Reaching the Resistant

A generation ago, D.A.

Carson was speaking in a conference, and we had the privilege of hearing him, the staff guys. He said a generation ago, the truthfulness of the gospel was offensive. In this generation, the exclusiveness of the gospel is offensive.

In Paul's day, the inclusiveness of the gospel was offensive, that a Jew and a Gentile could be included as equal partners of the faith. Are there people in your life who are resistant to the truth of Christianity? Have you ever tried to tell someone the truth, only to be met with resistance or, even worse, with hostility? How do you reach unbelieving family members or friends when they each have different perspectives and responses?

How do you respond when those you're trying to reach resist you? Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey continues through his Vintage Wisdom series from the book of Acts. This message is called, Reaching the Resistant.

Open your Bible to Acts 21 as we get started. I sort of leaned back in my chair and began to think of the different categories of people and let me suggest a few to you and you could add to the list, but I've thought of those people that I've attempted to witness to that I could categorize as skeptical and disillusioned would be the first category. These are the people who've been burned by some earlier commitment to a church or maybe even a cult. They may even have a testimony of some decision they may have made at a rally or a meeting and life never really changed and they never seemed to turn the corner and now they're more disillusioned than ever about what happened to them. There is another category we could call the confused and the uncertain. These are the spiritual wanderers that you may know.

They go from one experiment to the next. They're always searching for connection. They are the spiritual pilgrims. I was on an airplane and pulled an article from their gift they give to anybody who wants them, US Airways magazine. It was an article entitled Sacred Sights and talked about pilgrimages that people make around the world. Millions of people every year like the Journey to Soto. They journey from all parts of Haiti, the article wrote, to this little town where they immerse themselves under a waterfall that is supposedly possessed by water deities. Had a picture of them dancing and singing and laughing and having just this incredible to them spiritual experience under the waterfall that represented the aquatic deities. Or Guadalupe where hundreds of thousands of people travel annually to see the image of Mary which had been supposedly miraculously burned into the cloak of an Indian peasant after she visited him in 1531. People flock there and claim to be healed and all sorts of things.

Or Benares in India, another place there's 14 or so of these and I'm just pulling a few. It's a sacred trail along the Ganges River where millions of Hindus annually who believe that if they bathe at these five sacred crossings that they will be sped along their way toward paradise. They also believe that their cremated ashes are one day scattered on the sacred river, their souls will be hastened to paradise. Searching but more confused perhaps than ever and certainly in their hearts knowing they haven't arrived at the satisfaction of the answer. There's another category that we could call angry and turned off. These are the people that as soon as you mention religion they have their message already. It's usually going to be something about the church is filled with hypocrites and all they want is what they can get out of me and so on and so forth and they don't want to hear what you have to say unless they want to talk about it and say it themselves. Another group could be called the apathetic and nonchalant. They're a little confused at why you would ever want to spend more than an hour or two a year in church.

Christmas and Easter would satisfy this category of people. They can't quite figure out why you'd want to open your Bible and read it regularly. They think that maybe you're a little too carried away that this has become more than some guideline that this is actually what you call a manual for your life and they don't quite catch that. There's another category we could call the resistant and unyielding. For some reason and you're not sure what it is but they dig in their heels and they never seem to go over that invisible line of resistance and accept what they may even admit to you is truth.

And you're frustrated as you hope for something to say and some illustrative thing that gets them to move and you can't. Then there are finally what I think we could call the intellectual and proud. And these are the people that would tell you that if that's what you need and that's the prop that you need or the crutch you need to lean on, well, that's great for you and go ahead.

But my life is figured out and I don't need to do that kind of weak stuff. And these are also, by the way, the kind of people that will argue typically with you that every way is a right way. That if you find the truth of religion, you'll discover that it is all embracing and that everybody's right. Ultimately, everybody's going to paradise or heaven or nirvana or whatever they want to call it. I was on the plane some time ago and we were traveling from New Delhi to Hyderabad and David Williams was on, he'd been given the aisle seat and I had got the luck of the draw and was given the window seat. And right in the middle with a poor guy from Canada was scrunched in between us and we had about, I don't know, about an hour and a half.

David, I see you there, about an hour and a half flight I think. And so this guy wasn't going anywhere. And so David, he starts praying and we start talking and this fella had just returned from a sacred journey of his own to the Lotus Temple and he was a Canadian executive and he was so excited about having been to worship at this Lotus Temple, which is one of the signature temples of the Baha'i faith, which he was a member of the Baha'i faith basically means that everything's okay and we can all somehow be right even though we disagree. And so we went back and forth and it was this verse and this quote and this illustration and everything I could possibly think of and he would always come back with it doesn't say that. Jesus didn't really mean what he said when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but by me. And I'd scratch my head and think, well, boy, it's hard to come up with anything else there. And we'd look at other verses and it didn't really say that you can't add or take away from this book of the prophecy or you'll be condemned. That isn't what it really meant even though it said it.

And Jesus really wasn't the Messiah even though it was said of him that he was and on and on and on. And I knew our flight was, we'd been at this for about an hour and I hadn't been able to find any chink at all anywhere in this guy's armor. And what's more, he just smiled at me all the time as I'm becoming very frustrated and I'm not smiling, I'm not happy. And so at any rate, I finally just saw this newspaper that was in the flap in front of him and it occurred to me as I could read the bold headline that this may be something. And the bold headline said, woman killed in auto accident.

And I pulled the newspaper out and I kind of stuck it under his nose. I said, look at what does that say? And he said, woman killed in auto accident.

And I said, isn't that amazing? This woman was killed playing tennis. And he looked at me and that's when his legs started shaking like a kid waiting for the recess bell to ring. I knew he wanted out. You couldn't get anything out of those words other than she was killed in an auto accident.

Not she broke her leg, not she was playing tennis, not she bought a car, nothing. But I remember and still he just then smiled and shook his leg and that was kind of the end of it. And I was so frustrated that I hadn't had something to say that I felt ill-equipped and unprepared. And maybe you have felt that way as well as you've wanted something better and there are certainly things we can learn and we're offering things by the way here in our Catalyst program to help you learn. But you've tried everything you know to do as you deal with that angry and turned off relative, as you deal with that apathetic spouse, as you try to administer to that coworker or that neighbor or that roommate who experiments with everything but the truth. If you could roll all of these categories up into one audience, you would have the audience in Acts chapter 22. And I want us to take encouragement and insight from this as Paul begins to give his testimony to this audience. You remember if you were with us last Lord's Day in our study back in chapter 21, they began to beat him. They said that he had brought a Gentile within the inner sanctuary. It is beyond the court of the Gentiles and it wasn't true. But it inflamed the crowd and they began to beat Paul and the soldiers rushed down to rescue Paul.

The soldiers were stationed in Fort Antonio which was built on a precipice overlooking the temple grounds and they were always watching the Jews because especially during these festival seasons, things could break out and they were responsible to the governor and to even beyond to the emperor to quell any rioting. So they rushed down in chapter 21 verse around 32, you notice they immediately rescue Paul and then it may be surprising to discover that they chained him. Now, why would they chain him? They don't know what happened.

They don't know what he did. He's being beaten and they rescue but then they chain him and we don't know the answer until we get to verse 37 which is where we left off. So let's pick our study up there. We're going to actually go through the entire next chapter. I know you'd rather me preach five sermons out of this chapter to stay in Acts as long as we can but it's like a lady came up to me this morning. She said, this is great but she said it was kind of like being in my other church where we covered a whole chapter at one time. And I said, well, are you sad? And she said, no, I thought it was great. So at any rate, we're going to cover one whole chapter here as we deal with a narrative of Paul.

With that encouragement, we'll keep going. Verse 37, as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, may I say something to you? And he, the commander said, do you know Greek?

Greek was the lettered language of the cultured educated man. Then you are not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt and led the 4,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness. Oh, this is why Paul was chained by this Roman general. The Jews thought he was a heretic. The Romans thought he was one of the 10 most wanted men on their list at this particular time. An Egyptian terrorist who was leading a gang of men known as the assassins. Assassin is the word that comes from the Latin word sika or dagger. These men used to carry the dagger around hidden in their cloak and they would go into the marketplace and they would pick out their target, the one they would assassinate. He would probably be a Jew that was collaborating with the Romans or maybe even a Roman leader and they would mingle with the crowd and stab this individual and then mix back into the crowd or maybe even become part of the mourners.

These were a dreaded group of men who were known as simply the assassins. And this soldier, this leader thinks that he has caught the Egyptian. But Paul instead in verse 39 said, I am a Jew of Tarshish and Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city and I beg you allow me to speak to the people. And when he had given him permission, Paul standing on the stairs motioned to the people with his hand and when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect. And so what's Paul doing here? Is he proving that he is no intellectual slouch, that he can speak fluently in two languages? No, he's beginning his testimony and he will accomplish several things that I want to provide for you in principle form, several things that provide for us a good example of what it means to be a testimony to those who are angry or apathetic or turned off or searching or confused or all of those categories we've just mentioned.

The first thing he did was this. Paul spoke in a language that they understood and respected. In other words, he spoke to them in their mother tongue, the Hebrew dialect, more than likely the Jewish Aramaic. And you notice the effect it had on this lynching mob, verse two of chapter 22, when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect, it became even more quiet.

And this is something he did literally, but it had a profound effect on them and I think we could make some allegorical application if you forgive me of that. And that is simply this, when we speak to people about the gospel, speak in a language they understand, depending on their age, their background, what you know of them, use terminology they understand, speak to them in something that they would respect and appreciate. The second thing that Paul did here just in these first few words was disarm their anger by showing respect. Now I want you to go to verse one of chapter 22. The very first words that this beaten, bleeding apostle spoke were these words, brethren and fathers. Brethren and fathers?

How about who do you think you are? You just tried to kill me. I'm bleeding and broken.

You don't know the truth. And may my blood be upon your head and the head of your forefathers. There's something good like that, you know. That's what I would want to say, I think. Why Paul is living out Proverbs 15 one. A gentle answer turns away what?

Wrath. And for the moment they are hushed and he gives us what we could call our next principle. He recognized the gospel could only be offered and never forced. Would you notice again, verse one, brethren and fathers, hear my defense, which I now offer to you. The word defense comes from the original word apologia that gives us our word apology. Or better yet, it gives us our formal English categorical term for the theological apologetic, or the theological defense of the gospel. When you talk about providing an apologetic for the gospel, you're not apologizing.

You are simply giving a defense based upon what has happened in your own personal life. So Paul is saying, if you will allow me, I would like to give you my formal defense of the truth of the gospel of Christ. Now, had this crowd begun to scream and shout and say further away with him, what would have happened to his apologetic?

He would not have offered it, right? And I think that's a good principle to learn as you attempt to witness to those, you give the gospel to those who want to listen. One more principle before we go further, he ignored their accusation and he focused on the issue at hand. Their accusation was that he had brought a Gentile into the temple within the inner part reserved only for Jews. He ignored that and focused instead on the issue at hand, and that was the gospel. Now, let's just sort of slip in here and listen, and we'll read through it and make a few comments. Let's begin in verse three.

I am a Jew born in Tarshish of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers. Now, you notice how he clearly establishes his background in accordance with the law. They assumed also he didn't care about the law. Now, he says something amazing. I was zealous for God, just as you all are today.

Can you imagine giving that kind of response? You're beaten, you're bleeding, and you attribute to them, your potential murderers, the best possible of motives? He identified with their zealous hearts knowing they thought they were doing the right thing even though they were doing a terrible thing, but he gave them the best of motives. Now Paul continues and, in fact, identifies with their hatred. Verse four. And I persecuted this way to the death, that is, I'm responsible for Christians dying, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the council of the elders can testify. From them, I also received letters of the brethren and started offer Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. It's interesting. He says, listen, I know what you're doing and why, and I can identify with how you are personally feeling with your zealous hearts for God.

And I want you to know that I used to do exactly the same thing. What a tactful, gracious beginning. And this man has been beaten. He is hurt. He's bleeding. And he comes out with this.

It is amazing. Now verse six. Came about that I was on my way approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus the Nazarene.

You can imagine the shock in Paul's life and to the listeners here. The Lord of glory uses that human term that had been run through the gutter. Jesus of Nazareth, nothing good comes out of Nazareth. I am Jesus the Nazarene. And those, verse nine, who were with me beheld the light to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord?

That's critical to understanding. Now attaches again the word Lord now to Jesus the Nazarene. He didn't change his title. He kept it and now attributed it to this God man. And those who have rightly come to understand who this God man is, that he, Jesus Christ is indeed Lord, can only come out with that next question. Lord, what do you want me to do with my life?

Once you acknowledge who he is, you can do nothing other than that. What shall I do, Lord? When the Lord said to me, Arise and go into Damascus and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do. But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus in a certain Ananias, a man who was devout, notice this again, by the standard of the law.

Now he attributes a Christian to having respect for the law. And well spoken of by all the Jews who live there came to me and standing near me said, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that time I looked up at him and he said, The God of our fathers.

Oh, now the Old Testament fathers are brought into this. The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will and to see the righteous one. The one he just seen was the righteous one, a messianic title, and to hear an utterance from his mouth. And you will be witnesses for him to all men of what you have seen and heard.

And now why do you delay? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. What an incredible conversion experience we call the Damascus road. Now here's a verse by the way that we just read at the end that might trouble you. It's used as a proof text by the Church of Christ and other denominations that believe baptism saves, or at least that salvation cannot occur without baptism. I'll touch on it just quickly here since I dealt with it thoroughly in our discussion of Acts 2.

And you may want to go back and get involved in that study. But I'll mention at least in relation to this verse, the confusion is simply created by the English language. The controlling participle in this verse is the verb calling. You could underline or circle the word calling or calling on his name. The antecedent in the Greek text to this participle is the phrase wash away your sins, not be baptized. They are two separate verbs. In other words, it is the calling on his name that washes away your sins.

Hang with me here. It is the calling upon his holy name that cleanses us from every sin. You could literally be true to the Greek language to translate this verse by simply reversing the verbs so that they all emanate from this controlling verb.

And that's what you've allowed me to spend time doing this week. So let me read you the translation. Having called, heiress tense, having called upon the Lord and your sins, heiress tense, having been washed away, arise and be baptized. Now verse 17, and it came about when I returned to Jerusalem and I was praying in the temple that I fell into a trance and I saw him saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me. And I said, Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another, I used to imprison and beat those who believed in thee.

And when the blood of thy witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving and watching out for the cloaks of those who were slaying him. And he said to me, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Now notice verse 22, and they listened to him up to this statement and then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth for he should not be allowed to live. Everything sounded interesting until he suggested that a Gentile could be equal with them as an inheritor of the gospel of Christ.

A generation ago, D.A. Carson was speaking in a conference and we had the privilege of hearing him, the staff guys, he said a generation ago, the truthfulness of the gospel was offensive. In this generation, the exclusiveness of the gospel is offensive. In Paul's day, the inclusiveness of the gospel was offensive, that a Jew and a Gentile could be included as equal partners of the faith.

And that's where they began to respond. Look at verse 23. Can you imagine thousands of people responding and as they were crying out and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air, the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, stating that he should be examined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him. You know what's going on? This soldier knows Greek. He doesn't know Aramaic. He doesn't know what Paul has just said. All he knows is Paul just said something and everybody starts throwing dirt in the air and ripping off their cloaks and shouting away with this man.

Well, something's going on here. We're going to beat this man further and find out just exactly what he's done to offend all these good people. So he prepares to beat him. And while verse 25, they stretched him out with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, is it lawful for you to scourge a man who was a Roman and uncondemned? And when the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, saying, What are you about to do for this man is a Roman? And the commander came in and said to him, Tell me, are you a Roman? And he said, Yes. And the commander answered, Well, I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money. Now we know that the Emperor Claudius and his wife, Messalina, came up with a neat idea to put coins in the coffers. And that is they offered citizenship to those who could store up the money and pay this exorbitant bribe really to have the rights of Roman citizenship. And so this soldier saying, Well, you know what?

I saved up enough money and I was able to buy it. Paul says, Oh, well, I want you to know I was born a citizen as my father was a Roman. In other words, Paul kind of digs his heels and he has taken stonings and beatings. Not many survived the scourging, and he's willing to give his life for the Lord, but he knows now is not the time he wants to give it.

So he flashes his I.D. card and says, By the way, you're messing with a Roman. Well, boy, the chains come off the shackles and they start apologizing and polishing his shoes and everything else. Now, verse twenty nine.

Therefore, those who were about to examine him immediately let go of him and the commander who was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman and because he had put him in chains. That is his apologetic before this crowd. And we'll stop there and move through all of the different defenses he will make before these audiences. Two things before we close. Two reminders for us before we stop. Number one, the responsibility to share the gospel is ours. Whether they respond with anger or they're apathetic or you don't seem like you're clever enough or they box you in, the responsibility to share the gospel of Christ is ours. For those who are angry, by the way, and upset and turned off and disillusioned, I think one of the best things you could do is let them see the gospel in you as an authentic truth from God that has changed your life.

But eventually they have to hear it. But remember, secondly, the responsibility to save the unbeliever is God's. I hope the truth of this message has encouraged you today here on Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen Davies series from the book of Acts is from our Vintage Wisdom Archives. The book of Acts is an extremely important and practical book.

If you'd like to dive deeper into Acts, we have a resource to help you. Stephen's written a study guide through Acts. It's a resource you can use if you teach or lead a class or group Bible study. It's also perfect for personal study as you dive deeper into God's word for yourself.

Stephen's teaching through Acts is a three-part series, and this current series is the third and final part. We have a Bible study for all three, so you can get any or all of them in our online store. When you navigate to our website, wisdomonline.org, you'll see a link for our store. Once you get there, there's a section called Bible studies.

You'll find all of Stephen's Bible study guides, including the three from Acts, right there. Once again, that's wisdomonline.org. We can also help you over the phone. Give us a call at 866-48-BIBLE. That's 866-482-4253. We're in the office each business day until 4.30 p.m. Thanks for joining us today. I hope you'll be with us for our next Bible message tomorrow as we continue through Acts right here on Wisdom for the Heart. We'll see you next time.