The Story Still Continues

The part of the story that we're gonna be getting into today is that we're gonna read about specifically Paul and Jesus, who use their suffering. That seems like a dead end. It seems like it's a roadblock. Seems like it's going to hinder the story and the gospel. But instead, God uses suffering and difficulty actually as a pathway to advance the Gospel. And as Paul just clearly highlighted in that video of these 10 years of difficulties and struggles and suffering, it actually pointed him to the gospel, pointed him to Jesus, and now he's able to likewise do the same thing. So we're gonna be finishing up Acts here. And so the story continues. I've been doing this several weeks. Jesus says, hey, you, church. Just as Paul said, you're gonna be my manifold witness. You are going to be my witnesses, not just in Jerusalem, but in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And so let's kind of go back in the story. And I know, and look at Paul. He's Saul, but he's gonna be converted here. And so this is. He's converted on this road to Damascus. Jesus shows up, blinds him, and says, you are now going to serve me. You're gonna be an apostle. And so he goes to Ananias, this guy, and says, hey, I want you to go find Paul. And Ananias says, lord, I have heard many reports about this man and the harm he has done for your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with all authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name. But the Lord said to Ananias, go. This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles. Which wasn't a thing yet at this point, even in Acts, it's not until chapter 10 and 11. That's where Peter sees the unclean animals come down. And all of a sudden he realizes, oh, the Gentiles are included. Jesus is here telling Ananias, no, no, no. Paul is going to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and to their kings, which we saw last week in front of King Agrippa II and in front of Festus and the other Felix and. And those. But he's also now about to go in front of Nero, like he's going to meet in front of Caesar. And Jesus says, no, no, no, you need to understand. He is going to preach and proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings, even to Caesar and to the people of Israel. And so let's look at this. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then he's gonna say, he must also. I will show him how much he will suffer for my name. There seems to be this disconnect that if I suffer, then something is wrong, something's bad. I must be not doing something right. But if I'm doing okay, then everything must be going all right. But Jesus shows up and says, no, no, no. I'm gonna show Paul how much he will suffer for my name. And so Paul, he, in Second Corinthians, kind of recaps his life. And he says, are they servants of Christ? This is 2nd Corinthians 11, starting in verse 23. And I am out of my mind to talk like this. I am more. I have worked much harder. I have been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely. I have been exposed to death again and again. Five times. I received from the Jews 40 lashes. Minus one. It was against the law to whip someone, to lash them 40 times, because that would most likely kill them. So the Jews then had this rule where they said, well, we will only whip them 39 times to keep them an inch from death, because they weren't allowed in certain situations to invoke the death penalty. So they said, well, we'll do 39 times. So he said, that's what happened. I've been flogged, right? Five times, the 40 lashes. Minus one. See, where am I at here? 40 times. Minus one. Let's see. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones. Three times I was shipwrecked. That's bad luck, right? That's really bad odds. God is clearly doing something. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled, and I have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak and I do not feel weak, who is led to sin and I do not inwardly burn? He said, I struggle, too. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. That's a lot of suffering. That's a lot of. That's a lot of stuff. And in our mindset, we might read that and go, wow, God hates Paul like that's what we would think. That's exactly the opposite. Paul says, no, I've been set free. I've been saved. And that's why I glory in my sufferings and in my persecutions. I wonder how many of us, myself for sure included, how many we would have given up after this, how much I would have said, oh, after my first flogging, I must be doing something wrong. Clearly this isn't right. This must not be God's will. He's actually trying to get me to stop. I wonder if Paul ever struggled with those thoughts, that maybe Jesus isn't really who he said he was. But what we see here, again, is that suffering is not a roadblock or a dead end. God uses the suffering as a pathway, as a catalyst to propel us forward, us forward to learn about ourselves, our situation, as well as to advance the gospel. So we could talk about what is the point of suffering. And I think that's a different sermon that I've preached. But I will just say this. It'll be, I think, clarified a little bit in just a few minutes. We have left that it is a crucible to see if we make it out. If we make it out to see. Do we really believe this stuff? Do I really believe that God is good? Do I really believe that Jesus is the son of. Of the world? The son of God who takes away the sin of the world? Do I really believe that? Am I holding fast to that? Is suffering in vain? So we're gonna just see here more suffering. I don't wanna even take the time to read this. You can read it on your own. But in Acts 28:1 6, and we're gonna see that he just gets like, he's being shipped to Rome. Cause remember, he invokes Caesar. He said, no, no, I wanna talk to Caesar. They say, fine, you can go to Caesar. So for years, he's in traffic, he's traveling, and he gets to. Gets to Rome and he's shipwrecked again. And so he gets shipwrecked. And then. And now he's on this island in Malta. And when he's there, he gets up on the shore and he gets bit by a snake. Okay, so it says he gets bit by a snake. And they say, the people in Malta say this man must be a murderer. For though he escaped from the sea, the goddess justice has not allowed him to live. But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and suffered no ill effects. And the people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead. But after Waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him. They changed their minds and said that he was a God. That's a 1 8. You know what I mean? That is like, oh, you must be a murderer. Like, you're being punished for your evil deeds. Oh, oh, you didn't die. Oh, you must be God. That's a shift. It's a change in perspective. But these Malteseans, just like so many of us, struggle with this idea of a prosperity gospel, struggle with this idea of karma, meaning if somebody is suffering, therefore I am being punished by God. If somebody is being blessed, then they must be a really good person, maybe even perfect. We struggle with this. We struggle with this way of believing the prosperity gospel or karma. What goes around comes around that. What ultimately. That bad things ultimately shouldn't happen to good people. A lot of you know my story, and my dad died from cancer when I was 14. And in my mind, he was a good man. He was a. He was a pastor. He was. He was just. Just a. And I remember that when he died, that was the biggest question in my mind is, why do bad things happen to good people? And it put me in a really dark place. Because that's prosperity gospel thinking. If I'm good, then good things happen. You don't get cancer and die. That's not what happens to somebody who's good. We all in some way believe this perspective. And that idea of prosperity sent me to a dark place as a kid. And it still haunts me, that way of thinking. God, I have dedicated my past eight years to Hope Lowertown. When are we gonna start reaping it? Hey, the laborers are few, but the harvest is ready to be harvest, harvested. We're doing that. Where are you at? God, right? And I start thinking, God, you owe me. That's sin. It's a lie from the devil. That's not how God responds. I've been reading a book called the Return of the Prodigal Son by Henry Nguyen Noyn, N o u W I n and he talks about this painting from Rembrandt from the early 1600s. The thing is, when we think that prosperity gospel way, we. We are all. We all become the elder brother. We all become the brother who sees their little brother squander everything. And then the father embrace him, kill the fatted calf and throw this mega party. And the older brother's standing there saying, hello, Hello. Do you not see me? Do you not see how dedicated I've been to you? You. You can't do that for him. You haven't even done that for me. We all apply this prosperity aspect functionally. As the older brother, why should I suffer? I've been faithful. But what's interesting is that when you look at the life of Jesus and Paul and all of the apostles, it would look like God hates them for all their suffering. Rather, their suffering creates a pathway forward. It explodes the Gospel onto the scene because. Because of their suffering. Would we be okay with that? Are we okay with our suffering if we knew that it would advance the gospel? And do we really believe that finally here the Gospel reaches. Not finally, sorry, gospel reaches Rome again. We'll just kind of quickly go through this. But it seems like the story ends abruptly, right? It seems like you get into Acts and he gets there and he spends some time. But what's really cool is that there's believers, there's other brothers and sisters that reach out to Paul. And so Here in Acts 28, the last chapter here, then we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome, and the brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming. And they traveled as far from Apparius and from the three taverns to meet us. I don't know where those places are. At the sight of these people, Paul thanked God and was encouraged. And when we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him. So he lives under house arrest for two years, and then he gets in front of Nero and so these last verses of the Book of Acts. For two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. Why does it end this way? Well, Luke is with Paul. Luke is traveling with Paul. He's going through these different things with Paul, and he's there in Rome. And I think what happens is he kind of catches up to live tv. If you were like me during the Timberwolves, you know, rip that during that series, I would had it kind of recorded or whatever, and then I would fast forward through all the commercials. And you can watch a game in like 30 minutes. When you do it that way, just fly through it. But then the other night we caught up to Live, right in like the third quarter. And I don't know how many times I still would grab the remote and keep hitting fast forward. It's like, ah, right, you're at live. You've already reached life. And that's what's happening here. Cause why wouldn't Luke talk about Paul preaching the gospel in front of Nero? It's. Cause I don't think it's happened yet. I don't think it's that. So he's like, hey, this is the end of the book, because we caught up, right? And so it's interesting to see that. But we're gonna see the Apostle Paul. And we know this from church history and records that somewhere between 64 and 67 AD that Nero ends up. There's a huge persecution of the church. He ends up. The Rome kind of starts to burn, and Nero blames the Christians and there's massive persecution. And he says, oh, I know what's caused a lot of this. Probably the guy who's been writing epistles to the church all over the world from his prison cell in his home. Let's kill him. And so he's beheaded because he's a Roman citizen. He's not put on a cross, he's beheaded is kind of how it goes. And so. But we see the fulfillment of the gospel reaching the uttermost parts of the earth. All right. Finally, the story continues, still continues. And it continues in us and through us. Peter says, tells us this in 1st Peter 4. Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal. This is right during that time when Nero is. Is making massive persecution. He said, don't be surprised at the fire, right? This city's burning down and you are being attacked and murdered and killed and crucified. Don't be surprised that has come to you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. Don't be surprised. Isn't it strange that you're suffering? He says, but rejoice in so much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you participate in Christ's sufferings, you will be all the more overjoyed to see him. The worse your suffering, the more joyful you will be. It reminds me of one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible. In Luke chapter 7, Jesus goes into a Pharisee, this religious leader's house, and he's having dinner with him. Simon is his name, or Simeon. And he goes in there and. And this woman of the city comes in and she starts cleaning Jesus feet with the tears of her face and her hair. And these religious leaders are just appalled. And Jesus says, simon, I have a story I need to. I got a question for you. There's two people, one owes 500 denarii owes a lot of money. One owes 50 denarii, they can't pay it, they're in debt. But the one who they're in debt to forgives them both of their debt. Simon, who do you think will love me more? The one who was forgiven a lot or the one who was forgiven a little? And then Simon says, well, I suppose the one who was forgiven a lot. And Jesus says, you suppose correctly, right? Yeah, that's right. If you've forgiven a lot. And likewise in our suffering, those individuals who have gone through a lot, who have been in and gone through much in their life, that when they see Jesus, they will be all the more glorified and excited to see Jesus as they share in his sufferings. Continuing in Hebrews chapter 12:1 3. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him. He endured the cross. He suffers immensely on the cross. Why? Just because he likes pain? No, for the joy set before him. He knows that he can save the world. He's a scorn and shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured so much opposition from sinners that when you are suffering and enduring difficulty, you. You consider him. You look to Jesus, who also went through that so that you will not grow weary and will not lose heart. You look to Jesus, you hold onto him. And we joined this long line, this cloud of witnesses, which is the name of our next series we're gonna be starting next week, looking at different individuals in the Bible, these clouds of witnesses. We joined that line. I remember playing sports and you probably did the same thing that when one of our starters would get injured, right? The theme was always, oh, next man up, right? That's us. Now it's 2025 and we're the next man up, we're the next woman up, we're the next church up, we're the next generation up. That we don't lose heart, that we go, man, this things right now look a little dire. What's gonna happen? No, no, no, we gotta step up because so many other generations have. Why? Because. Well, we just gotta do it, win it for the Gipper. Not the Gipper. In this case, the Gipper, whatever that phrase even means is Jesus. Our turn. We've reached the end of our fast forward limit. Right. We're alive. James puts it this way. Consider pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face many kinds of trials because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, let perseverance finish its works, that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. I lack nothing. That my suffering and my trials give you that perspective. Second Corinthians, chapter 12, 8 and 9. Paul's going through it. We don't know what. He's got some thorn in the flesh. And Jesus shows up and says, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. And again, Paul says, therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in my weaknesses and insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I know my time's up. But one individual, his name is Ron Hamilton, otherwise known as Patch the Pirate. When I grew up, this was the guy. He wrote a lot of songs, and he wrote this song called I'll Rejoice in the Lord. And he became Patch the Pirate because he ended up getting cancer in one of his eyes and lost his eye and wore an eye patch. And he said, oh, my suffering. In this sense, I can advance the gospel. I can actually use my weakness as a way to promote the gospel. And he ends up changing the lives of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of kids across the world because he points them to Jesus through his suffering, that his weakness wasn't a dead end. He could have said, woe is me. Life is over. I'm never gonna be able to drive again. Fill in the blank. And he says, oh, I can use this not as a roadblock, but as a pathway to point people to Jesus. This is what he says in one of his songs, Rejoice in the Lord. God never moves without purpose or plan when trying a servant or molding a man Give thanks to the Lord Though your testing seems long in darkness he giveth a psalm. Oh, rejoice in the Lord he makes no mistakes he knoweth the end of each path that I take for when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold Gospel application for us this morning. Do you look at your sufferings as a pathway for the gospel? Do we view what we're going through to point people to Jesus? I remember years ago, this was maybe just a few years after my dad had died, and I was really struggling still with all that. I remember being on an Airplane. Back when I used to want to talk to people on planes. Now I'm like, headphones in. I'm going to take a nap. But back then, I didn't do that, maybe because we didn't have headphones or anything else to do. So we would talk to one another. And I started talking to the guy next to me, and he was flying home from Pennsylvania. I was going to look at a school or a seminary or something in Pennsylvania. And we got talking. What are you doing in Pennsylvania? And he said, oh, my dad just died. And that was one of those moments in my life where I. And I don't know, very rarely in that time have I explicitly shared the gospel with somebody where they said, yeah, I want that. And then prayed with this individual on a plane. That rarely happens. And the only reason why that happened was because I had a similar story of a dad who died. But I had hope. I had hope in Jesus. And this guy didn't have any hope and was able to share that. And he said, I want some of that, too. Do you look at your sufferings as a pathway to the gospel? Or is it just suffering? Is it just. Woe is me. I must be doing something wrong. I know we didn't get into it as much as. And I don't know what all of you are going through, and all of you, all of us in some way are going through something. But here's what I do know about suffering. It's not punishment. It's not punishment. It's not what goes around comes. It's not, you've done something wrong. Now there are consequences of our actions, of our sins, for sure. But if it's not a consequence, and it's not karma, it's not punishment from God. He's not striking you dead. God is good, is the second point. God is good, and he wants you to learn that firsthand. And three, he uses pain as a pathway for the gospel. We are going to have our time of communion that we do every week here at Lowertown. And this is just, what a cool thing, right? To end the Book of Acts. I know we flew through this, but we look at the end of the book of Acts and we see these brothers and sisters coming around and serving one another, serving the apostle Paul, that we get to do that. Now that. If you're a follower of Jesus, I'd love for you to take these elements. We did have an issue, sorry, with some of the elements this morning. So we don't have the grape juice. We've got the old School little prepackaged things so you can grab a real cracker, but you'll have to use that for the juice. If you just want to grab one of the prepackaged things, you can do that. Those are gluten free. But there's also a gluten free cracker over here if you'd rather have that. Anyways, if we look at this, we look at the wafer, this cracker, that is the body of Christ. We look at the juice that is his blood that has been shed for us. If you are a follower of Jesus and you want to be part of that and celebrate that and remember the finished work of Christ on the cross, then we would invite you to do that this morning. If you're suffering, if you're going through something, don't do it alone. Share that with your small group. Share your struggles with people around you. I'd love to pray with you if I can. Not that I've got anything magical or anything. I just want to care for you and love you in that way. And I want you to see Jesus even in the midst of suffering. Let me pray. The worship team's going to come back up and sing two songs and then we will be dismissed. Father, you are good. You are good. Father, you are really good. You are good even in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our suffering, even when we have no idea why or what is going on. God, you're good. You are good. Pray now as we take these elements that we would remember and that you're good. And we remember that you're good because of what you did. Remember that you're good because of what you did for us on the cross. You didn't owe us anything. What you owe us is justice. What you owe us is death and pain and hell. And instead you give us glory, you give us mercy, you give us grace through your son, Jesus Christ, and so we remember him this morning. I pray that you'd be honored and glorified. Now. Thank you for all that you're doing and all that you will continue to do through the manifold wisdom of who you are. And that is through this church and through your church. We love you. And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.