Today in our Women in the Kingdom series we’re diving into the text so many go to when deciding the role of women in the church. 1 Timothy 2:12 says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man…” We look at that verse, we equate teaching with preaching and holding authority with being an elder. That is one way to interpret the text, and it’s called complementarianism.

For the next three weeks, including today, we’re going to examine this position and two other perspectives, egalitarianism and a hybrid view. Andy gave us a great chart defining the differences that I want to review and expand on today.

So today, we’re looking at 1 Timothy 2:8-3:7. Next week we’re coming back to this text but also looking at Galatians 3:28 and Egalitarianism. And the third week, we’re doing the same thing, but also going to 1 Peter 3:1-7 and looking at a hybrid view of women in the church and home. But first, I want to say this:

How we believe matters.

As typical evangelical Christians, we like to jump right to our statement of faith, directly to our doctrine and beliefs. What we believe matters! But it also matters how we believe. God cares about our doctrine, but also our posture. This is especially important with this issue because…

A. This is a second-tier issue.

This is not a primary doctrine of the church. In other words, it’s not the protein of our faith. It’s not equal to what we believe about the Trinity, or Jesus, or salvation from sin. Those doctrines, which you can find in our Articles of Faith, are so essential; if you don’t believe them, your salvation is at stake. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t an important topic. It’s not as frivolous as your favorite ice cream flavor. It matters, yet good Christians and pastors may disagree. So, as we talk through these three views today, let’s hold our positions with a loose grip. This is a second-tier issue.

B. Let’s open up space for grace and humility.

One way I could address this topic is to just tell you one position, the one I hold and tell you why it’s correct. But instead of doing that, I want to show you how all three interpretations are biblical, have strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately encourage us to hold our positions with grace and humility. It’s my prayer that the complementarians would follow their convictions but also open up room for others to follow their biblical convictions. So honestly, I am probably going to critique complementarianism a bit harder than the other positions, but that’s because it’s the one most of us are probably the most comfortable with and have held the longest. But I still want to do so out of love and respect. I need grace and humility. Let’s go:

Complementarian – Male-Only Teaching & Leadership

Complementarians believe God made men and women equal in value and dignity and worth, but different in their gender roles, different in what God has called each to do. They complement one another with their different roles. Our text, 1 Timothy 2:8-3:7, is the foundational passage complementarians go to when explaining why women cannot be allowed to preach, teach, or be elders in the local church. Complementarians generally argue that it is not that hard to interpret 1 Timothy 2:8-14 (notice I didn’t say verse 15 because pretty much everyone struggles with that verse). Here’s their basic understanding:

A) Paul is explaining how men and women should behave in the church. (v8-10)

Men need to lift up their hands in worship and stop fighting because apparently, there was fighting in this church. I think it might also be a call for guys to bring their hearts to worship. And women are supposed to dress modestly, be quiet and do good deeds.

B) Paul exerts his apostolic authority to permanently prohibit women from teaching, preaching, or holding the office of elder/pastor in the local church. (v11-12)

When Paul says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet,” Paul is exerting his God-given

Martha is hard at work preparing for dinner in the kitchen. She is dicing the carrots, washing the salad, and setting the table with her very best wedding china, which she’s only used 2-3 times before. She got a roast from the local butcher, but she’s having trouble keeping her eye on it. She’s just too busy, and she’s worried it’s going to burn. And if it burns, dinner will be ruined, and all her guests in the very next room will go hungry. Where is Mary!

Martha peaks around the doorway, sweat dripping on her brow as she wipes her hands on her apron. In the living room, she sees Rabbi Jesus, her honored guest, sitting in the big-leather comfy chair. That’s perfect. He deserves the place of honor. She looks at the sectional and finds his twelve disciples and her brother Lazarus all either sitting along the sofa or relaxing on the floor. Also good. Nothing but the best for Jesus, his followers, and her brother, the breadwinner of the family.

But then she spots her sister, Mary! Air-head Mary is literally sitting at the feet of Jesus, her knees pressed up against her chest, looking up to Jesus, an expression of wonder and awe on her face, soaking it all in. Martha just about loses it! She’s been the host. She’s taking care of Jesus! Isn’t that what they, as the women, should be doing? But Mary, Mary is acting like one of the men! Mary is pretending to be a disciple, and if she pretends to be a disciple, who knows what she might do next!

Mary should be in the kitchen serving, just like Martha! And so Martha stops what’s she’s doing, walks elegantly into the room, and when Rabbi Jesus turns his head to her, she asks, ever so sweetly, with just a splash of New-England bite, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?” And then she adds, more forcefully, “Tell her to help me!!”

Mary looks up at her sister Martha with a look of shock and dismay on her face. Martha hardly gives her a glance but directs her attention to Jesus. Jesus looks at Martha for a moment, and in that moment, Martha’s determination begins to fade. She can see it in his eyes. She’s not going to like what he says. “Martha Martha,” Jesus says, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (see Luke 10:38-42)

And like slowly letting the air out of a balloon, Mary deflates with a squeak. By all outward appearances, Martha was right. Martha was the homemaker, preparing dinner for the guests. As a woman, Mary should have been helping Martha. But Jesus saw beyond the busyness, saw beyond Martha’s role, saw further into Martha than Martha ever thought possible. Jesus doesn’t condemn Martha, but he does call her, just like he’s calling Mary, and just like he’s calling you. What will Jesus say when he calls you? Are you ready to hear his voice? Are you ready to head his call?

Jesus doesn’t rebuke Martha for serving. Not at all. Rather, Jesus calls her not to judge Mary. I think he may also be calling her to enjoy his presence, to slow down and listen to him, a call we can all hear. Who are you judging? What expectations are you placing on others? How might Jesus subvert your expectations?

Mary is crying. She’s not just crying. She is weeping. Tears are rolling down her face. Her gut aches. She is gasping for breath. It comes, she breathes, but then she remembers. Her brother Lazarus is dead. And the tears come again. They come rolling, streaming gushing down her face till she’s all cried out. And then she sits there, hollow, rocking, tired, exhausted, angry, guilty, depressed, dry.

Not ten minutes earlier, Mary saw her sister Martha slip out of the room. Mary knew where Martha was going. He has finally arrived, Rabbi Jesus, the one she loved and admired so much, who could perform miracles and heal the sick. But she wasn’t going out to meet him because when she and Martha had sent word to Rabbi Jesus that their brother was sick

Andy Bradshaw preached on women in the New Testament this morning. You can watch the full service on Facebook or only the sermon on YouTube. You can check out our full Women in the Kingdom sermon series here and access some of our resources on women in ministry here.

Discussion Questions:

1. Are you celebrating/commemorating lent (the 40/46 days leading up to Easter) in order to prepare for Easter? If so, how?

2. Please share any prayer requests or praises? What is on your heart?

3. Who is your favorite woman in the New Testament? Why? What can we learn from her?

4. Why do you suppose the first recorded story of Jesus revealing himself is with the woman at the well? Why do you suppose that the first people to see the risen Jesus were also women? What is God trying to tell us by doing these things this way?

5. In the OT we noticed a theme of God using women to save men or all of Israel. In the NT we noticed a theme of God trusting women with the Gospel.  Romans 1:16a says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.” Both OT and NT seem to then contain the same theme of God/Jesus using women bringing salvation to men. What are the implications for how we share the Gospel and make disciples both individually and as a church?

Content Curation

Dear Church,

Thank you for listening to our third message in our Women in the Kingdom sermon series (if you’ve missed one, just click the link). Andy introduced the concepts of “Complementarian” and “Egalitarian” in his sermon last week. If you’d like to hear the two sides debate this topic in a mutually-respectful way, Gordon-Conwell Charlotte hosted a helpful conversation doing just that back in 2017 (click here). Please continue to pray over this series and our church as we process.

In Christ, Pastor Jonathan

P.S. On a separate note, Bernie Michaud put together a 5-minute message he’d like for us to hear as we navigate this time of pastoral transition (click here).

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By Rembrandt – Photographer and uploader was Hajotthu at de.wikipedia, Public Domain

As I was preparing for this message, I remembered James Brown and Betty Newsome’s song, It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World (take on mad mad mad world). The first half of the song goes like this:

You see, man made the cars to take us over the road

Man made the train to carry the heavy load

Man made electric light to take us out of the dark

Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark

This is a man’s, man’s, man’s world

But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

Is this how the world is? All about men? Are women and girls an afterthought? Newsome wrote this song as she observed how men and women relate.[1] Is this the Bible’s vision of what God intended? In the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis one, God paints a radically different picture.

Genesis 1:26 (NIV)

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

In Genesis one, God makes humankind in his image, in his likeness, and gives us authority to rule over creation. And less we think only kings, rulers, Pharaohs, or men are made in God’s image; we find that both sexes, equally and together, manifest the image of God in our world.

Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

This means God places men and women equally in charge of his creation. Humanity is the kings and queens, the co-royals of creation. And we’re given a job to do.

Genesis 1:28 (NIV)

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God calls men and women to rule creation together. The only way men and women can be “fruitful and increase in number” is as a team. Together they make up the image of God. Together they are to “steward” creation towards flourishing. Scripture emphasizes co-laboring in Genesis two. God creates man from the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7); and places him in the garden to “work it and take care of it” (Gen 2:15).

Two sources, John Walton and Gordon Hugenberger taught me that Adam is not only a king, as seen in Genesis one, but a priest in Genesis two, and that the Garden of Eden is a temple, a sacred space where God dwells. The temple in Jerusalem had four walls. The garden has four rivers. The Jerusalem temple has garden imagery inside it, just like the actual Garden of Eden. The temple is guarded and cared for by priests, so is the Garden of Eden, not just by men but by man and woman. Adam, man alone, is an insufficient priest.

Genesis 2:18 (NIV)

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

This word for “helper” is often used of God when he helps his people.[2] Here, helper may be translated “fit for” as “corresponds to.” Eve was Adam’s fit and flourish. Together, they would guard and keep the garden as priests, Eve supplying something Adam cannot do without. So what does God do? Does God pick up a clump of clay and fashion woman like he did man? No, because God again wants to emphasize man and woman’s togetherness, their connection, their union:

Genesis 2:21-22 (NIV)

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

God doesn’t take a toe bone, which might have symbolized women’s inferiority. Neither does God take something that might have suggested superiority. An earlobe? Instead, God takes something that represents woman’s equality with man, their side-by-side nature—that together they will rule, reign, and act as kings in God’s world and priests in God’s

We started our series in Acts on January 5th, 2020. Acts is the first big book that we’ve covered in its entirety. Today is our 56th sermon in this series, Outward Church. How do you feel? Has anything changed in your life, in our church’s life? The question, as we come to a close, is twofold. 1) What did we learn? 2) And what are we doing about it? The heartbeat of Acts is missions. Jesus outlined the book in our first chapter.

Acts 1:8 (NIV)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We saw Peter preach the gospel at Pentecost in Jerusalem, and then take the gospel to Judea and Samaria and to the Gentiles with Cornelius. Then Paul came and took it one step further, going on three missionary journeys throughout the ancient Roman world. Here at last Paul has brought the gospel to Rome. Jesus was right. The gospel has gone from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

What did we learn?

So what are our lessons learned from Acts? Here are some points that stick out to me.

1. God has an unstoppable Spirit-empowered plan.

Let’s go back to the first half of Acts 1:8a, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” It wasn’t that all the very best and brightest Christians got together after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, and said, “How are we going to grow Christianity?” Instead, the Holy Spirit came and lead the church into mission, through the mess, through the trials and sufferings.

Look at Paul’s homestretch on his way to Rome. Would any of us, if we planned to take the gospel to Rome, plan to get arrested and taken as a prisoner and shipwrecked? But God is working his own timing. In Acts 28:13, as the author of Acts, Luke, records their journey, he makes notes of a “south wind” that helped them reach Puteoli. That’s like saying, “The wind was in their sails.” They traveled 180 miles in just two days.[1] Why would God allow them to be shipwrecked then fill their sails with wind? I don’t know but God does.

So the question for us is, “Are we in-sync with the Holy Spirit?” Are we seeking God’s plan? Are we asking the Holy Spirit to lead? Are we praying? I have Google Drive synced with my Macbook and it kept disconnecting this week. I don’t know why. But I found it incredibly frustrating, as I couldn’t save files the way they were supposed to save. My computer didn’t work right. When we as a church body don’t seek the Holy Spirit through prayer, we don’t work right. When we do pray, and we ask the Spirit to lead, we get in sync, and the Spirit empowers what God wants to happen.

I hope this series, as we finish, will be an encouragement to spent time in prayer, spend time seeking the Spirit, spend time listening.  God has an unstoppable Spirit-empowered plan.

2. Acts calls us to reexamine what we believe to be true.

Paul arrives in Rome and is allowed to live by himself, but is chained to a Roman guard 24/7. This is one way God took the gospel to the Romans, through the palace guard (Philippians 1:13). Would any of us have planned it that way? Three-days after he arrives he calls the local Jewish leaders; and you can tell he’s worried that they are going to shut him out before having the opportunity to speak. He’s worried that the Jewish leaders in Rome sent word not to trust Paul, but they haven’t yet. They have heard about the Jewish sect called “the Way,” or Christianity, but they haven’t heard of Paul (Acts 28:21-22).

So Paul gathers as many of the local Jews as he can and on one day he preaches about Jesus and the kingdom of God from morning till evening, trying to persuade them to believe in Jesus. That’s one really long sermon; but it’s what they needed to hear. How do they respond?

Acts 28:23-24 (NIV)

23 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining

Elijah really likes The Jungle Book. One of the characters in that story is a really big and sneaky snake named Kaa. He’s a python, and he’s famous for his colorful, hypnotic eyes and his ability to put Mowgli into a trance. He nearly catches and eats Mowgli, but Mowgli escapes. Snakes are a part of popular culture, from Indiana Jones to Harry Potter to the movie, Anaconda, and Snakes on a Plane (neither of which I’ve seen). But, our love (or hate) of snakes didn’t start there.

Today, I want to tell you a great big snake story. Some of you may hate snakes, so I’m not going to show any pictures of snakes today. But I hope you’ll agree that scripture tells the story of God, of humanity, and of a deceptive serpent-like creature, and it starts all the way back in Genesis 3.

Genesis 3:1 (NIV)

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Here the serpent, Satan embodied, tempts Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God has forbidden. This divine being was not always Satan, God’s archenemy, but had at one time been an angel who, for unknown reasons, rebelled against God and fell into sin (Ezekiel 28:12-18). Now he tempts humankind to rebel against God, and he’s successful. Adam and Eve eat, disobey, and fall into a similar state of sin. But unlike the serpent, God will redeem their state. God curses the serpent this way:

Genesis 3:13b-15 (NIV)

13 . . . The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock

and all wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly

and you will eat dust

all the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.”

So God curses the serpent two ways. First, God condemns the snake to crawl on his belly and eat dust for all his life. But wait, don’t snakes already crawl on their bellies? Did this one have legs? No. Dust is symbolic of death (Adam was made from dust, and to dust, he would return), and dust is symbolic of defeat (Genesis 2:7; 3:19). The prophet Isaiah promises this about God’s final victory over the serpent.

Isaiah 65:25 (NIV)

The wolf and the lamb will feed together,

and the lion will eat straw like the ox,

and dust will be the serpent’s food.

They will neither harm nor destroy

on all my holy mountain,”

says the Lord.

God promises Satan’s endless defeat (c.f., Isaiah 27:1). Satan will be destroyed. The second half of the curse in Genesis 3:15 promises one of Eve’s descendants will strike the serpent’s head even though the serpent will strike his heel. Jesus was wounded at the cross, yet crushed the serpent’s head, defeating Satan.

As we go through the story of the Bible, snakes appear not only in Genesis but in Exodus among Pharaoh’s magicians (Exodus 7:10-12). Aaron throws down his staff, which becomes a serpent, and eats Pharaoh’s magicians’ snakes. Snakes aren’t always bad. In fact, in Numbers, when the people have disobeyed God and are being cursed with snake bites, Moses erects a bronze serpent on a pole, which the people only have to look at to be healed (Numbers 21:7-9).

In John’s gospel, Moses’ lifted-up serpent becomes an image of Jesus being lifted up on the cross (John 3:14-15). Unfortunately, the bronze serpent also becomes an object of worship and idolatry over time (2 Kings 18:4). I don’t know why the Bible holds these two images in tension. Does the serpent represent Christ, or perhaps it’s meant to show us that one day, at the cross, Jesus will crucify the serpent’s power?

And we find this story whispered throughout Scripture. Another story Elijah loves is the story of David and Goliath. But that’s not a snake story, is it? In 1 Samuel 17, the Philistines gather to war against Israel. The Philistines are on

Flight 5220 took off “from Magadan Airport, just north of the Sea of Okhotsk in far eastern Russia” this last December.[1] Shortly after takeoff, the airplane threw its almost 200 passengers down, then up, and the plane dove, then recovered. One aviation website reports, “Picture one of those terrible C-grade Hollywood movies that show an airliner out of control, with baggage bins coming open, carry-ons floating through the cabin and oxygen masks dropping. It was that kind of awful. And it lasted for more than an hour.” People screamed and prayed, and the pilot tried to make an emergency landing at the airport they had just taken off from but failed and had to fly on to a different airport.

I wrote this part of my sermon before I flew down to The Nineveh Network’s church-planting meeting a couple of weeks ago (CCCC). Part of me wondered if the Lord was going to help me “live out” this part of the message, but my flight was smooth. What do you do when your life feels out of control? Hold on for dear life? What do you do when you hit turbulence? Scream, and pray? You might have guessed from my sermon title today, but I have a different response in mind. What if we were to… trust the pilot?

Paul’s life has been in turbulence for a long time, but it’s gotten especially bad lately. He spent the last two years in prison because of a corrupt official, Felix, and now he’s on his way to Rome to appeal his case. God told Paul he was sending him to Rome (Acts 23:11), so you would think things would go smoothly, wouldn’t you? Sometimes God calls us to do something, but he doesn’t tell us the skies will be blue. Sometimes we hit turbulence, and it’s in those moments that we have an opportunity to trust our pilot.

Paul sails through storms on his way to Rome. God doesn’t spare him turbulence. I find Acts 27 to be a fascinating chapter because it shows the historicity of the book of Acts. It’s full of nautical and topographic details that are true to the Mediterranean. The way Luke wrote this chapter shows its authenticity and trustworthiness. Luke was on the boat with Paul, which is why he uses “we” language, and he recounts the journey in detail. I’m going to walk us through the journey to help us see God’s faithfulness to Paul.

Paul and some other prisoners are handed over to Julius, a Centurion over 100-soldiers. It’s his job to take Paul to Rome for his trial before Caesar Nero (v1). So they board a ship that is originally from Adramyttium and is headed home in the same direction they want to go (v2). Aristarchus, a Greek, and Luke are with Paul. God gave Paul brothers-in-Christ for the journey. They go through it too. Who has God given you to walk with life through? Your church family and brothers and sisters in Christ.

They sail to Sidon, which only takes a day (v3). Things are going well. We can do this! Sometimes the skies will be blue, and the path will be clear. And on days like that, you’re free to walk around the cabin. Your pilot will still take you to your destination, even when the storm clouds come. But sometimes, the chime will ding, and you need to fasten your seatbelt.

They sail out into the sea where they encounter winds pushing against them, so they sail across the open sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia (v4-5). They land at Myra in Lycia. They board a new ship from Alexandria in northern Egypt sailing for Italy (v6). They sail to Cnidus but change course due to heavy winds, sailing to the lee of Crete opposite Salmone and landing at Fair Havens.

But Fair Havens isn’t a suitable place to stay for the winter; there wasn’t even a city there—it was “near” Lasea (v8). Paul warns Julius, his Centurion, not to keep sailing. This is the moment he’s going to remind them of when disaster strikes, literally saying, “I told you so!” (v21). But the centurion doesn’t listen and tries to sail them to a more suitable harbor at Phoenix on Crete.

Acts 27:11 (NIV)

But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice

A couple of years ago, Monica and I went through this brief stent where we were really into TV shows about preppers, people who are prepared for disaster. We’d watch these shows, and it would always go like this. “Katie lives in downtown Salt Lake City, but she’s been stockpiling canned goods, dried food, and has a bug-out bag ready to go if she needs to leave in a hurry. Katie is afraid that the famous salt-lake city volcano could erupt at any moment, and she is always prepared.” There’s footage of her apartment stacked full of canned goods, buckets of food, and a bug-out backpack ready to go.

And then they run Katie through a scenario. “Alright, Katie, you receive word that the Salt Lake volcano will erupt in 90 minutes. What do you do?” And instead of her getting in her car and driving away, she rushes around, grabs her backpack, and hikes through the center of Salt Lake City, Utah. And at the end, they rate Katie, “Katie, next time, leave the paper towels” or “Katie, just get in your car and drive to grandma’s.” Monica and I loved this show so much we also bought a prepper’s kit, so if the world ends, we’ll have freeze-dried carrots and powdered cheesecake ready to go.

What’s the message? Always be prepared. Always be prepared for what? For the Salt Lake volcano? For a tsunami? For a famine? For a pandemic?! . . . It’s too soon.

1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)

But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

As followers of Jesus, we don’t have to be freaking out about the Salt-Lake biggie, the next market crash, the next failed job interview, or the next terrible event in the news. Why? Because we have hope? And when we display that hope, people are going to wonder why. “Why are you so hopeful? What’s there to be happy about? You say you have peace. Why is that?” So, are you prepared to answer?

Notice, Peter doesn’t say, “Give the best answer,” or “list 20 reasons why we can trust the New Testament manuscripts” or “argue apologetics for Jesus, reasons to believe.” Instead, it seems to suggest that we are the apologetic. Don’t just preach apologetics, but be the apologetic. Live your life and share your hope in Christ.

God gives the Apostle Paul an opportunity to explain his hope, and it’s in the most unusual of circumstances. He’s been in prison for two years. He’s appealed his case to Caesar Nero. But before the local ruler, Festus, sends him to Rome, he hears his case, joined by Agrippa and Agrippa’s sister-girlfriend Bernice.

As he stands before Festus, Agrippa, and Bernice, Festus gives Paul a chance to share his hope. He says to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Paul defends himself, but not how we might do it if we were accused. Instead, Paul gives a three-part testimony, which I want to go over with you today. If Paul, or perhaps the author of Acts, Luke, were to explain Paul’s outline, his testimony outline might go like this:

My life before Jesus

How I met Jesus

How Jesus has changed me

This is the basic format Paul gives for his story, and I want us to go through it today. In the first couple verses, 1-3, Paul acknowledges King Agrippa’s authority and his familiarity with Jewish customs.

My life before Jesus (vv. 4-11)

Paul talks about his life, religious upbringing, and strict adherence to Jewish law and teachings. Paul was a Pharisee who honored and respected the Hebrew scriptures, the law, prophets, and writings and believed in the resurrection of the dead. Paul then identifies his beliefs with those of the Jewish patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers of the Hebrew people. He’s on trial for that hope. “And for this hope I am accused…” What’s Paul doing? He’s describing his life before Jesus, its connection to his Jewish identity, and the hope he has now, and we can each do something similar.

But Paul doesn’t just highlight the good parts; identifying

There’s something wrong with our youth; and I don’t mean our teenagers. I mean the children. There’s this thing that they are just addicted too. It gets in their brains. They always want to watch it, and sing it. That’s right, I’m talking about the dangers of Encanto, Disney’s newest adventure for the whole family. We watched Encanto a couple weekends ago and now we’re listening to Surface Pressure and We Don’t Talk About Bruno so many times.

Here’s the plotline of Encanto. There’s an amazing family where each member has been gifted with a superhuman ability—superhuman strength, the ability to grow flowers at will, talking to animals, churning up storms, and hearing really well. But there’s also one family member, Mirabel, who doesn’t have any superpowers, and is looked down upon. Oh, and they also have a magical house. And when that house begins to crumble, and the family members begin to lose their superpowers, the super strong or super gifted heroes aren’t the ones that save the day. The one without all the powers, the ordinary one, she saves the day.

Deliverance comes as a surprise, from someone ordinary and unexpected. That’s what today’s story in Acts is all about, God’s surprising deliverance coming from unexpected places. Paul is being held in the Roman barracks in Jerusalem, called the Antonia Fortress. He doesn’t realize how at-risk he is, how forty assassins are conspiring to ambush him the very next day. This group of forty goes to the chief priests and the elders, members of the ruling council he argued with the previous day, and promise to kill Paul if they’ll help put him in the right place at the right time.

These assassins are so serious, they’ve bound themselves by oath to not eat or drink until Paul is dead. They ask the religious leaders to request the tribune bring Paul out of the Antonia Fortress, across the court of the Gentiles on the temple grounds, to the “Chamber of Hewn Stone,” which is where the Sanhedrin meet. In that approximately quarter-mile trip, they plan to ambush Paul’s Roman guards and kill him. This will ultimately bring disaster not only on Paul, but all of Jerusalem as Rome will retaliate.

This is a pretty dire situation. Paul’s at risk. The Christian movement is at risk. Jerusalem, the temple, and the people are all at risk. Who will rescue them? Will God deliver them? As we go through today’s story, I hope today you’ll reflect on your own life, and recognize some of the ways God has unexpectedly delivered you as well. Or maybe you feel like you need God to throw you the life jacket. The water is just too high. God brings unexpected deliverance four ways:

1) God brings unexpected deliverance through unexpected people.

Who are the people God works through in this story? First, we hear about Paul’s nephew, his sister’s son. Now we’ve never heard of her or her son in this story. Maybe they were estranged, or a part of the church, we don’t know. But he overhears the ambush plans and goes to warn Paul. Paul describes his nephew as a “young man,” which is the same word used for Eutychus who fell out of the window, and Paul himself when he watched the garments as the Sanhedrin stoned Stephen (Acts 7:58; 20:9).

Why does this matter? You’re never too young for God to use you. You could be a teenager, a young man or woman, or even a child, and God can work through you. Maybe that’s in a big amazing way that everyone hears about. But in our story, the commander (tribune) tells the young man not to tell anyone. He must have spilled the beans at some points because we know it happened; but he didn’t do it to go viral. He simply followed God’s direction. God can use anyone, even the most unexpected.

One of the youth-ministry books I have tells the story of a young woman, a teenager, who challenged her church to love the “carnies” (carnival workers) coming through her town. So her church put on “an all-you-can-eat affair for over 200 carnies.” The church didn’t mention it was a church when it served

Today is a big day for Cornerstone for two reasons. First, we finally made it back to Acts! I last preached Acts in Juneand, Lord willing, we’re going to finish it by Easter. Second, today is the first day of our new worship service format—which is 20 minutes of worship, 20-minute message, and 45 minutes of discussion. And this is terrifying for me because I normally preach 30-35 minutes. So this is going to be an experiment, for all of us. How are you feeling about today? Happy? Sad? Anxious? That’s human.

Maybe as you look at your life, you’re just wondering, “God, what are you doing?” However you’re feeling and whatever you’re asking God, I hope we can find Acts 22:22-23:11 encouraging. Today I want to slow down and focus on what God is doing in Paul’s emotion and state. In 2019, I preached a sermon called “Wise Emotions.” Today I want to focus on SASHET, an acronym which Andy has been sharing:

S – Sad – Am I feeling sad or depressed?

A – Angry – Am I feeling angry or mad?

S – Scared – Am I feel anxious or fearful?

H – Happy – Am I feeling happy or joyful?

E – Excited – Am I feeling excited or looking forward to something?

T – Tender – Am I feeling loving or caring?

Apparently a sashet can be a little bag of potpourri. What’s your emotion when you smell one of those? Love, feel happy, or if you’re like me, a little bit of rage…? No matter your emotion or state, God is there and God is working. We see this in Paul’s story. The story of Acts is about the joyful yet often difficult expansion of the gospel message (the good news about Jesus) from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Peter takes the message in and around Jerusalem before Paul takes it to Turkey and Greece. Throughout his journeys and as we come to the end of Acts, Paul has faced many hardships.

He’s been ridiculed and stoned, imprisoned too. He’s about to be wrongly imprisoned, put-on trial, get shipwrecked, and suffer and eventually die for Jesus. Can you imagine how he must be feeling in today’s text? He has returned to Jerusalem after a long absence. But the Holy Spirit has told him “in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await” (Acts 20:22-23).

How would you feel? Would you be excited to go to Jerusalem? To do Jesus’ work? I know I wouldn’t. But no matter his emotion, God is there and God is working. And when Paul gets to Jerusalem, he’s arrested at the temple under false charges. He preaches that Jesus of Nazareth is God, and the gospel is for the Gentiles.

Acts 22:22-24 (ESV)

22 Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” 23 And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this.

Now how would you feel? I would be panicking. I would be A – Anxious, and worried that I was about to become T – Tenderized. The text doesn’t tell us what emotions Paul was experiencing, but he was able to think clearly enough to exert his rights, not just for his protection, but so he could share the gospel.

Acts 22:25 (ESV)

25 But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?”

Now that got their attention! The centurion, an officer over 100 soldiers, ran and got the tribune, a commander over 1,000 soldiers, including several centurions. This tribune had rescued Paul when the riot at the temple started, but had also bound him in chains and was about to flog him, torture him with whips to pry out why the riot started. I probably would have spoken up much earlier, but here Paul speaks up, exerting his Roman rights for the sake of the gospel. Part of the perks of being a Roman citizen is you had the right to a tri