Sorry for the repost on this.  My web site has been experiencing technical difficulties and I needed to restore to an earlier version that was missing this post.

I’m away from the pulpit again this week as I continue to prepare the good folks in the congregation at Plymouth Church for my departure at the conclusion of the Book of Acts (in December). We have a guest preacher again this week as we pursue an orderly transition and learn Bible truths from other preachers and pastors. I thoroughly enjoyed the message offered this week by our guest.

However, to keep up with the study of Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles online, I offer my own devotional on the topic (and again, there will be no accompanying audio this week).

It’s important that we don’t carry around notions based upon mistaken identity.

The Apostle Paul had his share of misunderstandings, some self-inflicted and others aimed directly at him.  God, however, wants us to be seeing life with eyes wide open, being clear minded, knowing our role in our culture, and grounding our identity in Christ.  When we see the question is not so much “Who am I?” but “Whose am I?” we will be free from mistaken identity and confident in sharing our Christian identity with others in the form of testimony.  Lately people have been using a hashtag #IamAChristian to affirm their identity in Christ.  That’s what Paul will be talking about today as he teaches us 5 aspects of mistaken identity in Acts 21-22.  Mistaken identity that needed correcting if one will be a Christian.

Last week, the mob was about to kill Paul when he was hauled off to the barracks for questioning.  The commander got it wrong, though.

Mistaken Identity #1. He’s not an Egyptian causing trouble. He’s a Jew through and through.

Acts 21: 37 As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?” “Do you speak Greek?” he replied. 38 “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the desert some time ago?” 39 Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.”

The commander was surprised to see that Paul speaks Greek and further surprised to learn that Paul was not an Egyptian at all but from Tarsus and a Jew, like the rest of the “Men of Israel” mob which was trying to kill Paul. Mistaking him for an Egyptian meant that the commander’s reason for taking Paul to the barracks was thrown into question. Paul was from Tarsus—moreover, he was a citizen of Tarsus which was no ordinary city. The commander didn’t really seem to be all that impressed with Tarsus, but it did alert him to the fact that he wasn’t dealing with the person he thought he was dealing with (an Egyptian insurrectionist and terrorist).

Therefore he lets Paul speak. Perhaps the commander thought that Paul was going to correct the record with the crowd. Maybe the “Men of Israel” thought Paul was an Egyptian too. Letting Paul speak, however,  is always a dangerous thing.  Not only is he a good speaker, but his logic is impeccable and his rhetorical skill is superb.  He’ll give the Gospel full strength at every opportunity.  So, Paul retells his conversion story that we first heard about in Acts 9. This time, Paul fills us in on a few more details. The crowd, those “Men of Israel,” may very well be surprised now to learn that Paul isn’t who they thought he was.  Paul has some pretty amazing Jewish credentials.

Acts 22:1 “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.” 2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said: 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

Mistaken identity #2. Paul is not some ignorant, mind-numbed cult follower of Jesus, but a highly educated and credentialed Jew of Jews.

He is a Jew and therefore calls them “brothers and fathers.” He spoke in Aramaic because that was their spoken language of choice. He was trained under Gamaliel, the foremost rabbi of their time. He was not just a student who skipped class perpetually, some lazy slacker who squeaked by with a D-minus. Nope. He was thoroughly trained and zealous as any of them. Actually Paul is being modest. He was zealous beyond the point that even they are. In fact, he was downright notorious for his persecution of Christians. He was feared by Christians throughout the region and he was known to the high priest and to the Council, the Sanhedrin, as he got letters from these leaders to hunt down, arrest, and kill Christians.  Paul was a persecutor of Christians, and like ISIS today, Paul had that as his primary life’s ambition.

But Paul previously had a mistaken identity. #3 Paul thought that Christians were the infidels and Jesus was falsely worshiped. But then, something changed: Paul saw the Light.

6 “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ 8 “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. “‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. 10 “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked. “‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. 12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him. 14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

The companions saw the light too, but they were not blinded by it.  No scales on their eyes.  They didn’t understand the voice that spoke to Paul.  Interesting, is it not, that people can see the very same thing…and yet, not understand what has happened?  God must open our eyes to see the mistaken identity and we must be willing to take it to heart.  Paul did.

Mistaken identity #4. Paul thought he was only persecuting Christians. He had no idea that he was actually persecuting the Christ, the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. The Jews had been waiting for this Messiah since the days of Abraham and now Paul is aware that he has been persecuting the very One he has been waiting for: it’s a case of mistaken identity on steroids.

We aren’t told about the companions.  Did they have their eyes opened to the truth, too?  Or did the Gospel cut both ways?  Did they go away with nothing but a strange story and hard hearts?

From Damascus to Jerusalem, must have been a thinking journey for Paul. Working his way through all those Scriptures he knew by heart. All that training that he’d received. And now the Light of Christ illuminating it all and the Holy Spirit showing Paul the Truth and how much Paul himself was going to suffer for the cause of Christ.

What goes around comes around;

the hunter becomes the hunted;

and the persecutor becomes the persecuted.

17 “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking. ‘Quick!’ he said to me. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

Mistaken identity #5. The crowd then thought that Paul was a false teacher. But Paul is an extraordinary evangelist to Jews and Gentiles alike. He’s teaching Truth, but now just as before, many will not accept it.

Now, Paul has come full circle, twice. He started in Jerusalem as a persecutor of Stephen (and Christ). On round one, Paul returned to Jerusalem as a Christian with work to do and needing to flee in order to accomplish it. But now, Paul is back in Jerusalem and they still do not accept Paul’s testimony about God’s plan of salvation, but the time has arrived that was bound to happen. The crowd has a mistaken identity just as Paul had at the time of Stephen’s death.

The difference is that now, Paul knows exactly who he is and moreover, he knows Whose he is. He belongs to Christ Jesus.

What about you? Who do you say Jesus is? Who do you think you are? Is your identity in all the credentials and the pedigree…or is your identity as one who has been redeemed? Are you living in a case of mistaken identity… or have you seen the Light? Are you living with your eyes open wide? Are you clear minded, knowing your role in our culture, grounding your identity in Christ, and consequently being confident in sharing your Christian identity with others in the form of testimony?   If not, today is a good day to give up that old mistaken identity and to ask God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ and to clothe yourself with His righteousness so that you, like Paul, might know Whose you are.

For the one who has been redeemed, there’s no more mistaken identity.

Oftentimes when someone possesses a truly brilliant intellect, pride inevitably follows. Perhaps the person is a braggart making sure everyone knows how smart he is. Perhaps the person feigns humility to be seen in a positive public light when behind closed doors, the sneer of condescension reigns supreme. Perhaps the person adopts the view of “It’s not bragging if you can do it” and one feels like he’s not really braggin’ at all. He’s just swaggin’.  All of those are pretty common.

Far rarer is the teachable spirit, particularly with the brightest and most talented among us. The teachable spirit is something truly special and in today’s passage, we see two instances of it. We see it in the Apostle Paul and we see it in Apollos.

When we last left off with Paul, he was ministering in broken Corinth as an incredibly broken man. He’d been chased from town to town, hunted down in some cases, and generally ended up fleeing for his life before he ever got a chance to witness the results of his ministry to others. To task-oriented people, this is a difficult thing to swallow. We want results. We want to check it off the list. We want that external validation that our time was well-spent. Paul got precious little of that on a strictly human level.

But now, we read in Acts 18:18 Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken. 19 They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. 21 But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus. 22 When he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch. 23 After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

Paul had learned something very important by virtue of his life experiences.

Do the work.

Plant the seed.

And trust God with the results.

Paul knew what it was like to try to enter Mysia and Bithynia (Acts 16:7) and to desire staying on at length with every church he’d planted.

But instead, he learned to trust God even when things made no sense.

To a brilliant man like Paul, he probably wanted answers. He may have wanted the satisfaction and feedback of a job well done. An attaboy. Assurance. He had probably dispensed with needing accolades back on the road to Damascus when he met the Risen Lord. Yet, human nature wants to have food for faith and the favor of a reply to know how one is doing.

The Jews at the synagogue asked Paul to spend more time. A less teachable spirit might have said, “OK, I like all the attention.” But instead Paul trusted God. He trusted that God would bring him back if Paul was needed back there. He trusted that churches he planted didn’t depend on him. He trusted that these churches wouldn’t curl up and die without him. A few pastors in the US could take a page from the Apostle Paul’s training manual on that one.

Are you in ministry?

Do you ever feel like ministry would fall apart if you stepped aside to let someone else do the work?

* * *

Are you in business?

Do you ever feel like the whole business would fall apart if you didn’t do what you do?

Do you feel indispensable or more importantly, do you want to be?

A teachable spirit is team-minded and goal-centered. For the Apostle Paul, it wasn’t about him. It was about being the best missionary he could be. If God brought him back to do more work there, he’d be there 100%. If God didn’t bring him back to Ephesus, Paul had learned to plant and walk away. God taught him that it would be okay without Paul’s ongoing hands-on involvement. God taught Paul to trust and Paul had a teachable spirit forged through brokenness.

But Paul wasn’t the only example we see in today’s passage. We also see a teachable spirit in Apollos.

24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. 27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

Look at the glowing description of Apollos! Learned man. Thorough knowledge. Instructed in the way of the Lord. Spoke with great fervor. Taught accurately about Jesus. These are amazing attributes of someone whom God can use powerfully.

Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos teaching and realized his knowledge of Jesus was missing some detail, especially since he knew only of the baptism of John (a baptism of repentance in v 25). So they opened their home to him and in the privacy and safety of genuine friendship, they “explained to him the way of God more adequately.”

Priscilla and Aquila saw that Apollos had a teachable spirit and a powerful gift and knew it was a blessed combination. They “completed” his faith in Christ by supplying detail that they had learned that he didn’t already know. I would like to add that Priscilla was teaching too and Apollos didn’t reject her instruction because she was a woman. Apollos had a teachable spirit.

Let me offer an illustration to show how it is that Apollos could teach about Jesus accurately but still have an inadequate understanding.

• Let’s say you need reading glasses. If your eyes strain to read the words on the page, you risk misreading something, but with corrective lenses, magnifiers, you can read the words fully and clearly without your risking not seeing what’s actually there. So far, so good, in the life of Apollos. Learned. Thorough knowledge. Instructed. Spoke with great fervor. But missing some detail could place him at risk, so this teachable spirit was supplied with additional detail.
• Let’s say you need glasses for distance vision. The leaves on trees look like a big green blur. But put on your glasses and the detail you can see will take your breath away. Apollos had a slight blur. But with the detail supplied by Priscilla and Aquila, this powerful preacher could be safely unleashed by God on a wider world to do greater good.

I’m always a bit troubled by commentators who want to make Apollos into a pagan, a false teacher, or unregenerate person. The Scriptures don’t say that. They only say that Priscilla and Aquila discovered some deficiency in his teaching, not in his accuracy or in his faith. The truth is that we all start somewhere. The truth is we all have a lot more to learn. We’re all struggling under the weight of our blurry vision and deficient understanding. That’s going to continue until we meet Jesus face to face. As Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 13:12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Apollos was not so arrogant that he couldn’t accept he didn’t have all the answers. A few theologians I know could take a page from Apollos’ book. Apollos had a teachable spirit and that’s a beautiful thing.

So where are you? Do you have all the answers? Is your knowledge of Jesus complete? Or have you developed the beautiful disposition of the teachable spirit?

The teachable spirit is what makes one winsome and effective in witness, in teaching others, and in loving one’s neighbor as one loves himself. A teachable, humble spirit is what we see in Paul and Apollos. May we blessed that God would give us a teachable spirit so visible to others that they stop and take notice. May God grant us the effective evangelism that this teachable spirit inspires!

Last Sunday we had a guest preacher at Plymouth Congregational Church and he continued our series of Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles by doing Acts 13:13-52. To keep us up with our study of Acts online, enjoy this devotional on the same passage.

The Gospel is the most interesting and most powerful set of words ever spoken.

It cuts both ways.

Paul and Barnabas, after John Mark deserted them, continued on what we’d refer to as Paul’s 1^st Missionary Journey. They will arrive in Pisidian Antioch which isn’t the same as the Antioch from which they were sent. It’s kind of like a friend of mine who tells me about his church friends all of whom are named Alan or Barbara…or my old neighborhood where every man was named Mike. (It sure made it easy to remember people’s names.)

Antioch from where they were sent is in Syria and trust me, you wouldn’t want to go there today for safety reasons. Pisidian Antioch is in modern day Turkey and I’m not sure it’s all that much better there. Sacred sites are sometimes dangerous ones.

The Gospel was first preached in the synagogue because the rulers asked Barnabas and Paul to speak. Dangerous thing, letting Paul start talking. He addresses the men of Israel and the Gentiles and begins to tell them that the Gospel is for all. It cuts both ways.

It’s fulfillment for the Jews. It’s light for the Gentiles.

First, the Jewish history,

Acts 13: 16 Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said: “Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me! 17 The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt, with mighty power he led them out of that country, 18 he endured their conduct for about forty years in the desert, 19 he overthrew seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to his people as their inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. “After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. 22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ 23 “From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised.

It cuts both ways: the message of salvation came to the Jews (those brothers, children of Abraham) and also to the God-fearing Gentiles (everyone else who feared God).

26 “Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.

But the reaction fell along party lines. The people of Jerusalem, their rulers and even many of the Jews in Pisidian Antioch rejected Jesus.  They rejected Paul’s message of their Messiah, their Savior, having come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath.

The Gospel cuts both ways. It cuts to the heart because the Jewish hearers knew their Bibles. They knew their prophets and they knew their history. But they didn’t want Jesus to be the answer.

Proving that Jesus is the answer from their own history—theirs and Paul’s history that he knew very well himself—Paul concludes, 38 “Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses. 40 Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you: 41 “‘Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.'” (italics mine for emphasis)

Who would have thought that through Jewish rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah, the light of salvation would come to the Gentiles?  The Gospel: It cuts both ways!

45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'” 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

Jewish response: They had first dibs and it led to pride and widespread rejection. 

Gentile response: They were Johnny-come-latelies and they were glad of it. 

This must have been a very memorable and teachable moment for Paul.

He always started at the synagogue and ended up with the Gentiles. It’s his calling, even though in his heart, he remained a Jew of Jews.  A completed Jew of Jews.  A broken heart for the brethren of his birth became a focal point of Paul’s greatest work: the Letter to the Romans. Chapters 9-11 are basically an explanation of what Paul witnessed here in Pisidian Antioch and his attempting to process what he knew from his own Jewish background and his mission to the Gentiles. His deep desire for his Jewish brothers to come to faith would be a hallmark of Pauline theology of grace. The Gospel, Paul points out, it cuts both ways. The Gentiles once were jealous of Israel’s chosen status. When Israel rejected their Christ, God used this opportunity to extend salvation to the Gentiles who didn’t need to become Jews to be saved. This makes Israel jealous. And regarding that very jealousy, Paul writes in Romans 11:25-32,

Romans 11:25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” 28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

The Gospel. It Cuts Both Ways.