A clergyman by the name of Bishop Milton Wright said in the nineteenth century, “Flight is reserved for the angels.” On December 17, 1903, his oldest son, Wilbur, flew the first power-driven plane 120 feet in Kitty Hawk, NC. There were some who though the Wright brothers were a little touched before that fateful day, but today they are everyone’s heroes. As we will discover in a few moments, there were some that thought the Apostle Paul was a “little touched” as well because of the things he was teaching and the passion with which he was teaching it. But Paul’s sanity was firmly intact—he was simply fulfilling God’s call upon his life.
Just like Job and Joseph, the Apostle Paul has been accused of things that he did not do, but he is in prison none-the-less. As we examine the first portion of Acts 25, I want us to consider this erroneous indictment of Paul and how he responded to it. Hopefully this will help us to see how we ought to deal with false accusations when they come… and they will come.
The goal for today’s message is to examine Paul’s interaction with Felix and his wife, Drusilla. How did Paul share the truth of the gospel? How did Felix and Drusilla respond to his message? And what can we draw from this interaction that is applicable to our lives today?
The fourth verse of the great old hymn, “How Firm a Foundation,” says,
“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to His foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”
This hymn is written as if God is speaking to us, promising us that He will never forsake us. What a blessed assurance this is! God’s presence is with us and God’s providence is for us.
The intense desire to be right is instinctive for human beings. As we continue to explore Paul’s experiences in the city of Jerusalem, we will be able to pull back the curtain and see some of the struggles and patterns of sin that Paul continued to deal with even later in his life. Our goal today is to see ourselves clearly so that we will allow the grace of God to intervene in us to help us focus more on being righteous instead of being right.
If someone were to ask you for evidence that you are a follower of Jesus Christ, what would you say? What aspect of your life would you point to? The Bible is clear that the purpose behind the new birth in Jesus Christ is to be conformed to the image of Christ. If you were to look into a spiritual mirror, would you see more of Him or of you? Is God’s impact on your life evident?
As we venture into this next section of our passage, Paul is continuing to model obedience for us. Just as everyone predicted, Paul’s arrival in Jerusalem triggered a series of events that brought about his imprisonment and eventual death. Paul was one of the first missionaries that served the Lord in the face of danger, but he certainly was not the last. So as we look back to Acts 21 and see how Paul was faithful to obey God in the face of danger, I want us to evaluate our own lives to determine if we are willing to obey God when it doesn’t make sense, or even, in the face of danger.
The Book of Acts chronicles the empowerment, growth, persecution and expansion of the New Testament church; but the end of the book was not the end of the church! It was only just the beginning! The church has continued to grow and expand ever since the time that it was established by Jesus. We need to realize that the Book of Acts records less than 2% of the overall history of the church from its birth until now. We may be coming to the end of this book in the Bible, but it is only the beginning when it comes to the work of God through His church in this world.
We will be talking about this concept of “abiding” off-and-on throughout this year. This morning, I want us this to consider the implications of Psalm 91 on “abiding” when you look at it through the lens of God’s promises and our steadfast obedience to His Word. Remember what we learned in part one of this short series: God does not promise to keep us from trouble and difficulties in this life—He promises to see us through it! So as we considered His promises to protect us in Psalm 91, do not lose sight of the fact that He is working all things—the good, the bad, and the ugly—together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
The overall theme of this psalm is the promise of God to protect those who have trusted in Him—in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Next week, we will focus on what these promises are and how they relate to life in a world threatened by a global pandemic, but the questions that we want to consider today are: “How do we understand God’s promises in Psalm 91? How do we interpret these promises in light of the teaching in the rest of Scripture?”