Getting Back up Again

SERMON: 2014-04-27--ac14128--getting-back-up-again-part-1 SOURCE DURATION: 00:32:15.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The entire provided material constitutes a continuous theological exposition and pastoral application based on the story of Paul's resilience. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- There are many things that I personally admire about the Apostle Paul, but one of the things that I admire most is his ability to get up again after he's been knocked down. The story before us here in Acts chapter 14 is, I think, a good and powerful illustration of it. We'll recall that the crowd in Lystra wanted to worship him and Barnabas because they thought they were gods come down in human form. And then when Paul and Barnabas refused to go along with that plan, the crowd turned on a dime, stoned Paul with stones, I might add, word meanings change in the course of history, dragged him out of the city and left him for dead. So what does Paul do? Well the story goes on to tell us that he got up, went back into the city, then the next day he left and went to the next city down the line, which is the city of Derbe, and there he picks up as if nothing had ever happened. He goes back to preaching his little heart out. And I look at that story and I think of the pain he must have suffered in that stoning and I say to myself, "Paul, you're a sucker for punishment. How in the world do you push through the pain, not only physically, but emotionally, even spiritually? How do you get back up in front of another crowd knowing the same thing might happen again and again and again?" And if you know Paul's journey, then you know this was but the beginnings of suffering. Indeed later on we'll look at his list of trials that befell him in the course of his ministry and yet every time and again, despite what happened to him, he got up on his feet. I want to talk with you about that a little bit today because as I've been reflecting these past couple of weeks on this passage, it occurs to me that one of the keys to success in life is not how much trouble we experience, because we all do, don't we? But how we push through that trouble. Not how many times we fall down, but how many times we get up. Because remember, it's the person who is standing at the end who wins the battle. And so as I've been reflecting a little bit on this story and asked myself the question, what is it that enables Paul to get up again and again and again, I've come up with what I think are four factors that contribute to his ability to rise above the forces of gravity that are trying to pull him down. Let's see this morning how far we can get. The first factor that I want to talk about is the realization that the apostle Paul has an urgent sense of call on his life. An urgent sense of call on his life. The apostle Paul, if you know anything of his history, wasn't always a fully devoted follower of the Lord Jesus, was he? In fact, he was quite the opposite, he was an avid persecutor of the church. He was convinced the church was blasphemous over against God, he was a defender of the Old Testament rules and laws the way that he understood it, and he tells later on in the book of Acts, as well as in some of his epistles, how he used to go from home to home identifying Christians, dragging them out of their homes, putting them in prison, and voting in favor of their execution. He was a man with a lot of blood on his hands. All of that changed, didn't it, one fateful day when in the process of trying to fulfill his mission on the road to Damascus, he met up with the exalted Lord Jesus. And in that moment of revelation, he fell on the ground. His eyes physically were blinded temporarily, but spiritually they were opened, and out of that encounter came a call to preach the very gospel that he had previously so persecuted. Here is how it reads in Acts chapter 9, when the Lord sends a disciple by the name of Ananias to pray over him and to commission the Apostle Paul. We read in that verse, "Go, this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." Paul's job was to carry the name of Jesus before kings and rulers, before the Jews not only but especially to the Gentiles that became his specific calling and his specific ministry. From that moment on, the same zeal with which he had persecuted the church now turned into the proclamation of the gospel. He says in Acts chapter 26 verse 19 when he himself is on trial, this is in the context of speaking to King Agrippa, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Paul was motivated by the vision of his calling before God. And I think it's safe to say this morning that we can read a principle into that and the principle is this, our ability to get up after we've been knocked down, whether by our own shortcomings, the shortcomings or the persecutions of others, our ability to get up will be in direct proportion to our sense of calling. The more we know that we are in the center of God's will, the more we will have motivation to get back up despite the pain. Because you see, without that sense of calling, the measure of whether or not we will get up again is determined by the degree of pleasure or pain, isn't that true? And when the pain exceeds the price that we are prepared to pay, then we decide to stay down. It's like a child that gets knocked over or who has learning disabilities, after a while you just give up because it is too hard to keep trying. The antidote to that is a sense of calling on our lives. Now it's not always easy to determine what that calling is, but if you will look this morning at the place where you do most of your dreaming, where lies your deepest sense of this is who I believe Christ has called me to be, this is what I would love to accomplish in life, then I think you are pretty close to where your calling lies. And that calling or that place will be both the greatest place of pleasure and the greatest place of pain because that is where the devil will oppose you the most. So I ask you, what is your sense of calling and that sense of calling is what will keep you from staying down for the count and getting back up to engage the conflict. That's the first thing that I think drives the apostle Paul. The second one closely related to is this, the realization that his work is not yet finished. His work is not yet finished. Listen to the verses 20 and 21, "After the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples." Two things in those two verses that I think are really important to notice. The first is that he is finished in Lystra. While he gets up to go back into the city, he doesn't stay there. He is done in Lystra. Why? Because he is following the teaching of Jesus who told the disciples back in Matthew chapter 1 verse 23, "When they persecute you in one town, go to the next. There is no sense in beating your head against a wall that isn't going to move. And when the city had heard the gospel, chose to reject it en masse, except for those who became disciples, his job in Lystra was done." And again, I think it's safe to say there was an extremely important principle there. Sometimes it's time to call it quits. There's a time to keep on going as we'll see in a few moments, but there is also a time to call it quits. There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven. Dr. Henry Cloud talks about that rather extensively in a book that he wrote a number of years ago. It's called "Necessary Endings." It is an extremely fine book in my estimation. The thesis of the book is that for every new beginning in your life, there has to be an ending. His further conclusion is that most of the time, we're not very good at endings. To start a new job, you've got to quit your old one. To develop new friendships, you sometimes have to drop old friendships, particularly if they're toxic. If you want to move to another place, then you obviously have to leave the place where you find yourself. His observation is that historically, people aren't very good at making endings and they often end very messily. So the thesis of the book continues to point out how do you decide when something is over? How do you decide when a friendship is beyond redemption? How do you decide when the job that you're in is a dead-end job? How do you determine if it's time to move from one location to another? How do you know that your ministry is finished in one area and it's time to move on to another? And he raises the very practical considerations of have I reached my limit? Are the circumstances restricting me? Is it beyond reasonable redemption? Because sometimes to continue to knock your head against the wall is an exercise of futility. He quotes in the book, Henry What'sworth Longfellow with this quotation, "Great is the art of the beginning, but greater is the art of ending." Sometimes it is time to call it quits. But Paul doesn't stop there. Not only does he call it quits in Lystra, but he picks up and continues his ministry in Derby. Because remember, the passage goes on to say, "They preached the good news in the city and won a large number of disciples." Interestingly enough, there is no record here of persecution in Derby. Every other city so far, you know, persecution has gone from bad to worse. No record of it here at all. It occurred to me that possibly one of the reasons for that is that his persecutors all thought he was dead, and they weren't on the ball enough to know that he had figuratively risen from the dead and that he was back to proclaiming the mission that he had been given by the Lord. And again, there's a principle here, and that principle, you know, we can put in the form of a proverb I'm sure that you've heard many, many times in Christian circles, when God closes one door, he often opens up another. How do you know if God has still got his hand on your life, how there are still places that you need to move into, whether in your job, in your career, or in your relationships, is God opening up other legitimate doors that you can step into? Because that is often, it's not the only way, but it's one of the ways in which God leads many times, particularly if that resonates with your sense of calling on your own life. That's how the apostle Paul operated. Listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 8 and 9. He says, "I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work is open to me, and there are many who oppose me." Notice it again, he's not without opposition. How do you know if the opposition is meant to take you out, or if you have to push through? Well, in Lystra, the door was closed because the opportunities were gone. But in Ephesus, even though he experiences all kinds of opposition, there is still an effective door for ministry. And so he continues to step into it, and that too is helpful for you and me. One of the questions to ask ourselves when we've been knocked down and we are called to get back up on our feet is the question, "Is there still a job for me to do in this particular situation? Am I at a dead end? Is this toxic? Is this beyond redemption? Is the full measure of opposition to myself and to what I stand for of such a nature that I can no longer succeed, or is there still fertile field, a fruitful effort, if every time we run into a problem we quit, we will never accomplish the things that God has called us to do?" There's a very fine line, a fine balance between, "Is this hopeless? And am I just beating my head against the cement wall? Or is this just opposition that I need to push through to come into the purposes that God has for me?" And I showed you that little video clip earlier because it is such an illustration of the fact that just because you've been knocked down or the whole world tells you that you're incompetent, that doesn't have to define who you are. And sometimes if you push through, God will raise you up and vindicate the call that he has placed on his life because remember, it's the guy, it's the girl, the woman that ends up standing at the end of the day who has the inheritance. Making sense so far? So the Apostle Paul has a sense of calling, he knows that his work is not yet finished, but the third thing that keeps him going is that he has around him a supporting community. Listen again to verse 20, "After the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city, and then the next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe." How did Paul get back up on his feet? Well, he was surrounded by disciples. Remember, while most of the city turned against him, didn't want to respond to the message of Jesus. I mean, you catch the irony of this, right? As long as they think he is the Greek God Hermes, they want to worship him, they're so excited about him. When he paints himself as the representative of the Lord Jesus, who is the truly exalted Lord, they turn against him and they try to kill him. So he's got disciples and the disciples, it says, had gathered around him. And the picture that sort of comes to my mind as I try to picture what happened here is, you know, Paul's the preacher, so he's the one they're mad at because notice in the story Barnabas doesn't play into it at all. It's Paul who gets stoned and then they drag him out of the city. And can't you sort of picture these disciples as standing back helplessly watching this taking place and then when the crowd is done with Paul and they dragged him out of the city and they've left him for dead, they sort of, you know, they come running up to Paul in his unconscious form and they, can't you picture this conversation is like, is he still breathing? Is he really dead? Come on, Paul, wake up. Are you alive? And of course he comes to and they take him back to the city where undoubtedly they have to dress his wounds. I don't think you get very far being stoned without picking up some pretty bad bruises somewhere along the line. And they nurse him back to health and then they send him off with Barnabas. The disciples were there to support him. Now there's a very interesting detail, I think it's interesting anyway, about this story that is very easy to miss. Who knows here this morning what name, we don't get introduced to it in this story, we get introduced to it in two chapters later, but there is a significant person in Paul's life who is likely one of his early converts here. Anybody can think of? I can't quite hear. No. Who else was Paul's companion? A young man by the name of Timothy. Timothy was a resident of Lystra. We're told about that two chapters further on. His mother was a Hebrew. His father was a Greek. But almost for sure he came to faith during Paul's first missionary journey to Lystra because when Paul goes on his second missionary journey in Acts chapter 16, Timothy is already so established in the faith that the community of believers look up to him and that's why Paul takes him on as his missionary cohort. He becomes an apostolic assistant in much of his travels. Silas is another person, but Timothy is from Lystra. And in 2 Timothy 3 verse 10, if you want to look it up at some point, Paul says to Timothy you've been acquainted with my life, with my teaching, with the sufferings that I endured in Iconium and in Lystra along that way. So Timothy was drawn to the faith by watching in the apostle Paul's life the reality, the reality of being sold out to Jesus. And so again, there is a principle in this part of the story that is helpful for us to hold on to and that is this. To get back up, we often need people to help us. When you've been knocked out and you're flat on your fanny or on your face, somebody has to come along, take you by the hand and nurse you back to life and give you the courage and the encouragement to keep on going when everything inside you wants to say, "I quit." Paul writing about that sort of thing years later, Galatians 6 verse 2, "Carry each other's burdens," he says. And so in that way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. What's the law of Christ? It's the law of love. It's the law of whatever God has given you in terms of time, talent, and treasure, you are to use not just for your own benefit but for the benefit of others around you. And as we've been seeing in recent weeks, one of the purposes of corporate worship is what? One of the purposes of the church in its broadest setting is to encourage one another. Hebrews 10.25, we've spent quite a bit of time on it in weeks gone by. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, and all the more so as you see the day approaching. Question for you this morning, how many of you here have been to the movie Heaven is for Real? Anybody? I know some of you are because I met you there. Heaven is for Real is the story of five-year-old Colton Burpaugh who almost died on the operating table due to a ruptured appendix. And if you don't know the story or haven't read the book, which was a New York Times, New York's best seller for quite a number of months, he comes back after his surgery with all these tales of having been to Heaven and what he experienced in Heaven. Jesus riding on a horse the color of the rainbow, and he met up with Samson, and he met up with a younger sister that he didn't know had existed because his mother had miscarried and he had never heard the story. And both the book and the movie have generated an incredible amount of interest, but also a lot of controversy. And one of the reasons that it has generated a lot of interest is because everybody wonders is Heaven for Real and is Heaven more than just a figment of imagination? So you can see that popular appeal. The controversy comes from the fact that certainly the movie, and perhaps the book too, I don't quite remember, almost preaches, I think it does preach a universalism. It bypasses the need for the cross of Christ, God is love, and everybody gets included in that love. So theologically I had some serious reservations when I watched the movie, but there's a lot of elements of the movie that I really liked because it's very well done. What I liked about the movie is that it's one of the very few movies that I have seen that I think did justice to picturing the life of Christian community. Usually Christians and Christian communities get painted in stereotypical bigotry fashion in the media, isn't that true? Well in this particular movie the church was pictured actually pretty much like ordinary people, kind of like a little bit like you and me. And at least we like to think that about ourselves, don't we? And very moving was the scene when the boy was, his life was in the balance, and God's people gathered to pray, much like we would do when the word goes out. And for me the most moving scene, this preacher was part of, I think, a volunteer fire department. For me the most moving scene was when his firefighter's buddies were standing around in a circle and they all took off their helmet and they bowed in prayer. It was an incredibly powerful moment of masculinity bowing before God and knowing that this is out of our hands we need the presence and the power of God. So by all means watch it if you can, but ask yourself the question, where is Jesus, where is the cross of Jesus in terms of the biblical dividing line between those who enter into heaven and those who are going to be cast out? Because the Bible is very clear that when history ends, it's either in or out, there is no in between. So Paul gets up. He gets up because he has a mission. He gets up because he knows that his mission is not finished. He gets up because he's got community around him that help him. But there's still a fourth reason why he gets up and that is this. He remained united to Jesus. He remained united to Jesus. Jesus puts it this way in John 15 verse 5, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing." I'm just watching the time here, I think I'm just going to introduce this point and then leave it with you to come back to it another time because as I said earlier, this first episode was only the beginning of Paul's suffering. He goes on and he lists everything that he experiences and yes, it takes a sense of calling to continue. It takes a sense of my work is not yet finished. It takes the support of people around me. But you and I both know that when life gets really, really tough and opposition gets really, really huge, none of those in and of themselves will carry us through. You lose your sense of calling. Full ministry can disappear and your friends can bail on you. And if you've ever been in that kind of spot, you will know that at the end of the day, there is only one who can carry you through the uttermost fire and his name is Jesus. So, when we come back to that, let's talk about that in a little more detail because he is the anchor of our souls. He is the solid rock on which we stand and he is the one through union with him who can share with us his resurrection life that has already overcome death so that at the end [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:32:10.920; remove through 00:32:15.000] of the day, we can stand before God not as a victim but as an overcomer. [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:32:15.000; resume after this marked segment]