Acts: "What Shall I Do, Lord?" (22:1-22)

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The second lesson for this morning is from the Book of Acts, chapter 21, starting in the 40th verse.

Acts 21 · chapter mention

Paul, standing on the steps of the tribunal, motioned with his hand to the people.

And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying, Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.

And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet.

And he said, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness.

From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And I answered, Who are you, Lord?

And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.

Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who is speaking to me.

And I said, What shall I do, Lord?

And the Lord said to me, Rise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.

And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.

And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and standing by me, said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight.

And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him.

And he said, The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth, for you will be a witness for him to every one of what you have seen and heard.

And now why do you wait?

Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance, and saw him saying to me, Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.

And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.

And when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.

And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.

Up to this word they listened to him.

Then they raised their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.

The word of the Lord.

They so easily try to replace you with other things.

And Father, um, just draw us closer to yourself and pour out your Holy Spirit upon us afresh.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Please be seated.

During the week, I was having a conversation with someone who I've talked to before, and uh we were having a good conversation, and through the about the middle of the conversation, he uh we were talking about a certain topic, and he stopped and looked at me, and he's like, Matt, you are a fundamentalist.

And he said this in a way that was done in a derogatory term.

And uh I've been called this before, uh, my friends have called me this before.

Um good friends with them still.

And um, but this time uh it sounded different, and uh it actually affected me a bit at first when he said it to me.

And I try um and someone must have been praying for me during this moment because I remained calm, I remained unbothered by it, even though my heart felt stirred a bit.

And I was able to continue the conversation with him, and we had a pleasant time, we had pleasant conversations after this, but it got me thinking about um the text that we're looking at today.

And he also told me that my beliefs were restrictive and controlling, and that he believed in the gospel of love and liberation, and that his gospel was the true gospel, and the gospel that I proclaimed and told people was not the right one.

Now the gospel the text that we're looking at today speaks directly to these two gospels that have been talked about right now.

The gospel of fundamentalism, or you can call it the gospel of law, and then there's the gospel of love or liberation, you can call it that.

So let's look at the text.

Acts um Acts chapter 22, verses 1 to 22.

Acts 22:1–22

Now we're going through um as going through Acts as Creighton mentioned, and we're coming to the end of it.

And we've been going through it with the idea of the go and tell, what we know.

And this accounts that we keep talking about and keep looking out, looking at all through Acts, is the account of the earliest church.

It's the church that we're coming right after Jesus' ascension, his crucifixion and ascension.

And we get these eyewitnesses and close acquaintances, eyewitness accounts of what's going on.

And now we're coming to Paul and he's giving a defense.

And then what's going on here in the text is that now Paul, he's since since chapter 9, he's been on the offensive, going around sharing the gospel with people and telling people about Jesus.

But now he's come to Jerusalem, and now his mission has gone from offensive to defensive.

And we're gonna, when you understand this text, you have to go back to the middle of chapter 22, because what's going on is that Paul is now, he's in Jerusalem.

He's met with the apostles, he's in there, and they've told him that he they should he should follow the law of purification.

So he's gone to do this.

He's given his notice of when it will be complete.

And during this time, when he's worshiping in the temple, in the synagogue, the Jews see him and they recognize him because he would have had a reputation like no other.

Because he was the one who persecuted the way, the Christian faith, before those who followed Jesus.

And now, and after that, he became the person who proclaimed it the most all over the place, all over the Mediterranean area.

So he was well known.

And they see him, and then they grab him and they drag him out of the temple, and the doors are quickly shut behind him.

And they start beating him, and they drag him through the town or through the city of Jerusalem, and it comes to a point where they would have killed him, they would have killed him if the tr the tr tribune didn't stop it, if they didn't see all the commotion, all the rioting, people yelling, um, punching this man, and they come in and they arrest Paul because they have no idea what's going on.

They just assume he's done something wrong and he's they're they're beating him for it.

And then when we arrive into um at the end of chapter 21, Paul does this masterful thing.

He knows exactly what he's doing.

And I'm just gonna read it because it plays right into the text that we're looking at right after.

As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, May I say something to you?

And he said, Do you know Greek?

Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness?

See what's going on here is that the Roman um centurion, the tribune, thought he was a man, this other person.

He had no idea who he was.

He thought that he was this person who re led this uprising and then disappeared out into the wilderness with all these people.

And he also does this other he does this masterful thing, is that when he talks to him, he speaks to him in Greek.

But he does, and in the in the original language, it's not just everyday Greek, it's upper class Greek.

So he's showing him that he is someone that needs to be listened to because he knows how to speak this proper upper class Greek.

And then after the tribune decides to let him speak, it says he waves his hand.

In ancient days, when someone gets up in front of people and waves their hands like this, probably does some other kind of flow, this is a signal that he has something to say and people should listen.

And then he addresses them, it says here in the Hebrew language.

What this is, this is the Aramaic.

And Aramaic is it's a language of no one's native origin.

But at the time, because there are so many different languages there, all the Jews knew Aramaic.

So he's speaking to them in the language that they all know.

And something that's also interesting, Paul gives his testimony three times through the book of Acts.

In chapter 9, chapter 22, and chapter 26.

And in chapter 26, when Jesus, when he recounts Jesus speaking to him, it says that Jesus spoke to him in the Hebrew language, in the language of the people, the what all majority of the Jewish people would know of Aramaic.

And that's what's going on here.

And he hushes the crowd.

He's no longer being the person dragged out of control, he's now taking control of the crowd.

And now we come to verses one to five.

So let's see what he says.

And he says, Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.

And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet.

And he said, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of in Sicilia, in Silcia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamel, according to the strict manner of the law of her fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

I persecuted this way to death, binding and delivering the prison to the binding and delivering to prison, both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear witness.

From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed towards Damascus to those who were there, and and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

So what Paul is doing here, he's giving his testimony, and he's standing at on the steps.

And as he does this, he uses his testimony in a powerful way, because everybody all through the ages loves stories.

So he's relating to them very personally by giving his story.

And he says, I was a Jewish man.

I was a man brought up in this place in Jerusalem under one of the best teachers of the time.

And he was a Pharisee, super zealous for the law.

He was someone who followed the law to a T and strived and strived and strived to follow it as much as he could.

He was more qualified than any of them present at following the law.

And he compares himself to them.

Now, when he's talking about law, he's talking about the moral and ceremonial laws.

He followed these things to a T.

He strived after them.

Because at that time the teaching got twisted that if you followed these things to a T, that you would make yourself right with God.

It no longer became that that God that you would think that God just wants you to follow him.

Jordan Peterson, either you love him or you hate him, wrote a book called The Twelve Rules for Life.

And the premise of the book, it's very simple.

You follow these 12 things he lists out, and you'll have a better life.

But this book has actually been become almost revolutionary for a lot of people, and they have been str they strive to follow this book because they believe it'll make their lives better.

See, Paul was so zealous for the law, for following it, it brought him to the great lengths of helping to murder and imprison people.

At the end of the day, he would have just patted himself on the back, saying, I've done a good job, I've impressed God, I've helped these people be killed, I've put these pr people in prison for God.

But that's not the case.

See he's just following a gospel, a way to make yourself better with God through law, through following rules.

And if we're honest with ourselves, we kind of fall into this habit as well.

We all do it in some capacity.

It could be, well, I read my Bible, I read my Bible every day, I pray every day, I share the gospel almost every day.

I go to church consistently, I tithe, I serve, I preach most Sundays.

I'm good with God, I'm a good person.

But that's not that's not the case.

But that is a fair critique of many Christians, many of, including myself, that we fall into this habit of making the 12 rules for being a good Christian.

If you follow these 12 rules, you'll be right with God and you'll live a good life.

See, the person I was having a conversation with was kind of getting to that.

That he says, you've that you've become, you've teached this way that it restricts people, it's oppressive on people.

And you we have a habit of becoming zealous about this, and we view ourselves better than those people, and we become prideful about it.

And if we go back to Paul's testimony, this is exactly what he's doing here.

He's showing them.

Because he says, I was a Jew, I am a Jew, I followed the law, I did all these things, I made myself right with God.

He's trying to bring that up to the people so they see it, and he compares himself to them.

But what this does, it just creates a superiority complex.

And when we're nailing it, we're hitting it, we feel superior.

And then when we're not nailing it, when we're not doing well, we create an inferiority complex.

Both these things focus on self, they don't focus on God.

Now, Paul now continues his testimony, and let's look at it, 6 to 15.

And as I was on my way, now he's talking about when he's going towards Damascus.

He has his famous Damascus experience.

And as I was on my way, I drew near to Damascus.

About noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And I answered, Who are you, Lord?

And he said to him, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.

Now those who were with me saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

And I said, What shall I do, Lord?

And the Lord said to me, Rise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.

And since I could not see because of the brightness of the light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.

And Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing by me, said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight.

And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him.

And he said, The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth.

For you will be a witness for him to every one of what you have seen and heard.

And now what you do, now why do you wait?

Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

See, Paul's using his testimony now to show something.

That he's that he's almost, in a sense, been liberated from the law.

See, what's going on here, as my friend would have said, that this points directly.

See that Paul is no longer a man who has to follow these rules, these laws.

He's been liberated from them.

Jesus is rescuing him from all these rules, from fundamentalism, and he's being welcomed for who he is.

In Oprah Winfrey's in Arthur Brooke's book, Build the Life You Want.

This book is built on the premise that talks about ways you can build the life you want, no matter what your circumstances, no matter who you are.

And it says in the description that it's focusing on cutting-edge science, compassion, and hope.

So my friend in our conversation continued to critique me, saying, How can you be like Jesus?

He was revolutionary in his compassion and his love for his neighbor.

How can you hope if you're how can you have hope if you're oppressive and you have and it's all rules?

How is that loving?

And that's a fair critique.

That's a common critique against those who maybe proclaim a different gospel.

But again, when we if we just focus on a gospel of love, of acceptance, of nothing matters.

You can just do whatever you want, God accepts you.

We come again to the same issue of superiority complex, all accepting.

You you pat yourself on the back because you're all accepting.

And then there's the inferiority complex that you're not accepting enough, then you need to be more accepting.

Again, it creates a focus on the self and it takes away the focus on God.

So where do we go then?

If if you follow too many rules, it doesn't make you right with God, and if you don't follow any rules, it doesn't make you right with God.

Where do you go?

See, if following a law-based gospel, what happens is it leads to pride.

And if following a gospel of liberation, it leads you again to pride.

What do we do?

And if we really think about it, if we really take a reflection of ourselves, we all lean somehow on these two on these two spectrums.

Maybe we take some of one and we take some of the other, but we continue down that spectrum.

But look what Paul does next, because it's re it's really good what he does.

Look at verses 16 to 22.

And now and now why do you wait?

He says, Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

He's recounting that.

When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, and fell into a trance, and saw him saying to me, Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.

And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.

And when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.

And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.

And up unto this word they listened to him, and then they raised their voice and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.

See what's going on here.

If I had to make a um a header for this section, it's the gospel humbles the ego and satisfies its needs.

See, in verse three, if we think about it again, Paul compares himself to them in his testimony.

And what's going on here is that he's showing that he was a zealous Pharisee.

He followed that law perfectly.

And then he says in verse 16, he shows that Ananias saying to him, Be baptized.

See, right away, they would have been they would have their minds would have been blown, that this man who followed the law perfectly had to be baptized for his sins.

Doesn't the law make you right for your sins, right with God?

Their minds would have been blown.

And they would have they would have been thinking to themselves, well, does that mean I have to be forgiven?

It would have caused offense to them.

But the law doesn't save, only the gospel saves the gospel of grace.

And what the gospel of grace is, is that God God saw that the human need was so drastic, so dire, that humans couldn't save themselves, that he sent his son to the world, that if they have faith in him, because of his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, that they would have eternal life.

Now we continue.

If we think about, if we think about a marriage example, what is marriage?

Marriage is when two people love, the male and female love each other, or they come together in their love, and they're it's the they have a marriage covenant, and it is based on certain rules, if you want to call it.

You you forsake all other, you hold on to your spouse.

There's these things that are built within the marriage that if you didn't follow them, the marriage would crumble.

And then in verse 22, it says, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.

Now who are the Gentiles?

The Gentiles were the most the most um despised and hated people in the area.

The Jewish people did not like them.

They loathed them.

They saw them as just almost you could say scum of the scum of the earth.

They were non-Jewish, they didn't follow the law, they did whatever they wanted.

If that's the case, they're already liberated.

They don't need to hear a gospel.

So why would God want want to send Paul to them?

That would have that goes against the complete idea of the gospel liberation.

Why does he have to go to them and tell them that they need to be baptized, that they need they need Jesus in their lives?

But if you look at verse 10, this goes against both of the gospel of law and the gospel of liberation.

Verse 10 says, What shall I do, Lord?

This is the key moment in this text.

That Paul throws down his ideas of following rules, and he throws down his ideas of his self to ask Jesus, What shall I do?

How shall I follow you?

See, only the gospel of grace, when you lay down your life and you put your faith in Jesus, liberates you.

You stop living for yourself and you say, What shall I do, Lord?

Only seeing your dire need for Jesus and giving up yourself to him will you experience true gospel freedom.

Now Paul changes, Paul shows his tone is completely different.

He has been affected deep within his heart from what happened to him on the road to Damascus.

And he he reflects, he says to Jesus as he's talking to him, I am known for persecuting the church.

I even stood by watching your servant Stephen being killed, being stoned, and I approved it.

But something that's so interesting about this text, when you go to the beginning, when Paul says, when he says at the beginning, brothers and fathers, hear the defense, he is quoting Stephen.

This is the same way Stephen gave his defense of the gospel before they stoned him.

This is a man deeply affected by what he witnessed and what he condoned.

And he is a changed man.

And one thing, the only thing that all of us can agree on in this life is that we all will die at some point.

And living a life following rules will not give you hope to make you better with God.

Living a life of self-fulfillment will not give you hope to make you better with God.

Only a life knowing how much you need Jesus and you follow Him and lay down your life to Him, saying, Lord, what shall I do?

Will you have this hope that you are secure in Jesus, in the gospel of grace.

And what's the gospel of grace or the gospel of hope?

Is that you are liberated from death and you become more holy as you lay down your life and follow Jesus.

This a poet who is famously quoted all the time in sermons, George Herbert, he says, Death used to be the executioner, now he's just a gardener.

See, when you put your faith and trust in Jesus, death no longer has a sting to it.

It is just a moment in time that we all must face, but then we are brought in and we stand face to face with Jesus.

And he says, Well done and good and faithful servant.

But it's only when we lay down our pride, when we lay down these rules that we try to do to better ourselves before God, or we lay down this life of trying to self-fulfill ourselves, that we will only be able to enter into a relationship, a covenant with Jesus.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, um, thank you.

Thank you for Paul.

Thank you for his willingness to be boldly proclaim your gospel in situations that were most dire to him.

Father, and I just pray that you would speak to our hearts, that you give us the boldness of Paul to proclaim your gospel to the people of Port Perry and the surrounding community.

But Father, we also pray that if there's anything in our hearts that make us feel like we're getting right with you, that you would just tear them down, that you would show us that it is only through grace and it is only through faith that we are saved of the free gift that you've given us.

And I pray it's in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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