When your adversaries take aim at your character, how do you respond? Are you tempted to lash out in retaliation or do you crumble in defeat?
Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl offers a modern sanctuary for anyone who's weathering storms of criticism. His model is Paul the Apostle. While on his missionary journeys, Paul was targeted by smug religious zealots. His response to their attacks provides a masterclass on responding with grace and grit. Let's pick up the story now in the book of Acts.
Chuck titled his message, Dealing with Critics as Paul Did. Follow steps up. His words are brief and to the point. And this begins the first of seven ways he handled criticism. Let me give you the first one.
He refused to be caught up in the emotion. of the charges. Write that down. That's the first mistake we usually make. He refused to be caught up.
to get caught up in the emotion of the charges. He says, I cheerfully make my defense since you can take note of the fact that. No more than twelve days ago, I went up to Jerusalem. to worship. The second thing he does.
He stayed with the facts. He stayed with the facts. He said, You can check my record. 12 days ago, I went up to worship. You can ask those who were there.
Neither in the temple, nor in the synagogues, nor in the city. Did they find me carrying on a discussion with anyone or causing a riot? He's just spelling out the facts: one, two, three. He stayed with the facts, verses 11 and 12. Here's the third.
He told the truth with a clear conscience. Verses 13 to 16. And operating from a clear conscience. He tells the truth. Beginning in verse 17 down through 19, don't miss this one, number four, he identified the original source of the criticism.
He identified the original source of the criticism. Verse 17: Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. in which they found me occupied in the temple, having been purified without any crowd or uproar, but There were some Jews From Asia. I would say that is identifying. The original source.
There were the Jews from Asia who ought to have been present before you and to make accusation if they should have anything against me, and he is right as rain. Where are they? I have Tertullus, I have the high priest, I have a group of people who. Or here as so-called witnesses, where are my original Critics. Fifth.
He would not surrender and quit. I love that about Paul. There's such courage in Paul. He says, They ought to have been present before you, or else let these men themselves tell what misdeed they found when I stood before the council. Name what I did wrong.
The reason I say he wouldn't surrender or quit is because I'm thinking back. This is implied over the other trials. He had been beaten and he didn't give up. He got right back up again. He had been accused, he stands firm in the truth.
He had been followed, he didn't run from them. He has been knocked down, and the man will not give up. I love what John White has written on this subject. There is no place for giving up. The warfare is much bigger than our personal humiliations.
To feel sorry for oneself is totally inappropriate. Over a soldier, I would pour a bucket of icy water. I would drag him to his feet, kick him in the rear, and put his sword in his hand and shout, now. Fight. In some circumstances, one must be cruel to be kind.
What if you've fallen for a tempting ruse of the enemy? What if you're not the most brilliant swordsman in the army? You hold. Excalibur. In your hand.
Get behind the lines for a break if you are too weak to go on and strengthen yourself with a powerful draft of Romans 8:1 through 4. Then get back into the fight before your muscles get stiff. I love that. Get with it! I can still hear my dad saying that.
Get with it! Okay, He would love this message. I think. The point is, if he is able to get up and get going. He could count on God to carry him where he couldn't walk.
I love the way George MacDonald put it. God will carry us in his arms till we are able to walk, and he will carry us in his arms when we are weary and cannot walk, but he will not carry us if we will not. Walk. You say, I'm walking and I've come to a tough place. Hang on.
Hang on. Don't quit.
Now, do you know what Felix decided to do? He realizes that he's about to be sawed off the end of the limb with a hard set of facts. And he's hanging there in a rather precarious place.
Well, the weasel Procrastinates. Verse 22, but Felix, having a more excellent knowledge or exact knowledge about the way. Put them off. Saying, well, when Lassius the commander comes down, I will decide your case. He gave orders to the centurion for him to be kept in custody and yet have a little freedom and not prevent any of his friends from ministering to him.
And then his wife shows up, and he and Drusilla spend some time with Paul hearing about Christ Jesus. Verse 25. I love this. But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. Yeah.
That must have thrilled Felix. That's good stuff, huh? Not with Felix. He comes up short on all three. Felix became frightened.
And he said, Go away for the present. When I find time, I will summon you. Verse 27, after two years. Had passed. Why?
Well The rest of the verse said Felix was succeeded by Portius Festus, and wishing to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul. in prison. The louse. You sorry piece of humanity, Felix. You've got a chance as a judge to say the truth.
I am so sick.
Now, just sit through this. I'll get this out, and I'll be a lot more happy. Uh I am so sick. of hearing this is about the law, it isn't about what's right or wrong. It's pervading the courts.
This is about the law. It isn't about what's right or wrong. Stop! Since when can truth be upheld? If you're able to twist around the law on a little tiny piece of.
Vine like Technicality. When the whole trunk is announcing, this is what is right. Felix models beautifully what a human weasel looks like. When you follow leaders who want to please the people, you're going to get burned. And the same thing I would say for a President.
This is not about making the Jews happy. It is about standing for what is right. Whether nobody believes it or everybody is not even watching. It is about doing what is right. And so Paul is left in confinement.
Okay. Which brings me to the sixth way he handled criticism. Maybe the most amazing of all. He did not become impatient. or bitter.
This is two years. You're hearing my fingers drumming. Two years. This happens, that happens. Paul doesn't do this, Paul isn't doing that.
Paul could be out, he's waiting. Two years. Yes. And then Festus shows up.
Sorry, varmint. Same kind of guy.
So he goes down to Caesarea, verse 6. On the next day, look at 25, 6. On the next day, he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. After Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem, they're still there. Look at that, stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him, which they could not prove.
Yeah. And Paul said in his own defense, He's got it down to a sentence. 19 English words. 16 in the Greek. I have committed no offence either against the law of the Jews or against the Temple or against Caesar.
Period. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. No bitterness. No impatience. Isn't that amazing?
It's what he doesn't say that's so remarkable. Do you realize I am an apostle? Do you know how many letters I could have written for the New Testament? Do you have any idea how important it is that I be freed from this place? I've got my rights and I've got my privileges and I stand on them as a Roman citizen.
Yada, yada, yada, yada. He could have done all of that. And he doesn't. He said, What is said against me is wrong. I have made no offense against the Jews.
or against the temple. or against Caesar. And Festus, look at verse 9. Try not to vomit. Festus Wishing to do the Jews a favor.
Yeah. Wonder where he learned that. You learn that in uh Roman mentoring. You learn how to do it from the guy who did it before you. Nobody here has the Nagged.
can't say that. has the guts. Nobody here has the guts. Yeah. I just would love to go further with that, but I can't go further.
Don't push me. Nobody's got the guts to say what ought to be said. And so he thinks he's got Paul over the barrel. He says, Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me on these charges? And Paul thinks, Jerusalem.
Ambush. Uh we're not going there. Uh I'm standing before Caesar's tribunal where I ought to be tried. I've done no wrong to the Jews, as you know very well. That's a good line.
And then I'm a wrongdoer. If I am a wrongdoer and committed anything worthy of death, I don't refuse to die. Watch the ultimatum. If I'm wrong, Kill me. But if none of those things is true, which these men are accusing me of.
No one can hand me over to them. Kaisara epicalumai. to Caesar. I appeal. How in the world?
Could he say that?
Okay. Remember back in the barracks? You will testify for me. in Rome. Number seven.
He stood on the promise. Yeah. That's how we made it. Yeah. And then Festus takes the case to his counsel.
And he comes back and he says, You have appealed to Caesar. Watch this, this is great. To Caesar you will go. And Paul could have said, I know that. Is that great?
But he doesn't. I mean, You think you're a big dude, you're a piece of lent on the page. Festus, you nothing My God, who is in heaven, is the sovereign of this earth and the heavens above us. When he says, I go to Rome, I'm going to Rome. Get out.
of the way. To be significant, said Emerson. is to be misunderstood. To be significant. is to be misunderstood.
There are a lot of people who are significant listening to me right now. And the enemy is about to convince you you're insignificant. Because look at what they're saying about you. Did you hear how Paul handled criticism? He refused to get caught up in the emotion of the charges.
He stayed with the facts. He told the truth with a clear conscience. He identified the original source of accusations. He would not surrender and quit. He did not become impatient or bitter.
He stood. on the promise. Of God. Isn't that great? It's all from the Bible.
Isn't that great? You can do every one of those seven. You must do them.
So must I. You know what flashed through my mind when I was finishing this message? A hymn. And I broke the law and made a Xerox copy of it from the. Hymnal.
Standing on the promises that cannot fail. When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, by the living word of God. I shall prevail. Standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord, Overcoming daily with the Spirit's sword, standing on the promises of God.
There are over 7,000 of them in the Bible. Have you claimed one this past week? One. Two. Do I hear Five.
Before my mother died, she encouraged a neighbor of hers and she along with the neighbor Put together a promise book. It's not a sweet thought. And we found in her legacy her Notebook. Full of handwritten promises from the Bible. There must have been hundreds of them.
My sister showed me. When we went through her. belongings. Promise after promise after promise after promise after promise. My name was connected to some of them.
For Charles, I claim this promise. And she wrote them. It's an amazing feeling when you read that. And your mother's Buried. And for Orville, I claim that she wrote, for Lucille, I claim these.
And for Earl, her husband, my dad, I claim these. And for myself, I cannot claim these.
Well, go back to the book. Start with the Psalms. Look for the promises. Live in them. Walk with them.
Let them be your guide. and comfort. You'll not only be ready to live You'd be ready to die. Let's bow our heads. I don't know where this message finds any of you.
I'm sure a number of you are under the gun.
Someone is after you.
Somebody's out to prove stuff that you know is not true. You know it isn't. True. You rest your case with the Lord Jesus Christ. You take up your battles with him.
You, with clear conscience and committed to the truth. Lay your case out before him. Start there. And the judge of all truth. will guide you into the next step.
Don't quit.
Don't stop. Don't tell yourself that you really are that kind of person the other person is saying you are. Don't believe that. That's a lie, that's criticism, that does you no good. Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will bring me home.
If you've done wrong, you lay that out before the Lord. If you're ignorant of a promise, you go to that book called the Bible and you begin at the beginning of a book. A New Testament letter, the book of Psalms, the book of Proverbs, find those verses that promise you. Where God says, I will do this. Do not fear, I am with you.
Do not be dismayed, I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41, 10.
Be strong in the Lord in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the Attacks the assaults of the enemy. Ephesians 6. Ten, eleven, and twelve. Stand there.
Do not fear. Do not become bitter or impatient. The Lord will fight for you and he will give you peace.
Now, this message has been for believers, and I know there are in a crowd this size you who've never met the Lord. And I have a promise for you. As many as receive Christ to them, He gives the authority to become the children of God. Listen to that promise. You believe in him, you become a child of God, even those who believe on his name.
Believe in the Lord Jesus? You believe he died and paid the full payment for your sins? Have you ever told him so? Not listen to someone else tell you, but have you ever told him so on your own? If not, You're lost.
Today is the day for him to find you. You trust him. You come tell us about that. Ask for help in learning how to grow in it. This is just the beginning of a whole body of truth you've missed all your life.
Lord God, how thankful I am for your book. your word that lives and abides forever. Thank you for the way it comes to life. when we see it as print on the page, that turns into people who lived. and talked.
And act. it out. responded and prayed and waited and reacted. May we, in the process of time, begin to feel. at home.
in these pages.
so that the life of another becomes ours. and the truth another provides. becomes a principle for us to live by. Thank you for coming to our rescue again and again by your grace. And finally, I pray for those.
Most afraid. That you will bring a sense of peace and refreshment. As they turn to the promises of your word and find in them. Hope to go on. And now, unto him who is able to guard us from stumbling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion, and power. Forever? and ever. and ever. and ever.
and effort. Through Christ our Lord. We all pray. And everyone says, Amen. That concludes message number 18 in Chuck Swindahl's 22-part biographical study on the life of Paul.
He titled this series Paul, a Man of Grace and Grit. Chuck has prepared a closing comment for us in just a moment. Here at Insight for Living, we love receiving feedback from you, our valued listener, whether it's on the phone, in the mail, or on social media. And there's a common thread woven through many of the comments we receive. Our listeners want to know about Chuck's plans for the future.
Well, I'm pleased to let you know about an inspirational vision statement that's been crafted by Chuck Swindahl and his daughter Carissa, along with the creative team here at Insight for Living. You may have seen this resource arrive at your home recently. If not, we'd be happy to send you one. We're calling this publication Guided by Grace because that's the truth about Insight for Living. From day one in 1979 and into the future, this ministry has been guided by God's grace.
As an avid listener to Chuck's teaching ministry, I would suspect your life is guided by God's grace as well. Mm. To receive this resource filled with behind-the-scenes pictures, compelling stories, and stunning visuals, just go online to insight.org slash grace or call us at 800-772-8888. And then a quick reminder that our ministry year concludes on June thirtieth when Insight for Living will close the accounting books, and we're asking God to supply everything needed through generous friends like you. Here's Chuck.
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Join us when Chuck Swindahl continues his biographical study of Paul, a man of grace and grit. Tomorrow on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Dealing with Critics as Paul Did, was copyrighted in 2001, 2003, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
