Live In Grace
I pick it up where Josh left off last week. If you didn't listen to the message, I would highly recommend you listen to that message. Obviously, every message is preached in this room is phenomenal would you agree? But I told that's when Josh after game he preached last week. And that was just one of the most fresh gospel presentations I've heard in a long time. And I left this space as a follower of Jesus and following Jesus virtually my whole life. And I have to confess something, even our teach team this past Tuesday, where the gospel message because to become numb, there is a point we hear it all the time be like, yeah. But to the point of when you hear the gospel message preached, whether you've heard it for the first time, or the 5,000th time, that it leads you to tears, it leads to brokenness, into gratitude, recognizing all that Jesus has done. His love for us reminds us that His grace is for you hearing right now. And I just left left last Sunday, just grateful for Jesus and recognizing his grace covers all things. And so I have had the honor to pick up where he left off last week, and kind of continue on, as we talked about last week with Grace is that grace covers all things. What does that mean practically? How does that play into our lives here today. And so we've recognized that grace is all about drawing us closer to Jesus, which requires us to give us give us to give things up, that may feel good at the time, but in reality are enslaving us. Right? The early church wasn't perfect by any means. And as we're churning through this, the book of Acts, I think we're in week 40, I think, I don't even know I've lost track. And we're in Acts chapter 15, you do the math. But what we're seeing time and time, again, is that the early church wasn't perfect. However, they understood that grace was about seeing the gospel, go to the ends of the earth. The early church was committed and prioritized the gospel working in and through them, if that was their priority. And they they did virtually everything they can get, they were not perfect. But they did virtually everything they could to protect that gospel to protect the message that Jesus had left them. And they understood that the grace of Jesus covers the whole earth. And since grace, Jesus covers all things, a new way, requires us to actually step into that there's a new way of living, and that is the only way forward for followers of Jesus. And so, as a result, the early church was willing to sacrifice anything to make that happen, including their own personal preferences and agendas, and specifically their conference. And this is what we're going to see this morning. And this is what we're going to see even in the weeks to come the obstacles to difficulties, the circumstances that the early church is stepping into, and they still did not forsake the gospel. They were committed to seeing the gospel work in them and network, and then through them. The Gospel never became to the church. And I think that's a word for us in the Western Church. It's worked for me. I have someone that's heard the gospel. One time I was in therapy. I always think it's funny when I say that nice. It's now a little bit easier to say in church about five years ago, that was like for you. Okay. But now, like works for pastors, I think people realize, yeah, pastor should be in therapy. Right. And I once I was in therapy, and seen a spiritual director at a time, and she asked me, When was the last time you went over the gospel? And I was like, I've never been in ministry for like the following Jesus, for as I go, No, I know where this is going. This she told me, she instructed me to write the gospel out, in my own words, the best I can for my understanding of Scripture, what Jesus has done until I went open the gospel, how long that took 42 days, 42 days for the gospel to rework itself into something there. There was an awakened inside of me, that ever since that moment, that gospel has worked itself in third. And I'm still in process. I'm still figuring it out. I'm still on a journey, like many of you. But my prayer moving into this morning is we talk about living out the gospel specifically for taking those teittleman messages live in grace. But what my prayer has been for us and for us in this room, is that we would be awakened to the gospel in fresh ways that we wouldn't just sit here we wouldn't just be here is of it. We'd be doers, that the gospel would transform our hearts or minds and our souls in a new way. That opens up our eyes to the goodness that you He says, and that's my prayer for you this morning. Are you in? Acts chapter 15, verse 36, here we go. It'll be on the screen actually, I'm just gonna read from the screens that I realized Josh likes to mess with me put the NIV version on the screen. I've got CSP. So this is there we go. Some time later Paul said and Barnabas, let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preach the word of the Lord and see how they're doing. Barnabas wanted to take John, also called mark with them. But Paul did not think it was wise to take him because he had deserted them and can feel you had not continued with work with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company Artemus took Mark in sale for Cypress, but Paul chose silence and left committed by believers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and cilia, strengthening the churches, Paul came to Derby and that really struck where a disciple named Timothy lives his mother was Jewish. Now again, a believer whose father was a Greek, the believers at least dressed in a conium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take along the journey. So he circumcised and because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled from town to town, they deliberate the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in faith, and they grew daily, in numbers. Lord, we thank You for Your Word. We think it is Your Word is living connective, that when we open about you have something for us not only do I want to remind us who we are in you, but you also remind us who you are. And so we just want to see you for who you are Jesus, because you need to be known this morning to be glorified. And most importantly, we lead through change to Jesus powerful name. I must confess something. Last time I taught through Acts, the last church I was in I completely skipped over this passage, intentionally. I was having a conversation with Josh about it too. And he preached last week, he's like, this is the first time I appreciated this passage to close portions and x that's actually easy to skip and move on to the other stuff. It's a little bit more exciting to preach. And so I didn't, I didn't really know what to do with it either. And so I just skipped it, because it's not the most exciting passage. I mean, you saw it right here we see a breakup between Paul and mark the ministry are potential break up and go their separate ways. And then we see a grown man get circumcised. So for obvious reasons, you can see why this isn't the most exciting as to approach and I kind of went into this week with a little bad attitude. I had to do this, right. The more I sat in it, the more I was blown away by this early church. And so one thing that we've been constantly learning this time around through Acts that that Luke was very intentional with each story that he recorded, right? He wasn't just looking to fill a page. But he wasn't just given an assignment to write this excellent chapters. He was very intentional. There were lots of things going on. Right, we talked about axes about a 30 year period. And so you can imagine that a life of a 30 year old church, things that happen, you can't share everything. And so when we open up acts, and we're reading stories, even the ones that might not be that inspiring at first glance, it was put in Scripture for a specific reason for a specific purpose. And so Luke could have put anything here but he didn't put this and so the question that I've been asking all week is this what does this passage tell us about the Kingdom of God? What is this passage about a ministry break up between two friends and a grown man getting circumcised to tell us about the Kingdom of God? Not anything? I'm asking you, I hope you know. I think this is a helpful question with a passage we read in Scripture, right? Yes. As we journey through life many years ago, there's a community thread problems. We've realized that we've learned and if we ask this question, where then kind of started off in the right direction, we're kind of pointing towards Jesus, you can see Jesus even in the Old Testament, our eyes are fixed on him. So what does this passage tell us about the Kingdom of God? We know when Jesus came to earth, he announced that his kingdom has come in on with him right. When Jesus left the earth, He told His disciples most most of which we see now are leading this church in Acts that his kingdom is going to advance in and through them through the power of His Holy Spirit. Right, not just their giftings, but the Holy Spirit is going to fill you with this presence and through his power, you're going to do greater things than I ever did. And we begin to see this unfold that new testament to what many theologians call the upside down kingdom. I prefer that term. In other words, the kingdom of God as opposed to any worldly system or government agenda. So when we when we start asking questions about the Kingdom of God, we have to start and recognize I see that the kingdom of God has actually posed anything that we see a system, any order any government politic, that we see here and today, things that we are potentially familiar with. The kingdom of God opposes those things and challenges those things. So to follow Jesus and Jesus in the world oftentimes means that we're walking upstream to follow Jesus in the world oftentimes means we're going in a direction, that doesn't make logical sense. To follow Jesus, the world might be walking away from relationships that are holding you back, or making decisions that cost you your security, your comfort, your wealth, your well being. So when Jesus talked about his kingdom, he said that the first will be the last. And the last, will be first. It's not logical. It's opposed to the way that we naturally think. And so when we ask the question, what is this past teach us about the Kingdom of God, we position ourselves to see things that we might not have seen before. We position ourselves and we open up our hearts and our minds to a whole new reality, the reality that we were created for. And we're often reminded in those moments when we ask this question, who we are, that our identity is found in God, that God loves us, is pleased with us plan for. So there's something that we need to hear today in our culture, more than anything else is that following Jesus is so much more than just about health, wealth, prosperity. That's not working. Right? There's so much more going on here. And so Paul, I think, set up really, really lean Philippians chapter four, verse 11, through 13, you should have this on the screen says this, I'm not saying this, because I'm in need is talking about ministries. He's talking about his work and the kingdom of God. I'm not saying this because I'm in need. For I know what it is to have plenty of learned the secret of being content in every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in blood, I can do it through Him who gives me strength. So Paul knows something that we all know to be true, right? Life is really hard and complicated. But we all agree. Yes, life is not easy. Right? So why would we think that life in the kingdom of God is listening? Why would we think that life in the kingdom of God is just going to be this, everything is good. It's about the pursuit of happiness. We know that life isn't like that. So the kingdom of God, there must be things there that shape us, there must be things in the kingdom of God, that when we turn to scripture that we turn to Jesus make this complicated, like we all know, well, well, until we get to make sense of what's going on here. So yes, the kingdom of God opposes our reality. But it also makes sense. It opens up our eyes actually, what it is that God is, in fact, not the things that hard things in my life, the difficult things in my life are important for the goddess care of the god oftentimes, when my heads down, wants to lift my head up. This is what he's up to. In the way of Jesus is meant to challenge us, it's meant to bring us wholeness, it's meant to bring us fulfillment to the lungs of our souls that lasts forever, that don't fit with emotions. So in fact, if you're following Jesus in your life, is everything that you hoped and dreamed it would be? Would you agree that maybe it's important for us to take another look at our relationship with Jesus or even as ourselves? Jesus in the following? Josh said last week, rather than about the Pharisees and Versaille, Christians was the thing, right? So we can walk around all we want our lives claiming to be a follower of Jesus. But what Jesus are we following be following the Jesus that leads us into the very place I think that we see His disciples stepping into and this passage is time and time again. And we're going to see people in enacts choosing to face a circumstance and position themselves into a situation where their health, wealth and prosperity is compromised. I think next week, we're gonna get into a pretty crazy story of Paul and Silas facing the situation that they could never have prepared themselves for. And so, Jesus modeled this to them to be a Christian in the first century wasn't just a title that you it wasn't just something that you say that you are, right. It was a way of life. And this is how the term Christian little crisis became known. Right? Well, we talked about this couple of weeks ago, is because they looked at to talk for Jesus. So we're gonna call you Christians. So to be a Christian, and you live in grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. You did it primarily through one thing and this The word I want to just kind of spend our time on this word female. Millet, what is humility? I think our culture would define humility, maybe a little bit differently than Scripture does, right? Why are people saying that a person's humble? Oftentimes they're referring because it's a quiet, shy, even temper type person, that person is the kind of sit the back and you know, you know what I'm saying? Our world they see humility more as a weakness rather than an attribute in the kingdom of God. Right? We talk about the Kingdom of God. We see in the first disciples we see in the early church and we see in the person of Jesus, that when we talk about living in grace, it's expressing itself through humility, through a humble life. Turn very quickly, you turn over to flipping shepherd to alternate really quick. And this is a powerful passage of what we talked about, we talked about Philippians, when we're talking about humility, and to see the things that Jesus did, how he defined it, in Philippians, chapter two verses one through 11. If there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation in love, if any fellowship with the spirit of any defection with mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on purpose, doing nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for the interest of others, but also in the best interest of others, and adopt the same attitudes that have Christ Jesus, who persisted in the form of God did not consider equality with God is something to be exploiting. Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of servant taking on the likeness of humility. And when he encounters a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. For this reason, thought, highly exalted him and gave him the name above all names were every name, every time would, every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the word of God the Father, Amen. So we talk about living in grace, it's easy to be like fine. Well, we kind of approached race with a superficial relationship or understanding that grace is just a nice gesture from God. Alone, you sinners. You're trying so hard to have grace on my kids sometimes. Right? Like, this is how I get you. You're trying so hard, you're so cute, you're just fumbling your way through life. So let me just ask you grace. Grace isn't just a nice gesture from God, this is how I understood it right up in the church. Right. And so when we approached grace, it's this gesture that God is throwing out there, we tend to actually develop a superficial understanding of what grace actually is that we completely misunderstand freedom. Right? I just keep doing what I'm gonna do, talk less politics about this, you don't keep doing what you do. Because you know that God is gonna give you grace, right? Grace actually transforms your reality. It changes the way you live, once you truly understand the gospel, as a point of the gospel, breaking you down to tears. If the Gospels know that freedom is just going to be me living the way I want to live, not surrendering my soul, to the ways of following Jesus. Right. And so So Paul defines humility through the person of Jesus. He says that humility is a mindset. Humility is an attitude. Humility is a posture that I've walked within the world humility comes from recognizing that at the foot of the cross is equal ground, and that no one to my right or to my left, or behind, or four behind is better than me, I'm not better than that. We're all equal. We're all sinners in need of a Savior. And once we get that, it then takes us a step further, and we begin to live a life of service. And this is what we see the church doing. This is this is where we're catching up to where the churches that this is the aha moment for them. You don't just receive this. This isn't just a gesture. This changes our reality isn't able to be to face wherever it is on my face. Can I do with your mobile service? Think this is what we're seeing in this passage. Paul and Barnabas are close friends. They've been evangelizing together, all throughout Africa. And in fact, Barnabas was the one this is a fun fact. Barnabas was the one standing next to Paul right after Paul's conversion, and he was the only one vouching for Paul to the other disciples. The other disciples if you remember the story, were like this guy. I pray tell us, why would we let him in? We can't trust him. Barnabas is the only one standing with him in that moment say, no. He's changed as he's filled with the Spirit of God. He is the Shealtiel. He's standing next to him. And we see at this moment that Paul wants to actually go retrace their steps of planting churches. So the first missionary journey was moving the gospel West, and they just started identifying leaders and communities, planting churches and going all around it. So the second missionary journey that we're seeing now is Paul saying, it's time for us to go revisit the restrictions. Let's go see how they're doing. Let's go encourage that. Let's go pray for them. Let's see and hear the testimonies all that God is doing. So Barnabas has a cousin is getting smarter. And you can think about Barnabas seeing things that no one saw. And Paul at the time sees something in Mark, that Paul doesn't want to see anymore. Mark actually went with Paul on a prior missionary journey and abandoned. And so for Paul, looking at Mark, I can't come. He some he left me, he abandoned me we had work to do. The gospel is the priority. And he left. For whatever reasons, we're not told what his reasons were for him to leave the mission. But he left the gospel because mine was a priority for Mark. And so I can trust a Barnabas is vouching for mark in this moment. And this would be the same mark that goes on to write a gospel Bible. And so he sees the dirty of Mark and, and his life and all that he goes and does. But they're getting such a big fight over this that Paul and Barnabas decide that it's best that we just go our separate ways. And the word in there that we're going to talk about this break. And the sharp disagreement is actually a really strong word. This is like one of those arguments, if you walk into a room, you walk back out. If you've ever had those we walk in on that says something went out of there, and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna get involved with that. That's awkward. They're fighting, something's up, I'm going this way. Right. And that's, in fact, what we see happen. They both decide to go their separate ways on the surface. When we first read this, it's easy to think that Paul's been immature, that he needs to get over his issues with Mark. But I think again, what we're seeing here to get there to give credit to both Paul and Barnabas is they were both in the right. Right. Barnabas has seen something in Mark that right now Paul can see. And Paul's committed to seeing the gospel go. This is this is the pub. This is what Paul's life is about. Right? He's a big personality struggling. The gospels first, for Barnabas foresees people's hearts and character. So you can see there's just conflicting giftings. And as extreme as it is, what we see here is two men committed to seeing the gospel reach the world. And they both want nothing to get in the way of that, including their personal preferences. I don't know if you've ever had to go your separate ways in relationship with somebody, whether it was a Healthy Transition or a difficult transition. So I've had both, right. And it's important to see that in this moment, they did find common ground because they didn't want to hinder the gospel from going out. So they go their separate ways. And it tells us the church blessed the church prayed over them and commission that mark, but that way, call it that way. Right. So humility here looks different. It's not like a normal example of what we see every day. Sometimes humility means walking away from a relationship that might hold you back. Even if two people have good intentions from the gospel moving in and through yet. Oftentimes that humility expresses itself that way. Again, as followers of Jesus, the priorities the gospel working in, relationships are important. Don't notice understanding relational God love relationships. But sometimes relationships can cause the gospel to get stuck. Sometimes, sometimes relationships can inhibit the gospel from working in and through. And humility oftentimes means walking away from those relationships, Paul and Barnabas would eventually reunite. Paul talks about him quite a bit in First Corinthians chapter nine in places chapter two, you can go read that, but they eventually get restoration heal and come back together as beautiful story. Anyways. So Paul goes one way. And while Paul was making his way towards Europe, we're told immediately in the next verse, If you meet Timothy, Paul, Paul must have had really good things. We're told that the community had lots of good things to say about him. And of course, the more we get to know Paul, and as Paul was one of those guys that just, you can use this stuff out, right. He knows what's going on. Paul must have had a good impression with Timothy. And so when they go, he invites Timothy to join him on his next missionary journey with them. strengthen these churches with restrictions and plants, I want you to come with me. For one small problem. Here we go. Timothy had not yet been circumcised. Now, if you've been traveling along with this often seems like a contradiction doesn't we just have the Jerusalem Council Josh talked about this last week? What was the point of the Jerusalem Council? That circumcision for Gentiles is no longer a prerequisite or should not be a prerequisite to following Jesus? Right? That's what this was all about. And so what Paul is doing now and the church was spent much of their time now is didn't have texting, they didn't have any of that email shocker. I know, they had to take that us personally, to the churches into the believers into the Jewish church, Jewish Jewish members that were converted to Christianity or Gentiles that were converted to Christianity, they had to go share that news, personally, walking. And so the thing is, this could sound like a contradiction, but it's not. In fact, remember what Paul said in Acts 15, verse 19. Josh on this last week, therefore, Paul says, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles returned to God. This was the case of the Jerusalem Council. Why would we put a burden on Gentiles? That is not their burden to carry? Now for a good Jew, that's a whole different thing. There's a cultural thing there again, what's the priority for Paul seeing the gospel working through. And so what makes this an exception is that Timothy's mom is Jewish. So for him, and it says, the community knew that. So for Timothy to join Paul on his Gospel Mission, circumcision as a half Jew, not being circumcised as have to present a problem in the gospel being more doubt, that would cause hindrance, it would cause an obstacle that Paul was not willing to face, there was lots of things that we see Paul not trying to take control of, we're gonna sneak into a prison. That did not stop him from going into the tap, right? So if there was something impulse control, to not create any unnecessary obstacles to see the gospel, go for it, he was going to deal with it. And so the rest of the Jewish church understood that Timothy wasn't circumcised. And so Timothy is going to be with Paul, and we talking with Jewish leaders in the synagogues. People be sharing this news, he hadn't been circumcised. And what follows is amazing rites is called circumcised Timothy. Paul was not willing to let anything get in the way of the gospel coming out. And so what we see with Timothy as a grown up, rusher how old he is yet he's not that old. Right? But But Timothy was willing to lay down his own personal freedom. Instead brace a whole new kind of living. That was freedom for him. He knew he was free to give himself away. He wasn't free, as a follower of Jesus, do whatever I wanted to, you can impose. And also, I'm free to lay this down, I'm free to give myself like asked what is the priority, this is going to be an issue. I don't want this to be an issue. And so Timothy was willing to put aside his personal preference and his personal conference for the sake of the gospel. I'm sorry, this is this is crazy. We don't see this today in the Western Church. I shouldn't say we don't see, we don't see a lot. Right. Putting putting aside your personal preferences. Putting aside your personal conference, for the sake of the gospel. haven't had any conversations like that with people? I haven't seen that work itself out too many in too many ways. And honestly, right here, what we see is we see Timothy embracing this thing. I think this is so work for us today, in the Western Church. The western church has made a lot of great progress in a lot of areas, specifically through measurements, your generosity. These are things that we're known for, right. But one thing I've seen as trend in the wrong direction is laying down our personal preferences for the greater good. Often, oftentimes, so many people attend a specific church based on whether or not that church meets their needs or not. That's the conversations we have with people. What can your church offer me? What ministries Do you have a place for me? Kind of coffee to certain degree shares have not kidding. You can you know this. If you've been in a church, this is not new. All right, I'm weak. And so what we do, what we do is Patrick, I'm guilty of this as well being in environments in many different churches.