Twelve Marks of a Spiritual Leader

Does the world seem to be declining to you?  At a fairly rapid pace?  It does to me.

In 50 years, America has gone from being the leader of the free world on account of Christian moral authority to having very little of all of that. Now freedom, morality, and authority appear to be under siege…and our leadership in those areas no longer matters, if it even exists anymore with so much of Christianity happily going underground in America.

In 50 years, the American church has gone from being a place where any church’s Sunday school was a huge deal–church buses went out to bring the disadvantaged to church to hear the good news about Jesus, the good news about Him who could elevate their circumstances now and eternally… to the American church of today. We have become comfortable places free from challenging us to Christian living. And what do we get? A whole lot of people caring little for the disadvantaged who are the Church’s responsibility.

Many Americans, particularly our young people, despise organized religion; they are content to be spoon-fed in the gutters of life, not caring to hear anything about Jesus. Not when their minds are eagerly filled with the trending nonsense news—good or bad—about Katy Perry, Kanye West, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, or the celebrated-as-courageous-athlete-formerly-known-as Bruce Jenner. And the list goes on. Secular sensationalism is the favored news du jour–in the words of that Eagles song’ Dirty Laundry.

I make my living off the evening news

Just give me something-something I can use

People love it when you lose,

They love dirty laundry

Kick’em when they’re up

Kick’em when they’re down…

Give us dirty laundry.

Better yet, share it on Facebook or tweet about it on Twitter. Anyone’s 5 minutes of fame is waiting at the end of a selfie stick… or a gun.  When will we bottom out as a culture?

In 50 or so years, we’ve gone from a place with prayer in schools and where babies were celebrated when they were alive and healthy as the goal of a good pregnancy… to a place in which prayer is gone and babies are aborted by the thousands every day, with greater utility for their parts as dead than whatever good they would have done in their lives which might otherwise have been before them in a by-gone era where families prayed together and stayed together and pregnancy was still considered a social good.

America is NOT the Church and that’s true.

But the world and the Church are intertwined. The Christian’s goal is to be in the world but not of it. The world’s goal seems to be: drive the Christians underground. If seen, at least demand that they will never be heard or their beliefs taken seriously. Even the Little Sisters of the Poor. Silence those Christians from the public square where their witness might do some good.

In a world of so many pastors and Christian so-called leaders who are either “Chicken Littles” or chicken livers, we need more than voices of those who believe the sky is falling (with God apparently helpless to stop it) or the voices of those complacent singers of Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be. Those chicken livers with chicken voices clucking around that standing for God’s truth in an age of moral relativism will hurt their back-pocket and frankly they prefer—and need—that chicken’s scratch to keep the church business running. And therefore, they shrink from the public square, they shirk their responsibilities, they skirt the truth, and they shun the kind of spiritual leadership that God calls church leaders to exhibit even if…and especially when… the world is falling apart at such a rapid pace.

Spiritual leaders do not deny the reality that is before our very eyes, nor do they deny the spiritual reality that is unseen. Spiritual leaders have depth of knowledge to see beyond the surface. They have the character to pursue God’s call undaunted. They have the presence of mind, the clarity of vision, and the purity of heart to do what Scripture says,

Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess…. Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart

Church pastors and quasi-New Age spiritualists with great big crowds, populist books, those feel-good God-wants-you-happy ministries and Cheshire grins are a dime a dozen.

Spiritual leaders, called by God Almighty, are one in a million. The Apostle Paul was such a man.

As we continue our study of Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles , we’re at chapter 16 beginning in verse 16 to learn 12 Marks of a Spiritual Leader.

Acts 16:16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

#1 of the 12 Marks of a Spiritual Leader: Spiritual leaders value purity. Spiritual leaders lead when there is backdoor discrediting going on. Purity matters. Take a clean shirt and throw it on the floor with the dirty laundry and the clean shirt becomes dirty. Not the other way around. Dirty laundry doesn’t suddenly become all clean. What was happening in our passage? The servant girl’s mixed messages risked polluting the message of God because she was a fortune teller. The demonic have a very clear idea of who God is.

James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that– and shudder.

Spiritual leaders don’t let the demonic coopt the message because the demonic message won’t lead to salvation. It will lead away from it. That’s why Paul was troubled. He knew that purity matters and if you place purity under the authority of demonic it will lead to no good. It didn’t matter if she was telling the truth on this one. The surest way to get people to believe a lie is to mix it with a little truth. Paul was a great spiritual leader. He put a stop to it… by asking God… to put a stop to it.

Quality #2 Spiritual leaders know their limits. They know where God’s solo effort starts and their job ends.  “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” Trust in God matters.

19 When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.

#3 Spiritual leaders remain steadfast even when there is persecution. Spiritual leadership was required and here we see the wisdom in Paul’s choice not to have taken Mark. Mark’s spiritual maturity hadn’t been well developed enough at that point. If he deserted when the going got uncomfortable, when things got physical, Mark would have been the worse for it. His fortitude probably wouldn’t have stood up to the persecution and the result likely would have been a repeat performance of Pamphylia. But Silas was different. He was a prophet. And prophet sorts know that popularity doesn’t come with the territory. Silas was sufficiently mature and gifted to be a steadfast partner for Paul, not dead weight.

23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

#4 Spiritual leaders hope when there are impossible circumstances. When all things are impossible, Spiritual leaders recall the words of Christ: Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Hope matters and the One in whom we place our hope is critical. So what do they do? They do what Nancy sang about this morning in “I Bless Your Name.” They praised God.

#5 Spiritual leaders praise God even in the storms of life. How many of us, when we find ourselves in difficult places decide to worship God?  Worship makes a difference. It matters.

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.

All the prison doors flew open.  And everybody’s chains became loose.

#6 Spiritual leaders lead because they can’t help it. It’s a gift and a calling. They rise to it wherever they are. Spiritual leadership is a gift of God and for that reason, obedience matters.

Note that when Paul and Silas were in pain and confinement, their wounds bleeding, did they sit around whining? Decrying the injustice? Look for ways to get even with the authorities on account of the false charges? No. What did they do? They prayed and they praised God.

And here’s how they led: the other prisoners were listening. There’s an important lesson for all of us: When we’re under duress, we need to remember that others are listening and watching us. When we are pressed, they want to see if we’ll remain true and authentic or whether we’ll crack and reveal who we really are. I can’t say enough how important it is that we handle urgent circumstances well, as did the families of the victims and the surviving Bible study attendees in Charleston, SC. When their hearts were broken, people saw Christ in their forgiveness. It is important that we handle urgent situations as the opportunity to display Christ.

27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

We’re all here. Even though everyone’s chains came off. “Don’t harm yourself. We are all here.” Isn’t this beautiful? Paul and Silas were unjustly imprisoned. When an act of God freed them in a miraculous way, they not only stayed, but so did all the other prisoners, so that the jailer wouldn’t kill himself. Remember what happened when Peter had his miraculous escape from prison? The guards were questioned and then executed for failing in their duties. Paul and Silas were true spiritual leaders and cared more about others than about themselves.

#7 Spiritual leaders are God-centered and selfless. But wait, there’s more:

#8 Spiritual leaders are ready to testify 24/7. They know what is needed to be saved.

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved– you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God– he and his whole family.

Spiritual leaders love God and others, but it doesn’t make them doormats. Paul and Silas didn’t stay because they were doormats, but because it was right. People misunderstand meekness as being hyper-wimpiness. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Jesus was meek, but not a wimp. A widely used practical definition of meekness is “Power (or strength) under control.” It’s knowing when to use power and when to willingly rein it in.  That’s what Paul and Silas did.

#9 Spiritual leaders are discerning. They are more than just powerful. They are wise. They exhibit self-control. Spiritual leaders cut through the noise of side issues and get to the bottom line. Discernment matters.

That’s what we see here: 35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

You see, #10 Spiritual leaders understand the value of principles. Principles matter.

The fact that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens meant that they were owed, by law, a fair trial. Had Paul and Silas, just said, “No big deal. All’s well that ends well” then it could set a dangerous precedent about how to treat Christians. It would have ushered in persecution without limits and discredited Christ (since onlookers who are always looking on would believe that Paul and Silas were somehow guilty).

And just as an aside, another reason why Silas may have been a better ministry partner for this phase of ministry: Not only did Silas stick with Paul when the going got tough, Silas was also a Roman citizen, just like Paul. Details like this cannot be minimized. They’re important to the discerning among us. They’re in the Bible for a reason.

38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left.

#11 Spiritual leaders perceive optics but aren’t driven by them. They understand that perception is reality and optics do matter. Had Paul and Silas been seen as guilty as charged, hanging their heads in shame as they slipped into obscurity, the Gospel would have been robbed of some of its powerful testimony. So, they insisted on being escorted from prison, heads held high, the officials hanging their heads (and thanking their lucky stars that they were not executed for publicly beating Roman citizens), and the Gospel came out of prison in triumph. That in itself would have encouraged the people at Lydia’s house, but then word of how all the events transpired…great testimony always encourages. But great testimony does not equal a photo-op. Had Paul and Silas spiked the ball, so to speak, it would have ruined their testimony since it would have become about them and about winning, and not about the Gospel. They perceived the optics but weren’t driven by them.

After they’d encouraged the brothers, they left for the next place of ministry which brings us to #12 Spiritual leaders know when to move on when a job is done. Mission matters more to them than pride of achievement. They move on because God is moving them on as one door closes and God opens a new one down the road like we talked about last week.

The Church in America is sorely lacking Spiritual Leadership.

We have pastors out there writing books about leadership, but it’s really more about the business functions of running a successful church or parachurch ministry. All administration—a well-managed and financed flock with well-orchestrated dance moves—but very little spiritual encouragement to fight the good fight for Jesus. It’s really more about them and selling books …than it is about Him and being a point of testimony to His light in a dark world.

Some pastors will teach the Bible well, but when it comes to taking a tough stand, they look at who visibly butters their bread and just assume they’re doing God’s work enough by teaching what it is that the Bible says. All teaching and no leading resulting in a well-fed but poorly exercised flock. Flabby Christians who melt when exposed to heat.

Such leaders are okay, especially in light of the pastors out there that are throwing the Bible away and throwing their fellow Christians to the wolves for the sake of their own skin, but okay isn’t what God has in mind…for true spiritual leaders. God has in mind leadership excellence in a true spiritual sense.

Genuine spiritual leaders will have these 12 Marks. Spiritual leaders:

1. Value purity.
2. Know their limits.
3. Remain steadfast even when persecuted.
4. Hope in impossible circumstances.
5. Praise God even in the storms of life.
6. Lead because it’s a calling
7. Are God-centered and selfless.
8. Ready to testify 24/7
9. Are discerning
10. Value principles
11. Perceive optics but aren’t driven by them
12. Know when to move on.

A genuine spiritual leader is the kind of person I pray God will bring to you when my time as pulpit supply is done as He brings revival to Plymouth Church of Racine. Let’s pray.

Acts 16 reveals 12 qualities of spiritual leaders that God calls us to exhibit even if (and especially when) the world is falling apart at such a rapid pace.  The Apostle Paul was a one-in-a-million spiritual leader and he shows us how it’s done.

Today, I’m going to let you in on a few secrets of my life. Things that people don’t necessarily know about me. They are all related to today’s message on The Powerful Beauty of a Closed Door.

We all know what closed doors are like. Sometimes it’s a closed door of a job, of a promotion we wanted, of a season of life, of a residence, maybe of a relationship, of a ministry, or even the closed door upon a long-cherished dream. God closes doors and God doesn’t answer, or so it seems, our prayers sometimes. Instead the door closes and all we’re left with is something that we didn’t want…when what we wanted was on the other side of that door.

So today we’re going to talk about the Powerful Beauty of a Closed Door and find 6 beautiful aspects of closed doors. And I’ll reveal a few secrets along the way.

My first secret is that I go through phases where I really enjoy Country Music. Garth Brooks has a song called Unanswered Prayers and the lyrics in part go like this:

• Just the other night at a hometown football game
• My wife and I ran into my old high school flame
• And as I introduced them the past came back to me
• And I couldn’t help but think of the way things used to be
•  
• She was the one that I’d wanted for all time
• And each night I’d spend prayin’ that God would make her mine
• And if he’d only grant me this wish I wished back then
• I’d never ask for anything again
•  
• Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
• Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
• That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
• Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

The Powerful Beauty of a Closed Door is that it forces us down a different path in the company of different people. Such was the case with our Book of Acts. Last week, you may remember that Barnabas and Paul came to a fork in the road and took it. Barnabas, ever the encourager, takes Mark who was rejected by Paul and they set sail for Cyprus. They became a new ministry team and eventually God would bless their work and heal old disagreements. Mark would write the Gospel of Mark and he would return to a useful place of ministry in healed relationship with Paul, as did Barnabas and Paul before him.

But for now, Paul takes Silas and God’s crazy math in which division is actually multiplication, and subtraction is really addition takes place. Silas would prove an excellent partner for the second missionary journey of Paul. His presence could easily be explained as ongoing delegation and training up of next generation missionaries. God’s closed door with Barnabas and Mark actually opens a door for Silas and Timothy who we’ll meet today.

We’re in Acts 16 which you can find on page 784 of your pew Bibles if you’d like to follow along.

Our first beauty of a closed door is this: A door that’s closed to one person is a door that’s available to another.

Acts 16:1 He [Paul] came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. 2 The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

We could talk at length about why Timothy had to be circumcised when that letter from James and the Jerusalem Council last week made it clear that a person doesn’t have to become a Jew first, but that discussion will have to wait for later. We could guess why God chose Silas and Timothy as Paul’s new partners in ministry. There are things about the closed door that we will never know on this side of heaven, but here’s the thing: Mark’s experiencing of a closed door created an opening for Timothy and Silas.

Picture it kind of like an elevator with room for 1 person with some baggage or 2 people who travel without baggage. When the elevator door opens and the 1 person waiting has way too much baggage, it makes it possible for the two to ride and yet another elevator will come along for the 1 person who travels heavy. We all get where we’re going, but the beauty of the closed door is that a door closed to someone can actually open a door to others.

Secret #2: people ask me a lot what God’s will is for their lives. On All-Experts which is a web site I’ve been on for more than a decade now, people often ask me questions of a biblical nature. But most often it turns into a Dear Abby kind of thing because they’re seeking answers if they should marry this person or that, what God’s will is for their job, their life, their home, their kids, their parents, their desire for a tattoo…

In many cases (except the tattoo which I really don’t think God cares what the person does with a tattoo on their body so much as how He cares about their love and respect for the authorities in that person’s life), I will suggest that they pray and then consider the will of God like one of those automated door opening pads they used to have at the grocery store. You step on the pad, or today, step into the doorway, and if the door opens, walk through it. If the door is closed, consider why it’s closed (is the store not open yet or are you after-hours? Is it a holiday? Is it not the right door? Are you trying to get in to a place where you don’t have one of those approved id’s that tells the door to open? Or maybe it’s like the old TV show Get Smart where all the doors open for Agent 86 until he dead ends at a phone booth and he needs to phone it in. If there’s no good reason why the door is closed, then try it again since perseverance can be a good thing. But if it remains closed after repeated tries, move on. Not even a phone in your shoe will help you get CONTROL over the KAOS.

So how should we consider closed doors with respect to God’s will for our lives?

Our second beauty is that closed doors prevent us from sacrificing God’s best on the altar of expediency. That was what happened in our OT reading this morning.  Abram and Sarai and Hagar brought problems on themselves by not honoring the closed door and instead tried to find a way around it.  Ishmael was no Isaac.  But we see an honoring of a closed door in today’s passage with Paul and Silas and Timothy. All is going swimmingly but suddenly another closed door:

6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

God wouldn’t let them go in. They tried a couple of different door opening techniques and entry points to try to go the way Paul thought he was supposed to go. But no dice.

How is it possible that God would keep them from preaching somewhere? What gives… on that one?? Didn’t Jesus say to go into all the world?? Make disciples???

Paul was only doing what Jesus had called him to do. He was probably pretty confused. He may have felt like a rat in one of those mazes with nothing but dead ends and no cheese.

I know how that feels. A third secret of my life is that I’ve faced a lot of closed doors for a lot of reasons. Professionally. Personally. And it can be every bit as painful as confusing.

But here’s another beauty of a closed door. Closed doors have a way of driving us to our knees in prayer.

A fourth secret is that I don’t pray enough. I have an ongoing conversation with God almost all day long, but to get on my knees and weep before the Lord? Not so much. But closed doors drive me there.

That’s the place where I’ve laid down my anger at the pastor who had his wife call me and leave a message with my teenage son to tell his mother (me) that I was rejected.  Even though I had been contracted through Trinity’s speaker’s bureau to preach for over a week, he decided to have a man (one of their elders) preach in less than 48 hours.  Instead of my preaching the message I’d been preparing for over a week. Anger. That a man was too chicken to tell me himself and instead, he had his wife do his dirty work on a Friday when Sunday was nearing. And she took the road of least resistance by forcing my 15 year old son tell his mother the painful rejection. I can handle rejection.  I wonder about a stranger putting my child in such a position.  How is that possibly loving? Closed doors drive us to our knees in prayer. It is there, in prayer that we lay down our pain, our rejection, our anger, and we learn what it means to forgive.

Closed doors that happen on account of human sin when someone prays that God will open up a way for me to serve and then when God clearly does, he doesn’t have the guts to honor God,  Instead, how does he respond?  Quickly fill the job with a man.  Basically responding to God by his actions, “Well, I didn’t mean that way.” This man’s disobedience equaled further rejection of me. And the hits just kept on coming. Closed doors drive us to our knees in prayer. It is there, in prayer that we lay down our pain, our rejection, our anger, and we learn once again why it’s important to forgive.

Closed doors after 3 years of dedicated volunteerism to tell me I’m no longer welcome to volunteer, assuring me I’d done nothing wrong, with a trumped up reason of “just a case of too many volunteers, too many choices.” Oh, and well, I’m not ordained, something he knew from before the time I started. All the while he was knowing that ordination is kind of a sore topic for me because I’m living proof that one denomination that trains women will not ordain them. If the problem is that I was too Christian or too evangelistic, just say so. But to stick a knife in the ordination wound and twist it was pretty cruel. Especially from a Christian. Especially from a “leader.”  Closed doors drive us to our knees in prayer. It is there, in prayer, that we lay down our pain, our rejection, and yes, our anger, and better yet, we learn to forgive even if the wound still bleeds.  It bleeds as a reminder that Jesus set the example from the Cross saying,

Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34)

Prayer is also the place where we can cry out to God, “I don’t understand!!!!” when we’re trying to do His will and all we get is pain after pain, rejection after rejection, closed door after closed door.

Great! I’m developing “character.”

A sorry consolation prize for the person who is totally confused and seeking understanding of the ways of God. And all that seems to be there is God’s great big silent voice saying nothing about why all this is happening. I’m crying out in confusion and God is not saying a word.

My life has been a series of closed doors as I run down the hall in Scooby Doo and I’m trying door after door and running to find the one that opens while some cartoon villain chases me and all I can say is Ruh-Roh and hope that a door opens up before the cartoon ends and the smart girl, Velma Dinkley finds her glasses and solves the mystery.

But down the hall and down the road, there is an open door and an answer to the mystery. For this reason, the verses we’re about to look at are among my favorites in the entire Bible. Another secret told.

Closed doors can be a way of moving us to a place of answers. To doing God’s greater work with greater character on account of the closed doors of life.

Closed doors are what brought me to you…for a while…until I need to get off the elevator so that your next pastor that God will bring can find an open door and enough room to ride and to run his race.

I love this story:

8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Want to know another secret? Closed doors can cultivate zeal for the open door. It did with Paul. I love this. Luke, the author of Luke’s Gospel and the Book of Acts now changes to the personal pronoun from “they” to “we.” The “we” passages –not like an Irish wee-people—but a plurality in which Luke includes himself. From here forward, Luke will be one of Paul’s ministry companions. Some scholars believe that Luke was the man of Macedonia in Paul’s vision and then Paul’s seeing Luke in person was confirmation–God’s confirmation!–that the vision of heading to Macedonia was in fact God’s will. An open door. Finally.

Like a horse that is behind the starting gate for the big race, Paul’s muscles were eager to run, he was pawing the ground just waiting for the gate to open. He was charged up and ready to spring into action. He sees this vision; he sees confirmation, and then they all bolt from the starting gate to new territory that God has already planned. No dillydallying. No delay. No excuses. No questioning. No looking back over his shoulder wistfully at Asia, Mysia, and Bithynia, dreaming of what could have been. Nope. What does he do?

He gets right after it: A closed door cultivated a zeal for the open door

11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

As he writes to the church at Philippi about a zeal for the open door:

Philippians 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Press ON! Press ON!! God led them to the political and cultural epicenter of a prominent Roman colony and the premier city of Macedonia. And that’s where Paul’s work will find great fruitfulness, honoring that vision of a man of Macedonia. So Paul, go to the place you think you’re supposed to go to and trust God with the results. Paul goes on the Sabbath (as was his custom) to a place that would be a logical starting point.

13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Here’s another beauty of a closed door. The closed door opens our minds to God’s possibilities and causes us to release our pre-conceived ideas, our expectations, and our prejudices in order to see what God is doing.

These guys show up on the Sabbath to find a place of prayer and who do they see? Women. Not exactly their planned ministry target.

Women were culturally inferior to men back then and even speaking to a woman could get a Jew in trouble…whether he was married or not.

Had they not experienced the closed door, every one of “us” that the man of Macedonia spoke about (in “help us”) might have had to been male. A male man, not a mailman postal worker. A guy. But instead, who do they see at the place of prayer? Women who had gathered there. And so they spoke to the women. One of those women was a prominent businesswoman and in true God-fashion as He’s removing barriers of all kinds—first barriers to the Gentiles, and now the barriers to women. Lydia was there. God opened her heart. She led her household to faith and baptism and then she issued an invitation for these missionaries to stay at her home.

Had Paul and his companions not experienced all those closed doors along the way, God’s open door of Macedonia, and open heart of a woman of faith, and open home of hospitality might have been easily overlooked because of Paul’s preconceived ideas. Maybe men instead of women. Jews first instead of Gentiles first. Going east into the larger territory of Asia…instead of west to more fruitful territories of Greece and ultimately Rome.

Our New Testament is filled with a Gospel from a closed door Mark, a Gospel from Gentile Luke and a whole book recording the early church and missionary journeys written by this same man Luke…and then there are… the letters. Thirteen of which were from Paul’s missionary efforts we see in the Book of Acts. None of them are named Asia, Mysia, or Bithynia. But there are ones to the Philippians, and the Thessalonians, and the Galatians, and the Corinthians, etc.. We have the fruit of the majority of the New Testament to showcase the beauty of closed doors…and what God will do with the one He opens.

Closed Doors are not the problem they often seem to be. They’re actually beautiful for those of us who know them well. For those of us who know that…

The Powerful Beauty of a Closed Door is at least six-fold:

1. A door that’s closed to one person is a door that’s available to another.
2. Closed doors prevent us from sacrificing God’s best on the altar of expediency
3. Closed doors have a way of driving us to our knees in prayer.
4. Closed doors can be a way of moving us to a place of answers. To doing God’s greater work with greater character on account of the closed doors of life.
5. Closed doors can cultivate zeal for the open door
6. The closed door opens our minds to God’s possibilities and causes us to release our pre-conceived ideas, our expectations, and our prejudices in order to see what God is doing.

So we can thank God for unanswered prayers, for the Powerful Beauty of a Closed Door. But one last thing about the Closed Door is to accept it for its beauty and its power. Let me share a little secret that I’ve learned the hard way: when we perceive that God is closing a door in our lives, jamming our feet in the opening because we prefer the open door isn’t God’s way. Going against God’s closing a door only leads to heartache.  Instead, acknowledge that there’s a Powerful Beauty in a Closed Door if we’ll accept it.

Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs

That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care

Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

 Or I might add….closed doors.  Let’s pray.

For anyone who has ever faced closed doors in life, this message from Acts 16 will encourage your heart to discover the powerful beauty of a closed door. This message was first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI on July 12, 2015.

The road ahead is rarely as predictable as the road behind. The future can be unclear but hindsight is almost always 20/20. Depending on our goals and our calling, the same road which led us to the present may diverge and become a fork in the road.  Such is the case in today’s passage from the Book of Acts.

Last week, there was a sharp disagreement between the Gospel dream team Barnabas and Paul vs. the Pharisaical Christians who wanted the Law and circumcision to endure as a requirement. The dream team’s insistence on “grace alone” triumphed and the Jerusalem Council –all of one mind–sent a letter to Antioch to settle matters.

The road ahead for the brothers from Jerusalem was pretty clear: Go to Antioch. Read the letter. Come home. A round trip. A defined destination. There and back.

So, the brothers all went to Antioch, read the letter to all the people, they were gathered in total agreement; they were glad, encouraged; and they were of one mind as well. No more talk of dissension in our passage. A storybook ending of “they lived happily ever after.”

Everything should be fine, right?  Well, not really.

We’re at a point in the Book of Acts in which we can begin to piece together the greater New Testament, plugging it into where it fits in Acts and a picture of trouble emerges. The Jerusalem brothers have no sooner headed back safe and sound, aiming for that happily ever after, when Antioch takes a different path. The road ahead is a troubled one.

Not unlike the trouble that appears in many churches when a seed of trouble gets planted, dissension grows, and confrontation takes hold. This all happens in what we innocently we read in Acts 15, verse 35

35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.

Galatians 2 fills us in on what was happening behind the scenes and it isn’t pretty. The road ahead is rocky. Paul is not a happy camper. His vision of a ministry of grace to the Gentiles—a calling from Christ Jesus Himself—is still being undermined by people he calls the “circumcision group,” sometimes known as the Judaizers. That same group who had caused the need for last week’s Court Decision in the first place are back at it, insisting that Gentiles first had to become Jews and then Christian. Well, they’re not only back at it, they’re using intimidation and threats.

Opposition never gives up.

Standing firm is a constant battle.

Where the Gospel is concerned, the opposition is relentless and fierce. Eternity is at stake.  Satan is a defeated enemy, but a nasty and vindictive one.

Keeping people in slavery is our adversary’s goal.

Galatians 2: 4 This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.

Paul, true to his character, focuses on the Gospel and the truth. It’s part of how he is gifted by the Spirit. Which brings up a really interesting point: other church leaders were gifted differently, even if they were all notable people and good leaders. But where matters of Christian doctrine are concerned, Paul is steadfast, even more than a bit stubborn.

Galatians 2:8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. 11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

His words come across as rather harsh, aimed directly at Peter and Barnabas and others, possibly John Mark, too: Galatians 2:14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? 15 “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. ..21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Paul’s vision of the road ahead was clear: the doctrine of grace cannot be compromised (for his whole ministry was based on it!) So what we see in so innocent a verse of Acts 15:

35 But Paul and Barnabas in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.

..this only shows that the fact was they remained in Antioch teaching. The flavor is the bittersweet truth: it wasn’t all fun and friendship. Truth stands immovable, even between friends. Even among leaders. Even among the God-ordained as both Paul and Peter had been. Pride and fear had long been Peter’s fatal flaws and it was both pride in wanting to be seen as a superior Jew and fear of what others thought that crept into Peter’s daily actions to the point where he did not follow 100% of what he believed.

There’s a lesson for us today in this:

Standing for God’s truth isn’t easy, especially where it threatens to divide us from our families and our friends. It challenges our loves and our priorities. But stand we must.

Paul—with his brilliant mind, impeccable logic, and powerful passion—refused to let it go. Too much was at stake, particularly if these leaders were to be effective! So he says,

Galatians 2:11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.

Yet, Peter in his epistle says this about Paul:

2 Peter 3:15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

By this time, Peter and Paul—despite the earlier confrontation—came to an agreement on the Truth. They were brothers, true brothers, living in both grace and forgiveness. But now, we turn to another disagreement in the road ahead. Back to Acts 15:

36 Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Suddenly Barnabas and Paul who were of one mind on the Gospel during last week’s Court Decision, began a distancing when Peter led even Barnabas astray.  Now Barnabas and Paul become divided over non-theological things like taking John Mark. After all, there was no 11^th commandment saying, “Thou shalt take John Mark.”

If you look at the passage in verse 35, Paul’s name now appears first. He has become the leader, Barnabas is secondary. Like Peter last week, Barnabas will not appear again in the Book of Acts. Although he will be mentioned in 1 Corinthians 9:6, demonstrating that the both Paul and Barnabas would be known together, and it can be reasonably inferred that they even worked together at Corinth (which Paul, at this point in Acts, has not yet visited).

Scholars are quick to say that “It is significant that after so many centuries of study, the church is still not sure who was at fault in the conflict between Paul and Barnabas.”

They talk about how Christians, especially leaders, should not disagree sharply.

Even John Stott says, “this example of God’s providence may not be used as an excuse for Christian quarreling.”

Scholars say that what we see between Barnabas and Paul should not be considered the norm when Christian leaders disagree. That it is an exception brought about by human error rather than by divine design.

It’s my opinion that all these scholars are totally missing the boat. Truth is not relative, but a calling is personal.

Christians ought to contend for the Gospel. Even fight for it. Maybe the church in America wouldn’t be in such sad shape if we spent more time fighting for the Truth and less time saying “Can’t we all just get along?” Just because Christians call themselves Christian doesn’t make their theology right.

The truth stands firm.

And when the truth presses into a situation, it acts as a wedge. It divides.

Scholars are looking for who is right and who is wrong.

They want to blame someone for the dispute.

That’s a totally carnal, fleshly, human, and I might add, it’s an evil thing to do.

Blame has been the modus operandi since Eden when Adam blamed the woman, woman blamed the serpent, and the serpent blamed bad sushi (not really, but you get my point)

But when the FACT of TRUTH pressed in on Barnabas and Paul, it didn’t become relative…what was true for Barnabas versus what was true for Paul. Truth pressed in as a wedge and divided them among their callings.

Their callings, their roles, their personalities were highly personal. Those are what can be relative and individual.

The wedge of truth presses in on the mission to Barnabas. The truth shines in and reveals Paul’s superior doctrinal understanding. Barnabas’ calling, his mission, is still to encourage. Encouragers always see potential. Barnabas saw it in Paul. He sees it in John Mark.

The wedge of truth presses in on Paul. Yes, the truth shines in and reveals Paul’s superior doctrinal understanding, but it also reveals Barnabas’ superior understanding of grace, mercy, and hope.

The truth stands and the road ahead splits in two based upon calling.

• Barnabas goes off to encourage and nurture John Mark who would go on to write the Gospel of Mark. This is the fruit of Barnabas’ calling as an encourager as he walked the road before him of encouraging.
• Paul focuses on unhindered mission to the Gentiles. He can’t have John Mark constantly reminding everyone that Mark deserted everyone once before. They were going to visit the churches they’d already visited and constantly having to explain this deserter would be a distraction. Paul was absolutely right for his unhindered calling and throwing off everything that might prevent his doing what God had called him to do: plow new ground among the Gentiles.

Barnabas offers us a view of grace and the value of 2^nd chances. Paul offers us a view of purity and the value of doctrine. Together they show us to watch our life and doctrine closely. Grace and Truth.  What the Bible says Jesus came in.

The road ahead for the Jerusalem Council brothers had been easy and familiar: back home.

The road for Barnabas and Paul had been a rocky one. A hard one, but good one. The wedge of truth pressed in and divided up the callings. There would be a fork in the road—one path leading toward grace and encouragement; the other toward the necessity of purity of doctrine in plowing new ground for the Gospel. Both embraced grace and truth, but their callings pointed to a priority, a first order of business.  Paul takes Silas and they were commissioned by the church to the grace of the Lord. We aren’t told that Barnabas and Mark were. Perhaps they were as well and the focus has merely shifted to Paul’s ministry now.

But it’s no reason for finding comparison, apostasy, and blame in the silence. Why? Because finally, when we look at this passage, we also see the high road of God’s crazy math. God’s crazy math in which division is actually multiplication. In which, subtraction becomes addition.

And the whole of God’s plan takes the sovereign high road, seeing disagreement and scattering as increasing a harvest.

If you take a pile of corn kernels and bury the pile in a field, you’ll get a rotten pile of corn.

But in the wisdom of the farmer, if it is subtracted from a pile and scattered across a wide area, each kernel fulfills what was in the mind of the farmer:

life and a fuller harvest.

Bette Midler sings a song that captures incorrectly what I’m talking about. It’s a beautiful song and I want to read the lyrics to make a point.

• • From a distance the world looks blue and green
  • And the snow-capped mountains white
  • From a distance the ocean meets the stream
  • And the eagle takes to flight
  •  
  • From a distance, there is harmony
  • And it echoes through the land
  • It’s the voice of hope, it’s the voice of peace
  • It’s the voice of every man
  • From a distance we all have enough
  • And no one is in need
  • And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease
  • No hungry mouths to feed
  •  
  • From a distance we are instruments
  • Marching in a common band
  • Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace
  • They’re the songs of every man
  •  
  • God is watching us, God is watching us
  • God is watching us from a distance

The truth is God is NOT watching us from a distance. Distinctions and disagreements don’t just disappear as they would for people looking at things from a distance. A whitewash; a covering, a gloss. God sees all things clearly, and not merely 20/20. God sees even huge disputes and minor disagreements with perfect clarity. Because He takes the high road, He sees how it all fits together within his framework of truth.

• Sometimes, the road ahead is a familiar road back home, to report back on all the good that has been faithfully done.
• Sometimes, the road ahead is rocky and we have challenges to navigate to keep our lives and our doctrine pure.
• Sometimes, the road ahead is to nurture and encourage others using gifts of encouragement or faith, having hope, or believing the best in people.
• Sometimes, the road ahead means parting company for the sake of Kingdom growth.
• Sometimes, the road ahead will involve confrontation and hard truths.
• Sometimes, the road ahead is to demonstrate God’s ability to turn division into multiplication via His high road. We don’t need to focus on who is to blame. Instead, we can trust that when the wedge of truth presses in, it will reveal how His standard of truth—which never changes—will apply to each of us individually based on our calling.

 May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been

The foresight to know where you are going,

And the insight to know when you have gone too far.

That might sum up the road ahead.  When God is in charge, even problems aren’t really a problem. He doesn’t see us from a distance and ignore the details. If the devil is in the details, that’s where God is doing His most powerful spiritual battle. Pressing in with a wedge of truth to defeat both lies and hypocrisy, uncovering what is real and true and then covering it over with love and grace for those who love Him.

May we know this as our benediction for the road ahead.  It’s an Irish blessing that could have applied to Barnabas and Paul:  “May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.”

While The Road Ahead is sometimes rocky for us, God has a view from the high road.  Therefore, He can lead us safely through all opposition.  God’s truth acts as a wedge.  As such it causes not only a separation of truth from lie, but it can also divide Christians along the lines of their personal callings.  But God’s truth is never relative.  God’s truth stands firm forever. In God’s amazing plan, even division at a fork in the road like we see with Barnabas and Paul serves God’s greater purposes from the high road.  God multiplies the harvest potential and adds harvesters.  In the end, both paths reflect God’s grace and truth and produce evidence of God’s blessing of spiritual fruit.

What a week! Back last August, I planned out the series of Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles and this week’s message was set as Acts 15:1-29. The topic concerns council matters or as I titled it almost a year ago, Court Decisions. As I was working on my message this week, the Supreme Court of the United States came down with a few rulings of its own. It’s been all over the news. One can hardly avoid it even if one wished to avoid seeing anything about it.

If you’ve been hiding under a rock with earplugs in, sleeping your life away like Rip Van Winkle, found yourself stranded alone without technology on an island in the Pacific, or have been held in solitary confinement with no contact with the outside world, the US Supreme Court decided about the Obamacare subsidies and also made a ruling about “gay marriage”. Landmark decisions both.

No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, I think we can all agree that the Supreme Court of the United States is supposed to uphold the US Constitution and is mandated with applying the legal code fairly using both logic and precedent.

Theirs is a legal and governmental job description: to make decisions with regard to the US Constitution and other laws.

Theirs is not a theological job description. Therefore, they do not consult God for His view on things. That is not their job as a Court, although the justices on an individual-by-individual basis may think theologically about these matters. (Or maybe not…)

Celebrations have been massive in front of courthouses, for the press consumption, and all over TV. Yet, for many others, the grief is palpable. They see the decisions through a different lens. To them, these decisions undermine very religious freedoms our nation has held dear since its founding. A pledge of allegiance to the flag once included One Nation Under God… but now would appear to be changed, proclaimed instead as One Nation above God or instead of God.

I have spent the past 48 hours consoling people. They are frustrated, angry, and depressed. Primal screams of distress at a culture rotting in its core with the lovely rainbow promise of God… corrupted… to celebrate the very type of thing that caused the Great Flood to begin with. As it says in Genesis 6:5 “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” So came the Flood never to be repeated.

Why have people reached out to me?

Certainly not because I have magic answers or wisdom beyond my years.  It’s this: While the Supreme Court may not be in the habit of consulting God, I am. And I would encourage you to do the same. We read our Bibles to find out what God has to say.  It is how we stand firm for the Truth…though the culture around us has shifting sands.  Truth of what God says…just as it outlines in today’s passage of Acts that I’ve entitled Court Decisions.

A sharp dispute arose between our dream team of Barnabas and Paul vs. some men who came down from Judea to Antioch. They’d come down from the Holy City believing themselves to have great authority and pretending to be bigger than they were. They began to insist that salvation comes only through the Jews so therefore, every Gentile has to first become Jewish and then be saved. It’s like a 2 stage process. First be circumcised and follow the customs of Moses like every other real Jew…and then you can be saved. Basically they were asserting that salvation is Jesus plus a bunch of laws.

Let’s listen: Acts 15:1 Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.

This was not an insignificant theological point!

It wasn’t going to be resolved by “lower court rulings.”

They needed to check it out with the apostles and the elders and to get a theological ruling from the highest court available.

Why was it significant? Let’s look at several reasons:

First, the Court Decision was significant because it goes to the very heart of the Gospel. It answers the question of whether Christ’s sacrifice is really sufficient to save sinners. Is it all done by Jesus or do we have to earn it? Is it grace or is it by works? Is salvation only for the Jews and those who become Jewish…or is it available to the whole world?

If a person has to work really hard and perfect his life, clean up his act, do this, do that, in order to be acceptable to be saved…then was Christ’s sacrifice really sufficient to save sinners? This point of dispute appears at the central point of the Book of Acts and forms the very center of early theology.

Not an insignificant point at all…and one I might add that we continually see in churches today. It’s a major dividing point between Protestants and Catholics, for example…the role of works and faith, Word and traditions, and the sufficiency of Christ by grace alone.

So back to our story: 3 The church [at Antioch] sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

Testimony is fundamental to the Gospel. We don’t put the Light of Christ under a bowl. We tell people about it! It doesn’t, however, mean that all Christians even agree. Sometimes the higher court, if you will, must consider questions and disputes. Their decision would be a landmark decision—one that would have implications for the rest of human history.

There are two sides. This Court Case might be titled Gospel Grace v. Obey Moses.

5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.” 6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question.

People for whom the Law was important, the believers from among the Pharisees, presented their case. Who were the apostles and elders who were considering this? Well, Peter, James (Jesus’ brother), and John were likely there. Perhaps others. But the important thing is that they didn’t brush this disagreement under the rug or shoot from the hip without hearing arguments from both sides. Our Scriptures say “after much discussion”…not just a quick sound byte and then a wave of the hand, “Enough!” or a passive-aggressive yawn of “whatever”. Rather,

7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

Peter, the disciple Jesus set apart as the leader of the newly formed Church back in Acts 2 now addressed the believers on both sides. Listen again to how he pointed to God which brings up a second point about Court Decisions:

This Court Decision would be grounded in and established by God. God made a choice (v.7). God knows the heart. God accepted them. God gave them the Holy Spirit (who is God) and God gave the same to the Jews (v. 8). God made no distinction. God purified their hearts by …(wait for it)……….faith! (v 9)

And then he basically asks, “Who are YOU to test God who has done all this by making the Gentiles do what we couldn’t do as Jews?”

Then Peter’s claim is that it is by GRACE we are saved…both Jew and Gentile…by God’s plan.

Then the group listens to more evidence: 12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

Paul and Barnabas also point to God! And when we consult God and God gives us answers, we’re wise to obey His answer. James, Jesus’ brother who was a Jew of Jews and also a believer…a Christian…who was presiding over all these arguments arrives at a Court Decision.

13 When they finished, James spoke up: “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simon [emphasizing Peter’s Jewish heritage] has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written [he’s appealing to precedent of Scripture]: 16 “‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17 that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’ 18 that have been known for ages.

Then he states this final conclusion: James’ opinion of the Court: 19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

After all, if God is drawing them and making the Gentiles part of the family of God, who are we to make things difficult for them? As it says in Romans 13:10 “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” We cannot make things more difficult for others to obey God!

But third, and importantly, this Court Decision was significant because it establishes a sense of order and responsibility.

God doesn’t ask that we clean up our act BEFORE coming to faith, but God also doesn’t want His people to reflect poorly on Him by refusing to obey the One they claim to follow. The cleanup isn’t before grace and faith. The cleanup is as a RESPONSE.

Don’t make it difficult for them to find God. But, THIS IS IMPORTANT don’t be an enabler for them to remain every bit the same as they were before.

Regenerated people don’t look and act like degenerates.

20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to

• abstain from food polluted by idols,
• from sexual immorality,
• from the meat of strangled animals and
• from blood.

In other words, accept them as brothers, but hold them to pursuing a standard of morality that would please God. The food things were a matter of sensitivity to their Jewish brothers in the Christian faith. But the non-food one that doesn’t seem to go with the others is sexual immorality. That one James talks about is interesting, especially for us in our culture and in our present day where anything goes. The things James refers to are in the code of sexual conduct from Leviticus 18.

Flash forward to one of our Supreme Court rulings this week. The US legal code may say one thing, but God makes no secret of His view that homosexual expression is part of the broken world, just as are alcoholism, congenital lying, adultery, murder, etc..

Our broken world cannot be blamed on God. NOR can it be used as an excuse to rebel against Him, to redefine love as being nothing more than sex, or marriage as being a legal institution instead of a God-ordained one.

The Bible teaches—completely consistently—that expressing homosexual behavior as a response to brokenness within reproductive function is a sin. That’s what Leviticus 18 clearly states. But it’s not just listed there. Every place in the Bible where homosexuality appears, in 100% of the occurrences, it is described as a social evil, something God finds repugnant, and a temptation over which a person needs to be self-controlled. Just like other sins like adultery, child abuse, deceit, and incest, etc..  Ever since the fall of man, we’ve been sinners–banished from Eden because of our sins.

We can be sympathetic to the difficulties of self-control in areas of sin.

After all, the Bible says we are all sinners by NATURE now and that’s out of our control. But our RESPONSE to that nature, to how one feels…this is a choice.

The response is a choice.

Just as we’re stuck with a sin nature which is not a choice, the tendency or predisposition toward homosexuality or other sexual sins is not a choice.  But what they do with it–their response–is.

Hear me clearly since I know there is great division even in Christian circles about this:

Anyone who puts God first in their lives will want what God wants. They will obey Him.

If they don’t obey Him, then He is not their Lord. They are their own lords, doing what they want and having the audacity to demand God’s blessing on it.

Not just in the same-sex realm but in every area of life. We must honor God because He created us. Our response, our CHOICE, is to obey.  Therefore, we are commanded to master sin, not normalize it. Cain, the first murderer, committed murder because sin sought to master him. God even told him so. But Cain refused to master it.

So, in our passage, James as the leader of the church insists that people honor God by abstaining from things that dishonor God. He didn’t normalize those things and demand that religious sorts just get over it. The food related ones were a matter of sensitivity because Romans 13:10 “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”  The one regarding sexual immorality is different, a timeless truth Genesis to Revelation, and mastering sin is always God’s command for us.

To the gay rights community, all I can say is a victory at the Supreme Court is only enabling them to embrace what God rejects. Normalizing sin isn’t helping anyone. It’s just documenting our godless living and rejection of God as our supreme authority.

I submit to you that the least loving thing a person can do is to let those they care about thumb their noses at the Almighty.

Forgiveness that is offered by Christ comes with the heavy responsibility not to use that freedom as a license to go ahead and sin, thinking that Jesus already covered that so what the hell, go ahead and make the most of the sin while you can.

I’m sad, personally, for the very people who are cheering the most.

I’m sad because their day at real Court is coming and this Decision will be final. God’s standard of holiness will be the measure. Not the 14^th Amendment. I’m sad because forgiveness would have been theirs if they agreed with God.  I’m sad because they been self-deceived and I won’t have been able to convince them to master the temptation to sin, and in the end, all that’s left for them according to the Word of God is Judgment.

Trust me, it won’t be good to have bought “the big lie” that God doesn’t care how one lives. He’s not open minded.

And He’s not tolerant of evil.

He punishes it.

He punished it on Jesus, our sinless Savior.

God’s only Son died for our sins on the Cross.

So in our passage James encourages everyone to a high standard of self-control, integrity, truth, and sensitivity. The Law was important then as it is now for being a mirror to show us how we’re living. That’s what James means when he encourages the Pharisees that the Law isn’t unimportant. The principles contained in it become our holy standard for faith and practice, James says,

21 For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” 22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, two men who were leaders among the brothers. 23 With them they sent the following letter:

The apostles and elders, your brothers, To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia: Greetings. 24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul—26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

This Court Decision held everyone to a high standard of moral conduct. It encouraged everyone to honor God, respect one another, and to uphold God’s truth. Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself. The Greatest Commandment and the one like it. Furthermore, this Court Decision was not a majority opinion with minority dissent on conduct. It was unanimous. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit…and us. Total unity in calling the Gentile Christians to a high standard of God’s purity and moral conduct, not the impossible standard of keeping the Law of Moses. Grace won. Love won (and not in the sense of the gay rights community).  Why? Because holiness won. Unity won.

So what does this mean for us today?

First, the Court Decision from Acts 15 was significant because it goes to the very heart of the Gospel. The heart of the Gospel is both GRACE and TRUTH. Take a good look at yourself and your life. Are you living in a gracious way that honors your Creator by living in God’s truth? Or are you trampling the grace that saves by dishonoring God’s truth? Are your words both grace-filled and truth-full?

Second, the Court Decision was grounded in and established by God. So, reflect upon your reaction to court decisions and ask yourself if you’re trusting God who is the Judge to beat all judges. The King of kings and the Lord of lords. Or are you placing your hope in 9 unelected lawyers, many of whom don’t give a rip about God? The US Constitution is the authority to which lawyers are supposed to point back to, but Christians, true Christians always look to God and His Word.

Third, the Court Decision of Acts 15 was significant because it established both a sense of order and responsibility. Ask yourself whether you are adding burdens that keep people from coming to Christ.  Ask whether you’re promoting an orderly and responsible society based upon God’s Truth. God doesn’t need your approval on His Truth to make it true. God’s Truth doesn’t get overturned if you don’t agree with Him. He’s right and there’s no debating God. So consider carefully the responsibility associated with calling oneself a Christian. It’s not an easy road and some of you probably don’t like that I’ve spoken without compromise on this topic. But we should stand with God and choose life, choose to preach God’s Truth and not care about winning popularity contests. Cleaning up our act is a response to what He’s done. He shows us mercy and He gives us grace!  We should be willing to master temptations to sin.  He deserves no less from us.

And finally, this Court Decision held everyone to a high standard of moral conduct. Remember we have a responsibility for living like regenerated people if we’re going to call ourselves Christian. Yes, James is right: don’t make it hard for people to come to the Church, but find ways of truly loving people enough to tell them the Truth about God and about what it means to be saved. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Don’t trample God’s grace. But in humility remember that self-control and mastering sin are things we can all be better at doing. And God, the Ultimate Judge, is glorified when we honor His sacrifice with our response of obedience.

Let’s pray.

In Acts 15, important features of court decisions emerge that shed light upon recent Supreme Court decisions, especially the highly politicized “gay marriage” decision.  Click to listen to this message on YouTube.

It’s Father’s Day, which is another day that’s not on the church calendar but we’re wise to recognize it anyway. There’s something I’ve never quite understood.

In many churches, the pastors take the opportunity of Father’s Day to chew the dads out:

• Be better dads!
• Man up!
• Take responsibility!
• Be the spiritual head of your house!
• Do this! Do that!

Of course, many dads aren’t even there to hear the pep talk from Hades because to them, Father’s Day means something else: the golf course, the fishing tackle, or sleeping in.

Unlike moms who are expert travel agents for “Kingdom of God Travel Agency” and can plan a guilt trip to church with precision and detail, many dads just really don’t like dealing with church a whole lot. A man named David Murrow, who I got to know a bit over the Internet and a few telephone conversations, lives in Alaska. He’s a man’s man and he wrote a book called “Why Men Hate Going to Church.” I love that book! In it, he says about those men who profess to be Christian,

Let me be blunt: today’s church has developed a culture that is driving men away. Almost every man in America has tried church but two-thirds find it unworthy of a couple of hours once a week. A wise Texan once told me, “Men don’t go to church ‘cuz they’ve been.”

He rejects a “chickified” church that women love and men hate.  What is the Church as Jesus meant it to be? Jesus was a carpenter, a stone mason. He worked with his hands. His disciples? They were fishermen for the most part. Murrow writes,

They were lions, not lambs—take-charge men who risked everything in service to God…they were true leaders, tough guys who were feared and respected by the community. All of these men had two things in common: they had an intense commitment to God and they weren’t what you’d call saintly.”

Fast-forward to just this past week when a friend of a friend of mine on the Internet posted a photo of a “Father’s Day card for Mom” among the Hallmark selections under the Mahogany brand. Along with the photo, she posted this comment (She’s a black woman, BTW):

This makes me really sad…

As if we need something else to emasculate the black man. Single mothers can be applauded without diminishing the role and importance of the father and men who act as fathers in our community. A woman can be strong and independent but she can never be or fill what was intended to be filled by a man.

I was raised by a single mother who never sought to be my father nor did she ever speak badly of him. Nor did she ever pretend like her magnificent and job well done as my provider could replace some of things that I did not receive from my dad.

A mother is a mother. A mother will never be a father.

The Real Deal is what this honest woman seeks and craves. In a world of phony baloney pretenders, she wants the real deal: a father who is a father.

The Real Deal. Hold that thought.

To make matters even worse, we live in a world where people will go out and worship just about anything: money, sex, race, the planet and all the things in it, or what I witnessed this past week with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Now don’t get me wrong, I watched and enjoyed the games. Like everyone else in Chicago, I was a Hawks fan.  Better yet, the Tampa Bay Lightning put up a good fight. But in the end, the cheers for “Bring the Cup Home!” won out and the great big silver idol, the Stanley Cup, came to Chicago again. “It’s time to call this a dynasty!”…all the sportscasters were saying. Dynasty and a hockey team is their king.

Look at these photos in the paper. The Stanley Cup behind glass as people wait in line to take its photo. The whole team piled photographically into the top of the cup. A special 24 page section in the newspaper. Every store and then some has Blackhawks gear to hawk. The parade filling the streets with cheering fans in red and black! The Stanley Cup with more protection than the Pope had!

All I can say is be thankful it wasn’t the Cubs which has become synonymous with Completely Useless By September.   If the Cubs won something big, we’d be insufferable on a scale you don’t want to see.

So the whole Blackhawks team, holding the big silver cup above their heads and kissing it and parading it around, I couldn’t help but think theological thoughts. I can’t help it. It’s who I am.

I wonder if God wonders why people don’t treat Him that way

or recognize that He is THE capstone on THE REAL DYNASTY.

Jesus Christ is the Real Deal for all eternity.

Imagine if people spent a ton of money on tickets to go to the stadium to worship God. Or maybe because they couldn’t get in to see such a big event, they dressed up in their God-jerseys and went out to the bars to worship God on TV. They had God-parties at home where they tuned in—because no stadium could hold such a crowd of those who wanted the Real Deal—and they sat on their couches and were glued to the entire time of worship. Because it wasn’t just a game. It was real…and eternal! And God is the Real Deal…our real Father in heaven and definitely worthy of worship.

We’re in the Book of Acts in our series Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles and today we’re looking at the Real Deal as it is presented in Acts 14 and we’ll see 6 things about the Real Deal.

First, the real deal unites …and it divides. The Gospel cuts both ways!

Acts 14:1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.  2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.  4 The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5 There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. (italics mine)

The people of Iconium were divided along party lines. Rivalries are fierce and jealousies can consume us if we’re not careful. Paul and Barnabas were so effective at what they were doing that some people wanted them taken out.

Kind of like what happened to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Not that you’d know it in Chicago that the Cavs lost to the Golden State Warriors who are now parading around their little god of gold. In Chicago, the big silver cup is everywhere, enough that you’d have to dig deep in the sports section to hear that LeBron James, the king maker, the ring maker, said five words that encapsulated what happened to James and the Cavaliers: “We ran out of talent.” They were exposed by all the injuries—especially the notable take-down of Kevin Love—that they were not the real deal.

The real deal unites …and it divides. So it did with Paul and Barnabas whose dream team was under attack in Iconium. What do they do? They flee before they’re killed. This wouldn’t have been simply a game /season-ending injury, theirs was a threat against their very lives.

6 But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, 7 where they continued to preach the good news. 8 In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

The real deal unites …and it divides. But secondly, the real deal has power.

This is not like Paul had some self-chosen superpower to be able to choose to see people’s hearts. God gave him the understanding that this man had faith to be healed. Paul said, “Stand up on your feet”, and the guy didn’t just crawl or climb to a standing position…he jumped up and began to walk. The power was God’s power, the very same power that was present in the Good News Paul had been preaching. Gospel Power is unlike any other power out there.

11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

The real deal unites …and it divides.

It has power.

And third, the real deal is grounded in the truth.

Barnabas and Paul didn’t want to get credit for something that men cannot do apart from God.

They knew that Jesus is the Real Deal.

Barnabas and Paul? They’re not gods.  They are not king makers or ring makers.  They didn’t perform the miracle. God did.  Had it been up to them alone, they would have been like LeBron. They would have run out of talent and failed.

That’s one of the big problems with idols of our own making, kings of our own making, hopes and dreams grounded in people we make into messiahs when they’re just regular people. Life has a way of exposing that these man-made messiahs are like that red truck in the Ally Bank ad. Loaded with fine print and a limited time offer and not the real deal at all. We don’t want a close facsimile, a fake, a knock-off, or a pretender when eternity is in the balance. When our own salvation is at stake, only the Real Deal will do.

14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15 “Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. 16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” 18 Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them

So, the real deal unites…and it divides; it has power; and the real deal is grounded in the truth. But the real deal…you know what? It exposes both love and hatred.

I think of Jesus’ words, Matthew 10: 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

In the Gospel, Jesus confronts our hearts with Truth and reveals who and what we worship. Love and hatred are exposed in our passage. Paul and Barnabas didn’t want to take credit for the miracles. They pointed to God. Had they taken credit themselves, the crowd would have been content with just another group of pretenders, fakes, and fine print. Little-g gods made in our own image are perfectly fine. Little silver gods of Blackhawks hockey. Little golden gods of Golden State. What and who do we love… and in what and whom do we place our trust?

The Real Deal has a way of exposing our love and our hatred and moreover, it exposes what we worship. Jesus is the Real Deal to beat all real deals.

So Paul and Barnabas aren’t able to soothe the crowds who wanted to worship them—a crowd’s love gone wrong! And the ones who hated the truth that Barnabas and Paul were speaking about Jesus who deserves to be worshiped. The haters go wrong too, and decided to take action:

19 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.

They wouldn’t have found Paul a threat if he’d been a girly man. If his words were just nice and he sang pretty little songs about loving a man named Jesus. His words had power and that’s why he was hated.

The real deal unites…and it divides; it has power; it is grounded in the truth; and it exposes love, hatred, and what we worship, but finally…and this is Good News.

The Real Deal of Jesus Christ inspires perseverance.

Because Jesus is the Real Deal and Paul is a man’s man, Paul doesn’t give up!   He’s kind of like Indiana Jones where he keeps on going!  You can almost hear the theme song playing in the background.

20 But 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. 21 They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.

We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24 After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, 25 and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. 26 From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. 27 On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.

So where are you placing your faith today? In some fake, some fraud, some knock-off…maybe some person, place or thing? Is your faith in some sports team with king makers and ring makers? Maybe in some manmade messiah?

Or are you on the lookout for the Real Deal? The One who unites and divides, because He has the power of God, and He is the truth of God—the Way, the Truth, and the Life! Are you on the lookout for the Real Deal? Because He is the One who is worthy of worship, and can keep us from falling and inspire us by His Holy Spirit to persevere. Eternity is in the balance. It’s not just a game. No fake, no fraud, no pretender is going to do the trick for eternity. But the Good News is that if you seek Jesus Christ, you will find Him. He’s faithful in that way, because He is…the Real Deal.