Dealing with the Opposition (Acts 13.1-12)

I’d like you to imagine this is some years hence and you are considering candidates for a new vicar. You have looked at the profiles of several promising candidates when a new folder lands on your desk.

You open it to find, first of all, a physical description of your potential new minister. I quote: “He has a small and contracted body, crooked and bow legged. He has a little head and strange eyes; his eyebrows join together; his hook nose is bent and somewhat long; his beard is thick and he has a sprinkling of grey hairs on his otherwise bald head. His face is pale and looks rather old.”

But not to be swayed by what are after all superficial matters, you read down his CV and it includes the following facts. “He rarely stays more than twelve months in one place, usually upsets people every time he opens his mouth, is often hard to understand, is known to be publicly argumentative with colleagues, has often found himself in trouble with the police, is frequently in court, has spent several terms in prison, apparently hears voices, is by his own admission an unimpressive public speaker and earns a bit of money by making camping equipment.”

I wouldn’t blame you if you replied to that particular applicant “We’ll let you know.”

But you’d be turning down the Apostle Paul. The physical description is the earliest we have and dates from the second century.

The biography on the CV is all taken from the Bible. He was perhaps the least promising candidate imaginable for ordained ministry (as we call it) but he was one of the greatest missionaries that has ever lived.

If ever there was a perfect demonstration of the truth that man looks at outward appearances but God looks at the heart, the Apostle Paul is surely it.

Today’s reading from Acts describes how that all started. He didn’t wake up one morning and decide on a career move. He was sent out with the blessing of his church after it had been made clear to them that he was called to the work.

His sending church was in Antioch, a city quite some distance north of the Holy Land. Up to this point, believers in Jesus were just considered to be eccentric Jews. But in this church, most of the believers were not Jews but Gentiles. So the question arose, what should we call these people? It was, in fact, the locals who gave them the nickname ‘Christians’ and it’s obvious why.

As J. John once said, “If you take ‘Christ’ out of ‘Christian’ you’re left with ‘Ian’. And Ian isn’t going to get you to heaven!”

It’s clear from the descriptions in the first few verses that there was a diversity of religious background, country of origin, background culture, ethnicity, and professional training in that church in Antioch.

These verses also tell us about the diversity of their spirituality. Four features of it are mentioned; two of which are instantly recognisable in today’s church and two of which have rather fallen into disuse.

Their services had a mixture of teaching and prophecy. Teaching is the proclamation of eternal truths applicable at all times and in all places. That’s what I’m doing now. But prophecy is inspired words from God for local situations and specific times. We see less of that today perhaps but we need both ministries if the church is to be healthy.

We’re also told they prayed and fasted. Prayer needs no explanation. Fasting is a denial of the physical appetite in order to sharpen our spiritual hunger. If I’m wondering if I left the gas on while I pray, it’s distracting. Fasting clears the decks to pray with focus. Like prophecy, fasting is somewhat neglected in the contemporary church. But again, we need to both pray and fast if we are going to see the kind of spiritual dynamism they had in the Acts of the Apostles.

So Paul was sent out with his co-leader Barnabas and they went to Cyprus, where Barnabas was from, and they travelled the length of the island.

They started with those who were nearest to God. They went to the synagogues and explained what the Old Testament says about Jesus.

They started with people who believe in God but don’t know Christ. These are the best people to share faith with in our country.

And it is in fact most people. A 2007 YouGov poll on attitudes to faith in this country showed the following:

I believe in God - 28%

I believe in “something” but am not sure what - 26%

I am an Atheist - 16%

I am Agnostic (no one can know if there is a God) - 9%

I would like to believe and envy those who do but can’t  -5%

I haven’t given it much thought - 10%

I don’t know - 3%

Other - 3%

If you take away those who say there is no God and those who say it’s impossible to say, there are still about 75% of people with whom you can have a proper discussion about your faith.

Put it another way. Judy Hirst from our diocese was telling the MDT on Thursday night that society is, broadly speaking divided into 5 categories.

10% are churchgoers – at least once a month. That’s us.

A further 10% are the what she called the fringe. That’s those who come occasionally, or who attend Little Ted or the Drop-in. It's unbelieving spouses of members here. It's those who we have contact with through weddings and funerals. They are on the edge of church life but can’t really be considered as members.

A further 20% used to come to church but don’t any more. Maybe they got too busy. Maybe they moved and didn't settle in a new church. Maybe children came along and there was nothing really for them. They would be open to coming back – but just haven’t got round to it.

A further 20% also used to come to church but don’t any more. However, these ones are closed about the idea of coming back. They’ve had a bad experience. Someone upset them. The vicar got their mum’s name wrong at a funeral. The church committed the unforgivable sin of getting rid of the pews. They took offence and are determined to never come back.

And the final 40% are unchurched. Apart from the odd wedding of a distant relative or Auntie Flo's funeral, they have never been inside a church. They have no idea what the church is like, what it stands for and what it does. It just does not feature in their world at all.

Which do you think are the most strategic groups for sharing our faith? I think it's groups 2 and 3, and then 5. By that estimation it's still 70%.

That’s the equivalent of where Paul and Barnabas started out in their world. Eventually, their greatest opportunity arrived when they were invited to Governor’s Palace.

Billy Graham was relatively unknown in Britain when he first came. Then was invited to Windsor Castle to meet the Queen – and his ministry took off. The same happened with Paul and Barnabas only this time it was the Roman Governor.

The Romans were notoriously superstitious. They put a lot of energy into interpreting dreams, astrology, horoscopes and the occult. They hired soothsayers and personal clairvoyants. One of them was a lapsed Jew called Elymas.

The good news of Jesus and the bad news of dark world of occult arts never mix. It’s like a warm front colliding with a cold front – the only possible outcome is a thunderstorm.

Tom Wright says that “there is no advance for the gospel without opposition… It’s only when an apparent disaster threatens or when the church is suddenly up against confrontation and has to pray its way through, that you can be quite sure you’re on the right track.”

When Paul and Barnabas met spiritual resistance there was a threat to the success of their ministry. But they had a praying and fasting church behind them. There was plenty of spiritual capital in their heavenly bank account. I believe it’s because there was a covering of prayer that when difficulty came, instead of stalling, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and equipped to deal with the problem before them.

We know about the miracles of opening the eyes of the blind. But there is also the miracle of closing the eyes of the seeing. It happened to Paul, then called Saul, you’ll remember in chapter 9.

The Venerable Bede, commenting on this incident, said 900 years ago, “Paul, remembering his own case, knew that by the darkening of the eyes the mind’s darkness might be restored to light.”

The result is that the Governor came to Christ. That was a big fish. Pray that men and women of position and influence in our town come to faith in Jesus. Pray for your MP, for the Mayor, for the Town Council, for the Police Commissioner, for captains of industry and business leaders.

Verse 12 says “When the governor saw what had happened he believed.” So seeing is believing. When Long Newton and Teesside can see the results of what we say, faith will come.

Our town will not believe until it sees Jesus in the lives of ordinary Christians, feeding the poor, healing the sick and loving the unlovable.

Then, even if we have bow legs, hooked noses and bald heads, even if we have a CV to be filed in the shredder, the world will look past us and see Jesus.

Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 26th October 2014.

Seeds of Faith (Luke 8.4-15)

A Baptism Talk on the Parable of the Soweer

Introduction

Everyone loves a story, especially if it’s told well. Jesus knew that perfectly well. He told lots of stories. In fact, there was a particular time in his life when the Bible says he didn’t say anything to anyone without telling a story.

It must have been a bit weird. “Morning Jesus, how are you today?” “Well, once upon a time there were two pirates in a haunted galleon…”

He was a masterful story teller and some of his stories are among the most popular in the world but they are usually called, not stories, but parables.

The story we just read this morning is one such parable and what it says is simple - a farmer scatters seeds, throwing them all over the place. That’s the way they do it in the Middle East, not planting seeds in neat rows as we do but spreading it all over the soil.

You can go out there today and see that they still do it that way now. And because the farmer has this scattergun approach, the seeds land in different places with different results.

We’ll think about all that in just a moment but first, what actually is a parable? What makes a parable different from any other story? There are in fact three things that make a story a parable.

A Story with a Moral

Firstly, parables usually have a moral to them. The Hare and the Tortoise is not just a story about a race, it’s a lesson about being arrogant. The moral is that pride comes before a fall.

Here’s a story with a moral: A sales rep, a secretary and a manager are walking to lunch when they come across an old lamp. They rub it and a genie appears. The genie says: "I'll give you all one wish." "Me first!” says the secretary. I want to be in the Bahamas, on a luxury yacht, with a spa." Puff! She's gone. "Me next!” says the sales rep. I want to be in Crete, on the beach with my personal masseuse and an endless supply of beer." Puff! He's gone. "OK, your turn now" says the genie to the manager. The manager says: "I want those two back in the office straight after lunch." The moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say.

A Story with a Meaning

Parables not only have a moral, they also have a meaning. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is bit like this; it’s not really about pigs and sheep and chickens or agriculture. It’s actually about Communism. That’s the hidden meaning. Jesus’ parables are like this; you have to look deeper to see what they’re really saying.

Jesus calls this a “secret” in v10. Some people unlock the secret and get the meaning. Others don’t.

Getting the meaning of a parable is like one of those magic eye pictures; when you look at it a certain way, it reveals a hidden 3-D shape. Some people see it quite quickly. Others try for a bit, get annoyed and give up. Some don't even bother.

If you're not interested in spiritual things, you'll only see a nice little story about sowing seeds. If you don’t want to know God, all this will go over your head, you’ll be glad when the service is over so you can leave. That’s precisely what Jesus says will happen.

But if you're in this place because you're looking for God, what you experience here today will make sense. If you are motivated to get to know God, when you hear the words of Jesus you will see truth.

A Story with a Mirror

Parables not only have a moral and a meaning, they are also a mirror. In Jesus’ stories, if you engage with them, you see things about yourself, and what you’re really like.

That’s what happens in the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus tells it to a religious man who is basically looking for an excuse to avoid the riff raff. But as he listens to Jesus'story, he realises that he is like the pompous priest who walks on by on the other side because he doesn’t want to get involved.

The story is a mirror and he gets a nasty shock when he looks at it – which is something I can relate to every morning.

In today’s story, Jesus said that there are four different ways that people approach God.

1. The Path

In the Middle East, you find many beaten down tracks that lie between fields. They’re like public footpaths; this is where everyone walks and so they become very hard, like concrete.

The farmer says, “Some of my seed fell on this path. Before it had a chance to take root, in fact before lunchtime, the birds ate it up and it was gone.”

These are people, Jesus says, who switch off. As soon as you mention God they glaze over. Some have a hardness of heart – perhaps because they’ve been hurt or upset by someone they associate with the church. With others it’s hardness of mind; a kind of prejudice that says “whatever you tell me, I don’t want to know.”

I once knew a man who plied me with questions about my faith. Some questions were really good. What about suffering? How can you believe in miracles? Does evolution disprove creation? What about other religions? Other questions were a bit silly. What about the Da Vinci Code? We worked through the questions together but each time we did, he’d raise some other objection.

So one day I said to him, “Look, if I answered all your questions to your complete satisfaction, would you believe in Jesus Christ?” He said “No.” He was like the seed on the path – for all his apparent interest he was in fact closed.

2. Rocky Places

So the farmer says “Some of my seed fell on rocky places. The plants grew really quickly here – but they didn't last long. They quickly withered away because they didn't have enough soil to grow good roots.”

You can find this sort of ground all over the place in Israel; hard limestone which is porous so it soaks up rain very quickly. Plants spring up in no time but they soon wither in the hot sunshine. You need a layer of soil for plants to survive, so that the roots can use the moisture before it dries up.

These are people, Jesus says, who are enthusiastic when they hear about God’s power to change lives, but it’s only shallow. They believe for a little while, but life moves on and they forget all about it.

For Gracie and Sienna being baptized this morning, today is only a start. Baptism means very little by itself; it’s like seeds you water only once and then leave to dry.

You see, baptism doesn’t make you a Christian; only ongoing faith in Jesus can make you a Christian. So I want to encourage you to keep watering the seed of faith by reading the Bible and teaching your girls to pray and encouraging them to be part of this Christian community.

3. Thorns

So the farmer says “Some of my seeds fell among thorns. Nothing really grows here – only thistles and weeds which take over.”

Palestinian thorns can grow 5 or 6 feet high. Busy farmers might have time to lop the tops off, the visible part above the soil, but if they leave the roots in they get nowhere. Anyone who has a garden knows that weeds and thorns grow faster than anything else and you’ve got to root them out or they’ll just be worse than before.

Jesus said this is like the worries and distractions we all have that smother our life of faith until it suffocates. All of us are busy. All of us are pressed for time. All of us have interests and cares. And that’s good. The question is “Am I prepared to let the important and the urgent choke to death the essential?”

4. Good Soil

But the farmer says “And some of my seed fell on good soil and it became a harvest.”

Only some who hear the good news about Jesus become believers. And Jesus says that they produce a harvest of love and joy and faith.

A few years ago, (this is a true story), the Christian author Tony Campolo flew to Hawaii for a conference. He checked into a hotel and went to bed.

Unfortunately, his internal clock woke him at 3:00am. He got up and looked for somewhere to get an early breakfast. Everything was closed except for a grungy café down a small alley.

So he goes in and a guy with greasy hair and dandruff comes over. “What d’ya want?” Well, Tony isn’t so hungry anymore so he says, “I’ll have a black coffee please.”

As he sits there sipping his coffee, in walk eight or nine prostitutes just finished with their night’s work. Tony finds himself surrounded by this group of chain smoking, hard swearing and underdressed women. He decides to gulp his coffee down and make a quick getaway.

But the woman next to him says to her friend, “You know what? Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m gonna be 39.” To which her friend replies, “So what d’ya want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday?”

The first woman says, “Ah, come on, why do you have to be so mean? I’m just sayin’ it’s my birthday. I don’t want anything from you. I’ve never had a birthday party in my life. Why should I have one now?”

Tony sits and waits until they leave, and then he asks the guy with the greasy hair and dandruff, “Do they come in here every night?” And it turns out that they do.

He says “I heard that the one next to me has her birthday tomorrow. Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her in the café?”

“That’s great,” he says, “I like it.” He turns to the kitchen and shouts to his wife, “This guy’s got a great idea. Tomorrow is Agnes’ birthday and he wants to throw a party for her.”

His wife appears. “That’s terrific,” she says. “You know, Agnes is so nice. She’s always trying to help other people and nobody does anything for her.” So they make their plans.

At 2:30am the next day, Tony is back. He has crepe paper and other decorations and a sign made of big pieces of cardboard that says, “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” They decorate the place from one end to the other and get it looking great.

The man with the dandruff and greasy hair (whose name is Harry) got the word out about the party and by 3:15am practically every call girl in Honolulu is there.

At 3:30am, in she walks. They all shout “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” She is absolutely stunned, her mouth falls open, her knees start to buckle, and she almost falls over.

And when the birthday cake with all the candles is carried out, she starts to sob. She pulls herself together and blows the candles out. Everyone cheers, “Cut the cake, Agnes!”

But she looks down at the cake and, without taking her eyes off it, says, “Look, is it all right with you if we don’t eat it right away?”

Harry shrugs and says, “Sure, if that’s what you want to do. Keep it. Take it home if you want.”

She says, “I live just down the street; I want to take the cake home, is that okay? I’ll be right back.” She picks up the cake, and carries it high in front of her like it was the Holy Grail. Everybody watches in stunned silence and when the door closes behind her, nobody seems to know what to do.

So Tony stands on a chair and says, “What do you say that we pray together?”

And there they are in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon diner, half the sex workers in Honolulu, at 3:30am, hanging on a preacher’s every word as he prays for Agnes, for her heart, her health, and her salvation; that her life would be changed, and that God will be good to her.

When he’s finished, Harry leans over, and says, “Hey, you never told me you was a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?”

Tony says, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for hookers at 3:30 in the morning."

Ending

That’s when the seed falls on good soil. Jesus said that the seed is the word of God. The power is all there in the seed. You take a small, wrinkled, dry seed – any seed. There is enough life in that tiny pip to crack concrete. There is enough power in God’s word to change broken people into mended people, and cranky people into sorted people and lost people into found people.

I want to finish with one last story from World War II. A church in London was preparing for its harvest service. People had been in decorating the building and filling it with the fruits of the earth. But the Saturday night before the harvest festival a bomb fell on the church and completely destroyed it. Not a brick was left on another, not a pew, hymn book or Bible survived; everything was totally ruined.

But the following spring, amidst the rubble on that site, a new shoot appeared. It was from the seed of some of that harvest produce on display. You can raze a brick building to the ground in an instant, but all the dynamite in the Third Reich cannot kill the life stored up in one seed.

The words of Jesus, like a seed, have the power to produce life in people, whenever a heart is open to God. 

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 19th October 2014

The Tests of True Testimony (Acts 9.19-31)

Introduction

I just love hearing the testimonies of people who have come to know the Lord. Don’t you? I always find listening to testimonies both interesting and encouraging.

Some speak of the change from a notoriously sinful lifestyle. Others come from people who have always been law-abiding citizens.

Some are about sudden conversions. Others are about a more gradual process.

Some speak of a great personal cost involved, like complete rejection from parents. Others result in obvious blessing.

Some are absolutely sensational. Others are much more ordinary.

Have you got a testimony? I mean by that a brief summary of how you came to be a follower of Jesus. Ideally it should be short - about a minute or two is perfect - it should contain no religious jargon and it should describe three things;

·         what your life was like before you were a Christian

·         the circumstances in which you came to believe in Jesus

·         the difference it has made since

I wonder if you could you say something along those lines if someone came up to you today and asked you to do so?

Well, we’ve all heard testimonies and some are so amazing you have to pinch yourself and wonder if it’s real. Saul’s Damascus Road conversion was like that.

But how can you tell if a testimony is genuine? The passage we just read has five tests that tell you if a testimony is real or not and we’re going to go through them one by one.

1. The Test of Endurance

Firstly, the test of endurance. In other words, does it last? The thing I’m most interested in is not the lifestyle before conversion, however sensational it might be, nor is it the experience of conversion itself, however stunning it might be. I’m most interested in hearing about the resulting life change after conversion.

I’ve heard many testimonies over the years from people who can talk enthusiastically about what happened to them 5, 10 or 20 years ago but who stop short of explaining what has happened in their lives since.

But the real test of a genuine conversion in the Bible is what happens afterwards.

How do we know that Saul’s conversion was real? Is it because he fell down on the Damascus Road? Is it because he was blinded by a bright light and heard the audible voice of God? Not really.

We know it was genuine because 40 years later, in the last chapter of the last letter he wrote, as he awaited death by beheading, he was able to say this: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

And the New Testament is crystal clear on this; it is those who persevere to the end who will be saved.

2. The Test of Witness

Secondly, the test of witness. Is there a readiness to tell others? When we left Saul last Sunday morning, it was three days after his conversion, in a room in central Damascus, his blinded eyes reopened, newly baptized and fed after going without food or drink for 36 hours.

Verse 20 says that he started to talk to others about his new faith straight away. It’s probably easiest to do this when it’s all new. Becoming a Christian is a bit like when there’s a new baby in the family – you can’t really help yourself wanting to tell others. But although new Christians are often the most uninhibited at sharing their faith, they’re not always the most tactful.

I lost a lot of friends in the year I became a Christian. I couldn’t see why virtually everyone I spoke to just didn’t get it. It all seemed so clear, so obvious to me that Jesus is alive, and I didn’t understand why so few wanted to know more and why people were starting avoiding me.

Nicky Gumbel had a similar experience. Here’s how it went for him. “After I’d been a Christian for about ten days I went to a party and I was determined to tell the first person I saw about Jesus. I had discovered that there were three things that you had to do. The first thing was to establish their need for Jesus. So I didn’t want any small talk, I went straight up to this woman called Pippa and said, “Hello, Pippa, you look awful! You really need Jesus!”

I find that Christians sometimes think to themselves; it would be easier to witness if only I was somewhere else. I wonder if you ever think that.

That’s one of the reasons we are doing the Journeys course. It’s a no pressure, no intensity, zero cringe factor environment in which people can see examples of incredibly changed lives and say what they think if they want to.

One of my predecessors here David Osman used to say to people, “When you get to heaven, Jesus is going to ask you who you’ve brought with you.”  

So is there anyone you know who is even vaguely interested in what being a Christian is like? Invite them to Journeys and come with them.

Anyway, people were astonished at Saul’s changed life. “Isn’t this the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem…?” they asked in v21. But by v23 they’d had enough and were determined to be done with him.

Tom Wright noticed a pattern here. “Wherever Saint Paul went, there was a riot,” he said; “Wherever I go, they serve tea!”

There’s always going to be some whose hearts are moved by the Holy Spirit and some who react with indifference or even irritation. That’s exactly what we should expect.

That’s why Jesus said “You are the salt of the earth.” Salt does agreeable things like seasoning and purifying. But salt also makes you itch. Real Christianity rubs this world up the wrong way.

What was rubbing the synagogue members in Damascus the wrong way was that, as v22 says, Paul was proving from Old Testament that Jesus is the Messiah.

Mathematician Peter Stoner has calculated that the probability of just eight Old Testament predictions being fulfilled in one person is about one chance in one hundred million billion (which is more than the total number of people who’ve ever lived). That’s just eight prophecies.

There are of course many more prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus fits perfectly. If only eight predictions are sufficient to establish beyond reasonable doubt that a particular individual fits the description we can be extremely confident that Jesus is the real deal.

I think Saul’s case would have included things like this:

Genesis 12.3 says that, of all human families, the whole earth will be blessed by a descendant of Abraham.

Genesis 17.19 adds that this promised bearer of blessing will be a descendant of Isaac (not Ishmael).

Genesis 49.10 affirms that he will be from the tribe of Judah (not from any of the other 11 tribes of Jacob).

Jeremiah 23.5-6 states that he will be a descendant of David (not of any of Jesse's other seven sons nor indeed from any other descendant of Judah). 

These four specific branches of the Messiah’s family tree are all confirmed in Jesus’ two genealogies in Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels. Matthew traces Jesus’ legal descent through his adoptive father Joseph, and Luke traces his blood descent through his natural mother Mary.

Then Micah 5.2 stresses that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, not in Beirut or Blackburn or Boston – or anywhere else for that matter. And of course he was.

Isaiah 61 says that he will have a message of good news for the poor and will bind up the broken-hearted. This is indisputably a feature in all four Gospels.

But the really heavyweight prophetic fulfilments concern not Jesus’ origins, nor his birth, nor his public ministry, but his death and resurrection. 

Psalm 22 for example, written about 1000 BC, is an awesome prophetic vision of the Messiah’s sufferings. It tells of a man in extreme agony, thirsty, rejected and shown contempt, his clothes gambled for and his hands and feet pierced.

This is particularly remarkable because the Jewish form of capital punishment at the time this Psalm was written was stoning. But this speaks of crucifixion. It says “they have pierced my hands and my feet.” Well, crucifixion was a form of execution devised by the Romans at least four centuries after Psalm 22 was written.

Then Isaiah 53, written about 750 BC, presents of a figure who will be cast aside by his own people, unjustly condemned without protest, horribly disfigured by his beatings, pierced by his killers (for whom he will pray), die from his injuries, be executed with wrongdoers, be buried with the rich and, after death, see the light of life again and be satisfied.

The sharpness of focus in this picture of Jesus - his trial, his flogging, his crucifixion, his burial arrangements and his resurrection - is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

And it doesn’t just tell you what will happen. It even tells you what it means.

Ten times in that one chapter Isaiah says that this figure, this suffering servant, will somehow take upon himself all the sorrows, sickness and sinfulness of fallen humanity - and pay for them, bringing healing and salvation through his sufferings.

That’s just a small selection. There are more prophecies I could add. According to Peter Stoner’s calculations of probability, this easily meets the standard of proof beyond all reasonable doubt and that’s the sort of evidence Saul must have put before his fellow Jews in Damascus.

Can I just encourage you, if you’re more of the thinking type than the emotional type – that’s the way I’m wired as well – sometimes our greatest battles to stay on track in our relationship with Christ are to do with the coherent credibility of our faith. That’s under attack more than ever before.

But the astonishing accuracy of Old Testament prophecy and the witness it bears to Jesus is a sharp, double-edged sword against doubt and unbelief.

3. The Test of Devotion

Thirdly, the test of devotion. Does the person giving the testimony have a heart for God? We need to do a bit of detective work now on v23 which says, “After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy amongst the Jews to kill him.” How many days?

If you look up Galatians 1.17-18 you find that he actually spent three years in solitude in Arabia.

We know very little about that time but most people agree that it was a deliberate season of coming aside to be with the Lord. He spent weeks and months in the Lord’s presence, coming to terms with his new identity.

This must have been when he received his call to be an apostle. This must have been when he had those surpassing revelations. This must have been when his lawyer’s mind gathered all the evidence together and came up with the gospel of grace by which the guilty are acquitted.

I wonder if the Lord is speaking to you about coming aside to be with him, to devote time to freshly hear his voice again?

4. The Test of Disappointment with Church

Fourthly, perhaps the hardest of all; the test of disappointment with the church. Is there a readiness to forgive personal hurt? By v26, Saul was back in Jerusalem via a basket down the city wall. But he found that the Christians there were very wary of him. They were suspicious.

You can understand why. How would you feel if the man responsible for putting your husband or your father or your daughter in jail was trying to find his way into your underground church? You’d wonder if he was a spy wouldn’t you? You’d struggle to believe it I’m sure. And we’re told in v26 that the church in Jerusalem were fearful and didn’t believe it.

It’s really sad when the church fails to readily accept a new Christian because they know about their past. I am quite sure there would be people who would be very wary if a male prostitute or an axe murder or a paedophile or a wife beater got converted in prison and joined this church. I’d be one of them. I would be anxious, let me confess it openly. How do you know if it’s a real conversion?

Well, this is what Saul faced when he arrived in Jerusalem. He tried to join a church who didn’t want him because they judged him on his past.

But he demonstrated the genuineness of his testimony because he didn’t take offence. He didn’t slag the church off as hypocrites. He didn’t allow himself to become bitter.

Nobody wanted his sort in their church. Except for one man who spoke up for Saul who presented evidence for his changed life; and his name was Barnabas. His name was actually Joseph but they gave him a nickname because he was such a blessing to everyone. Barnabas means Son of Encouragement.

What would be your nickname that people in this church would give you? What’s the thing that sums you up best? Son of encouragement? Daughter of wisdom? Son of joy? Daughter of servant-heartedness? Son of enthusiasm? Daughter of generosity?

5. The Test of a Changed Life

The final test is the test of a changed life. Your testimony is genuine if your values have altered forever. Something very beautiful and exciting happened in v29. Wonder if you’ve seen the significance of it.

It says “Saul talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him.” It’s the kind of detail you might skip over, but if you cast your memory back to chapter 6, 7 and 8, you’ll realise that these were the very same people that Stephen had witnessed to; Greek-speaking Jews based in Jerusalem.

“They couldn’t stand up to Stephen’s wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke” it says so they seized him, charged him, tried him and dragged him off to stone him.

And Saul held their coats, approving every rock as it thudded into his broken body.

But now Saul’s in Stephen’s place, continuing his work, taking up his ministry. It was a risky thing to do and they decided to kill him too so once again Saul was spirited away for his own safety.

But look, that’s a changed life. When your testimony is genuine you will hate the sinful things you once loved and love the godly things you once hated. 

No argument is more convincing than the testimony of a changed life. People might not agree with what you believe, but they can’t deny a clear transformation in you.

I heard that my predecessor Alan Farish bumped into Katrina here a few months ago. He hadn’t heard that she’d become a Christian but their paths crossed in Stockton High Street I think. They had a brief conversation and he said to someone, “Wow, she’s changed! What’s happened to her?” I’ll tell you what’s happened to her. She’s met Jesus! And Jesus changes lives.

Next week, as we look at the raising of Dorcas from the dead, we’ve got a visiting speaker, Paul McWilliams who will talk about the amazing way he found Jesus at death’s open door. You won’t want to miss it.

Ending

Well, I should stop now. But I want to say one last thing.

Simon Guillebaud was living in Burundi and Rwanda in the first few years of this century. At that time the area reaching across those two countries was declared the most dangerous war zone on earth. Several times his life was threatened at gunpoint. He was a marked man. But even when it got as bad as it can get his testimony was this:

“I only knew that Jesus was all I needed when he was all I had left.”

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 5th October 2014