UNSTOPPABLE 13 a Study in the Book of Acts

UNSTOPPABLE 13 – A study in the book of Acts

Acts 21:1-14 (ESV)

August 11, 2013

Because we live in California and because we have two small children, it appears we are obligated to take them to Disneyland, which we plan on doing soon. This is a secret that our daughter does not yet know, so please don’t tell her. In fact, she has so much resolve and temerity that if you mention it prior to our trip, you will probably have to take her because she will not drop it until it comes to pass. Anyway, we purchased five little golden books that introduce some of the Disney princess characters. We thought it would be fun for her to get to know these characters and to build excitement, before she sees them in person.

The other night she was to choose a book from the set of five and she picked Sleeping Beauty. I have to admit I am largely clueless about all of the Disney princesses but especially about Sleeping Beauty. I knew the broad strokes to the story but I definitely did not know the major components ofit. As the briefest of overviews, a king and a queen are childless until they receive a miracle child, Aurora. The king and queen throw a party and almost everyone is invited. During the celebration, three fairies begin to pronounce blessings on the baby until the wicked evilfairy, Maleficent, swoops in to curse the child. The curse is that Aurora will prick her finger on a spindle and die. This is pretty terrible stuff, actually very dark for a children’s book. As a side note, do you know why she curses this infant to death? Apparently, she wasn’t invited to the party. Note to self: always invite everyone to your kid’s birthday parties. Also, note to Maleficent:that you are a baby-curser is probably the reason you didn’t get invited. Well, after this terrible event, the third fairy tries to mitigate the curse by saying that it won’t be death, only a long sleep until a kiss from her true love wakes her. The story follows this trajectory and ultimately she is awakened by Prince Phillip and they live happily ever after.

Now then, besides the Maleficent issue, one thing was completely new to me. After the prophecy was made, every one lived in fear. Aurora was carted off to live with the fairies in the woods and they order every pointy spindle in the kingdom be burned. They tried to hide from the danger and hide the pointy things of this life. They knew the direction life was taking and they desperately tried to avoid it. They lived in absolute fear. They tried to hide and destroy the pointy things. And the curse came to pass anyway.

Today we read another story about a scary prophecy and an interesting reaction. We are getting close to the end of the bookof Acts. Paul has set his sights on Jerusalem so he can preach about Jesus. And today, he is going to be told there is extreme danger there. Not only that, but someone is going to bind him up and tell him, “This is what will happen to you there.” And the question is how does Paul respond? What do you do with the promise of bad news? That is a pertinent question because everyone in this room has been promised bad news. Not a promise from an evil world but from a loving Savior. Jesus has told us, “In this world, you will have trouble.” There will be pointy things everywhere. This is one of those overlooked promises of God when it comes to the “name-it and claim-it” community. How do you respond to a promise like this?

We are in the final weeks of our series in Acts, and I am excited to tell you that we will be starting the book of Luke September 8th. I am also excited to tell you, we will have a big announcement on September 8th. So stay tuned for that. But we have been studying this book in an attempt to learn what it means to be an Unstoppable Church in order to reach this city with the love of Jesus. We want to do that, but how? You are not an Unstoppable Church by avoiding the bumps of life. The early church in Acts encountered numerous problems, internal and external, practical and theological, personal and corporate. This church dealt with race relations, thieving members, leaders being stoned to death, people getting imprisoned, shipwrecked andbitten by snakes. They hit every possible bump, all of the pointy things of this life. And yet, a church of 120 turned into 25 million in three centuries. The religion of a rejected Jewish carpenter ended up conquering the heart of the Roman Emperor in three centuries. And a lot of it had to do with how they dealt with the bumps, the pointy things. How do we respond to the promise of a bumpy life?

Acts 21:1-12

There are two things to note in this passage. First, the storytelling speeds up. Did you notice the wild ride of the sailing trips? They are going from place to place like the montage sequence of a movie. They are meeting people, traveling and preaching. It gives you the impression of things speeding up and preparing you for the final few chapters. The march to Jerusalem is about to begin and it’s almost like you are on a train that can’t be stopped, the momentum is speeding up until it reaches its destination.There is some foreboding and some inevitability built into this passage.

I really want you to see happens with the prickly prophecies that Paul receives. In verse 4, a few disciples speak on behalf of the Spirit urging Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Again, Agabus tells Paul that if he goes to Jerusalem, he will be bound and handed over to the Gentiles. After hearing this prickly prophecy, everyone pleads with Paul not to go. As a side note, some people have read this to mean that Paul was disobeying the Spirit. Although I do not think that is the case, the people who urged Paul not to go saw danger in his future. They were not gifted with the gift of prophecy; they were disciples who sensed danger and so they immediately interpreted this as a call to avoid the danger and bypass Jerusalem. This is not unlike what Peter did; who after hearing about Jesus having to die on a cross he told Jesus that he should avoid the cross. He saw danger and pain and he wanted Jesus to avoid it. Paul, who was more mature, knew that danger was imminent everywhere but he also knew that it was not a reason to avoid Jerusalem. This guy has seen just about everything at this point. He has encountered countless dangers and oppressions. But he kept moving forward. I think these were gifts to Paul to prepare his heart for the bumpy road ahead. Agabus’ prophecy was far more neutral. He did not urge Paul to avoid Jerusalem as the others did upon hearing his prophecy. One thing is certain; the road to Jerusalem was dark for Paul. And he was well aware of it in advance. And he went anyway.

Before we get to Paul’s response to this prickly prophecy, this bumpy road;I want to remind you of some of the common responses to perceived possibilities of danger. We live in a world that tries to mitigate and manage danger at all costs. We try to avoid them, hide from them and run from them. When a problem is on the horizon, we become obsessed with ameliorating the perceived possibility of danger. Now this is actually a very healthy thing to do. We aren’t supposed to be self-destructive or sadistic. We should steer clear of danger.

The issue I want you to consider is fear. There are many Christians who live in a constant state of fear. They know we live in a prickly world and fear drives them to hide all of the pointythings in life, from themselves and from their children. They isolate themselves and live with an alarmist mentality that leaves them in a perpetual state of fear. This is manifested in several ways. There are parents who have children who are essentially covered in bubble wrap. Not literally, but pretty close. They try to hide the pointy things of life because of their persistent fear and they try to hide their children from all of the dangers in this world. For those beyond the child-raising years, there are political issues that drive us to fear. What if this piece of legislation passes? What will it mean for me? What will it mean for my kids? There are financial issues that drive us to fear. What if the economy never recovers? What if it tanks again? There are relational issues that drive us to fear. What will happen to my child who is having a prodigal experience? What will happen to my marriage if things don’t turn around soon? The possibility of things going wrong is crippling Christians everywhere as they become paralyzed with fear.

Now, make sure that you don’t misunderstand.These are all-important issues worthy of concern. But I am talking about fear. Fear is the thing that keeps you up at night. Fear drives you down the slippery slope of “what if?” Fear affects your daily behavior and stresses you out. Fear is obsessive. Fear causes you to isolate yourself, run away and try to hide the pointy things of life.

Here is the problem with fear: it causes you to become inert and stop taking risks. It causes you to miss out on big opportunities. It can cause you to miss out on God’s best for your life. Hear this clearly: a fearful person is not an impactful person.

The more time you spend fearing the economy, the less time you will consider investing in the kingdom. The more time you spend fearing politics, the less time you will use trying to be the change you want to see. The more time you spend fearing relational issues, the less time you will spend actually investing in your relationships. Fear is crippling.It is damaging. It keeps you from being all that God wants you to be and from doing all God wants you to do.

That’s why Paul answers the way he does. He sees the bumpy road and he hears the prickly prophesy and he gives this response.

Acts 21: 13-14

Paul says, “What are you trying to do? Make me afraid? You are breaking my heart here.” And then he adds this oh so important phrase:“I am not only ready to be imprisoned but also to die.”In one sense, this can seem overly fervent or radical, almost like Paul has a death wish. But that is not the case. He just says he is ready if need be. In a sense, he is saying, “I am ok with whatever happens.” Paul has done something few people do. He extrapolated the situation all the way out and said, “What is the worst that can happen?” And he has properly assessed his situation, the worst thing possible is that I would be imprisoned and killed, these are two really bad things, but not in light of the grand story. He knows this world isn’t the end. When he considered death in another place in the scriptures he said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” He extrapolated his potential fears all the way out and said this is a win-win.

Paul spoke about death as falling asleep and he constantly spoke about resurrection. That is where hopewas found. Jesus, who often described himself as the groom, would one day come back and wake Paul up from his deathly slumber. The groom would come back to wake him and because of that he had no fear.

Growing up, we went to a swimming hole in Fort Worth called Burger’s Lake. It was a spring-fed lake with a trapeze, a few slides and a set of diving boards. The diving boards had 3 tiers: low, medium and “death.” In retrospect, the high one was quite high, close to a 30-foot drop. Inevitably, every time we went, some kid would gather his courage and climb that high board for the first time in his life. And inevitably, he would get scared out of his mind. And so he would spend minutes peering down at the water. And when this happened, everyone would begin to chant, “Jump…jump…jump.” And you watch as this kid considers the peer pressure and begins to think about taking the leap. But I am guessing the majority of the time, these kids extrapolated their fear all the way out. What is the worst that could happen? It’s not death, even if I belly flop. It might hurt but it won’t kill me. People have been making this jump all day. It may be scary, it could hurt but it won’t kill me.

Paul has already done this. He already knows to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I live, I continue to be impactful and have joy because I get to preach Jesus. If I die, I have the joy of being in his presence, to live is Christ, to die is gain. There is nothing you can do to a person like that. There is no one more impactful than a person like that.

Everyone realizes there is nothing you can say to a person like that and then they do something we should all do. They say something absolutely powerful, “Let the Lord’s will be done.” Ultimately, when we discuss fear, we are really discussing a lack of trust. When you spend your nights fearing for your kids, you have spent a night not praying for them. When you spend a night fearing about the government, you have spent a night forgetting that Jesus is King. When you spend a night obsessing over the repercussions of a relationship, you have spent a night forgetting that God is the redeemer of all of things. Let the Lord’s will be done. There is inevitability to the will of God that is unavoidable. When you live in fear you have placed yourself in a reality where Jesus occasionally steps off the throne; where God occasionally slumbers; where there is a strong possibility that he has forgotten about you.

When you extrapolate your fears all the way out, when you come to grips with the possibility of your worst fears coming to fruition, and when you realize the absolute worst consequence could be death and that we are promised that there is a life to come; that we will not stay asleep, it will change you. When you realize Jesus is never off of his throne that He hasn’t hit the snooze button while things have gone haywire in your life, it will change you. Faith really is the opposite of fear: faith that God loves you more than you know, faith that he is caring for you even in the midst of a storm, faith that he wants the best for your life even when it seems like you are spiraling out of control, and faith that the groom is coming back to wake you up.

Let me ask you a simple question,“Do you have fear in your life?” If you aren’t sure, let me give you a follow up. What keeps you up at night? What is that reoccurring alarm that goes off all day? What headlines do you look for each day? That is what you fear. I want to encourage you with something simple today. Extrapolate your fear all the way out. What’s the worst thing that can happen if your fear comes to fruition? Once you have figured that out, consider this: whatever that issue coming to fruition is, do you think it is too big for Jesus? Do you think it is taking him in the least by surprise? And this is a big one, is it something that resurrection can’t fix?

You know at Burger’s Lake, most of the times the fearful kid would jump. And it was always amazing. Everyone would cheer as they plummeted towards the water. And then the kid would pop up out of the water and throw his fist in the air in victory. He moved from fear to faith and he had experienced something amazing, the exhilaration of a new adventure and applause of those around him. Very rarely, after minutes of chanting, “Jump, jump, jump,” a kid would do the unthinkable, slowly reach for the handrail and scoot backwards and safely retreat down the ladder. And it was always awkward. Everyone kind of went silent; feeling a bit embarrassed and sad for this kid, who didn’t get to see how great it could be.

God wants you to move from fear to faith because he has plans for you. Hebrews says you have a great cloud of witnesses cheering you on, wanting you to succeed, and a Father who wants you to know the joy of jumping, of leaping in faith towards Him. The Bible is full of people who confronted their fears and made the leap. And that is when lives really change. That’s when people are truly impacted. Is God calling you to lay down a passive fear that something that will happen to you or your family or your finances? Or maybe there is an active fear;God is calling you to do something. Speak the Gospel to your neighbor? Take a new job that will free you up to love your family better? Give away a big chunk of money for the sake of someone else? Go on a mission trip or move to a foreign land? Big or small, what do you fear today?