says to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are

persecuting. Now, you got to keep in mind

that the Jewish people did not believe that Jesus was the

Messiah. They think it's a cult.

They think it's a setup. What was taught was that Jesus

really didn't raise again from the dead.

They stole the body and they took him.

And so to this day, it's commonly believed, as it tells

us in the gospel by the Jewish people for the most part, that

Jesus was just a good guy, good teacher, but that was it.

The idea of him being raised from the dead is is not true.

That's what they believe. And so those who were with me

indeed saw the light. So he had witnesses around him

when this was occurring, and they were afraid.

They saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of him who

spoke to me. So in other words, they knew

there was some kind of noise, but they couldn't articulate

what the noise meant. Only Paul understood what was

being said because God was speaking directly to Paul.

So I said, what shall I do, Lord?

And that was the big question. What should I do now that I know

that your Messiah I know that you got me and that I'm in need

of a savior and that that you're the truth and the one that I've

been persecuting and the one I've been hating and the people

that followed him that I've been persecuting, I know messed up in

my life. I need help.

What do what do I do? What a beautiful simple

question. I said, what shall I do Lord?

And the Lord said to me, arise and go into Damascus and there

you will be told all things which are appointed for you to

do. The Lord, when he works in our

lives, He never shows us way down the road like what life's

going to look like in the future.

None of us know the journey. We're just told to follow the

Lord and the trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and not

to lean into our own understanding and all our ways.

Acknowledge Him and He will direct our paths and the problem

we all have. I know I have at times is that I

don't let him many times direct my path.

I think I need to direct it or I think I know what's best.

And whenever we choose to follow our own will or our own

direction, it never really works out best because God has a

perfect will and a perfect plan. And so it tells us in Hebrews

that the just shall live by faith, and you can't please God

unless you walk by faith. Those who come to God, it tells

us in Hebrews, must first believe that he is and that he's

a rewarder, those who diligently seek him.

And so God expects from me a diligence in my heart to learn

how to follow him in a deeper way every day of my life.

And so he's asking God what he's supposed to do.

And the Lord this tells him, you just do this first thing and

then you'll find out what's going to be appointed for you to

do. And since I could not see for

the glory in verse 11 of that night being led by the hand of

those who were with me, I came into Damascus.

And so he's in this place right now that he can't see anything,

but he's really seeing everything for the first time

because Christ is shown him who he is.

He's become a follower of the Messiah, which is miraculous.

The least likely person to become a Christian would be Saul

of Tarsus. And there might be people in

your life, your family, your world, that you think is

impossible to ever become a believer.

Don't think that way because God is able to do anything, and when

He chooses to come after someone and work in their life, no one's

going to stop that. No one can prevent it.

It's just a beautiful thing of God's sovereign hand and how he

moves, how he works, So he's told.

He comes in verse 12 to a certain Ananias, A devout man

according to the law. This man that Paul was the first

encounter was a Jew. He followed the law.

He had a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there.

So in other words, Paul didn't find some cult leader to work

with in his new encounter with the Messiah.

He was with a credible believer and a credible witness who was

respected by the community of the Jews.

He came to me and he stood and said to me, Brother Saul,

receive your sight. And at that same hour I looked

up at him. So.

Paul had no ability to physically see because of the

light that had shown on him. He needed a healing.

So the Lord sends him to this man called Ananias, and Ananias

is able to minister to him and let Paul receive his sight

again. Then he said, the God of our

fathers has chosen you, that you should know his will and see the

just one and hear the voice of his mouth.

So God chose Paul just like he's chosen you and me.

You know what God has done for us.

Sometimes I think we don't quite understand it.

It's it's, it's so profound and it happens and we need to

reflect on what this actually means.

It says in Ephesians chapter one, verse 3, blessed be the God

and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with

every spiritual blessing and the heavenly places in Christ, just

as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

We've been chosen just like Paul was chosen.

It's awesome. It wasn't by some coincidence or

some good luck that we know Jesus and we can follow Him and

love Him and serve him. He specifically chose you and me

and before we could ever do anything good or bad, says he

chose us before we were even born.

Chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be

holy and without blame before Him.

And love having predestined us to adoption, we became part of

his family as sons by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the

good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His

grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved this

privilege of being chosen by God.

And so Paul's chosen by God and he hears the voice of God's

mouth, and it says in verse 15, For you will be his witness to

all men of what you've seen and heard.

And that's the privilege that Paul has to be a witness to the

gospel of Jesus Christ. Like you and I have been given

this privilege to be a witness. Now, Paul took this seriously,

didn't he? He was a legal counselor, a

Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, a very important

individual in the society at the time.

And after this experience happened, his prestige and his

notoriety and all the great things that people thought about

him as a Jew no longer mattered. Matter of fact, he said, I

consider all these things of the past loss for the Excellency of

the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus.

He was willing to be perceived as a loser and a heretic and

anarchist and all these terms of slander that people put on him

that he might please Jesus Christ.

And so this eating of God is spoken through the mouth of

Ananias by the Holy Spirit. As to what Paul's future is

going to begin to look like, he says verse 16 And now why are

you waiting and rise and be baptized and wash away your

sins, calling on the name of the Lord?

Thanks for joining us on today's edition of Living Waters of

Grace, a ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.

Today, Pastor Clark is teaching about the book of Acts.

And as we learn more about Acts, it becomes clear that the early

church didn't miss a single opportunity to share the gospel.

In nearly every chapter, you see apostles like Peter and Paul

stepping into conversations, crowds, and crises with

boldness, ready to proclaim the name of Jesus.

Their example challenges us to consider how we might step into

gospel moments in our own lives. What doors might God open this

week for you to speak truth, offer hope, or live out your

faith in a way that points others to Him?

The story of Acts reminds us we are part of the same mission.

Today, let's live with eyes open and hearts ready to respond.

We hope you are challenged by today's message.

If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to see you in

person this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.

Unit 6B. For more information, visit

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