Acts: Learning the Pattern of Dying and Rising With Jesus | Associate Pastor: Matt Armstrong

So this morning we're continuing in our series in the book of Acts, which we will finish this summer.

Last time I preached from Acts chapter 16, and we looked at this concept called the J curve.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

And it's a pattern that is reflected in Jesus' life, but also in the lives of his followers, particularly Paul.

And it's this pattern that the Lord leads us intentionally, sovereignly, into a type of death.

Jesus was a literal death, but then a resurrection of sorts.

And it can look lots of different ways.

And what we saw and what we said last time is that this pattern, this J curve, is part of the normal Christian life.

And understanding, being able to see and learning about this pattern allows us to experience, enter into, and come out of suffering in very different and more redemptive ways.

In our passage this morning, Paul is entering another J curve.

And in fact, over a series of days and over a series of chapters, Acts 21 through 23, Paul will go through four different J curves, deaths and resurrections, over four days.

But as we follow his life, he's actually entering into a greater death, that is his great imprisonment, if you know the story and life of Saint Paul.

He is, he doesn't know it yet, but and entering into Jerusalem, he is moving towards his imprisonment, which will last for four years.

And so in that larger death, he experiences many deaths and many resurrections.

And I want us to see this pattern this morning and then to reflect on the art of living this Christian life, knowing and learning the pattern of dying and rising with Jesus.

I think, as we said before, this is something that we're really not very familiar with in modern American evangelical Christianity.

I was not, and I'm becoming more aware of it, and I think it's vital for all of us to begin to see, to learn, and to imitate this pattern.

So let's run through these four J-curves quickly, briefly, and then we'll make some observations.

J curve one.

In chapter 21, Paul is at the apex of his mission work.

He has planted, with the help of others, hundreds of little churches throughout Asia and Greece.

He has revisited a lot of those churches, he has strengthened those churches, and he has turned his face towards Jerusalem.

And his followers, his disciples, are worried because they've gotten word actually through prophecy that if Paul goes to Jerusalem, he will be arrested and they fear for his life.

And yet he continues to go there.

He chooses to go there in spite of that information.

And when he goes, he's welcomed by the church in Jerusalem.

They're excited to see him.

He reports on his mission work and they celebrate.

But they know rumors have spread about him that he is preaching against Judaism, preaching against God's word and against Jewish customs like circumcision.

And we saw a little bit about that in the passage that we read.

And so the Jerusalem church comes up with a plan.

It's a brilliant plan.

They say, Paul, we've got a few other men here in our congregation who are about to go through a Jewish rite of purification.

They're going to take a Nazarite vow.

And we don't need to get into that.

But they said, Paul, it'd be a great idea if you did that.

And not only if you did that, but if you paid for them to do that.

Well, great.

They were excited to get their vows paid for by Paul.

But Paul says, yes.

He does it without hesitation because he wants the Jewish Christians and the non-Christian Jewish brothers to know that he loves God's word and that he has not rejected Judaism itself, but actually is preaching Judaism come to full flower.

So he goes and begins the seven-day rite.

Now, at the near the end of this time, he enters into the temple.

People see him and they stir up the crowd.

He's arrested, brought within an inch of his life, beaten.

And then the Roman soldiers hear what's going on.

This is during the season of Pentecost, the celebration of Pentecost, where Jews from around the world came to Jerusalem for the celebration, and tensions were always high.

And so the Roman soldiers were on high alert.

And so that's why they're able to get there rescue Paul almost miraculously as this mob is beating him.

But as the Roman soldiers are literally carrying Paul on their soul shoulders to protect him from the mob, he asks the head Roman soldier, may I address the crowd?

Which is really amazing, incredible, incredible courage, incredible love, right?

Because we know he longs to proclaim the gospel of Jesus the Messiah to his brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, the heart and soul of the Jewish people.

And so the Roman tribune, the leader, lets him do that.

And so there's this incredible scene, if you can picture it.

They're in this huge courtyard going up steps, and Paul is surrounded and protected by these Roman soldiers, and he addresses this crowd of probably thousands of Jews, and he's able to get their attention and to preach the gospel to them.

Now, of course, they uh at one point in his sermon they reject it and they're stirred up again, and the soldiers have to lead him.

But but it's this incredible J curve, this incredible death and resurrection for Paul, where he is uh seeking to love his brothers and sisters, Jewish brothers and sisters, and yet they turn on him, they beat him, they try to kill him, and yet he is able, by God's mercy, to proclaim the gospel, to do what he came to Jerusalem to do.

First J curve.

Second J curve, he's taken by the Roman soldiers into the barracks, and uh they're we're told in that chapter in Acts that they ordered Paul to be examined by flogging, which is an amazing phrase.

Uh, apparently, the Romans didn't trust you unless you had been tortured, and so you know, they were like, well, flog him and then we'll ask him some questions.

Well, uh, Paul pulls resurrection out of his pocket right at that moment and lets these soldiers know that he's in fact a Roman citizen, uh, and not just one who has purchased a Roman citizenship, which you could do for a lot of money, but he was a born Roman citizen, and so he had kind of the highest of citizen rights.

And so um not only is he not beaten, but the Roman soldiers are now afraid that they've broken the law and they apologize to him, and um so he escapes this second potential beating.

The next day uh Paul is brought in front of the Jewish Sanhedrin.

This is kind of the ruling body of the Jewish people, um, kind of the the court of the elders, and uh he's brought in front of the high priest, who's kind of like the head of the club, he's the the head hancho.

And in the course of uh being interviewed, the head the high priest orders that Paul would be struck in the face for blaspheming.

Uming that he uh is not gonna get a fair trial, that he's in a bad spot, that if he if he gives himself over to the Jewish leadership, he probably will again face death.

He makes this brilliant move and he realizes that uh the Jewish leadership is divided politically.

There's the conservative Pharisees and the secular Sadducees, and they they disagree strongly over the issue of resurrection.

Uh, we don't need to get into all that cultural stuff.

It is fascinating.

Uh so at one point Paul just cries out to the crowd, he says, I'm on trial for the resurrection, um, which is you know partially true.

And uh this this huge group of um you know politicians, they just start arguing with each other and they totally forget about Paul.

And so he he escapes again.

So third death and resurrection.

Finally, in chapter 23 of Acts, um, a plot, you know, they keep trying to get at Paul and he keeps escaping.

And so a small group of Jewish men form a plot to just murder him.

It's like, let's just rub this guy out, you know, let's just take care of it.

Well, it just so happens that Paul's nephew is like sitting at the next table as these guys are coming up with their murder plot.

And so he goes, tells Paul, they tell the Roman centurions, and uh the Roman leader sends Paul out of Jerusalem in the middle of the night, escorted by 270 Roman soldiers.

And so Paul, four times in four days, escapes incredible suffering and potential death.

Now, that's a lot, but I want us to see those patterns, that pattern of entering into death and God bringing resurrection to make some observations for ourselves, because I believe this is what Luke intentionally wants us to see as he writes this.

So, what can we what can we observe?

We're gonna touch on three points this morning.

First is to let go of the narrative, to let go of control.

In all of these situations, Paul has lost the narrative, literally the narrative.

He is uh slandered, people make up lies about him, he's falsely accused, and uh if you notice as you read the stories, Paul really never enters into that argument.

He doesn't seek to prove them wrong because the mob has sort of sort of already taken over.

And it would do him no good to enter into that conversation, that argument.

He's lost the narrative.

And through that slander, through those lies, he's opened up to suffering, right?

To to literal beatings, to floggings from the Romans, and ultimately to death.

And when we enter the J curve, this is true for us.

Just as Jesus, in effect, lost the narrative, right?

When he was brought in front of the high priest, in front of the Sanhedrin, and charges were brought against him, he didn't open his mouth.

They knew what they wanted to do with him, and there was nothing Jesus could say that was going to change their minds.

And so, like Jesus and like Paul, when when the Lord leads us into types of death, we lose control.

We lose the narrative.

Our story is taken out of our own hands.

And this is extremely disconcerting, right?

It's uh fear-inducing, anxiety-producing.

And we've all experienced it, right?

Whenever we lose control in our lives, and I know when I feel out of control in my life, fear is my immediate response.

Now, my second response is to try to regain control, right?

To do whatever I can to have that sense of peace, that I am controlling my future, and uh that I can bring my own bring my own safety to bear.

This is an experience common to all of us.

And yet, what we see in the J curve is that those who are following Jesus do that less and less.

That they no longer seek to control their own lives.

Now, as I've gotten to know this congregation and reflected on my own life, I've talked to teenagers, I've talked to young adults, I've talked to parents, I've talked to married and single people, I've talked to a bunch of retired people who have all told me in various ways that they feel like they have lost the narrative in their own lives.

There's something going on in your life where you feel like you are out of control.

Your life, or maybe the life of your children, has not turned out the way that you had hoped, that you had expected, that you had prayed for, that you had planned for, that you had worked for.

And it's extremely anxiety-producing.

But knowing this pattern of the J curve, that it's normal, it's the normal part of the Christian life, to enter into enter into seasons of suffering, which is really a fellowship in Jesus' sufferings and death, it's a normal part of the Christian life.

And it allows us not to fight the wrong fights.

I mean, as a parent, I can tell you, when I feel like I have lost control, lost the narrative of my children's lives, and I have sought to double down to say the right thing, to do the right thing, to parent in just the right way, I tend to screw things up even worse than they were before.

Any amens out there?

Um sorry, parents, didn't mean to ow you.

Um, that doesn't mean that we do nothing, right?

What's the alternative to trying to seek control?

Is it giving up?

Well, of course the answer is no.

So what is it?

It is trusting.

It is praying, it is waiting, it is actively bringing our fears and anxieties to the Lord, the Lord who loves us, the Lord who died for us, the Lord who went first into death and emerged first in resurrection.

We go to him actively seeking, asking, and waiting.

You see, our loss of control itself is a form of suffering.

But but we can actually suffer during these times in our lives.

We can suffer slander ourselves, loss of relationships, loss of jobs, losses of marriages.

It's not just the feeling of loss of control, it can be the actual experience of suffering.

But it's in those times that the spirit leads us to the scriptures that remind us of these truths.

That the spirit comes alive in our weakness.

That is the place where Jesus' power emerges.

As we descend into Jesus' death, recognizing this pattern of the J curve reminds us that even as we enter death, that resurrection is coming.

And that even as we lose control, and that that's part of the story, we can entrust ourselves to the one who judges justly, the one who has proven his love for us, and the one who says he will bring resurrection.

Like Jesus, who entrusted himself to the Father and was resurrected, we wait for resurrection ourselves.

But that brings us to our second point.

Not only do we wait and enter and let go of control when we enter into suffering, but second we look for many resurrections.

And I'm saying many like small, not many, like M-A-N-Y.

Um, I'm not sure I can say those words clearly.

That's why I wanted us to see this pattern, these four different J curves in Paul's life.

Because he's in this big J-curve, right?

He's descending into the death of unjust imprisonment, um, in which he will continue to go.

But on the way, he experiences these mini deaths and resurrections.

Um and this is exactly uh this is uh huge for us to see, because even as he's entering into this big death, God is showing him again and again that he is with him.

Even as we enter into uh big experiences of death, the spirit is at work to show us that he is with us.

Um this is so helpful.

Listen to this uh quote from Paul Miller, the guy who wrote this book, The J Curve.

He said, These many resurrections help us to see the present work of the Spirit even though we are still in a bigger death.

Seeing the small J curve helps us rest as we wait for bigger ones.

It's easy to lose perspective and focus on the big death, thinking God isn't for me.

I mean, I speak, I can speak this in my own experience.

Just a few minutes ago, we were singing songs like Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

These are beautiful historic hymns that are full of beauty and truth.

And yet I remember days not too long ago that those words got stuck in my throat.

Great is God's faithfulness?

I'm not sure God is faithful.

I'm still waiting to see.

What's happening in my life makes me question whether God is faithful or not.

Um I've spoken about this a number of times.

I will probably do so again.

Uh, but when I stepped down from uh pastoring the church I planted a little over a year ago, I wrestled deeply with these questions of wondering if God was for me.

Why hadn't He rescued me and my family from uh the suffering we were experiencing, right?

We were waiting for resurrection in our current circumstances, and it didn't come.

And so it took me to a deeper depth of questioning, a deeper depth of suffering and wondering than I had ever been to before in my life.

I wondered, will I stay in ministry?

Will I stay in the pastorate?

Um after some time of prayer and seeking and determining yes, I was going to, I was still called into that, at the encouragement of my dad and some others, I immediately started networking.

I started meeting with other pastors and other people, old friends and strangers, just trying to see what opportunities were out there.

And I dreaded this whole process.

Because I knew every time I met with someone new, they were gonna ask me, Why did you step down from your other church?

Why are you looking for something new?

I didn't want to tell the story again and again.

And yet the strangest thing happened.

As I shared with them what had happened to me, almost to a person, over six months, every person had a story of suffering in their own life, related to their vocation, related to their family, that they they felt the freedom to share with me.

Some of them said they'd never told anyone those things.

And I was so strangely administered to as I networked.

And almost every time I was surprised.

And these networking meetings, which at first I dreaded, became little resurrections in my own life.

Every time I would leave one, I would say, maybe God will be faithful to me.

Like he was faithful to them.

And here I am, some months later.

And as I've asked deeper questions, and as I've suffered more and lost more than I ever thought that I would, I can confess more surely, honestly, and fully that God is faithful.

That God loves me, and that God walks us through these seasons of suffering to do redemptive good, and that He does bring resurrection.

So where's the Lord bringing many resurrections into your own life right now?

And I ask that especially to those who are wondering if the Lord is still for them.

I encourage you to look, to actively keep your eyes open, not to dismiss the blessings in light of the bigger suffering, but to see those as God's presence with you in the midst of all else.

Alright, finally, our third point is to see the pattern.

I want to, as we close, I want to just step back and I want to look at this pattern from a little bit of a different angle.

Scholars have noticed something amazing in these last chapters of the book of Acts, and that that is that Luke himself, the author of Acts, saw a great parallel between this last chapter of Paul's life and the last chapter of Jesus' own life.

I'm not going to read them all, but look at this list.

These are twelve parallels between the last days of Jesus and this last season of Paul's life.

Seven times Luke mentions that Paul and Jesus are going to Jerusalem.

Both trips are made under divine necessity.

Neither Paul nor Jesus' disciples understand why they have to go.

Both Paul and Jesus are welcomed by the people in the church when they arrive.

Both visit the temple, both are opposed by the Sadducees, but acknowledged by the scribe.

Both are seized by a crowd, slapped by the high priests.

I mean, and I won't I won't keep reading.

But it's this is dumbfounding if you actually look at these parallels that for most of us we would miss because we're not gonna analyze the scriptures in that way.

Why does Luke do this?

This is absolutely authorial intention.

And the reason is that he is seeking to communicate with us that our lives are designed to reflect Jesus' own life.

Jesus' own life of death and resurrection.

All Christ followers have a passion story to inhabit.

If you've put your faith in Christ, if you were following Christ, even if you had no idea and nobody told you this at the beginning, you are following in Jesus' passion narrative.

Now, of course, this doesn't mean that we're all going to go to Jerusalem one day and get slapped by the high priest.

No, it's not that specific.

But what it does mean is that our lives will echo the life of Jesus.

This is exactly what Paul says, right?

He says, Imitate me as I imitate Christ.

Have this mind among you, the mind of Christ Jesus, who did not hold on to his honor and glory, but became a servant, being willing to enter into suffering and allowing the Father to resurrect him on the other side.

And the more we're able to grow in seeing this pattern in our own lives, the more we will be able to see what God is doing, to see his redemptive work.

And rather than seeing the suffering that we enter into is God's abandonment, and wonder, Lord, I've done so much for you.

Why are you allowing this to happen in my life?

When he leads us into that suffering, we say, yes, this is the pattern of all God's people, through which he will reveal his glory to the world, and he will bring redemptive life through redemptive suffering.

And then our mission becomes clear.

Our place in the world becomes beautiful.

Not to overtake it as a conquering army, but winning it over through sacrificial death, faith and trusting the Father.

And not doing it ourselves, but trusting in the power of the Spirit and the kingdom.

Now, this doesn't mean that our suffering is now easy, right?

Suffering remains suffering.

We don't change the name.

But our suffering like Christ is now laced with joy.

For the joy set before him, Christ endured the cross.

Hebrews 12, too.

Now, whenever I hear this verse, I think of one of my favorite movies, the Pixar movie Inside Out.

Have you guys ever seen this movie?

If you have not seen this movie, this is your homework.

If you haven't seen this movie recently, it's your homework.

This movie is brilliant.

This movie shows how all of us, in our own way, we fight to push away sadness, to avoid suffering, because we think that is the road to fulfillment and happiness and true joy.

But because of sin, because of the fallenness of the world, and because of the gospel, that's impossible and it's not true.

Truth is that all true joy is intermingled with sadness.

All true triumph is mingled with weakness.

Because that's the way of the cross.

That's the way of our king, that's the way of our kingdom.

Brothers and sisters, how beautiful would the church be if we entered into that suffering knowingly, even joyfully, faithfully, and trusting in the Father who leads us there and the Lord who loves us.

Beloved, seeing these little victories and many resurrections in our lives encourages us when the big things continue to hang over us.

The Lord is with you.

Overlapping J curves fill our lives.

They can be daily, weekly, monthly.

So study your life thoughtfully.

Have your eyes open.

Watch for the dying and the rising.

If you're experiencing suffering right now, look for resurrection because it's coming.

And so as we suffer, we suffer as those who have hope.

Your life makes sense, beloved, seeing it through the lens of Jesus' narrative.

Let's pray.

Our Father and our God, Lord, this is such good news.

Lord, we we wonder often in our suffering whether you are with us.

And yet the story of Jesus and the story of Paul tells us that it's in our suffering that you are absolutely with us.

Lord, help us to see the pattern.

Help us to experience the joy of your resurrection and your power and our weakness.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.