43 "A Unique Window for Fearless Witness" Acts 18:1-17 | Sunday, March 22, 2026

You can remain standing. Take your

Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

Acts chapter number 18. We'll continue

in our series here in the book of Acts

entitled The Empowered Church. The This

entire book is about how the work of

Christ continued by his spirit through

his church from Jerusalem to Rome.

That's the central idea of this entire

book. And so every single text of the

book of Acts is intended to accomplish

and communicate that purpose and show

how Christ's work continued. Paul has

been on a journey, his second missionary

journey that took him through Syria and

Cissia into Galatia and Friia and then

on to Macedonia and now into Aaya where

Athens is located. And today as we come

to chapter 18, we come to Paul's

ministry in Corenth. And I want you to

notice how different this ministry is

from every other city that Paul has been

in. Our text will cover verses 1 through

verse 17. Let's begin reading in Acts

Acts 18 · chapter mention

chapter 18 verse number one.

After these things, Paul departed from

Athens and came to Corenth and found a

certain Jew named Aquilla, born in

Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his

wife Priscilla. Because that Claudius

had commanded all Jews to depart from

Rome, and came unto them. And because he

was of the same craft, he abodeed with

them and wrought. For by their

occupation they were tent makers. And he

reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath

and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

And when Silas and Timoththeus were come

from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the

spirit and testified to the Jews that

Jesus was Christ. And when they opened

uh or when they opposed themselves and

blasphemed, he shook his raignment and

said unto them, "Your blood be upon your

own heads, I am clean. From henceforth I

will go unto the Gentiles." And he

departed thence and entered into a

certain man's house named Justice, one

that worshiped God, whose house joined

hard to the synagogue. And Chrisus, the

chief ruler of the synagogue, believed

on the Lord with all his house. And many

of the Corinthians hearing believed and

were baptized.

Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night

by a vision.

Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not

thy peace, for I am with thee, and no

man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for

I have much people in this city." And he

continued there a year and six months,

teaching the word of God among them. And

when Gallo was the deputy of Aaya, the

Jews made insurrection with one accord

against Paul and brought him to the

judgment seat, saying, "This fellow

persuadeth men to worship God contrary

to the law." And when Paul was about to

open his mouth, Gallalo said unto the

Jews, "If it were a matter of wrong or

wicked lwdness, oh ye Jews, reason would

that I should bear with you. But if it

be a question of words and names and of

your law, look ye to it, for I will be

no judge of such things." And he draved

them from the judgment seat. Then all

the Greeks took Sausines, the chief

ruler of the synagogue, and beat him

before the judgment seat. And Gallalo

cared for none of those things.

A very unique, very unique time in

Paul's ministry. In fact, the title of

our message is this. A unique window for

fearless witness. A unique window for

fearless witness. Let's pray and ask God

to help us understand his word. Our

heavenly father, we lift our eyes unto

you from whence cometh our help. And we

need your spirit's help to understand

your word to receive both the

encouragement of this text and its

challenge as we seek to reach our own

city for Christ. Thank you for your

word. We ask for your help to understand

it and apply it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you for standing in honor of God's

word. You may be seated.

One of the top reasons people do not

share the gospel today is fear. Could

anybody relate to that? Sometimes you

fear that you don't know what to say.

You might fear saying the wrong thing.

Nobody wants to lead people astray from

what the scripture says. And so you

might just be content to stay silent.

There might be some who fear rejection,

the fear of mockery, slander, and

ridicule.

Last week, we saw Paul's ministry in

Athens, and how we need to be stirred by

what we see to proclaim the gospel in

our city. We need to be stirred. We

talked about engaging Hindus and

Buddhists and Muslims with the gospel as

well as the educated and the

intellectuals, the agnostics and

atheists that it's so prevalent here

that we ought to be stirred to proclaim

the gospel to them. And it's possible

that you came away from that message

with a little bit of fear, a little bit

of intimidation, wondering, can I really

do that?

the idea of approaching a stranger on

Pearl Street or going house to house

with the gospel or perhaps even sharing

the gospel with somebody you know. It

may have brought up some fearful

thoughts and intimidation.

You might even wonder if that fear makes

you a weak Christian.

You ever thought that about yourself?

Jesus gave his life on the cross for my

sin and yet I am too afraid to speak up

for him.

That can be the thought that crosses

many Christians minds. It might surprise

you today to learn that the Apostle Paul

was so struck with fear he was

considering staying silent.

Does that shock you? Because we have

seen Paul bold as a lion proclaiming the

gospel. And yet in this particular

moment in Corenth, Jesus gives him a

night vision in which he has to tell the

apostle Paul, "Be not afraid.

Hold not thy peace, but speak." Jesus

had to tell Paul, "Don't be afraid. Keep

speaking. don't stay silent. That

friends suggests to us that Paul was

fearful that Paul was considering

withholding or going silent or perhaps

moving on.

But what Jesus does here is he

encourages Paul by promising him in one

of his most fearful times

a window of protection.

A window of protection.

He offers him assurance that while

Paul's normal Christian experience has

been physical suffering and persecution,

that will not be the case in Corenth.

Jesus tells him, "I am with you. No one

will physically harm you. So don't fear.

Keep speaking."

Keep speaking.

While the majority of Christian history

has been marked by suffering and

martyrdom,

sometimes

the Lord provides a unique window of

protection.

I believe today that here in America we

have been privileged with a very unique

window of protection in Christian

history.

You see, we have constitutional

amendments that protect our rights in

ways that few Christians have

experienced in few countries ever

before.

We might be mocked, we might be

ridiculed, and we might experience a

measure of personal attacks, but the

reality is here in America, we face very

little real threat of bodily harm. And

yet even then, we're still so prone to

fear to speak out for Christ.

Because we have this unique window of

protection,

we need to know what we should do with

it. And that is what this text is all

about.

We're going to look at our text this

morning in three movements. Verses 1-8

reveal the reasons why Paul feared. And

then verses 9 and 10 give a proteise of

protection. And then verses 11 through

17 give the proof of protection. So we

have the reasons why Paul feared. We

have the promise of protection and then

the proof of protection. And as we look

at this text, we're going to see one

clear truth rise to the surface about

what we should do with this unique

window of protection. So let's first

look at the reasons why Paul feared. In

verses 1-8, we're given three reasons

why Paul feared to speak in Corenth. I'm

going to give all three of them to you

up front and then we're going to take

them one by one. Reason number one was

rising hostility. Number two was

intensifying ministry and then number

three was past experience. So rising

hostility, intensifying ministry and

past experience. Let's look at them

together. Reason number one, hostility

was rising toward Christianity in the

Roman Empire. That's what we find in

verses 1-3. It says, "After these

things, Paul departed from Athens and

came to Corenth and found a certain Jew

named Aquilla, born in Pontus. lately

come from Italy with his wife Priscilla.

Verse three says, "And because he was of

the same craft, he abodeed with them and

wrought. For by their occupation, they

were tent makers." And so Paul has left

Athens and he has come to the Roman

capital of Aaya, which is called

Corinth. And to make ends meet at this

point, he takes up tent making with this

Jewish Christian couple. And what's

really emphasized here is at the end of

verse two why Aquilla and Priscilla are

in Corinth. It says because that

Claudius had commanded all Jews to

depart from Rome. So the Jews this tells

us that they have come from Italy is

what it says. So they have been expelled

from Rome by the emperor Claudius. The

question is why? 2 century Roman

historian Sutonius wrote that that

Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome

because they were constantly making

disturbances at the instigation of

Christristus which is Latin for Christ.

And so because of what this is

communicating is what Paul's experience

has been in every city where he preaches

Christ, the Jews instigate, the Jews

stir up strife and the Roman officials

get upset by that and Paul ends up

arrested or and ends up beaten or

imprisoned. That's what we normally see.

And what's what this is communicating is

this is not limited to Paul's ministry

that in Rome where Paul's never been the

gospel has made it there from Pentecost

and it has spread widely and as Christ

is being preached the Jews are

instigating insurrections and violence

against them and it came to the

emperor's attention. Do you get that? It

came to the emperor's attention. the

president of the Roman Empire saw this

group of people as a constant problem

and he said, "Get out of here." He

deported them.

And so that's what's going on there. And

what it's showing is that there is

rising hostility

toward Christianity throughout the Roman

Empire. Paul's seen it. Aquilla and

Priscilla have seen it. And I'm sure

this came up during their con

conversations. And so the first reason

Paul feared was the rising hostility

toward Christianity. Reason number two

is that we find in verses four and five

that Paul's ministry is intensifying. I

want you to notice the progression of

words here. It says in verse number

four, "And he reasoned in the synagogue

every Sabbath." So you have this word

reasoning. But then it says and

persuaded

Jews and the Greeks. But then you look

at verse 5. It says, "And when Silas and

Timoththeus were come from Macedonia,

Paul was pressed in the spirit and

testified to the Jews that Jesus was

Christ." Here is the progression of

words. The word reason means to discuss

and engage in dialogue. Persuade means

to convince. Testify means he is the

Christ and you better repent and you

better believe. Do you see the

progressing progressing intensification

of his ministry? And Paul knows that

it's at this point that things usually

go bad for him. And that's exactly what

happens as it says in verse number six.

And when they opposed themselves and

blasphemed that that means that they

stood against Paul and they began to

slander him. And when they when the

Jews, what we've seen in Acts, when the

Jews slander Paul, they're trying to

turn a group against them, usually the

Greeks, the Grecians, the natives, the

Corinthians in this case. They're trying

to turn the natives against Paul so they

can get him in prison or rid themselves

of him. That is the direction that this

is going.

And so Paul, you have this

intensification of his ministry. You

have this uh this rising fear because of

hostility that's rising throughout the

empire. But then we come to reason

number three and that is this. Paul's

ministry was tracking with his past

experience.

Because what has Paul experienced as we

come through the book of Acts? There

have been assassination plots uncovered

against him in Damascus and Jerusalem

and Iconium. He was stoned and left for

dead outside of Lististra. He was beaten

and imprisoned in Philippi. He was

chased out of Thessalonica and hunted

down in Berea. That has been Paul's very

recent experiences. In fact, that's been

his whole ministry. When I get bold,

threats unfold. You know where else we

saw that? We had a message entitled that

in Jerusalem. Threats unfold when we get

bold. That's been the the Jerusalem

apostles ministry. That's been Paul's

ministry. And so as things are

intensifying here and the Jews are

opposing him and they're starting to try

to turn people against him, Paul can see

where this is going. And that is the

endangerment of his life and physical

threat coming against him. But Paul also

sees as he has everywhere conversions.

If you look at verse number seven, it

says or continue reading verse six. It

gets actually a little bit more intense.

It says, "And when they opposed

themselves in blasphemy, he shook his

raignment and said unto them, your blood

be upon your own heads. I am clean. From

henceforth I will go to the Gentiles."

So when they stand against his message,

he said, "I have done my responsibility.

The blood is off of my hands. I am

clean. It's on you. That's a

pronouncement of judgment against the

Jews. He's now telling the people of God

that the judgment of their God will be

on their heads because they rejected

Christ.

So he knows where this is going. And yet

what we find in verse number seven, it

says, "And he departed then and entered

into the house of a certain and and

entered into a certain man's house named

justice, one that worshiped God." So you

have this man, his name is Roman. So you

have this Roman man and and let me just

say as as Corinth was the capital of

Rome, the majority of the or capital of

of Aaya, the majority of the people were

actually Roman. There were many Roman

transplants rather than Greeks in

Corinth at this time. And so this man,

Justice, is a Roman, but he was a

God-fear. That means that he went to the

synagogue week after week to hear what

the Jews had to say about God's word.

And yet he has converted to Christ. His

name is also Gaes. You might recognize

that from some of Paul's writings. He

was Paul's host. But it says that his

house joined hard to the synagogue. That

means it was right next door. So now

you've got this influential man who's

right next to it. Think about it this

way. A church has been planted right

next door to the synagogue. That's

what's going on here. And notice what

happens. It says in verse number eight,

"And Christmas, the chief ruler of the

synagogue, believed on the Lord with all

his house." So now you have the one who

is in charge of the synagogue

is now going to church right next door.

You imagine the conflict this would

create. In fact, Christmas then loses

his position as the ruler of the

synagogue and he is replaced by a man

named Sineses who will show up later in

our account. But then notice also in

verse 8, and many of the Corinthians

hearing believed and were baptized

conversions. Many of them both of the

Jews and the God-fears and the native

Corinthians are being converted. But in

the back of Paul's mind is where is this

going?

I've seen it before.

Is there a plot being formulated

already? Perhaps he's laying awake at

night wondering how will the Roman

government respond? How will the Jewish

leadership respond? How will the the

people respond? Is there a a plot? Is

there some kind of assassination attempt

coming my way? We don't know exactly

what was going through his mind, but

evidently he was fearful and he was

contemplating either staying silent,

going underground, or perhaps going back

to Antioch.

Why is that?

Past trauma brings present fear.

When a soldier comes home from

deployment,

gunshots and fireworks spark a traumatic

uh experience. A it triggers a a a

traumatic response. Why? Because of

their experiences on the battlefield.

Even in here, if you have ever been

physically assaulted,

there are certain circumstances,

certain behaviors, or even if you see

that individual, it it just sparks a

traumatic response. Why? Past trauma

brings present fear. And that is what

Paul is dealing with in this time in his

ministry. Everywhere he has gone, he has

been beaten. He has been stoned. There

have been threats of assassination. It's

followed him everywhere. And I want to

say this today that the normal Christian

experience often causes fear

because we know the second century

church father notoriously said that the

blood of the martyrs is the seed of the

church.

Historic Christianity has grown through

suffering and martyrdom. That's our

heritage. That's our history.

And I I know even it still happens

today. I know a missionary who's been in

Athens for 30 years who's been stoned

multiple times for street preaching. I

know a missionary in Ukraine who was

imprisoned and the exper what he went

through in that prison was so traumatic

he can't even speak about it today. I

still don't know what happened. He will

not talk about it. It was so horrendous.

There are Christians in China, North

Korea, and Nigeria who meet in the dark

of night in homes and basements not

knowing when they will be tracked down.

And so for the vast majority of

Christians around the world, there has

been much reason and much cause for fear

because of our past experience in

Christianity.

But even here, while we may not face

imminent threat to our bodies,

while we may not face threat to our

lives, we have seen preachers whose

sermons have been subpoenaed for quote

unquote hatred.

We have seen coaches fired for

conducting a voluntary prayer meeting on

the football field before a game. We've

seen bakers tried all the way up to the

Supreme Court court for standing for

their beliefs.

The normative Christian experience

can often cause us to fear of speaking

out because of what could happen, just

like it does with Paul in Corenth.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1

Corinthians chapter 2:3, "I was with you

in weakness and in fear and in much

trembling." I think we can take it from

his own words that he had been through

some horrendous things and at Corenth he

saw it coming and he was slacking back

in fear and he was wanting to stay

silent or he was wanting to move on. And

it's in this moment of his weakest

position, his greatest fear and

trembling that Jesus shows up. And when

Jesus shows up in this night vision, he

gives Paul a promised divine protection.

And Jesus commands Paul here in verse

number nine. Be not afraid, but speak

and hold not thy peace. And he gives

three reasons why. Reason number one, he

says in verse 10, for I am with thee. I

am with thee. Remember Jesus's final

words to his disciples in Matthew 28:19.

Matthew 28:19

He said, 'Go you therefore into all, go

you therefore and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,

teaching them to observe all things

whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo,

I am with you always, even unto the end

of the world. That is what Jesus told

his disciples. And Jesus shows up to

Paul in his time of greatest fear and

intimidation and wants him to know in

spite of everything you've been through,

I've still been with you and I am here.

But then number two, he gives him this

promise. No man shall set on thee to

hurt thee. This doesn't mean that Paul

is not going to face opposition. It's a

very specific promise that no one is

going to hurt him bodily that he is

going to have a physical protection

while he is here. Uh can you imagine the

confidence the boldness and the courage

that this would give uh to Paul because

because everywhere he's been he's

suffered and yet he's still preached and

it brought more suffering and he's been

delivered from prison. He's been

delivered from death and delivered from

assassination plots. He's experienced

all of the deliverance, but there's

still something haunting him that

wonders, is this the day I'm dead.

Christ says, "I know what you've been

through in Damascus and in Jerusalem and

in Iconium, and I know what you've been

through at Lististra. I know what you've

been through at Philippi and

Thessalonica and Berea. But I want you

to know that what you've been through in

all of those places is not what you will

go through in Corinth. I am promising

you

understand church a very unique window

of protection.

This is not normal for Christianity.

What Paul experienced in Corenth is

extremely rare compared to all of his

other experiences and that is to be

divinely protected by the Lord. But I

want you to notice that the Lord is not

promising him this protection solely for

Paul's comfort. Although it certainly

provide that. But his third reason there

in verse number 10 is this. For I have

much people in this city.

the the eternal sovereign and omnisient

Lord knows every soul that will believe

on him and he claims them as his people

before they ever hear the gospel. How

can he do that? Because he's eternal.

Because he's all knowing. Friend, can I

tell you today that the reason that

Jesus could offer his body and his blood

as the atonement for your sin on the

cross 2,000 years ago is because he's

eternal. It's because he's all knowing.

He already knew you before the world was

ever created. He knew every sin that you

would commit. He also knew that you

would believe and he could claim you as

his own even before the world was ever

created because he knows everything.

He gave his life for you and he could

because he already knew your sin. Jesus

tells Paul, "I'm giving you this window

of protection and I want you to keep

speaking. I don't want you to stay

silent because I have many, many people

in this city.

See, the normal Christian experience has

been Paul's present experience,

persecution,

bodily harm. But what the Lord promises

Paul is a unique window of protection.

And the reality is is throughout

Christian history, the normal experience

has been persecution. And it has been

martyrdom. But there have also been

unique windows of protection throughout

all of Christian history. Whether it was

the 4th century edict of Milan which

liberated Christianity throughout the

Roman Empire and protected their

religious rights or if we're talking

about the Protestant Reformation in the

15 and 1600s that secured the freedom of

religion and expression throughout the

European continent. And so you had that

period of time or if we're talking about

the liberation of South Korea in the

1950s where Christianity has spread like

wildfire or even in China

the 1970s

after a cultural revolution,

Christianity finally received some

reprieve. Though it was restricted, it

was still tolerated and therefore the

church expanded vastly throughout China

until the early 2000s when that very

unique window closed after just 30 years

and the church had to go back

underground.

See, the reality is that you never know

how big your window is. You never know

how small it is. You never know when

that window of opportunity will close.

But even today in America and here in

Boulder, I would submit to you that we

have been given a very unique window of

protection

because we live not under a king who can

change his mind about Christianity every

time a new king comes or a new president

comes. But because we live in a

constitutional republic, we have

constitutional freedoms to assemble, to

preach freely, and to speak publicly. We

have the freedom to pass out gospel

tracks in the streets, to leave them at

dinner tables, and to hang them on

neighborhood doors. It's illegal to

arrest a Christian for preaching and for

worship. It's illegal to burn down a

Christian church or to beat a Christian.

And the Supreme Supreme Court has ruled

time and time again that it's illegal to

shut down a business or to fire a coach

or a teacher for standing for or

speaking about their Christian beliefs.

We're protected from that standpoint. We

don't have to hide in basement for

worship. We don't have to lay awake at

night wondering if there's a plot

against us or if we will be shut down. I

cannot say dogmatically that we will

never suffer physical harm because some

have. And this promise that Jesus gives

to Paul is to a very unique man at a

unique time in a unique place. And so I

can't tell you that his promise that

nobody's going to hurt you. He's going

to come to you. uh contrary to our

prosperity, health, and wealth gospel

that if you just please God and you give

enough and you do enough for him, then

he's going to protect you from every

little thing and he's going to make your

life easy. All you got to do is ask a

Christian to understand that's not true.

I can't promise you protection from

physical harm. Nor can we know how long

this window will last. But I think I'm

safe to say that we do have a unique

window of protection here. The question

is, what do we do with it? I want you to

look at verse number 11. Here's what

Paul did. And he continued there a year

and six months, longer than anywhere

where else he had been thus far. He's

normally there for a few days or a few

weeks, but because of this window that

Christ has given him, he stayed right

put

teaching the word of God among them. And

here's what he found out. The divine

protection that was promised became

divine protection that was proven.

That's what verses 11-1 17 is about. I

and we don't have to read through all of

it. I'll just summarize here that the

Lord uses a government official to

protect Paul from a harmful attack. It

says that the Jews made a one-minded

insurrection against Paul and they

brought him to the judgment seat before

the Roman deputy. And this looks like a

flashback for Paul. And you might be

wondering, well, where's the protection?

I've been told that this isn't going to

happen. I know what this leads to. I'm

bound to go before this judgment seat.

I'm bound to be beaten because of this.

And who knows what will happen after

that. I imagine those thoughts were

going through Paul's mind. But then the

Jews, they accuse him of persuading

people to worship God contrary to Jewish

law. And I love this. When you look at

verse 14, it says, "And when Paul was

now about to open his mouth, Paul

usually has to defend himself."

We've seen that multiple times

throughout his ministry. But before Paul

can open his mouth to defend himself, it

says this. Gallalo said unto the Jews,

if it were a matter of wrong or wicked

lwdness, oh ye Jews, reason would that I

should bear with you. But if it be a

question of words and names or of your

law, look ye to it, for I will be no

judge of such matters. And he drove them

from the judgment seat. What is going on

here? Gallo is from Rome appointed to

reside preside over the Roman colony of

Corinth. And Gallalo comes from a very

anti-Semitic

family related to Cynica who believed

that the Jews were just a menace to

society. That's what he comes from. And

he has seen in Rome how the Jews have

been expelled because of the problems

surrounding this Christianity. And he

comes to the point where he's like, I'm

having nothing to do with this. If this

was a moral wrong or if this was a

criminal act, then I would have reason

to hear it. But if this is about your

names and your word and your law, then

get out of here. He drives him out. But

then notice in verse 17,

then all the Greeks took Synineses, the

chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat

him before the judgment seat. And

Gallalo cared for none of those things.

So now because Gallo has let Paul go,

the Greeks are like, "This guy, the

chief ruler of the synagogue, the one

who's leading this insurrection, this

guy is creating problems in our city,

and we can't let that happen." And they

take this Jew and they begin to beat him

relentlessly. And Gallo's like,

"Whatever. Get out of here."

That's immoral.

That's racial prejudice.

That's anti-semitism.

And that is morally wrong.

And yet God is so sovereign that he can

even use the moral wrongs of others to

fulfill his promise and accomplish his

purpose. And that's exactly what he does

here. For the first time in Paul's

ministry, the ones who rose up against

him were beaten and he was let go free.

Promised protection proven.

But here's the more remarkable thing.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 vers1 Paul

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

writes a letter to this church and he

says Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ and

Sines

our brother

this Jewish ruler of the synagogue who

once raised an insurrection against Paul

eventually converted and became a

brother in Christ.

That's the power of the gospel. It can

take the greatest opponents of

Christianity and turn them into the

greatest proponents of Christianity. As

Sines is now a brother, it while Paul

was was facing danger, Sines was right

there by his side helping him write this

letter and taking it back to the church

after everything that he had already

been through. It's amazing.

It says in verse 18, it's that first

phrase. And Paul after this terried

there yet a good while.

He came to realize when God promises

protection, he's going to provide it.

And so I'm going to stay. So Paul has

been given this unique window of

protection. I want to draw our attention

to this one more time. How does he use

it? Verse 11, he continued there a year

and six months teaching the word of God

among them. Paul used this unique window

of protection to fearlessly proclaim

Christ. And I want to say to you church

today that we truly have a unique window

of protection here in America. And that

doesn't mean that we'll never face

hardship. That doesn't mean that we'll

never be attacked. That doesn't mean

that we won't be physically harmed

because we don't necessarily have that

promise. But what we can say is we have

a unique window of constitutional

protection for the right to speak forth

what we believe. And we should use this

unique window of protection to

fearlessly proclaim Christ. Can I just

ask you church, what really do you have

to fear?

What really do you have to fear?

Somebody's going to mock you, probably.

Somebody's going to slam the door in

your face, probably. Somebody is going

to shut you down cold turkey. More than

likely, that will happen many times in

your life. And we can get this stigma

of, you know what, I'm just not going to

share because I fear rejection. I mean,

this can hit all of us this morning. I

come in here and I go and look in the

mailbox and there's something addressed

to us as a church and I feel it and it

feels thick and I'm like, "Oh, this is

going to be a door hanger with a nasty

message on it telling us about how evil

and wicked we are." That's where my mind

went. I open it up. It was a nice card

from a random stranger in New York that

I have no idea who it is who gave money

to our church. But what is our Isn't

that our natural response right now?

We're just waiting for something to go

wrong. waiting for something to to to to

hurt us or somebody to reject us. But

listen, church, what really do we have

to fear? Are we living in fear of an

assassination plot? Are we living in

fear of being dragged before the

courthouse at Pearl Street and being

beaten? Are we afraid of being killed

for our faith? Listen, that can happen

here, but it's extremely

rare.

I'm not trying to discount your fears.

Not trying to discount the intimidation

because sometimes we just don't feel

like we know enough. And that's true.

What I do want to say is that the fears

that we face pale in comparison to the

fears that Christians have faced and yet

continued to speak fearlessly for all of

Christian history.

And what that ought to do, I mean, first

of all, it ought to be a little bit of a

rebuke to us. That ought to sting a

little bit when we ask ourselves, "What

if I was going to be burned at the

stake? What if I was going to be

crucified? Would I recant my faith?" I

would submit to you today, the majority

of Christians in America would. Why?

Because they don't know what it's like

to suffer. We really don't know. Why?

Because we have a unique window of

protection.

But that unique window of protection has

not been given to us solely to alleviate

our fears, solely to bring comfort to

our hearts. It has been given to us just

for the same reason it was given to

Paul. And that is that Christ has much

people in this city. He has much people

in this country. God already knows every

single person who will be saved in

Boulder, Colorado through the ministry

of this church and through the ministry

of other churches in this city. He

already knows who they are. We don't

know who they are, but he's called us to

go seek after them. Some of them may be

Jews. Some of them may be Muslims. Some

of them may be Hindus or agnostics or

atheists. Some of them may be college

professors or lawyers or judges. We

don't know who they are. And what that

means is we just take the gospel of

Jesus Christ to every single person.

Regardless of whether they reject us or

not, regardless of whether they slam the

door shut in our face, regardless of of

the slander they might hurl at us or the

posts they might put online about us,

about how many door hangers we've got

and how many mailers we've gotten. These

people are filling our neighborhoods

with trash. Yeah, we're going to hear

all that. But how in the world does that

affect this body? Should I really be

scared of that? Absolutely not.

We have a unique window, church, and we

need to use it to fearlessly proclaim

Christ.

To take gospel tracks and leave them at

the dinner table or with the cashier or

with our lawyer or with our college

professor to try to engage people at

work and share the gospel with them to

go down to Pearl Street and pass out

tracks and try to engage people that are

just hanging out and well, I don't want

to interrupt their day. I'm sure that

they will not feel that way when they

stand at the judgment of God. They will

have wished

with all of their being that we would

have interrupted them on that day.

There's a measure to being kind and a

measure to being polite.

But there is a real judgment coming

because sin is real and God is real and

hell is long.

But so the savior is real as well. And

the blood satisfies the wrath of God.

And if they will believe on Jesus

Christ, they can be saved and they can

be forgiven. And so we can't worry about

the little things that we may

experience. We we've got to begin to get

involved. Church, we have a unique

window this very week. We do it one time

a year where there's an opportunity on

Tuesday morning and Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning and Wednesday night.

Friday morning and Friday night.

Saturday morning to get out. Easter

invitations to the neighborhoods. We

just load up in the van, drop a couple

partners off, hang the door hangers on

the doors. And it's got a gospel

presentation on the back. And we are

trying to get the gospel to our city and

bring them into hear it in the church on

Easter Sunday. the time in our city

where we have just found early on that

is the most unique time where people are

more open than they normally are, more

willing to come than they normally would

be. And so this is a very unique window

of opportunity, but when I go out by the

signup sheet, there's still a ton of

slots to be filled. I say this not to

rebuke you, church. Some of you are

planning to sign up afterwards today,

and we're so appreciative of that. I say

that to say this. We have a unique

window.

Don't let it pass us by. Don't let it

pass us by. We need to be involved. But

let me also communicate this church that

evangelism

is not

a program we do at church.

If you're a Christian,

sharing the gospel is a lifestyle

that should be a part of your identity.

On your social media profiles, on X, on

Facebook, on Instagram, where you put

your bio, the very first statement on

that should be a witness for Jesus

Christ because that's what we are called

to be. He if if Jesus forgives our sins

and saves us, why why doesn't he just

take us up the second that we get saved?

I mean, that would be awesome. I would

be all for that. I'd be glad to be done

with sin right here, right now. And I

look forward to the time when Jesus

returns to snatch us all up and forever

end all of that. But he left us here.

Why? He has much people all around the

world still that he knows will believe

and that he wants to gather in. He's

called us to do it. We have a unique

window of protection.

Let's use it to fearlessly proclaim

Christ. May the words of our savior echo

in your ears this week. Be not afraid

for I am with thee.

I have much people in this city. Before

I close, can I just ask you, have you

yet believed on the Lord Jesus Christ?

Before the foundation of the world, God

knew man would send. And God developed

his plan of salvation. And he did not

send an ordinary man. He did not send an

angel. He did not send a creature. He

came himself in the person of Jesus

Christ. And he gave his life on the

cross and offered his blood as the

atonement that covers all the sins of

all mankind for all of human history.

But his atonement is only applied to

those who repent and believe.

Have you ever acknowledged in your life,

God, I am a sinner.

I cannot save myself,

but I believe Jesus died for my sin and

rose again. Please forgive me of my sin

and save my soul. Have you repented and

believed and called upon Jesus Christ?

If not, if you will trust in him today,

you can become a part of his much

people. much people with a unique window

to witness. So let's do it fearlessly

with the words of Christ bouncing around

in our brain. Be not afraid. I am with

you. I have much people in this city.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your

word, for its challenge,

times its rebuke, its instruction. We

need it. It's so easy to get caught up

in everything we have going on in life

that we forget that people all around us

do not know Jesus.

I'm thankful that you gave your life for

us and for them. And I pray that you

would help us to boldly, courageously,

and fearlessly

proclaim Christ while we have this

window because we never know when it

will close. I pray for those who maybe

have not yet trusted Jesus as their

savior. I pray your Holy Spirit would

make the gospel so clear to them that

they would know Jesus is their only

hope. That they would repent of their

sin,

confess faith in Christ, and call upon

him for salvation. Please work in our

time of response. Help us to be doers of

the word and not hearers only in Jesus

name. Amen.