Special topic: Running to Win- (Introduction) 2 Cor. 5:17; Romans 8:1; Phil. 2:12-13; Romans 12:1-2)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, October 6, 2024

Chuck Swindoll shares:

Sometimes it is very hard to keep on when we do not seem to be getting anywhere. When Thomas Carlyle had finished the first volume of his book, The French Revolution, he gave the finished manuscript to his friend John Stuart Mill and asked him to read it. It took Mr. Mill several days to read it and as he read, he realized that it was truly a great literary achievement. Late one night as he finished the last page he laid the manuscript aside by his chair in the den of his home. The next morning the maid came; seeing those papers on the floor, she thought they were simply discarded. She threw them into the fire, and they were burned.

On March 6, 1835—he never forgot the date—Mill called on Carlyle in deep agony and told him that his work has been destroyed. Carlyle replied, “It’s all right. I’m sure I can start over in the morning and do it again.”

Finally, after great apologies, John Mill left and started back home. Carlyle watched his friend walking away and said to his wife, “Poor Mill. I feel so sorry for him. I did not want him to see how crushed I really am.”

Then heaving a sigh, he said, “Well, the manuscript is gone, so I had better start writing again.”

It was a long, hard process especially because the inspiration was gone. It is always hard to recapture the verve and the vigor if a man has to do a thing like that twice. But he set out to do it again and finally completed the work.

Thomas Carlyle walked away from disappointment. He could do nothing about a manuscript that was burned up. So it is with us: There are times to get up and get going and let what happened happen.^[1]

How do we press on?

How do we keep moving when things are difficult?

How do we persevere?

How do we finish well?

Today, I want to begin a new sermon series, which I am calling “Running to Win.”

When I was in my twenties, I realized there were traits in my family history that I did not want to emulate. I might have recognized that earlier than my twenties, but I definitely recognized that by my twenties. As an example, I remember being a young child, and every time my parents took me to a relative’s house, the husband and wife were always yelling at each other. Now, some forty years later, if we go to that relative’s adult son’s house, he is always arguing with his wife. They are now well over sixty years old, married a long time, but emulating his parents’ behavior. How do we run to win? How do we prevent emulating those things? How do we persevere through the Christian life?

Today, I am introducing a sermon series on this subject. It is a discipleship subject.

My theme today is: We are new in Christ

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Romans 8:9 (ESV)

⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

We will come back to those passages. First, what am I talking about?

1. Generational traps:
   1. There can be generational traps…
   2. These are things in which the enemy uses what is already there
   3. The enemy, the devil and his minions may think, “This is what did grandpa in… this is what did uncle in… I wonder if this will work on Steve.”
   4. Maybe all the males are extremely passive… it may not be something crazy, it could be alcoholism, but maybe not. It could be workaholism.
   5. The enemy sets traps for the next generation.
   6. Now, the Bible addresses this.
   7. 34:7-7 and Deut 5:8-10 talks about the consequence of sin going to the 3^rd and 4^th generation (also, Lev 26:39).
   8. Then again, Deut. 24:16 says that fathers should not be put to death for their children or children for their fathers.
   9. It seems to me that children end up committing similar sins as their parents. It just happens. A child observes certain sins in his parents and ends up copying them.
   10. I think these generational sins, or traps, exist. They can be forgiven and prevented in Christ.
   11. I just mentioned a few:
   12. Alcoholism, drug abuse, but how about other things? I mentioned men who are passive. Is that a sin?
   13. These are not all necessarily sin issues, but they can lead to sin.
   14. What about workaholism? Is that a sin? It can be if the job is an idol and one neglects one’s family.
   15. Maybe your dad, mom, or grandparents were (or are) gossips. Do you want to be that way?
   16. Maybe your dad, mom, or grandparents were (or are) always angry. Do you want to be that way?
   17. Maybe your dad, mom, or grandparents were (or are) always wanting more stuff. Do you want to be that way?
   18. Maybe your dad, mom, or grandparents were (or are) always negative, always critical, never joyful, or positive. Do you want to be that way?
   19. Of course, those are not the big sin issues that we talk about, are they? But they are biblical issues.
   20. What about another one- Maybe your dad, mom, or grandparents were (or are) emotionally unavailable. All the conversations were surface-level. Do you want to be that way?
   21. Healthy leaders grieve well. I recommend the book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.
   22. Maybe depression and anxiety is in your family history. That may or may not be a sin issue, but maybe we can get help.
   23. I know people who live with depression even though they have tried to get help. It is like it is their cross to bear. That may be the case.
   24. I know others who live with depression because they refuse to get help.
   25. I believe God wants us to be humble enough to work on these things. We may NOT be healed, but we can get help.
2. Our brains and bodies are complex and created by God in amazing ways.
   1. Our bodies have mirror neurons.
   2. The following comes from Dr. Thompson. He is a Christian psychiatrist, and Malone graduate. He wrote: “Anatomy of the Soul.”
   3. One writes:
   4. One system of particular interest to researchers in the last ten years is that of mirror neurons, which leads to mimicry. Virtually all intentional human behavior is ultimately mimicked. When we learn how to hold a fork or express a look of surprise, mimicry is involved. The mirror neurons fire when we witness another human undertake a behavior that has distinct intention. This system prepares the identical motor neurons in our brains to fire. For instance, if I see someone pick up a cup to drink from it, my mirror neurons will fire, preparing the “mirrored” neurons responsible for picking up and drinking from a cup to fire.
   5. This has important implications for actions such as empathy. Empathy can be described as an action rather than merely a feeling alone because we demonstrate empathy through nonverbal and verbal cues or actions that project the intent of connecting with another’s state of mind. When a child is the subject of another’s empathy, he or she will likely undergo the activation of his or her mirror neuron system related to empathy. In other words, children learn how to be empathic with others by seeing it demonstrated toward them.
   6. This mirror neuron system is one of many that are vital in regulating how we interact both within our own minds and in relationship with others.
   7. The more we understand the role of such systems, the more actively we can regulate them. For example, if I am aware that my fear is deeply connected to my breathing and heart rate, I can reduce my fear simply by consciously breathing deeply and slowly whenever I sense myself becoming fearful.[2]
   8. Why is that important? Sometimes our behaviors, actions, and things we deal with are rooted in our childhood, genetics or both. But what is important is our brain literally does change based off of those around us.
   9. The same writer shares:
   10. How much influence do your genes have on your brain? If one of your parents had depression and you suffer from depression, will your children be more vulnerable to becoming depressed? Is it a “simple” issue of genetic inheritance, in the same way your eye color is? What is both complex and amazing about the mind is how it emerges under the influence of what neuroscientists call epigenetics. Simply put, this means that gene expression is influenced—turned on and off, accelerated and slowed—by experience. For example, some people may have a genetic predisposition for being more anxious than other people. But if their parents are deeply attuned to their emotional temperaments, the genes that turn on their children’s anxiety response will tend to be quieted, and they’re more likely to develop a sanguine approach to life. On the other hand, if their parents behave anxiously, they may activate the genes that encourage anxiety to emerge, even in the most benign circumstances.[3]
   11. We often talk about the left brain being more about facts and logic, while the right brain is about creativity and emotions. What is interesting is we need both.
   12. Thompson shares that if someone shows empathy to another the right brains are connecting with each other.
   13. Further, we are emotional people.
   14. Emotion is not debatable. If your daughter senses the feeling of joy, shame, disappointment, or some general form of distress, that is in fact what she feels. She may not easily have words for the affect, but she does sense it. If she cries because she was cut from the basketball squad, there’s no sense in telling her, “You shouldn’t be sad about not making the team. Lots of people were cut.” And it would be very counterproductive to say, “Enough of the crying already! I might expect that from your four-year-old sister, but not from you.” This would shame her for expressing the emotion she senses.[4]
   15. What is most interesting is that from a very early age, infancy, we have attachment that is instilled in us.
   16. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the British researcher John Bowlby began developing the attachment theory. His book Attachment was the first of several groundbreaking works in this area. He explored the formation of close emotional bonds between infants and toddlers and their primary caregivers, usually their mothers, and the effect on those children when those bonds were prematurely broken. Many of his initial observations were based on the outcomes of children who had been separated from their parents during World War II.
   17. 4 types of attachment were identified:
   18. Secure attachment
   19. Insecure attachment—avoidant
   20. Insecure attachment—ambivalent/anxious
   21. Insecure attachment—disorganized
   22. There is much written on these, but I wish to summarize them:[5]
   23. He continues to give excellent information on attachment.
   24. Now, I just gave a lot of information on the brain.
   25. Why?
   26. I wanted to show that the emotional connections matter.
   27. Further, I wanted to show that our brains are always developing.
   28. Also, can they be healed? Yes, Dr. Thompson says that they can be healed through the neural pathways changing.
   29. Remember, in empathy, our right brains connect with another’s.
   30. Thompson writes:
   31. Scripture is primarily—among other things—a story. From Genesis to Revelation it is the story of God’s desire and practice to be with us, culminating in the life of Jesus. God is present with us. But not merely “with us” physically. He is that to be sure, and even closer, in the presence of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus, God comes not simply to be in the same room, but rather to walk right up to us, look us in the eye, touch us on the shoulder, and speak our names out loud, smile, and share a drink with us, all the while engaging, persuading, challenging, inviting, convicting, and empowering each of us, loving us into new creation. And in the process, our neural networks are changed.
   32. Healthy attachment, as we know, emerges from contingent communication, in which two individuals, through both their spoken dialogue and nonverbal cues, each affirm the other as they interact. This reflects the postulate that there is no such thing as an individual brain. In orthodox creedal life, followers of Jesus contend that God is a triune social being. There is a Father. There is a Son. There is a Spirit.
   33. Therefore, within the life of God there is no single “brain.” Within the Godhead, God has made perfect sense of his life, if you will. His own communal life is one of contingent communication.[6]
   34. Through Christ, His church, His community, spiritual disciplines, and godly counsel we can get help. Some may need medication also.
   35. My challenge and exhortation is to be willing to walk through this.
   36. A lady was walking her dog, and the dog was trying to get away from the leash. But every time the dog pulled away, the lady would yank it, pulling the dog back, and the animal couldn’t get free. The leash held it hostage, kept it bound, and unable to break away. He couldn’t break the chain.
   37. Many of us today find ourselves held hostage by a leash. The links on the chain are many. There is the link of anger, the link of bitterness, the link of resentment, and the link of revenge. But no matter how many links are in the chain, they all boil down to one thing, unforgiveness.[7]

• How will I address these subjects?
  1. I am not addressing each subject individually.
  2. I am discussing Christian behaviors, traits, and disciplines that will help.
  3. First, humility. We will not grow without humility. Can people close to us approach us regarding concerns? Are we approachable? Are we teachable?
  4. The second is perseverance. Do we recognize we have to persevere through the Christian life?
  5. Thirdly, spiritual warfare- this is a spiritual battle.
  6. We will talk about other things like being thankful and accountability.

1. We are new in Christ.
   1. Let’s come back to the Scriptures I began with.
   2. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
   3. Romans 8:9 (ESV) ⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
   4. When we are Christians, we belong to Christ. We are never alone. We have the Holy Spirit. A few weeks ago, I shared an illustration I heard: when we buy items that need batteries, it will say, “Batteries included.” When we become a Christian, the Holy Spirit is included. You are not alone.
   5. The Bible says we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37) through Him Who loved us.
   6. You can do this.

God wants to help us finish well. God wants to help us run to win.

Together, let’s run to win!

Prayer

^[1] William Barclay, The King and the Kingdom; Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1501 Other Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 441.

[2] Thompson M.D., Curt. Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life and Relationships (pp. 42-43). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[3] Ibid. p. 46.

[4] Ibid. pp. 95-96.

[5] Ibid. excerpts from pp 113-131

[6] Ibid. p. 139

[7] Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 335.

Two weeks ago, we discussed Cornelius, this Gentile, this non-Jewish man being converted. We talked about how this is the longest narrative in the book of Acts and this is a very pivotal point in the book.

Acts 1:8 (ESV)

⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

You need to know that this is happening now. They are at the end of the earth, which means that the Gospel is now in the gentile areas. The Gospel is now in pagan areas. The church is becoming multicultural.

So, have you ever had an exciting time or moment and then someone crashes you down?

When I was in seventh grade, I had ordered a Cleveland Browns book bag (why would anyone want that? I don’t know), but for some reason, when it came in, my mom gave it to my older brother. She must have thought he needed it more than me or something. I don’t know. But he was so excited when I got home from school and said, “Steve, look at this new book bag I got.” I’m like, “That’s mine.” Anyways, I still think back. He was so excited about that book bag, and maybe he did not know that I had picked it out.

That is a simple example, but the sermons the last few weeks and today deal with cultural issues. What is it like to rain on someone’s parade? What is that like?

In the passage, we are about to look at Peter’s parade was rained on. Peter had this mountain-top experience, and then he gets to Jerusalem, and then these high and mighty Jewish law keepers rebuke him. But think about it for a minute. Who can rebuke Peter? Peter went water skiing with Jesus without a boat.[1] Peter was trained in the University of Jesus. Apparently, these people did not care.

Three Applications to take home:

1. We see the cultural divide come down.

Psalm 139:23 (ESV)

²³   Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

Galatians 3:28 (ESV)

²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

This makes Revelation 7:9 so much more powerful:

Revelation 7:9 (ESV)

⁹ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands…

2. The second application is the indwelling Holy Spirit in all believers. We see this emphasis in verses 15-17.
3. The third application is to bring glory to God. We see this in verse 18.

Let’s read the passage.

Acts 11:1–18 (ESV)

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. ² So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, ³ “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” ⁴ But Peter began and explained it to them in order: ⁵ “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. ⁶ Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. ⁷ And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ ⁸ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ ⁹ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. ¹¹ And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. ¹² And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. ¹³ And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; ¹⁴ he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ ¹⁵ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. ¹⁶ And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” ¹⁸ When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

1. In verses 1-3, Peter is now challenged.
   1. In verses 1-3, we see that Peter goes back to Jerusalem. Now, it says the party of the circumcision. This means that they kept the whole law. They might have been the Pharisees like Paul the Apostle.
   2. So, they challenged Peter on this. Peter was all excited. He had had this dramatic revelation from God. God had shown Him this new truth. He was allowed to eat bacon now, but now he had to deal with these people. He had to defend this case.
   3. Verse 3: the real deal is that he ate with them. This is not the last time this will come up.
   4. So, in verse 4, Peter gives an orderly account of what happened. This is a review. There are a few new things, mainly concerning the Holy Spirit.
2. In verse 16, Peter reveals how Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit.
   1. John baptized with water, but He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.
   2. Notice that we are baptized with the Holy Spirit simultaneously with salvation. Verse 17: If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

• In verse 18, we see, following this, the people have nothing to argue with; they stop arguing with him and glorify or praise God.
  1. The original languages use the word “glorify God.”
  2. This is where we get our word “doxology” from.
  3. They worshipped God.
  4. This is self-sacrificing, vertical worship.
  5. We must also worship God this way.
  6. The last verse: , “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Review our applications with me:

Three Applications to take home:

1. We see the cultural divide come down.

Psalm 139:23 (ESV)

²³   Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

Galatians 3:28 (ESV)

²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

This makes Revelation 7:9 so much more powerful:

Revelation 7:9 (ESV)

⁹ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands…

2. The second application is the indwelling Holy Spirit in all believers. We see this emphasis in verses 15-17.
3. The third application is to bring glory to God. We see this in verse 18.

The question is, how do you feel about it?

Do you know Jesus?

Are you open to other cultures and people knowing Jesus?

Who do you need to introduce Jesus to?

To whom do you need to be opened to introduce Jesus?

Where are your prejudices?

Where are mine?

Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

[1] I cannot take credit for this illustration, it comes from Pastor Mark Driscoll. Also the next one.

Conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10:1–48): The Gospel to the Nations

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, September 15, 2024

Do you ever think about our search for God?

Tim Keller shares:

C.S. Lewis says in his spiritual autobiography. He puts it like this: “Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about ‘man’s search for God.’ To me … they might as well have talked about the mouse’s search for the cat.”

His implication is the mouse doesn’t search for the cat; the cat searches for the mouse. He looks back and says, “Was I on a search for God?” We don’t search for God unless God first comes and does something in our hearts and pulls us toward him. There’s a hymn from the Reformation era that says it perfectly. This is the language of the heart of anybody who has really been converted. One of the stanzas of the hymn goes like this:

‘Tis not that I did choose Thee

For Lord, that could not be

This heart would still refuse Thee

Hadst Thou not chosen me

My heart owns none before Thee

For Thy rich grace I thirst

This knowing, if I love Thee

Thou must have loved me first

Anyone who has ever experienced real conversion in one way or another knows that’s true. What does that mean? It’s good news. By the way, it’s very good news. Here’s what the good news is. It means if you’re really on a search, if you’re really trying to find God and trying to know God, if you really want him, don’t search with anxiety. Search with confidence. Why?

Because if somebody comes to me and says, “I’m afraid I’m not going to find him. I’m trying to find him. I’m not sure I’m going to find him.” The only reason you’re discouraged is because you’re giving yourself too much credit. You’re not capable of missing God. You’re not capable of aching for God. You’re not capable of longing for God unless he was already helping you.

Put it another way. A sense of his absence is the sign of his presence, because you’re not capable of feeling his absence. You’re not capable of missing him. A sense of his absence is a sign of his presence.^[1]

That is for sure something to think about. God is seeking us!

Today, we come to Acts 10 and we see a case in which God is drawing a non-Jewish man. God is seeking this non-Jewish man.

This is the longest narrative in the book of Acts. This passage is pivotal in this book. Not just one but several Greeks receive Christ as their Savior. This passage now shows that you do not have to be Jewish to be a Christian. This passage now shows that the Gospel crosses cultural barriers. This is amazing.

I am going to summarize parts of this chapter and talk about them.

1. We have the introduction to Cornelius in verses 1-8.
   1. He was a centurion.
   2. We find out in verse 1 that Cornelius was part of the Italian Cohort.
   3. Caesarea was the seat of the Roman government of Judea. Cornelius was a centurion, a commander of 100 men, and a member of the Italian Cohort. (A “cohort” consisted of 600 men under the command of six centurions, but with auxiliary forces in remote areas such as Judea a “cohort” might have as many as 1,000 men.) Ten cohorts formed a “legion.” Centurions were paid very well (as much as five times the pay of an ordinary soldier), so Cornelius would have been socially prominent and wealthy.
   4. Verse 2 tells us that he was devout:
   5. He prayed.
   6. He feared God.
   7. He gave.
   8. He was a God-fearer, which means that he was considering Judaism. He may have been a full Jewish convert, but maybe not. We are unsure of this. He was definitely a non-Jewish man and did not keep the dietary laws.
   9. In the following few verses, he sees a vision. The Bible says that this is clear. This is unmistakable. So, this is an angel, and the angel says that his prayers have been answered. He is to send servants to Joppa where Peter is.
   10. Now, that sends us to verse 9 and to Peter.
2. In verses 9-23, we see Peter’s vision.
   1. Peter receives a vision that is repeated three times.
   2. In verses 9-12, He sees a great canvas sheet descending from heaven, filled with all kinds of unclean animals.
   3. In verses 13-16 we see the command:
   4. God’s order (10:13): “Kill and eat them.”
   5. Peter’s objection (10:14): “Never, Lord, I have never in all my life eaten anything forbidden by our Jewish laws.”
   6. We see God’s overrule (10:15–16): “If God says something is acceptable, don’t say it isn’t.”
   7. We see Peter’s confusion in verse 17. Peter wonders what all this means.
   8. Just then (verses 17-23) the men from Cornelius arrive and request that Peter accompany them to Caesarea.^[2]
   9. So, two soldiers are on their way to Peter. Peter, being a devout Jew, is about to have his world rocked.
   10. Noon was the normal time to eat and it was normal to use the roof for rest as well as for drying vegetables and other things.
   11. Noon was not a regular hour of prayer (3:1), so Peter prays in addition to the traditional hours followed by many of his contemporaries.^[3]
   12. I wonder, just a note of application, what is your prayer life? What is my prayer life?
   13. It is important, it is critical, it is imperative, that I am about prayer, that we are about prayer. We won’t do anything without God’s help. Wait, I feel like that was said and written wrong. We need God leading us. We need communion with God. We need prayer. We need dependence on God. Are you seeking Him? I must ask myself the same thing. Am I seeking Him?
   14. So, Mr. Peter is praying and God gives him this vision and we are not going to break down this vision. Peter sees unclean animals.
   15. By the way, the animals are given in a similar manner as they would be in the account of the flood narrative, which is interesting.
   16. Verse 13: take, kill and eat…
   17. God is for P.E.T.A. People Eating Tasty Animals.
   18. Verse 14 and following Peter says, no way, my translation, I have never eaten anything unclean.
   19. You must know that the Jews had dietary laws. They were not supposed to eat certain foods. In the Old Testament, God separated them from the other nations.
3. Verses 24-48 are about Cornelius’s salvation.
   1. In Verses 24-33 Cornelius shares how this came to pass and invites Peter to preach.
   2. Cornelius saw an angel four days ago (verse 30).
   3. The angel was in shining armor, verse 30. His giving has been remembered, verse 31, which connects with verse 2. Verse 33, he did not want to hear just anything but what Peter has been commanded to share by the Lord.
   4. In verses 34-43, Peter preaches the Gospel.
   5. Peter preaches a Gospel version shorter than some of his other sermons.
   6. Yet, this sermon focuses more on the life and ministry of Jesus.
   7. This is similar to Mark’s Gospel, which makes sense as Mark’s Gospel is said to have been written based on Peter’s testimony.
   8. Peter knew when to stop.
   9. Verse 45: all the circumcised believers (all the Jews) were amazed. A testimony that God had opened the Gospel up (Gal. 3:28).
   10. The Spirit convicted them and they were baptized.

Applications

1. 1. I have summarized this passage.
   2. This is a long passage, and I usually prefer to preach verse-by-verse, but I summarized this passage differently.
   3. Now, I want to go into applications:
   4. God is going to great lengths to show that the gospel is for everyone. Do we see this?
   5. He challenges Peter in the dietary laws.
   6. He is prodding Peter.
   7. A few chapters before this, God sends Philip to the Ethiopian Eunich.
   8. God is showing that the Gospel is for everyone.
   9. Christianity transcends cultures.
   10. Acts 1:8 (ESV)
   11. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
   12. Jerusalem
   13. Judea
   14. Samaria
   15. Ends of the earth…
   16. Galatians 3:28 (ESV) ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
   17. Christianity transcends cultures.
   18. Revelation 7:9–10 (ESV)
   19. ⁹ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Timothy Keller shares:

Flannery O’Connor, the great Catholic Christian writer of fiction, in one of her letters said, “Christianity is worthless if it’s not true.”

I read in the New York Times Metro section yesterday [This is Keller sharing this] a very interesting article about why missionaries now take their children into dangerous places when so much of the world is so dangerous. The reporter said, “Why do they still go?” The reporter at one point said, “Maybe it’s because some families are just really looking for adventure.”

Here’s the question I have for the reporter, and maybe you’re here. It’s New York. Did Jesus rise from the dead? If Jesus rose from the dead, not only do you need to go, but it will be okay no matter what happens, but if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, it would be the stupidest thing in the world to put your family in harm’s way just to get adventure.

In other words, Christianity is worthless if it’s not true, but Peter says it is. He says, “We saw him. We ate and drank with him.” In other words, don’t ask whether Christianity is relevant, even though it is. Don’t ask whether Christianity is an adventure, even though it certainly is. Don’t ask if Christianity is exciting and life-changing, even though it certainly is. Ask if it’s true. If it’s true, it will convert you.^[4]

If it is true, we are converted and we share this with all people.

Pray

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[2] H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), Ac 10:9–23.

^[3] Keener, C. S. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary: New Testament (Ac 10:9). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

^[4] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

Healing of Aeneas and Dorcas (Acts 9:32–43)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, September 8, 2024

I have never been one to say that God does not heal people today. I have never wanted to limit God and believe that God has stopped certain miracles. A few years ago, I met with a pastor I knew, and he shared many experiences he had personally experienced of healing. He shared:

His wife was raised in India with sicknesses and little medical care.

Her father would pray in faith, and they would be healed. The Lord intervened when no one else could.

His wife would challenge him when their children were sick to pray for them. He would pray for the specific disease to be healed.

One time, his 4th born son was 2.5 years old. They were having a birthday party for his older son. All these boys were at the house, and the water went out. He saw a water truck up the street and thought he would ask them what was happening. He went to his garage and looked behind his van to ensure no toys were behind it. He got in and started to back up and then heard a noise. He backed up and pinned his 2.5-year-old. His son was hardly breathing. EMTs arrived, and they were shocked. They couldn’t get a pulse. The ER doctor said he was in a life-threatening condition- broken fibula, tibia, hip… collapsed lung, chest was likely collapsed. They called the care flight and took him to University Rainbow Hospital, the children’s hospital in the midst of it. As they were driving, they were sending calls for healing. They were crying out for God to heal his son. There were probably 800 women in a meeting in St. Lewis, and they all stopped the meeting and prayed.

They got to the hospital, and they saw an African American man holding his son. At first, he thought, “That can’t be my son.” Then the man sat him down, and he ran to his dad. The man said, “The Lord healed your son.” The doctor said they had X-rays, but they didn’t match him. They kept him overnight and then sent him home. Scratches and outside injuries were still there, but the bone breaks were gone. He is now 20 years old and perfectly fine. The hip bone was broken, and the leg was sideways, but that was fine when they got to the hospital.

That was the most personal and miraculous testimony I have heard of healing. (Meeting with Pastor Myron Daum, Pastor or North Mar C&MA Church. Meeting date- February 2, 2017)

We are going to continue teaching and preaching through the book of Acts. Today, I want to look at Acts 9:32-43. We are going to look at a passage in which Peter heals two people. This is the power of God at work. This is the power of the Holy Spirit at work. As we look at this passage, notice Peter was willing to be involved, Peter exalted Christ, and Peter let the Gospel produce fruit. Let’s read the passage:

Acts 9:32–43 (ESV)

³² Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. ³³ There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. ³⁴ And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. ³⁵ And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

³⁶ Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. ³⁷ In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. ³⁸ Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.” ³⁹ So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. ⁴⁰ But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. ⁴¹ And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then, calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. ⁴² And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. ⁴³ And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.

1. The first exhortation is to be willing to get involved.
   1. Notice that Peter was willing to get involved. Verse 32 says that he was traveling through the regions. He was busy, yet something was about to happen, and he was not too busy to be used by God.
   2. In verse 33, he finds this man named Aeneas. This man has been bedridden for 8 years. The text could actually say, “Since he was 8 years old,” either way, Jesus, through Peter, heals him. We’ll come back to that in a minute.
   3. Again, then in verse 36, this woman named Tabitha is dying and dead. Peter is busy. Peter is traveling. If there is anyone busy it has got to be Peter, right? Yet, he jumped at the chance to go and raise her back to life in verses 38-39.
   4. How do you and I do with interruptions? How are we with interruptions?
   5. I must look at the Bible, I must look at this passage like a mirror. I tend to plan out my day, and I am on my way somewhere, and then a family member calls, right? Maybe that interruption is ministry. Is it possible?
   6. I know of opportunities when I stop to help someone or even go out of my way to help someone, and I am glad I did. So, the exhortation here is to be willing to get involved. Peter was.
2. The second exhortation is to be Christ-exalting.
   1. Peter was about exalting Christ in this passage and in his life.
   2. A thought that I have is as follows: I cannot impress people with myself and I must stop trying to do so. I must only impress people with Jesus Christ.
   3. In the next chapter, Acts 10:25, Cornelius will try to worship Peter, and Peter will stand him up and only exalt Christ.
   4. Notice in verse 34 that Peter said, “Jesus Christ heals you…” We do not want to draw people to ourselves because we cannot do anything for them. We need to draw people to Jesus.

Swindoll shares:

My mother loved the woman who lived across the street from our home who had married late in life. She really had found her security in her husband. He was a wonderful man, and one day, he had a sudden heart attack and died within seconds. After his funeral, she began to visit the gravesite. My mother became very concerned over her friend Thelma.

She said to me one hot summer afternoon, “Charles, I want you to pray. I’m gonna take these cookies and this lemonade across the street and I’m gonna try to encourage Thelma. Just pray that her heart will be open to what I have to say. I’m gonna talk to her about Jesus.”

And so I did. My mother, wonderfully, very graciously, led her to Christ. She said to Thelma, “You know, Thelma, there’s something I need to mention to you. You really don’t need to keep going back to the cemetery.” “Oh,” she said, “Lovell, I just have to do that.” So my mother said, “Well, let me suggest you do it for another reason.” She said, “Why don’t you go back, not to try to make a ‘connection’ with your husband, but to minister to other people who are trying to do that.”

Thelma took my mother’s advice. As a matter of fact, she’s the only cemetery evangelist I ever knew. There at the memorial park in Houston she has led a number of people to Jesus Christ.[1]

[1] Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1501 Other Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 184–185.

• The third exhortation is to be Fruitful.

1. 1. Watch Jesus bear fruit as He did in this passage.
   2. In each of these miracles, it is about the Gospel.
   3. In verse 35, it says all heard about the miracle and turned to the Lord, and then again in 42, the same thing: all heard and believed in the Lord.

Swindoll shares:

The Pastor, dressed in a comfortable pair of old blue jeans, boarded a plane to return home. He settled into the last unoccupied seat next to a well-dressed businessman with a Wall Street Journal tucked under his arm. The minister, a little embarrassed over his casual attire, decided he’d look straight ahead and, for sure, stay out of any in-depth conversation. But the plan didn’t work. The man greeted him, so, to be polite, the pastor asked about the man’s work. Here’s what happened:

“I’m in the figure salon business. We can change a woman’s self-concept by changing her body. It’s really a very profound, powerful thing.”

His pride spoke between the lines.

“You look my age,” I said. “Have you been at this long?”

“I just graduated from the University of Michigan’s School of Business Administration. They’ve given me so much responsibility already, and I feel very honored. In fact, I hope to eventually manage the western part of the operation.”

“So you’re a national organization?” I asked, becoming impressed despite myself.

“Oh, yes. We are the fastest growing company of our kind in the nation. It’s really good to be a part of an organization like that, don’t you think?”

I nodded approvingly and thought, “Impressive. Proud of his work and accomplishments. Why can’t Christians be proud like that? Why are we so often apologetic about our faith and our church?”

Looking at my clothing, he asked the inevitable question, “And what do you do?”

“It’s interesting that we have similar business interests,” I said. “You are in the body-changing business; I’m in the personality-changing business. We apply ‘basic theocratic principles to accomplish indigenous personality modification.’ ”

He was hooked, but I knew he would never admit it. (Pride is powerful.)

“You know, I’ve heard about that,” he replied, hesitantly. “But do you have an office here in the city?”

“Oh, we have many offices. We have offices up and down the state. In fact, we’re national: we have at least one office in every state of the union, including Alaska and Hawaii.”

He had this puzzled look on his face. He was searching his mind to identify this huge company he must have read or heard about, perhaps in his Wall Street Journal.

“As a matter of fact, we’ve gone international. And Management has a plan to put at least one office in every country of the world by the end of this business era.”

I paused.

“Do you have that in your business?” I asked.

“Well, no. Not yet,” he answered. “But you mentioned management. How do they make it work?”

“It’s a family concern. There’s a Father and a Son, and they run everything.”

“It must take a lot of capital,” he asked, skeptically.

“You mean money?” I asked. “Yes, I suppose so. No one knows just how much it takes, but we never worry because there’s never a shortage. The Boss always seems to have enough. He’s a very creative guy. And the money is, well, just there. In fact those of us in the Organization have a saying about our Boss, ‘He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.’ ”

“Oh, he’s into ranching too?” asked my captive friend.

“No, it’s just a saying we use to indicate his wealth.”

My friend sat back in his seat, musing over our conversation. “What about with you?” he asked.

“The employees? They’re something to see,” I said. “They have a ‘Spirit’ that pervades the organization. It works like this: the Father and Son love each other so much that their love filters down through the organization so that we all find ourselves loving one another too. I know this sounds old-fashioned in a world like ours, but I know people in the organization who are willing to die for me. Do you have that in your business?” I was almost shouting now. People were starting to shift noticeably in their seats.

“Not yet,” he said. Quickly changing strategies, he asked, “But do you have good benefits?”

“They’re substantial,” I countered, with a gleam. “I have complete life insurance, fire insurance—all the basics. You might not believe this, but it’s true: I have holdings in a mansion that’s being built for me right now for my retirement. Do you have that in your business?”

“Not yet,” he answered, wistfully. The light was dawning.

“You know, one thing bothers me about all you’re saying. I’ve read the journals, and if your business is all you say it is, why haven’t I heard about it before now?”

“That’s a good question,” I said. “After all, we have a 2,000-year-old tradition.”

“Wait a minute!” he said.

“You’re right,” I interrupted. “I’m talking about the church.”

“I knew it. You know, I’m Jewish.”

“Want to sign up?” I asked.[1]

[1] Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1501 Other Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 616–618.

Let’s pray

[1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2515637/Does-prayer-help-resist-temptation-Talking-God-boosts-self-control-emotional-stability-claims-study.html

[2] https://www.all-creatures.org/stories/thetablecloth.html

[3] https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/reason/2016/12/24/fact-check-could-inspirational-story-be-true/15736747007/

[4] https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/the-hope-you-need1

[5] Ibid.

Saul’s Witness in Damascus and Jerusalem (Acts 9:19b–31)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, September 1, 2024

You may know the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.   

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.   

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.   

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

There is another one:

My Captain

Out of the light that dazzles me,

Bright as the sun from pole to pole,

I thank the God I know to be

For Christ the conqueror of my soul.

Since His the sway of circumstance,

I would not wince nor cry aloud.

Under that rule which men call chance

My head with joy is humbly bowed.

Beyond this place of sin and tears

That life with Him! And His the aid,

Despite the menace of the years,

Keeps, and shall keep me, unafraid.

I have no fear, though strait the gate,

He cleared from punishment the scroll.

Christ is the Master of my fate,

Christ is the Captain of my soul.

—Dorothea Day, quoted in Hazel Felleman, The Best Loved Poems of the American People^[1]

The first poem describes Saul/Paul before he was saved. The latter describes him in today’s passage.

We are going to look at Acts 9:19-31, and we will see Saul’s transformation.

My theme today is:

Saul’s Witness in Damascus and Jerusalem (Acts 9:19b–31)

My applications: Be an encourager like Barnabas; trust Christ like Saul; proclaim Jesus like Saul.

1. Saul proclaims Jesus as the Christ (Acts 9:19b-22).
   1. How did we get to this passage?
   2. In Acts 9:1-9, the Lord Jesus encounters Saul on the road to Damascus, and he is saved.
   3. In Acts 9:10-16, the Lord Jesus called to Ananias in a vision. The Lord told him about Saul and told him to lay hands on Saul to restore his sight.
   4. In Acts 9:17-19a, Ananias lays hands on Saul. Saul’s sight is restored, and he is baptized.
   5. So, now, we have the recent conversion of one of the greatest minds, yet greatest persecutors of the early church.
   6. Now, what happens after Saul is converted?
   7. We are about to find out.
   8. Acts 9:19–22 (ESV) ¹⁹ and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. ²⁰ And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” ²¹ And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” ²² But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
   9. First, we see at the end of verse 19 that Saul took some food and was strengthened. Saul did not eat or drink for the three days following his encounter with Jesus.
   10. Then, for some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.
   11. One source adds: Saul likely received instruction in the Christian “way” from the disciples at Damascus. In Galatians, Paul notes that during this time he “went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus” (Gal. 1:17). (“Arabia” here means the Nabatean Kingdom, northeast of the Dead Sea, not the Arabian Peninsula.)^[2]
   12. He is in Damascus which is northeast of Jerusalem.
   13. Damascus was 135 miles (217 km) northeast of Jerusalem, a six-day journey by foot. Settled as early as the second millennium c., Damascus was an oasis on the border of the Arabian desert and on the main route from Mesopotamia to Egypt. The Nabatean king Aretas IV maintained an ethnarch (i.e., governor) in Damascus (2 Cor. 11:32). Although the modern city of Damascus stands atop the ancient remains, one can still see the “street called Straight” (Acts 9:11) running east to west with its East Gate and monumental arch. Also visible are the ancient theater and the concentric courts of its temple to Jupiter (now replaced by a mosque). Jewish presence in Damascus (assumed by the mention of synagogues in vv. 2, 20) is confirmed in Josephus’s record that many thousands of Jewish people were killed in Damascus during the time of the First Jewish Revolt (a.d. 66–73).^[3]
   14. Verse 20 shares that he immediately went to the synagogue and proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God.
   15. So, Saul was persecuting the church; he was hunting down Christians (Acts 8:3), and now he is preaching Christ.
   16. He was saying that this man, Jesus, is the Son of God.
   17. One source adds: Saul stayed in Damascus for some time, likely becoming oriented to basic Christianity even as he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues.
   18. He gave priority to the synagogues throughout his ministry, starting there before being forced to take the message elsewhere.^[4]
   19. This is a reminder that no one is too far for God to save them. No one is beyond God’s grace. God can save everyone.
   20. Perhaps we have a family member whom we have been praying for. Don’t give up! Keep praying.
   21. Saul was persecuting the church.
   22. God got ahold of Saul. He was saved, and he began to preach the gospel.
   23. God saved him, and God changed him.
   24. I like what Dr. Witherington III writes: As B. R. Gaventa points out, Saul is portrayed as an overthrown enemy in the conversion accounts, a portrayal in part based on the fact that even some of his newfound Christian friends appear to have had certain suspicions about Saul, perhaps due to the suddenness of his volte-face (cf. Galatians 1–2).^64[5]
   25. In verse 21, we see the people amazed. They ask if this is the same one causing problems. They wonder if he is there to bring them bound to the chief priests.
   26. Then, verse 22: now, Saul is increasing in strength… I think this is the strength of the message, or spiritual strength. Now, he is confounding the Jews as he proves that Jesus is the Christ. This means, the Messiah, the Savior.
   27. Apparently, he was able to explain the messianic connections between the OT and Jesus so clearly that the Jews in Damascus could not refute him.^[6]
   28. Saul’s position presupposes that he is already expert in the Scriptures; now he turns this expertise against his former mission.^[7]
2. Saul flees Damascus (Acts 9:23-25)
   1. Now, look at verses 23-25.
   2. Acts 9:23–25 (ESV)
   3. ²³ When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, ²⁴ but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, ²⁵ but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.
   4. Many days have now passed. This seems like it is a period of Paul’s spiritual growth and preaching. He is declaring that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ.
   5. One source shares- Three years (Gal 1:17–18). It is probable that the major part of this period was spent in Arabia, away from Damascus, though the borders of Arabia extended to the environs of Damascus.^[8]
   6. There is a plot to kill him.
   7. Notice the role reversal— the persecutor becomes the persecuted.
   8. Now, it says that “his disciples…” This must mean that Saul now has people he has discipled. He is teaching and training them.
3. The acceptance of Saul by the disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26-31)
   1. Acts 9:26–31 (ESV)
   2. ²⁶ And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. ²⁷ But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. ²⁸ So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹ And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. ³⁰ And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. ³¹ So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
   3. I like what Swindoll writes:
   4. Jerusalem! Saul owned Jerusalem. He went to graduate school in that great town. I mean, the man knew that old city like the back of his hand—every alleyway, every narrow passage, every escape route. He knew virtually everyone of any significance. What a venue to restart his public ministry. “Get the microphones. Turn the lights up bright. Pharisee-turned-evangelist now appearing at the central Jerusalem Auditorium. Come and hear! Come listen to this man preach!” Forget it. It was nothing like that.
   5. Instead, we read this: “He was trying to associate with the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple” (v. 26). Rejected again, only this time by those he most wanted to meet. Fear stood between them and the zealous, gifted preacher.
   6. That’s understandable; who wouldn’t be afraid of him? He killed their fellow Christians, some of whom may have been relatives. They thought Saul was a spy—part of an elaborate hoax designed to trap them and drag them to trial. “Saul? No way. Don’t let him in our ranks!”
   7. Ever felt the sting of that kind of rejection? Have you ever had such a bad track record that people didn’t want to associate with you or welcome you into their fellowship? (Or welcome you back?) It happens all the time. People are rejected because of their pasts. The load of baggage they drag behind them as they enter the Christian life keeps them from enjoying what should be instant acceptance. The rejection at times is unbearable. You may say, “Yes. I’ve been there. And I’m trying to forget those memories, thank you very much.” No, don’t forget those times. Those painful memories are part of God’s gracious plan to break your strong spirit of independence. They’ve become an essential segment of your story—your testimony of God’s grace.
   8. Thankfully, in the midst of those times, God faithfully provides lesser-known individuals who come alongside and say, “Hey, I’m on your team. Let me walk through this with you.” That’s exactly what happened to Saul in Jerusalem. Someone stepped up, voluntarily. He didn’t have to; he wanted to. His name . . . Barnabas, the encourager.^[9]
   9. Barnabas, the encourager, reassures some fearful of Saul (Acts 9:26-27).
   10. I love that!
   11. It is understandable that the disciples were afraid of Saul.
4. NIV SB: From Gal 1:19 we learn that the only apostles Paul met were Peter and James, the Lord’s brother. James was not one of the Twelve, but he held a position in Jerusalem comparable to that of an apostle (Gal 2:9).^[10]
   1. Barnabas made the difference.
   2. Verse 27 shows that Barnabas took him in. Barnabas reassured the apostles about how Saul was saved. Barnabas shared about how Paul preached in Damascus.
   3. According to Gal. 1:18–19, this visit took place three years after his conversion (which could make this c. d. 37), and Paul met with Peter for 15 days but had no substantial interaction with the other apostles, except for meeting James, the brother of Jesus.^[11]
   4. Look at verse 28. Paul now went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.
   5. Paul is now preaching in Jerusalem. Paul is now accepted by the apostles. God used Barnabas to bring this about.
   6. I like something else Swindoll writes:
   7. You may be a Barnabas today. Do you know someone who has been kicked in the teeth because he has a bad track record? Someone who can’t get a hearing, yet she’s turned her life around and nobody wants to believe it? I urge you to step up like Barnabas did for Saul. Look for those individuals who need a second chance—a large dose of grace to help them start over in the Christian life. Everybody needs a Barnabas at one time or another.^[12]
   8. There is an attempt on Saul’s life, and he departs to his hometown of Tarsus (Acts 9:29-31).
   9. In verse 29, Paul is speaking and disputing among the Hellenists… these are Greek-speaking Jews. They wanted to kill him.
   10. Verse 30: the brothers learned this… So, he is accepted and the other Christians are his brothers. He escapes to Caesarea and is sent to Tarsus.
   11. Some of the events of 2 Cor. 11:23–27 perhaps occurred during this time, and probably also his intense vision of heaven (2 Cor. 12:2–4). Saul is not mentioned again in Acts until Barnabas goes to Tarsus to find him in Acts 11:25. Saul will begin to be called Paul in 13:9.^[14]
   12. Verse 31 is a nice summary. It is like the summary in Acts 6:7.
   13. There was peace in the church throughout Judea and Galilee. Those are bother broader areas.
   14. The church was growing spiritually. They were walking in the fear of the Lord.
   15. They had the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
   16. The church grew…
   17. Do we walk in the fear of the Lord?
   18. Do we have the comfort of the Holy Spirit?

Swindoll:

Rather than considering yourself (even secretly) indispensable, remind yourself often, It’s the Lord’s work to be done the Lord’s way. I first heard that principle from Francis Schaeffer while attending one of his lectures. There he stood in knickers and a turtleneck sweater, delivering this very message to a group of young, idealistic listeners—many of us struggling to find our way. I heard him say this again and again: “The Lord’s work must be done the Lord’s way. The Lord’s work must be done the Lord’s way. The Lord’s work must be done the Lord’s way.”

If you’re in a hurry, you can make it work your way. It may have all the marks of promotion, but it won’t be the Lord’s way. Stop and realize that. It may be time for you to be let down off your wall in a basket to learn that in your life.

John Pollock, in his splendid book The Apostle, states, “The irony was not lost on him that the mighty Paul, who had originally approached Damascus with all the panoply of the high priest’s representative, should make his last exit in a fish basket, helped by the very people he had come to hurt.”

That about says it all, doesn’t it?

Just to set the record straight, our lives are not caught “in the fell clutch of circumstance.” Our heads are not to be “bloodied, but unbowed.” You and I are neither the “masters of our fate” nor are we the “captains of our souls.” We are to be wholly, continually, and completely dependent on the mercy of God, if we want to do the Lord’s work the Lord’s way. Paul had to learn that. My question is: Are you learning that? If not, today would be a good day to start. Now is the time to humble yourself under His mighty hand. If you don’t, eventually He will do it for you. And it will hurt. In His time, in His way, He will conquer your stubborn independence.

God is never pleased with a spiritually independent spirit.^[15]

My applications: Be an encourager like Barnabas; trust Christ like Saul; proclaim Jesus like Saul.

^[1] Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1501 Other Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 501–502.

^[2] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2101.

^[3] Ibid, 2098.

^[4] Stanley E. Porter, “Acts,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1734.

⁶⁴ See Gaventa, “The Overthrown Enemy.”

^[5] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 320.

OT Old Testament

^[6] Stanley E. Porter, “Acts,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1734.

^[7] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 9:22.

^[8] Kenneth L. Barker, ed., NIV Study Bible, Fully Revised Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 1914.

^[9] Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives: Daily Insight from Great Lives of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007), 302.

^[10] Kenneth L. Barker, ed., NIV Study Bible, Fully Revised Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 1914.

1. about, approximately

^[11] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2101.

^[12] Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives: Daily Insight from Great Lives of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007), 303.

^[13] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2101.

^[14] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2101.

^[15] Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives: Daily Insight from Great Lives of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007), 306.

Saul’s Encounter with Ananias (Acts 9:10–19a)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, August 25, 2024

There is a current pastor, writer, and speaker, who in 1998 was a student at Virginia Tech. He writes:

On Halloween night, 1998, I threw a party in my apartment at Virginia Tech. I was 20 years old and was in the wildest season of my life. I had three girl roommates, a live in girlfriend, and I spent most of my spare time smoking weed, doing lines of cocaine and drinking.

On that Halloween night, I was geared up for what I expected to be a good time.

Because the party was going be so “unforgettable,” I invited an old friend from high school down for the weekend. Dave and I had played hoops and partied together over the years, so I was excited to see him.

When Dave arrived, I greeted him and escorted him back to my room where I proudly unveiled the welcome gifts I’d prepared for him. On my desk was a fat bag of weed, a 6’er of his favorite beer and I told him I had a girl he could get to know for the weekend.

But Dave didn’t respond like I expected he would.

Instead, he gently closed the door and sat on the bed. He looked me in the eyes and told me he didn’t do those things anymore. He said he’d become a Christian and that he loved Jesus now and the reason he came to the party was to tell me that Jesus loved me too.[1]

Within a few months, this now pastor, Garrett Kell, called his friend and accepted Christ. I’ll come back to him later. My point is that Jesus changes us. Changes transform us. In the passage we are looking at, we see how Jesus transforms Paul the apostle. The Gospel always changes us.

Acts 9:10–19 (ESV)

¹⁰ Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹ And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, ¹² and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³ But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. ¹⁶ For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” ¹⁷ So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; ¹⁹ and taking food, he was strengthened.

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

3 applications:

1. Be an evangelist
2. Be a person of prayer
3. Be submissive to the Lord
4. The Lord is Sovereign
5. As we look at this passage, notice prayer.
   1. In verse 10, the text says the Lord visits Ananias in a vision. Now, I must tell you that the Lord is about to do something dramatic. He is about to change someone who has been making murderous threats against the church. Last week, we looked at the passage where Paul encountered Christ; now, this is the second half of his transformation.
   2. The Lord changes us through prayer. The Lord encounters Ananias in a vision. The Lord talks to him and says that Saul is praying. That is what he says in verse 11. Notice that Saul is praying. Saul has seen the risen Lord (1 Cor. 9:1) and is now praying.
   3. It is important that we pray. I will return to Garrett’s story later, but it has been said that no one comes to know the Savior without prayer. Saul is praying, and he sees a vision of Ananias (verse 12). At the same time, Ananias sees the Lord speak to him. When the Lord transforms people, it includes prayer. Garrett’s friend, who had become a Christian and had witnessed to him, was praying for him.
6. As we look at this passage, we notice obedience.
   1. Just notice that the Lord said to Ananias, and he immediately said, “Here I am!” There was no stutter or hesitancy.
   2. Later, Ananias immediately followed through and went to Saul. Later, Ananias called Saul “brother Saul.” He followed through with what the Lord called him to do. Certainly, Ananias made a few remarks and excuses, and I could understand that. Paul had been killing Christians!
   3. I can understand this. When I was in school, there was a kid named Denny Smith, who was the bully; if God had told me to lay hands on him, I would have been fearful. I dreaded going to school because of him.
   4. But Ananias was obedient.

• As we look at this passage notice God’s sovereignty.
  1. Just notice verse 15: The Lord says that Saul (remember that Saul is Paul) is my “chosen” instrument. God has a will. God is in charge.
  2. Know that there is no way that God cannot be in control, and so He had a will, and He has a will.

1. As we look at this passage, we notice the importance of the Gospel.
   1. God’s plan was that Saul would take the Gospel to the Gentiles.
   2. God’s plan was that Saul would take the Gospel to the kings.
   3. God’s plan was that Saul would take the Gospel to the Jews.
   4. This all happens by the end of Acts.

God made us to worship him. Remember the testimony that I began with? Garrett Kell. He writes:

A few weeks later [after the party], I was at home on Christmas break and I was doing a drug called Ecstasy. Sometime after midnight, I became strangely sober and felt an overwhelming burden to call Dave.

So at 2:00 a.m., Dave came up to my house, carrying his Bible, with tears rolling down his cheek.

We sat down and I told him I needed to know more about God. He asked me if I knew what he was doing when I called him.

He went on to tell me that when I called him, he was doing the same thing he’d been doing every night since he left Virginia Tech—he was on his knees praying for me.

Over the next few days and weeks, I continued to read the Bible and have conversations with Dave.

He told me that God made me to love and worship Him.

He explained that the guilt I was feeling was God showing me that I was in rebellion against Him and was on my way to hell.

He explained that Jesus died for sinners like me and then rose from the dead to extend mercy to me if I would turn from my sins and believe in Jesus.

He told me that Jesus would forgive all of my sins, change my life and make me His forever.

I’m not sure if it was that night or in the weeks that followed, but God saved my soul.

I began reading the Bible and it was no longer a book of old stories, but now it was like a spotlight that searched my soul and showed me the depths of my sin and the even greater depths of God’s love for me in Jesus.

Dave made a stand for Christ that night at Virginia Tech. God used him to get a message to me that eternally altered my life. Now, every Halloween night, I call Dave and thank him for the stand. God used Dave’s stand to save my soul and my life from utter destruction.[2]

God changed Garrett, God changed Saul, and hopefully God changed us.

Review:

1. Be an evangelist
2. Be a person of prayer
3. Be submissive to the Lord
4. The Lord is Sovereign

Let’s pray:

[1] http://garrettkell.com/the-stand-that-saved-my-soul/

[2] Ibid.

Saul’s Encounter With Christ (Acts 9:1–9)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, Sunday, August 18, 2024

How did you come to know Jesus as your Lord and your Savior? To be a Christian, you must believe in Jesus, trust in Jesus, confess your sins to Jesus, and commit to Jesus.

I was born into a “churchgoing” family. We regularly attended Memorial Baptist in Dayton until I was about five. When I was five, we moved about half an hour away from that church, and my dad wanted to find a church closer to home. We went to Concord United Methodist Church a few times a year. We never became members or even attended weekly. My family was still guided by Biblical principles and morals, although until I was sixteen, I was never involved in church more than a few times a year.

The day of my salvation was when I was seven, and it was Christmas Day, 1988. My parents had given my brothers and me a children’s Bible for Christmas. When I was about to go to bed that night, I was staring at the picture of Christ on the cross. At this time, although no one was there to lead me in a prayer, God was there and changed my heart.  Looking at the picture of Christ on the cross, I moved with tears was thinking, “He did this for me!” I knew that I was a sinner in need of a Savior.

A few years later, my father had been taking my brothers and me to a Southern Baptist barber. My brothers and I always tried to get him to talk about the Bible because his knowledge amazed us. He was a strong Christian who was involved in prison ministry and even preached at church sometimes. One day, he told my dad how he led a man to salvation the day before. He actually told us the prayer, and I heard that prayer, and I said it that night and every night during my devotion time until I got involved in a church and realized I only had to say it once. That used to be when I thought I had become a Christian. Now, I know that was the verbal expression of my salvation.

Today, I wish to look at Paul’s conversion, and maybe this will cause you to reflect on when you became a Christian. I wish to teach you this passage, but I also hope you all will be challenged to engage Christ, be converted to Christ (if you have not been), be consecrated to Christ, and be in communion with Christ. The last two seem to be where the real struggle is.

Acts 9:1–9 (ESV)

9 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³ Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. ⁴ And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” ⁵ And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶ But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” ⁷ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. ⁸ Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹ And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

1. Contact:
   1. In verse 3, we see Paul’s contact with Jesus. Notice he is still called Saul at this point.
   2. Paul was traveling along the road that led to Jerusalem. Paul was heading towards Damascus.
   3. Damascus was 135 miles northeast of Jerusalem.
   4. Now, think about that: Paul had all that traveling to do to imprison Christians.
   5. How hostile do you think he was? How much hatred do you think he had? For 6 days on foot, he was traveling to imprison Christians. I would think his anger would wear off.
   6. Paul was attacking Christians, and after Paul became a Christian, he needed to be forgiven, and he would be.
   7. As Paul approached Damascus, a light from Heaven suddenly surrounded him.
   8. In 1 Corinthians 9:1, he says that he saw Jesus (this same chapter, verse 27 and 22:14).

I like what John MacArthur said:

There’s another fantastic thing here, and that is this. The last guy before Saul to see the resurrected Christ was who? Stephen. He said, “Look at that, I see the Son of God standing at the right hand of the Father,” or Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. And everybody heard it. Of course, that infuriated them all the more. But if it isn’t grace to realize that the man standing there, in measure responsible for the stoning of Stephen, was, in the grace of God, the next one to see His glory. That’s how grace operates.

And, you know, remember Stephen’s prayer? “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” God answered, and God was gracious unto Saul. The heavens are opened one more time, and this killer, Saul, gazes into the glory and the person of Him whom he persecuted. What grace, that Saul saw Jesus. Fantastic.

2. Conviction:
   4. Paul was convicted in verse 4.
   5. Paul fell to the ground. Remember the previous chapter? The Ethiopian was converted on a chariot. Now, Paul is converted in dust.
   6. Now, I think that is conviction and his conversion are both in the white space in between these next few verses.
3. Conversion:
   1. In verse 5, Paul calls Jesus “Lord.”
   2. This likely meant that Paul was calling him “sir,” but based off of the rest of this passage, I think he is being converted.
4. Consecration: (Acts 22:10)
   1. Look with me at Acts 22:10: And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me,‘Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do.’
   2. I am sure you noticed that Paul asked what he needed to do. This is when the Lord told him that things were appointed for him, and he would find out in Damascus.
   3. I hope that you are challenged every day to say, “Lord, what shall I do?” The Lord has things in store for you. He has a plan. Pray for opportunities.
5. Communion:
   1. I heard the best illustration of Paul’s communion. This is not my idea, but I like it:
   2. What was the last thing he ever saw? Jesus. Have you ever looked in the sun, and then everywhere else you look all you see is the sun? Or you had somebody take your picture and all…everywhere you look, flash. They say if you look at the sun long enough, you’ll be blind. An astronomer tried it, and he was. You know what I think? I don’t think Saul’s blindness was the blindness of darkness. I think it was the blindness of light. I think for three days all he ever saw was the Son, S-O-N, that he couldn’t get rid of the vision of Jesus. That’s all he ever saw.
   3. So he spent three days getting acquainted. And I think that’s when all the old things died. And they died hard. And he didn’t yet understand forgiveness, either, and he would still have guilt. And I think it’s when faith and love and joy and peace began to be born in those days. Communion.

Here are some applications from this passage:

1. Saul responded to Christ with obedience, with consecration: Acts 22:10; We must do the same.
2. We must be obedient to the Lord with our lives, as Paul was. We must make Jesus Lord of our lives, as Paul did. He is the Lord (John 13:13; Acts 10:36; Romans 10:12; I Corinthians 12:5; Phil. 2:11).
3. We must call others also to consecrate their lives to Christ (Luke 9:23).
4. We must recognize that Jesus has a great plan. The church was likely worried about Saul and his persecution, yet this was God’s plan. Saul planned on going to Damascus to chain up Christians, but instead, Saul surrendered to the Christians.
5. We must trust in Jesus’ great plan.
6. We must have communion with Christ as Paul did. This will be with our life. We must look to Jesus so that we only see Jesus, just as someone looking at the sun can only see the sun.
7. We must pray for the Spirit’s conviction as Paul was convicted.
8. Paul fell on His face before the Lord. We must pray for that type of humility.

Now, I encourage you to go forth and be engaged with Jesus in a relationship consecrated to Him and in communion with Him.

Pray.

An Intro to Paul (Col. 1:24-29)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and Bethel Friends on Sunday, August 11, 2024

I wish to talk about the apostle Paul. We will introduce Paul today. Paul was introduced at Stephen’s stoning and could have been in a better light.

Acts 8:1:

 Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.

Verse 3:

But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.

Now, in Acts chapter 9, Paul becomes a Christian. By the way, Saul is Paul, and Paul is Saul. He is called Saul before his conversion. He now commits his life to the Lord. We will look at that in a few weeks. Today, I wish to look at Paul’s philosophy of ministry (A philosophy is a way of thinking), which can be found in Colossians 1:24-29.

Let’s read that passage:

Colossians 1:24–29 (ESV)

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, ²⁵ of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶ the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. ²⁷ To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. ²⁹ For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

As we discuss this passage, I want you to notice Paul’s passion for Jesus-centered, Gospel-driven ministry and his humility.

Now, what is the take-home today? I want to teach you about the apostle Paul. But what do you take home? God has placed all of us in a position of ministry. We are all in places where we can serve the Lord. These are not full-time paid positions. The follower of Christ is to serve the Lord everywhere and always. We are on the clock 24/7. Today, I am not teaching you about Paul’s life, I am teaching you about Paul’s philosophy of ministry. A philosophy is a way of thinking. This is Paul’s way of thinking about ministry.

So, your take-home application: I ask that we all compare and contrast our philosophy or thinking about ministry with the Apostle Paul’s. Maybe we will be encouraged because things line up. Maybe we will need encouragement because we are putting too much on ourselves and not trusting God. Maybe you will need to refocus. Remember, when I say ministry today, I am talking about the connections in life that God has placed you in for His purposes.

1. First, some things about Paul’s background.
   1. This comes from R.C. Sproul’s commentary on Acts:
   2. Much of Acts is a profile of this man, Paul—of his life, his ministry, his suffering, and his faithfulness to his Master. When we first meet him here in Acts, however, we do not meet the greatest pastor, the greatest missionary, the greatest evangelist, or the greatest man. We meet the early church’s public enemy number one. We meet a man filled with hostility and hatred toward Christ and Christ’s church, a man whose consuming passion was to eradicate Christianity from the face of the earth.^[1]
   3. Paul was born, according to tradition, in the same year that Jesus was born. He was born in Asia Minor, in the city of Tarsus; hence he was called Saul of Tarsus, Paul being the name he used in Gentile circles. His father was a Roman citizen and a well-respected merchant. The fact that he was a Roman citizen indicates that he likely had done something significant. Because Saul’s father was a Roman citizen, Saul was born a free man, and he inherited that citizenship from his father. Tarsus was at the extreme southeastern tip of Asia Minor, close to Antioch, just a little bit north of Jerusalem. Tarsus was on the trade routes, where all merchandise moved from Europe and Asia south through the Middle East, down into Africa, and back. In antiquity Tarsus was one of the wealthiest cities of that region. Tarsus had the largest university in the world at that time, bigger than the universities in Athens and Alexandria. Tarsus was a cosmopolitan city, a city in which merchants, scholars, intellectuals, and travelers from all over the world mingled.^[2]
   4. The young Saul grew up in that environment. Initially he followed a commonplace tradition of the time, which was learning a trade through apprenticeship. One of the most lucrative trades in that day and region was tentmaking. As a young lad, Saul learned the trade of making tents, which served him well throughout his life.
   5. At the age of thirteen, because of the prowess and brilliance that he had already displayed, he was sent away from Tarsus to Jerusalem to go to seminary, as it were, to study under the tutorship of the leading theologian in the world of that time, Gamaliel. (We were introduced to Gamaliel in Acts 5.) Saul studied under Gamaliel for seven years and received the equivalent of two PhDs in theology. It has been said that by the age of twenty-one Saul of Tarsus was the most educated Jew in Palestine. He had mastered the Old Testament and all the rabbinic interpretations of it, and his star had risen in meteoric fashion.^[3]
2. Notice Verse 25: The source of the ministry is God.
   12. Paul says that he was made a minister. Paul did not choose to be a minister. God gives ministry gifts out. You can read about these gifts in 1 Cor. 12 and Romans 12. We are in ministry for God’s Kingdom. I better be in ministry for God’s Kingdom.
   13. Notice Paul writes stewardship: This is still in verse 25. God gives us stewardship of a ministry that He calls us to. Do you know what that word means? It means “House ruler.” If you are a Christian, you are also house rulers, stewards of ministries that God has given you.

Before we move on, I want to emphasize again that in addition to learning about Paul, I hope that your take-home assignment is to analyze what and how your philosophy of ministry compares to Paul’s.

• Notice in Verse 24: The spirit of the ministry is joy.
  1. This is a tough one. This is tough because Paul is writing this from a prison. This is one of the letters called “The Prison Epistles.” Paul writes about joy in persecution.
  2. There are currently Christians in jail all over the world because of persecution.

Paul found joy from the Lord, even in suffering, do we? I wonder if I can? If the source of ministry is the Lord, He is the one responsible for the ministry, I serve Him, and He is responsible for the fruit. I am called by God to serve Him as a pastor, but we are all called to serve the Lord in various ways.

• In verse 25, the scope of ministry is that he might fully carry out the Word of God.
  1. We will see in a minute that this goes together with preaching. But notice that in Paul’s philosophy of ministry we see that he uses the word, “fully.” This is complete.
  2. What is our thinking about what God is calling us to do, how does it compare to Paul’s thinking here?
• Verse 28: The style of the ministry is preaching.
  1. Paul will proclaim the Gospel. This is like a herald crying it out.
  2. We must proclaim the Gospel as Paul did.
• Verse 28: Sum of the ministry, what are we after? What’s the goal? “So that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
  1. Paul’s goal was completion
  2. His goal was that everyone he served would be complete in Christ.
• Verse 29: The strength of the ministry. Who can do this? Who can fulfill all this?
  1. Verse 29 tells us the strength of it. “For this purpose also I labor striving.”
  2. Paul would work diligently.
  3. We see this idea reflected in the rest of the New Testament.
  4. By the way, this is Olympic language. The language here is comparable to an athlete striving for a crown. It is the language of a runner laboring toward the end.

Some of you know that I run. I enjoy running, I really do. There are days in the summer, especially late in the evening, when I can run faster. But when it is hot, I struggle. Then, I long for winter. But then, in the winter, there are times when the wind is so strong and so cold that I struggle. On a January morning last year, I went out running just before 6 am. I opened my garage and realized it was snowing. Further, there was an inch of snow on the ground. I started running and realized the snow was picking up in intensity. The wind was strong. The temperature was dropping. I was wearing shorts because it was about 20 degrees, but by the end of the run, it was 14 degrees. I recall running on 224 towards 680, and the wind and the snow were beating at my face. It was difficult. I had to push through. Maybe that is the joy of running distance. It is a labor of enjoyment, though I cannot explain it.

In so much a greater manner, we labor the Christian life for a greater prize in the end.

This was Paul’s philosophy of ministry. We should aim to minister in similar ways.

This is Paul’s philosophy of ministry; we are all called to serve the Lord in the church, in the family, and everywhere. Where does your philosophy of ministry need to change?

Pray

^[1] R. C. Sproul, Acts, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 138.

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.

Witness to an Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26–40)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 28, 2024

I want to start with something funny:

A man goes to his rabbi:

.. “rabbi, I am very troubled. My son, he went off traveling the world, and came back a Christian!” The rabbi replies, “you know, it’s so strange you say that. My son also left home, and came back a Christian!” The two decide to pray to God about this, and God replies, “you know, it’s so strange you say that… my Son went to the world…

 Well, we know that is only a joke. Jesus was and is a Jewish man who died for our sins and rose again…

Jesus’s sacrifice transcends cultural boundaries… He is for the whole world.  

In the last several weeks, we have walked through Acts chapter 8. Today, I want to look at Philip’s witness with the Ethiopian Eunuch.

I shared this a few weeks ago:

Jesus Christ on the cross says, “I’ve become a leper for the lepers. I’ve become a eunuch for the eunuchs. I’ve become a thief for the thieves. I’ve become a coward for the cowards. I’ve become a bad husband for the bad husbands and a bad wife for the bad wives.” When Buddha was dying, they say he said, “Strive without ceasing.” When Jesus was dying, he said, “It is finished.” When Buddha was dying, he says, “Pay what you owe.” When Jesus was dying, he said, “I’ve paid what you owe.” Utterly different.

Do you see how radical that message is for the city? First of all, that is the message that brings down the superior.^[1]

So, today, we will look at Philip’s witness to the Ethiopian Eunuch. Let’s look at this passage again together. As we do, we will gain some strong insights into sharing the Gospel, and we see the gospel transcend ethnic boundaries.

Acts 8:26–40 (ESV)

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” ³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

                  “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter

and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

so he opens not his mouth.

         ³³       In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

                  For his life is taken away from the earth.”

³⁴ And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” ³⁸ And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

I have a basic breakdown of this passage.

Message breakdown

A model for personal sharing from Acts 8:26-40

1. First part, verses 26 and 29, we must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
   1. First of all, I like what Timothy Keller shares:
   2. First of all, we’re told he’s the finance minister of the nation of Ethiopia. He’s the CFO. He’s the cabinet minister. He has hit the top. He’s powerful. The second thing we know about him is he can read. Do you realize how unusual that is? Do you realize how rare it is that he can read? Hardly anybody could read back then, and there he is reading. So he was a man of incredible education and intellectual sophistication, and he was a man of great power.
   3. Last of all, he owned an Isaiah scroll. Do you realize how rare that was? People didn’t own Isaiah scrolls. They didn’t have scrolls and books and libraries. It was incredibly expensive to do something like that. The scrolls were always kept in some public place, the synagogue, the schools, and so on. So here’s a man who’s unbelievably able. He has made it to the top. He’s brilliant. He’s educated. He’s wealthy.^[2]
   4. Further, from Keller:
   5. Jerusalem was not around the corner from Ethiopia. It would be an enormous, amazing journey. I mean, a person who set out from Ethiopia to go to Jerusalem would not have high hopes of surviving. What would have driven a man of that kind of accomplishment to read the Bible, to be so interested in the God of Israel that he would take such an enormous journey to go and try to worship in Jerusalem?
   6. The answer is he must have experienced some unbelievably deep spiritual disappointment. In some ways, the Ethiopian eunuch shows how both our modern culture and ancient culture fail. Because in terms of the ancient culture, he could have no children. He was a dry tree. He would have no sons and daughters. As far as the ancient culture was concerned, he had sold his soul for money, and he had given it all up. He was a nobody. He was a nobody! He had no name, no name that would last.
   7. But as far as modern culture is concerned, it’s pretty clear the money hadn’t satisfied.^[3]
   8. Do you know what? He must have been devastated because as both an African and and eunuch, he would have been turned away at the doors. Can you imagine risking your life to go see if maybe this God of Israel that he had read about was his hope and be turned away? He was coming back. When Philip meets him, he is reading the Isaiah scroll. He is reading the last chapters of Isaiah. He would have certainly found Isaiah 56 where it says, “Let no foreigner be turned away, and let no eunuch says, ‘I am a dry tree.’ ”
   9. He would have read this and realized there was a salvation coming. There was a Person coming who was going to change the exclusionary boundaries around the believing community. He saw God was saying, “Through the work of my Servant, foreigners are coming in. Through the work of my Servant, the eunuchs are coming in. It doesn’t matter what your past is. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been. Everyone who believes and binds themselves to me is brought in.”^[4]
   10. The Person who was going to do this was this mysterious Servant. You know, when Philip meets this guy, this is the verse he is reading. You see this in Acts 8. This is what he is reading (Isaiah 53:8) where it says, “By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants?” Who can speak of his descendants? It’s talking about Jesus. “And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.”
   11. When Philip meets him, he is reading this text. Philip says, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” The man says, “No! Could you please tell me? Who is this? Is the prophet talking about himself or somebody else? Who is this?” In one little verse, Acts 8, it says, “Then Philip … told him the good news about Jesus.” He believed, and he turned and said, “Baptize me.” Philip and this Ethiopian eunuch get down in the water, and Philip puts the water on him.
   12. There is what this whole text is talking about. Because of Jesus Christ, here is a middle-class Jewish man embracing a sexually altered African man in the water. What would bring people like that together? They had the same name. His name was not, “I’m a successful treasurer. I’m the director of the treasury of the queen.” See? Philip’s name was no longer, “I am a very upright Jewish man.” They had the same name, and the name was, “I’ve been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.”^[5]
   13. Do you know, interestingly enough (I found this out when I was studying this), the Greek word for eunuch and the Greek word for prime minister or high court official in the Mediterranean world (in all of the courts) is the same word?
   14. Why would that be? Why would the word for prime minister and the word for eunuch be the same word? The answer is if you were a commoner and you were going to make it up to the very, very top of the royal courts, the male royal personages did not trust any commoner to come and work in close quarters with the female royal personages unless they were castrated. That’s the reason why nobody who wasn’t already royal got to the very top and pinnacle of power in any of these royal courts unless they became eunuchs, unless they were castrated.^[6]
   15. Look at verse 26 with me. We can see that the Angel of the Lord speaks to Philip, and Philip obeys.
   16. Let’s reread verses 26-28: ²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
   17. Then we see in verse 29 that the Spirit of God again speaks to Philip.
   18. Philip obeys as well.
   19. Keller shares:
   20. Jesus, in every way, says to his disciples, “My message isn’t just for people like you. It’s for all races, for all peoples.” Yet when you get into the book of Acts, God has to do excessive prodding (we’ll see this when we get to Acts 10) to get Peter to go to a Gentile, Cornelius, to get Philip, a Jew, to go to a black African. Over and over, God has to give very specific directions. “Go down that road. Do you see that chariot? Yes, stay with the chariot.”^[7]
2. Verse 27, we must be obedient to the Lord’s command.
   1. Back up now to verse 27, notice that Philip obeys. He obeys right away.
   2. Now, I know that I can intellectualize something many times.
   3. Many times, I can easily think that someone else will share Jesus with so and so. Right?
   4. What about your children? You would tell them, “Mercedes, I want you to wash the dishes” Now, Mercedes could easily say, “Abigail will do them.” But I could say, “I did not ask Abigail, I asked you.” Right? Right? God is calling me to be a witness to certain people, and He is calling you to be a witness to certain people. We must obey. We should not say, “Oh, the other pastor will do it,” or anything like that.
   5. You may ask, “How do I know the Lord is telling me to be a witness or to witness to someone?” I am glad you asked. The simple answer is that you know them; they are in your influence, right? That means the Lord wants you to witness. In other words, you must now pray for how to be the most effective witness. That is a daily prayer need.
   6. In reality, I hope that helps me want to be a witness more and more as I go through my spiritual journey. I must want to see the lost come to know Jesus. I must want someone to be delivered from things because he accepts Christ.

• Verse 30: Be sensitive to the other person’s needs.
  30. Look with me at verse 30.
  31. ³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
  32. We see that Philip asked him if he understood. This leads to the next point.
• Verse 35: be skilled in Understanding God’s Word.
  1. Verse 35: Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
  2. We must always be ready to give an answer of the hope that is within us.
• Seek a response to the Gospel.

Close:

Keller:

What does the Spirit show is the sign of conversion? A middle-aged Jewish man putting his arms around a sexually altered black man and calling him “brother.” If your psychology has been changed, your sociology will be changed. What could do that? Only the gospel.^[8]

Example: At the end of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens … It talks about two men, kind of friends, Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay. Sydney is in love with Lucie, but Lucie marries Charles. Charles, however, is arrested during the French Revolution, and he’s condemned to die. He’s in the prison with the other prisoners who are going to be executed the next day. They’re going to go to the guillotine.

That night, Sydney sneaks in and says to Charles, “Look, we resemble each other. We always have resembled each other. Let me take your place. You go to Lucie. You go and live with her. You go and have children. You have a family.” Charles won’t do it, and if I remember correctly, Sydney has him knocked out and pushed out, and he takes his place. There’s a young girl, a seamstress, who’s in there, and she is going to be executed the next day. She has been condemned to die as well.

She walks up to him, because she knows Charles Darnay. She begins talking with Sydney as if he’s Charles, thinking, of course, they know each other. Sydney tries to keep up the ruse a little bit and says, “Well yes, of course. It’s nice to see you,” and so on. Suddenly the girl realizes, “This isn’t Charles.” She looks and she sees it’s somebody else who has taken his place. Her eyes get big. It dawns on her. Suddenly she says, “Are you dying for him?” Sydney says, “Yes, and for his wife and child.”

Basically after that, she says, “You know, I’m having a lot of trouble facing my death, but if you, O brave stranger, would just hold my hand, I think I could do it.” The wonder of his sacrificial love changed her, and it wasn’t even for her. Imagine what change comes into the human soul when you look at Jesus, and your eyes get big, and you realize what he has done. You say, “Are you dying for me?” and he says, “Yes.” He says, “I’ll hold your hand through the rest of your life, and you’ll be able to face anything.”^[9]

…the moment you realize he has done that for you, and he takes you by the hand, and you know you’re loved and accepted in him, and the pressure is off, and you never have to prove yourself again, it changes everything. The gospel is not, “Live a good life and try to be like Jesus.” The gospel is not “What would Jesus do?” The gospel is “What has Jesus done?” That’s what changes you.^[10]

Pray

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] Ibid.

^[5] Ibid.

^[6] Ibid.

^[7] Ibid.

^[8] Ibid.

^[9] Ibid.

^[10] Ibid.

Witness to the Samaritans (Acts 8:9–25)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 21, 2024

We are now in our eighth chapter of Acts, which will be encouraging. Recently, I read the following:

“When the preferences of the church members are greater than their passion for the Gospel, the church is dying.”  Thom Rainer

What are you most passionate about? Put aside your preferences. The Bible is about the Gospel. The apostle Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 9:16: For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. 

I share that because the Book of Acts is about the spread of the Gospel. This would not happen if the people were stuck in their mold, which is especially true today. If the people were stuck in their preference, Jesus would still only be for Jewish people, but in today’s passage, we see the Gospel spread to the Samaritans. This is now when the Book of Acts transitions from non-Jews to Gentiles.

Here is what can happen when the gospel spreads:

WESLEY: A HEART STRANGELY WARMED

At the first half of the 18th century, England was also in a mess. Gin and gambling were destroying the lives of poor and rich alike. This was the age when Dick Turpin – crime figures were so high, there was so much danger from highway men and footpads that Horace Walpole wrote, “One is forced to travel, even at noon, as if one were going to battle.” The government did not know how to respond so they simply added the death penalty for more and more and more crimes.

Meanwhile in 1713 England by defeating France and Spain had secured itself a monopoly in the slave trade. The horrors of unbridled greed in the early industrial revolution meant that three out of every four children died before the age of five because of the insanitary slums and poverty. And of course it hardly goes without saying–churchgoing was at an all time low, and clergy were time servers. I have an ancestor Bishop Carr of Worcester, who gambled (and lost) so much, that when he died, his creditors highjacked the coffin, and would not allow it to be buried, until the debts had been paid. That was the state of the church and the nation at the time.

And then in 1738, a man called John Wesley went to meeting in Aldersgate in the City of London. He heard a reading from a sermon of Martin Luther on Romans and as he listened “My heart was strangely warmed” he said. He felt God – not the god of cucumber sandwiches but the God who tears open the heavens and shakes mountains. And he began to preach. He preached outside the shafts of coalmines and at the doors of factories. He preached not where the church said people should come, but where people were. 

And lives were changed. Workers who would take their pay and drink it away, leaving nothing for their wives and children, put aside the bottle and turned to Jesus. Families were reunited. Child mortality dropped. Literacy grew as people longed to learn to read to read the Bible. Prayers were answered – people were healed of physical ailments. Church attendance grew – passionate church attendance singing hymns to what at the time were considered vulgar pop-song tunes. Parliament itself was affected. The slave trade was abolished. Sending children down the mines or up the chimney was abolished. The death penalty was restricted to truly serious crimes. And the crime rate fell…because one heart was strangely warmed. And then many hearts were strangely warmed. In one generation, a nation was changed.

God is at work. I believe that our current society has the potential to change as John Wesley’s society, but it will take all of us doing things differently. Let’s now look at a passage where Philip the evangelist went to a different people group. I want to show you how Philip witnessed to the Samaritan and how he was a witness to the Ethiopian Eunuch. I want to show you how Philip was obedient to the Holy Spirit.

1. God was taking care of those who were marginalized.
   1. In verse 4, the Bible says that those scattered because of persecution went out “preaching” the Word.
   2. Do you know the word “preaching” is used five times in Acts chapter 8? They were proclaiming the Gospel; they were infecting people with Jesus.
   3. In verses 4-13, Philip witnesses in Samaria. This is a phenomenal passage.
      1. Philip went to Samaria, and many were set free from their bondage in sin. A magician named Simon was also set free.
      2. Last week, we talked about Acts 8:4-8. Today, we will pick up at verse 9.

Acts 8:9–13 (ESV)

⁹ But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. ¹⁰ They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” ¹¹ And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. ¹² But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

• Acts 8:8 left off by saying there was much joy in the city. Why? They were scattered preaching the gospel. Unclean spirits came out. People were healed.
• Now, we see this man named Simon. He has previously practiced magic.
• Notice it says that he amazed the people of the city. They thought he was somebody great.
• Verse 10 says they all paid attention to him, and verse 11 tells us why. They thought the power of God was working in him.
• But verse 12 gives the contrast. They believed Philip when he preached the good news about the Kingdom of God, and they were all baptized.
• Verse 13- even Simon believed and was baptized. He continued with Philip.
• In Verses 14-24, Peter and John, hearing about this witness in Samaria, came to lay hands on these people so that they could receive the Holy Spirit.
• Acts 8:14–24 (ESV)
• ¹⁴ Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, ¹⁵ who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, ¹⁹ saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” ²⁰ But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! ²¹ You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³ For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” ²⁴ And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
• Philip was not one of the original 12 disciples. So, the 12 hear what is going on and they come down to check it out.
• Peter and John travel to check this out.
• So, verses 14-17 tell us about them receiving the Holy Spirit.
• Now, the Holy Spirit usually comes upon us when we receive Christ. There was likely a delay in this instance because this allowed the Apostles to confirm God’s work in Samaria and authenticate Philip’s witness. God purposefully delayed in this instance.
• The book of Acts is transitional. It is descriptive, not prescriptive. It is history. We must get our theology from the epistles.
• Rydelnic teaches at Moody Bible Institute, and he shares: When he has his students study the various ways the Holy Spirit came upon people in the Book of Acts, there is no consistency. Sometimes, they speak in tongues, or sometimes, like the apostle Paul, they receive their sight back.
• This may have kept the apostles, and specifically Peter, in charge of the church at this time, keeping it from becoming a Samaritan church.
• We must experience the apostle’s teachings, not teach the apostle’s experiences.[2]
• In verses 18-24, we see the magician Simon trying to buy the ability to give the Holy Spirit out, but Peter would not allow that. Peter told him that he needed to repent.
• In verse 23, Peter is saying that he saw in his soul that he wanted the gift of the Holy Spirit without submitting to His power.
• Verse 25 summarized: Acts 8:25 (ESV): ²⁵ Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.
• The gospel is spreading.
• Do we realize that people in our society are held hostage? People in our society are prisoners of war. They need to be released. They need to be set free, and we can help with this. The Samaritans needed Jesus, and it took Philip, being different, to set them free. Imagine ourselves in Vietnam. The war is waging around us, and we see many people who are prisoners, but we walk right by; we do not set them free. Imagine ourselves in World War II; we walk right by a concentration camp, and we have the full ability to set the people free, but we do not.
• We CAN set them free, but we are afraid we may not have all the answers, we are afraid we may be laughed at, we are afraid of something else.
• Do we know that we are all in God’s army? We are all fighting the enemy; that is what we are called to as Christians. The people in this city and this world are prisoners. They need us to set them free. They are prisoners spiritually, not unlike the people in Vietnam or even in concentration camps. Certainly, the people in concentration camps had more tangible imprisonment, but without Christ, there is an eternal prison. Its effects are current and eternal. Set them free!
• It is time to set them free.

Ortberg shared a story from Tony Campolo:

John Ortberg, in The Life You’ve Always Wanted, tells about the time that Tony Campolo, the college professor, popular speaker and author, was about to address a college chapel service. Several men from the school gathered with Tony for a time of prayer before he spoke. They circled, knelt, laid hands on him and began to call out for God to bless their speaker.

Campolo shared that his men prayed a long time, and as they prayed, they grew tired and started leaning more and more on Campolo. The prayers were earnest, but their weight was getting too much to bear.

On top of that, one guy was not even praying for Tony. He was praying for someone named Charlie Stolzfus.

“Dear Lord, you know Charlie Stoltzfus. He lives in that silver trailer down the road a mile. You know the trailer, Lord, just down the road on the right hand side.”

Why was the man praying for Charlie? Tony was the speaker, not Charlie Stoltzfus. In addition, the Lord already knew where Charlie Stotzfus lived.

“Lord,” the man continued, “this morning Charlie told me he’s going to leave his wife and three kids. Step in and do something, Lord. Please bring that family back together.”

Finally, the prayer time ended, they had a great chapel service, and Campolo headed home. Just as he was merging onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike, he noticed a hitchhiker on the side of the road and decided to give him a ride.

As they rode along, Tony introduced himself. The man stuck out his hand and said, “My name is Charlie Stoltzfus.”

Campolo could not believe his ears. What are the chances . . . ?

At the next exit, Tony left the interstate and turned the car around. As they returned to the interstate, Charlie said, “Hey, mister, where are you taking me?”

Tony said, “I’m taking you home.”

“Why?”

Campolo said, “Because you just left your wife and three kids, right?”

The man was stunned. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. I did.”

He moved over against the door and never took his eyes off of Campolo. Then, when Tony drove right into the guy’s yard, that really did it.”

Charlie’s eyes bulged out. He said, “How did you know I live here?”

“The Lord told me,” Tony said. (He didn’t explain how the Lord told him).

The trailer door threw open and Charlie’s wife ran out. “You’re back! You’re back!”

Charlie whispered in her ear what happened. The more he shared, the bigger her eyes got.

Campolo then said with real authority, “The two of you sit down. I’m going to talk and you two are going to listen!” And he laid it on, and they listened.

That afternoon, Campolo helped those two receive Jesus Christ as Savior, and that was the start of the healing of a marriage.

Now, was that coincidence that Tony Campolo happened to pick up that particular hitchhiker? Or did God answer the praying man’s petition to “step in and do something?”

James 5:16 reads, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Prayer unlocks divine power, heaven’s blessing, and God’s answer. How many of our coincidences are really answered prayer?[3]

Prayer

^[1] Stanley E. Porter, “Acts,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1732.

[2] Open Line; 07.11.2021 and 11.05.2022

[3] http://www.thecitizen.com/blogs/dr-david-l-chancey/03-27-2012/prayer-really-works-when-we-take-it-seriously