Leftovers - Acts 22

Happy Monday. We're back with another ERC

Leftovers episode. I'm Pastor Matt.

That's Pastor Chris. Say hi, Pastor Chris.

Hey, how you doing? It's good to see you.

We are we are inversely matching today I just realized.

That you're wearing the white, white with black logo and I have

the black with white logo, all right.

Yeah, it's not, you know, there's nobody else in the

building, so it doesn't feel mildly embarrassing or anything.

But there was a Sunday, I don't know, it was a year or better

ago where we both wore like a black polo in like, grey pants.

And I was like, oh, I don't know.

I mean. I think it was the other way

around. We wore.

Gray with black pants, and I wore black with Gray pants.

And we were like, and I think you even wore like Gray shoes

and I wore black shoes and we were exact mirror images.

It was a strange thing, but it is.

Kind of strange. Yeah, so anyway, Monday, thanks

for y'all who helped out with the Bicks, came out to the

Bicks, endured the rain with us and cheered runners on.

We passed out so I don't know it was it was better than a month

ago. I think I had the I want to be

annoying for Jesus line. Yeah, it was just great.

We passed out. For those of you who don't know

or haven't seen the little tiny miniature Jesus's that have been

hidden around church for the better part of a year.

We passed out about 1000 of those to runners who would, who

would take them, who'd receive them.

It was really funny to see 'cause we're just like on the

side of the road, on the side of the race, of course.

And I say we, I was, I was playing music, I was watching

others pass out the Jesus's. But they were holding them in

boxes or holding them in their hands.

And as the runners were going by, they didn't fully realize

like what they were. They just like they see these

little white things. And there were so many.

I bet there were 50 of them that ran past, realized what they

were and like ran back to grab a little baby Jesus.

They they were that excited about it, like it was, it was.

It was neat, it happened a couple times.

From what I understand is that people also weren't paying

attention and assumed it was like a small piece of like candy

and then they popped little Jesus into their mouth only to

realize that Nope, this is not communion.

This is not how we receive Jesus.

That is a plastic little figure of Him.

Yeah, well, we did have the IT was the white robe, Jesus with

the brown sash. So like, in some respects it

looked like a little Tootsie roll, I guess was fun.

Yeah. So anyway, that was fun.

Played music for about 2 1/2 hours along the race track.

So thanks for. Yeah, thanks for the rest of you

coming and helping making Jesus known this weekend at the Bix.

It was fun, it was good, and they already invited us to come

back last year or next year and do music again, so that'll be

something to look forward to as well.

Yeah, it's a great weekend and anytime you can, I mean, I

believe there are right around 14,000 runners this year.

Yeah, they had bib numbers for up to 16,000.

I don't know that everyone ran in the race with the weather,

but yeah, it was in that 15,000 range of people.

So, so I mean, for, for our church to be able to come

through and just, you know, share the gospel through music

for hours on end and whether that's looks like little Jesus's

or whatever that looks like, I think it's such a cool thing to

be able to impact that many people.

And yeah, just just the wider culture.

I think it's really neat. Yeah, and that was the.

So if you don't know, Derrick Hendrickson had a Jesus costume.

Like he had the sandals and the robe and the sash and the hair

and the beard, like the whole thing.

But he also put sunglasses on. He had like these red, yellow

reflective sunglasses on. And I was thinking about it

afterwards and I was just like, the, the, that's the what I love

about music. Or that our band is willing to

go and do this if we just sent Derek or like a handful of

people down there just to pass out baby Jesus's.

And he was in a Jesus costume on the side.

Like that's a crazy person, right?

Like that's, that's not helpful. That's a weirdo on the side of

the racetrack hanging out. Jesus put put the band and the

music and the and the banners and the people there, though,

And like, it's OK. It's it's not wildly offensive.

I don't know. It's a it's not a crazy person,

right? Right.

Well, because otherwise, you know, you just have somebody

dressed up, you know, as Jesus and you look like just the guy

who's normally in the street corner with the repent or go to

hell, you know, cardboard signs and he's just dressed in a

costume today. But you know, with the band and

all the people there, now all of a sudden it's, oh, this actually

makes sense in this space, in this time.

Yeah, So I just love how it just as a church, they've our people

have just kind of grabbed onto that and take, OK, the band's

playing. But this is an opportunity to to

do more with that and to end to capitalize on this moment.

So that's really cool. I appreciate that.

Or would you rather this week we're going to get back into

silliness? Would you rather go on a forest

hike guaranteed to encounter a bear, or swim in the ocean

guaranteed to encounter a shark? Do.

And like shark that will not not like a nurse shark, like a shark

that could take a bite out of you.

So that's that's what my question was about the bear,

like what kind of bear are we talking about?

I don't know that it matters for bear.

That's true I think. I mean a grizzly would be like

worst case scenario right? But still, I don't want to like

run into a black bear. No, no, I, you know, I'm not

Michael Phelps. That's that's for sure.

I don't think Michael Phelps wants to be, wants to be

guaranteed to encounter a shark. Yeah, I don't think it'll

matter. I think gosh, you know, so I

think one of the scary things about being in the ocean, well,

first of all, I'm I'm only willing to go out so far.

Like I get about chest height into the ocean.

I'm like, we're done. We're done and because.

Even if you like, Even if it's perfectly Clearwater.

Yeah. Well, because riptides and all

that kind of stuff, we've, we've seen that more.

Than a creature thing. It's more than a creature.

Thing Power of the ocean. Thing it's it's untamable as we

have learned through the millennia.

And you know, the fact that I have swam in a lot of ocean kind

of spaces where you can't see once you get past two or three

feet, you're like, I can't see what's below me anymore.

Let me share a short story. I was in Florida a couple years

ago and I think I was like, yeah, up to like my solar plexus

and water and something substantial.

I don't know what it was, but it was big.

It hit my leg under the water and I just about had a heart

attack. I, I don't know, like at 40

something years old, I don't move terribly fast anymore, but

I moved real fast in that water, like real fast.

And it didn't take a bite. It just ran into me, whatever it

was. And I, I was out of the water

for like the rest of the day. I was like, I'm done.

I I don't need that. And that for me, I think it's

more the like the fear of the unknown, the unseen.

I think I would be pretty comfortable even out in like

deep water, like like whatever, like out in a boat jumping in at

the last summer. We're on Lake MI jumped in and

did some some buoys, some noodles close to the boat.

Like couldn't really see around me and that's fine, it's

whatever. Not afraid of a shark in Lake MI

but. But.

Also, like even a lot like even if a large fish had like I, I

wouldn't enjoy, I wouldn't have enjoyed that not being able to

see it in that, in that sort of water.

So for me, it's more of the unknown.

I think if I could see through the water, I'd be a lot more

comfortable in the ocean all around me.

That being said, of these scenarios, I realized neither

one is is a favorable scenario. Like you're, you're probably

done for either way. I would I would just feel

exceedingly helpless in the ocean.

Like I there's no chance I could get away from that shark.

There's zero. Like there's very little chance

you could outrun or outmaneuver or just like be a tough enough

get for the bear. Like there's there's, if he's

determined, like that's probably going to end poorly for you.

There's no chance of getting away from the shark, right?

Like, no, you're in his element, yeah.

And and like even kicking or throwing punches or like trying

to fight it like. The eye gouge or whatever, I

just don't. They they say all those things

and I know it's possible and I know people have punched gills

or or whatever, but it just seems wildly unlikely to me.

I would, I would just feel so disoriented and I can't, and you

can't see him. Like what do you, what do you

do? You can't even see.

A. How are you going to gouge an

eye that you can't? You can't necessarily know where

it is your. Escape, yeah.

Yeah, well, and gosh, at least with the bear, like if you can't

outrun it, which you probably can't.

Probably. I'm sure you can't.

I know I can't. Then at some point you're like,

well, I guess we're just going to wrestle.

We're going to wrestle and this bear is probably like 1800 lbs

and I'm going to be in a really bad position.

But what if? But what if I can actually see

it well enough to like, yeah, try and gouge its eyes or

something. You know, like, at least I feel

like in a tiny, tiny way I have a fighting chance, but with a

shark I have no chance for. The bear, I feel like yeah, you

could at least put up maybe enough of a fight or or at least

be annoying enough in in whatever, whatever.

I don't know, you run around a tree or you're run.

Up a. Hill or something you could do

something to be annoying it might not be enough to get him

to leave you alone but in the ocean like literally just feel

like a sitting duck just. There's nothing.

Waiting for the shark to go away.

I I can't. I can't do anything to make him

go away. I can maybe frustrate the bear

enough to be like this isn't worth it.

At at that point with the shark, I just have to hope like, well,

I hope my left leg was a big enough meal and now he'll go

home. He'll go home happy with my left

leg and there we go and. That's what's so like most most

shark attacks it's like 1 one hit and then they realize that

you're not food and they leave you alone.

But at that point the damage is done right?

Like they they don't want to make a meal out of.

You, but we're also. Not really made to survive a

shark attack. So yeah, so I think, I think

it's the bear. I don't, I don't like my odds in

either situation of the two, I'm not escaping a shark.

I could maybe escape a bear, maybe right.

And and I I realize I probably sound way more confident than

the odds actually are. I I fully realize those odds are

still very low of running into a determined bear like getting

away is not is not good. So anyway, let us know what

you'd rather face off with. Bear in the woods or shark in

the ocean. Now reverse it.

Shark in the woods or bear in the ocean.

Shark in the woods. Shark in the woods.

I'm taking the shark in the woods this.

Is like Sharknado level idea now Sharknado a shark in the.

I'm sorry, that was absurd. That was that was another one of

the questions we had. Would you just say anything that

comes to mind or not be able to say anything at all?

I would clearly be the say anything that comes to mind.

So, yeah, All right, let us know.

Would you like to face off with a?

That's it, it's over now. I I won't be able to think about

anything all day except for a shark hanging out in a tree like

waiting to drop on. You.

And that's a weird thing. I'm going to have AI create that

image, by the way. It's going to be great.

Wood Shark. Wood shark, Forest shark.

Forest shark. This is so dumb.

This is a good start. We're off to we're off to a hot

start here on Monday. Yikes.

All right, well, if you've if you've recovered from that, I.

Don't know if I have it's, it's fine.

It's fine. I'll be OK.

You walked us through the latter part of Acts 22 yesterday and

had a couple, I think really pointed moments, Really good

takeaways. The the passport analogy was

fantastic. Did did someone make that image

or did they find that image? Was that a they put that quote

like to an image? I don't know.

So it was probably an hour after church wrapped up yesterday that

I got a text from Shannon Sanction and we posted that

image to our Facebook page. If you don't know what we're

talking about, it's it's really very neat.

And yeah, it's an image of like kind of a, you know, a map globe

kind of thing. And.

And what does it say on? Jesus is my pilot.

The Bible is my passport and heaven is my destination because

you at one point did you say that full thing during the

sermon yesterday? I had no idea whatever that

thing is that she sent me existed.

OK, so 'cause you, you said like your passport has been stamped

with the blood of Jesus and and and that was that was more of

the analogy, but I thought this was this was a cool image for

that too. Anyway, so a couple of those

things and and in talking about the the three things that you

had of the courage and and the assurance of the gospel that all

all those things I just thought spoke very well.

You brought them out very well in in the ministry and message

of Paul and how he did that. What was?

What was the third one you started?

With humility. Humility.

So you started. With humility, courage.

I think that's the thing, like if, if we're willing to, it's,

it's great to do devotionals. It really is.

And I, I encourage people to get into those kinds of things.

You can find 10,000 of them on the Bible app or whatever.

And those things are really helpful.

However, if you haven't done this or you're out of practice

on it, be willing to just take part of the Bible, whether it's

a chapter or a couple verses, and just sit there and meditate

on that for as long as you possibly can.

Ask all the questions of the text that you don't even know if

the text can answer, but just start asking it questions and

then start letting the text answer those questions.

I think when you do things like that, you will draw from the

Bible maybe less obvious things than than a devotion might give

you. And so for example, like looking

at chapter 22, or at least the latter half of that this week,

that's that's the exercise that I have the opportunity to go

through and prepping for a sermon is I get to look at it

over and over and over again. And I get to Mull it over for

hours, whether I'm at the gym or at home or whatever.

Like I'm just kind of continuously pondering that

thing. And so when we have the

opportunity to do that, I think God uses his Holy Spirit to

enlighten us and show us some things that are just below the

surface that we may not have otherwise caught.

And so that's where those ideas come from.

So as we look at Paul towards the beginning and he's telling

his conversion story, you know, you look at that and you go,

man, it must have taken an incredible amount of humility to

admit he was wrong and to look at it like, look at all these

people in the face and say, you know what, I blew it.

I, I don't know a lot of people who have the humility to be able

to do that well. And Paul clearly had that.

And so then you ask the question, OK, how does he gain

that level of humility? But also simultaneously, he has

this ridiculous confidence to be able to speak to anyone

anywhere, anytime about Jesus. How do those two things exist in

the same person, right? And so you just start to ask

those questions. And I think the gospel always

has an answer to those questions.

And that's that's how I personally prepare for like

either teaching a Bible study or whatever.

It's just asking the text a lot of questions and demanding

answers from it. And I really think that's an

example of, I mean, if you talk about wanting or, or seeing the

faith of someone else and be like, have you ever done that?

Like just seen the level of, of belief or calm or humility or

peace in a person? Because man, what's, what's that

faith like? I think, I think that is a true

gospel faith. Timothy Keller's book shaped by

the Gospel, like I think encompasses those things that at

the same time, Paul's not taking, he's not taking himself

or his life too seriously or, or, or even importantly, I would

say. I think that's how you get to

that level of humility. And yet he's so assured and

confident that that's the way it's supposed to be.

And and I think those things have to have to come together.

You get to that point in your faith by realizing how much less

than your life is compared compared to the life poured out

in Jesus. How how much you truly we say

things like Lord, I need you or or Jesus, I need you.

But but do we comprehend that like the level to which he's

influenced or sustained or even worked in our lives already?

I, I don't, I don't think we can even fully acknowledge how much

God's strength has brought us through or maintained our lives

to this point. Like we can say those words and

I still, I'm not sure that this side of heaven will fully

realize the magnitude to which we need him.

Wyatt Wyatt Winters and I actually just wrote a song kind

of reflecting on that. And that's all the chorus is

simply God, God, I need you. And it's just repeated over and

over again, but it's it's more reflecting on the ways that God

has supported our lives and just the acknowledge it, not crying

out like I'm desperately needing help, acknowledging that

reliance of I couldn't have been here.

My life couldn't be what it is without your influence in it.

And I think that's what we see in Paul here.

Just the, the utter confidence and, and kind of unashamedness.

I think that comes with humility too, because he's not taking

himself seriously. So he's not ashamed of the

gospel. He's not afraid of how they may

react. He's just, this is what it is.

You're not going to change my mind about it.

And I'm not going to feel bad if you don't like it or even if I

don't change your mind, right? He doesn't need that end result

of conversion to be convinced that what he believes is true.

Correct. Yeah.

Well, and The thing is, we see in, if you go back all the way

back to Ezekiel in the Old Testament, what you'll find is

that there's a moment where God calls Ezekiel and he says, OK,

you are the, I'll paraphrase here.

You're the protector of these people.

And to the extent that you tell them the truth and that you

unabashedly say this is what God says, thus says the Lord, to the

extent that you're willing to do that, you are free, you are

your, your, their blood is on their own head.

But to the extent that you hold on to this truth, this

information, and you don't give it to them because you're afraid

or whatever, now their blood, because you're their shepherd,

that's on you now. And so I've, I, I have to

believe that Paul was really well aware of that text in

Ezekiel. It might be chapter 33.

But he's so well aware of that that I think he's like, Yep, I'm

going to put it all on the line because I need to know that I

am, I am blameless for your actions.

I, I have given you exactly what you need in order to succeed

spiritually. And so because of that, like I

can walk away in freedom. And we talked about that in our

Bible study actually yesterday too.

We have to remind ourselves that yes, we are called to be

ambassadors. Yes, we are called to speak the

gospel, but we don't save anyone.

That's not our job. Our job is not to save people.

Our job is to bring them Jesus. And every single person through

their free will, has the opportunity to either grab hold

of that or to reject it, you know?

And so that that's, that's kind of where that comes from, I

think for Paul, too. Yep.

And I think we've said, you said, yet you say the way of the

Lord is not just right. I will judge each according to

His ways. That is Ezekiel 33.

And I think we've said that a couple different ways over the

past couple weeks. And I don't want it to come out

as a cop out because I think we should to some degree feel

responsible for the future, for the eternity of of the people

around us, the people in our lives only, but only to the

point where we are loving them like Jesus, where we are showing

them Jesus, telling them about Jesus.

You're not a failure if they don't come to the full

realization of who he is. That's that isn't your

responsibility. But I don't want it to be heard

as a cop out of like, well, gave it to him and you're on your

own. Like there's obviously a greater

depth of relationship that we can be called to there, but it

doesn't happen in every instance either.

It might, it might just simply be that moment and hopefully

that person has a, a stringing together of events in their life

where they, they get glimpses of Jesus from multiple different

people in it and it's impressed upon them that way.

So not, yeah, not as a cop out, but more as a encouragement of

this is this is how we're called to it.

And, and Paul's example in it of, of humility of, I don't want

to say like lack of expectation. I don't, I don't think he was

saying it believing it was going to fall on deaf ears.

I think he was hopeful that they were going to receive it and

embrace it, but he he set it up in a way that was he tried to be

on like an equal playing field with them right.

He he tried to he tried to enter in in a familiar way versus

verses 3 through 5. I am a Jew born in Tarsus,

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.

So he kind of like I was one of you.

I I was like you and look at me now and not in a look at me now.

I'm awesome. But I was this way and Jesus

Christ changed my life, so you can too, because we were the

same. Right, absolutely.

Well, I mean, he works really hard in the beginning and we

didn't cover these verses because like I said, we covered

his conversion story on June 15th.

But he's he's working very hard to find common ground with them.

And in fact, if he's bragging at all, he's bragging about his

former self and how much better he was at being his former self

than they are even right now. I mean, think about it.

He he just lays it out. He's like, I succeeded in what

you just tried to do. I had people killed because of

this faith. You can't do that.

You tried to kill me and you've been trying for 30 years,

haven't succeeded yet, but I did.

So I'm actually better at what, at the flaw that you're doing

than you are. And I think that's actually kind

of a funny way to do that. A.

Little backhanded compliment there.

A little bit, yeah. It's and so, yeah, his, his

zeal, his persecution of the early church is the stuff of

legend. It's really impressive in the

worst ways. And he lays that out for them.

And he's like, you guys got nothing on me.

Like I was the baddest dog in the yard when I was persecuting

Christians. Everybody was afraid of me.

What are you going to do to me? And and, and it's again, it's

not this braggadocious thing. It's this, but I've changed.

I've I've evolved into the gospel, I've come into a greater

truth, a better realization of this, this faith that our

fathers and our forefathers have lived and died on for the last

thousands of years. I've seen the fulfillment of it

and I've I've experienced the fulfillment of it.

Therefore, I want you to be where I am.

Paul does that in other places too.

He talks about the fact that I want you to be like me and he's

not saying that like, hey, everybody, I'm, I'm really

perfect at this thing. He's saying, no, I want you to

be like me and how I follow Christ.

I think you pointed that out a couple weeks ago.

Like I just, I just want you to follow Christ the way I do,

right, Right. Not because I'm great, but

because he's. Great emphasis on Christ being

the one you're following exactly Paul being the one you're

following. But my example of how to follow

Christ is one that you should replicate, one that you should

emulate. The other part of him kind of

declaring this I, I was, I was the baddest of the bad when I,

when I was, when I was one of you all is I, I think there's an

element of hope in that too. Like I was, I was better at this

persecution thing than all of you and I was worse than all of

you. And there was still hope for me.

And, and yet I still was brought around to faith in Christ.

And the rest of this chapter 22 is, or at least the beginning

part of it is him recounting his conversion story to them, him

explaining to them how it went down.

So I, I think there's an element in there too of yes, he's, he's

pointing out like you haven't, you haven't opposed me in the

church the, the way even that I was able to do when I was on the

other side. And that means there's still, if

there's hope for me, there's hope for you.

So come on around. And I think when we sometimes we

meet people and there there's all sorts of people who have

issues with Christianity, but there's a certain sect of people

who have issues with Christianity because they feel

like there's no way I have, I've been divorced X number of times

or I've done whatever. And so they think there is no

possible way that like God could forgive somebody like me.

I've got a friend who is absolutely assured that God

should not forgive people who commit murder or other really

heinous acts. I mean, he calls himself a

Christian, sure, OK. But as I've had conversations

with him, he's like, yeah, I got there's no way God, God

shouldn't forgive that. He can't forgive that, blah,

blah, blah. And so I mean, like that is

somebody who of course puts sin on a relative scale, seeing

that, you know, well, this sin put Jesus on the cross, but this

one isn't that bad, you know, And so there's a problem there

too. But like we do run into people

who they do feel such a heavyweight of what they've done

that they don't believe that the gospel is enough.

And so for people like that, we have to point to Paul.

We have to because he as self-proclaimed the kind of the

worst of the worst. And so when I, when I have run

into people like that and we start to have conversations, I

do bring up Paul and I do bring up the thief on the cross.

Neither of these people. And us, of course, like we

haven't done anything to merit God's grace.

We haven't done anything to earn that.

Like I haven't cleaned myself up enough.

And now God's like, oh, well, now we can.

Now I can work with you the rest of the way.

No, the fact is, God wants me at my lowest.

He wants me at my worst and he won't leave me there.

I think we've said that too. Like, he's not going to leave

you there, but he'll, he'll take you right, right there.

He'll take you wherever you are. You know, he loves you that

much. And so we do have to have that

sense of, you know, willingness to, to go there with somebody

who maybe doesn't feel like they're even worthy of

forgiveness or grace. Yeah, and that's a, that's a

tough place to be. If we get in that sort of

self-righteous, like, I don't know that we say it out loud,

but we maybe think it like, man, I hope you're, I hope I don't

see you in heaven. Like I, I think our actions can

sometimes betray us that way of like I, I am a better Christian

than you are, or I'm more worthy of God's grace than, than this

person. And we kind of, we kind of have

that relative righteousness like as, or I'm at least I'm not as

bad as that person. And and that's a weird spot to

be in. And Paul's laying it all out

right here that there's there's not, there shouldn't be, that

there can't be that as it relates to sin and grace.

There's something interesting that I caught and I don't

follow, I didn't follow this really closely, but somebody, I

believe he was in Idaho, he had done this awful, awful thing.

I think he killed like 4 college age kids or whatever.

And so I caught a clip of several during sentencing,

several family members able to address the man who did that to

their loved ones. And the majority of them were,

of course, reasonably so incredibly angry and hurt.

And they let this guy know from across the courtroom.

And I remember one of the one of the family members just said, I

hope you burn in hell forever. And then there was somebody

else. And it was only one of them, but

one of them said, I, I can't hold on to this.

I, I can't hate you forever. I forgive you and I and

basically I hope you find God, you know, and so I mean, I think

both of those, you know, the, the, I hope you burn in hell

forever. And in some ways that feels like

a reasonable reaction. I want justice, I want

judgement, I want punishment. But the other side of that is

the person who says, you know what?

I I'm not going to do this to me and I'm not going to do this to

you. Like I I'm a Sinner just like

you. I need Jesus just as much as you

do. I know what you did was maybe

civilly infinitely more awful than what I'll ever do with my

speeding tickets or God knows what.

But but we all need Jesus. Every single one of us.

The murderer. Like Paul all the way down to

the adulterer in their mind, you know, the the person who just

fantasizes. Well, Jesus calls that adultery.

And so, you know, we all need Jesus.

I don't, I don't care what your outside life looks like.

We all need him. We do and that's it's so

backwards what Christianity does to justice because even that

phrase they like it's reasonable that in that situation they

would want justice for what that person did.

The more the more reasonable, the more heartfelt Christian

would would truly long for them to come to know Jesus.

And that's also justice like the like even how God approaches

that situation of us, us being I hope you meet justice and and

burn in hell. I think God rightfully

righteously approaches that situation is I also hope you

meet justice in the form of what my son has done for you.

Like that's that's available there.

And that's that's more of the posture with which God wants

that person to meet. Justice is coming to

forgiveness, coming to repentance for that thing.

And we get caught up in the worldly part of it.

Yeah, I, I don't know, I, I just, I know that, I know that's

so backwards and I can't imagine.

I, I get right. I, I say that never having been

in that scenario, hopefully never being in that scenario.

So I don't, I don't know how I'd react, but I would I would hope

there's a need to breathe song called when you forgive someone.

And the the course is when you forgive someone, you set

yourself free. Like I, I do fear a little bit

for that person who stated, I hope you burn in hell.

Like that's a posture of I will never forgive you.

And that's a posture of them always being hung up and held

back on. Yes, this heinous, unfair,

unthinkable thing that happened to your life.

But that I I think that in infects and and just just just

stews and becomes almost becomes a God in in that person's life.

Then that this thing was so unjust and even the posture of

their being the the only answer for justice being them burning

in hell. Man, that's it's so dangerous.

It really is. And The thing is like we, we can

hold that posture of that person if we don't believe that God

will do justice, right. So I mean, like, I know he used

the phrase I hope you burn in hell.

Well, by it's very nature, that's a Christian idea.

OK. But I don't think he's

attributing that Christian idea to the God who does justice,

because if he, if he understood the God who does justice

perfectly, you know, who judges perfectly, he would still be

hurt. He would still be angry, but he

would understand that God's justice does win out no matter

what happens, no matter what happens to, to that person who

perpetrated these crimes or, or to himself or anybody else.

Like, and, and that's the thing, you go through the Psalms and

you see the theme of justice over and over and over again.

And we learn through the Psalms and through other ways that God

is perfectly just. He is the perfect judge.

And you know, we have this hope. And I think I've heard it said

this way that every wrong will be undone, undone as if it never

happened to us. And so I mean, that's we talked

about, you know, how do I Live Today because of what I know

about my future. That's how I can Live Today when

things seem unjust is because I know my future and I know my God

is a perfect judge and that there is not a single crime or

sin that he hasn't fully punished in his Son.

And you know, those who accept that gift will not be judged

because Jesus has already been judged on their behalf.

But those who refuse that, who want to live in bitterness and

anger and whatever, like, OK, well, you're just going to get

exactly what you wanted. It's not God kicking you down

the hill, keeping you in hell. You're just getting what you

asked for. And that sounds bad too.

I know that, but it's it's true. Like we, we get exactly what we

ask for. If I ask for Jesus, I get Jesus.

If I reject Jesus, I don't. And it's that simple.

And that I think, I think you paraphrased a little bit the,

the original phrase, I think is from Lord of the Rings.

Sam Wise says every sad thing will become untrue.

So good. And there, yes, there's

Christian theology in Lord of the Rings.

If you didn't know that, there there is.

And I and I love that. I love that line.

And I think that is all that is ultimately justice in in God's

eyes, that for those that are redeemed, those that are made

new, every sad thing does become untrue.

But that person, that wrongdoer us, I, I, I don't want to do

the, the US and them thing because we are that wrongdoer.

It would be justice either way. Of course, God's justice will

win out it. It may end up with that person

not coming to Jesus. It may come with that person not

coming to redemption, and God's justice will win out.

If that person did come to faith in Jesus, God's justice will

also win out in their life. So.

It's a yeah. God's gonna win either way.

Yeah, period. Moving ahead, jumping a little

past his kind of recollection of his conversion on the road to

Damascus, there, verse 12, he points out to this Jewish crowd,

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 the very hour I received

my sight and saw him, he's pointing out to them that

Ananias was religiously by faith, a Christian, culturally

by practice, still a Jew, right? He's not saying they're mutually

exclusive. And we have even we have the

words of Paul, the words of Jesus, neither Jew nor Greek,

neither slave nor free. Like this is open to everyone.

And still practicing what Paul's pointing out here is still

practicing Jewish cultural customs does not exclude you

from the love of Christ, Correct?

So he's all he's also saying I am like I was like you and even

the way you are now look at look to this example of this man

Ananias. It's still readily available.

Like you don't need to dismiss this.

You don't you don't need to separate yourself from from this

Judaism. What you need to do is come to

Jesus right like you need to add that to to the pot.

Yeah, well, and The thing is like, it goes both ways.

So I don't have to, if I'm a Jewish person, I don't have to

ditch my Jewish customs to believe fully in the grace of

Jesus Christ. Now, what I do need to do in

that scenario is make sure that my customs and the law I am

following are not the thing that I believe gives me salvation,

right? That's the twist.

But on the other hand, you also don't need to become Jewish in

order to believe in Jesus. And, and that's where, that's

where a lot of this like they're having the Jewish people who are

persecuting Paul are having a major, major problem with him is

because like, how can you be a Christian without being Jewish

first? They can't see how that's

possible because they've tied so closely the law and the customs

of, of their culture and, and all that kind of stuff.

They tied that so closely to who Jesus is, which is true.

I mean, Jesus is a Jew, right? But they've tied it a little bit

too closely to where you have to have this thing, you have to be

circumcised, you have to, you know, all these things.

And that's just not true. We find out all throughout the

New Testament that it's just Jesus.

You know, it's not Jesus plus this holiday Jesus plus this

custom Jesus. It's just him and you can do

both. Of course, there's this rather

kind of famous group called Jews for Jesus.

I believe that they do both really well.

But you know, you don't have to become a Jew to become a

Christian, and you don't have to lose your Jewishness to become a

Christian either. But that's and that's what he's

saying. But that's where he lost them.

Like they're, they're wrapped in that piety of no, I yeah,

you're, you're right. Anyone can be a Christian, but

I'm also Jewish, so I'm a better Christian, right?

Like that's, that's, that's what they're they're wrapped.

They're they're offended, They're offended, right, that

he's putting the gentiles, the non Jews at the same level of

benefit. And I, and I think that's what I

was kind of getting at earlier when when I was thinking about,

well, at least I'm not as bad as that.

I'm, I'm a better Christian. Like we can't do that.

We can't. We can't get wrapped up in that

and. This crowd, I think this is the

point that Paul realized like, OK, not getting through.

I tried, I tried, I tried these tacks.

I tried to be on the same playing field.

I tried to be relatable and say, Hey, we're, we're the same,

right? We're we're this is available

for you. It's the same for me.

And they're still just caught up in their haughty selves of Nope,

you you should. I think they're almost saying

you should think of yourself better than you do because why

are you diminishing yourself and your status in this?

You should come with us and be better Christians like.

Us, right. Well, and The thing is like Paul

is touching nerve here and it's subtle, but the nerve he's

touching is I was like you. In fact, I was better at being

like you than you are. And I have turned that off.

I have I've turned that off in my life.

And so they're hearing that as oh, so you're better than us now

because you've been able to turn this thing off and point this

way. Yeah, he's he's he's not doing

it on purpose, I don't think. But he is subtly telling them,

you know, like I'm, I, I figured it out and you haven't, you

know, and nobody likes to hear that, you know, and I and I can

understand that. Like nobody likes to be told.

Well, I'm, I'm just a step ahead of you anytime, anytime, even if

it's true, when people say that to us, it hurts our pride a

little bit. And if you're used to being a

really prideful person because, well, I follow the law and I do

this and I do this, that's that's going to dig at you

pretty hard. And it's going to take, again,

we talked about humility. It's going to take a certain

level of humility to be able to accept that.

And I don't think this crowd had that.

No, they didn't. And that's honestly what I think

has been such a big part of how this church, our church, Emmaus

Rd. Church has grown here.

We have that house for the broken home for the healed

tagline. But that also needs to be

supported by a breath of humility that doesn't that

doesn't include us and them. And I think, and I think we hold

to that pretty well. I think we keep that humility

pretty well. I think that's how we continue

to grow, how new families come in because they're brought in

as, as a we as an us together. There's not, there's not cliques

or subculture. I know, I know there's different

friend groups and things. I'm not, I'm not saying there's

not subgroups within our church that anyone gets along with with

anyone. But what I am saying is I don't

think we have an, an insider mentality of, oh, if you haven't

been here, you don't know and you're not, you're not one of

us. I've been here.

I've been here for 20-30, forty years.

So I'm, I'm better than you and I get out of my chair.

This is, this is, this is my spot.

Like we don't, we don't have that.

And I think it's so important for us to stay vigilant in that

and that, and that's how we continue to grow.

That's how we don't. That's how we have an outsider

focused mentality. Not that we don't care about the

insiders, the the people that are here, but if we're truly

growing and knowing Jesus and making him known, we have we

have to do both of those things right.

You know, Eric Sorensen, who's on the multiple 1517 podcast, he

was church planning in in Manhattan.

And I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that the tagline, and

I really do believe this is the culture that they were trying to

build was they called themselves the church for quote UN quote

others. So again, taking away that US

versus the mentality of like, OK, we figured it out.

We've we've we're better than you.

We we want you to join if you can get to our level.

No, like just house for the broken, right?

We have to get rid of that other's mentality, you know,

that that they're different out there and that they're somehow

misguided or wrong or unable to, you know, get to where we are.

Absolutely not. Because every single one of us,

even if you grew up in a Christian house, you've been the

other. You've been the person who

doubted, you've been the person who persecuted you've, you've

been all these things. And you know, if you can

acknowledge that, if you can actually take a real look at

yourself, you'll gain some humility.

And you'll also see that those quote UN quote others out there,

they're no different than us. Yeah, yeah.

And to this point now, now it kind of turns on his head and

they're they're treating Paul like the other, right?

He's they've they've they've had it.

Verse 22 and chapter 22 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. And as they were shouting and

throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust in the air, the

tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks,

saying that he should be examined by flogging.

But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to

the centurion, Who's standing by, Is it lawful for you to flog

a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?

Paul brings in and. This is beautiful and and.

It's so smart in the. Gospel, it's, it's perfect.

He was born into Roman citizenship and the guards would

be committing A heinous crime if they harmed him before he had a

formal trial. They could do it to an outsider,

they could do it to a non citizen, a foreigner.

What? Whatever.

So the tribune comes back, verse 27 says, tell me, are you a are

you a Roman citizen? He said, yes, I am a citizen by

birth. So those were about to examine

and withdrew from him immediately.

The Tribune was also afraid for he realized that Paul was a

Roman citizen and he had bound him.

So they've kind of done a no, no, But Paul brings this back to

citizenship, brings it back to what you the, the passport

thing, the, the where I've been, the who's who's stamped where

I've been. But this is where I belong,

right? That this is, this is where I'm

from. And it comes with rights and

responsibilities, things that contribute to humility and

courage and insurance. That's, and, and he brings it

back. I know he's talking about his

earthly citizenship here, but there's, there's parallels to

heavenly citizenship in this too, that he need not be afraid.

It's, it's the same thing, right?

If if our home is in heaven, we need not be afraid of of sin

here on earth. We we need not live in fear.

We can be courageous in the face of fear or the face of sin.

So it's it's just a beautiful thing that that saves him

obviously from punishment in the moment, but also points ahead to

the certainty that he has the kind of kind of where we ended

up with not fearing and or, or fear is not my future.

That was also pulling back the curtain sort sort of moment

yesterday. You you were as you were getting

to the end yesterday, that Brandon Lake song just was

ringing out in my head and I, I texted JT quick and I was just

like, I need you to throw these lyrics up there.

We're just going to sing. We're just going to sing this

one line. I'll repeat.

It's a whole there's 5-6 minutes song.

There's a whole bunch of other things.

But that fear is not my future. That was just ringing out in my

head and the band kind of followed along quick, but I felt

like off of what what you were preaching in the example that

that Paul was given that we just had to kind of ring that out and

get that set in our minds. This citizenship idea though,

like that's that's at the crux of it.

If you belong, if you're made new in Christ, fear is not your

future. You need not fear this

punishment or future punishment. You are made a citizen, a Co air

with Christ. Right.

Amen, man. That's, that is spot on, you

know, and one of the things that I didn't have time to get into

yesterday, but I think it's important is, you know, based on

like your civil citizenship, that you have all these rights

and privileges, yet there's also responsibilities.

I don't think heavenly citizenship is any different.

You have rights and privileges, but there's also

responsibilities too. So I I look this up yesterday.

And so some of the responsibilities of an American

citizen go like this, support and defend the Constitution,

participate in the democratic process, respect and obey

federal, state and local laws and on and on it goes.

So I mean, like, it did draw out the question for me.

And like I said, I didn't have the time or the space to answer

it yesterday, but it's maybe worth saying, OK, I know my

rights and privileges as a Christian, as a citizen of

heaven. I have the right to be called a

son of God. I have a right to go home.

I have all these things. But it did draw the question to

my head like, OK, with my citizenship of God's Kingdom,

what are my current responsibilities?

And I haven't had a ton of time to think that through.

My, my quick answer, I guess, and maybe you can add on to

this, is that like one of my responsibilities as a citizen or

representative of God's Kingdom is to in fact, appropriately

represent him and, and follow, Well, just like it says,

respect, obey federal, state and local laws for our US

citizenship, man, I need to respect and obey God's heavenly

laws. You know, again, so just like

Paul is saying, I'm not throwing out the law.

I, I absolutely believe that God has given us this law, these

commandments that we might follow them and live as he

designed us to live. That's a good thing, right?

But I don't know, I think it's worth it to take the time to

bask and find joy and find peace and find freedom in our

citizenship. And then when we've filled

ourselves up to that level of joy and assurance, now, then I

can look and say, OK, what are my responsibilities?

That is as a citizen of heaven. And again, I don't fulfill those

responsibilities to earn God's favor.

I fulfill those things because I already have his favor and I

want to love him back. Yeah.

OK. So anyway, just I probably need

to spend more time thinking that through.

But even I think you can even simplify it because I think it

works with earthly citizenship to your your rights are things

for you. Your your rights are now things

that are benefit to you. Your responsibilities are now

how you interact with others like the the rights are for you,

responsibilities are. That's a great way to put.

That even even I think it works both ways, looking at your list

here of earthly citizenship and heavenly citizenship.

So I mean, if you ask the question, what rights are we not

taking advantage of in relation to our earthly citizenship?

I think that's all the self talk things.

I, I think that's are we, are we embracing the, the assurance of

the gospel? Are are we coming to grips with

the magnitude of the forgiveness, forgiveness of God

for ourselves so that we then have the responsibility to

forgive others for the way they've wronged us, right.

Like if, if we're falling short of that forgiveness for others,

have we come to grips with the forgiveness that God has for us?

I'm not there are the rights there in of that?

So I think you probably just touched an appropriate nerve.

If I have the right and the privilege of being forgiven as a

responsibility, I also have to dole that out.

Wow. OK, there, there we are.

So and we could probably fill in fill in the list given enough

time or thought in this the you just ask what rights are we not

taking advantage of and what responsibilities are we not

fulfilling? If we simplify it to the rights

being things for me and responsibilities being things

for others, I think those lists fill themselves in pretty well.

So. OK, You just kind of you just

kind of made my head explode. So good job.

That was that's a phenomenal way to put that.

I love that. Yeah, yeah.

So, Paul again, so smart. So.

So why and? Very clever man.

Very clever to the point of I don't even know I don't even

know if there was if he was saying these things for there to

be a lesson out of them. You know what it like he I

don't, I don't think he was gaming the game so much to be

like, hey, I'm going to put this scenario out here and at the

conclusion they're going to get this and minds are going to be

blown. Like I think that's largely more

how the Holy Spirit works of, Hey, in this example, this is

what you're to glean out of out of the truth of God's word and

and out of this. But in the moment, just such a

headsy decision to to understand that his earthly citizenship

also came with rights and then therefore responsibilities that

the Roman soldiers had to not do this to him without a trial

right. Well, and I think, you know, one

of the things that I didn't have time to talk about, but it could

have been an entire point inside of a sermon, which is, you know,

almost along the lines of how do we overcome fear?

It's like, how does Paul have this level of poise?

How does he keep his head about him this entire time?

Because I mean, just think about the basic scenario.

You've got a mob that is trying to kill you.

All of a sudden your adrenaline is pumped, you're in fight or

flight mode and you're probably not thinking straight.

But man, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul keeps his

head, he keeps his poise. And the other thing I didn't I,

I mentioned it, but I didn't, I didn't get to spend any time on

it was the fact that imagine the amount of compassion Paul has on

these people in order to try and give them Jesus one more time

because he could have looked at them and been like, you guys are

jerks. I can't believe you're trying to

kill me just because I'm not doing things the way you want me

to do them. You guys are the worst.

Forget you. Your blood is on your own head.

But no, he has enough compassion, despite their

murderous attitudes towards him, to still try to give them Jesus.

And I, I, I would hope and I could only pray to be that

compassionate towards people who want the worst for me.

I mean, imagine that. Imagine somebody wanting the

absolute worst thing for you. They want you dead and instead

of turning and saying fine be that way and and I like the guy

in the courtroom. I hope you burn in hell.

Nope. I have so much compassion for

you that I still want you to meet Jesus.

That's. Incredible.

To me it's mind blowing, like I can't believe.

It and I know that's crazy maybe for some of you to hear like

your pastor saying, but I'm I'm not there.

That's still like incredible for me to hear that sentiment from

Paul or also even the level of he's he's truly not.

He's taking the posture of you can have all this world, but

give me Jesus. Like he doesn't care at this

point about reputation, about what he, quote UN quote, has to

lose at this point. It's his life for his his

literal life. But like I'm caught up on

things. I have whether whether it's

whether it's family or or household or or or things like

there, there are things I'm fearful to lose in a, in a given

on a given day. And it's all I consider it all

lost for the surpassing worth, surpassing worth of, of Jesus

Christ, right. Like that's, that's Paul's line.

That's and I'm not there yet. Like I'm not, at least not all

the time. I mean, that's, that's freedom

at a level that I think we talk about freedom at that level.

I think to gain access to freedom at that level is just,

yeah, like you said, everything else is lost.

You know, it's just Jesus. Period.

Oh man, wow, did we do it? That's that's all I got.

And that's that's where we are and that.

On to where you left us yesterday.

Yeah, and that puts us at the end of Chapter 22.

So there we are. On to next week.

Thanks for hanging with us and hearing a little bit more about

Acts Chapter 22. We are continuing on into August

Acts 22 · chapter mention

with this series in Acts 4 weeks left. 4/5. 4 weeks.

Left Well, September 7th is when we change over and we start

hanging out with Moses for the fall.

So yeah, if that, by the way, that's scary because if you

haven't, if you've got kids and you haven't started back to

school shopping, it's right around the corner.

I know. And I'm looking at the desk

across from me who has. You have 5 kids, Yeah.

Yeah, they all have backpacks. I know that.

Hey, that's a great start. Yeah, that's a great start.

Backpacks and lunch boxes, and they're water bottles, so

they'll probably make it through the day.

Yeah. All right.

Well, drop us a comment on the show or on the Facebook feed for

the bear versus shark question earlier in the show.

Let us know if you've got thoughts on the heavenly rights

and responsibilities that we have in Christ that Paul's kind

of getting out with this citizenship question.

And yeah, we'd love to interact with you in that way, share the

show with someone who who wants to hear it, or just encourage

someone to give it a listen. We love putting this out and

just continuing the conversation with you all from the Sunday

morning messages. Have a great day guys.