"More Lessons from the Road, pt.2 (Acts 16:16-17:15)" | 6/26/22
Acts 16:16-17:15 | 6/26/22 | Will DuVal
“During World War I, a British soldier named Henry Tandey stumbled upon a 29-year-old wounded German corporal, and in an act of battlefield mercy, Tandey decided to spare the soldier’s life. That Corporal [was] none other than Adolf Hitler… [So you could say that] an act of kindness in World War ONE resulted in World War TWO. ” (TVTropes.org, “No Good Deed”)
As they say, “no good deed goes unpunished”.
Richard Jewell reported a bomb threat at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics only to become the FBI’s primary suspect.
Mr. Incredible stopped a suicidal man from jumping off a building only to be SUED for accidentally injuring him in the process.
I considered subtitling this sermon “and THIS is the thanks I get?!” Because in all four of the scenes we’re going to studying together this morning from Acts chs16-17, we will observe Paul and Silas, the protagonists of the Church’s second missionary journey, receive nothing but PUNISHMENT for all of their good deeds.
And while last week in the previous chapter, we praised God’s ability to “turn obstacles into opportunities”, this morning, we lament just the opposite: the way in which “the WORLD will take something GOOD and RUIN it; turn beauty into brokenness.” That’s the recurring theme running throughout all four of these stories: the world turns BEAUTY to BROKENNESS.
But lest we get too discouraged along the way - cuz I’ll just warn you: if you leave halfway through today you’re gonna think “Man, that was a total DOWNER! Major bummer! - but I promise if you stick it out til the end, we’re gonna tie it all together on a note of hope and redemption.
So I invite you to stand with me… Acts 16:16-17:15
“As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 20 And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21 They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
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25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” 38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. 39 So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
ch17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.” This is the word of the Lord…
FOUR WAYS the world turns beauty into brokenness:
#1 - In Philippi (16:16-24): Paul and Silas work for FREEDOM → only to be met with IMPRISONMENT by those of the world.
Now, a quick word on terminology: I’ve set up this contrast - actually, JESUS did - between GOD and THE WORLD. God works to REDEEM, and turn evil to good. The world works to RUIN, and turn good to evil. And according to Jesus, every person on the planet belongs either to God, or the world; you’re either a child of God, or you’re a child of this world. He told his disciples in Jn 15:19, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” And that pretty much sums up what transpires in all four of these scenes: God chose Paul and Silas out of the world, and ADOPTED them into his OWN heavenly family - they now belong to the Lord - but now they’re gonna be HATED by those who still belong to the world.
So when Paul and Silas work for freedom here, the “thanks” they get from the children of the world is imprisonment.
V16: On our way to “the place of prayer”, where they met LYDIA, last week, Luke recalls, “we met this SLAVE girl, who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling”; she is possessed by a demon with the supernatural but spiritually DARK power to foretell the future. Now that may sound surprising at first to those of us of modern, Enlightened sensibilities - really, a DEMON?! - but it shouldn’t. Demons are all over the pages of Scripture… some of us have even had personal experiences with them… They EXIST. And this poor girl is possessed.
But the surprising part, v17, is that “She followed Paul [around] crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.””
That’s TRUE! The demon’s doing Paul and Silas’ job FOR them! WHY? What in the world is going ON here? I’ll offer you two possibilities:
1) It’s possible that the demon had no CHOICE; it’s an involuntary reaction to the overpowering presence of the Holy Spirit within these missionaries. After all, when JESUS walked the earth, demons were constantly identifying him rightly and publicly as the Son of God (Mk 1:24-25; 5:7-8; Lk 4:34-35; et al). And it’s almost like they couldn’t HELP themselves; Jesus would walk in the room and they’d just start SCREAMING and begging for their lives. Because James 2:19 makes it clear that demons are orthodox theologians; they knew EXACTLY who Jesus was, and here in Acts 16, they know exactly who Paul and his crew are: “servants of the Most High God, who preach salvation.” What makes them demons is that they HATE Paul for it. They understand the truth of the gospel, but they hate and OPPOSE it.
But #2 - it’s also possible this was strategic on the demon’s part. Think about it: these Philippian on-lookers would’ve had one of two reactions to this demon: either they were scared to DEATH, and they avoided this poor slave girl at all costs, OR by virtue of their OWN involvement in the idolatrous, wicked, occult practices of the pagan Roman world, they were enthralled. Some of the folks in this crowd were no doubt the ones patronizing, enlisting the services of this demon. But in either case, the demon is strategic here to acknowledge the gospel. Because the result is it will either scare people away from Christ too - “If these “servants of God” have anything to do with this demonic spirit, then I’m staying away from their Jesus too!” - OR, it’s gonna distort their perception of the gospel as being sort of syncretistic supplement to their paganism - “Hmm, sounds like I can worship God AND indulge in dark spiritual practices; double my other-worldly power!”
Which makes the TRULY shocking part of this passage the fact that Paul let it go on, v18, “for many days”. Perhaps he KNEW what the consequences of the exorcism would be. But in any case, when he could stand it no longer, “having become greatly annoyed”, he cast the demon out of her, “in the name of Jesus Christ”, the ONLY name by which we can be set FREE.
Imagine the relief this young girl must have experienced, the JOY! “My chains are gone / I’ve been set free / my God my Savior / has ransomed me!” But the joy is short-lived, because as soon as she got home, v19, and “her owners saw that their hope of gain [of turning a PROFIT at this poor girl’s expense] was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers,” and had them beaten within an inch of their lives.
Cuz it’s all fun and games til you get hit in the WALLET, isn’t it? I’ve got an African-American pastor friend, Harry Walls, who says, “There’s only ONE color that really matters in America; and it ain’t black OR white; it’s GREEN.”
And if I can make the turn now, and suggest some practical application of this point for you and me today, I’ll invite you to consider with me how much “GAIN” the world stands to make from OUR OWN imprisonment - yours and mine.
*If you haven’t seen “The Social Dilemma” yet, you need to, but the long and short of it is this: every social media outlet and streaming service out there - Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Youtube - they ALL have a vested, financial interest, in keeping you glued, ENSLAVED to your screen, for as long as possible. To keep you scrolling, keep you streaming, so they can keep on selling you more ads, keep those monthly subscription payments coming.
*The average American now spends 7 hrs and 4 min per DAY staring at a screen. And APPLE’S job is to figure out how to turn that into 8 hours.
*”$3,075 is spent on internet pornography every second”; it’s a 100 BILLION dollar industry worldwide, annually. And “64% of Christian men admit to watching porn at least once a month.” (https://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/)
*According to the National Library of Medicine, as many as “10% of American teens” are diagnosably addicted to VIDEO GAMES. (https://gamequitters.com/video-game-addiction-statistics/#:~:text=3%2D4%25%20of%20gamers%20are,more)%20suffering%20from%20gaming%20disorder. )
I could go on, but you get the point: it PAYS to ENSLAVE people.
But friends, Jesus said, “I’ve come to set the captives FREE” (Lk 4:18). Jesus is bigger than your addiction, and he offers you hope and healing this morning: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Gal 5:1)
#2 - So Paul and Silas get brutally flogged and thrown in jail, where we discover that the world wants to turn INTEGRITY into INJUSTICE. (16:25-40) To repay RIGHT with WRONG.
In vv25-40, a SECOND pair of chains fall. The slave girl had been trapped in SPIRITUAL bondage, but now these missionaries find themselves in literal, physical bonds. And like the slave girl, their supernatural deliverance here is just one of SEVERAL shocking elements in the story.
The first is their JOY. v25: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God”. Here’s what it looked like to “have your feet fastened in the stocks” [see PIC]. Totally immobile, sitting in a pool of their own waste, and they couldn’t even lay DOWN, because their backs were so RAW from having been flogged earlier that morning. And their response? Hymns of PRAISE! Prayers of JOY, that they were counted WORTHY to suffer for the name of Christ.
The second shocking tidbit is that their fellow prisoners, v25, “were listening to them”; not shouting at them to “keep it down, it’s MIDNIGHT and we’re trying to get some sleep over here!” No, Paul and Silas were such a powerful WITNESS to the hope of the gospel - what other hope could possibly motivate a prisoner - bound, bloodied, and broken - to sing for JOY?! So the others are listening on in amazement.
And not just that, but thirdly - and to me, this is most mind-blowing of ALL - that WHEN God shakes the earth, and LOOSENS their chains, and FLINGS their cell doors open, the other prisoners must STILL be listening to Paul and Silas. Because I think we have to assume that their natural, immediate reaction would have been to jump up and start sprinting for the nearest EXIT! The JAILER certainly assumed as much, when HE woke up in v27 and saw all the doors opened, and was ready to KILL himself, rather than face a public, shameful execution for his dereliction of duty. Speaking of RELIEF and JOY, can you imagine how HE must have felt, then, in v28, to hear Paul exclaim: “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all still here” - it makes me wonder if they’d all gotten SAVED earlier that evening, all personally TRUSTED in Paul’s Jesus, because I don’t know how else you explain this kind of radical OBEDIENCE. God Himself must have told them to stay, for the jailer’s sake. So in v29, he falls down at their feet, and asks the most important question that ANY of us can ask, that ALL of us MUST reckon with, sooner or later: ““Sirs, what must I do to be saved?””
We all know deep down that there’s something wrong with this world, don’t we? More than that, Romans 2 claims that God’s given each of us a conscience, such that we all know deep down that there’s something wrong with US, that we’re sinful. The question is: “How does it get FIXED?” What must we do to be SAVED from the sin all around us… from the sin WITHIN us?”
The world offers its own answers:
*Human progress! WE are the answer to all of the world’s problems (inexplicably, despite having CAUSED them!)
*Technology!
*Education!
*Become an ALLY! If you just Vote the right way, stand up for the right things, and stand AGAINST the wrong things, prove how virtuous you are, then you will be saved.
But Paul and Silas, and God’s WORD, offer us a very different answer: ““Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”. It is by Christ’s GRACE alone - his finished work on the cross, to pay for your sins - that you can be saved through FAITH alone - Paul says, “believe”, pisteuw, “TRUST” in Jesus; surrender your heart, your life to Him in simple faith… and you will be saved.
Brothers and sisters: we need to keep the gospel SIMPLE for unbelievers. Because it really IS so simple - you don’t need a seminary degree - it’s easy enough for a little CHILD to grasp; Jesus said if you don’t have faith like a CHILD, you can’t enter his Kingdom. You don’t have to be some great theologian to grasp that you are a sinner, that you need a savior, and that Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross in your place was SUFFICIENT. And you ALSO don’t have to be an extraordinary EVANGELIST to then SHARE that good news with others. Just memorize Acts 16:31 - “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” - and then pray for opportunities to share it.
It’s good news not only for the jailer, but for his entire household. Paul witnesses to THEM in v32 as well, and they ALSO believe and are SAVED, they get BAPTIZED, and then they all CELEBRATE together around the early morning breakfast table.
But watch how the MAGISTRATES respond, in v35: they try and quietly dismiss Paul and Silas without so much as a legal justification for their imprisonment in the first place, much less a “THANK YOU” - after all, it was Paul and Silas’s INTEGRITY, their undue obedience to the civil authorities, these unjust authorities - as Paul would later write in Romans 13: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities” - it was his integrity here that prevented a wholesale prison break, and therefore saved this jailer’s life, both physically AND spiritually.
But what is the “thanks” he gets? He should’ve received the key to the city; instead he gets asked to leave it and never come back.
But before DOING so, Paul says, “Nuh-uh; we’re not just gonna go quietly into the night. We’re Roman citizens; we have RIGHTS here; we deserve DUE PROCESS!”
Why? Is Paul just rubbing their NOSES in it? In their injustice? I don’t think so. I think his concern here is for the ongoing safety of the newly birthed Philippian CHURCH - for ITS reputation with the authorities going forward. Tony Merida explains: “By showing that he and Silas had done nothing wrong and that Christianity was no threat to the Roman way of life, Paul helped… protect the church from future harassment. Once again, Paul’s actions shout of his love for the church” (Acts, 229).
And speaking of love, Paul visits the church - this hodgepodge group of infant believers: Lydia, the slave girl and the jailer; a wealthy Asian businesswoman, a poor Greek slave, and a middle-class Roman officer; quite the eclectic home Bible study! - Paul encourages them one last time in v40 before departing.
There’s SO much there, but what’s the application for us today? I think we have to realize that we live in an upside-down world where “EVIL” is called “GOOD”. And therefore, GOOD gets punished WITH evil. The reward for Integrity, all too often, really is INJUSTICE.
Did you know that John Piper has a criminal record? One of the most honorable, upstanding men that I know of, actually spent a night in jail, back in the 80s, for peacefully sitting in front of an abortion clinic and trying to stop mothers from killing their babies. Because Proverbs 24:11 commands us to “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.” But until this past FRIDAY, that was illegal. Not only was it LEGAL to kill your baby, it was ILLEGAL to try and stop that murder.
But brothers and sisters, morality is NOT democratic. The Supreme Court didn’t strike down the legality of abortion on Friday; GOD did it on Day 6 of Creation, when He said, “Let us make humanity - ALL humans; big and small - in our image” (Gen 1:26). So you’re gonna hear a lot of poll numbers thrown around in the weeks to come: 60% of Americans support legal abortions in at least some cases… 70% support it - seems like the number gets inflated every time I hear it - but the fact is: 100% of Americans could support abortion, but if GOD says it’s wrong, then it’s wrong. The world can cry, “INJUSTICE!” all it wants, and they WILL - I’m sure your Facebook newsfeed looks as outraged as mine does; I HOPE it does; cuz if you’re seeing nothing but people celebrating, then you need more non-Christian friends - but as Christians living in this increasingly hostile-towards-Christians world of ours, you and I must resolve to do what’s RIGHT, even when it’s not popular; EVEN, when society deems it “wrong”.
#3 - In Thessalonica (17:1-9): the world turns ORDER to CHAOS. Exchanges reason for IR-rationality; good sense for sense-LESS-ness.
In ch17 now, Paul and Silas make their way to Thessalonica, and as usual, they head for the local synagogue; the gospel is for the “Jew first, and also the Gentile” (Rom 1:16). So on 3 consecutive Sabbaths, Paul (notice the verbs here; he) “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead”. What’s Paul doing here? He’s helping them make SENSE of the Scriptures, the OT and all its messianic prophecies, in light of their FULFILLMENT in Jesus.
I got asked to be a part of a panel discussion last night, hosted by ReThink315; they are a local parachurch ministry focused on preparing Christian teenagers for the work of apologetics, defending the faith, in an increasingly secular world; providing students with “reasons”, “explanations”, “PROOFS” of the truth of the Christian worldview.
See, we ALL have a worldview; a way of “viewing” - making SENSE of - the “world”. We are rational, meaning-making creatures, because according to Scripture, “God is a god of order, NOT chaos” (1 Cor 14:33), and we’ve been made in His image, for order.
The problem is that the world has been in this constant state of CHAOS - DIS-order - ever since the FALL in Genesis 3. God created the world in a very orderly fashion, in Genesis 1 & 2, but then the whole thing went off the RAILS in ch3 when Adam and Eve sinned and invited chaos into the world.
Lies replaced the truth.
Ambition replaced obedience.
Shame replaced innocence.
Hiding replaced intimacy.
Enmity replaced harmony.
Pain replaced pleasure.
Thorns replaced the Garden.
Death replaced life.
CHAOS replaced order.
But amidst all that chaos - before we were even evicted from the Garden! - God promised that one day He would send an offspring of the woman who would DEFEAT sin and death, and restore order to the world. And in Acts 17:3, Paul is saying, “He’s HERE: it’s JESUS! HE is the answer NOT just to the OT prophecies you’ve been waiting on, but to ALL of your heart’s deepest desires. Trust in Him!”
And in v4, many of them DO, especially the “devout Greeks and… the leading women.”
But what is the WORLD’S response? V5: “But the Jewish leaders were jealous”; THEY don’t get this kind of reaction to THEIR altar calls. Plus, remember: it’s all about the Benjamins; if half their synagogue just left to start a CHURCH, that means half the BUDGET too. So they’re jealous, and “taking some wicked men of the rabble [a good idiomatic translation of the Greek here is “LOW LIFES”; RIFFRAFF] they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason [presumably a Thessalonian Jew-turned-Christian who was HOSTING the missionaries] seeking to bring them out to the crowd.” CHAOS. Even anarchy; initially they wanted to hand Paul and Silas over to the CROWD, not the local authorities. But because they can’t find them, thank God, v6, they take poor JASON instead, and drag him, along with “some of the brothers, before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here [These are the allegations of the MOB who just turned the whole CITY upside down! They cry:] Jason here has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.””
The truth is: the world has been upside down ever since Genesis 3. The mob is right about ONE thing: Jesus DID come to turn the world upside down. But if it was ALREADY upside down, then JESUS is really turning it rightside UP, isn’t He? Restoring ORDER, GOD’S order:
Caesar says, “I rule OVER you, slave”; God says, “I died FOR you, to make you a son, a daughter.”
Caesar says, “The strong dominate the weak”, this is the way of the world, survival of the fittest; GOD says, “Lay DOWN your power, like I did for YOU, in order to SERVE one another.”
This is why Pilate LAUGHED in Jesus’ face, when he claimed to be a king. He said, “I AM a king; but MY kingdom is NOT of this world.” I’m not gonna win the way many of my followers WANT me to; kicking down the doors of your Roman palaces and temples, guns blazing… CHAOS. WAR. No, I’m conquering the kingdoms of this world, the upside-down kingdom of SIN, with LOVE. Self-sacrificial LOVE. Not a sword, but a cross. And ultimately, Jesus will bring all of CREATION back under God’s rightful and orderly rule.
Application today? We don’t have to look far to see the diabolical fruit of the world’s REBELLION against God’s created ORDER, do we? Bad things happen when we try and reject nature, science, biology, common sense, reason, all in the name of personal autonomy - being a law, a GOD, unto ourselves. But friends, you and I are NOT God; we didn’t establish the order of the universe. And rebelling against the One TRUE God, HIS order, just leads to CHAOS. But unfortunately there are MILLIONS of people today, all around us, who have bought into the world’s lies, and who are therefore living lives of utter CONFUSION and CHAOS as a result. But OUR response, Church, shouldn’t be judgment and condemnation; like Christ, our hearts should BREAK for them. And like PAUL, we should “reason” with them, with gentleness and respect (1 Pet 3:15), but show them the truth and the BEAUTY of God’s good design, His order.
Lastly, and VERY quickly, #4 - In Berea (17:10-15): the world returns LIFE with DEATH (belief = eternal life → Jews hunting them down to KILL them)
Paul and Silas escape Thessalonica by cover of night and arrive in Berea. And they head, you guessed it, for the synagogue. It’s almost like they just won’t learn their LESSON. But this is the mission God has called them to: suffering for the sake of Christ.
But not in Berea. Not initially. Because “these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
What makes them “noble”? “of an exalted moral or mental character or excellence”? It is their humble submission to God’s WORD. The word of LIFE. How do we rise ABOVE the enslavement, the injustice, the chaos, the DEATH we see swirling all around us in this world? Paul tells us in Philippians 2:15-16 “Children of God [will be] without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, [by] holding fast to the word of LIFE.” By “receiving God’s word… the Scriptures… with all eagerness, [and] examining them daily”. This is the word of LIFE, friends. And when we receive it, personally, and the gospel it declares to us, we receive LIFE, life to the FULLEST, ETERNAL life. V12: “Many of the [Bereans] believed”, and received eternal life.
But v13, “when the Jews from Thessalonica” heard about it, they made the 50 mile trek west to Berea, to try a SECOND time to “stir up the crowds” and put Paul to death. So hostile is the world, to the LIFE that Christ wants to offer us.
Personal application? What are the worldly things that once promised you LIFE that have brought you nothing but DEATH?
*The party lifestyle: “Eat, drink and be merry - all night EVERY night - cuz tomorrow we may DIE”; Kesha was plagiarizing PAUL in 1 Corinthians 15:32, when she sang, “Let’s make the most of the night like we’re gonna die young” - Paul says, “If Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead”, Kesha’s RIGHT! We Christians are most of all to be pitied, cuz we’re wasting our lives on a LIE. But friends, it’s NOT a lie. Every word of God proves TRUE. And His word is LIFE.
Maybe this morning is a Deuteronomy 30:19 moment for some of you, when after delivering His law through Moses to His people, God declares: “See, I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose LIFE”. Friends, Jesus couldn’t BE more clear: it’s ME, or the WORLD. You’ve gotta choose; you can’t have both. Why would you WANT both?! Isn’t the choice OBVIOUS?! The world makes slavery out of your freedom, evil out of good, chaos out of order, death out of life.
But friends, JESUS does the exact OPPOSITE for us!
*While we were enslaved to sin, He set us FREE to live for him, life to the fullest.
*Jesus is righting ALL of the world’s wrongs.
*He alone can bring ORDER out of our chaos. Beauty from ashes. Take the broken pieces that you’ve made of your life and put them back together in a way that is somehow even more GLORIOUS than if you hadn’t screwed it up in the first place - only JESUS can do that!
*And most importantly, only Jesus can offer us LIFE. Can turn death into life. Eternal life. “Whosoever believes in HIM shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Will you receive Him today?