I came across a fictional list of improbable quotes – remarks that famous people would NEVER have made.
Peter Pan would never have said “Oh, grow up!”
Florence Nightingale would never have said “Go away, I’m on my tea break”
Sylvester Stallone would never have asked “Precisely what is my motivation in this scene?”
Here’s one you would never expect. Surely the Apostle Paul would never have said, “All hope is lost!”
Yet things are so desperate on this ship that we read
Acts 27:20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. (NIV)
NLT “All hope was gone”
New Century – “We lost all hope of being saved”
New RSV “all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.”
Message “we lost all hope of rescue.”
It is Doctor Luke traveling with the apostle Paul who wrote this account in Acts. So it was actually Luke, and all the sailors, who lost all hope. When that happened there was just one person aboard the ship who had not sunk into despair. Among all the sailors and passengers, when even Luke himself was in despair, one man did not become despondent! One man of faith had not lost all hope. We will come to him in a few moments.
For everybody else, “All hope was gone.” “We lost all hope.” This can happen to Christians more often than we talk about. I’ve never been in a shipwreck. I have been in more than one storm at sea. I have had a brief experience of being out of my depth in the sea swallowing sea water and facing the possibility of drowning. And these are scary experiences. But the whole of life is full of storms – and the lives of Christians are no less stormy than anybody else’s. First there are the storms of life which every human being can face. Unpleasant or difficult experiences arising from need, from illness or accident or natural disaster, from bereavement and grief, from rejection or even abuse, from disappointment and discouragement. Such times can be so hard that even Christians can be brought so low that they are tempted to give up hope. Then, some Christians also have to face the storms of opposition and ridicule and persecution, and in some places even martyrdom. They can feel pressed to give up hope! Whenever believers go out on a limb and take risks for the sake of the gospel, storms will come! And hope can fade to despair even for believers.
So if you have ever felt tempted to give up all hope – don’t feel guilty. You are in good company and I’m not only talking about Luke.
We talk about the sufferings of Job. Remember how his personal suffering and afflictions, as well as grief for the loss of his family, caused Job to curse the day he was born.
Job 3 11 “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?
12 Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed?
13 For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest
16 Or why was I not hidden in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day?
Think about how Moses felt in the wilderness when all the people were demanding food to eat. Moses was ready to give up.
Numbers 11 11 He asked the LORD, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? … 14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now
Moses found the burden of leading God’s people too much for him. He lost all hope. That is the kind of experience which many Christians, and even many Christian leaders, have gone through!
Remember how Elijah felt after the contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Jezebel was out to kill him.
1 Kings 19 3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.
Standing up for God had driven Elijah to the point where he was ready to give up!
And think about Jonah when he preached to the people of Nineveh so powerfully that they actually repented! At the moment when he should have been rejoicing, instead Jonah fell into deep despair and he said
Jonah 4 . 3 Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.’
All these great believers came to a point in their lives when they give up hope! Many Christians have done – so if that includes you then don’t feel guilty. Faced with hopeless situations it is perfectly natural to want to give up!
It has been said that “Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope”. The sign at the entrance of Dante’s hell reads, “Abandon hope, all you who enter here”, and a place where there is no hope is a good definition of hell.
You may have faced such a situation when you have been in despair. You may secretly be feeling that way today. Let’s see what we can learn from the one man aboard that sinking ship who did not abandon hope! Who was it guided the sailors to safety? It was the apostle Paul.
Let’s begin by remembering that this was not the first difficult situation that Paul had faced. God had brought Paul safely through so many of the challenges of life, and he had also experienced God’s faithfulness in the midst of all kinds of opposition and persecution. Paul had already proved in his own life that God could be trusted. In not one but two passages in 2 Corinthians Paul listed the ways he had suffered for God.
2 Cor 6:4 … troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; … 8 through glory and dishonour, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
There were so many times Paul when had been knocked down but not knocked out! Then in 2 Corinthians 11 he reports how he had
2 Corinthians 11:23 been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
Here Paul is giving his testimony about all the challenging and painful situations where he had experienced God’s help. Most of us have probably not gone through times as hard as those in our own lives. So it is good for us to learn from Paul’s experiences. It is good for us to be encouraged by the examples of the great saints of scripture and the great saints of history and the great saints in the church around the world today who go through terrible times, but to do not give up. Their experiences inspire us to serve God faithfully and not to despair. Paul didn’t abandon hope. He didn’t wallow in pity! So we also should never give up!
Here in the story of the shipwreck we find no less than SIX pointers to Paul’s faith and determination: six things WE should remember in the middle of whatever storms we are facing to help us to keep on going and not give up hope! Last week I gave you a sermon with four points all beginning with the same letter. Since I am on a roll here are six points all starting with the letter P.
God’s Presence
23 Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me
God is with us whatever storms in life we may be facing. Sometimes, as Jesus did in the boat on the sea of Galilee when the apostles thought they were drowning, sometimes God calms the storms. Sometimes God leaves the storms raging and he calms US in the midst of the storm. Either way, it is recognising the presence of God which will stop us from giving up hope.
We have to make time and space to find the presence of God. In the midst of the chaos and panic on board, sailors throwing everything they could overboard to lighten the ship, Paul was busy praying! It is very hard to pray with storms raging around us, when we think we are about to sink! But then more than ever we need to make time and space to pray and recognise the presence of Almighty God.
God’s Promise
23 Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, “Do not be afraid, Paul.
You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.” 25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.
Paul received God’s promises in words of prophecy. Many times Paul, and the Early Church, and Christians ever since, have been comforted and saved from despair by words of prophecy, by dreams and visions, or even by the appearance of an angel. But again we need to make time in the middle of the storm to listen to God and hear his still small voice of calm!
For us of course God also speaks to us his promises of Scripture! So we must make time to read the Word, to learn it, to hide it in our hearts!
God’s Purposes and God’s Plan
24You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.”
Paul knew that God had a master plan for his life and that NOTHING could stop God’s plan from being fulfilled. He would go on to Rome to proclaim the gospel before the Emperor himself. God also had plans for the lives of all the sailors who were with Paul. God has a masterplan for each of our lives too. And nothing can stop God’s purposes for us from being fulfilled. So when the storms of life are beating the last remnants of hope out of us, we should remember that God is in control – HIS will shall be done in our lives. He will accomplish in and through us everything which His cosmic masterplan intends.
God’s Power
25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.
In the midst of the storms of life when we are tempted to think that all hope is gone, we need to remember that nothing is impossible for God.
In the 17th century, Jeremy Taylor wrote, “It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent.”
From her experience of God’s help through the atrocities of a Nazi Concentration Camp, Corrie Ten Boom confidently declared, “We do not need great faith, just faith in a great God”.
Storms at sea, shipwrecks, the storms of life we experience, are all within the control of Almighty God our Heavenly Father. Remember we serve the God who is able to do so much more than we can ask or even imagine. HE is our hope! He is our shield and our very great reward!
God’s Protection
25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26 Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.’
Max Lucado wrote, “It is when we are out of options that we are most ready for God’s surprises.”
When we come to the end of hope – God steps in and does his saving work. The rest of Acts chapter 27 is the story of how, despite a terrible shipwreck, not a single life was lost. After two weeks in this dreadful storm the boat was about to crash into the rocks.
33 Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. ‘For the last fourteen days,’ he said, ‘you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. 34 Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.’ 35 After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. 36 They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. 37 Altogether there were 276 of us on board.
Paul was even able to break bread with all the sailors and soldiers and all the other prisoners, so everybody knew it was God’s protection which brought them safe to land. They tried rescuing the ship by throwing the cargo overboard but that didn’t work so they decided to run the shop aground.
43 … the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and … ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. 44 The rest were to get there on planks or on pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land in safety.
Every single person was saved through God’s wonderful protection. And in the midst of all this, we see how Paul received
God’s Peace
When everybody else had given up hope, Paul was able to say to them all, not once but twice, “keep up your courage!” As the storm raged around them, Paul rested in God’s peace. And that came to him through prayer.
Philippians 4 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Perhaps you are at the point of giving up all hope today. Perhaps you may come to that point in the days ahead when the storms of life are battering you down into despair. You won’t be alone if you fall so low. Remember Job and Moses and Elijah and Jonah and even Luke. But in that slough of despond remember the apostle Paul. Remember God’s presence, God’s promise, God’s purposes, God’s power and God’s protection. And God’s peace which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

There is a rather nice book with the inspiring title of “The Bible – the Best Bits” which does exactly what it says on the tin. So I thought for our last sermon in this series we could look at Acts – The Best Bits. Back in 2014 we had a series of 13 sermons on the life and growth of the Early Church in Acts 1-8. Through this year we have heard 15 sermons on the Spreading Flame of the gospel in the missionary journeys of the apostle Paul. If you missed any of these they are all online on the blog for you to read. Out of all of these passages, I wonder what would stand out for you as your Best Bits of Acts?
There are actually three main themes in the Book of Acts. Three intertwined strands of the shared life and the bold witness of the first Christians. We shouldn’t separate them. Conveniently we find all three strands illustrated in the final chapter of Acts.
1 Spectacular miracles and spectacular growth
Paul and his companions were on the way to Rome when the boat they were on was shipwrecked. Miraculously they all survived. Then we read
ACTS 28:1 Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. 2 The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. 3 Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. 4 When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, ‘This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.’ 5 But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. 6 The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
A miracle of healing for Paul! Which led on to other miracles, starting with the father of Publius, the chief official in Malta.
8 His father was ill in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. 9 When this had happened, the rest of those on the island who were ill came and were cured.

Signs and wonders. Miracles of healing and deliverance from demons. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles should really be called the Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Time and again we have seen miracles, from the very early days of the church in Jerusalem.

Acts 2:43 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

Then there was the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple who went walking and leaping and praising God. Miracles of healing and deliverance through Peter and John and the other apostles and later by Paul and Barnabas. Even dead people like Dorcas and Eutychus brought back to life. Peter twice and Paul and Silas all released from prison by God’s supernatural intervention. Signs and wonders, miracles of healing and deliverance, and prophecies, dreams and visions. We have said before that the first Christians were “naturally supernatural.” They expected the Holy Spirit to work in power amongst them and they were never disappointed. All these things give us faith to pray for healing and to expect similar miracles in the lives of Christians today.

At the same time we have seen how these signs and wonders led to the growth of the church. God worked in miraculous ways and people asked “how did that happen?” The disciples replied, “God did that”, and people put their faith in Jesus and were saved. We saw that pattern in Acts 5

Acts 5 12 The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought those who were ill into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing those who were ill and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.

More and more people were becoming Christians and forming churches. Spectacular miracles and spectacular growth. That is the first strand of the life and witness of the early church. But we mustn’t think that everything in the garden was rosy. That was just one thread in the book of Acts – not the whole picture. Sometimes people say, “If only we could get back to the church it was in the book of Acts.” Those people are thinking of the successes and the growth. They clearly haven’t read the other equally important bits of Acts which talk about

2 Discouraging problems and failures

If you like happy endings, Acts is a very disappointing book. Because we are hoping that God’s chosen people the Jews would receive the gospel and believe in their Messiah Jesus, but in general they do not. Most of the time the Jews rejected and persecuted the apostles just as they had rejected and persecuted Jesus. We see that in Acts 28 too.
ACTS 28 23 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus. 24 Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.

In that sense the Book of Acts is an anticlimax. We keep looking forward to the turning point when Jews will be saved but time and again God’s people reject God’s Saviour. As the prologue to John’s Gospel explains, John 1:11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

Acts 28 25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: ‘The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:
26 ‘ “Go to this people and say,
‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.’
27 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”
28 ‘Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!’

The Jews rejected Jesus, so God sent Paul to the Gentiles. But this rejection and persecution was not the only problem the Early Church faced. Often the response to the gospel was not opposition but apathy. Then there were internal divisions in the church, like those Jewish Christians who wrongly tried to insist that every new Christian should also become a Jew, in the case of men by being circumcised. We thought about how Paul and Barnabas had an argument and went their separate ways. And there were the personal failures of disciples like Ananias and Sapphira who lied to Peter to try to appear more holy and compassionate than they were.

It is easy to overlook the problems and failures in the Early Church, and to forget the fierce persecution they faced. All the apostles apart from John were martyrs! The truth is that discouraging problems and failures were the second strand of the life and witness of the first Christians. They are also part of the experience of all churches throughout the ages and still today. The lesson from Acts is that we mustn’t just give up when things go wrong or turn out different from what we hoped for and expected. We should persevere. And we shouldn’t try to evaluate what we are doing by trying to measure how “successful” it is. Our call is to be faithful and prayerful and obedient and leave the outcome to God.

Somebody once gave some wise advice. “If you find a perfect church, stay away from it because you will spoil it.” Churches will always have problems and failures and discouragements as long as they are full of imperfect people serving God in an imperfect world. We mustn’t brush those problems under the carpet but rather pray that God in his grace will still use us to fulfil his purposes, however imperfect we are. We should accept each other as God in Christ has accepted us. God accepts our failures. We should recognise that in God’s purposes a perfect and flawless church would be less effective in reaching this imperfect flawed world.

Spectacular miracles and spectacular growth. Discouraging problems and failures. And

3 Everyday faithfulness and humble service

In today’s reading it is interesting to discover what it was which encouraged Paul and caused him to give thanks to God.

Acts 28 12 We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. 13 From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. 14 There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. 15 The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming, and they travelled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged.
In this case it was not spectacular miracles of huge numbers of converts which encouraged Paul and caused him to give thanks to God. It was just the ordinary everyday thoughtfulness of a bunch of Christians who bothered to make a journey of 43 miles just to meet Paul and escort him into Rome.

When we come to the ending of Acts we might hope for some exciting climax to the story of the Early Church but instead it is unspectacular and undramatic, even down-beat and comparatively boring.

Acts 28 30 For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. 31 He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!

No more journeys for Paul – just sharing the gospel with anybody who came to visit him at his house. Everyday hospitality and conversations. But then don’t forget that after his conversion Paul had spent the first 13 years of his Christian life out of the limelight, 3 years in Damascus and 10 years in Tarsus before Barnabas brought him to Antioch. Then we read of 18 months making tents in Corinth and teaching in his spare time, and another 2 years in Ephesus, as well as 2 years in prison in Caesarea. And much of the time and effort on Paul’s missionary journeys had been spent in the “unglamorous” task of raising money for the poor Christians in Jerusalem.

Then we shouldn’t forget that alongside his preaching and teaching, perhaps the even greater service Paul performed for the church was writing all his letters. Just writing letters. Paul never imagined they would be collected and one day form more than a quarter of our New Testament. Those letters tell us what everyday life was like for the first churches.

Ephesians 1 15… ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

Paul thanks the Philippians for being his partners in the gospel.

Colossians 1 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people.

1 Thessalonians 1 2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1 3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. 4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

Paul doesn’t talk to the churches he had planted about spectacular miracles or spectacular growth. He talks about faith and love, and hard work and endurance, and perseverance in the face of persecution and trials. Everyday faithfulness and humble service. And while we thinking about Paul, we should not forget how he spent very much of his time. In prayer. By himself. Just praying.

Paul the apostle to the Gentiles was content to serve God faithfully in quiet and unspectacular ways. For much of his life, nothing exciting was happening. No miracles. No dramatic conversions. Just everyday faithfulness and humble service. Hospitality and talking about Jesus one-to-one. Just writing letters and praying. If Paul was prepared just to “plod on” with little encouragement or incentive, we should be the same. Just continuing in love and faith and prayer supporting and encouraging one another, caring and sharing and bearing one another’s burdens in the routines of church life. Pressing on to the end especially when it seems as though nothing is happening at all. Because to do so is just as spiritual as the exciting and dramatic stuff. If not more so.

Very soon after the day of Pentecost we read this snapshot of the life of the Early Church in Acts 2:42. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Even in the middle of everything that was happening during those incredibly exciting days, the first Christians devoted themselves to the ordinary activities of church life. And Acts 2 goes on to speak about the amazing love the first Christians showed for each other in practical ways. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”
Teaching. Fellowship. Worship. Prayer. Giving to people in need. Because those things are just as important as the dramatic and the exciting things – if not more so.

Acts – Best Bible Bits. The Bible shows us what church life will be like. We can pray for and expect spectacular miracles and spectacular growth. We can’t expect to escape discouraging problems and failures – yes and even persecution. But we shouldn’t be surprised or disappointed if much of the time our life together is simply about everyday faithfulness and humble service. That is the way it was for the Early Church and that is the way it will be for us too. And that’s why the church continues to grow.

On his way to Damascus, was Saul of Tarsus hit by a bolt of lighting? That’s the latest theory to explain Paul’s conversion. A certain Dr. John D. Bullock, from Dayton, Ohio, delivered a paper on his theory at the American Academy of Opthamology and Otolaryncology Convention held at Dallas. Dr. Bullock’s main theory suggests that “the light from heaven” was a bolt of lightning that struck the corner of Paul’s eyes causing scar tissue to obstruct his sight and giving him weird vision.
Others have speculated whether Paul was just having hallucinations. In an earlier generation some people believed it was all down to epilepsy. When someone told the famous London preacher Dr. Joseph Parker that Saul’s conversion was caused by epilepsy, Parker exclaimed: “Fly abroad, thou mighty epilepsy!”
Paul’s conversion was certainly one of the most significant events in the early church. Without Paul the good news about Jesus would have spread much slower, and probably not far outside Israel. Without Paul the apostle to the Gentiles the church would quite possibly remained mainly Jewish. And without Paul we would not have all his letters to the Romans and the Corinthians and the Ephesians and the Colossians and the others too which make up more than a quarter of the New Testament.
Paul never got tired of telling the story of how he met the Risen Jesus Christ on the Road to Damascus and it is certainly worth us thinking about that story again this morning. Paul has arrived in Jerusalem and been arrested in the Temple, but he still gets an opportunity to speak to the crowd. And he gives his testimony, his “before and after” story, which gives us an example of one way in which we can share our Christian faith with our friends.
The Bible is full of “before and after” stories – the difference God can make in people’s lives. Think of the people Jesus met: Blind Bartimaeus, the Man born blind, the Woman of Samaria, the Man possessed by a Legion of demons, Lazarus who was dead and Jesus brought back to life, And Nicodemus to whom Jesus said, “You must be born again.” So many examples of the transforming power of God – power to save from the guttermost to the uttermost. The power of Jesus Christ, who transformed the lives of all kinds of people. Turning ordinary fishermen like Peter and Andrew and James and John into the leaders of the Early Church. Wayward women like Mary Magdalene and that Woman caught in sin to whom Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you, Go and sin no more.” Professional thieves (sorry, tax collectors) like Matthew and Zaccheus. Prodigals who were throwing their lives away, returning home and being transformed into children of God! “My Son was lost but now is found – was dead but now is alive again! Sinners transformed into saints. Atheists into missionaries. Before and after stories. But few more remarkable than Paul’s.
He starts his story with what his life was like BEFORE he was a Christian
ACTS 22 3 ‘I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
Paul later described himself as “the chief of sinners.” And that wasn’t exaggerating. In his former life Saul of Tarsus was the greatest enemy of the early Christians, persecuting them, having them imprisoned and even executed. But Paul goes on to explain HOW his life changed. Quite simply, he met Jesus.
6 ‘About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, “Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?”
8 ‘ “Who are you, Lord?” I asked.
‘ “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.

That encounter changed Paul’s life completely. Well, meeting Jesus would do that! Paul was persecuting Christians because he believed they were lying about Jesus rising from the dead. And in that moment Paul discovered how wrong he was. Jesus was alive! And the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the single most important event in human history. The resurrection proves to the whole world that Jesus is really the Son of God. The resurrection shows us that Jesus’s death on the cross is an acceptable sacrifice for sin, so our sins can be forgiven when we put our trust in Jesus. The resurrection demonstrates that Jesus Christ really is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So meeting the Risen Jesus really turned Paul’s life upside-down. Or we should say, turned Paul’s upside down life the right way up. And the Risen Jesus can turn our messed up lives the right way up, if we will let him. Paul goes on to explain how his life changed AFTER he met Jesus.
12 ‘A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, “Brother Saul, receive your sight!” And at that very moment I was able to see him.
14 ‘Then he said: “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptised and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”

That would be Paul’s mission. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. And so it was. In fact, Paul later says that that commission to spread the gospel came from Jesus himself. In Acts 26, Paul gives his testimony again, this time to King Agrippa. His full name was Herod Agrippa the Second, and like the four generations of Herods before him Agrippa was King of the Jews. Talking to Agrippa, Paul gives more details of what the Risen Jesus said to him on the Damascus Road.
ACTS 26 15 ‘Then I asked, “Who are you, Lord?” ‘“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” the Lord replied. 16 “Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
Meeting Jesus on the Damascus Road didn’t only change Paul’s beliefs about Jesus. It gave him his commission to be apostle to the Gentiles. And Paul obeyed that call.
ACTS 26 19 ‘So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. 20 First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. 21 That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me.
BEFORE – HOW – AFTER. The transforming power of God. The church’s greatest opponent becomes its greatest missionary and teacher. And that encounter affected Paul’s life in a third important way. We read about that in his letter to the Galatians.
Galatians 1:11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
Paul is saying that the gospel he preached came directly from his vision of the Risen Christ on the Damascus Road. This matters because of two objections we hear to the gospel today.
Some people, especially Moslems, say that the gospel Christians have preached through the centuries and still proclaim today is not the gospel which Jesus preached but instead it was invented by Paul. But that objection is empty – because Paul’s gospel CAME FROM GOD. It came from meeting the Risen Jesus.
Then some people say that God didn’t write the Bible. In the New Testament we only read the beliefs and ideas of early church. That is partially true. But Christians believe that the Holy Spirit was inspiring everything the writers of the New Testament recorded of what Jesus said and did. And when it comes to Paul’s gospel as well, that did come DIRECTLY from the mouth of God in that vision of Risen Christ. We don’t know how much of Paul’s other teaching also came from his encounter of the Risen Christ, or from any of his other experiences of visions and revelations, but I guess, quite a lot!
So meeting Jesus on the Damascus road changed Paul’s life. It gave him his commission as apostle to the Gentiles and it gave him the gospel he preached boldly and in the face of fierce opposition for the rest of his life. When we think about the Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road there are two truths we need to hold in tension:
Paul’s Damascus Road Experience was UNIQUE
Paul was the only person to be converted going along Damascus Road round around 35 AD by seeing a vision of Risen Christ! Even on that road on that day it was only Paul who saw Jesus and heard his voice. We call this HISTORICAL PECULIARITY. These things only happened to Paul. Paul was the only person in history who met ONLY the Risen Jesus Christ. All the other apostles, who were the other historically significant eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, had also been with Jesus during his earthly ministry. Paul had not. Only Paul was commissioned by Jesus to be Apostle to the Gentiles. Only Paul received the gospel he preached directly from the Risen Christ.
So Paul’s experience was unique! It would be a mistake to expect that pattern of dramatic conversion to happen to every new Christian! Some Christians grow up in a Christian home. They can’t remember a time when they didn’t believe in Jesus. Others come to faith gradually over a long period of time. Some have a more dramatic “conversion experience”. Let me make very clear. There are no 1st class and 2nd class conversions. A Damascus Road experience is not more real or spiritual that a pilgrimage of faith where a person comes to put their trust in Jesus over a period of time. NOT ALL CHRISTIANS will have a dramatic conversion in the way that Paul did! In a number of ways Paul’s experience was unique. But there is a second truth to hold in tension with the first.
Paul’s Damascus Road Experience was TYPICAL
It does gives us a type, a pattern, a paradigm of the difference which Jesus makes to a person’s life. Paul’s Damascus Road experience is indeed a demonstration of the transforming power of Christ. Sinner to saint. Opponent of Christ turned into missionary! And each one of us will have our stories of the difference Jesus makes in our lives. And we should be as bold and persistent as Paul in seizing every opportunity to talk about Jesus whenever we can! Dwight L. Moody had it right when he said, “The Bible wasn’t given for our information but for our transformation.” How has Jesus changed your life? What’s your “before and after story”? What difference has Jesus made in your life.
Paul said that the gospel he preached was given to him on the Damascus Road by the risen Jesus. You may not have spotted what that good news about Jesus was. It’s completely obvious really. The gospel Paul preached and that God gives us to preach is simply this. Jesus is risen from the dead! Jesus is alive. That was Paul’s message at Pisidian Antioch.
13 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had travelled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.
32 ‘We tell you the good news: what God promised our ancestors 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. ….
34 God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. ….
38 ‘Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin.
The resurrection is the heart of the gospel. God raised Jesus from the dead. And this is at the very centre of what Christians believe. We heard Paul warning the Areopagus in Athens that Judgement Day is coming/
31 For (God) has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’
And throughout the rest of the Book of Acts Paul’s message remains the same. Jesus is alive!
In Jerusalem Paul got to address the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin. Acts 23 6 … ‘My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.’
In his defence before King Agrippa in Acts 26 Paul said this.
ACTS 26 8 Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
22 But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—23 that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.’

Jesus is alive! Paul took every opportunity to talk about the time he met Jesus and we should talk to people about the difference Jesus has made to our lives. We should explain that Jesus is risen from the dead. We can talk about the evidence for the empty tomb. We can point to the resurrection appearances and all the people who saw that Jesus was alive. We can talk about the spectacular rise of the early church and the difference the Risen Christ has made in the lives of Christians through history and even today. There is so much evidence that Jesus is alive. The resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith. It proves that the claims Jesus made about Himself were true. The resurrection gives us good reasons to believe that God exists and the Bible is true. The resurrection points to the uniqueness of Christ and the uniqueness of the Christian faith. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us the grounds of a genuine hope of eternal life. Because He lives we will live also! This is the Good News Christians have been given to share. Didn’t he used to be dead? Jesus is alive!

If you are sick you go to a doctor. If your spaniel is sick you go to the vet. If you need legal advice you ask a solicitor. For pensions and investments you go to a financial advisor. But what do you go to see a minister about? What’s a Christian minister really for? Some unkind person said that a minister is six days invisible and the seventh day incomprehensible1 But what should a minister be doing?

The Bible Society lists 14 possible activities associated with the work of a minister. Teaching; leading worship; evangelism; visiting; counselling; administration; team leading; training; community involvement; leading and guiding the congregation; personal development and study; denominational and ecumenical responsibilities; enabling people; and “sacramental and priestly responsibilities”. Curiously, that list misses out prayer and vision building and crisis management. And they didn’t bother to mention safeguarding, health and safety, charity law and data protection.

The way in which each minister uses his or her time will depend on his or her own gifts, training and experience, as well as the gifts and skills of the leaders who share in the work of the church and the particular needs of the church at the time. But ideally a minister’s life should be shaped by what the Bible says ministers are for. And as an example and a pattern for Christian ministry from the apostle Paul’s own example and from the instructions he gives to the Elders of the Church at Ephesus here in Acts 20. In time Timothy would take responsibility for leading that church, and we can also learn from what Paul taught Timothy about ministry.
Ministry is all about teaching

20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

Ministry is all about TEACHING!! Proclaiming the gospel and calling people to repentance. In this short passage Paul gives examples of his teaching which include preaching the gospel, giving testimony, proclaiming the Kingdom, expounding the whole will of God and protecting the flock from evil and heresy. This teaching can happen with crowds in public preaching in church and in other contexts as well, school assemblies, open air events, today even through radio and television and across the internet. But Paul also was teaching FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE.

We find the same phrase in Acts 5 describing the apostles’ ministry too.
Acts 5:42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
Not just in public in the temple courts, but from house to house. In small gatherings like home groups, or even one-to-one. Visiting people in their houses has always been a part of pastoral ministry. But it has always been a part of the TEACHING ministry of the church. It was revived in the seventeenth century by the puritan preacher and minister Richard Baxter. In his book “The Reformed Pastor” he recommended that ministers should visit their congregation in their homes to teach them the faith through catechisms and prayers and recitation of scripture. He was into teaching the faith by making disciples one-to-one.

27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.
28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

Will you notice how these tasks of ministry are focused on God. “The whole will of God.” “The church of God.” The whole word of God for the whole flock of God! The minister is not the centre of attention – God is. I admit to being troubled by some of today’s celebrity ministers. People follow them because they are popular and successful without stopping to ask whether what those ministers are preaching is true or right. God should be the centre of attention – not the minister.

Then an important part of the minister’s duty is to

KEEP WATCH

28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

Keeping watch is not about dropping in to see if people are feeling alright. It is making sure that they don’t stray from the truth and follow false teachings. And keeping watch is about making sure that people don’t fall into sin.
Heb 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Most Christians don’t really want anybody “keeping watch” over them in those kinds of ways nowadays. Most Christians resist the idea that they are in any way accountable to anybody in the church keeping an eye on them and on their progress in the Christian faith. This may be to do with the much greater privacy we experience nowadays in the anonymity of city life compared to the shared lives in tiny villages centuries ago where everybody knew everybody else’s business. But the sad truth is that in most churches Ministers and Elders can’t begin“keep watch” over the flock because the flock won’t let them! One of the greatest sadnesses in ministry is occasionally seeing Christians make big mistakes in their lives because they didn’t think to ask for advice about big decisions, or ignored the advice they were given.

Paul gave these instructions to his apprentice Timothy, who went on to lead this important church in Ephesus.

1 Tiomothy 4:12 … set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.

That is ministry in Paul’s eyes – it’s all about the gospel, preaching and teaching the Word and keeping watch over the flock so that no sheep go astray.

Paul spells out in Ephesians 4 how ministry works
Eph 4:11 It was (Christ) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
… speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Can I just point out that there are only four areas of ministry, not five in Paul’s list. He does not say “pastors and teachers” as if those are two separate roles of person. The word “and” does not appear there. The Greek phrase is “teaching shepherds”, those who pastor the flock BY TEACHING them.

There are not specific jobs which Apostles and Prophets and Evangelists and Pastor-Teachers do. Their job is to stir up and encourage the whole church to do what God calls every one of us to do. It is not the apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers who do the works of service, but every member of the church. Loving each other. Witnessing for Christ. Serving in the church. Pastoral care. These are things EVERY MEMBER of the church should be doing. The job of ministers is to support, equip, encourage and enable. And they do this fundamentally by teaching. As a result 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Ministry is about teaching and it’s about keeping watch. And then also

MINISTRY IS ALL ABOUT CHARACTER

There is no other area of life which is less about skills or knowledge or experience and more about character!
25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men.
33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

In this passage Paul mentions several elements of his own ministry. Love. Integrity. Humility. Hard Work. Prayer. Faith. And of course, the work of the Holy Spirit. And underlying all of these, the character of the minister. Robert Murray McCheyne wrote to a new minister: “In great measure, according to the purity and perfections of the instrument, will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God” Some people think being a minister is a job just like any other. Other people have a very starry-eyed view of how wonderful it must be to devote your life to the Lord’s service. In fact it is a job like NO other, except possibly the calling of being a missionary!! It is very hard to think of another job where skills are so much less important and character is so vital. So Paul spells out to Timothy the qualifications for being an overseer or a minister.

1 Timothy 3:1 Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.

In passing, you can see there that the only actual skills Paul expects the minister to have are to be able to teach and also to be able to manage their own family (whatever that means). Everything else is about character. Paul goes on to talk about the requirements for being a deacon and again they are all about character and holiness. Remember how in Acts 6 the first Deacons were chosen because they were “seven men among you known to be full of the Spirit and of wisdom.”

Ministry is about teaching and keeping watch. It’s all about Character

AND THEN ALSO It’s all about commitment

Paul was completely dedicated and committed to his calling, however tough things got.
18 … “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews.

22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

Paul was so committed because he really cared about his flocks. He was passionate about the Christians he had brought to faith and the churches he had planted

31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

36 When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. 37 They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. 38 What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

In 2 Corinthians 11 Paul is defending his ministry and he lists all the many ways in which he has suffered. Imprisonment, floggings and beatings and stonings and risk of death. Shipwrecks and danger on every side. Hunger and thirst and sleepless nights. Labour and toil. Paul’s life was full of examples of his dedication and commitment.

And then he adds this: 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

Paul really cared about his churches. Ministry is all about commitment; enthusiasm; caring. It’s about fearless preaching, sacrifice, hard work, helping the weak, generosity and keeping a clean conscience. It’s about keeping watch over the flock and teaching the whole Word of God to the whole flock of God. And although that inspiring and challenging model is most relevant for Ministers and Missionaries and Deacons and Home Group leaders and Christians who are working with children and young people, it’s an example for every Christian. Keeping watch over each other and taking care of each other, being committed to Jesus and to the church. And for all of us that all comes from holiness and purity of character.

But at the end of the day every minister knows that it isn’t what ministers do, but what God does, that counts. It’s all about God! Ministers are only channels for the activity of the Holy Spirit. So that’s why Paul ends like this, which is the prayer of every minister for their own church.

32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

The story of Paul and Eutychus is much loved by preachers. It is a timely warning to every member of any congregation who runs the risk of dozing off during the sermon!
Acts 20:9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third storey and was picked up dead.

Of course the story is really about the grace of God! 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!”
Here we see the mercy and the power of Almighty God, who can indeed even bring the dead back to life again. Praise God for such miracles!
11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

Such a wonderful inspiring story. But it leaves us with an awkward question. WHY DON’T WE HEAR ABOUT CHRISTIANS RISING FROM THE DEAD SO MUCH ANY MORE?

As it happens the following true story arrived in the monthly email from Open Doors this week.
“It seemed as though all hope was lost. Tilak, a church leader from rural India, was dead. Some of his Hindu neighbours had complained to a local group of violent extremists that Tilak was brainwashing the villagers and polluting their minds with the Christian faith – he had led 40 families to Jesus. The extremist group kidnapped Tilak, and when he refused to deny his faith in Christ, they beat him and tortured him. Finally, he collapsed. He had no pulse. Tilak was gone. Or so it seemed.The Christian families from Tilak’s village found his body and brought it home. They laid him out in a hut, and people gathered to pay their last respects. Then suddenly – he started to move. His eyes opened. Tilak was alive!
No one could believe it. Some of the militants who had attacked Tilak were present when he came back to life – they must have been the most shocked of all. They knew what they had done to Tilak. They had tied him up and beaten him with sticks until he had bloody wounds all over his body. Then they made him crawl up a mountain, still beating him with their sticks to force him forwards. When Tilak had taken his last breath, they sent for the village doctor to confirm that he was dead. Finally, they threw his body in a ditch. There was no way he could have survived. And yet, here he was – alive! As Tilak woke up, he could hear people saying, “It was because he believed in Jesus.”

This story of Tilak is one of a few trustworthy accounts of dead people brought back to life again from churches in Africa or India or China. But why is that we don’t we have any medically verified accounts of Christians in Britain who were dead coming back to life after hours like Eutychus did, or even after days, like when Jesus brought Lazarus back to life.
Preaching through the Book of Acts we have seen a number of accounts of signs and wonders. And I have said time and again that we should expect to see similar miracles of healing and deliverance in the church today! Events where the only explanation can be, “God did that.” And indeed we do see such events today. I have experienced miraculous healing myself and prayed for people who God has healed. I have ministered deliverance and cast out demons. So why don’t we hear about Christians rising from the dead so much? The related question has the same answers. Why do we see relatively FEW miracles of healing and deliverance in churches in Britain today?

This morning let me give you 2 wrong answers – and 2 right answers to these question.

Wrong answer 1 – Miracles were only for the early church, to prove the apostles’ message was true

Signs and wonders accompanied the preaching of the gospel in the Early Church

Mark 16:15 (Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation…. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Throughout the book of Acts we read that the signs accompanying the preaching of the gospel confirmed the truth of the disciple’s message. But there is a theological understanding called “cessationism” which believes that signs and wonders and other spiritual gifts as well were only for the early church. The idea is that signs and wonders were “foundational”. Their function was to help lay the foundations of the early church as part of the ministry of the apostles. But then when the foundations were laid, and especially when the New Testament books had been written and were widely available, “cessationism” says that signs and wonders and spiritual gifts ceased because they were no longer needed in the life of the established church.

It is historically true that signs and wonders of healing and deliverance did serve to authenticate the apostles and the message they preached. And that is true today wherever God works in power through his church preaching the gospel. It is entirely mistaken to conclude that the primary purpose of the miracles was to prove that the gospel message was true. The essence of signs and wonders is that they are expressions of the love of God and the power of God. Miracles and healings and acts of deliverance are the gospel in action! The idea of cessationism is completely wrong – we SHOULD expect to see signs and wonders in the church today!

Luke 9 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. … 6 So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.

When Jesus sent out the 12 apostles it was to proclaiming the Kingdom of God in words, and demonstrating the love and power of God in actions. The miracles were not to prove anything to anyone. They were the kingly rule of God bringing freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, releasing the oppressed, comfort for those who mourn. And on into the Early Church, signs and wonders were not linked with the apostles alone – but with the early church everywhere they preached the gospel. Nobody would have expected signs and wonders to die out, and as a matter of historical record they did not stop when that generation of apostles died. Miracles of healing and deliverance and spiritual gifts of prophecy and speaking in tongues continued until at least the third century. And there have been credible reports of similar signs and wonders throughout the centuries and especially in Pentecostal and charismatic churches throughout the 20th century and still today. The idea called cessationism is mistaken. We SHOULD expect miracles in the church today.

Wrong answer 2 – We just don’t have enough faith

Here is another mistake. We find in the gospels that when people were healed it is often recorded that they had faith. Jesus said to Bartimaeus who could now see, “Your faith has made you well.” We read that Jesus could do no miracles in Nazareth, because of their lack of faith. But it is wrong to conclude that there is a direct relationship between miracles and faith. It is wrong to conclude that the reason that any time somebody is not healed, it is because they or those who are praying for them do not have enough faith.

Our faith does not contribute in any way, in the slightest, to any miracle. Our faith is not necessary for a miracle to happen. Miracles of healing and deliverance are acts of God’s grace, not earned or deserved. There are different good Biblical reasons why we do not see healing so much in the church today. Lack of faith is not the reason!

So what are the good reasons? Why do we not see people rising from the dead so much? Why do we not see as many miracles as many of us would expect and hope for and pray for?

Right answer 1- God doesn’t work miracles as “proof” for anybody of anything

Matthew 12 38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”
39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Throughout his ministry Jesus refused to work miracles to prove who he was. Not for the Pharisees or for the crowds Not even for King Herod when he demanded to see a miracle. Jesus refused to work miracles to prove that his message was true. Jesus said that the only sign that God would give to anybody, the only proof anybody would ever get, would be “the sign of Jonah”, his own resurrection from the dead.
Miracles, like Eutychus being brought back to life again, did play their part in the growth of the early church. But they were examples of God’s love and power in action. Miracles were never given to prove anything to anyone.

The reality is that if there were lots of miracles and healings in the church, and especially if lots of people did rise from the dead, then crowds would come flocking to God for all the wrong reasons. In His perfect wisdom, God has decided that people who come to know Him do so through faith. If every Christian who ever died came back to life again, nobody would need much faith to believe in God. If every Christian who became sick, or had an accident, was always healed, then nobody would need much faith to believe in God. Especially in today’s world of television and internet, even a few medically verified instances of the dead coming back to life would make it almost impossible for anybody NOT to believe in God. So God chooses not to give that kind of proof of his existence to the world. The only sign God gives is the Sign of Jonah, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Right answer 2 – Physical death isn’t such a big thing any more

I say this with sensitivity because we all have loved ones who/ have died. Death is the last enemy. Death is always tragic. But Christ has defeated death. Death has lost its sting for us. For Christians physical death is not an end but a glorious new beginning. I will be saying these things again at Mike’s funeral on Wednesday. For Christians, the death of our bodies is not a hopeless end but an endless hope.

1 Peter 1:3 ¶ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade- kept in heaven for you,
Only Christians inherit when WE die. Death is simply the doorway through which we must pass to enter into the immediate presence of the Lord we love and Who loves us, and calls us to our eternal home. “Death is a door to more, not less, a plus not a minus, an increase not a decrease, a filling not an emptying.” Death is not an end but a beginning, not an exit but an entrance. Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

Death is not a journeying into an unknown land; it is a voyage home. We are going not to a strange country, but to our Father’s house, and to our forever family. Death is being called home! Since Jesus Christ rose from the dead, physical death is not such a big thing any more.
None of us has been to heaven, we don’t exactly know what heaven is like. But we do know that heaven is a continuation of the wonderful eternal life which is God’s free gift to all believers. And eternal life is simply our relationship with God. Jesus came and died on the cross and rose from the dead so that we could experience the same kind of intimate relationship with God the Father as He Himself enjoys. All the wonderful blessings of salvation are incidental to the true blessing which is the blessing of knowing God. Eternal life IS that relationship with God! And that relationship is so strong that physical death cannot stop it. Quite the reverse!
1:Corinthians 13:12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
1 John 3:2 We are children of God now, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

John 14:2-3 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

So when a Christian dies, they are actually more alive than they have ever been. Because they are with the Lord, face to face. And the relationship they enjoyed with God in this life is now richer and fuller and more fulfilled and more complete than ever! So death is not such a big thing any more. That is why the apostle Paul wrote this.
Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. … 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body

Our real life is hid with Christ in God. When we die we go to be with Christ, which is indeed better by far. That is our Christian hope. To live is Christ, to die is gain. That is why we don’t see dead Christians coming back to life again. Why would we want to? Why would we want to come back to this life from the next? Why would we want to leave the presence of God to come back to this vale of tears?

So why don’t we see miracles like Eutychus brought back to life so much today? The first good reason is because such miracles would be undeniable proof of God’s existence and of his love and power – but apart from the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God chooses not to give humanity that kind of proof. He demands that we have faith. And the second reason is that for Christians physical death is not the end but a glorious new beginning. Who would want God to send us back here, when being with Christ is a far better thing?

But don’t get me wrong. God still has the power to heal the sick and even to bring the dead back to life, if He should choose to do so. In Scripture and through history we read of such miracles. God brought Eutychus back to life. Praise God, he brought that church leader Tilak in India back to life even in 2018! We should still pray for miracles. And we should be ready for God to surprise us!

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

The Asuza Street Revival began in Los Angeles in 1906 and continued through to 2015. There were miracles of healing and deliverance, speaking in tongues and testimonies of dramatic conversions. It was the birth of the modern Pentecostal movement which led in turn to the Charismatic Movement which spread across mainstream churches in this country beginning fifty years ago. With the spread of Pentecostal churches there came a question which has divided Bible-believing Christians for a hundred years. Do we receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of our conversion, when our sins are forgiven and we begin a new life in Christ? Or should we look for some kind of Second Blessing, which Pentecostals have called the Baptism in the Spirit, which comes to Christians some time after they are born again, sometimes many years afterwards? In this Second Blessing, Pentecostals say, the Holy Spirit comes on Christians in a new and more powerful way, releasing the gifts of the Holy Spirit and especially the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues.
Today’s passage in Acts 19 has been at the heart of the debates for the last hundred years. Pentecostals say that it shows that the Holy Spirit comes on believers after they have been saved. In that understanding conversion comes in two stages – being born again, separated from the gift of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand Evangelical Christians insist that we all receive the gift of the Holy Spirit the very moment we are become Christians – conversion comes in just one stage. Two stage or one stage? Who is right?
Well in one sense, both are right. I believe that over the years the Evangelicals have mostly got their theology right. But at the same time, the Pentecostals have got their experience right. I know many Christians who have had powerful experiences of the Holy Spirit after they have been Christians, sometimes after many years. That happened to me. If you have been blessed by God in those ways, praise God! Nothing I am going to say today should take away one bit from the genuine experiences anybody has had of the Holy Spirit working in your lives. In fact, I want to encourage us all to seek God for more and more experiences of the Holy Spirit, as powerful and dramatic as He chooses.
But I also want us to learn to understand the Bible correctly. As we come to Acts 19 I have to say that while their experiences of God have been entirely genuine, Pentecostals have mostly misunderstood what actually happened when these dozen people in Ephesian received the Holy Spirit.
THESE DISCIPLES WERE NOT CHRISTIANS BEFORE PAUL ARRIVED
ACTS 19:1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’
They answered, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’
3 So Paul asked, ‘Then what baptism did you receive?’
‘John’s baptism,’ they replied.

These people were disciples but they had not yet become Christians. They had not been born again. That was because they had been taught by Apollos.
Acts 18 24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervour and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.
We read that Apollos was a Jew who knew the Old Testament Scriptures very well. He taught people that Jesus was the Messiah who God had promised to send. But it’s not really clear whether Apollos himself had been saved at this point. His understanding was limited and he himself still needed teaching
26 (Apollos) began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

Apollos taught people that Jesus was the Messiah. It doesn’t mention that he taught about the resurrection and he didn’t teach his followers about the gift of the Holy Spirit. And it is clear that Apollos didn’t know anything about Christian baptism. He had baptised his followers following the pattern of John the Baptist
Mark 1 3 ‘a voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” ’
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 7 And this was his message: ‘After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus. He baptised people as a sign that they repented so they could be forgiven. But all the time John was pointing the way forward to Jesus who would follow him and be the Saviour. That was all before Jesus came and died and rose again. That was all before the Holy Spirit came down on the church at Pentecost. Nobody was ever saved through John’s baptism. These people in Ephesus had learned about Jesus as Messiah. They had been baptised with John’s baptism. But they hadn’t put their trust in Jesus as Saviour. They hadn’t been saved. They hadn’t been born again.
When he found out that they knew nothing at all about the Holy Spirit, it was immediately obvious to Paul that these Ephesians had not become Christians. That is why he asks, “What baptism did you receive?” At once Paul knew what needed to happen next.
4 Paul said, ‘John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.’ 5 On hearing this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus.
There’s a reminder for us here. People can know a lot about Jesus. They can even call themselves disciples and try to follow Jesus in their everyday lives. But that is not what makes a person a Christian. “As we learned last week, the jailer in Philippi asked, “What must I do to be saved?” The answer is the same for everybody. “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” As John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Whoever believes in him, whoever puts their trust in Jesus is saved. These people in Ephesus had not put their trust in Jesus yet. But when Paul explained the good news of Jesus to them, they believed in Jesus and they showed their faith by being baptised in the name of Jesus.
THEY BECAME CHRISTIANS WHEN PAUL ARRIVED
Acts 19:2 (Paul asked) ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ They answered, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’

The fact that the Ephesians had not received the Holy Spirit was proof to Paul that they were not yet Christians. And at the moment they put their trust in Jesus and were baptised, they DID receive the Holy Spirit in very visible and dramatic ways.
5 On hearing this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
The Ephesians had not become Christians previously. They became Christians and received the Holy Spirit at the same time. This was not a Pentecostal two-stage conversion. This fits the Evangelical understanding – we receive the Holy Spirit at the moment we are born again.
We can perhaps understand why the early Pentecostals made the mistake they did when we realise the only translation of the Bible they had was the King James Version, the Authorised Version. And that translates Acts 19:1-2 like this
Acts 19:1-2 KJV And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, 2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”
Have you received the Holy Spirit SINCE you believed? That translation implies that receiving the Holy Spirit is something that should happen AFTER a person believes in Jesus. I am sad to say that in this very significant verse the King James Version translation is quite simply wrong. The Greek word is an aorist participle. It does not say, “since you believed”. It definitely says “when you believed” or “as you believed”. Paul’s expectation is that a person will receive the Holy Spirit at the moment they are saved.
The New King James Version is a complete revision of the King James Version but still based on the same original texts. I am delighted to say that the New King James Version translation is correct. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” As an aside, you know I recommend the New International Version but I also sometimes quote from the Good News Bible or the New Living Translation. Dare I put in a plea here that if you do choose to use the Authorised Version that you will use the NEW King James Version and not the old King James version which dates back 1611. The NEW KJV is so much easier to understand and contains far fewer mistakes in translation.
So the Ephesians became Christians when Paul baptised them and they received the Holy Spirit at the same time.
SO WHAT DOES THIS PASSAGE TEACH US FOR TODAY
1 Acts 19 does NOT teach us that receiving the Holy Spirit is some experience which happens to us later in our Christian lives separate from being saved. It is not an example of the classic Pentecostal 2-stage understanding of conversion (although nowadays not all Pentecostals would say it was either).
Again, please hear what I am saying. If the Holy Spirit has done wonderful things in your life since you have been a Christian I am NOT challenging or criticising those experiences in the slightest. But we should read Acts 19 alongside all the other stories in Acts and alongside the teaching of Jesus and alongside the teaching in all of the letters of the New Testament about becoming a Christian and about the Holy Spirit. All I am saying is that Acts 19 teaches us the same truth as the Bible everywhere teaches us, which is that God gives the Holy Spirit to every Christian at the moment we are saved. But at the same time God wants to keep on blessing us, and the Holy Spirit is always wanting to lead us onwards and upwards and to do new things in our lives. We receive the Holy Spirit when we become Christians, but God wants to fill us with His Holy Spirit again and again.
2 Baptism in the name of Jesus is important.
Jesus said (Matthew 28:19) 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
It was as they were baptised to show that they had become believers that the Ephesians received the Holy Spirit.
From God’s side his wonderful gift of salvation includes forgiving our sins and giving us eternal life. Our side of salvation involves repenting of our sins and believing in Jesus. The Bible says it is the Holy Spirit who makes our eternal life real to us and is our first instalment of heaven. And throughout the New Testament God’s side and our side of salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit are linked with the outward sign of believer’s baptism.
Acts 2 38 Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.’
3 The laying on of hands has a place in the church today
5 On hearing this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
The Bible shows us that the Holy Spirit can come on believers through the laying on of hands. Hebrews 6 lists laying on of hands as one of the basics of the Christian faith. If we want to move on with God and we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, if we want God to work in our lives in new ways, then the laying on of hands will be helpful.
1 Timothy 4 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
2 Timothy 1 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
4 Receiving the Spirit is often visible and dramatic. As we have seen in so many of our sermons in Acts, when the Holy Spirit comes on believers there are often signs and wonders, miracles of healing and deliverance, and spiritual gifts such as prophecy and speaking in tongues.
. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied
We should expect the same Holy Spirit to work in our lives in the same kinds of ways today. Not all Christians speak in tongues, but very many do. The gift of speaking God’s messages in prophecy should still be very much of church life. Miracles of healing and deliverance do still happen in churches today. And bold and fearless witnessing inspired by the Holy Spirit should be the mark of the activity of the Holy Spirit in every Christian. Not the exception but the rule.
In Acts 19 those Ephesians received the Holy Spirit at the moment they became Christians. If we are Christians, God has already given us the Holy Spirit when we were saved. But we may still need God to fill us afresh with His Holy Spirit time and time again. As Moody, said, “I have been filled with the Spirit, but I leak.” The experiences of the Early Church in the Book of Acts, and the testimonies of Christians in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches today, all challenge us to ask whether WE are experiencing as much as we could be of the love and power and self-discipline which the Holy Spirit brings. We need to open our lives to be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit. We don’t receive more of the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit receives more of us.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Break me, melt me, mould me, fill me. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me

“What must I do to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
The story so far. In our morning sermons before the holidays we were following the apostle Paul as he travelled preaching the gospel and planting churches around the Mediterranean. We saw how Paul and Silas were led by a vision of a man from Macedonia to go to the Roman colonies to the north of Greece between the Adriatic and the Aegean Seas. They ended up in Philippi where Paul preached the good news about Jesus. Some people believed the message and became Christians and were baptised. Last week we read that there was a backlash of fierce opposition and Paul and Silas were thrown into jail. But on this occasion God intervened in a miraculous way and an earthquake set the prisoners free. And that leads on to their jailer asking what is possibly the most important question we find in the Bible – indeed the most important question anybody can ask. “What must I do to be saved?” And Paul gives the most wonderful answer any of us can ever hear. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
What must I do to be saved. The Bible talks a lot about being saved. We find the idea of being saved in more than 300 places in the Bible and the word salvation appears 127 times. Jesus talked a lot about salvation and the church talks a lot about salvation, because “being saved” is at the heart of the Christian faith. But what is salvation? What does it mean to be “saved”?
Salvation is an umbrella word for all wonderful blessings God gives to people. In the Old Testament in the Exodus it meant rescue from slavery for the Israelites. In the New Testament salvation starts when God forgives our sins and rescues from judgment. This makes the way for us to receive God’s free gift of eternal life, life in all its fullness which not even death can take away. Acts chapter 16 gives us three pictures of what salvation is all about. The first comes in the event which caused Paul and Silas to be thrown into jail.
Acts 16 16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.’ 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned round and said to the spirit, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!’ At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When her owners realised that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place to face the authorities.
This first example of salvation concerns an act of deliverance. An evil spirit or demon was controlling this girl and enabling her to foretell the future. It knew that Paul and Silas were preaching the gospel which shows people the way to be saved. But the evil spirit was imprisoning the girl and so Paul commanded it to leave her in the name of Jesus. And as will always happen, the demon left her immediately. This was a miracle of deliverance or exorcism. Sometimes when people dabble in fortune-telling or magic or spiritualism they can get dragged so deep that evil spirits can take over their lives. This is no horror story – we have seen such things over the years even in England. And we ourselves have seen people like this girl set free from evil by the power Jesus. This shows us the enormous power of Jesus who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords – power over all the forces of evil in the world. Miracles of deliverance are one very visible and dramatic aspect of salvation. Saved from the grip of evil.
In the next stage of the story God sets Paul and Silas free from prison.
Acts 16 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.
Where’s the most unusual place you have heard people singing hymns? We read that Paul and Silas had been stripped and beaten with rods before they were put in the stocks in the most secure cell. But there at midnight in the pitch dark they were still praising God, praying and singing hymns and God set them free by an earthquake. Not every Christian who is put in prison for believing in Jesus will miraculously escape. Most aren’t. Many Christians have died in prison for their faith – and that still happens around the world to the persecuted church even today. But God set Paul and Silas free because he had important work for them to do and this release from prison gives us, if you like, a visual aid for the freedom which Jesus brings. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus said. If we’re honest, most people have things they wish they could be set free from. For some people it may be pressures at work or problems in the family or with neighbours. Some people long to be free from suffering and pain, others to be free from worries and fears. Some just wish they could be free from guilt. God released Paul and Silas from prison and this gives us a visual aid of salvation – a picture of the freedom which Jesus offers to everybody who believes him. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
So we read how the jailer was desperate for the salvation which Paul and Silas had been preaching about.
27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!’
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’
Of course, the jailer’s immediate concern was for his life. If the prisoners escaped he would be held responsible. But when he realised that hadn’t happened, the jailer began to think of even more important issues. The earthquake probably reminded him of the awesome power of Almighty God. So he starts thinking not just about this life but about eternity. “What must I do to be saved?” The jailer asked. How can I find salvation? Whether we admit it or not, the truth is that all of us do need to be saved. I came across a profound cartoon this week. Charlie Brown was sitting up in bed reflecting on life. “Sometimes I lie awake all night and ask, ‘Where have I gone wrong?’” he is saying to himself. “Then a voice says to me, ‘This is going to take more than one night.’”
We all need to be saved. We may not be guilty of crimes like murder, or adultery, or theft. But every one of us is guilty of many things. We are guilty of pride and greed and selfishness and deceit. All the things which get in the way of us being the kind of people we ought to be and which in our hearts we really want to be. All the evil thoughts and words and deeds which the Bible calls sin. Some people are caught in the traps of materialism or alcohol or drugs or gambling or immorality. Others are trapped by the more subtle sins, which A.W.Tozer called “the fine threads of the self-life, the hyphenated sins of the human spirit.” The “self sins”, “self-sufficiency, self-pity, self absorption, self aggrandizement, self-deception, self-exaltation, self-indulgence.” Somebody has said that “sin is a little word with I in the middle”. All of us go wrong when we keep ourselves in the centre of our lives and leave other people out and especially when we leave God out. In the end we all need saving from sin. We need saving from ourselves. I saw a T-shirt with a challenging slogan. “How much can I get away with and still get into heaven?” The answer to that question is – absolutely nothing! We won’t get away with anything. “What must I do to be saved?” The jailer asked. And Paul gives God’s wonderful answer to this problem which all of us face.
‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.’
God has made a way for any of us to escape the prison of all those self-sins and to live a brand new life. And that way of salvation is Jesus Christ.
‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.’
Let me explain. Believing in Jesus is not just about intellectually accepting that certain facts are true. Believing that Jesus was the Son of God and that he died on the cross so that we can be forgiven. Believing that Jesus rose from the dead to bring us eternal life. These facts are important. But believing in Jesus is more than that. Believing in Jesus is about putting our trust in Jesus that he is able to save us and that he is willing save us.
In June of 1859 the legendary tightrope walker Charles Blondin strung a rope 340 metres long 50 metres above the waters of Niagara Falls. After walking across he then walked back and paused half way to cook and eat an omelette. Blondin then crossed with his manager Harry Colcord on his back. He then crossed Niagara Falls once more pushing a wheelbarrow. The story goes (although it may only be a myth) that Blondin then asked the cheering crowds, “Who believes I can carry a person across in the wheelbarrow?” Lots of people agreed that he would be able to do that. “Right”, said Blondin, “If you believe I can do that, get in the wheelbarrow!” Believing in Jesus is not merely believing He CAN save me. It is trusting that Jesus WILL save me. Believing in Jesus is putting my life and my eternal future into his hands. Getting into the wheelbarrow.
Perhaps the most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16 tells us, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. That is what salvation is all about. Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The jailer responded to Paul’s message by putting his trust in Jesus.
‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.’ 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptised. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
Immediately the jailer and those in his household were baptised. All those who believed showed that they had put their trust in Jesus by being baptised. That is what believer’s baptism is all about. It is the outward sign that a person believes in Jesus and that Jesus has saved them. Jesus himself commanded his followers, “go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”. The way that a person shows they are a disciple, a follower of Jesus, is by being baptised. Earlier in Acts chapter 16 we heard about the first person in Philippi to become a Christian, a woman called Lydia. 14….. She was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptised, she invited us to her home. That is the pattern we find everywhere in the New Testament. People put their trust in Jesus and they show that they are believers by being baptised. That is what Jo is doing by being baptised as a believer this morning. The jailer was baptised, and then we read, (he) brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
Filled with joy because he had come to believe in God! Filled with joy because he had put his trust in Jesus that he would save him! I remember a poster of a beautiful butterfly with a Bible verse on it. It read, When a person becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same any more. A new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
When we put our trust in Jesus, he forgives all our sins. And like a caterpillar transformed into a butterfly, we begin a brand new life, life in all its fulness life which begins right now and continues into eternity.
“Amazing grace – how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see.”
Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.
Of course, the starting point, is for us to realise that we need saving because none of us can save ourselves. Let me finish with a simple story which I call the parable of the two drowning men.
Two men fell into a river. One man could swim – the other one couldn’t. The current was strong and carried them towards a dangerous waterfall. One of the men drowned, the other one was saved. Which man do you think it was who survived?
It was the man who could not swim survived. When onlookers on the bank threw a lifebuoy to the man who could not swim, he took firm hold of it. The onlookers pulled on the rope and pulled the man who could not swim to safety on dry land.
But when the onlookers threw a lifebuoy to the man who could swim, he ignored it. He kept on swimming towards the shore but the current was too strong for him. Still he refused to take hold of the lifebuoy. So the man who could swim was drowned. But the man who could not swim was saved.
“What must I do to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”

Last time you talked to somebody about Jesus, what response did you get? We have seen from the missionary journeys of the apostle Paul that the good news of Jesus Christ is like Marmite. Some people love it and some people hate it! Sometimes people believe the gospel and are saved. Sometimes they got so angry with Paul that they threw him in jail or even tried to kill him! We can see both those responses when Paul preached at Thessalonica at the beginning of Acts chapter 17. The apostles preach the gospel. Some people believe. Some people don’t. And sometimes they stir up opposition and persecution. As Paul and Barnabas encouragingly said to the new Christians in Antioch, ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,’
So it was that Paul ended up in Athens, the capital of ancient Greece, the cradle of Western civilisation and the birthplace of democracy. In Paul’s day Athens had a population of hundreds of thousands of people and it had been one of the most important cities in the known world for a thousand years. It was the centre for the different Greek philosophies of Plato and Aristotle as well as for the worship of all the Greek gods and the Roman gods and the Eastern mystery religions as well. In many ways, as we will see, ancient Athens was more similar to our society and culture today than anywhere else Paul had visited. So there is no surprise in his reaction to what he saw in Athens.
Acts 17 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the market-place day by day with those who happened to be there.
The city was full of idols. Lots of religion, but all misguided, worshipping false gods. So Paul seized the opportunity to preach about Jesus. At least the people there were open minded enough to listen to what Paul had to say.
. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’ Others remarked, ‘He seems to be advocating foreign gods.’ They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
The Epicureans believed that the gods were so remote that they could effectively be ignored. So they said, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” They were very similar to so many people today, trapped in materialism, worshipping the false gods of money and pleasure and entertainment and celebrity. On the other hand, the Stoics were very principled people, committed to duty and trying to live up to the impossible standards they set themselves. They were trapped in guilt or hypocrisy, trying but inevitably failing to live “good lives”. You can meet people living like that today too.
But at least these people were open to listening to Paul. And we are told the reason why that was.
19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.’ 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Doesn’t that sound just like today? “Doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.” A culture of novelty. “Newest is best”. Everybody has to be up to date with the newest gadgets and the latest gossip. If we want to know how to reach today’s world with the good news of Jesus, without compromising or diluting the truth, then perhaps the best example we can have is the way that Paul preached to the people of Athens. His message wasn’t about novelty, but about the newness of life which Jesus promises to all who put their trust in Him.
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
First of all, Paul didn’t go back to the Old Testament. That would have meant nothing to those Greeks. Instead he started from common ground. Human beings were created to have a relationship with God. Each of us has a “god-shaped gap” in our lives. As Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts find no rest until they find their rest in you.” Those Athenians were so religious that they even had an altar “To an unknown God” and so Paul started from there. He answered the fundamental question, where did we all come from, and pointed to the one true God as Creator of heaven and earth.
24 ‘The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
Almighty God is Creator and Lord over all He has created. If we want people to think about spiritual things, a good place to start is to point at the majesty and the beauty and the wonders of the creation. Encourage people to enjoy sunsets and starry skies and mountains. At the top of Snowdon there is an inspiring plaque which reads, “Pause awhile and gaze on the works of God. Consider them and marvel.” Paul points to God as Creator and explains that this Creator God wants to have a relationship with the human beings He has made.
27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 “For in him we live and move and have our being.” As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring.”
How did we get here? God made us. And what are we here for? Human beings are created in the image of God so that we can reach out and have a personal relationship with the God who is actually so much nearer to us all than we realise. These are the questions people are asking and the answers we have found in Jesus which we need to share with them. But then Paul was not afraid to challenge the idol worship he found in Athens.
29 ‘Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’
There’s the punchline. That is the heart of the message Paul had been working towards – the resurrection of Jesus. The righteous and Holy God was as angry with all the idol worship in Athens as He still is with the worship of false gods today. And a day of reckoning is coming – the day of judgment. Again Paul is drawing on the experience of most human beings who all have a sense of right and wrong, of what is fair and unfair and just and unjust. When they see a great injustice, most people want there to be a “righting of wrongs” when evil will get its just desserts. And at the same time, most people’s consciences tell them that when that day of judgment comes we all have things in our own lives we are guilty of. The Bible tells us that there IS going to be a day of judgment when the holy and righteous God will be punishing all who have done wrong. And in the light of that day, God calls everybody to repent.to turn away from their sins and seek forgiveness from God the Judge.
Following Jesus does offer people a “better” life, a more fulfilling life, life in all its fulness. But even more important than that, Jesus offers everybody the only way of escaping the judgment of the Righteous and Holy Creator God. But why are Christians so certain that this is true?
31 For (God) has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’
The resurrection of Jesus Christ demonstrated that Jesus really is the Son of God. The resurrection gives us assurance that we can share in the eternal life which Jesus promises to all who believe in Him. “Because he lives, we will live also.” But for Paul preaching in Athens the resurrection is also God’s proof that judgment day is coming.
31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’
At first when Paul talked about the resurrection, people were just confused. But then after he started where they were, and explained the gospel to them, they understood much better.
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.’ 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed.
In Athens Paul preached the Good News about Jesus and the resurrection. The apostles talked about the resurrection and God raising Jesus from the dead 24 times in the Book of Acts.
From Peter on the day of Pentecost.
Acts 2 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.
And we read how Peter preached about the resurrection and about God’s judgment in Cornelius’s house.
Acts 10, 40 God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’
We saw a couple of weeks ago that this was Paul’s message at Pisidian Antioch.
30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had travelled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.
32 ‘We tell you the good news: what God promised our ancestors 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. ….
34 God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. ….
38 ‘Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin.
The resurrection is the heart of the gospel. God raised Jesus from the dead. And this is at the very centre of what Christians believe.
Romans 10 9 if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
So in Athens Paul started from God as Creator and the “God-shaped gap” in everybody’s life. He began where people are and led them to the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. In this world of so many competing false religions and misleading philosophies and people who are so busy chasing the latest novelties, this should be our message too. Judgment day is coming. God commands all people everywhere to repent. And the proof is that Jesus is risen from the dead.
The very hot weather recently has reminded me of the story about the messenger who was sent by the King to the prison with a message for the Governor. It was a hot day and the messenger stopped at a taverna along the way for a tequila. He was thirsty so he had another tequila. And another. And another. So it was dusk as the messenger arrived at the prison as yet another prisoner was executed. And the messenger delivered his message – it was a letter of pardon, for the prisoner who had just died. God has entrusted us with the life and death message about Jesus and the resurrection.
30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’

What was it really like to be a Christian in the first half of the first century AD? We read how the apostles preached the gospel and people were being saved all over the place and it can seem so thrilling and exciting but very remote and different from our lives today. The reality is that church life then wasn’t that different from church life today. People had arguments. People had to make sacrifices to witness for Jesus. People were being saved, but not always in crowds. Often just, slowly but surely, one by one. And behind it all the Holy Spirit was at work – the same Holy Spirit who is working in us today giving us power to be witnesses for Jesus. This morning let’s take a look at four snapshots of what mission was like in the Early Church. We start with a story which could be discouraging.
Disagreement between Paul and Barnabas
Acts 15 36 Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.’ 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them. 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. 41 He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Nobody’s perfect. Here we see an argument over what seems to us to be something very minor leading to a parting of the ways. It might help us to know who this John, also called Mark, actually was. You might have remembered when the angel released Peter from prison in Acts 12, he made his way to the house of Mary, who was the mother of John, also called Mark. When Barnabas and Paul went back to Antioch at the end of Acts 12, they took John Mark with them. He also went out with them on the first part of their first missionary journey to Cyprus and we read that he was their helper as they preached the gospel in Salamis. But when they arrived on mainland Turkey John Mark left them to go back to Jerusalem. Paul felt that he had deserted them, but Barnabas was more charitable.
There are two other things we need to know about John, also called Mark. Firstly, Colossians 4:10 tells us that Mark was Barnabas’s cousin. So it is understandable that Barnabas might be more forgiving towards a member of his own family. Secondly, most people believe that John also called Mark is the author of the second Gospel, Mark the Evangelist. So Mark was not some insignificant extra with a tiny walk-on part in the story of the Early Church. He had his own important role in the growth of the Early church, writing his account of the life of Jesus, quite probably based on the sermons of the Apostle Peter. And towards the end of his life when Paul was writing 2 Timothy, he could say, “Mark is helpful to me in my ministry.” So in due course Paul and John Mark were obviously reconciled once again. Perhaps Barnabas son of Encouragement had been working for years behind the scenes to bring Mark and Paul back together for that happy ending.
But here in Acts 15 we see such a sharp disagreement that Barnabas and Paul head of in different directions. They give us a positive example of letting go and moving on. Each was still doing the job they had agreed to do, encouraging the new Christians in the churches they had planted. Barnabas had a new apprentice in Mark, and Paul took his new sidekick Silas. As we will see in a moment, Paul also went on to take Timothy under his wing. So although the dream team of Barnabas and Paul had split up, in reality the work was multiplied. God was at work through it all. Even when there are disagreements, even when churches split, God often has a way of working through our human weaknesses to bring greater blessing. Sometimes things do go wrong in life and in the church – but God is still under control. He can bring good out of bad.
Martin Luther wrote this about this passage.
“Such examples are written for our consolation: for it is a great comfort to us to hear that great saints, who have the Spirit of God, also struggle. … No one has ever fallen so grievously that he may not rise again. Conversely, no one stands so firmly that he may not fall. If Peter (and Paul and Barnabas) fell, I too may fall. If they rose again, I too may rise again.”
Nothing can stop the spreading flame of the good news of Jesus Christ. And good did come out of that apparent disaster.
Timothy joins Paul and Silas
Acts 16:1 Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2 The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they travelled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
Now he was apart from Barnabas, Paul had a vacancy for an apprentice of his own, and he chose Timothy. This part of the story should surprise us. Last week we heard about the Council of Jerusalem and the letter which the Jewish Christians sent out to the new Gentile converts around Asia. It made clear that people did not need to become Jews before they became Christians. Male disciples did not need to be circumcised. New Christians were not obliged to obey the Jewish Law or keep the Sabbath or obey the 10 Commandments or celebrate the Jewish festivals. All the letter from the Council of Jerusalem said was this.
Acts 15 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
These were the decisions reached by the Council of Jerusalem which Paul was delivering to the new churches of Gentile Christians. So why on earth did Paul circumcise Timothy?
It was not because a Greek person like Timothy needed to be circumcised in order to follow Jesus. Instead it was to make sure that there was no possible barrier to Jews hearing the gospel with Paul and Timothy preached to them. God accepts all people equally – Jews and not Jews. But that truth would be a stumbling block to Jews when they heard the gospel that Jesus had come to save them. In time Jews who became Christians would discover for themselves that God loves everybody equally. But to begin with they just needed to hear about the resurrection of Jesus and the forgiveness which He offers. So Timothy consented to be circumcised, to help the Jews hear the good news of Jesus.
Paul explained it to the Corinthians like this.
1 Corinthians 9 19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
By all possible means. Doing whatever it takes. Saving people “any which way we can.”
That doesn’t mean that Paul or Timothy changed the gospel in any way. They didn’t water down the truth or compromise the gospel in the slightest. They didn’t adjust the message just to please the audience. But they did remove any barriers they could to make sure that people could hear about Jesus and not be put off by secondary issues. So for Paul who was a Jew, and for Timothy who was not, the principle was simple.. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.

It’s easy to be stuck in our ways. But if we really want to win the worldly, we have to be willing to change our ways, to give up some of our “rights”:
• Our “right” to associate only with people who are like us
• Our “right” to be comfortable
• Our “right” to relaxation
• Our “right” to spend our money however we want
• Our “right” to determine our own schedule
• Our “right” not to be bothered
God calls US to do “whatever it takes” to share the gospel here in North Springfield. I have shared this quote before. “We must welcome people as Jesus welcomed them, rely on the Holy Spirit to convict them of sin and leave it to God to be the Judge.” Saving people any which way we can! So the mission continued and was richly blessed and the next part of the story tells us why.
Paul’s vision of the man of Macedonia
6 Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Just a very simple observation from these few verses. Paul and Silas didn’t just roam wherever they felt like. But nor did they have to invent for themselves a specific strategy for their mission. Instead they simply went where God the Holy Spirit led them. We don’t know exactly how it happened that they were “kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia” but we know that the Spirit was guiding them. We don’t know how it was that when they tried to enter Bithynia “the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.” The Spirit of Jesus of course just means God the Holy Spirit, who bears witness to Jesus and gives us the power to be witnesses for Jesus. We do know from Acts 15 that Silas was recognized to be a prophet, so it may be that God was guiding Paul and Silas on those occasions through words of prophecy. But we do know exactly how God led Paul to preach in Macedonia and that was by a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Throughout Acts we see God the Holy Spirit guiding and leading the church. And we should be praying for God to guide us in the same way, sometimes even by dreams and visions and words of prophecy.
I had been a minister for just a few weeks in Tunbridge Wells when I was on my way home for my lunch. My plan for the afternoon was to visit two sisters who were members of the congregation. Joan was ill at home and Peggy was looking after her. As I reached the end of our drive I felt compelled to forget about lunch and make the visit at that moment. So I drove on. I arrived and prayed with the sisters. Five minutes later Joan died and I was with them both as she left us. God the Holy Spirit does sometimes lead is in ways like that which the Bible would refer to as a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom. We just need to learn to listen to God speaking to us. And when the Holy Spirit prompts us to talk to somebody about Jesus, we should be bold and speak the words God gives us to say. The Holy Spirit is ready to guide and lead us in our mission and outreach today. And there is more encouragement in our fourth snapshot of mission.
Lydia becomes a Christian
Acts 16 11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we travelled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptised, she invited us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us.

Often when the gospel was preached by the first Christians, many people were saved. We just read this in Acts 16 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. We read how during their first missionary journey Barnabas and Paul saw very many people respond to the gospel. Acts 14:1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.
We often read in Acts how large numbers of people were saved at the same time. 3000 on the day of Pentecost and 2000 more in the weeks that followed. We don’t often see that kind of dramatic response to the gospel nowadays. But we mustn’t be discouraged. Because Acts also tells us about specific individuals who were saved. God cares just as much about the one as he does about the ten or the hundred or the thousand. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep safe in the fold to search for the lost sheep. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost and there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:17). The loving Father is always looking out hoping to welcome back the one prodigal. The parable of the starfish on the beach reminds us that God cares about every individual. God is very happy to save people one by one.
So here we read about just one lady, Lydia, whose name means beautiful one or noble one. Lydia was the first person to become a Christian in Philippi and she became the leader of the church which met in her house. But did you notice that it wasn’t Paul’s preaching which brought Lydia to faith in Jesus. “The Lord opened her heart to God’s message”. It was God the Holy Spirit who helped her to believe and who brought her to be born again. And that is always the way. We aren’t the same as Paul – but it is the same Holy Spirit at work through us. God used Paul’s words, and God will use our words to touch people’s hearts and bring them to respond to the good news of Jesus – when we are brave enough to tell people that God loves them. Lydia heard the gospel and she responded by being baptised, which is the New Testament way a person shows that they have become a believer. And the story of how just that one woman was saved has passed down the centuries to us to give us the name of the largest network of ladies’ prayer groups, the Lydia Fellowship. Individuals matter to God!
So in these four snapshots of mission, we have seen how even disagreement between Paul and Barnabas couldn’t stop the gospel from spreading. We have seen Paul and Timothy becoming all things to all men to spread the good news any which way they can. We have seen God the Holy Spirit guiding the mission of the church and we have seen that God wants to save every individual as he does vast crowds. This is how the church grew in the middle of the first century and this is how the church can still grow today as God the Holy Spirit gives US the power to be witnesses for Jesus.

The Council of Jerusalem in around 48 AD was a watershed in the Early Church. It was the turning point which guaranteed unity between Christians who had previously been Jews and Christians who had not been Jews but Gentiles – non-Jews. The Council made it possible for the gospel to spread more widely than ever in the non-Jewish world. It was probably the most important church meeting in church history – ever! The central issue was the relationship of the Christian church to Judaism and Jewish Law. So it is relevant even for us today as we seek to understand and apply the Old Testament to our Christian lives.
I want to focus on the conclusions which the Council reached as they are summed up in the letter which the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, including the surviving apostles, sent out to the Gentile Christians throughout Asia Minor. But first let’s notice that the whole discussion depended on three foundations. The first foundation was theological principles, the second was testimonies and the third was Scripture. Peter appealed to the principles God had revealed to him in a vision of a sheet of unclean animals where God said to him, “Get up, kill and eat. Do not call unclean that which God has called clean. We thought about that story a couple of months ago. God doesn’t show favouritism but accepts all peoples equally, both Jews and Gentiles. Then Barnabas and Saul shared their testimonies of signs and wonders and Gentiles becoming Christians. Then James clinches the argument by appealing to Scripture and the prophet Amos. If only all church discussions today rested on the solid foundations of theology, testimony and Scripture! But out of that, the apostles and the elders and the whole church came to a unanimous conclusion. So they were able to write, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” There is church government at its best! And the practical outcome was a letter from the Jewish Christians to all the new Christians who had not been Jews before. For such an important letter it was remarkably short and sweet.
Acts 15 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
That’s all there was. In our translation, only 50 words! It was a surprising letter, in at least three ways.
The first surprise – what the letter did not say
The question which had sparked the council in the first place was the place of circumcision for Gentiles who become Christians. Do they need to become Jews as well?
Acts 15:1 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: ‘Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.’ 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.
For fifteen hundred years and more the Jews had been God’s chosen people. Now the church are the new people of God. Does a person also need to become a Jew before they can become a Christian? (And male converts would show that they were becoming Jews by being circumcised. The answer from the letter is clearly “no”, because there is no mention of circumcision at all. And there were other elements missing from the letter which some might have expected.
There is no requirement to obey the Jewish Law.
Acts 15 5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.’ 6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question.
Were Gentiles required to keep the Jewish Law. Again – no mention of the Law of Moses in the letter. Were they required to keep the Jewish Sabbath? Or how about the Ten Commandments. These are parts of the Old Testament many people expect Christians to keep. Hear what the apostle Peter said.
Acts 15:7 ‘Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles should hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.’
So the letter from the Council doesn’t mention the Circumcision, or obeying the Jewish Law. Or the Sabbath. Or the Ten Commandments. The Jewish Law shows us that we are sinners. But we are saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus. The letter doesn’t give the Gentile Christians a huge list of rules to keep! And when new Christians come to faith, we long-time Christians must make sure we don’t burden them with our long list of unwritten rules about what a Christian should and shouldn’t do. The Christian life is not just a list of dos and don’ts. By then the apostle James was the leader of the Early Church in Jerusalem, and he summed things up like this.
19 ‘It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
And the letter from the Council puts it this way. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements:
The Jewish Christians didn’t burden the Gentile Christians with a whole load of unnecessary baggage. And we must make sure we treat new Christians the same way. But there is a second surprise in this letter from the Council.
Why did the letter bother to say anything at all?
No Christians are bound to obey the Jewish Law. Jesus said
Matthew 5:17‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.
In his sinless life, Jesus had completely fulfilled the Jewish Law. So we don’t have to. Obedience to the Jewish Law has been replaced by obedience to Christ.
The Jews had laws about clean and unclean foods. But Jesus had already declared all foods clean.
Mark 7:14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.’
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 ‘Are you so dull?’ he asked. ‘Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.’ (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

So Jesus brought the Jewish food laws to an end for every Christian. And with his vision of the unclean animals Peter had realised this great truth. As he said at Cornelius’s house,
Acts 10 28 He said to them: ‘You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. …. 34 ‘I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.
So if all foods are ritually clean, it is surprising that the letter talks about foods at all.
Some people think that certain foods are mentioned because of Jewish scruples. Jewish Christians were refusing to eat with Gentile Christians because of what was on the menu. Paul had already had arguments with Peter about this. So some people suggest that the food rules in the letter from Jerusalem were just designed to keep the peace between Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians who were still sensitive about such things. But surely there are more important reasons why Christians should avoid “food polluted by idols.
In the marketplaces, a very common source of meat was from the temples to the multitudes of false gods which the Romans and the Greeks and other cultures worshipped. Meat offered in sacrifices to these false gods was then sold off in the market. In 1 Corinthians Paul tells us that eating food which has been offered to idols is participating in that idol worship, and actually communing with demons.
1 Corinthians 10 18 Consider the people of Israel: do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
So in that culture there was a big problem with eating food which had been used in sacrifices to idols. And there are principles here which still apply to all Christians even today. So let’s look at the third surprise –
What this short letter from the Council of Jerusalem actually says.
Acts 15 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
It’s been called the Jerusalem Quadrilateral, because it has four sides.
Abstain from food offered to idols. This may not appear obviously important to us, but it really is in countries which worship pagan gods. It still matters in churches in Africa and India and South America and China where people worship idols and false god. It reminds us that evil is real. Spells and curses and potions and charms can carry great power. Anything associated with the occult, witchcraft, fortune telling, spiritualism, all these things can be dangerous. We should avoid anything which can open our lives to demonic powers. You will do well to avoid these things.
Abstain from blood. And abstain from the meat of strangled animals. These two commands have their roots in the Old Testament.
Leviticus 17 10 ‘ “I will set my face against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who eats blood, and I will cut them off from the people. 11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. 12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood.’
13 ‘ “Any Israelite or any foreigner residing among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, 14 because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off.’
In the original context this command about not eating blood is again concerned with idol worship. Leviticus 17:7 forbids the worship of Egyptian goat idols or satyrs, a word which can also mean demons. Christians even today must make sure that we are not drawn into worshipping false gods. The false gods of Money and Success and Entertainment and Celebrity are as dangerous to us today! And false can even bring us into contact with demons. You will do well to avoid these things.
Abstain from sexual immorality. The fourth command in the letter from the Jerusalem Council should not surprise us. The Jews had always considered sexual purity to be very important whereas the Gentile world generally did not care about such things. So it is understandable that Jewish Christians would want to emphasise this aspect of discipleship and holiness to the Gentile Christians more than most others.
Abstain from sexual immorality. Here is a timely warning for the church in these days. Because more and more churches and Christians are compromising with the world around. Many churches are adopting the attitudes of the world around and saying that when it comes to sex, “anything goes.” You read of preachers teaching that sexual sins are no more important or serious than any other kinds of sins. At one level that is true. But it is significant that the Jerusalem Quadrilateral draws attention to sexual immorality in a way that it does not challenge any other sin. Paul challenges the Corinthians in the same way.
1 Corinthians 6 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.
So at least as far as both the Council of Jerusalem and Paul are concerned, sexual sins ARE more serious than other sins. Abstain from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. All four of these things have a common theme. They are concerned with purity and holiness. They are warnings against activities which can pollute the individual Christian and which can also pollute the church. The Jewish Law with its ceremonies and rituals and moral principles was designed to keep the nation of Israel pure as God’s chosen people. What sets Christians apart from others is not outward observance of a set of rules. Not the Jewish Law and not any other set of man-made rules either. There is no great long list of dos and don’ts for Christians living. Our holiness comes from an inward relationship with God and from the activity of the Holy Spirit making us more like Jesus. But we must not neglect the importance of purity and holiness for Christians. Any kind of sin can get in the way of our relationship with God. And the Council of Jerusalem recognised just a few kinds of sin which are dangerous for all Christians in all places at all times. Their wisdom comes down to us across the centuries. Avoid all forms of idol worship. Avoid anything which can open your life to demonic powers. And abstain from sexual immorality. You do well to avoid these things!