The life of chosen (Acts 21:27-22)

The life of chosen (Acts 21:27-22)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon November 30, 2008

My older two girls are in Girl Scouts.  And, they were invited to attend the lighting of the trees for Prospect Heights yesterday evening at 5 pm.  While Lyn was making dinner for us, I took all the girls to the event.  There was a fire pit on the pavement with sticks ready to grill some marshmallows for the girls, there were cookies of all shapes and tastes and there was hot chocolate ready to warm us up.

After the count of ten, the trees were lit and the Girl Scouts began their part, singing Christmas Carols.  I was too busy taking pictures and trying to hold on to Katherine in my arms, I could hardly pay attention to what they were singing, but I knew one thing.  They didn’t sing any Christmas carols about Jesus.  It was a super fun evening.  It marked the beginning of a new season.  But, really what were we celebrating there?  We were there to celebrate the lighting of the trees, singing Rudolph’s the Reindeers, and Santa Claus is coming to town.  But, no mention of Jesus who came and who will come again!  Well, I was disappointed.

Then, there was as story of Wal-Mart temp worker getting killed by the mad dashed of shoppers on Black Friday morning that swelled to thousands.  If we don’t watch out, we too are going to be swept away by the current of commercialism, secularism, and forget that Christmas is all about Jesus who came and who is to come.

So, this morning, I will like to take you back to the book of Acts and consider a story of Paul and see what coming of Jesus Christ meant for him.

1.      Overview of Acts

This past year, we’ve been exploring the life of the early Christians through study of the book of Acts.  Life of the early church began with just a handful of disciples who feared for their lives after the death of Jesus.  But, Jesus rose from the dead defying the logic of men.  And, before he was taken up to heaven, Jesus promised to send them the Holy Spirit to come upon them and to baptize them and to equip them with power to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

We saw how the Holy Spirit indeed came upon those who obediently waited as Jesus instructed them.  The Spirit’s coming upon them was evidenced by the a sound like the blowing of a violent wind and a sight of what appeared to be tongues of fire separating and coming to rest on each of those who waited and by their speaking in tongues of unlearned languages.  Followed by Peter’s preaching to repent and be baptized… in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins… to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  And, thousands accepted Peter’s message, thus the Jerusalem church began.  As number of people accepting Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah rapidly increased, the Jewish religious establishment, the leaders of the Judaism became increasingly alarmed and they stepped up their earnest effort to curtail the growth of the church.  So, the persecution increased as the church grew.

And, as you know it was Paul, also known as Saul, who was at the forefront of the persecution against the followers of the Way, Christians.  It was under his careful watch, Stephen was stoned to death.  Paul wasn’t satisfied with the progress against Christians in Jerusalem and in Judea.  When Christians scattered due to increasing persecutions, Paul chased after them, down to Damascus with one goal in his mind, to round up as many Christians as possible whether men and women and to bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem in order to prosecute them.  It was there on the road to Damascus, his life changed forever.

And for the last couple months, our focus has been on the life of this man, Paul, once a zealous persecutor of Christians now a bonafide Christian who considered his life worth nothing to him if only he might finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus gave him- the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24).

2.      Paul arrested

He already made three missionary journeys over thousands of miles across the lands and over the seas.  He came back to Jerusalem even though he knew through the revelation from the Holy Spirit that he would be imprisoned.  In the spirit of becoming like a Jew to win the Jews (1 Corinthians 9:20), he went to the temple to fulfill his vow by undergoing purification ritual and offering.  But, this didn’t help him to win any favor from the Jews.  When the Jews spotted Paul in the temple, they accused him of brining Greeks into the temple area and defiling the holy place.  Because they saw Paul with a gentile Trophimus the Ephesian in the city earlier, they assumed falsely that Paul brought the gentiles into the temple.

Here is a layout of the Herod’s temple.  Around the outer walls of the temple was what was called the Court of Gentiles, which is leveled as #12 in this picture.  And, in this model of the temple, the wide open area surrounding the temple is the Court of Gentiles.  This is where the Gentiles were allowed.

But beyond this court, the Gentiles were not allowed into the temple.  So, on the walls of the outer walls of the temple had this sign posted warning, “No foreigner is to enter within the balustrade and embankment around the sanctuary.  Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his death which follows.”  If Paul indeed brought gentiles into the temple as they accused, he would have broken a law punishable by death.  The Jews long ago convinced themselves that this Paul who preached Jesus as the long waited Messiah, the fulfillment of the promise from God for the Savior, the Christ, for the nation of Israel and for the whole world this Paul had to be rid of, to be killed.  They had no proof that Paul violated the temple order against the Gentiles from entering the temple, only that they saw Paul earlier with a gentile in the city.  But, they didn’t need any kind of solid proof to charge him.  All they needed was an assumption.

Imagine the scene.  Acts 21:30 says the whole city was aroused and the people came running from all directions. There was this mad dash to seize Paul and he was dragged from the temple.  They had one thing in mind, to kill him.  Their prefer method to end Paul’s life was beating him up.

Just north of the temple, beyond the Court of the Gentiles was the Fortress of Antonia.  This was where the Romans soldiers were stationed.  The commander over a regiment of 1000 solders, Claudius Lysias was notified the situation involving Paul; he took some of his men and ran down to the crowd who was beating the daylights out of Paul.  Their presence halted the beating and allows the commander and the soldiers to take Paul into their custody.

3.      Paul’s apologia… my story (Acts 21:37-22:21)

Now, I know that none of us have any idea what it is to have mad dashed crowd bent on one thing in their minds, to land their fists and their kicks on you to end your life; if this happened, I could assure you that that last thing on my mind would be to talk to them about the very thing that got me into trouble with them in the first place.  I mean who cares if the people who saved your life didn’t do it for you, but only to maintain the order.  These Romans weren’t looking out for Paul.  Not at all, all they cared about was maintaining order at the temple and in Jerusalem.  But, who cares, right?  They came and they took Paul out of the mad crowd whose fists and shoes were stained with Paul’s blood.  I will be like, “Get me out of this place.  I want nothing to do with these illogical fanatics.”   Come on, won’t you feel this way too?

But, look what Paul did.  He probably sustained bloody nose, swollen eyes, and bruises all over his body, perhaps some broken ribs too.   Verse 37, Paul badly injured from beatings was being escorted into the barracks where he would be safe from the mad crowd thirst for his blood.  But, he stopped to talk to the commander in Greek.

The same way the crowds assumed wrongly about Paul, the commander too assumed falsely that Paul was a terrorist, the Egyptian Jew who unsuccessfully tried to overthrow Jerusalem just few years ago.  Paul replied, “I am not the guy from Egypt.  I am a Jew all right, but I am from Tarsus in Cilicia and a citizen of no ordinary city.  Please let me speak to the people.”

The commander probably thought that by allowing Paul to speak to the crowd, he could figure what caused this ruckus.  Well, his plan to listen in on Paul foiled when Paul started speaking in Aramaic, which was everyday language of the Jews.  But, the commander liked what he saw when people became very quite once Paul started talking to them in Aramaic.

And, from 22:3 to 22:21 Paul gave his apologetic appeal to the Jews.  Paul asked them in 22:1, “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”  Here the word, “defense” is apologia in Greek.  Paul’s apologia is nothing more than an account of his own life.  Paul’s apologia is built on what his life was like before meeting Jesus Christ, how Jesus Christ changed his life, and what he now lives for.

I want you to pause and grasp the scope of Paul’s response to the crowd who tried to kill him; they still had Paul’s fresh blood stains on their fists and their feet.  Why did Paul even bother trying to reason with them when they remained insolent, unreasonable, violent, full of hatred, and antagonistic to him and his message about Jesus Christ?  How do you explain his tenacious care for the people who didn’t care except trying to kill him?

Paul’s apologia of personal spiritual journey explains why he didn’t give up speaking to the Jews who just tried to kill him merciless and without proper cause.  Formerly when life was about Saul, he was no different than the Jews who tried to kill him.  Being thoroughly trained in the law and zealous for God as they were, he persecuted the followers of this Way to the death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison.”  In his zeal steep in religious pharisaic tradition, he followed the Christians all the way to Damascus for one goal, to take them back as prisoners to Jerusalem to punish them.  This was Paul before he met Jesus when life was just about him, what he wanted, what he went after, what he was passionate about.

He summed up his previous way of life in Galatians 1:13- 14, “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.  I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”  So much passion, so much religious conviction, so much energy expended on advancing Judaism and opposing Jesus and his people.  This was Paul’s way of life in Judaism.  He said in Philippians 3:4, “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”  How do you argue with a man who is so sure of himself, so much pride in who he is, what he stands for, how he lives his life?   You can’t.  No human reasoning could have changed Paul.

Only God could change Paul.  When Jesus got hold of Paul’s heart, that’s when he changed.  He described what happened to him in Galatians 1:15-16, “But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the gentiles.”

Notice how it was no longer about what Paul did, how he well he did, how passionately he followed his religious convictions; it was no longer about Paul.

Now that he got to know Jesus, his life was no longer about Paul, but it was all about what God was doing in Paul’s life.   Can you say the same thing about yourself?  No, it isn’t about me any more.  It is about what God is doing in my life.  Do you have the sense that God is working in you and that God has been working in you in the past and will work in you continually in the future?   Paul’s apologia, his defense was really about the story of a life of chosen by God, how God ordained, set him apart from birth and how God called him to testify about his Son Jesus Christ.

Do you have the sense as Paul did that God has set you apart from birth for his purpose?  To speak of being set apart from birth is to speak of life of a chosen one.  Life of chosen, set apart from birth, is life of noble birth.  And, the life of noble birth points to the One who gives you identity.  Do you know who gives you identity?  Paul knew it was God who gave him the identity of chosen, set apart from birth.

Paul didn’t know that God set him apart from birth.  This knowledge came when Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus.  That’s when God called Paul by his grace.  Paul didn’t know that he lived in darkness that made it impossible for him to see spiritually.  Paul was spiritually blind because he couldn’t grasp the life of chosen by God, set apart from birth.  He was spiritually blind because he was too busy living his life the way he wanted to live.  It only came to Paul when Jesus entered into Paul’s darkness with his light.   His light blinded him, rendering his eyes useless, rendering his self-sufficiency useless.  When God sealed tight the eyes of self-sufficiency, self-dependence, self-deception, self-promotion, only then Paul was able to know God’s will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.

Isaiah 49:1, “Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.”  Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  And, Paul says this about himself, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God” in Romans 1:1.

God has chosen Paul to know his will, to see Jesus Christ, and to hear Jesus so that he will be Jesus’ witness to all men of what he had  seen and heard  (Acts 22:15).

Today marks the beginning of Advent four weeks before we celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ and anticipate his second coming.  Lest, we forget and be swept away by the current of false spirit of Christmas, let’s revisit this week what it means to have the life of chosen, set apart from birth and called by God’s grace to be Jesus’ witness.

Christmas stands for new status of being chosen, set apart, called for God’s purpose.  Christmas stands for asking Jesus, “Who are you?” and hearing Jesus, “I am Jesus of Nazareth…” and asking him, “What, shall I do, Lord?”  Christmas is a season to reaffirm our identity, our calling in Jesus Christ.