Acts 22. 1-22 The power of your story....

The power of your story....

Paul stands up to make his “defence” in front of this Jewish crowd. But he does that simply be telling his story: the story of his journey with Jesus. And Jesus himself said (Lk 21. 12-14) that these moments when we have to defend ourselves (ἀπολογια) are opportunities for witness (μαρτύριον) So I ant us to look at the importance of our story

1. It links us with others. See verses 3-5.

• The way he addresses them Brothers and fathers,
• The language, Aramaic,
• The name dropping I studied under Gamaliel
• all create a sense of unity, that comes to a climax as he says he used to be opposed to the Jesus message just like all of you.

As he tells the story of his upbringing, conversion and life in ministry, Paul is deliberately making the links between himself and his hearers.

Story is a wonderful way of building community. There is a actually a great deal of literature out there on the subject. For example, Management expert Steve Denning says

• Storytelling builds trust
• Storytelling unlocks passion – whether it be commitment, love or as in this story, anger.
• Storytelling is non-hierarchical; teaching concepts makes the speaker an “expert.” Thursday before last, peter and I were cooking a curry for all the crowds assembled in Silje's home... and one of the bridesmaids came and started asking us theological questions. It's quite a nice way to liven up curry-making, having a discussion about what it means to be filled with the Spirit.

So here is a challenge: find someone who is a believer – and share some of your story with each other; then observe how the process has brought you together.

2. It is lively. (vv. 6-13)

Paul tells his story here with real narrative skill: it's exciting. In particular, his story is, over and over again, the story of Jesus, the story of god at work in his life:

• the Light – strong enough to be seen an midday, outshining the sun – and the experience of being blinded and helpless, a reflection of Dt 28. 28.
• The voice of Jesus (of Nazareth – an important detail for a Jewish audience for whom yeshua was a common name). It is the risen Jesus whom Paul is encountering.
• The question – “What shall I do, Lord?” This encounter with Jesus had changed him from an enemy of Jesus, into someone who can call him “Lord” .
• The visitor: Ananias who came to minster to Paul – and whose ministry word about Paul receiving his sight was fulfilled so Paul knew God had sent Ananias to him.

The whole narrative is a series of clear “God-event”. In our testimony, supernatural experiences, a genuine conversation with Jesus, our own inner transformation, and the actions of other faithful believers, come together to make a living story of god at work. We have a faith that is rooted in narrative – not stories made up to make a point, but stories that are the point: God-events recorded and reflected upon.

The first New Testament was not written but spoken – the stories of Jesus repeated over and over. No wonder Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel: it is the power of God to salvation. (Rom 1. 16)

It is the word of god: living and active and sharper than any two edged sword (Heb 4. 12) . So be sure to partner that narrative with your narrative – your story of god at work in your life. “You are our letter of recommendation, written on tablets of your hearts...” Your story lifts faith sharing above the level of simply “doctrine” or concepts, above the level of debate, to a level of experience – good or bad. And your life, your story, may be the only bible people read. “The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life” (Calvin)

So here's another challenge: Ask yourself, “Do I have a God story?” What in your story is clearly “God at work?”

3. It can be a tool for learning.

Paul is using his story to make the point that the Christian Way is in no sense antagonistic to its Jewish roots. Ananias ... was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews, who said “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.” (v 12, 14)

And Luke is no doubt aware as always of the wee bit of something slipped in here that will make useful teaching material, about baptism: Get up, be baptised and wash your sins away, calling on his name. (v 15) Baptism in the name of Jesus means baptism in which we call upon his name; and it is a wonderful symbol of washing our sins away – in Paul's case the sin of persecuting the Church and the Church's Lord.

We learn through stories. They are a wonderful way of quietly, gently getting to grips with the truth; especially when they are personal, individual stories of faith and God at work.

So here is another challenge: Can you say with integrity, that your story, your experience, confirms the teaching of Scripture? And if it doesn't, what are you going to do about it?

4. It has its limits: (v. 17-21)

Paul knew that already. He's not telling his story to save his skin. He's telling his story to share the good News of Jesus. As he talks about his vision of Jesus in the temple, several things become clear:

Firstly, that early in his ministry, God had told him persecution would happen

Secondly, The change from persecutor – holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death – to passionate follower of Jesus, has to have come from somewhere. But the Jews cannot accept that it is from God because his “call” to go to the Gentiles doesn't fit with their existing worldview – which remained one where Gentiles were dirty, undesirable outsiders. So they shout, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!” And Paul knew from his own experience what it was to have felt the Holy Spirit prodding him towards faith at that point, and to have resisted.

So – despite the strengths, the links made, the lively experience retold and the learning offered through the story, the crowd reject that story and shout, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!” . Throwing dust in the air was a very typical Eastern expression of loathing and contempt (similar to Muslims hitting pictures of Saddam Hussein with their shoes.) “Gentiles” was an emotional word; and it was the word that had begun the whole debacle.

Our testimonies don't compel, because God doesn't compel people to faith. Sometimes, as he did with Paul, God turns the volume up to make himself heard, but although he wants everyone to be saved, God doesn't compel people to faith.

Our story can be powerful. But it's not compelling, in the same way that a logical, answer to Richard Dawkins isn't compelling; in the same way that a miracle of healing isn’t compelling. Because, God doesn't compel us into faith. It has limits. It will not persuade those who are determined to reject it. It will not force men and women into faith.

Telling our story is a great strategy. It is one we need to master. But without the power of the Holy Spirit, it will fail. So we need to pray: to keep on banging the doors of heaven, asking for mountains of unbelief to be removed. And we need to persevere. To keep on loving people, to keep on sharing the Gospel; to keep on living consistently among people. Even when he arrived at his final destination on earth – Rome – Paul's first action was to call together the local Jewish leaders (Acts 28. 18); and even thought he Jews rejected his message, he still welcomed all who came to see him. (v. 30)

We don't know what God will do and we don't know what people will do, with our story. So our fourth challenge, is to identify someone whom you want to come to know Jesus – someone who hasn't moved an inch in years maybe – and pray for them.

© Gilmour Lilly September  2014

1 Timothy 2 - Call to Prayer for our world!

 1 Timothy 2

1. Called to pray for the world
Paul  urges – and that word at root means calls – the Church to prayer for or world.  It is part of our calling as Christians.  Peter says we are a kingdom of priests (1 Pet 2. 9).  We think we understand in Baptist Churches the idea of the “priesthood of all believers”: we don't need someone to stand between us and God – because Jesus our Great High priest has offered his own life for us – and we are therefore all priests who can approach God.  Every believer is a priest. But who are we priests for?  We often think we are simply or own priests:  but I believe we are meant to be priests for one another, and for the world.
All sorts of prayers: pleas, prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made for our world.  It's difficult to discover quite what Paul meant by these words.  Pleas suggest specific requests in times of need; petitions is a difficult word to translate but the root idea is of meeting together to have a conversation; and of course there is thanksgiving (the word that soon came to refer to the Communion service!)   You may  not feel you are great at praying a long prayer but you can be part of the conversation.                                                   
For all sorts of people especially those in authority. Do you pray for all sorts? I challenge us: 
1. pick our least liked politician and pray for him or her – not that they will  get elected or win in the referendum but for blessing and encounter with God.
2. When you watch the news on TV,  instead of sitting there like Victor Meldrew saying “How awful” or “What rubbish,” pray blessing on them.

The outcome of our prayers is that we live in a  world where we can be gentle and peaceful not just quiet uncomfortable at but at peace with what is going on.  A world where there is space for reverence  and solemnity or dignity.  In other words we pray for our world so that we may live in a world that where there are
1. Righteousness and justice.  A fairer, purer world
2. opportunities for others to receive God's salvation

2. Centring our prayer on the will of God
It's easy to pray our prayers to be focussed on the Church's internal affairs: for “revival” or for “Missionaries” or for our own sick folk.  We need to pray these things.  But we need to pray for our world: it particularly pleases our heavenly Father when we pray for our world.  We are praying within the will of God because God loves the world.

"God desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth"

There are two errors that quench our prayers and our witness.
Our history of Calvinism that thinks God has determined who gets saved – and who doesn't.  " God desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth"
Modern universalism that thinks everyone is going to be saved anyway.  Paul says there is one God and one mediator who can fix our relationship with God, Jesus who died for us.
Everyone needs to be saved and to know of the truth; but God wants everyone to be saved.

So we need to pray and we need to take action.  According to Alan Donaldson, the average church member never shares their faith.

3 .Character of the prayer warrior
In v. 8 to 14, superficially it looks as if Paul is saying "men have to pray, and women have to dress modestly, keep quiet and have babies."  And yes, the the “men” in v 8 means adult males, not   mankind.  We need to unpack the bit about women: then we'll come back to the men.
We have 3 choices in dealing with this passage
1. Throw it out because it doesn't fit in our world.
2. Take it literally and at face value for today, or
3. Interpreted carefully and find out what it really means. I believe that's what we need to do.

Paul wasn't laying down a rule for for all time. I say that for a number of reasons...
1. The example of Jesus: Mary sat at Jesus feet as a student with a Rabbi (Lk 10. 39) , and Mary Magdalene was the first witness to the risen Jesus (Jn 20. 17).
2. The clear teaching of Paul, for example in Gal 3.28.
3. The example of Paul who in Romans 16, refers to a number of women who had leadership gifts and responsibilities:  Phoebe (v. 1) was a servant of the Church who travelled far afield on its behalf; Priscilla was one of his fellow-workers (v. 3); Mary (v. 6) and Tryphena and Tryphosa (v. 12) worked hard; and Junia (v. 7) was outstanding among the apostles.
4. The passage itself: it does temporarily restrain women but contains the seeds of liberation.  Let's look a bit closer at it...

Look at the contrasting verbs inverse 11f;
1. “Let a woman learn” (v. 11) is a continuous command.  The very idea of “letting women learn”  was extremely radical at a time, when it was often considered a dangerous waste of money to teach a girl to read.
2. "I do not permit” by contrast, is a simple present tense.  "I am not permitting..." 
Paul has reasons in the first century why he needs to restrain women form “cashing in” too quickly on their freedom in Christ.  But the fact that they are learning implies that they will be able to use what they have learned.

Paul uses a teaching method that anchors ideas to three known points: creation fall and redemption
1. Creation : Man was made first. This implies headship. Where my head goes my body usually goes too. In birth, the head comes first, but the body follows behind.
2. Fall: Eve was deceived. Adam wasn't. He just disobeyed. Whose sin was greater?
3. Redemption. “Women shall be saved through childbearing.” This has embarrassed the church since at least 370 a.d.  Clearly Paul doesn't mean having babies saves women. That would be tough on those who have never had children.  Some people suggest that “childbearing” means the birth of Jesus. I think they are wrong.  The key to the text is the meaning of the word “through”.  In Greek as in English it can refer to cause and effect: “through no fault of your own.”  But the primary meaning is passage in space or time.  “Pushing through the crowd.”   We should use “through” in this way here.  Women will be saved, in the midst of pregnancy, morning sickness, broken nights and all the other things that crowd into their lives, if they hold on to Jesus.  In other words, womanhood is no obstacle to salvation.  Women are saved in exactly the same way men are.

In Ephesus, there were people who were messing up their own faith and the faith of others (1. 3ff, 20)  It is possible that some of these were pushing women forward despite their lack of knowledge.  Could it be that some of the men were too ready to take a back seat and let the women get on with things. Often the intercessors in the Church today are women.   However,  we are all prayer warriors. Men should play their part.  Many years ago we had ornaments Pam had brought back from Africa, that we suspected may have had occult connections, and we felt we had to break them up and burn them.  Pam hit them with the axe, but made no impression.  The I had a go and broke them.  Pam saw an acted parable in that: men need to exercise spiritual authority in prayer and warfare.  Men and women are different.  Even a skinny guy like me, has a bit of muscle.  Men, we need to learn hwo to use that spiritual muscle God has given us.

All are called to be holy, distinctive,  and united. Our prayers flow from being what we long to see in our world. And especially, men are to “man up”, flex their muscle, exercise headship, and pray.

© Gilmour Lilly September  2014

Acts 21. 17-40

Acts 21. 17-40

So, eventually, Paul arrives in Jerusalem, and meets up with the Elders of the Church there – maybe 70 of them as the Church numbered thousands. There's a moment of joy and celebration as Paul introduces the brothers from Asia and Greece – living evidence of God at work.  And he hands over the supportive financial gift from the Gentile churches  – evidence of Paul's and their ongoing concern and respect for the Jerusalem Church, even though it was different to the gentile churches.

Whoops:  rumour and compromise
But there's a concern that the elders feel they need to raise.  (verses 20-21 There's a rumour going round. It's being said  that Paul doesn't' care about the “Law;”  not only is he preaching to gentiles but he's even telling Jews to give up following the law of Moses.  It's a rumour.  It's not true.  The elders at Jerusalem should have stood with Paul, given him the opportunity to speak to the local believers, but instead – almost as if they are tempted to believe it themselves – they ask Paul to go through this ritual purification and pay for others' sacrifices, in order to demonstrate he was “sound”.

The Elders totally misread the situation: the action appears to have done nothing to warm the Hebraic Jews to Paul and his team.  Paul unwisely went along with it.  As far as he was concerned, he had taken vows before and could do so again. 

Yuk: The world in the Church.   
Rumour, suspicions, gossip, unconfirmed assumptions, in the church, and being acted on by the Elders.  So Paul is in and out of the Tempe for a week... and some of the Asian Jews who had a score to settle with Paul recognise him in the street, with a Gentile guy called Trophimus; then they see Paul in the temple, and assume Paul has taken Trophimus into the temple with him. (verse 27-29) Now there was part of the Temple where gentiles were allowed: it was called the Court of the Gentiles.  To go beyond that, you had to pass signs warning that no Gentiles were allowed, on pain of death.  The Romans tolerated it, and archaelologists have actually found two of these signs. So it's not even likely that Trophimus had accidentally wandered in there on his own, far less been conducted in by Paul.  It's a rumour, an unconfirmed assumption. 

What is sad is that the Church was doing exactly what the world was doing.  Gossip; rumour, unconfirmed assumptions. Then they melted into the background and let Paul handle things on his own.   They were more concerned about surviving in Jerusalem than about truth, about brotherly relationships or about the wider mission.  There was no Barnabas figure this time; nobody was prepared to take Paul's side.    That's the world in the church.  When I as a student I heard a prominent preacher condem “guitaar twanging, dressing like worldlings, and using modern idion in worship”.  He was missing the point.  The world in the Church is when we treat each other no different to who the world would. 

 Aha: With Jesus
The same “urban myth” that drove the Elders to ask Paul to go to the temple,  drives the people there to start a riot.  The way Luke describes the volatile situation in verses 30-31 reads very much like the riot in Ephesus, two chapters earlier.  One or two rabble-rousers, everyone running together, the whole city in uproar, people being grabbed and manhandled, one shouting one thing, on shouting another.  Not only was the Church no better than the world, but the behaviour of these Jews is no better than that of the pagans  some months previously: Jerusalem was  no better than Ephesus.  Paul has to be physically carried by the soldiers to prevent the crowd from tearing him limb from limb.  And the crowd are shouting “Kill him, get rid of him; Away with him!” Does that ring any bells?  The same word is used in John 19. 15.    What is happening to Paul is not only the same as had happened in Ephesus, it is also the same as had happened to Jesus.

That's a eureka moment for Paul: I believe its' a moment of destiny and realisation. If I was Paul, I'd be crying tears of joy at that moment: here he is, the chief of sinners, and what an honour, the crowds are saying the same thing about him as they said about Jesus.    This connects with the depth of Paul’s   This whole journey for Paul as a journey with Jesus.  James S Stewart, Scottish New Testament Theologian ranked ans the best preacher of the twentieth century, wrote that “union with Christ” is the “key which unlocks the secrets “ of Paul's soul.  He uses the phrase “In Christ” 82 times.  Union with Christ
Deals with his past: There is no condemnation for those who are In Christ. (Rom 8. 1)
Gives him an identity in the present: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.   (Gal 2. 20)
Gives him a future hope.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Phil 1. 21. )

Whee: a moment of opportunity.
So when he manages to get the Roman Officer's attention, the last thing on Paul's mind is saving his skin.  But he does want human contact with this guy... so he asks  “May I say something to you?”

Now, three years earlier, an Egyptian adventurer had tried to stage a coup in Jerusalem: he had gathered thousands of supporters.  He had told them the walls of Jerusalem would fall down at his  command (a bit like the story of Joshua at Jericho) and then they were to march in and kick the Romans out.  The walls didn't fall down, the Romans heard about the mob, killed some and arrested others.  The Egyptian disappeared. The officer assumed that this Egyptian had turned up in the Temple,  where he was not  popular and people had immediately wanted to lynch him.  Imagine his surprise when his “Egyptian” spoke with an educated Greek accent, politely asking for a hearing.  

“You mean you speak Greek – so you're not that crazy Egyptian?” 

No, I'm Jewish, raised in Tarsus, a respectable, self-governing city in Cilicia..  I know I'm under arrest an all – but do you mind if I speak to the crowd for a minute or two?” 

And maybe because the officer was caught off guard, maybe because he was satisfied Paul was a decent sort of guy, he gave him permission to speak.  God is at work – even in a desperate situation.  There was a moment of opportunity to say something for Jesus.  So speaking in Aramaic, the common language of the area, Paul begins to tell his story. 

Yeah:  riding the wave...
Like he has been since the moment he put his trust in Jesus., indeed like Jesus. himself at Gethsemane,   Paul knows and accept s that god's plan is working out....  he's not fighting it. He's not hiding from it.   He's riding the wave.

Its' a pretty scary wave to be riding.  Paul is in real danger.   The forces against him are confusing  – superficially respectable but actually quite pagan and satanic.    He's not even too sure the Jerusalem Church is really with  him.   His ally here is a Roman Colonel who wasn’t too good at checking his facts.  But Paul is riding that wave: he uses what he has – Roman Citizenship, Greek education and Jewish culture, to tell the people not only of his innocence but about the Good news of Jesus. He's not pleading for his life – he's pleading for theirs.

We need to become surfers – who will ride the waves god sends along – even if these waves are scary; dangerous; uncertain; in our families, in our streets, to take the opportunities we get, to talk about Jesus, to pray in his name for people, to do “kingdom” things, show the Father's love.  And leave the consequences to the Holy Spirit.


© Gilmour Lilly September  2014