Well, we're going to start a new series of messages today. That are all about the life and the ministry of the Apostle Paul. And, you know, we've never done this series here before, so I'm kind of excited about it, have prayed about it a lot, what we're going to do next. And, you know, Paul has gotten a lot of bad press over the years. For example, women's rights groups have called him a male chauvinist who tried to limit the roles and demean the value of women in Christian service, not true.
Jewish groups have called him an anti-Semite who was always caricaturing Jewish people as rebellious and faithless and advocated leaving them, abandoning them for the Gentiles. Not true. Liberal Christian denominations have called him the crown prince of exclusionary religion, saying that the whole notion that Jesus is the only way and every other way is bogus is all due to Paul, not true. He's gotten some bad press, but you know, over the years of studying this man's life, I have become convinced. That he is possibly the most dedicated and the most authentic Christian leader who has ever lived.
And I hope that as we study him over the next couple of years, As we study his life over the next couple of years, I hope that you will come to the place that I've come to of really loving and appreciating this man the way that I do.
Now, what do we know about the Apostle Paul? What was the measure of this man?
Well, there are four things as we go through the New Testament we learn about Paul that it's important for you to know. If you're going to make his life and his ministry make sense, and I want to begin by going over those with you today. First of all, the Apostle Paul, number one, was a man with a great pedigree. A man with a wonderful pedigree. Acts chapter 22, look at verse 3.
Paul says, I am a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia.
Now, Tarsus was a city in southern Asia Minor. We've got a little map for you here. And as you can see, here's Jerusalem going north to Damascus and Lebanon and then rounding the curve into Turkey. And here is Tarsus. Tarsus was a Gentile city, and it was part of the diaspora.
The diaspora means these were cities where Jewish people had spread to after the fall of Jerusalem under King Nebuchadnezzar 586, and where Jewish communities had sprung up outside of Israel. Paul lived here. Many of the Jewish people who lived in the diaspora were slaves. But Paul was born a free man. Look what else he tells us about himself.
Acts chapter 22, verse 27. He said, The commander went to Paul and asked, Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? And he said, Yes, I am. And then the commander said, Well, I had to pay a big price for my citizenship. And Paul said, oh, but I was born a Roman citizen.
So here we have Paul born a Roman citizen, which was a huge issue in the first century. The privileges that were accorded Roman citizenship were unbelievable. You could travel freely anywhere in the Roman Empire you wanted to go. No visas, no passport, no nothing. You had freedom from ever being in prison without a trial.
Also, you had the right of free speech in public anywhere in the Roman Empire as a Roman citizen. Paul was one of these. The next thing we find out about him, chapter 22, verse 3, he said, I am a Jew born in Tarsus, but I was brought up in this city, meaning Jerusalem. Very early in his life, Paul's parents sent him to Jerusalem to be raised there by his sister.
so that he could be close to the very heartbeat of the Jewish religion and really imbibe what being a Jew was all about. And then last of all, we learn Acts chapter 23. Acts chapter 23, verse 6, Paul said, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. Paul grew up in a home where his dad was a very strict religious man, and Paul himself grew up to be this kind of man. The Pharisees were the people who kept kosher, went to synagogue daily, studied the Old Testament diligently, honored the Sabbath zealously, kept their 613 daily laws religiously, and was devoted to Judaism obsessively.
This is where Paul was raised. And so... What is his background?
Well, he was Jewish. He was a free man. He was a Roman citizen. He was the son of a Pharisee who grew up to be a Pharisee himself. When it came to pedigrees, the Apostle Paul was AKC registered.
You understand what I'm saying? It doesn't get any better than this.
Now, the second thing we know about Paul is that Paul was the man with great credentials, a man with great training. He says in Acts chapter 22, verse 3: He said, I was under Gamaliel, he says, I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers. This is the same Gamaliel who appears in Acts chapter 5, where the Bible says of him that he was a Pharisee, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people. And what the verse literally says here is that Paul sat at the feet of the people. Of Gamaliel.
See, in these days, if you were going to study under a great rabbi or a great teacher, you didn't enroll in their department in the university, you went and sat at their feet. And so, what the Bible is telling us here is that Paul had enrolled, he had matriculated into the University of Gamaliel.
Now, this was no small thing either. Because Gamaliel was a huge Pharisee mukmuk in these days. As a matter of fact, we know that from the Talmud there were only seven rabbis in the history of the nation of Israel who were ever given the exalted title Rabban, meaning exalted rabbi. Gamaliel was one of these guys. We also know that Gamaliel was distinguished not only as a man who was an eminent teacher of Jewish religion and law, but he also insisted that his students become liberally educated in the secular education of the world around them.
He insisted they learn Greek and that they learn Latin and that they learn Greek literature. He insisted that they learn social graces and cultural relevancy. He taught them manners and refinement and morality in addition to Jewish law. And we know from the Talmud one other interesting fact. He also insisted that every one of his disciples learn a trade with their hands, just in case they were ever marooned somewhere and they had to make a living.
Guess what trade Paul learned under Gamalio? He learned to be a maker of what? Tenths. That's exactly right. It wasn't his dad who taught him that.
It was Gamaliel who insisted he get a trade. And so. What we find out is that it's sitting at Gamaliel's feet was reserved for people who got 1,600 on their SATs. This was for people who were number one draft picks. This was for people who were rising stars in the Jewish nation, which is exactly who and what the Apostle Paul was.
Galatians 1, verse 14. I was advancing, Paul says, in Judaism beyond all my contemporaries. I was surpassing all of my peers. Paul said, hey, I was a player. You understand, I was a player in Israel.
I was on the fast track to the top. This was a man whose training and credentials were faultless. Third thing we know about the Apostle Paul. Is that this is a man who had been taught to hold his convictions passionately. Acts chapter 22, verse 3.
Under Gamaliel, I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers. And Paul, what did you learn?
Well, one of the things I learned, he said, is I was just as zealous. For God, as any of you are today. Paul was trained as a young man to be zealous. Paul was trained to be the kind of man that when he believed something, he believed it with every fiber of his being. In describing Paul, we need to use words like passionate.
And vehement and ardent and anal and even fanatical because this is who this man is. And we see this in his treatment of the early followers of Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 22, verse 4. I persecuted the followers of this way, meaning of Christ. to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison.
And if you'd have asked him, Paul, so what happens to the little children of these moms and dads that you arrest? Paul would have said, frankly, I don't care. I don't really care. Because I persecuted these people because I believed in what I was doing. Acts chapter 26, verse 10.
I put many of the followers of Jesus Christ in prison. And when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. Here was a man who, when it came to his convictions, the man was ruthless. Fourth and finally, about the Apostle Paul, here is a man who had been taught the meaning.
Of the words commitment and dedication. He first began learning these words, what they meant, from watching his father. He was a Pharisee, a religious Jewish leader in a Gentile city who had to stand up for his Jewish religion in the midst of a hostile environment. By watching him, Paul learned what dedication and commitment meant. Then he was sent to Gamaliel, who trained him.
He studied under Gamaliel about Abraham and Moses and David and Ruth and Deborah and Nehemiah and Daniel and his three friends, learning from Gamaliel what devotion and what loyalty meant. And the result of that is that Paul was a man who grew up believing. That if we're going to do something for God, it's worth doing 100%. And if you're not going to do it 100%, you don't do it at all. And that's exactly how Paul approached his opposition to the early church.
Acts chapter 26, verse 9. I was convinced, he said. I was convinced. that I ought to do all that was possible, 100%. to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and this is just what I did.
in Jerusalem. Here was a guy who filled the jails of Jerusalem with Christians. But he was so dedicated, that didn't satisfy him. Look what he did next: Acts chapter 22, verse 5. In my obsession against him, Paul says, I even obtained from the high priest letters to the officials in Damascus.
And I went to Damascus to bring these people back to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. I mean, this man was a one-man wrecking machine, friends, for whom the words dedication, for whom the words all-out commitment were not just buzzwords, they were a way of life for this guy.
So let's summarize. What do we know about the Apostle Paul? Number one, he was a man with a great pedigree. Number two, he was a man who had incredible training and development. Number three, he was a guy who believed in what he believed passionately.
And number four, and finally, he was a man who lived words like dedication and commitment. They say, Well, Lon, that's wonderful. I appreciate all that. That's great. Thanks for filling us in on Paul.
But we have a really important question we need to ask you. And y'all know what that question is, don't you? And your voice is better than mine, so this ought to be good, all right? Ready? One, two, three.
Now that was lame. Come on, you can do better than that. Ready? One, two, three.
Nah, that felt better, didn't it? Yeah. You say, Lonsoa, what difference does this make to my life?
Well, I think a lot, and I'd like to try to explain to you why. You know, I'm sure many of you are aware Time magazine last year picked its man of the century or person of the century. And you probably know that they picked Albert Einstein. I actually think that was a grave injustice. I wouldn't have picked Albert Einstein, although he was a great man, but I think there was a leader in the twentieth century who was head and shoulders above any other man or woman that lived in the twentieth century.
And that man, in my opinion, is Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill had already, at the outbreak of World War II, friends, served as Prime Minister. He had already served as Lord of the Admiralty. He was retired already and 65 years old. And yet at 65 he was called back to lead a nation who was in a hopelessly looking situation.
It was his personal tenacity, it was his almost superhuman resolve that caused that nation of people, the British nation, to rise up as a people and to achieve heights that peoples very rarely ever achieve in human history. Winston Churchill at age 65 already had a whole life of experiences behind him. He was retired. But he had an incredible perspective about all of these life experiences that had gone before him. And I want you to hear what he said.
The very first night he was back as prime minister at age 65, facing Hitler and all of Nazi Germany. He went to bed that night in 10 Downing Street for the first time in many, many years, and he wrote these words. And I quote: He said, I was conscious. of a profound sense of relief. And I was inspired.
By a deep sense of destiny, I suddenly realized: look at this, that all my past life. had been but a preparation. For this hour And for this Trial.
Now can't you see how that's true also and real in Paul's case? Think about it now. When God grabbed a hold of the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus and knocked him off his horse, God had uniquely prepared this man up to that point to become the man who was going to rock the Roman Empire for Jesus Christ. Think about it. His Roman citizenship meant that he could move freely and speak freely anywhere in the Roman Empire.
His tent-making skills meant that he could support himself anywhere he went and support his whole team. His liberal arts training under Gamalio meant he could go toe-to-toe with even the most elite Greek or Roman philosophers or educators. His training in Greek and Latin. Meant that he could speak to any group anywhere in the Roman Empire. His theological training at the feet of the most exalted rabbi of the day.
Meant that there wasn't a single Jewish person anywhere who could accuse him of not understanding and not knowing and not being cognizant of everything related to the Jewish religion. No one could accuse him of being out of touch or just not really getting it. His passion for his convictions meant that no one was ever gonna convince this man to water down the message of Jesus Christ no matter how much opposition he got. and his attitude of 100% commitment. Was what this man was going to need in order to keep from giving up in the face of unbelievable resistance and indifference.
I mean, can't you see? that God had not wasted one single experience with this man. that God had put every single piece together so when God knocked him off his horse on the road to Damascus, it was merely the culmination of years of God investing in this man's life, getting him ready, as Winston Churchill said, preparing him for the true will of God for his life.
Now friends, the Bible teaches that everything we go through Every experience we have in life Today, even in our lives, not just in Paul's life. is the same way. It's all God preparing you and me for things that He has for us. And this was true of people that we know about in history, it was true of Joseph.
Sold into slavery, accused innocently, thrown into jail. And yet, didn't God have all that as part of the plan of God to get Joseph right where he wanted to get him as Prime Minister of Egypt? And then how about Esther? Esther's mom died, her mom died, her dad died. Yet if that hadn't happened, she never would have gone to live with Uncle Mordecai.
And if she hadn't been living with Uncle Mordecai, she wouldn't have been in Susa when the king was looking for a queen, and she never would have ended up as the queen of the Persian Empire so she could save her people. Did God waste an experience in her life? No. And how about David? David was tending his sheep when a lion and a bear came and tried to steal the sheep.
David had to go out and fight the lion and the bear. But it was all preparation. Because when he showed up to face Goliath, then Saul said to him, you can't go out there and fight that guy. You're a midget. You're a run.
You're a shrimp. This guy's twice your height, and he's a trained military expert. You're a shepherd. You can't do this. Listen to what David said.
He said, the Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. In other words, David said, hey, the lion and the bear were just getting me ready for this guy. And if I beat the lion and the bear, God's taught me something, I can beat this guy. And friends, it's not just true for Bible characters. Mother Teresa was intending to be super nun.
wanted to go to the Vatican and work directly for the Pope. This was her goal in life. And as part of her early training, she got stuck in a poor children's home. What she didn't like. She wanted to know why the assistant to the pope was stuck in this little tiny children's home.
But God used that in her life to develop a compassion for poor children. And you know the rest of the story with Mother Teresa and even Billy Graham. Billy Graham didn't set out to be a preacher on the street. Billy Graham set out to be an evangelist going into churches, but the churches didn't like what he had to say. They didn't like the way he rattled things up, so he couldn't get any church gigs.
So that's why he started preaching out on the street on a soapbox, and the rest is history. That's how his open-air crusades began. Friends. God doesn't waste an experience. Everything God does in people's lives is aimed at preparing them for what God created them to do and be, and that's true for you and me too.
All things, Romans 8.28, work together for good to to those who love God. All things work together for good to those who love God. Let me say, if you're here and you've never trusted Jesus in a real and personal way, this is an important piece of information for you to know. Because I know that before I became a follower of Christ, my life felt like a jigsaw puzzle. I had pieces over here and pieces over there and pieces in the other place and could not figure out how all these pieces were supposed to fit together.
I had a sense God had something for me to do or there was some destiny to my life. But I didn't know how to put this jigsaw puzzle together. And I'll tell you, friends, the secret to putting all these experiences together so that they began to achieve the will of God for my life, the destiny for why God made me, was when I gave my life to Jesus Christ. He became the glue that put all this jigsaw puzzle together. And if you're here and you've never trusted Christ as your real and personal Savior, you got jigsaw pieces all over everywhere.
God's prepared you for something, but you'll never get there. You'll never get there unless Jesus Christ is the ruler and the controller of your life. He's the one who puts the puzzle together for people. You need to trust him. That's where you'll begin to see your destiny take shape.
And all these experiences you've had make sense if you'll give Jesus Christ your life.
Something to think about.
Well, for those of us who have trusted Christ, here's the point. that God wants us to know that there are no accidents in life. God wants us to know that there are no coincidences in life, that every experience he sends our way, friends, is aimed at preparing us to achieve the destiny for which God created us. And even though you may not understand it, Even though you and I may not be able to see how things fit in, even though it may make no sense to us, the point is God knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing, and we need to trust him.
I mean, do you think that when David was out there fighting that lion and that bear, he ever knew one day he was going to face Goliath? Of course not. Do you think that Esther, when her mom and dad died and she got sent to Uncle Mordecai, do you think she had any idea one day this was because she was going to be the queen of Persia? Of course not. Do you think that Joseph knew one day he'd be prime minister when he got thrown into jail innocently?
No way. Do you think Paul ever dreamed that one day he'd be rocking the Roman Empire for Jesus when Gamaliel was forcing him to go make tents? No, he didn't know that. Don't you think these people ever turn to God and ask why? Don't you think these people ever said, God, what is the deal here?
Don't you think David ever said, Hey God, here I am. I'm sitting up on this hill watching my dad's sheep. I'm not minding my own business. I'm not bothering anybody. I'm just sitting here writing Psalm 23.
And you send a lion in here to take my sheep? I mean, what's up with that? Don't you think Joseph ever said, Lord, I stand up for you. I resist this woman coming on to me. I try to do what's righteous and honorable and godly, and I get thrown into jail for 13 years.
I mean, what's up with that? Don't you think that Paul, ever sitting out there learning to make tents, ever turned around and said, why am I sitting out here making these stupid tents? I'm going to be the top rabbi in Israel, and I don't need to know how to make these stupid tents. What's up with that? Don't you think these people ever thought that?
But friends, the point is that God was way ahead of them. Oh God, we're so far ahead of them. And God's answer to them is the same answer He gives you and me when we ask why. God simply says, trust me. Trust me.
I know what I'm doing. And I know you don't understand right now, but I got a bigger plan going on than you can see, and frankly, I'm not going to explain it to you.
So just Trust me, I know what I'm doing. And friends, as followers of Jesus Christ, if you and I really believe this, Now if we really believe this, It will radically alter the way we approach life. It'll radically change life. Because how do you and I have a sense of peace? How do we beget a sense of calm?
When tragedy and awful things are going on in our life, how are we able to keep a sense of equilibrium?
Well, the only way I've learned to do it is by keeping my eyes on this singular truth. That God, I don't understand this. I don't know why this is happening. I don't want this. And it makes no sense to me.
But God, if I can rise above that, To see that you're behind this and you're using it in some way in the future, I'm going to look back and say, yes, I understand God was absolutely right. I needed that experience. then I can have peace. I can relax and trust you. And I know there's a lot of us here that are facing hard things and asking questions.
I mean, why did my business fail? Why did my career derail? Why did my finances suffer? I'm not sure, but God knows what He's doing, friends. Why did I mess up my life the way I did?
Why did I grow up in the home that I did, with the parents that I did, with the pain that I did? I don't know. But I'm telling you, you can trust God, He knows what He's doing in your life. Why did my boyfriend break up with me?
Well, I can't answer that because he's a jerk. That's why. But God can even use jerky stuff. To have a purpose in your life? And why do I have a disabled child?
And why do I have an ailing parent? And why is my car broken? And why do I have the medical problems I do? I don't know the specific answer to your specific questions, friends. I don't even know the specific answers to my specific questions.
But I know this. that Joseph wrote and said, When his brothers came to see him after years and years, after selling him into slavery, here's what he said to him: Genesis 45:8. He said, So then. It was not you. Who sent me to Egypt.
It was God. Is that wonderful? It was not you guys who sent me to Egypt, you say, but Lon, it was. They sold him. No, no, no.
Joseph had a different perspective. It was not you who sent me to Egypt. It was God. God was behind you, above you, and beneath you, orchestrating what you did. Because I needed to get to Egypt for the will of God to my life to be accomplished.
And I see that, Joseph said. It wasn't you that sent me here. It was God who sent me here. And friends, if you and I... can view our lives through the same lens that Joseph viewed his life.
If you and I can learn to see, That everything that comes into our life, the good, the bad, and the ugly. that these are not random acts of cruelness, that these are not haphazard acts of fate. But that they are active tools in the hand of God, a loving God. Preparing us for God's will and God's destiny in our life. If we can do that, We will be able to embrace even the most difficult circumstances and still have peace.
He said, but Lon, I've tried to do that. I've tried to embrace those circumstances and have peace like this, and it's hard. I'm having trouble doing that.
Well, of course, you will. Because friends, you can't do this in the energy of the flesh. You can't just summon this up. This has got to be a spirit-driven thing. And I love the prayer of Jesus' early disciples.
You remember when He said to them, He said, you need to believe, and they said, Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief. And that's where you and I need to be. Lord, I want to believe, I want to trust you, but you know I'm just human. God, by your Spirit, you need to help my unbelief.
You need to quench my unbelief. You need to kill my unbelief because it rears its ugly head up. And then it's a fight to the finish in my life, God. Let the Spirit of God quench that unbelief and help me just rise up and trust you. Folks, if you and I could see our lives.
From the shores of heaven, the way God sees them. If we could see the end. from the beginning, the whole panorama at once. I promise you. There's not a thing that's ever happened to you, as painful as it may have been, that you, if you could see it all, wouldn't shake your head in the affirmative and say, Yes, God.
You're absolutely right. Knowing what you knew about my life, I'd have done that too. You were absolutely right, God. But we can't see like that now.
So we've got to trust God. And I'm here to challenge you. God has not wasted an experience in your life. He knows what He's doing. And even though you may not understand and even though you may not like it.
I'm challenging you, rise up and trust. God. He knows what he's doing with your life. just like he did with Depasa Paul. Spray together.
Lord Jesus, thanks for talking to us from the Bible today. And Lord, you know, there's not a one of us here who doesn't struggle with circumstances and things that come into our life that we don't understand. that are hurtful and painful.
So God, my prayer Is that you would enable us to rise above the worldview of Madison Avenue, to rise above the worldview of our culture. and to live out a biblical worldview. through the lens of the scripture. Like Joseph, so that we could say about every circumstance in our lives, it was not you. It was not things who did this to me.
But it was God. Because he's working out his perfect plan for my life. Lord, help us by your Spirit to be able to trust you like this because then we can have peace. Let me do our life. Help us live like this, I pray, Lord, for your glory.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
