But As For You

Acts 14 tells a story of Paul and Barnabas living out Kingdom principles while experiencing a tough situation. After miraculously healing a disabled man, they’re hailed as gods before eventually being run out of the city and nearly killed. But even in the midst of these strange circumstances, Paul and Barnabas never abandon the Kingdom way of living. Rather than accepting the peoples’ worship, fighting back against their persecutors, or quitting their mission, they exercise self-control, endure hardship, and do the work of evangelists. Today, our call is the same. Despite persecution, hardship, and the world around us vying for our devotion, we can seek the Kingdom by dying to ourselves, enduring hardships, and working as evangelists announcing the good news of the Kingdom.

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 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, exercise self control in everything.

Endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry. These are some of the last words that we have from the Apostle Paul, and it was directed towards his young protégé, Timothy. And it’s really a powerful diagnosis of the cultural moment we find ourselves in. Anytime you preach the good news of Jesus Christ, some will turn away to hear messages that suit their own desires, to scratch their own itch, rather than adhering to the gospel.

Uh, the true gospel, crowds of people will applaud preachers to approve their own false doctrine and they’ll hire pastors to sign off on their own sinful lifestyle. And so this passage, 2 Timothy 4, is a way to anchor ourselves to the truth. And it’s also a powerful charge of where it says all these things that the world will do.

Then he says, but as for you. That might have been a better way to summarize this series, and seeking the kingdom. What does seeking the kingdom mean? It means, yes, the world is going this way, but as for you, you are countering the ways of this world. This is what we do as a community of believers. We don’t follow the myths that will suit even our own itches.

Stuff that we think we would like to hear, instead we adhere to the gospel truth. So it’s, but as for me, but as for you, but as for our house, we will serve the Lord. Amen. Amen. And that’s what we’ve been aiming to do since we started Passion Creek. We’ve certainly been doing that this year, all year is we’ve been seeking to make friends and loving other people.

We’ve been saying, Hey, the world may be caught up in all sorts of things, but it may be caught up in hate. But as for you practice hospitality, yes, the world may be caught up in all sorts of things like bitterness and resentment, but as for you practice peacemaking, and we just finished saying, Hey, the world doesn’t even know it.

But they’re caught up in greed. But as for you, practice generosity. And this, these last words that Paul preaches really actually packs a powerful punch when you know the backstory. So if you have your Bible, and I hope you do, open to Acts chapter 14. We’re continuing in our study of Acts. We will finish this by the end of the year.

Praise the Lord, hopefully Lord willing. Now we find ourselves though, what I love about this is how Acts 14 ties in to 2nd Timothy 4 as we’re reading acts 14. You won’t see it explicitly, but we pick up through hints. This is actually where Paul first meets Paul. Timothy. Now, again, you won’t see the word Timothy here in Acts 14.

However, in Acts 16, it says, okay, Paul goes on a second missionary journey and he goes back to Lystra because he found Timothy to be useful. Come join me in ministry, which we can all imply there. Okay. If he goes back there, that means he first met Timothy here in Acts 14. And so let me set the scene for you.

Acts 14 is, uh, excuse me, uh, uh, Acts 14 is the conclusion of Paul’s first missionary journey. And it’s the first time he meets Timothy. Second Timothy four is the conclusion of Paul’s entire ministry. And the last time he talks to Timothy. Okay. Acts 14 beginning. Second Timothy four, the end. And what I love is both of these chapters.

Can be summarized with the charge Paul gives, be self-controlled in everything, endure hardship, and do the work of an evangelist. And so I would actually even argue by studying it this week, I would say, Paul would say, this is the formula to a fulfilled life. So let’s invite the Holy Spirit to teach us how Paul did this and what he may be inviting you and me to do as a result.

Let’s pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, God, for softening our hearts so we can receive it. God, may we just even acknowledge our temptation to not want to hear the word or to pick and choose what to follow, but God, help us see the foolishness of that way of thinking. We just ask you, God, now that we submit to your authority, may the lifestyle that Paul exhibited to Timothy be something our congregation takes up as well.

And God, we praise you that seeking the kingdom is not just the right thing to do. It’s the beautiful thing to do. Jesus, you say, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to us. So God, may we make you and your kingdom first and foremost, for we know you will take care of the rest.

In Jesus name, everybody says, Amen. All right, let’s look at Acts 14, verses 1 through 7. Let me summarize it for you. Paul and Barnabas, They’re preaching the gospel to a new place called Iconium. This is actually 90 miles from Antioch. If you remember, we’ve been talking about Antioch a lot. Antioch was the first Gentile church, had Jewish people there as well.

So it’s the first multicultural church and they are the base by which Paul and Barnabas keep getting sent out. So next week we’ll actually see Paul and Barnabas go back to Antioch to let people know how the first missionary journey began. Went so here in Iconium, they’re pretty successful. They preach the gospel people are responding But now there is a a group of people a faction of jews who say no This is not the gospel.

Jesus is not the messiah And so they start to oppose them and then paul and barnabas learn that they’re going to get stoned to death And so as a result they flee to lystra lystra is just 20 miles south of Iconium, which was a day’s journey because You know, people used to walk back then. So that 20 miles, I’m like, that takes like a week.

But back then, I guess that would take one day. This whole thing, by the way, is in Galatia. So. Many believe Galatians, one of the letters Paul wrote, that’s the first letter Paul ever wrote. And he wrote it while he was on this first missionary journey. So I’m trying to help you see this geographically, how this is all happening.

He’s in a region of Galatia which has Iconium and Lystra and Derbe. With me so far? Okay, now, let’s pick up the story in verse 8. It’s quite interesting. In Lystra, a man was sitting who was without strength in his feet, had never walked, and had been lame from birth. He listened as Paul spoke. After looking directly at him, If you may remember Acts 3.

Peter’s preaching the gospel, sees a lame man. They look at each other directly and then gets healed. So I think Luke is trying to show the similarities between Peter and Paul. So after looking directly at him and seeing that he had faith to be healed, Paul said in a loud voice, stand up on your feet. And he jumped up and he began to walk around.

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted, saying in the Laconian language, the gods, notice lowercase g, the gods have come down to us in human form. Barnabas, they called Zeus. And Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. This makes me kind of like illustrate. I’m thinking Barnabas must be like the stronger one of the two, right?

Zeus is known as this powerful God with the lightning bolts. So just imagine Barnabas works out, right? Paul, he’s just known for his eloquence, but they, a lot of people think he’s kind of more of a frail man. So I just find that interesting. Verse 13, the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the town, brought bulls and wreaths to the gates because he intended with the crowds to offer.

Sacrifice. Such a silly, kind of funny story. All of a sudden they’re being worshipped as gods while they’re trying to preach. The gospel. Has that ever happened to you? Probably not. But here’s actually some context that I found out this week that really helps make sense why the crowd did this. So 50 years before this event, there was a major flood in a town called Ferja, which is a neighboring city of Lystra.

So this flood wiped out. It’s almost everything out and it was so detrimental, everybody had to rebuild their homes. Some people had to leave. A lot of people died. And so what humans do like we do today, anytime there’s suffering or stuff that doesn’t make sense, we make a story. We use stories to help make sense of the world.

You have to remember back then, Greek mythology was the predominant religion. Now we call it a myth, but back then they just try to call it truth. So they came up with this idea, this story, this legend that Zeus and Hermes came to Phrygia Uh, 50 years before this is happening. And it came in human form.

And they were just asking people to host them. They clearly, these people didn’t go to Passion Creek Church. They didn’t have a form of a hospitality series. They weren’t encouraged with ping pong balls. So everybody just kept saying, no, I don’t have to host you. My house isn’t clean. You’re not going to be at my house.

And so these two elder, this elderly couple, these peasants, only had a straw house. It was, you know, very weak, but they said, you know what, we don’t really have anything, but you know, let’s be hospitable. And so they invite Zeus and Hermes into their home. The story is, the flood hit everybody except this one straw house because they were hospitable to the gods.

So keep all of that in mind. Now they’re seeing two people coming in power. So they’re thinking, I don’t want to get flooded. Let’s be hospitable. Let’s worship these folks. And then we’re going to be taken care of. So this doesn’t excuse their worship, but to me, it makes a whole lot more sense why they’re doing such a, what we would say is a silly thing.

Okay. Verse 14. The apostles Barnabas and Paul tore their robes. This was a physical manifestation of like humility of saying, no, no, no, I’m not God. When they heard this and rushed into the crowd shouting, people, why are you doing these things? We are people also just like you and we are proclaiming good news to you that you turn from these worthless things to the living God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.

More on his gospel presentation in a moment. Now, we read this and we assume we would all do the same, right? Yeah, people are worshiping us. Hey, hey, hey, I’m not God. Let’s move on. But come on! Let’s humanize Paul and Barnabas. Let’s humanize you and me. They are just leaving a city from getting threatened to get stoned.

They often don’t have enough food and water. Paul says that he’s learned how to be content with nothing, because often he had nothing. I imagine all of us would be like, Alright God, you love me, but can I like enjoy this for an hour? Two hours? You know, a nice little feast. How about you, these people? This is kind of nice.

But instead, what does Paul do? He immediately shuts it down. Um. And we have to realize this is harder than it sounds. But what’s the principle Paul is modeling? Remember, Timothy is likely here in the crowd seeing all this happening. So what is he modeling to Timothy? We seek the kingdom by exercising self control and everything.

See, self control is a phrase that really doesn’t sound beautiful to the modern ear. If I’m honest, even I don’t like it, right? In fact, most of us have lost the meaning of this word. I think we’ve relegated self control to two areas. When it comes to eating dessert, right? Exercise self control, right? three, not five.

You know what I’m saying? Right. And then also we exercise self control with anger. So we think like that’s where the Lord needs to work on my self control and true. But I would argue when you really study the doctrine of self control, it’s, it’s not less than that, but it’s certainly much more than that.

I think a more helpful phrase, we used this just a, a few weeks ago for our congregation, is that idea of death to self. So really to control yourself is to crucify the self, Galatians would say in chapter 5. To crucify the flesh. One commentator put it this way, to live the Christian life is to say yes to Jesus, which means a thousand no’s to self.

To say yes to Christ is a thousand no’s to the flesh. An easy example, I love to tell people in premarital counseling, when you say I do on their wedding day, you’re saying I don’t to every other person on the planet. This is what life with Christ is like. So Paul is modeling this. When we do this, when we say yes to Jesus, it means no to sexual desires and spending money however you want.

It means no to selfishness and living however you want. And for Paul, it means no to parades and being worshipped hand and foot. Okay. But so I want us to point out though, this all stems, this idea of self control all stems from our theological understanding of desire. Now here, I think we’re going to lean into this a lot in 2025 for our church, but desire, we’re living in a cultural moment where everybody assumes desires are always good.

So if you want it, it must be right. So then the church is bad if we ever say any desire is wrong, but you don’t know what I desire if I desire it That must mean that I should have it But again, if you pull that out logically so many of us even in this room filled with christians Have certain desires that if god gave them to us, it would actually be hurtful to other people Right?

In our understanding of the world and the gospel, it’s not just that we love God, but we also love others. So often, God doesn’t give us desires if it’s at the detriment to our neighbor. And so desires are more harmful to us than we think. How many of us, we have a story, because we pursued our desires all the way to the end, now we find ourselves in a pit, now we find ourselves with shame, and now we’ve come to Christ and he has just really redeemed us and blessed us.

We have to have a better theology of self control. We have to have a better theology of desire. Because today, if our understanding of self control and desire, we’ve redefined freedom. Freedom today, I would argue, if you were to say, like, what, when somebody says we have freedom in Christ, most people would assume freedom means I have freedom to do whatever I want.

This is how we now think of freedom. I would argue most of history realized that’s not what freedom means. So freedom is freedom to do whatever I want. Self control sounds the neme sounds like the nemesis to flourishing. Why would I do that? I actually came to Christ so I can do whatever I want. I’m just forgiven.

This is a misunderstanding, right? But the Bible says our desires are not always great. They’re disordered, right? They’re dysfunctional. They divide. Now, this doesn’t mean we’re not supposed to have fun. In fact, I would say God is the opposite of a killjoy, but some of our desires have the allurement of joy, but wind up bringing death.

And so freedom in the biblical sense that Paul is modeling here, freedom is not freedom to do whatever I want. The biblical freedom is freedom. from doing whatever I want. Because I want a parade, right? But I also know a parade would be detrimental to my soul and those around. This is what Paul is living out.

We talked about this a lot. And again, I think we’re going to zero in on this more. Uh, this next year, but if you want to write this down, this is kind of the one liner we give our people anytime we give this talk on desire and self control. Quote, and this is a treism, so I don’t, it feels weird that I just said quote, whatever, scratch that, here’s what it is.

Our cheap, you know it’s gonna rhyme, our cheaper desires must be killed so that our deeper desires may be fulfilled. That’s our understanding of self control. We say no to a lot of cheap desires in order to say yes to the deepest desires. And so we just come as a community saying that a lot of times I don’t, I don’t know what’s best for me.

I think I desire this, but we submit to the scriptures and realize we don’t. All that to say, Paul is modeling here in Acts 14 and mandating in 2 Timothy 4 to live a life that says no to cheap desires by exercising self control. Okay, now Paul tells them the next thing, seek the kingdom by enduring hardship.

So this is, aren’t you glad you came today? You could have been watching football, but instead I’m going to tell you, don’t live a comfortable life. Okay, so buckle up. Seek the kingdom by enduring hardship. He mandates that in second Timothy, but see how he models that in verse 19 of Acts 14. Some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and when they went over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city thinking he was dead.

So first of all, notice the flip. They were worshiping Paul and Barnabas, and then quickly people are like, actually, let’s kill him. So they’re like, Oh, that sounds like a good idea. Just like how they did with Jesus, hail him, hail him, five days later, nail him, nail him, right? This is just what humans do.

This is why you and I don’t live for human approval. It is so fickle, and they will kill you, okay? So, all right, verse 20. After the disciples gathered around him, he got up and went into the town. I was teaching this at a junior high Bible class a few weeks ago, and I said, cue the Rocky music, and when I tell you, their faces were blank.

They had no idea who Rocky was. They’ve never heard of eye of the tiger friends. We have a discipleship issue here in our nation These children need to know about rocky one two and four right or whatever I don’t know which ones are good, but that was just it blew me away So we stopped bible class and played eye of the tiger and I inspired a generation.

So Cue the rocky music he gets back into town. He’s like boom. You can stone me But you don’t own me. All right, so he goes back into there, which is pretty incredible And so the next day he left with barnabas for derby which is right next to lystra After they had preached the gospel in that town and made many disciples they returned to lystra.

So he ain’t scared He’s going to lystra then to iconium and to antioch So he’s tracing his way back and what was he doing while he was there strengthening the disciples I love this. This is the heartbeat of our church. We don’t make attenders, right? We make Disciples, it’s not enough just to make a decision.

We want to make you into a rich person of Christ. And that’s what Paul is doing. He wants you to get saved, but man, he wants you to get sanctified. So he’s doing the hard work by coming back and really teaching them what it means to be a disciple. By encouraging them to continue in the faith, and by telling them, here’s his line to keep people in becoming like Christ.

He says, it is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. Now, remember, Timothy was likely here. He heard this encouragement. You’re going to go through hardship. And then in 2 Timothy 4, he says, endure the hardship. Paul’s always said the same thing to Timothy. In fact, 2 Timothy 3, just before what I quoted in the beginning of this message, verse 10 gives some more insight on what Paul went through while he was here in Lystra.

But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance, along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, where else? Iconium and Lystra. So now, I want, part of the reason I’m doing this is to show you how the New Testament really is a huge web and it all goes together.

So we’re learning about the story in Acts 14 that Paul is alluding to in 2 Timothy 3. What persecutions I endured, and yet the Lord rescued me from them all. Now look at verse 12. In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Look at both of those phrases. All who want to live a godly life, in Christ Jesus, will be persecuted.

You know. And, what he just said in Acts 14, it is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. How Paul begins and he ends, he’s constantly saying the same thing. And what is he saying? He’s not saying only the persecuted make it into heaven. I just want to make sure that’s clear.

I’m saying that because of Paul’s other writings. It’s very clear. The only way we are in the kingdom of God is because of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christ alone is sufficient. What he’s done for us in his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, that is the bread and butter of the Christian faith.

So hear me clearly. None of us earn our way into heaven, and none of us hurt our way into heaven. Okay? So then what is Paul saying when he has that phrase? It’s kind of interesting. Here’s a, I think a helpful way to frame it. Hardship isn’t how you get into the kingdom, but it’s often how the kingdom gets into you.

There’s so many lessons hardship teaches that nothing else can. Theologians often refer to the modern era as the Therapeutic Age. I think it’s a really helpful way to describe our moment. In other words, it’s widely accepted that we all should just do whatever we can to stay happy and to avoid suffering.

And this has been a narrative for A script that really America has been on for about a century now. Life just is about chasing happiness and avoiding all suffering. And this is honestly the greatest critique I have, or we have, against secularism. Secularism is this whole idea, there is no God, just do whatever you want.

It has no answer for suffering. I think this is why so many people have been even more depressed in recent days, because we’ve all gone through quite a bit of suffering. They have no answer for it, because life is about happiness and comfort, and a lot of life right now isn’t happy or comfortable. And they have no reason why.

The gospel absolutely has a reason. In fact, Paul is always saying, you will suffer. At best, our world today says suffering is a detour, or an interruption on the way to a good life. But there really is no understanding of suffering. And I would say what hurts me the most is here in the American church, this ideology has influenced and infiltrated us.

We often talk about suffering. Like it’s something we should all avoid. We have to make false promises. Hey, come to church and you won’t suffer anymore. That’s hard to say when Paul says, Hey y’all, you want to live a godly life. You’re going to be persecuted. You want to enter the kingdom. You will endure hardship.

And so this has kind of been, maybe you’ve felt this, it kind of doesn’t make sense. See, in the past, saints used to describe the purpose of the Christian life as theosis. Can you say that with me? Theosis. So one more time, theosis. It’s the only time I get you to talk, so I love it. All right. So theosis is simply means to become like Christ.

Okay, so some churches it’s their whole purpose. I would say that’s our purpose. That’s why we say we’re formed by Jesus It’s being formed into his image. That’s the purpose of life But because of secularism and avoiding suffering has so infiltrated the church Theosis no longer seems to be the main purpose instead.

The purpose seems to be therapeutic See we have and this is not to say i’m against therapy don’t hear me wrong But we have replaced theosis with a therapeutic and that is to our detriment We must have a more robust understanding that we must become like Christ, and typically the best way to become like Him is to suffer with Him.

This has been one of the hardest truths for me to accept. Um, I don’t know, I think I blame Disney. Uh, the Disney Channel, everything happily ever after and all of that. And I love going to Disneyland and forgetting all my problems and worries. Uh, until I go see the bank account. Anyways, so I am somebody who loves Disney.

Joy and happiness, and I hate suffering. And so that’s why ministry’s been extra hard. This is almost nine years old and there’s just been a lot of hardships that I’m not really at liberty to say. I don’t think it’s appropriate, but it’s been harder than I thought. And one thing that’s helped me the last couple years, I started a new rhythm because I really noticed the enemy wants to discourage me on Sundays now.

Promise you I work more than one day a week, but this is one day where there’s just some extra pressure and all of that. And so I’ve actually picked up a book called the imitation of Christ by Thomas a campus. He was a, a saint in the 13th century. It’s such a good book. And literally I open it. I just pick a random chapter and I just get courage.

I just get so excitement to share the gospel and to be a pastor because this book tells me you will suffer, but that’s for your good. And it helps me to keep pursuing. Let me show you one quote. Quote that I read just this week, quote, our worth and spiritual progress do not rest on warm feelings and God given comforts, but rather on patiently enduring great calamities and trials.

Just this week, a pastor called me very discouraged. The thing he’s going through is discouraging. And I shared with him this quote, and I said, brother, endure hardship. I can’t tell you it’s got to get easier because I think it might get harder. But that’s the, that’s the game. That’s the life we’re called to live.

But the beauty is who we become. And I think we need to talk about that more. Now let me be clear. What kind of hardships is Paul talking about? I think it’s purposely vague because all of us have hardship in so many different forms for Paul, specifically what we see in X 14, a lot of the hardship is persecution from the outside.

So nonbelievers trying to stone him, beat him, leave him for dead. Right? So that’s, that is a hardship. I would argue some of us experience that such a smaller percentage, but you know, being made fun of or, or losing friendships because the gospel, I get that. But also what’s fascinating about second Timothy is so much of that letter at the end of his life.

You can tell most of his hardships are relationships from within the church that have hurt him. He has people, he said, man, Alexander, the copper Smith, he did me great harm. Watch out for him. Demos. He used to be my guy. He used to be my right hand man. And now he’s fallen in love with the world. You can see his sorrow and hardship is because of hurt from within.

I just want to acknowledge that out loud. We all hurt each other because we’re not perfect. Some of it is evil intent, and as shepherds we have to work through that, but other times life just happens. That’s a part of the hardship that actually forms us into his image. See, Paul here is a force, a force for good.

He lives a fulfilled life, and it’s because of suffering, not in spite of it. So endure. Now, let’s close with Paul’s final charge, seek the kingdom by doing the work of an evangelist. If you’re like me, I grew up, well we are Baptist Church, I grew up Baptist, my grandfather was an Evangelist, capital E, and so to me, an Evangelist means you’ve preached to thousands, and my grandfather did a great job at that, but I think a more faithful interpretation of this text is just a little, lowercase e, we’re all called to be Evangelists, that, The Greek word there is euangelion, which I believe Pastor Caleb taught last week.

It just simply means the good news or the gospel. So to be an evangelist is to gospelize, is to share the gospel. And here’s why Paul says, do the work of an evangelist. It’s work for two reasons. One, it takes courage, right? It’s hard to share the gospel to people who are against it, but two, it takes contextualization.

And that’s how I want us to land the plane here to see how does Paul contextualize the gospel 14. Let’s go back up to 15 chapter 14 verse 15 people. Why are you doing these things? We are people also, just like you, and we are proclaiming good news to you. Notice how it doesn’t say good advice. It’s not a list of things you have to do.

It’s good news because Christ has already done it. Good news that you turn from these worthless things to the living God. So he’s juxtaposing worthless things or idols to the God who lives, right? Who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. In past generations, he allowed all the nations to go their own way.

In other words, in your testament, God’s primary vehicle was to Israel, but now it’s to the whole world. Verse 17, Although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good. He’s talking about how good God is by giving you rain from heaven. So a lot of them thought rain came because they worship the God of harvest.

He’s saying, no, no, no. It’s the living God that has given you rain and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy. This is pretty incredible. Paul is preaching. He’s saying, look, you’ve been worshiping these other idols, but this good God who you haven’t even worshiped and served yet has already been kind to you, which is the exact opposite of the idols of their day.

The idols then would say, you have to worship and serve and sacrifice. And I might bless you. you and Paul is presenting a whole new understanding of who God is. But I want you to notice this. Paul is doing the work of evangelist by contextualizing the gospel. Pastor Caleb taught on Acts 13 last week.

Paul preaches the gospel in Acts 13, but notice this. The crowd are mainly Jews and God fearing Gentiles, meaning they’ve heard of the Old Testament. So how does Paul preach the gospel? He points to the Mosaic law and says, you know how you feel guilty and you can’t fulfill it? Guess what? Jesus Christ has done it in your place.

But Paul doesn’t go there here in Acts 14, because Paul is now preaching to pagans who are not Jewish and they’re uneducated. So instead of talking about the Mosaic law and the guilt and shame you feel, he is pointing to creation and the goodness of God and how just he is from the beginning. You see, these gospel presentations are different.

Let me put it this way. In Acts 13, 38 through 39, Jesus is the Messiah who saves you from your sins. He looks at a group of people filled with guilt and shame, trying to uphold the law, and Jesus says, Paul says, Because of Jesus you are forgiven. Jesus fulfilled the law in ways you never could. There is grace, brothers and sisters, for you.

But that’s not the message he preaches in Acts 14. Is it a different gospel? No. It’s just a different angle of the gospel. In Acts 14, 15 through 17, Jesus is the master who saves you from your slavery. He’s saying, look, you are slaves to worthless things. They served idols that never served them back again.

In this time, if you wanted, uh, success in the workplace, you would worship the God of the workplace. If, if you wanted sex, you would worship the God of sex. If you would want money, you would worship the God of money. And a lot of us today and our neighbors are very much like that. We don’t have a shrine.

We don’t have a temple. But we worship these things and think if I focus and spend all of my effort and attention on these idols It will serve me back and here is the good news. It will never fulfill you but christ can Right. I don’t know if you’ve ever lived this life, but if your god is money You’ll always feel poor If your god is beauty, you’ll always feel ugly Even if your god is friendship, which is a good thing.

You’ll always feel lonely Idolatry always leads to emptiness and that’s Paul’s main emphasis here. What Paul is doing is he’s contextualizing the gospel. Now, he’s actually cut off here in Acts 14. We don’t see the rest of the message because they try to worship him and then kill him. I think we see a very similar, uh, message in Acts 17.

We’ll go through that in a couple weeks. A fuller presentation of the gospel. But in every gospel presentation in Acts, here’s what is essential. One is the nature of God. Is loving and just. You always see that in gospel presentations. He’s a good God, but also he’s righteous and there is judgment. Number two, we’ll see the state of our sin, the hopeless condition we’re in death.

Uh, because, uh, because of sin, we have death and disease and destruction. So we’re in a pretty bad place. Also in every gospel presentation and acts it points to the supremacy and sufficiency of christ You may have not been able to do it, but christ does it for you. He’s the messiah who saves you He’s the master who frees you this is who christ is and then the fourth is there’s always a call to repent There’s a belief there is a get baptized.

There’s a do something about this Message, but I want us to see the gospel is like a diamond with many different angles and for too long We have been lazy in our evangelism because we’ve heard how to share the gospel in one way, and we have just shared it that one way. But sometimes you’re in the wrong context.

You have to share it differently. Let me show you D. A. Carson. He has a really wonderful article online you can find. He shares six different dimensions of sharing the gospel. In other words, six different gateways to pointing to the supremacy of Christ. And I think it’s really helpful in helping you be better and me be better at the work of an evangelist.

Number one, he says, sometimes the appeal is to come to God out of fear of judgment and death. This is real. This is why I love funerals more than weddings. Because when I share the gospel. They’re like seeing death in the face, and so they might actually respond, right? At weddings, I’m not the focus, and I shouldn’t be, right?

I can’t really, I can preach the gospel a little bit, but death? We’re in such a culture who doesn’t want to think about death. So some of us are gateways to say, hey, we’re all gonna die. I remember when I was a youth pastor and one of the deacons told me, Hey, let’s make a hell house. I did. We did this in the sixties where we make this huge home into like flames of people.

They’re chopping their arms off and this, that, and then just share the gospel in the last room. And then they’ll get saved. And I’m like, no, this is not going to work. This is not contextualizing the gospel. They will say whatever I want them to say just to get out of the house. I don’t think it’s really going to set foot, but there is a way not through the hell house, but there is a, anybody ever seen or heard of a hell house?

Raise your hand. Oh, wow. And to the wounded, I just pray for you. Okay. So that is one way, though. Hey! That’s funny. I have way more hands to raise than I thought. Okay, I thought this was a new idea. Alright, so, the second way to share the gospel, do the work of evangelists. Sometimes the appeal is to come to God out of a desire for release from the burdens of guilt and shame.

You see this a lot with like Ray Comfort. Have you seen him? He goes to the beach and says, Are you a sinner? And people are like, No. And he’s like, Well, have you stolen anything? Yeah. Check right off the tank of mammoths. Have you murdered anybody? No. But have you hated somebody? Well, yeah. Well, Jesus says that’s murder.

Check. Right. And so you see this person start to feel guilt and shame. I’m not making fun of it, but like this is how the sequence of events goes. And they say, well, do you want to get saved? And then they get saved. Now here’s the problem. What I’m noticing in our area, people feel less and less guilty about their sin.

Should they? Yeah. Do they? Not at all. In fact, I’ve noticed people who are raised in the church, they were the ones who are least guilty. Like, shameful about their past. They have somehow created a false gospel that says there isn’t such a thing as sin, so God just, everything’s fine, I don’t have to address it.

Now, that sounds nice, but how do you address the evil in this world? The destruction? The death? Like, there has to be this thing called sin, and there has to be right and wrong. For some people, they’re ready. Just preach the gospel. Talk about how God will wipe away their shame. But some people, that goes right over their head.

So keep contextualizing the gospel. The next way. Sometimes the appeal is to come to God out of appreciation for the attractiveness of truth I really like this one I actually think we were even sharing the gospel in a way during the generosity series because we kept saying hey the world says The good life is hoarding But scripture says and data says and everybody living life says actually it’s more blessed to give than to receive See when you teach the bible over and over I have just even my faith has been stirred the more I preach it the more I’m like, oh, this is actually good Real this stuff is true.

Like this stuff is a hundred percent. Like I get it. It makes the worldview make sense So that’s one way another way. Sometimes the appeal is to come to God to satisfy unfulfilled Extensional longings. I love to tell people. Hey, Jesus is a living water that never runs out. I Love to preach preach the gospel this way to successful people Because you’ll notice people who are at the top of their craft, who has achieved a lot of money, they will all admit, like Solomon and Ecclesiastes, there is a hole that they still haven’t been able to fill.

So we poke in that hole and we say, did you know even more success is not going to give you what you think it does. But Christ is everything you’ve been searching for. He is the living water. He is the bread from heaven. He satisfies and he is always good. He gives you purpose and meaning in life. I’ll keep going.

Sometimes the appeal is to come to God for help with a problem. I love here. Paul heals a lame man that’s helping with the problem. I love churches and ministries that meet physical needs financial needs relational needs. It’s a way It’s a gateway to say God is a caring God. He cares for all of your needs He knows the very number of hairs on your head.

God is a good God and he cares about you That’s a great way to share the gospel Last way d. a. Carson says sometimes the appeal is to come to God simply out of a desire to be loved I’ve really noticed when you live life long enough, you really begin to see you have an ache for a father who is proud of you and who loves you.

You have an ache for a community to be there for you in the ups and downs of life. But if you do a world long enough, you realize none of that is on offer except in Christ. So sometimes the gospel message is, hey, your ultimate ache is to be adopted, to be a son or daughter of the king, to have a father that can graciously say, this is my son, this is my daughter, with whom I am well pleased.

You are loved, you are cared for, he’ll never leave you nor forsake you. That’s another way to share the good news of Jesus. And I know I just threw a lot at you, and my prayer is that even in groups this week, we kind We kind of process this out loud together, think of different ways we can do the work of an evangelist.

 But I just want us to close by wrestling with two questions. In fact, I want us to respond by kind of closing our eyes and just spending some time just kind of focusing to hear from God. I just wonder, how do you answer each question? The first question, Will you surrender to this good King? And reject Satan and all of his empty promises.

Jesus is a good God who has saved you for those who are willing to believe. Are you afraid of death and judgment? Jesus defeated sin, Satan, and death on the cross and offers us new life. Are you exhausted from trying to uphold the law and earn your way into heaven? Jesus took all your guilt and shame and nailed it to the cross and gives you his righteousness.

Are you looking for truth to align with reality? Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He’s not only right, Jesus is good, and He’s beautiful. Are you living an unfulfilled life, lacking meaning and purpose? Jesus is the living water that never runs out. He gives you purpose. He gives you peace that passes understanding.

Are you looking for help and hope in a time of desperation? Jesus can help you and heal you. Jesus says He’ll never leave you nor forsake you. Are you tired of feeling alone? Are you tired of feeling like you’re unloved and not worthy? Jesus knows you fully and loves you deeply. He has fully forgiven you.

On the cross and the resurrection, He loves you. He is giddy about loving you. In fact, He not only loves you, hear me, He likes you. Will you surrender to this good King? And for those of us who have already surrendered, I ask my next question. Will you seek His kingdom with us at Passion Creek? By exercising self control, enduring hardship, and doing the work of an evangelist.

This is hard. You can’t do it alone, but my call to you is to do it in community with us. There is grace. There is hope for you and me to live this fulfilled life. Because friends, the time has come when people do not tolerate sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, they multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear.

They are turning away from the truth and turning aside to myths. But as for you, as for us, exercise self control in everything. Endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist so you fulfill your ministry.