Okay, if you brought a Bible this morning, how about opening it to Acts chapter 25? Thank you. Acts chapter 25. We want to welcome all you guys down in overflow. Two more weeks, there won't be any overflow, so we're glad you're here.
And you know, when I was a kid, I loved pinball machines, and I wasn't Tommy. You understand? But I was, I was okay.
Now, if you got that, you were probably a dope-smoking hippie in the 60s. And if you didn't get that, ask one of your friends who was a dopehead back then, and he'll explain to you, or she will, who Tommy is. But anyway, one thing that I noticed, and I know that you know about pinball machines, is that they all have a tilt mechanism. That is, when you hit the machine too hard, or you you bump it too much, or you do all the kinds of inappropriate things, the thing tilts, and the machine actually shuts down, and it actually goes off. And I, I, It seems to me that yeah, it seems to me that that people God wants us as followers of Christ to be a lot like pinball machines.
God wants us to have a tilt mechanism inside of us, a spiritual discernment that's acutely sensitive to situations around us as we move through life, and that's what we want to talk about today. We want to talk about spiritual discernment, what it is, and how you and I can have. A high level of it in our lives, and we're going to use an example out of the life of the apostle Paul, where this very thing is true in his life.
So let's dig in. Acts chapter 25. A little bit of background. Remember here in Acts 25, it's now 59, the summer of 59 A.D. The apostle Paul has been in jail for two years in the city of Caesarea.
We'll show you a map. Caesarea was 70 miles to the northwest of Jerusalem. And it was the Roman capital of the entire Middle East. Paul was here because of his own safety. He had been sent here by the Roman commander of Jerusalem after the Jewish people there tried to kill him twice in a matter of two days.
Once on the Temple Mount, and once in a plot to ambush him and assassinate him. Where a bunch of folks took a vow and said, "We won't eat or drink until we kill this guy," and so he was sent to Caesarea to the governor. Whose name was Felix? Felix had a trial in Acts 23 and 24 when Paul arrived. Could find no charges against him, but because he wasn't getting along with the Jewish leaders at the time, he decided that rather than release Paul and aggravate the Jewish leaders, he'd leave him in jail.
And so Paul's been in jail for two years. In 59, at the very end of chapter 24, 59 A.D., Felix is removed, and a fellow named Festus replaces him. Paul is still in jail as Festus arrives, and that's where we pick up the story.
So here we go. Verse one. Three days after arriving in Judea, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented charges against Paul.
Now, even though two years have passed, the Jewish leaders have not forgotten about Paul. Believe me, and so they quickly try to get the ear of the new governor and press their charges against Paul. Verse three, they urgently requested Festus as a favor to them to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem for trial, while at the same time preparing an ambush to kill Paul along the way. If you remember, as I said, the original plot to kill Paul was. Was cooked up by 40 men who took that vow not to eat or drink.
But would you notice here that things have changed?
Now, two years later, the plot to kill Paul is not just some vow on the part of a few men. It is now the official policy of the Jewish leaders of Israel. This is how they plan to deal with the Paul problem.
Now we need to understand that Festus, the new governor, was under some real pressure to accede to their request and send Paul back to Jerusalem. I told you last week that these very same Jewish leaders had gone to Emperor Nero in Rome and gotten Felix kicked out because they didn't like him. And notice they say to Festus here, "We want you to do us a favor," and the clear implication is, "And if you don't, we'll go to Rome to see Nero." And we'll get you kicked out too.
So he felt that pressure. Verse four. Festus answered and said, "Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I'm going there soon. Let some of your leaders come and press charges against the man there if he's done anything wrong." After spending eight to ten days, verse six, in Jerusalem, Festus went down to Caesarea. The next day, he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him.
When Paul appeared, the Jews who had come from Jerusalem stood all around him in a big circle, bringing many serious charges against Paul, for which they had no proof. My middle son, Justin, when he was in high school here in Fairfax County, W.T. Woodson played football all four years, and they had this interesting little drill that they would do on his football team right before the games. The players were all in full pads, and they get out on the side of the field, and they form a big ring, a big circle, and they called this drill "bull in the ring." And they would pick one player and put that player in the middle of the ring, and then they would all stand around and yell and scream and work themselves up into a frenzy. And then one of the people from the circle would charge the bull in the ring, and they bang into each other as hard as they could.
And then another guy from the circle would run and bang into the bull in the ring, and another guy would run and bang into the bull in the ring. I don't think it was a lot of fun to be the bull in the ring. And you say, "Well, why would they do something like that?" Well, they were teenage males. That's all I know. I think that explains it.
Well, anyway. The Apostle Paul here at Caesarea was a lot like the bull in the ring.
Now these people weren't coming at him physically, but they were assaulting him verbally with the same kind of intensity. In fact, one of the commentators on the Book of Acts that I use, Everett Harrison, said, and I quote: "Paul was like a man doing battle for his life in a ring surrounded by ferocious animals." End of quote. Verse eight. And then Paul made his defense and said, "I have done nothing wrong against the law of the Jews, or against the temple, or against Caesar. But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, 'Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?' And I'm sure that when Festus said this, the Jewish leaders couldn't believe their ears." I'm sure they thought, "Oh my gosh, we have got him now," because Festus was a young governor.
He was a naive governor. He had no idea that there was a plot going on. He had no idea to even suspect the plot, and so therefore he would have certainly sent Paul to Jerusalem with a very light military guard, which meant these assassins would be able to to overpower the guard. They'd be able to kill Paul. They'd be able to deal with the Paul.
Problem once and for all, and and so everything looked like it had played perfectly into their hands.
However, it was at this point that Paul's spiritual discernment kicked in. Remember now, Paul did not know one thing about this ambush factually, but he sensed that something was wrong. He sensed there was something rotten in Denmark or Jerusalem or wherever. He sensed that. Verse ten.
And Paul said, "I am standing before Caesar's tribunal. Where is a Roman citizen? I ought to be tried. If I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the things of which these men accuse me are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them.
I appeal to Caesar." Friends, one of the special rights that a Roman citizen had is that he was allowed, in a judicial case, to appeal directly to the emperor, to appeal his case directly to the Caesar himself, and that's exactly what Paul decided to do right here.
Now, think what this meant. It meant, first of all, that Paul was going to be shipped it to Rome as a prisoner in irons. Second of all, it meant he was going to. Be incarcerated in Rome for who knows how long until the emperor finally got around to adjudicating his case, and it meant finally that his freedom to travel and preach Jesus Christ is going to be even even further compromised and further postponed than it already has been. And you might say, "Well, Solon, why did he do this if this is what was going to happen?" Well, friends, the answer is that Paul was a man of spiritual discernment, as we've seen.
He didn't know anything explicit about this plot to kill him, but he sensed in his spirit that something was wrong, that something was dangerous, that there was trouble afoot. What I want you to see is that Paul's decision to appeal to Caesar was not a function of Paul having factual knowledge; it was a function of Paul using spiritual discernment. Verse twelve. After Festus had conferred with his counselors, he declared, "You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go." Paul's appeal to Caesar we have to understand was not obligatory.
In other words, Festus didn't have to honor it and send him there. And that's why he went to confer with his advisers to get some advice. And I'm sure they told him something like this: "Festus, you are in a real political mess, friend." It's a lose-lose for you, Festus. This guy, by appealing to Caesar, has given you a convenient way out. For goodness' sakes, take it and send this guy to the emperor.
You know, President Eisenhower once had an adviser who told him, "Mr. President, never miss a good opportunity to keep your mouth shut." And I'm sure the the advisers of Festus said to him, Governor, never miss a good opportunity to send your messes to Caesar. And so he came back into the room. He banged his gavel and he said, All right, Paul, you've appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go.
Now, just before we ask our most important question, we might want to talk about this for a second, and that is, you might be thinking, "Well, you know, Lon, I don't know much about Roman history, but I know a little bit about Emperor Nero, and I know he wasn't a good guy. I mean, I know he killed thousands of Christians, right? I mean, why in the world would Paul think he was any better, appealing his case to this guy?" Well, it's true. In 64 A.D., when Rome burned to the ground, Nero blamed the Christians for doing it, used them as a scapegoat, and killed thousands upon thousands of them. As a matter of fact, Nero was the one who, in 66 A.D., killed both Peter and Paul.
But this is 59 A.D. This is five years before the fire, and at this point we know from Roman history that Nero was not the monster that he eventually turned out to be. At this point, he was still under the tutelage of Seneca, the wise Stoic philosopher. And many historians refer to his first five years in office, that is, of Nero from 54 to 59 A.D. as one of the golden ages of Rome.
Things were going well now. There was There's no persecution of Christians now, and therefore my point is the Apostle Paul would really have had no reason whatsoever to fear going to Rome and facing Nero, which is exactly what he decided to do.
Now that's the end of our passage, but it leads us to ask our most important question, and you know what our question is, and and folks, this is the next to the last time. At nine o'clock in the morning, you're going to get to ask it in this auditorium, and so that's. It seems to me this ought to be a little bit commemorative today, and so therefore, to commemorate this, almost for the last time, let's really do it well. Ready? Here we go.
One, two, three. Yeah, he say, "Lawd, so what?" Say, "Okay, Nero, this, Nero, that, whatever." So, like, what difference does any of this make to me?
Well, let me see if we can bring that home.
Okay, when I was a young man, I remember one time my dad came up to me, and here's what he said. He said, "Lan, I've never seen such an intelligent person do as many stupid things as you do." And what my dad was really trying to say is, "Lan, you have virtually no discernment." Well, he was right. And I want to talk to you about discernment today because lack of discernment can get us in a lot of trouble. What does discernment mean?
Well, if you look it up in the dictionary, it'll say having a keen insight or an astute perceptiveness into the situations in which you find yourself, and that is just regular discernment.
However, spiritual discernment goes one step farther. Spiritual discernment factors in the living God. It means having the ability to look at the situations of life with the benefit of God's supernatural insight, God's supernatural wisdom, God's supernatural guidance. It means having like a sixth sense, if you will, a spiritual sense, if you will, about the situations in which you and I find ourselves in life.
Now, the Bible tells us that when we are properly positioned spiritually. God will impart this kind of spiritual discernment to us.
So our question is: How, as followers of Christ, do we position ourselves spiritually in such a way so this can happen, so that we can benefit from this spiritual discernment that God's willing to give us?
Well, I have three ways to talk to you about, and then we're done. How do we do this? Number one: Here's our first way by saturating our hearts and our minds. With the written word of God, Psalm 103, verse 7, very interesting verse of Scripture says this: It says, "God showed His deeds to the children of Israel, but to Moses God made known His ways." Now, do you understand what this verse is saying? It's saying that the Israelites got to see what God did.
But God took Moses farther than that. He allowed Moses to understand why he did what he did. His very ways, his very values system, the very way he saw and reacted to situations in the world. And folks, there's a big difference between seeing God's acts, His deeds, and understanding God's ways. When we see God acts, God's acts, it can produce factual knowledge inside of us.
In fact. Knowledge of good, but when we understand God's ways, it produces spiritual discernment.
Now, in our day and age, how do we, as followers of Christ, understand God's ways?
Well, folks, that's why God gave us the Bible. That's what it's all about—revealing who God is to you and to me. And I love what David said, Psalm 119:105. He said, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." He said, verse 130, "The unfolding of your word gives understanding to the simple." He said in verse 24 of that psalm that the word of God was his counselor and his adviser. And he says finally in verse 98, "Your commands make me wise." Wiser than my enemies, because I meditate on your statutes, I have more insight than all my teachers.
Look at this last statement: I gain such understanding from your precepts that I can discern every wrong path. What's David really saying? He's saying that biblical saturation produces spiritual discernment. You know, back to my pinball machines again. I learned something very important as a kid about pinball machines.
I learned that not every pinball machine has the exact same tilt mechanism. To put it another way, some pinball machines have tilt mechanisms, and they're so acutely sensitive that all you have to do is gently nudge the machine, and the machine shuts down. And then there were other machines where you could literally pick up the whole front leg of the machine and tilt the ball backwards, and the thing wouldn't tilt. There was that there was a vast difference in where the tilt mechanism went off in a pinball machine, and you know, having been a pastor for 24 years, I've noticed something about people, and that is that you can take two followers of Jesus Christ, you can put them in the exact same situation with various levels of inappropriate things going on, and those two people's tilt mechanisms will go off at different points. One follower of Christ.
Will immediately sense spiritual danger around them and get out of there. And another follower of Christ will be completely oblivious to it. And I've tried to figure out what it is that explains the difference. Why is there such an enormous difference in the spiritual discernment level of followers of Christ? And I believe I have the answer.
I've noticed that the people who always exhibit the highest level of spiritual discernment are the people who are most consistently saturating their lives with the Word of God. It's always been that way in terms of when I've asked questions. And why is this, friends? Because biblical saturation—let me repeat what I said—produces spiritual discernment. It creates a spiritual gyroscope inside of us that senses when things aren't right.
Now you say, "Well, Lon, I don't understand. How does reading the Bible make me more discerning?" Well, friends, I can't explain the mechanism to you. I don't understand myself exactly how it works. But I can tell you that it works. And what do you care how it works?
As long as it works, we don't need to understand how. I'm just telling you: the more we saturate ourselves with the Word of God, the more acutely sensitive we become spiritually to the situations around us and to danger. Number two. Second principle: How can we make ourselves the kind of people that God gives spiritual discernment to? Number two, by staying connected to God in prayer.
Proverbs three, verse five and six: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.
Now, to acknowledge God in all of our ways means to bring every situation. We face and lay it before God in prayer, whether it's in prayer on our knees in a concentrated form, or whether it's in thought prayers as we walk along the street and things are happening to us. Either way, this is what it means to acknowledge God in the situations of life. And look what God promises to do in response. God promises that He will guide our paths, that He will give us the spiritual discernment we need to evaluate our situations and.
Make wise choices and decisions.
Now think about it for a second. If David had followed this principle, the disaster with Bathsheba would never have happened. If he'd have seen her on the roof and immediately started praying about it and saying, "God, give me wisdom, what to do here," God would have said to him, "What are you nuts? What are you crazy? Go back down in your room, close the drapes, and go to bed." That's what he would have said.
But David didn't do this. If Samson had done this, his disaster with Delilah wouldn't have happened. If Lot had done this, he would never have moved to Sodom and Gomorrah. And friends, honestly, if I would have done this more, some of the worst mistakes I've made in my life I wouldn't have made either. This is an important principle that I hope as followers of Christ you've already grasped, and that is the more we pray about the situations of life, the more spiritual discernment God gives us in those situations of life.
Principle number three, and finally. How do we position ourselves so God can give us spiritual discernment? Number three, by keeping the Holy Spirit flowing freely in our life. You see, friends, spiritual discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is something the Holy Spirit gives us as part of His ministry.
John chapter 16. Look with me, John chapter 16, verse 12. It says, "The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth." Truth that is one of the ministries of the Spirit of God to our heart, giving a supernatural insight, supernatural discernment into the situations of life. And Jesus said in John chapter 15, He said, "I am the trunk, and you are the branches." The picture here is that of a tree, where God is the trunk of the tree, we're the branches, and the Holy Spirit is the sap. And if we want that discernment that only the Holy Spirit can give us, we've got to keep the sap flowing freely in our lives.
This is why the Apostle Paul said in First Thessalonians five nineteen, "Do not quench the Holy Spirit." This is why he said in Ephesians four thirty, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God; do not inhibit His flow in your life." Because when that happens, among other things, spiritual discernment that he gives begins to dry up. He said, "Well, Lon, how do you keep from impeding the flow of the Holy Spirit in your life?" Very simple. First John one nine: If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Confession is what keeps the pipes open. You know what?
This week I was sitting up in my study, actually working on this message, and all of a sudden my wife came up the steps and said, "Come quick, we have an emergency." I went, "Oh my gosh!" So I ran down the steps, and the emergency was the kitchen sink was stopped up, and and wouldn't flow. And so my first reaction was to say, "What have you been putting down that garbage disposal?" But you know what? I'll be married 30 years in two weeks, and I've learned that was not the right thing to say at that moment. You say, how did you learn that? Because at other moments I did say it, and I learned that's not what she wanted to hear at that moment.
And so you'll be proud of me. I controlled myself and didn't say that. And so I said, all right.
Well, we need to call our good friends at Roderuder. And so Roto Rooter came over, began working on the thing, and I said to the guy, "I said, so what do you think the problem is?" He said, "Well, somebody's been stuffing an awful lot of crud down this this this garbage disposal," and I said, "Well, I kind of knew that, but I just wanted to see if you agreed with me." (Laughter) And so he wrote a root. He said, "But not a problem, sir." He said, "That's what we do. We're going to wrote a root of this thing out. These pipes are going to be clean as a whistle in just a few minutes, and the water is going to flow just fine." And it did.
And what I'm here to tell you is that unconfessed sin is a lot like crud that you put down a garbage disposal. It clogs up the pipes. It keeps the Holy Spirit from flowing freely. And and and we need to be rotoootered out every single day. You say, Lon, this is the weirdest illustration I've ever heard.
Well, I guarantee you won't forget it. It's true. How do we rotoooter our pipes out so the Spirit of God can flow freely? We confess that sin. That is rotoooter spiritually for us as followers of Christ.
And when we do that, we keep the pipes clean, and the Spirit of God keeps flowing in our lives. That's what has to be done if you and I are going to get the kind of spiritual discernment that we need in order to make it through this life.
Now, let me close up by reminding you of a little '60s song that Cat Stevens sang. It went like this: "Ooh, baby, baby, it's a wild world. You can't get by with just a smile, girl." He said, "Law, it's a good thing Cat Stevens sang it and not you." Well, you're right. I'm going to keep my day job, but anyway, you understand the words. It's a wild world out there, and you can't get by with just a smile.
And he was right; it is a crazy world out there. And to make it through that world without wrecking our boat, without destroying our lives, we need wisdom. We need discernment. And I'm here to tell you that whether it's you or me, the same is true. As human beings, we don't have enough natural wisdom to outsmart the devil.
We don't have enough. Natural wisdom to outsmart every single danger that's out there. If we're going to be successful in navigating this life, we need supernatural discernment. We need God to give us a wisdom that we don't have and an insight into situations that we don't have, an ability to sense danger where we can't sense it. I love what Proverbs says.
Proverbs chapter 22 verse 3: A wise man sees trouble coming and hides himself. A fool just keeps on going and always pays the price.
Well, how are we going to be these kind of wise people? We need spiritual discernment. And how do we get it?
Well, friends, the good news of the Bible is God's anxious to give it to us if we'll just position ourselves correctly. And how do we do that? Number one, by saturating our hearts and minds with the written word of God. Number two, by staying connected to God in prayer on every situation in life. And number three, by keeping the Holy Spirit flowing freely in our lives by keeping short accounts with God when it comes to.
The everyday sin that we are all guilty of. You say, "Well, Lon, you know what? There's not a thing profound in what you said today." Well, that's true. I never said there would be. This is all basic, basic stuff.
You know, I was talking to my son John, who's going off to play college baseball, and I asked him. I said, "You know, John, what's the biggest difference between high school baseball and the college baseball that you've seen? You know, is it that the players are they that much better?" And I was fascinated. His answer, he said, "Dad, you know what? They're really not that all that much better talent-wise.
It's just they do the basics more consistently than people in high school do." And he said, "At every level, what you notice, Dad, all the way up to the majors, is what differentiates the players is not just a lot more talent, but they're better at doing the basics than the people below them. They do them more consistently, correctly." Well, you know what? I think that's true in the spiritual world as well. I think as followers of Christ, what makes a man of God, a woman of God, friends? It's not that they know some profound information you don't know.
It's just that they're more consistent in doing it than maybe some other folks are. This is just basic stuff. This isn't profound stuff. You all know most of it. You knew probably all three points anyway.
But what I'm challenging you to do is be consistent in the application of those three points to your life. That's what really makes the difference in a spiritual life. And so, if you need some course correction in some of these areas, man, I'm here to challenge you. Do it. And let me say in closing, if you're here today and you're not a follower of Christ, maybe you're like I was.
Maybe my dad, you know, said I did a lot of stupid stuff, and I did. Maybe you don't have much spiritual discernment either. That's all right. Join the ranks of the stupid. I'm happy to confess I'm one of them.
And you know what? That's one of the things that attracted me to Jesus Christ is that He offered to give me wisdom I didn't have on my own, and that comes with the package, friends. When you come to Christ, you get eternal life, you get a place in heaven, and you get access to wisdom you don't have. It's all part of the package deal. And so, if you need more discernment, if you've gotten yourself in a lot of trouble in life because you don't have a lot of natural wisdom, that's all right.
Jesus Christ is anxious to give it to you if you'll give your heart and life to Him. I hope you'll think about that. All right, why don't we pray together and we're done? Lord Jesus, thanks for talking to us today, from the Word of God. Thanks for reminding us of certain basic truths that are not profound, but they are powerful.
And my prayer, Father, is that you would help us to take these three truths we've talked about, being saturated with God's Word. Being serious about prayer, keeping the Holy Spirit flowing by keeping short accounts with you, Lord, that you might help us to become more and more consistent as we, as we grow in our walk with Christ about every one of these three principles, and Father, give us the spiritual wisdom and insight that you gave Paul, where we can sense danger, where we can feel danger. And it's not because we're so smart; it's because the Holy Spirit is ministering in that way to our hearts and lives. God, help us position ourselves so He can do that, that we might walk through this life effectively, and in a way that honors Jesus Christ. Lord, change our hearts and our lives, because we were here today, and we pray this in Jesus' name.
And God's people said, "Amen."
