Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 4th Oct 2009
Acts 18v1-17:
Last week we saw Paul use his time well in Athens.
He brought the good news to that city so that a some believed.
Then he moves onto Corinth. Luke gives us very few highlights of the work in Corinth considering the amount of time he spent there!
He tells us how he approached the Jews, how he approached the Gentiles and closes with a word about the opposition he faced!!
1) reasoning and declaring the Gospel v1-6
· As usual Pauls first approaches to the Jews of Corinth.
He meets fellow Jewish tentmakers, lives and works with them.
Every Sabbath he ‘Reasons’ in the Synagogue
This is has well defined approach to Jewish evangelism.
Reasoning: it is a discussion that the word refers to primarily. In other words this is not just telling them the truth, there is open debate and questioning going on!
Then Silas and Timothy arrive from Berea so that Paul is now free to work full time.
With the support team in place Paul can give himself full time to the work.
Paul then moves from Reasoning to ‘Devotedly testifying’ that Jesus was the Christ.
‘testify’ v5 is to declare solemnly.
The reasoning seems to be past, now the time to declare emphatically has arrived!!
His outreach steps up a gear!
(This is a direct consequence of the support from Silas and Timothy!)
With the step up in gear comes the Jewish opposition!
That the Jews have heard enough leads to the turning point in his outreach!
App: Reasoning to Declaring.
There comes a point in our witnessing when we need to move from reasoning to testifying.
Our reasoning might be the simple Christian life’s that we lead on a daily basis.
The steady ongoing Christian care and concern and love that we show.
That is good “reasoning” of the gospel.
But then there must come that point at which we declare that Jesus is the Saviour.
Timing is all important in these matters.
The point came for Paul when the help arrived. For us it may be a myriad of things.
Health concerns that people have may give rise to opportunities to Declare.
The worries of life, financial, job, family worries!
The point is for us that we need to have in our minds the idea that at some point we need to Declare Jesus is the Christ!!
And the reason for that is that it is through the declaring that people are saved in the end! Note some of the Jews were saved in the end!
But there is a further reason that we need to Declare.
That is that in some way the people we are with are our responsibility.
V6 shows that Paul had a responsibility to witness to the Jews and he fulfilled that duty, he could leave them “clean/ innocent”.
2) Fearlessly teaching the Word of God: moving onto new fields v7-11
· Paul approach to the Gentiles v7-11
He now directs his outreach towards the gentiles, (but there has been some Jewish fruit, the synagogue ruler no less v8!)
He has Reasoned and Declared Jesus to the Jews, now he moves to plough new fields.
The picture of v7 symbolises the whole movement: out one door through the next!
In going to the Gentiles he receives a vision of encouragement from God, so he stays to work for 1.5 years!!
The encouragement as he worked with the Jews was the arrival of Silas and Timothy, the encouragement for his work with the Gentiles is a direct Word from God.
The visions instruction:
v9 fear not, speak up, don’t be silent. But why should he?
V10 for I’m with you, you’ll not be hurt, there are many to be saved here!
Presence, Protection and People!
Thus Paul stayed and taught the Word of God!
App
We too must speak up for Christ in the world today!
Paul must have been a bit afraid to be told in the first place to not be afraid an speak up!
Our responsibility too is to speak up.
But how can we? We are afraid, there are so many opposed to us!
Remember the promises:
Presence – as we speak up, God is with us.
Protection – as we do Gods work ultimately no harm will come to us.
People – God loves people, God wants to save the world, we are therefore doing His will.
If we remember these we will bring glory to God because in speaking up we will be doing his will! It is after all the word of God that we are to declare not our own words!
3) silent witnessing in face of opposition!?
the opposition Paul faced v12-17
Finally before Paul leaves Corinth there is a Jewish attempt to imprison him.
They are united in their attack! V12.
The Jews bring him before the governor on charges of false worship!,
But Gallio is not interested in religious questions. He ejects them from the court.
Paul is free to go before he can even say a word!
The Jews then beat their own leader for some reason! Presenting a bad case?
App
Evangelising is a living process, there are no firm and fast rules and regulations.
Yes we have to Reason and Declare, yes we have to Speak up and not be afraid.
But also sometimes we have to keep quiet! Paul did not have a chance to speak here!
Some people are simply not ready to hear the Gospel.
But what form has our silence to take?
It has to be a prayerful and watchful silence.
Lots of the time people are just not ready to listen, so we need to be those who watch and pray for the lost.
And the reason for that is that there may come a time when people are ready to hear. Only if our silence has been a watchful prayerful silence will we be ready to speak.
(Note that in the end it seems that Sosthenes was converted, see 1cor1v1!)
sunday evening 4th Oct 2009
Phil 2v1-11:
Last week the theme was living for the glory of God.
We saw that we could glorify Christ by Proclaiming Him, by trusting in Him at all times, and by fearlessly living for Him in the face of opposition.
This week Paul gives further encouragement to the Philippians to live for Jesus:
· Sacrificing for Christ and for glory!
1) if you belong to Christ have the same mindset as Christ! V1-5
Paul continues his call for the Philippians to live for the glory of Christ by calling them to a Christian lifestyle of Unity, Humility, Consideration and Christ-like-mindset.
Verse one opens with Paul letting the people know who he is talking to:
That is those who have a relationship with the Lord.
Then v2 states basically if you have a relationship with the Lord then unite together in all things, mind, spirit and love!
Humility v3
Then Paul calls for humility. Before they had a relationship with Jesus they may have lived for themselves, their own ends. But now they are to think of others first! Humility is the voluntary submission of oneself to another.
Consideration v4
Then Paul calls for a communal outlook on life. Life is not ‘I’ but ‘we’, ‘ours’ not ‘mine’.
Christ like mindset v5
Finally, Paul sums up all that he is saying by calling them to have the mind of Christ.
Meaning the ‘mindset’ that Jesus had, we are to have his way of looking at life.
Everyone has a way of looking at life.
We all need a outlook, by which we make our decisions.
Most people in the world want the same things, happiness, health etc, but the way we go about trying to get these things reveal our mindset. The person who thinks he is in charge of his own life, king of his own castle, has to fight and scrap for his rights.
The person who has a relationship with Jesus, trust Him, and follows His way to happiness!
App:
“This little light of mine am gona let it shine” is the old children’s song that gets to the heart
of what Paul is calling for here. Which is if you are a follower of Jesus show it!
For the person who follows Jesus a certain lifestyle is required:
Unity, Humility, Consideration - and a Christ-like-mindset.
All these things flow form a living relationship with Jesus, they are not put on, worked up, rather they are evidence of a living relationship to Jesus.
But we are called to work that relationship out in practice.
But how?
By relying on Christ. We work out our salvation by relying on the relationship that we now have with him. This means that we need to cultivate that relationship.
But why?
Because there is nothing else as important as this! Our relationship with Christ is thee most important issue in our life! Not something that can be worked on in our leisure time! This is not a hobby!
2) what was his mindset? v6-8 it was a sacrificial mindset that did anything for Gods glory.
Paul calls the Philippians to have the mind of Christ, which displays in lifestyle.
Then he shows what Christ’s mindset enabled him to do and what the result was!
What did his mindset enable him to do in practice?
V6 he gave up his rights / honour
V7 he went to the bottom – slavery
V8 he became obedient to the slaves death on a cross
In other words his mindset enabled Him to Sacrifice!
In the Roman colony of Philippi the great aim in life was to climb the social ladder.
To get as much honour and acclaim as one possibly could.
There was a honours race for everyone to set out on!
The top of the pile were the Senate, then the Equestrians, then the Decurions, then Roman Citizens, then freedmen and lastly slaves! And within each category there were various levels of honour. The whole idea was to get to the top, to be lord Caesar!
In this context honour was a virtue, the more letters after your name etc, the better a person you were!
To lose ones position, to go down the scale was a matter of utter humiliation and shame.
There was nothing good about going down! (see J. Hellerman “Reconstructing Honor in Roman Philippi”)
Jesus started at the very top, thee place of honour – equality with God.
But he gave up that place of honour for the lowest place, a slave.
Then he lost even more honour by becoming obedient.
The honourable never liked to talk of obedience amongst peers!
Further, his obedience was to death on a cross – thee lowest place of shame and humiliation in the Roman mind!!
Crucifixion was “the most horrible punishment ever inflicted on slaves. To put a Roman citizen in chains is a wrong. To flog him is a crime. To execute him is almost parricide. And what shall I call crucifixion? So abominable a deed can find no word adequate enough to describe it” Cicero 106BC-46BC.
So the Philippians are called to be totally countercultural in their thinking and practice because their Lord so acted!
App
The mind of Christ is the mind of self sacrifice.
Mark 10v45. Jesus came to serve not to be served!
We are called to have this mind: to be self sacrificing.
But how can we? We are able to follow his leading only as we keep focused on him.
Remembering the highest position which he occupied, but which he willingly left and all for our salvation.
If we take our eyes off him and start thinking of ourselves then we will never live as we should, thus we will never have the blessing that could be ours!
Remember that this is what we are called to as follower of Jesus! This is no optional extra for the super spiritual!
3) the blessing that comes from following Christ v9-11
So Paul calls the Philippians to show that they are Christ’s and they do that by keeping their eyes fixed on the example of Jesus.
But as they follow Christ they see not just the voluntary disowning of glory,
they also see the Divine bestowal of supreme Glory.
The exaltation of v9 comes because of the previous actions.
“Therefore” links the glory with the humiliation. Glory could only be given by someone with the rank, power and authority so to give. Here we find that God gives the Son the glory because of his slavery-obedience-death!
Not the Roman reasons for giving honour!
V10 he will be worshipped, every knee will bow.
V11 he will be confessed: Jesus is Lord! Not Caesar is lord!!
App
The call to have the mind of Christ, the call to sacrifice, is no bare command.
There is glory to come.
We are called to sacrifice by the example of Christ but also because this is the way of blessing from God!
God raised Christ up, to the highest place all for the Fathers glory.
Remember that as we follow Christ, as we sacrifice, God will honour us!
Yes at times the costs may seem high, but little by little as we sacrifice for Christ, God will be glorified and we too will be honoured!
Remember Jim Elliot’s words “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose”. ("He is no fool who parts with that which he cannot keep, when he is sure to be recompensed with that which he cannot lose"Philip Hendry 1631-1696.)
Or 1Sam 2v30 “those who honour me i will honour” declarers Yahweh!!
