Life of Paul Part 10 - Standing Firm for Christ

How about taking a Bible, if you would, and let's opening it together to Acts chapter 11 in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Acts chapter 11.

As we continue in our study of the life of the great man, the Apostle Paul, Acts chapter 11. You know, when I was growing up, I lived down in Tidewater, Virginia. And in Tidewater, my family, Portsmouth actually is where I was raised.

My family was part of the sizable Jewish community that lived down there. Well, there was this one man that we knew fairly well. He owned a chain of businesses. He was quite well off financially. And I noticed as a teenager, he was always driving brand new shiny cars, which teenagers noticed. But I also noticed something very special else, and that is that he never ever drove all of those new cars. He never had a Mercedes. Well, you know, back then, just like today, Mercedes was an image car.

I mean, it was kind of like a success mobile. And so I went to my mom one time we were talking and I asked her, I said, You know, how come Mr. So and so never buys a Mercedes?

And she said, Well, it's very simple. As a Jewish man, he refuses to buy anything made in Germany. And she said, As a matter of fact, if you look around the parking lot at the synagogue, you'll see there aren't very many Mercedes there at all. Because in light of the Holocaust, most of us boycott anything and everything that's German. Well, I looked up the word boycott in the dictionary. What is a boycott?

It means to engage in a deliberate refusal to have dealings with a person or an organization in order one to force them to act the way we want them to, or two, to punish them because they won't. And the reason I bring this up is because a boycott lies at the heart of the passage that we're going to look at today. It really forms the historical backdrop for the passage from the life of the Apostle Paul we're going to study. So come along with us. Let's talk about what happened in the first century.

And then we'll try to extrapolate that forward and talk about how that affects your life and my life in the 21st century. Remember where we are now a brand new church has grown up in Antioch. It was a church where Jewish believers and Gentile believers in Jesus mixed together equally as brothers and sisters in the Lord. And Barnabas had gone there. Barnabas was the senior pastor of this church. And remember, he had gone and found Paul and brought Paul to town and Paul was the associate pastor of this church. And while Paul and Barnabas were there pastoring, look what happens.

Verse 27. During this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and one of them named Agabus stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. Luke, the writer says, and this happened during the reign of Claudius.

Suetonius Claudius was the emperor of Rome from 41 AD till 54 AD. And we know from records outside of the Bible, not just Luke's account here, but we know from the writings of Tacitus, the Roman historian, from the writings of Josephus, the Jewish historian, from the writings of Claudius himself, that between his fifth and seventh year or between the years of 46 and 48 AD, there was a horrible famine that struck the whole Roman world, but particularly the Middle East, the land of Palestine. And so we have outside of the Bible confirmation that everything this prophet predicted really did happen just the way he said. Now let me stop for a moment and say that if you're here and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your real and personal savior, maybe you're a lot like I was 30 years ago. Thirty years ago, I was not against God. Thirty years ago, I was not against as a college student giving my life to God. Thirty years ago, I understood that you need to show some faith to come to God. However, I was also a scientist.

I was a chemistry major at the University of North Carolina. And I couldn't do this unless I got some, even a little, empirical proof that God existed, that God was real, that this whole thing wasn't a hoax. Now for me, let me just tell you, part of what helped solve my problem was this whole issue of fulfilled prophecy, like the one Agabus does right here in Acts chapter 11. But there's more than that. As I've told you before, there are over 30 prophecies that deal with the life, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus, made a minimum of 400 years before His birth, some of them made as much as 1,000 years before His birth, and all of which came true with precise accuracy, uncanny accuracy.

Man, the probabilities of that are astronomical. And that really helped me to get over this idea that there was no empirical proof that the Bible was true. Now that's just one of several ways that we can tell you that, but it is one of the ways. And you know, the Bible says Isaiah 46, verse 9, For I am God, and there is no other but me. But one of the ways God demonstrates that to us as human beings is the next verse says, And I declare from ancient times things that haven't even happened yet. I take the Bible and write down in the Bible things that aren't going to happen for hundreds of years in time and space so that when they happen exactly the way I told you, you can look at them and know that I am God and there is no other. Folks, if you're here and you're like I was 30 years ago, you want some proof that God is real. You want some proof that the Bible is trustworthy. You want some proof that this Christianity thing is not a hoax. Folks, I'd like to offer into evidence for you this whole idea of fulfilled prophecy just as one of a number of evidences, something to think about.

Well, let's go on. What happens next? Verse 29, And the disciples, each according to his ability, when they hear about this impending famine in Antioch, they decide to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. These guys get together and they decide to take up a monetary offering and send it to the believers in Christ that are living in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers there. And verse 30, This they did.

Man, I love that. I love those three words. I mean, good intentions are wonderful. We're all full of good intentions. These guys had a good intention to help their brothers in Jerusalem, but it was more than just a good intention. This they did. They put their money where their mouth was and took up this offering.

I love that. And they sent their gift to the elders in Jerusalem by Barnabas and by Paul. You say, Well, now, wait a minute. If I understand what you're saying correctly, you're telling me that this sister church, this baby church, took up money to help support the mother church. Is that what you're telling me? Absolutely right. You say, Well, you'll have to excuse me for saying so.

But that just kind of seems backwards to me. I mean, you're telling me these brand new Christians in Antioch that they took up money to help support Peter, that they took up money to help support Matthew and John and all these other people. I mean, what's wrong with Peter and Matthew and John?

Why can't they support themselves? Well, we said two weeks ago. That's a great question, right? And we said two weeks ago we're going to answer it.

So let's answer that question. What was going on in Jerusalem? These guys couldn't support themselves. Romans chapter 15, verse 25 tells us about another offering a little later on that the apostle Paul took up for these very same believers in Jerusalem. Look what he says. He says, Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the believers there, for the churches of Philippi and Corinth were pleased to make a contribution to the poor believers in Jerusalem. See, a few years later, after Paul's third missionary journey, after he'd been around the Roman world, establishing churches in Philippi and Ephesus and Corinth and Galatia, he sets out and takes up a massive offering from all of these gentile churches to take to the people in Jerusalem, the believers in Jerusalem, because they're poor. You say, Well, now, Lon, wait a minute, no offense intended, but Jewish people generally aren't poor.

Well, no offense taken. These Jewish people were. They were very poor, these Jews who believed in Jesus and lived in Jerusalem. And let me tell you, let me tell you that that's historically verified.

F.F. Bruce, the eminent New Testament scholar, listen to what he said. He said the Jerusalem church in the apostolic age appears to have suffered from chronic poverty. This helps to explain why its members were called the poor.

So what's he talking about? Well, we know from Jewish writings of this time that the nickname given to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem were the Ebionites. Ebionites comes from a Hebrew word. The word Ebionite comes from a Hebrew word Ebion, which literally means to be poor, to be needy, to be destitute, even to be beggarly. And so the very nickname that the Jewish believers were given in Jerusalem during the first century were the poor guys, the destitute guys, the beggar people.

That was their nickname. Now, why were they poor like this? Why was there continual poverty in this church? Well, from the same Jewish records, what we're able to discern is that there was some kind of boycott going on in Jerusalem against anyone who was a follower of Jesus Christ. Think about it now. We know that the rabbis were trying to stamp out this whole Jesus is the Messiah movement.

We know that, right? Now, it would have been easy for them to do that. All they have to do is go to the grave of Jesus, roll the rock back, pull out the dead moldy body of Jesus, put it on public display on a temple mount and Christianity is over. However, you can't do that because Jesus is raised from the dead.

There's no moldy old dead body there to bring out. So not being able to do that, the next strategy they tried was to isolate and boycott and bankrupt the followers of Jesus Christ living in Jerusalem in hopes that by doing this, they could make the economic price for following Jesus so high, nobody would be willing to do it. Do you understand? This is why every time we find in the Bible, every time we find the believers in Jerusalem being referred to, they're always poor. Because if you were a Jewish person living in Jerusalem and you believed in Jesus and you told people that, friend, if you owned a butcher shop, nobody came there to buy meat.

Hey, if you owned a blacksmith shop, nobody brought their donkey there. If you were a lawyer, you had no billable hours if you're living in Jerusalem like that. And you know what that means for a lawyer. As a matter of fact, I love the story about the guy who goes to this birthday party for his friend who was a lawyer. And while they're there at the party, he walks up to the to the secretary, to his lawyer friend, and he says to the secretary, well, by the way, how old is he? She said, well, depends. She said, if you go by chronology, he's 48.

She said, but if you go by billable hours, he's 93. I love that story. Don't you like that? Yeah. Well, anyway, here's the point. The point of all that.

Well, I've dealt with a couple lawyers in my time. In spite of the point of all this has nothing to do with lawyers. The point is that in spite of the boycott that was being put on these people in Jerusalem, in spite of the economic price that they were forced to pay to follow Christ, these people stood firm. That's the point. They didn't cave in. They didn't give up. They didn't back down. They stood firm in their faith in Christ.

You say, well, how do you know that? Well, I know it because the same Jewish writings tell us that up until the time of the destruction of the city, 70 A.D., there was a vibrant and outspoken community of Jewish believers living in Jerusalem. You say, well, what happened to them in 70 A.D.? Well, what happened to them in 70 A.D. is they got ran out of town. The reason they got run out of town is because they wouldn't support the revolt against Rome that the rabbis organized beginning in 66 A.D.

They had read Roman 13. They knew it was wrong for them to revolt against God's established government. And since they wouldn't support the revolt, the Jewish records tell us the rabbis ran the whole lot of them out of Jerusalem, wouldn't let them stay there. So the Jewish church in Jerusalem effectively comes to an end around 70 A.D., not because these people backed off on their faith in Christ, but because they got run out of town. But until then, for the next 25 years after this famine, they're there and they're outspokenly and conspicuously there.

And we know that not just because of the Bible, but because of other Jewish writings. Now, this brings us to the end of our passage, but it leads us to ask our question, our most important question. And you all know what this is, right?

Everybody knows what this is. So ready? Here we go. Nice and loud.

One, two, three. That was wonderful. All right. You say, Lon, so what? You say, you know, I feel bad for these guys. I'm sorry they had to go through that, but there is nobody boycotting me in the 21st century because of my faith in Christ. So really, this doesn't have diddly squat to do with me.

Well, let's wait for a second before we make that conclusion. You know, about two weeks ago, one of the most influential men ever to impact my life as a Christian passed away. His name was A.W. Jackson. Pastor Jackson had been the pastor at Cherrydale Baptist Church right here in Arlington for 25 years. But I met him years ago as a professor. He was a professor in the seminary where I went here in the Washington area.

And last December, this past December, he celebrated his 90th birthday. I wasn't able to go to the party because it was a Saturday night and I was here preaching. But I wrote him a letter and I wanted to excerpt just a little bit of the letter to let you just see what this man meant in my life. So here's a little bit of the letter that I wrote Pastor Jackson. It was almost 30 years ago that we first met at Capital Bible Seminary. You as a professor and me as a 22 year old seminary student. As I sat in your classes, I decided that I would try and pattern my approach to the pastoral ministry and my living as a servant of God after your example.

Almost 30 years later, I am still trying to do that, though I must confess that I have fallen far short of the bar that you've established with your life. In my opinion, Pastor Jackson, your life is an incredible example of humility, graciousness, honesty and genuineness. Your faithfulness to your wife, Dorothy, and your family for almost 67 years. Pastor Jackson was married to Dorothy, who's still living for 67 years, has been a pleasant change from the track record of so many others in pastoral ministry. And watching how you continued to trust God, even through the crushing loss of your daughter.

He had a grown daughter with children who died of cancer a few years ago. It has inspired me innumerable times to keep trusting the Lord through the painful experiences Brenda and I have been through with our severely disabled little girl, Jill. Anyway, the point of all this is to thank you for the difference you've made in my life. I thank God that He gave me the privilege to call myself one of your disciples. Friends, if you ask me, what person do you know who epitomizes the words finishing well for Christ? I would say A.W. Jackson.

Do you know this man continued to preach till he was 88 years old? If I could finish half as well as A.W. Jackson, I would be thrilled. If I could finish as well as these followers of Christ in Jerusalem finished, I'd be thrilled. If I could finish like the apostle Paul finished, I'd be thrilled. I stand here before you and I tell you honestly before God that more than anything else in this world, the one thing I want the most is to finish well. I want to finish in a way that doesn't disgrace Jesus Christ, that doesn't dishonor my family, that doesn't disgrace my ministry, that doesn't dishonor this church more than anything else.

That's what I want to do. And if you're here and you're a follower of Jesus Christ more than anything else, that's what God wants your goal in life to be, to finish with honor the race that He's put you on. Just like the followers of Christ here in Jerusalem did. No matter what the obstacles care are, who cares what the obstacles are, God wants us to finish well anyway. Now how do we do that?

How can we do that? Well, I went this week through the Bible and said, how did Paul do this? I mean, what were some of the dynamics in Paul's life that enabled him to finish well like he did?

And I was able to come up with four and I want to share them with you. Four things that help these followers of Christ face this boycott and finish well. Four things that help Paul face all that he faced and finish well. Four things that will help us finish well.

Here they are. Number one, one of the things that helped Paul finish well is that number one, he was fiercely loyal to Jesus Christ above everything else in life. Look what he said, 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 3. He said, endure hardship, Timothy, with me like a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Now look what he says. No good soldier gets distracted by civilian affairs because his goal is to please his commanding officer. Isn't it interesting here what he says to Timothy?

He says, hey, Timothy, let me tell you something. A good soldier doesn't get distracted by civilian events. A good soldier doesn't get carried astray by what's going on out in the real world. A good soldier doesn't even get distracted by what he wants to do himself.

A good soldier has a goal and his goal is to please not himself but his commanding officer. And Timothy, my commanding officer is the Lord Jesus Christ and my goal in life as yours should be is to please him. I love what Paul says, Acts chapter 20. He says, I don't consider my life of any account as dear to me if only I may finish the course and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me. He said this when they told him, Paul, you know, if you keep going to Jerusalem like you're going, there's already been agavas.

He's played visit number two. He's told us they're going to put you in chains. They're going to imprison you. They're going to ship you off to jail.

Do you understand what's out there? And Paul said, I don't care. All I want to do is finish what my commanding officer asked me to do. My loyalty is not to my creature comfort. My loyalty is to Jesus. Folks, if you and I are going to finish well, we're going to have to have the same kind of loyalty for Jesus Christ, because if we're loyal to anything else, our own creature comfort, our own desires, our own passions, any other person or thing above Jesus, the enemy will use that and we are vulnerable and he will shoot us right out the saddle.

Jesus was Paul's number one, without apology, number one source of loyalty in life. And that's what made me through. That's why I got through.

That's why I finished well. And the same will be true for you and me. This is why Jesus said, anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And anyone who loves son or daughter or car or house or furniture or clothing or fame more than me is not worthy of me.

And he did this. He told us this to do us a favor because he knows unless he's first, we're going to have trouble making it. Number two, second thing Paul did that helped him finish well is he lived every day in light of his eternal accountability. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 10, for every follower of Christ must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that we may each be evaluated for the things done while here on earth, whether good or bad.

Friends, when you trust Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you are going to heaven, period, period, period. But as I've told you many times, when you and I arrive, we're going to have a performance review. We're going to sit right there with Jesus and we're going to scroll all the way back to when we became a Christian.

And we're going to review everything we did. Look what it says here, whether good or bad. Look at the impact that this had on Paul's life. Very next verse. Therefore, he says, knowing the fear of the Lord, knowing how scary it's going to be to sit there with an all knowing, all seeing, all powerful God who I can't hide anything from, knowing what a scary thing that's going to be. I am out here persuading men. I'm out here doing my job just the way Jesus told me to do my job because I know I got a performance review coming. And friends, you can fool some of the people some of the time and most of the people all of the time. But you can't fool Jesus ever. Believe me, he knows it all, sees it all. And what the Bible tells us is you and I will see it all again, too, when we stand with him. Hey, one of the best motivators I know to promote us doing things that that enable us to stand firm and finish. Well, is to do what the apostle Paul did and never lose sight of disappointment. You and I have come in with Jesus. If you're dabbling with something that you might want to do and you know, you got no business doing this, but boy, it sure does look good right now. But Paul says is, hey, step back for a minute and ask yourself, if I do that, do I really want that to come back up and have to give an explanation of that in front of Jesus when I get to heaven?

It's amazing how unattractive that thing gets real quick when you ask yourself that question and how quick the air comes out that balloon. Did you see the article in USA Today this week about the IRS? Did you see that and about the audits at the IRS? What did you know that 10 years ago, your chance of having a random audit done against you by the IRS was one in 50. Today, 10 years later, your chance of having a random audit is less than one in 250. Now, I think that's great news.

I say, yeah, that's wonderful. Well, the IRS doesn't agree with that, frankly. And they quoted an agent and look what the agent said. The agent said the threat of audits is the greatest weapon we have at the IRS in getting people to report their income honestly.

When people begin to feel that there's not much chance of being audited, significant numbers of them will fudge on their income numbers. You know what he's saying? All he's saying is when people don't think they're going to be held accountable, human nature takes over. They don't mean to be mean or evil or criminal. But it's just when there's no accountability, human nature begins to take over and we just start getting sloppy around the edges. Folks, that's true when I walk with God.

If we don't think we're going to be held accountable, human nature takes over. Paul never lost sight of the fact he was going to be held accountable and that helped him make it, make the choices that helped him finish well. Number three, how did Paul finish well? Number three, he rooted his life in the Scriptures. Would you notice I didn't say he rooted his life in Time Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Car and Driver, Mademoiselle, or God forbid, the Washington Post. No, no, no.

No, no, no. This is a man who rooted his life in this book. This was a man who spent time in this book, who saturated himself with this book, who meditated in this book. And this is what he told Timothy. He said, Timothy, 2 Timothy 3, you know this, in the last days, terrible times will come. Verse 13, evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse. But verse 14, how are you going to make it, Timothy? How are we going to stand?

How are we going to finish well? You, however, Timothy, continue in the things you've learned from childhood, namely the Scriptures. For they will be able to give you wisdom, and all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness. And what's the result of being in the Scripture, rooting our life in the Scripture, that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work, that we might be able to stand firm, that we might be able to finish well? He says, Timothy, hang on to the Word of God and you'll be able to hang on, son. Hang on to the Word of God and you'll be able to finish well.

And you know what? I look around the 21st century and I say to myself, we would have a lot more followers of Jesus Christ finishing well today if we, as Christians, spent as much time in the Bible every day as we spent watching Dan Rather, watching game shows, reading Time magazine, reading the paper. Think about it now. If we spent that kind of time in the Word of God, wouldn't we have a lot more people finishing well?

I believe we would. So what about you? Hey, you want to finish well? God wants you to finish well.

Let me tell you how you do it. You root your life in the Scripture, not Sports Illustrated, not USA Today, the Word of God. Fourth and finally, and with this we're done, is how did Paul finish well? He never lost sight. He never lost sight of the heavenly rewards God had promised him.

Look what he says. 2 Timothy chapter 4, he said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. I'm done, friends. I'm crossing the finish line and I finished well.

Look what he says. And now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness in heaven, which the Lord has promised to award, not just to me, but to all who have longed for his appearing. You know how Paul ran the race down here, friends?

He ran the race with his eye, not on the track, but on the finish line. And it's amazing how much you and I can withstand. It is amazing how much you and I can cope with and not fall apart. It is amazing how much we can endure and stand firm when our eyes are not on that stuff, but on the finish line.

Heaven is going to be an incredible place. And Paul ran his race with his eyes, not on this world and what this world could offer him. He ran his race with his eyes on heaven and what Jesus had promised him, and that helped. It reminds me of the story about this man whose health wasn't so good and his diet wasn't so good. He was eating all kinds of fatty stuff. And so his wife decided she was going to go on a health food diet for both of them. And, you know, they were going to eat bran and tofu and all this other nasty stuff. And so they went on his diet and they really did help. His cholesterol went down and all his levels went down. They lived a long time.

They lived to be very elderly. And one day they were driving and a guy hit them and killed both of them and they went to heaven. And Peter's showing them around in heaven and he shows them this unbelievable house. He says, this is yours.

Man, it had a hot tub out back and a pool table downstairs and a big screen TV and a bed with a button that went up and down, all that. And they were like, he said, oh, no, no. He said, you don't understand, Peter. He said, I can't afford a house like this. And Peter said, no, no, no, this is heaven.

It's free. Well, they walked out front and there was a bright, shiny red Maserati sitting in the driveway. And Peter says, oh, he says, no, no, no. He says to Peter, he says, I can't afford this. He said, you know, he said, and Peter says, no, no, no. He says, this is heaven.

This is free. Well, they walk around on the inside and they went in the kitchen and the guy opens his big old refrigerator and there was chocolate pie and apple pie and brownies and whipped cream and ice cream. And the guy goes, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. He said, you know, I'm watching my cholesterol.

I can't eat any of that stuff. And Peter says to him, don't you get it? This is heaven. You can eat all of that and it won't make any difference at all.

He turns to his wife and he says, see there, if it hadn't have been for you and that tofu, I could have been here 10 years ago. Heaven's going to be a great place, friends. Yeah. Chocolate pie all you want. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Yeah. My kind of place. And one of the ways to make it through this life and make it through this life well is to keep our eyes not on this life, but on what God has for us in heaven. You know, nothing would make Jesus happier than to say to you, well done, good and faithful servant.

You were faithful in a few things. Now come inherit the blessing I have for you. I mean, nothing would make him happier than to say that to you.

And, you know, honestly, nothing's going to make you happier than to hear him say it to you. How are we going to get there? How are we going to do that? Well, four suggestions. They work for Paul.

They'll work for us. Number one, be fiercely loyal to Jesus Christ, even more loyal to him than you are to yourself. Number two, live every day in light of our eternal accountability. Everything you're thinking about doing, just ask yourself, do I want to see this one again when Jesus and I are scrolling back through?

It'll help you make better choices. Number three, root our lives in the Word of God. Spend time making sure that the Word of God forms the basis and the foundation for our world view. And fourth and finally, never lose sight of the heavenly rewards that Jesus has promised you and me and every other person who finishes well.

Run your race with your eye not on the track, but with your eye on the finish line. May God help us do that. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we come to you today and thank you for talking to us about life right down where we live it, real and practical.

Because, Lord, you know we live in a world that is full of rabbit trails. It's full of enticements and allurements to get us off track and to get us to do things that will disgrace ourselves, disgrace you, disgrace our families. End us up in the ditch. God, I want to thank you that your heart for us is that we finish well. And thanks for giving us a strategy today that will help us. May we take these four things and may we build them into our life and into our world view. May these things change the way we live, the choices we make, the way we think. So, Lord, one day we, just like the Apostle Paul, will be able to stand and with integrity say, I ran that race.

I finished the course. I fought the faith. I kept the faith. God, help us to get to the place where we can say that. Like those followers of Christ in Jerusalem, like Paul, like A.W. Jackson, use what we've learned here today to change our lives. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.