Author: missionspaul

Pressure from within Church

Acts 24:18 “I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this. There was no crowd with me, nor was I involved in any disturbance.”

The Message translation says, “It was while making those offerings that they found me quietly at my prayers in the Temple. There was no crowd, there was no disturbance.”

Paul has brought the money he has raised to the Jerusalem church.

He was in the Temple worshipping God.

He was saying prayers within that Temple.

He was quietly going about his worship.

No crowds.

No disturbance.

No mob.

That’s when he was found by his enemy.

You can be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing and be found by your enemy.

You can be walking in the place of truth and the father of lies can rewrite your history and accuse your present.

Those who accused should have been worshipping and doing what he was doing.

There is too much looking around within Church. Looking and comparing and desiring and envying. Not everyone in Church is there for the good. As Paul found out.

Yet you know.

You know you have been with God. No matter what anyone says, you know.

Paul held to the truth and would not move. And so must we.

The pressure from within the Church can do more damage than that outside.

Stand tall. You know what happened. You know where you were and what you were doing.

7 important thoughts on giving

Acts 24:17 “After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings.”

• Enable the Church to give.
  • He was enabling the church in Jerusalem to give. The church must be seen in the community helping the poor. Do everything through the church. Equip the church so that Christ is glorified. Do not just give to a community project but give it to the church to give to that project.
• Know the place where you are giving.
  • Paul had been in Jerusalem 5 years previously (Acts 21:18) and it was here that James, Peter and John asked Paul to help them with the poor (Galatians 2:10).
• Keep the poor always with you.
  • He was asked to ‘remember the poor’ (Gal 2:10). There wasn’t a project in mind and there wasn’t an amount they were aiming for. They just asked that Paul didn’t forget about the need. I remember prayers as a child before we ate at the dinner table saying things like ‘…and we remember those less fortunate…’ But in our remembrance let us do something.
• Encourage cross-culture giving.
  • Some will only give to their own citing that we have to look after ourselves first. These are people whose global responsibility is very small and have shrunken worlds. Paul crossed into Asia Minor and collected from the Gentiles for the Jews (Romans 15: 25-28).
• Find the true motivation.
  • That is more than “we have more than them and we need to share it around”. Paul saw that the Gentiles owed the Jews so much for their spiritual blessings (Romans 15:27). I have seen the most impoverished people in this world bless me in ways that the richest wouldn’t have a clue how to do. I have never said goodbye to the poor without coming away a better man because of them.
• Make sure the money gets there.
  • Paul made sure the money got to where it should go (Romans 15:28). You would think this be an obvious point. This is what is hidden in much charity giving. There is always a cost in making sure the giving gets to where it should be. If a charity or a para-church organisation goes bust then no one wins. But some of the percentage costs are horrendous.
• There are no guarantees.
  • There are so many verses that promise that we will receive if we give. We all have believed and experienced those to be true. I remember the church member who complained that though they were a tither they were experiencing difficulties! Paul is on trial before Felix having been on one of the biggest fund-raising trips of his life. He is saying to Felix that the reason for him being in Jerusalem was not to cause disturbance but to bless the poor. We are involved in giving not for our own benefit for we know there are no guarantees.

Belief in your own resurrection changes everything

Acts 24:16 “So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.”

How would you live today if it were your last?

What would you need to say to God?

Which person would you need to call?

 

 

Finality doesn’t have the last word.

Acts 24: 15 “and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.”

Paul does not give the reason for his hope, that will come, but he states that as a Jew and a Pharisee he holds to the resurrection of all people.

He knows he will stand before God one day to give an account of his life.

But his hope is different to theirs also. His hope is based on the resurrection of Christ of course (1 Corinthians 15) and they are accusing him of his message of Christ.

Their hope is based on their own teachings coming out of interpretations of Daniel’s prophecies. They hold to every Jew being resurrected in Jerusalem after the temple has been rebuilt in the Messianic age.

Paul knows their charge is his belief in a resurrected Christ. That is why he tells Felix he believes the same as they do.

I believe that one day all will be revealed.

I believe that this life will make sense to those who experience injustice, to the downtrodden and forgotten.

I believe that this isn’t everything.

I believe that there is an existence after life here stops.

I believe I carry on.

I believe when anything dies it can live again.

I need to remind myself constantly of these truths because supposed finality is all around me.

 

I am like them but I am not like them

Acts 24:14 “However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets”

I am like them but I am not like them.

I am a Pharisee, the high priest and the accusers already know this, he has told them (23:6).

I believe what they do. I hold to the Law and the Prophets as they do.

But I am different.

I do not necessarily hold to their ways and I interpret differently their interpretations of the Law.

More than that, I do all of that as a Christ follower.

I am similar but I am different.

This is what Paul was saying.

You too will find yourself in such a situation where you are repeating those words.

I sadly continue to sit with the hurting people of the world that have been hurt by the Church all over the world. Incredible isn’t it? But it is true. We all know it but we are ashamed to say it. Often the hurting have made things worse for themselves and perhaps their reactions were wrong but nonetheless it should never have happened the way it did. Often the hurting needed to be hurt because they lacked discipline, but no one deserves crushing.

Recently I sat with someone who had been accused of many things and they had no way of defending their case to everyone, “But Paul, these things were simply not true at all”. That person lost everything in one day, their role, their money and worse than those 2 things, their credibility. A little while ago after a Church service I was preaching at I was trying to get into my car to go home when I was confronted by a woman in floods of tears because of the hurt in her life. I asked where her husband was who had previously been a minister of a denominational church and she replied that he now works on Sundays in a job he was never trained for and doesn’t want to do.

In every case my response is the same. I believe in the authority of the Church, I believe in leadership, I believe in those things that actually brought you needless and wrongful hurt. BUT, I am different. I am not the same. The Church you have described and experienced is not the Church I hold to. I am like them but I am not like them.

Paul was as passionate about the Jewish way as he was about the Way. He followed the Way through the way he had lived and believed in all his life. He was the biggest critic of the Pharisees and yet he was one himself.

We too should not shrink from confronting the Church if it is needed and at the same time stand up for the Church, to love it and be the Church we are called to be.

 

 

Fake news

Acts 24:13 “And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me. “

Show me.

That is Paul is asking.

Give me the evidence.

We are in the most interesting of times.

Over the last decade with the rise of the internet there was the opportunity for accurate, incorruptible journalism. At a click of a button we could fact-check the facts! This was a new era of honesty. It hasn’t turned out like that has it?

We have new words like ‘fake news’ emerging because world leaders tweet about it all the time.

Recently a UK TV station, Channel 4, brought out statistics that show only 4% of the UK population can spot fake news as fake! Are we so gullible?!

Research is everything.

Let us not believe everything we hear, especially when it is targeting someone else. It might sound amazing and shocking and we may like the headlines, but it could be fake and there can be not a scrap of evidence for it.

Let us people of the truth. Truth takes longer than fake but that is the journey we need to be on.

Don’t make it easy for your accusers.

Acts 24: 12 “My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city”.

Paul was accused of being a troublemaker and stirring up riots.

Paul says it was a lie.

I have always been brought up to not sin but also not to fall into the appearance of sin. People are watching you. It has been quite a pressure to try and be perfect!

But actually that is the truth. People are watching.

Those outside are looking inside.

The non-churched at the church.

Those who would be the first to point the finger are waiting for you to slip up.

Today what will people see? You can be strong without breaking someone. You can win the argument without arguing. You can influence without offending.

Nice isn’t weak.

Don’t give your accusers ammunition to use against you. They have enough already. When they try and accuse, you can stand and say ‘that is a lie’, I know what I did and what I said. I was in control.

Hold on, it can all change in a moment.

Acts 24:11 “You can easily verify that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship.”

It is unclear whether Paul was saying he had been in Jerusalem only 12 days or whether he was saying 12 days ago he had arrived into the city. What we know from verse 1 is that Paul had now been waiting for the trial to start for 5 days. So whether or not it was 12 days or 17 days, the point is in less than 3 weeks his life has been turned upside down.

We often say that it’s good we do not know what tomorrow will bring. It doesn’t take long for everything to change. It doesn’t take 3 weeks, it can take one day.

Some suffer for years and they think things will never change. Some go through life with no cares and then are hit by a sudden storm they think they will never get through.

You are one touch from the King for your miracle. You may walk on a precipice and are one slip from failure. Your life can change in a moment, for the good and the bad.

So move on from yesterday, live for today and prepare for tomorrow by keeping hold of the Master’s hand because the time really is short.

 

Your time will come

 

Acts 24:10 “When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied: “I know that for a number of years you have been a judge over this nation; so I gladly make my defence.”

 

We do get our chance.

We might be silenced at the moment and the accusers may hold the floor, they may voice their chants of slander at us, but we will one day be given our voice.

They may hold their positions of power and you may feel vulnerable and weak but these positions are not eternal and your day of rising will come. The oppressed will speak again and like Isaiah the prophet we believes for the coming day of vengeance. (61)

1. Stand your ground, hold your tongue, wait for the sign. The sign will come and your chance will be upon you.
2. Let your accusers finish their speech, let them run out of words to say. It will soon be over and then it will be your turn.
3. Listen to the lies and no matter if it hurts, understand what is being thrown at you.

 

This is your moment. There may not be another. So use it.

Which side?

Acts 24:9 “The Jews joined in the accusation, asserting that these things were true.”

Who are you joining with?

Are you on the side of the prosecution?

If so, be very careful that the reason why you are pointing the finger is true and accurate.

The Jews never saw Paul in the temple.

They never saw Paul take any ‘unclean’ person into the temple to defile it.

They believed what others had said.

They joined in the lie.

 

Who are you joining with?

Who do you walk with?

Who do you stand with?

Who do you sit with?

Psalm 1:1

 

Are they worth it?

Can you trust them?

Do you believe in them?

Do they build or knock-down?

What do you want to be known for?