I SURRENDER

Acts 9:3-16

Last week we launched out into what some believe to be, after the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, the greatest event in history. In this single event we got a sense of just how amazing the grace of God is. We saw how the grace of God pursued the man who was pursuing Christians like a wild animal on the hunt. Not only did God in His grace pursue Saul of Tarsus, He redeemed and reconciled the greatest enemy of the Gospel. Listen to what this redeemed, reconciled man would one day write —

2 Corinthians 5:18-21 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

That was not merely theology — it was a REALITY that radically and utterly and transformed him.

QUOTE: Keller — We cannot live with God and we cannot live without God. This is the essence of man’s condition.

You see — as rebels we can’t live with God; yet as creatures made for fellowship with our creator we can’t live without God. Only in Christ are we reconciled to God — and only as redeemed, reconciled rebels do we truly live. And when that happens you KNOW that you are truly know God and that you are truly alive! You might not know the theology or the chapter and verse — but you know that you are at peace with God — and that you have!

There is so much of God’s grace in this moment!

GRACE TRANSFORMS — The grace that pursued, redeemed and reconciled Saul of Tarsus also transformed him! The grace of God transformed the murderer into a missionary, the exterminator into an evangelist; the threat to the Gospel into the great theologian whose writings explained the Gospel he once so relentlessly tried to erase from the world.

GRACE CAN CHANGE ANYONE — NO ONE expected Saul to become a Christian (we will see that in a Christian named Ananias v.10-16). By the way — we need to remember that there is a reason why the unbeliever (we think is beyond saving) opposes Jesus and the Gospel (if you’re a Christian that used to be you). Virtually all of the unbeliever’s life is threatened if Christianity is true! Christianity is a threat to our dark and doomed little Kingdoms of One that we have set up for our glory and gratification in opposition to the Kingdom of God and the Will of God. Christianity is a threat to any religions because Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by Me.” The Gospel’s a threat to any religions because “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

When we look at the world organizing itself without God and against God — and those who are most influential in that — we need to remember that God’s grace can change anyone! The conversion of Saul of Tarsus would be like Molly Yard (radical pro-abortionist) becoming pro-life and championing New Life Pregnancy Centers; Madalyn Murray O’Hair believing in Jesus and becoming the great advocate of public prayer; the supreme Ayatollah of Iran getting converted and becoming a Christian missionary to Muslims in Iran and Syria and Saudi Arabia.

GRACE CHANGES EVERYTHING — The grace of God for sure transformed Saul’s plans. Saul came to take prisoners, but God took him prisoner. He came to cause suffering, but joined the ranks of the sufferers. The grace of God for sure transformed Saul’s pride. Up to this moment in Acts 9 Saul believed in his own righteousness and worthiness, but found instead the righteousness and worthiness of Christ.

GRACE CHANGES HISTORY — The grace of God at work in this one man’s life changed the course of history. Saul was made for God’s story and God’s glory. Saul was fearfully and wonderfully made. He was a man of tremendous vision, courage and zeal.

He was a man who possessed the fierce, fearless, and relentless commitment that would be needed to bring the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the world.

Until Acts 9 everything that made him the perfect instrument for bringing the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the world had been perverted by sin and was being used against the cause of the Gospel and against the name of Jesus. GRACE redeemed all of those talents and traits and used them for God’s story and God’s glory! 

1 Corinthians 15:10-11 But by the grace of God I am what I am,

The Gospel moved from a Jewish culture and a Jewish world view in Jerusalem and spread, just as Jesus said, to the uttermost parts of the world and ultimately changed MY history — and the history of so many here this morning — and we pray by that same grace change the history of even more men and women by the end of our time together this morning.

Right up front I want us all to understand that THAT is what grace does — it changes history! It changes history in our lives as individuals before God — the way we will live on this side of heaven. Most likely none of us of us will shape history as Paul the apostle did. But the grace of God in every redeemed, reconciled rebel will change the course of history in a marriage, a family, a neighborhood, a classroom, a workplace!

As we continue we are going to see how the grace of God caused Saul of Tarsus to say I SURRENDER!

³Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” ⁵And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

It was not the light that caused Saul to say I SURRENDER. It surely stopped him in his tracks.

Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus

Jesus gave the arch-enemy of the Gospel and an IMMEDIATE answer. Jesus is ALWAYS ready to answer the serious enquirer.

DON’T MISS THIS — The name of Jesus was the LAST thing he ever expected to hear out of heaven, or from the midst of a light more brilliant than the sun at midday because Saul believed Jesus to be dead — he believed Jesus to be a mere man who died and stayed dead like every other man who was nailed to a Roman cross.  

The name of Jesus was very familiar to Saul. Jesus was the very name Saul hated and persecuted. Saul had lashed out against that name countless times. He would have buried it forever if he could.

I can remember how familiar the name of Jesus was to me, and how meaningless it was to me. The priests and nuns who spoke His name countless times over 12 years of education might have just as well been talking about George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. Jesus was just a name — not the risen, ruling Savior and Lord. That’s why I could use it in a string of obscenities! The last thing I ever expected was to hear it in a way that would CHANGE MY LIFE! There might be those here today who take the name of Jesus lightly — your spouse speaks His name, your parent or children speak His name, your neighbor speaks His name, a classmate or co-worker speaks His name — but it is meaningless to you. It’s our prayer that this morning you will discover that the name of Jesus alone can save and transform your Life.

Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus….”

THIS IS HUGE — At the core of Saul’s surrender was the shocking discovery that Jesus is not some dead leader of a religious sect in Israel — Jesus is the risen, living, Lord and Savior!

The Christians had been constantly proclaiming this in Jerusalem (Acts 2:32; 3:15; 5:30–32). But as many times as Saul heard it, Saul refused to accept. He did so for the same reasons unbelievers reject that same proclamation today — If Jesus was alive, then Saul had to change his mind about Jesus and His message — He would have to repent and surrender his position as self-sovereign in his dark and doomed Kingdom of One.

By the way — there is really no explanation for Saul of Tarsus becoming Saul the Apostle apart from the resurrection of Jesus. During the late 1800’s, in England, there were two well-known and scholarly men who joined forces in an attempt to discredit Christianity and put an end to it — Sir Gilbert Hawkins and Lord Littleton. They understood that for that to happen they would have to disprove the two events upon which they believed the credibility of Christianity hinged: ^1. The resurrection of Jesus because it validates the claims of Christ to deity and the necessity of the sacrifice of the cross.  ^2. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus because his transformed life proves that Christ is risen.

Hawkins undertook a study to prove the Resurrection a hoax. He that the Resurrection record proved undeniable and credible because the historical and archaeological evidence was irrefutable.

Littleton planned on disproving the Conversion of Paul. He discovered that the Conversion of Paul was a result of Paul’s own, personal experience with the resurrected Jesus, and had so transformed Paul that it literally changed the course of History.

But here’s the extra awesome bit — They had zero doubt that they would succeed. So at the start of their plan they agreed to come together after one year of research to celebrate their success in disproving Christianity. When they came together, they discovered that each of them had, without the other’s knowledge, become Christians!

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

These words of Jesus tell us that the believer is intimately and inseparably united with the living Jesus — a part of His body here on earth. Every attack on a Christian was an attack on Jesus.

The New King James reads — Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

The content is accurate, but it was not in Luke’s original text. It was added by those copying the manuscript based on Acts 26:14.

Notice how Jesus REASONS with Paul about his sin and rebellion against God. The goad was an instrument for guiding oxen.

It was a rod about 8ft. Long that was brought to a sharp point. The saying, kicking against the goads was a Greek proverb that referred to UNAVAILING RESISTANCE to superior power.

QUOTE: Amplified Bible — “It is DANGEROUS and turns out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad – that is – to offer vain and perilous resistance.”

Jesus used this metaphor because there was a history of the grace of God in His dealings with this man. The grace of God was at work in Saul at least as far back as the up to this point by means of Stephen’s testimony and death (Acts 7:54-60). Saul was fighting against Jesus to His own hurt and pain! Essentially, Saul is the ox; Jesus is the farmer; Saul is dumb and stubborn - yet valuable, and potentially extremely useful to the Master’s service. Jesus is goading Saul into the right direction, and the goading causes Saul pain, but instead of submitting to Jesus, Saul is kicking against the goad - and only increasing his pain.

HERE’S THE POINT — To resist God, who wants to save you from sin, is UNREASONABLE and SELF-DESTRUCTIVE. Yet there are those who rebel against God’s Word, His servants, and His divinely appointed circumstances. All of these things are like goads meant to guide a person to Jesus. But people kick against them, and the more they kick the more harm comes to them here, and in eternity. Kicking against grace only leads to pain!

DON’T MISS THIS — Saul was kicking hardest right at the moment of meeting Jesus! Apply that to those you’ve been praying for who seem to be fighting harder than ever against the Lord.

GRACE IS RADICAL IN IT’S FOCUS AND COMPASSION — Jesus said to Saul — It is hard for you. Jesus is the one being persecuted, yet He is concerned for how hard it was for Saul to be fighting against grace!

⁵And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”….. ⁸Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

SAUL SURRENDERS TO JESUS!

THE PROOF of saving grace is recognizing Jesus Christ as Lord… SUBMITTING to His authority. Saul once had no regard for — no allegiance to — no love for Jesus. Now Saul views Jesus as the absolute authority and SURRENDERS to His authority!

QUOTE: Spurgeon — Depend on it, my hearer, you never will go to heaven unless you are prepared to worship Jesus Christ as God.

CONVERSION is at the heart of Christianity, and CHANGE is at the heart of conversion.

DEFINITION: Convert = cause to change in form, character, or function:

Here is the essential change that marks conversion. We were made to live for God’s story and God’s glory. God intended for our lives to display His glory — to be the expression of His Kingdom and His will. But since Genesis 3 sin has made us (what Paul Tripp calls) “glory thieves”. Rather than living for God’s Story and God’s glory we have all set up our little Kingdoms of One. In our Kingdoms of One we steal the story and rewrite it. We rewrite with ourselves playing the role of God and our lives at center stage. Living in our Kingdoms of One we plot daily to steal the glory that belongs to God. Our Kingdom of One is in a fierce, pitched, vertical war against God.

Romans 8:7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

DON’T MISS THIS — The establishing of our Kingdoms of One puts us in a war with Him. It’s an intensely vertical war in which we plot to take the very position of God. The daily battle to rob God of His glory is behind everything that’s broken in this world.

HERE’S THE DEAL — The Risen Lord Jesus meets Saul of Tarsus and Saul is converted. The KJV has this addition to verse 6.

Acts 9:6 KJV And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

The manuscript evidence doesn’t support the inclusion of that statement — but we know from the rest of the Book of Acts and the letters of Paul that this question was the driving force in the life of Paul from this moment forward. He goes from living for self to living for Jesus, from desiring his own will to desiring and doing the will of Jesus. THAT is the evidence of conversion!

Philippians 2:13 NLT For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.

DON’T MISS THIS — It is the transforming power of the love of Jesus that made Saul want to surrender his Kingdom of One and his position as self-sovereign in it. Paul discovered that there is a real Jesus. Saul met Him. Saul discovered that the Jesus he hated loves those who hate Him. Saul discovered that Jesus has more grace than he had sin!

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for… ¹⁵and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers,  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  ²Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 6:13-14; 22 NLT  Do not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness, to be used for sinning. Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God. ¹⁴ Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are free by God’s grace. …  ²² But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.

It is the transforming power of the life and love of Jesus that causes a rebel to want his will to come into conformity with God’s will — makes the rebel want to say, What will you have me to do?

LISTEN CAREFULLY! To live life without asking that question is to assign yourself to a sub-human existence — deny your true identity. Let me explain.

In the record of creation God did something with Adam and Eve that He didn’t do with anything else He created. Immediately after creating the man and the woman God spoke to them. God didn’t do that with anything else He had created. That begs the question, Why did God talk to them? God had perfectly created the man and the woman. They were living in a perfect environment. He made them perfect people living in a perfect relationship with God and each other. But God speaks to them because even before sin entered the world they could not figure out life on their own! They were not wired to be independent agents in God’s universe. God created the man and the woman to be dependent upon Him. As we read the creation account we see God informing them as to what they were to do with their lives!

QUOTE: Paul Tripp — They didn’t need help because they were sinners. They needed help because they were human.

The same Jesus who will inform this redeemed reconciled rebel was there with our first parents before the Fall — He is there as the Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6) defining their identity and their purpose in His creation.

God made the man and woman to live on the platform of His Word and His will. We need the Word of God to inform us of the will of God. At the core of the fall is man and woman deciding to be independent of the Word and the will of God. They decided that they would not build their lives on the platform of God’s revealed Word and will. Those who choose to be informed by their own their own fallen desires and emotions, or by the wisdom of fallen and broken created things, are building their lives on a platform of lies — and THAT’S why everything’s broken in this world!

At the very core and heart of God’s redeeming love is His desire to restore those who set out to find their identity and purpose in utter defiance of God’s Word and God’s will; who set out to build their lives on a platform of lies.  

We’ve seen the amazing, pursuing redeeming, grace of God pursuing rebels. And here we see the chief of rebels saying — I SURRENDER.

DON’T MISS THIS — From this moment forward the question of Paul’s life will never be — “What can YOU do for ME for my glory?” His entire life is driven by the question — “What Can I do FOR YOU and your glory?”

QUOTE: Henry Martin, a missionary, cried as he knelt on India’s coral strands — “Here let me burn out for God.”

QUOTE: David Brainerd, a missionary to North American Indians declared to the Lord — “Lord, to thee I dedicate myself. Lord I desire nothing else; I desire nothing more.”

QUOTE: D.L. Moody — “Use me then, my Savior, for whatever purpose, and in whatever way Thou may require. Here is my poor heart, an empty vessel; fill it with Thy grace.”

¹⁰Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, ¹²and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. ¹⁴And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” ¹⁵But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

REMEMBER — God made Saul for this; CHOSE Saul for this; SAVED Saul for this!

to carry my name

Wherever He sends us — whatever He sends us to do — we carry His name. Remember — as we scatter from here on mission, in culture — we carry His name.

¹⁶For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” ¹⁷So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; ¹⁹and taking food, he was strengthened.

CLOSE

What an exciting prospect — To be reconciled to God; to have a relationship with God; to be redeemed from a life built on a platform of lies; to have a life informed by God’s Word and Will that defines our identity and our purpose in His creation; to be an instrument in the hands of God vessels by which His redeeming love and power is exercised in this broken world for His glory and man’s good.

2 CHRONICLES 34:3-33

Last week we were introduced to Josiah, who at the age of 8 came to the throne of Judah. His dad, Amon, was incredibly wicked. Josiah was born when Amon was 16; which means that Josiah was raised by a godless 16-year old dad, who at the age of 22 became king and did everything evil he could possibly do. Everything about Josiah’s environment was against him believing in, loving and worshipping the One, True and Living God. Every thing around him in his first 8 years of life pressed, pushed, and pulled towards following in the steps of his incredibly wicked, idol-worshipping dad. This boy was the least likely candidate to even know, love and worship the true and living God, let alone be the instrument of God in turning an entire nation from worshipping and idols to worshipping and serving the true and living God. But here’s the deal — in the midst of the wickedness and brokenness of Josiah’s world there was ONE greatly humbled, broken man — his grandfather, Manasseh. I believe that with great brokenness and humility Manasseh took his young grandson and instructed him about the amazing grace of God. Because of that ONE man’s influence, this ONE boy was used by God to change a nation; bring one last revival in the southern kingdom of Judah before it fell back into idolatry and was carried away into captivity by the Babylon.

The Holy Spirit set Manasseh and Josiah before us to challenge each of us; to say to each of us as individuals, that ONE life matters. ONE life can change the course of your world (your neighborhood, your city, where you work, where you go to school, where you shop and where you just hang out), maybe the course of a nation.

I want to share with you something that a man named John Wesley said. The Holy Spirit has been bringing it up in my mind time and time again recently.

QUOTE: John Wesley (1703-1791) — He was asked — “What is your secret? Why do so many people come to hear you preach?” Wesley answered — “I get alone with God in prayer. He sets me on fire. The people come out to watch me burn.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones listed a few things that start to happen when God sets us on fire.

QUOTE: Lloyd-Jones — some of the general characteristics of revival: a sense of the majesty of God, of personal sinfulness, of the wonder of salvation through Jesus Christ and a desire that others might know it.^[1]

FIRST — It has challenged me to my bones. When people look at my life what do they see? You know, when a fire goes out it smolders, and the smoke stinks up everything around it and irritates the eyes of everyone near it. Is that my relationship with Jesus? SECOND — I’ve been wondering about Metro — and especially the young adults. Who are the young men whose lives are being ignited by God, who are on fire with a love for Jesus; whose lives beg people to come and watch them burn as they study, work, and simply live for God in culture, on mission? Who are the young women whose lives are being ignited by God, who are on fire with a love for Jesus; whose lives beg people to come and watch them burn as they study, work, and live for God in culture, on mission?

I really pray that I can articulate my heart to you here. When I say these things I say them as a man charged to look well to the state of his flock — a man charged to take heed to himself and to the flock the Holy Spirit has called him to watch over. Shepherds see things sheep can’t see. It’s who they are and what they do! I have to tell you that since we began Monday Night @ Metro I never dreamed that I would even think of saying this — but things have been looking and feeling a bit sleepy on Monday nights — a bit like a fire that’s beginning to go out. Something has diminished in the sense of anticipation that God is going to meet with us — God is going to do something; something has diminished in the sense of pressing into the heart of God in worship — the sense of leaning in as we study the Word. Not everybody — not every night — but it’s happening. Metro has NEVER been about “what works” or “that’s not working — let’s try this.” Metro has always been about Jesus. Yes, God has blessed us with some pretty amazing places to meet in. Yes, God has blessed us with being able to have amazing meals together week after week. But Metro has been something that transcends all of that. It’s been a collection of people who were longing to know something real, something more than church and buildings and programs, something more than where’s the new place Christians go to. It’s always been about hearts full of faith and love for Jesus — gladly joining to worship and exalt our redeemer. In that, and from that, souls have been saved, marriages healed, lives committed to service, and others, whose hearts the Lord has been stirring, have been invited to join in this amazing thing that we feel so privileged to be a part of.

I’m so glad that the Holy Spirit has been guiding us in our pace through the Scriptures. He always has us in just that chapter and verse we need for the state of our hearts. And tonight we find ourselves coming to the close of 2 Chronicles and the record of an incredible move of the Holy Spirit in the life of ONE young man that overflowed into a nation.

Between the age of 8 and 16 Josiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left (v.2).

We pick up in verse 3 

³For in the eighth year of his reign,

At the age of 16

while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father,

At the age of 16 he says,  Lord, it’s not sufficient for You to be David’s God; You must be my God.  The first thought that comes to my mind is how THAT is so very much like the heart of king David. Time and again David spoke of the True and Living God as his God

Psalm 5:1-2 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. ² Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God:

Psalm 7:1 O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge;

Psalm 63:1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

The next thing that struck me is how a man who has been dead for over 400 years is a powerful reference point for this guy! This 16 year old wanted to know the God who David the teen-age shepherd boy trusted the day he slew Goliath — the God that David worshipped and wrote songs to and songs about; the God that walked with David through the valley of the shadow of death. What an awesome legacy David left to this boy who would sit on his very throne 400 years after his death. How I pray that by the grace of God I will have such a legacy. Legacy’s are built NOW — while we are living.

One more thought here — It’s amazing to think that you and I can be a a “Jesus” reference point for someone whose life has nothing that points them to Jesus. By the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit someone (our children, a friend, classmate or co-worker) could say — I want to seek __________’s God. I want __________’s God to be my God. 

So this 16 year old says — You can’t just be the God of David that I read about.  Lord, you need to be my God.  And I need to know you, and this can’t be religion; it has to be relationship, that relationship has to be reality in my own life.

At the age of 16 he makes a decision that will set the course of a nation: I am going to seek the face of God.  God set Josiah on fire and his sphere of influence watched him burn — and those around him found their hearts ignited!

and in the twelfth year

That means that he was seeking the Lord for four years — from his eighth year to his twelfth year.  For a 16 year old to do anything for four hours is almost unthinkable. But for four years Josiah sought the face of God. That doesn’t mean that he did nothing but pray. There is no way he packed off and went to a monastery for four years. He was king.

QUOTE: Martin J. Selman — “Seeking in Chronicles describes the habit of looking to God in every situation, and also the attitude which God looks for in those who pray (2 Chronicles 7:14; 30:19).”

DON’T MISS THIS METRO — There were surely times that were dedicated to prayer — but his life was not compartmentalized. He didn’t put on his “seeking God” hat and then take that off and put on his “King of Judah” hat.

It means that over the course of the next 4 years of his life he sought the Lord in everything he did; everywhere he went. It was from those four years of seeking the Lord, acknowledging the Lord in all his ways, that the Lord stirred his heart to a course of action.

and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images and he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ⁵He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around, ⁷he broke down the altars and beat the Asherim and the images into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

The variety of idols shows how deep idolatry was in Judah. 2 Kings adds to this inventory — Besides the idols dedicated to Ashera there were idols dedicated to Baal (2 Kings 23:4) and to all the host of heaven (2 Kings 23:5) in the very temple itself (2 Kings 23:4). From the 2 Kings account, it seems that Josiah began to tear down idols at the center of the nation and worked outwards. That’s always the way life works. What sits at the center of our lives works it’s way outward. If idols are at the center of our life there will be systemic failure that reaches outward into every area of our lives — resulting in brokenness and death. When Jesus is at the center of our lives there is systemic salvation and redemption that reaches outward into every area of our lives, producing wholeness and life!

BY THE WAY — Christianity is an inside out transformation. Religion is mans attempt to transform and save himself from the outside in

Again — ONE young man was used by God to change the course of a nation. Charles Spurgeon was 16 years old when he preached his first sermon and began to affect a nation.  George Whitfield was 20 years old when he began preaching to coal miners. He was forced to preach in the open air because he had been thrown out of the Church of England for talking about the new birth. So he stood on a soapbox and spoke to the miners — 100 the first day, 200 the second day, 500 the third day, thousands the fourth day, 20,000 by the end of the week. When he was 22 years old he traveled to America. He went up and down the Eastern seaboard preaching.  The professors at Harvard said that when Whitfield spoke there (and I think he was 24 years old at the time) that 93 out of every 100 students gave their lives to Christ.  That was before 1770.  From those men who got saved came some of the framers and signers of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. The course of Britain affected by a 16 year old and a 20 year old — America by a 22 year old.

⁸Now in the eighteenth year of his reign,

26 years old now — getting old. At this point in time Jeremiah’s ministry has been going on at least five years. 

when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. ⁹They came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰And they gave it to the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord. And the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord gave it for repairing and restoring the house. ¹¹They gave it to the carpenters and the builders to buy quarried stone, and timber for binders and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had let go to ruin. ¹²And the men did the work faithfully. Over them were set Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to have oversight. The Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music, ¹³were over the burden-bearers and directed all who did work in every kind of service, and some of the Levites were scribes and officials and gatekeepers.

Godly men; entrusted with the money — and the restoration of the house of the Lord goes forward — the house is being rebuilt.  Of course that is a picture of the church — people giving generously to the Lord’s work in the repair and the building up of the church.

DON’T MISS THIS — The Holy Spirit gives us all these names (that you really didn’t want to read through and I really didn’t want to read through)

because they worked faithfully and repaired the House of the Lord. God took note of them and wrote their names down.

Hebrews 6:10 For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.

What’s your task in Metro?  I’m a He-brew/She-brew (coffee ministry). Be faithful! God sees!

¹⁴While they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given through Moses. ¹

THIS IS HUGE — As far as we know this was the only surviving copy of the Old Testament Scriptures. According to Deuteronomy 31:24-27, there was to be a copy of this Book of the Law beside the ark of the covenant, beginning in the days of Moses.  But there had come a time when the people had become so carnal and cold that they had LOST the Word of God. Evidently, Manasseh and Amon had destroyed, or attempted to destroy all of the copies of the Law. This Book of the Law was no doubt lost during the rule of Manasseh and Amon when they took it upon themselves to change the location of the ark of the covenant (2 Chronicles 35:3). They thought they could invent the way worship was ordered in the house of the Lord — thought they could rearrange what God had arranged.

DON’T MISS THIS — The Word of God was LOST in the House of God. What a picture of a large segment of church culture in the 21^st century. People meet in churches weekly, but there is NO place for the Word of God. It is lost amongst the crowded order of service — buried under social commentary, lost by man’s attempt to make the Bible say something less than what is in it; or by man’s attempt to make it say something more than what is in it.

HERE’S THE PICTURE — The Word was uncovered and rediscovered in the day of Revival.  I see this happening in a number of lives today. There is a newfound love for the Word of God. (Young lady — not just concepts — but THE WORD!) We have people that drive one hour each way to be here three times a week because they have rediscovered the Word of God.

People are amazed to hear that we have so many people gathering on a Monday Night @ Metro to worship for 30 minutes, share a meal and then study the Bible for 60-70 minutes. They are amazed that we have nearly 800 adults here on a Sunday to worship the Lord for 30 minutes and then study the Bible for an hour. They find it hard to believe that so many people are interested in Bible study.

How can you know if you are in a state of revival? Is there a rediscovery of the Word of God? Is there a newfound love for the Word? Do you want to know what the Scriptures have to say? That is what excites me about Monday Night @ Metro — Sundays at Metro .

BY THE WAY — There’s a portion of the Bible that is in our hands tonight that came from the copy they found here in this chapter. Aren’t you glad they found it?

⁵Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. ¹⁶Shaphan brought the book to the king, and further reported to the king, “All that was committed to your servants they are doing. ¹⁷They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have given it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.” ¹⁸Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it before the king. ¹⁹And when the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes.

As the Old Testament was read to Josiah he came to a great sense of his own sinfulness, and the sinfulness of the Southern kingdom.

FIRST — We can only know that we are missing the mark when we know what the mark is. We can only that when we read the Word of the Lord.

Psalm 119:9 KJV  Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Psalm 119:11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

THIS IS HUGE — When the Word of God was rediscovered in the house of God, Josiah exposed his own heart, and the nation, to the LIGHT of God’s word! The truth of God’s Word identified the idolatry in the nation. He was convicted by the Word. He was so grieved that he tore his clothes.

HERE’S THE PICTURE — When God is working revival in your heart you will expose yourself to the truth of the Word. It will identify the idols in your life — the things that have been grieving the Holy Spirit —hindering the flow of the Spirit in your life.

Psalm 19:7   The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;

Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Are YOU having personal revival? The answer to that question is found in your answer to these questions — Are you rediscovering God’s Word? Are you RECOGNIZING the sin and idols in your life when the Word reveals them?

This IS the Word of God. It’s alive and it’s sharp and it’s powerful. God is not only smart enough to inspire it; he’s smart enough to preserve it. He was able to preserve it in the wicked times of Manasseh and Amon, and He’s preserved it and handed it to us today. This IS the Word of God, and if you try to live in sin and stand in the light of it you’ll know it’s the Word of God too. 

²⁰And the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, ²¹“Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book.”

DON’T MISS THIS — Josiah, who is 26 years old at this moment, was not content to merely HEAR the Word. After he HEARD the Word, he said that he must APPLY that which he had been taught from the Word. Paul the Apostle did that very thing after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus

Acts 9:3-6 KJV  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

HERE’S THE PICTURE — When revival happens in our hearts it causes us to ACT UPON the Word of God — there will be a response in your heart to ask — “What will you have ME to do?” Not some legalistic response loaded with dread — but a humble, willing response, born out of love for the Lord who has been so gracious to reveal Himself to you and begin to stir in your heart the desire for personal revival.

²²So Hilkiah and those whom the king had sent went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter) and spoke to her to that effect.

THIS IS SO GREAT — At this very moment Jeremiah’s ministry is just starting to gather momentum.  Zephaniah is running at the end of his ministry. Yet the Lord was going to speak to this godly king by way of this woman who had no public forum.  Her husband was the king’s tailor.  She’s a woman who loves God, and when the nation was in crisis God found in this woman a heart that could receive and faithfully declare a radical word from the Lord.

²³And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, ²⁴Thus says the Lord, behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah. ²⁵Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched. ²⁶But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, ²⁷because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord.

The God of the Word said to Josiah — because you’ve listened to My Word; because you heard the pain and the anguish of My Word as I pronounced the judgment that My people would reap if they served idols — I have heard you!

²⁸Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.’” And they brought back word to the king.

Josiah will die in peace.  He died on the battlefield at the hand of Pharaoh Neco in 609 B.C.  But he died with a great heart for the Lord. Peace is not the absence of conflict — it is the presence of the Lord in the midst of conflict. It is experiencing peace from the prince of peace.

Even though Josiah would not live to see the certain judgment of God upon Judah he would not sit by idly and say, “Well, judgment’s coming and I’m gonna miss it — and there’s nothing I can do to stop it — So why do anything!He didn’t sit back and do nothing. He continues to spend and be spent in seeing the heart of the entire nation repent and seek God — even though he himself is promised deliverance. 

He gathered the nation and he said this is what the word of God says.  And this is how we’re going to live

²⁹Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. ³¹And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. ³²Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. ³³And Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.

FIRST — When revival takes place you are ready to take your stand. You are ready to OPENLY consecrate your life to the Lord — walk after the Lord. You are no longer playing the “cool Christian,” or the “silent saint”. That kind of cool Christianity MELTS in the fire of God’s Spirit as He works in your life. You are ready to openly make your stand with God and for God WHATEVER it takes. Do you have a sense that you need to take a stand outwardly and openly?

SECOND — Your heart is knit with other likeminded men and women who have made the same stand.

DEFINITION — A covenant is a promise by which men and women obligate themselves to one another in such a way that the obligation of one party is not dependent on the faithfulness of the other

I believe that this is what the local church is supposed to look like —

People who are willing to obligate themselves to one another in loving God, loving fellow Christians, and loving non-Christians. They obligate themselves to one another in serving the vision and mission of the local church. That is a far cry from the contemporary church culture in which men and women use church for their own ends — come for goods and services — at their convenience.

ONE LIFE. ONE HEART. SET ON FIRE BY GOD. That’s what such a life looks like.

AMAZING, PURSUING, REDEEMING, TRANSFORMING GRACE

Acts 9:1-9

Before we begin I want to read two passages of the New Testament to you.

Romans 5:20 But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

1 Corinthians 15:10-11 But by the grace of God I am what I am

Bible Scholars generally agree that next to the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus the event recorded at the start of Acts 9 ranks as one of the most significant events of the New Testament, and probably modern history. It is so significant that the Holy Spirit inspired Luke (the author of acts) to give the record of this event three times: Here in Acts 9 and then again in Acts 22 and 26.

THIS CHAPTER OF THE BIBLE IS SO EPIC! The whole world is broken and fallen because of sin and desperately in need of a Savior. What is amazing is that broken and fallen man is aware of how broken and bad the world is. I think this is expressed when a movie like “The Avengers” breaks box office records. The story line and plot are about as old as time. Dark and evil forces pose an existential threat to humanity and humanity is powerless to save itself. So, a humble super-hero (savior) comes along (in this case a team of them).  The super hero(es) puts his life on the line so that evil can be defeated, people can be liberated, and a new kingdom can dawn in which people can live peaceably.Think about this — Have you ever noticed how the superhero is usually part human and part something otherworldly — like us but at the same time unlike us — like us, only better?

METRO — There is not a single man or woman; a single ethnic group or a single geographic region that does not need the Gospel. That’s why Jesus said that the mission is global!

Mark 16:15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Though there is nothing too hard for God, there were some huge obstacles to overcome on the human level. The first obstacle was to get Jewish Christians to proclaim the Gospel in Samaria. The apostle John articulated the antagonism between Jews and Samaritans in his gospel (that was written to a Greek audience).

John 4:9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

On the human level that was a big obstacle to the advance of the Gospel along the lines that Jesus laid out in Acts 1:8. But there’s nothing too hard for the Lord! Jesus said, Jerusalem first, then all of Judea and Samaria, and that’s exactly what Jesus did. Jesus accomplished it by way of a systematic, relentless, organized, violent assault on the church in Jerusalem. This mega persecution actually caused the Gospel of the Kingdom to advance in the place that no one really wanted to go to (Samaria), and in the people no one really wanted to talk to (Samaritans). By the end of Acts 8 we have Jerusalem, all of Judea and Samaria.

The next major obstacle (on the human level) to the advance of the Gospel was the very real and massive gulf between Jews and the non-Jewish cultures of the world; Greek and Roman cultures — with their philosophies and their arts. On the human level — what the cause of the Gospel needed to reach the uttermost parts of the world was a redeemed, reconciled rebel who possessed a tremendous working knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. This was an essential because the Gospel has its roots and origin in the Hebrew Scriptures and because there were Jews living in cities that were colonies of Rome steeped in Greek culture. But this person also needed to be steeped in, and at home with, the Hellenistic culture, with its arts, philosophy and religion. To articulate the Gospel to such diverse worldviews would require an extraordinary intellect.

But there were other crucial elements needed in the composition of this person. The scope of the mission would require a breadth of vision that could take in the unreached world. The opposition that the Gospel would face would be relentless and violent; the travel involved would be taxing on every level. This person would need to be a man of incredible commitment to the mission — possess a zeal and a determination in the cause of the Gospel that was fierce, fearless and relentless!

Where do you find such a vessel? In a way that is utterly and totally Jesus, He had a vessel that was handpicked and a vessel perfectly prepared for that massive challenge. He was a man of unique birth, unique background, unique training and unique character.

THAT is what makes Acts 9 such a radical Jesus moment! Jesus knew exactly who this person was. Not only did Jesus know who this man was — Jesus knew exactly where to find him! In fact Jesus was chasing him down! We find this man in the opening words of Acts 9

¹But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ²and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus,

¹But Saul,

Luke, the author of Acts, reintroduces to us this man we met at the end of Acts 7 and the opening of Acts 8 — 

Acts 7:58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul….. Acts 8:1 And Saul approved of his execution.

Saul was the ruling authority in the murder of Stephen. He authorized it and supervised it. Saul hated the name of Jesus. He hated those who loved Jesus and proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world. How full of hate? Well, Saul looked at the face of Stephen when Stephen was being interrogated before the Sanhedrin

Acts 6:15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Saul watched as stones crushed the face of Stephen. Saul heard the last words of Stephen — Saul heard Stephen pray for him and for every man that had thrown a stone. Saul’s heart was so filled with hatred for Jesus that he would not be content with the death of just one Christian.  He was a man of vision — he saw Christians and the Gospel as a global threat. He would not be content until he had killed Christianity in its infancy. As far as he was concerned it was like a horrible cancer that had been detected and needed to be wiped out before it could spread. He would not rest until every last witness to the name of Jesus was wiped from the face of the earth. He was prepared to go anywhere, at any expense to do it. So while godly men buried Stephen and mourned over Stephen’s death Saul was ravaging (mauling and mangling) the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison (Acts 8:3).

¹But Saul,

DON’T MISS THIS — The Holy Spirit reintroduces us to Saul by way of a conjunction. He wants to set Saul and his efforts in contrast to, and in opposition to Jesus (the Jesus Saul hated). The conjunction but is a reference to all that Jesus was doing in and through the agency of His church in Chapter 8 — and it shows Saul’s heart and Saul’s efforts (his Systematic, relentless, organized and violent persecution of the church) in a head-on collision with the heart and work of Jesus!

DON’T MISS THIS — This radical moment actually had a HISTORY OF GRACE.

QUOTE: William Barclay — ….we will see that this is not a sudden conversion but a sudden surrender.

The Holy Spirit had been at work in this man at least as far back as the interrogation and murder of Stephen. Some students of the Bible believe that Saul would have even been at the house of the high priest the night before Jesus died when they beat and interrogated Jesus — and broke every law of Jewish jurisprudence before the turned Jesus over to Pilate to be crucified. Then, there was the way Stephen died. Saul no doubt wrestled with that. He couldn’t divorce the way Stephen died from Stephen’s character. Bad men don’t die like Stephen did. Stephen’s final words were seared into Paul’s mind. They sounded so much like the words Jesus uttered from the cross right after they had driven the wrought iron nails through the hands and feet of Jesus. No doubt Saul heard the same thing and saw the same thing in those he dragged from homes and threw into prison. All of that is rolling around deep in this man’s heart when he went to the Sanhedrin for “official” permission and funds to carry out his war against Jesus in Damascus.

The journey only made matters worse. It was about 140 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus. The journey would be made on foot and would take about a week. He would have travelled with a band of arresting officers. Just as we can find ourselves in a crowd — he was alone in that company with those thoughts. But he was not alone — there was the grace of God dealing with him — pursuing him, and the Holy Spirit convicting him, reminding him of Jesus. The trip to Damascus would have gone through Galilee, and Galilee brought Jesus even more vividly to Paul’s mind. The Holy Spirit was winding this hand picked vessel of Jesus really tight. So he came near Damascus, one of the oldest cities in the world.

³Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” ⁵And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” ⁷The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. ⁸Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

There is a common belief among unbelievers that Christianity is a crutch for the weak. The premise is false because it assumes that before God some are strong. Before the living God everyone is powerless to save himself. Those who can stand before kings, or stand apart from their peers in talent or success or power, are nothing before the Lord.

But let’s grant that they are talking about those who are emotionally or intellectually or socially or economically weak — who use Jesus as a prop. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus utterly dispels this myth because he was in no way a weak man. First of all, he was intellectually strong.

Acts 22:3 educated at the feet of Gamaliel

Acts 26:4 NLT “As the Jewish leaders are well aware, I was given a thorough Jewish training from my earliest childhood among my own people and in Jerusalem.

He was one of the most promising young Pharisees in Jerusalem and was well on his way to becoming a great leader of the Jews.

Galatians 1:14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

He was not only an intellectual force in Israel, he was also a driven man, wielding all of his religious and political power to exterminate Christians and Christianity.

Acts 22:4-5; 10; 17-20 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, ⁵as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished…. ¹⁰And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’….. ¹⁷“When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance ¹⁸and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ ¹⁹And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. ²⁰And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’

Acts 26:10-11 And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. ¹¹And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

raging fury = to transform; to become maniac; to go insane; to be mad.  He would snap. He would threaten. He would be angry to the point of violence. This man was no weakling, no coward.

The conversion of Paul leaves no doubt that Christianity is not only for the weak. But it also leaves NO DOUBT that Jesus receives sinners.

1 Timothy 1:13-15  though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

It was while in that state of maniacal rage that Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus!

QUOTE: Tim Chaddick — There is more grace in the heart of God than there is sin in the heart of man.

THIS IS HUGE — In his conversion we also see that Jesus not only receives sinners, He PURSUES them.

Saul was not pursuing Jesus, yet Jesus went and apprehended Saul on the road to Damascus. Jesus was not waiting for Saul to find his way into a Bible study so that He could save him.

HERE’S THE PICTURE — Even when you weren’t coming to church looking for Jesus, Jesus was out there looking for you.

I also believe that somebody in Jerusalem was PRAYING for Saul of Tarsus because they remembered that Jesus said

Matthew 5:44 ….Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

DON’T MISS THIS — Redeemed, reconciled rebels have their hearts knit to the heart of Jesus who pursues sinners. One way they participate in that pursuit is by praying for people who need to meet Jesus.  

Luke tells us that Jesus came upon Saul SUDDENLY. Very few people wake up and say, “Today I shall meet Christ and be converted.” My testimony. Students in England (You’ve turned my world upside down / Andrew).

DON’T MISS THIS — Paul had no where to run, no where to hide.

Acts 26:13 At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

The word shining means, to flash and blaze, to flash all around, an envelope of light:

HERE’S THE POINT — Becoming a Christian is not joining a club or becoming a member of a group — it is a matter of the risen Jesus pursuing a man or a woman and then shining into their hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God!

Luke tells us that Saul fell to the earth. There are those who think that if they were to see Jesus that they would stand up and give Him a piece of their mind. There are those who actually believe that they are great and Jesus is nothing. Bumper sticker of an evolutionist – “My god can kick your God’s …” Here we see arrogant Saul on his face before the presence of Jesus.

Luke tells us that Saul Heard a voice.

QUOTE: Matthew Henry — “God’s manifestations of Himself were never shown without words, for He magnifies His Word above His Name, and what was seen was always designed to make way for what was said.”

No voice but the voice of Jesus can reach the heart of man and convert him! No word but the Word of God can reach the heart of man and convert him.

When we teach and preach to you the Word of God, you are hearing from God, not man.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

If you are a Christian today it is because GOD spoke to YOU.

CLOSE

DON’T MISS HOW BIG AND AMAZING OUR GOD IS. He has His plans and His purposes — and they are infinitely beyond anything we could ever imagine. As we look at His incredible plans and purposes; as we see how He advanced His Story for His glory by way of the greatest hater of Jesus; as we see how He would pursue and save the greatest hater of Jesus to be His instrument to reach the non-Jewish world, we should respond in worship! We should more than ever find ourselves resting in and trusting in His Sovereignty

DON’T MISS HOW BIG AND AMAZING OUR GOD IS. He has His people — some of them are the very ones we think least likely to become on of His own — in fact they might even be the greatest nemesis of the Gospel at this moment. (Imagine a George Soros getting saved!) The Hebrew of the Hebrews would become the apostle to the Gentiles; the persecutor would become a preacher; the legalistic Pharisee would become the great proclaimer of the grace of God.

God had his man all along!

Galatians 1:15-16 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, ¹⁶was pleased to reveal his Son tome, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles,

Saul was made for God’s story and God’s glory. Saul was fearfully and wonderfully made — possessing all of the vision, courage, zeal and commitment that would be needed to bring the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the world. Until Acts 9 everything that made him the perfect instrument for bringing the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the world had been perverted by sin and was being used against the cause of the Gospel and against the name of Jesus. GRACE redeemed all of those talents and traits and used them for God’s story and God’s glory! GRACE TRANSFORMS!

1 Corinthians 15:10-11 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

LISTEN — If you think you are beyond saving. Jesus saved Saul of Tarsus. If Jesus saved  “the chief of sinners,” He can and will save anybody!  It is possible that there might be with us this morning those who resent Jesus — just as Saul did. You might think Jesus hates you. But let me assure you that the One who saved Saul of Tarsus is looking down on you with the same compassion as He did Saul. He has pursued you to this very building this morning. He knows every ounce of your bitterness — your opposition and hatred of the Gospel and those who proclaim it. But you’re hatred of Jesus cannot change His love for you.

Romans 5:20 But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

2 CHRONICLES 34

Chapter 33 ended with

²⁰So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house,

Manasseh, the wickedest king in the history of the nation, became the most incredible testimony to the longsuffering of God, the mercy of God and grace of God.

and Amon his son reigned in his place. ²¹Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. ²²And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that Manasseh his father had made, and served them. ²³And he did not humble himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more. ²⁴And his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his house. ²⁵But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

In Chapter 34 we are introduced to Josiah — the grandson of

¹Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

He comes not only on the scene of Israel’s history at the age of 8 — he comes to the throne of Judah at the age of 8. When he comes to the throne it is the darkest hour of the history of the Nation of Israel. The 10 northern tribes have already been judged for their relentless idolatry and have been carried away by the Assyrians. There is a shift in geopolitical power as the Babylonian Empire becomes the world dominating empire. Josiah will die in battle against Pharaoh Neco in 609 BC. Four years after that Nebuchadnezzar will surround Jerusalem and the first deportation will take place.  So we’re winding down to the end of the nation. 

Try to imagine if your 8 old got the steering wheel of a nation! God held this boy up in the darkest hour in the history of the nation in such a radical way that this one boy grew into a young man who became a beacon — a shining light — who had a dramatic effect on the nation.

I believe that the Lord sets Josiah before us to challenge each of us — to say to each of us as individuals that our life matters! Metro — ONE life matters. ONE life can change the course of your world (your neighborhood, your city, where you work, where you go to school, where you shop and where you just hang out) — maybe the course of a nation.

I’m not talking about sitting down with a piece of paper and charting out a plan or creating a flow chart with goals or simply trying to figure out logically how that would happen. I’m talking about living as though God really did do the things we read in the Bible and that God still desires to do such things. I mean actually living as though God can use ONE life — YOUR life!

Look at this AMAZING HISTORY of God using ONE life to change the world.

How many of you know who Edward Kimball is? He lived over a hundred years ago. He was a Sunday school teacher in Boston, where a young teenager became part of his class. That teenager was a country boy. He didn’t know anything about city life. He didn’t know anything about church life. But he came to Kimball’s Sunday school class. When the teen first came to his class, Edward Kimball handed him a Bible. When Mr. Kimball said, “Turn to the Gospel of John,” the country boy didn’t know how to find the Gospel of John. Edward Kimball recognized what was happening, and while the other boys were snickering, he opened the Bible to the Gospel of John and handed it back. When he asked the boys to read, the country boy fumbled as he read. Kimball worked with him, and after some months he went down to the store where the boy was working and went into the back room where he was stacking boxes Right there in the stock room he led Dwight to Jesus Christ. That was the beginning of the ministry of Dwight L. Moody, the greatest evangelist on this continent of the 19th. But it goes further than THAT! Kimball led a Boston shoe clerk to Christ whose name was Dwight L. Moody. Moody traveled to England to do evangelism. He was invited to speak at small church in pastored by Fredrick B. Meyer. In his sermon Moody told the story of a Chicago Sunday School teacher he knew personally who went to every student in his class and won every student in his Sunday School class to Christ. 

The message changed F.B Meyer’s life and ministry. Over the years Meyer came to America several times to preach. Once in Northfield, Massachusetts, a confused young preacher sitting in the back row heard Meyer say, if you are not willing to give everything to God are you willing to be made willing?  That remark led J. Wilbur Chapman to accept the call of God on his life.  Chapman went on to become one of the most effective evangelists of his time.  A volunteer by the name of Billy Sunday helped set up Chapman’s crusades and learned to preach by watching him.  Sunday eventually took over Chapman’s ministry and became one of the most effective evangelists of the 20^th Century.  In the great arenas of the nation Billy Sunday’s preaching turned thousands to Christ.  Inspired by a 1924 Billy Sunday crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, a committee of Christians committed themselves to reaching that city for Christ.  They invited a man named Mordecai Ham to hold a series of evangelistic meetings in 1932.  A tall, skinny 16-year old sat in the huge crowd one evening absolutely riveted by the message. This 16 year old boy came back night after night until one night he finally went forward and gave his life to Christ.  That teenager’s name was Billy Graham — that ONE man has communicated the Gospel of Jesus Christ to more people than anyone else in the history of the world. 

DON’T MISS THIS — This sequence of events started with ONE nobody named Kimble — who was living on mission in his world. In his world there was one young man that he reached out to — visited him at the shoe store he worked at. ONE man, living on mission in his world, changed the world.  Millions upon millions have been affected by his decision to go to the shoe store and millions more will continue to feel the impact of that decision. 

Can anything like that happen today?  If it can’t — we might as well go home.  Quite honestly, I’m done with any kind of church or “ministry” that is going to end up being a collection of people nodding their heads and going through the motions of “church.” It’s an embarrassment to God to have everything we have and not live — down to the individual man and individual woman — as though One life matters — and not want to be that ONE life. 

To get a sense of just HOW radical God worked in the life of Josiah think about this — Josiah is eight years old when he begins to reign. Amon is 24 when he dies. That means that Josiah was born when Amon was 16; which means that Josiah was conceived when Amon was 15 years old. Josiah was raised by a godless 16-year old dad, who at the age of 22 became king and did everything evil he could possibly do.  On top of that — it’s beyond my imagination to comprehend what it was like for Josiah to have his dad murdered by his own servants in his own house.

DON’T MISS THIS — At the age of 8 eight Josiah had learned to love what was right in the eyes of the Lord! I have to believe it was because of the influence of his grandfather Manasseh who sinned more than any other king before him — but in a Babylonian dungeon was greatly humbled and repented and cried out to God — and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God (2 Chronicles 33:13). I believe that God used ONE greatly humbled, broken man (ONE grandpa) to speak into the life of a boy who would influence a nation! I believe that with great brokenness and humility Manasseh took his young grandson and instructed him about the amazing grace of God.

²And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father;

There’s God’s standard for the kings of Israel. Not a perfect man but a man whose heart was after the Lord’s heart.

and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

The Bible says that the Christian is on a long distance journey towards a glorious forever in the presence of God.

Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

There are some who greatly misunderstand the nature of this race — the nature of this journey. It is not about running the race to win heaven. It is not about those who finish being those who get to enter heaven. This long distance journey has to do with those who by faith in Jesus ARE going to be in heaven.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

It is faith in Jesus that has placed them in the race — placed them on the journey.

Jesus said that it’s a narrow road that we run on. In fact, the very entrance to this narrow road is narrow.

Matthew 7:13-14 KJV Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: ¹⁴Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

It’s a narrow gate because Jesus is the only way in.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Luke 9:23And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

The road is narrow because it is hemmed in by His will — it is all about His Kingdom Come and His Will Be Done! He is the Lord and He gives the direction.

QUOTE: Timothy Keller — Jesus is Lord, not my personal consciousness. At some point, the idea that “it is true if and only if it works for me” must be challenged.

This narrow road is an enigma to the unbelieving world because this narrow road is the road that leads to broadness — abundance — freedom.

Our little Kingdoms of One were all about MY Kingdom Come! They were lived by the mantra,“it is true if, and only if, it works for me.” That didn’t work out so well! Our little Kingdoms of One kept collapsing in on us — shrinking and choking the life out of us.

It’s an amazing road because it’s the Kings Road!

Psalm 23:3 He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

It’s an amazing road because we’re not alone on it — Jesus is with us every inch of the way.

Psalm 23:3 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

It’s on that road — on our journey towards heaven — that we get to personally know and experience Jesus; get to know more about His love and His grace, His truth and His compassion. It is where we learn of Him. It is where we grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. WE actually find REST in the JOURNEY.

QUOTE: Tim Chaddick — The Christian does not journey because they are restless, but because they have found rest in following Jesus

It’s an amazing road — but it’s not an easy road.

Acts 14:22 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, ²²strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. 

It’s an amazing road because ever inch of it; every bump, every delay — is intended by our redeemer God for our good!

Romans 8:28 NLTAnd we know that God causes everything to work togetherfor the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

It’s an amazing road because on it we are daily being conformed to the image of Jesus.

Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son

While we are traveling towards this destination, we are not only enjoying the presence of Jesus; getting to know Jesus; being conformed to the image of Jesus — we are also on mission with Jesus. He leads us to cross borders into people’s worlds where we people who are not on the way to heaven see us following Jesus humbly, living as men and women who know that they are the recipients of grace— who know that there isn’t a day we’ve been loved by Jesus with a love we deserved.

This road, this race, this journey is amazing because it has an ending that’s a beginning — it has a destination that never ends! The end of this road is eternity in the presence of the Lord, in a new heaven and a new earth where we will fully and perfectly enjoy God forever — and where God will fully and perfectly enjoy us forever.

This blew my mind last week in preparing for our study of the last chapter in the Book of Daniel.

Daniel 12:3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

In the Kingdom of God “we’ll shine like stars.”

Matthew 13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

Follow me here — When we see Jesus transfigured

Matthew 17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

When Paul sees Jesus on the road to Damascus

Acts 22:6; 9  “As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me….⁹Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

The Scriptures declare that when we at the end of our journey our bodies will be fashioned like unto His glorious body. 

Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

In that kingdom state you and I will shine — we will possess bodies that reflect the majestic glory of God — shinning like the stars of heaven. I think that this is what the body of Adam was like before the fall — before the light went out.

Take all of that to Revelation 21-22 and the description of the New Jerusalem — a city where the walls are made of jewels and the streets are made of gold — but that gold is clear as glass. EVERYTHING in that city is made to REFLECT and REFRACT light.  In that place there will be the innumerable company of saints — each one shining like the stars of heaven. And there is the throne of God and the lamb Himself in the middle of it all shining — it says, “brighter than the noon day sun.” IMAGINE what a scene it will be — glistening like a diamond in the heavens throughout eternity. His Kingdom is one of LIGHT and LIFE! Those in His Kingdom will spend eternity in HIS light. They will possess glorified bodies that will have the capacity to stand in the brilliance of His glory — which is the tangible expression of His perfect nature and attributes. Not just stand — but look upon His brilliance — fully appreciate Him in ALL of His majesty and respond to Him in worship

THAT is what we were made for! The destination of this road is actually the world that mankind so deeply longs for — a world marked by peace and love; justice and mercy; kindness and compassion — because the destination of this road is a new heaven and a new earth ruled by God.

THAT is why Paul says that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

THAT — is what has forever been at the heart of His relentless pursuit to redeem and reconcile fallen man to Himself.

THAT is why we preach the Gospel — we are a part of HIS mission to redeem and reconcile men and women to Himself.

John 12:46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

To “remain” in darkness means to live eternally separated eternally from God, who is light (1 John 1:5; Revelation 21:23) — in the outer darkness of hell (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30).

Every day, as we follow the Lord, as we are on our way to heaven, there are going to be tons of choices set before us to turn aside to the right hand or to the left — exit signs, if-you-would, deviations from following Jesus — interruptions in our progress in knowing Jesus and being on mission with Jesus.

Here’s the picture that comes to my mind — On those long stretches of road on Interstate 5 going towards Southern California or north to Oregon and Washington you see exit signs that have icons on them for gasoline, hotels, restaurants — sometimes the corporate logos of Starbucks, In-N-Out, MacDonald’s. Those are intended to give you a reason to get off the highway right at that point. If I’m on that stretch of Interstate 5 it’s because I’m on a journey with my family towards a destination: THE BEACH, WAHOOS Fish Tacos, RUBY’S DINER — a BEACH CHAIR in the sand, SALT water and SALT air, on shore breezes at 3:00 in the after noon — thank Jesus and repeat again the next day for as many days as possible. It’s not a short trip. It’s not an easy trip (up at 3:30am — some long stretches of bumpy road with a full bladder). I do not want any detours, any delays. But all along the way there are those signs that tell me that I really should get off the road right there — I really need to delay the journey — because I deserve a rest; I need a double double, mustard only. But I only exit when it is right and serves the purpose of the completing the journey. The same thing happens on the return journey. Same signs — same icons. I don’t want to stop — I just want to GET HOME! 

DON’T MISS THIS — Though your adversary the devil posts tons of those exit signs and works without ceasing to get you to turn aside to the hand or to the left — convince you to take a self serving off ramp — he can never rob you of your salvation — nor can he cause you to lose your salvation.

John 10:29 “And no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand, because he is stronger than all.”

The issue is this — salvation is not mine. Jonah says (Jonah 2:9) that salvation belongs to the Lord. If salvation is a gift, I didn’t earn it. How can I lose what I have not earned? If it’s eternal, how can it end? And in addition to all of that — who’s going to overwhelm God? Who’s going to steal me and snatch me out of the hand of my Father? The question is not “can you lose your salvation?” The question is “can God be overpowered, and can someone steal you from him?” The bottom line issue is this — “can God fail?” In that light — I’m secure because God can never fail!

We have been redeemed and rescued from this fallen world that is organizing itself without God and against God. God has placed us into His Kingdom — by the grace of God we are now His collection of redeemed and reconciled rebels. We are HIS purchased possession!

Having said that — It is no small thing when a Christian turns aside to the hand or to the left because it is the strategy of our adversary the devil to get us off the road that most expresses Thy Kingdom Come and Thy Will Be Done. God forever saved us from our doomed little Kingdoms of One ­so that our lives individually and corporately would be the expression of His Kingdom and His Will. We too often think that turning aside to the hand or to the left looks like a car failing to navigate a turn and flying over the embankment and rolling and bursting into flames. It almost always never looks like that — it almost always doesn’t even look like an exit. It almost always looks more like getting caught in a lane that leads to another freeway going in a different direction. In our Christian life we can turn aside to the right hand or to the left by something as subtle as  compartmentalizing our faith.

QUOTE: J.C. Ryle — “The Gospel was not meant merely to reside in our intellect, memories, and tongues, but to be seen in our lives.”

We can actually begin to think that right thinking about the Gospel = Gospel living. And we conclude that since we think right about the Gospel we are therefore living the Gospel.  WRONG — Gospel living means surrendering our life to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

It is no small thing when a Christian turns aside to the hand or to the left because it is the strategy of our adversary the devil to distract us from or mission, or delay us being on mission with Jesus. We know that Jesus crossed borders to reach lives with His redeeming love those who were thought by most to be beyond the reach of God’s love. We also know that we are following Jesus on His mission — but as we’re on this amazing road with Jesus we see an exit sign that has a little “career” icon and a “wife/husband” icon. Somebody else is going to have to cross borders into culture and into other people’s worlds because right now you just have to get off at this exit — cause if you don’t you’ll never have a career and never get married.

The tragedy is that Jesus has His best waiting for you back on the freeway where you are simply loving Jesus, following Jesus, living on mission, in culture — Loving fallen men and women, serving fallen men and women, serving and loving other redeemed and reconciled rebels. You can go to church 2-3 times a week; you can be sitting here tonight and all the while you’ve turned aside to the right hand or to the left because you’ve lost sight of the fact that as a redeemed, reconciled rebel you’ve been chosen and graced to live for something vastly bigger than you. It’s so big and so amazing that eye hasn’t seen, ear hasn’t heard, it hasn’t even entered into the heart of man what things God has prepared for them that love him.

QUOTE: Paul Tripp — You’re wasting your time figuring out your future. Your Lord has already figured it out and he simply calls you to trust and obey.

It is no small thing when a Christian turns aside to the hand or to the left because it is the strategy of our adversary the devil to make you think that you need to be in control — that your plan for plan is actually better than the plan of God, who so loved you that He sent His Son to die for your sins — when in reality you used to be in control; and how did that work out for you?

QUOTE: Paul Tripp — You don’t have to have control because your Savior rules over all things for your sake and his glory.

It is no small thing when a Christian turns aside to the hand or to the left because it is the strategy of our adversary the devil to make you think that your hope and your identity can only be found in his proposed off ramp rather than Jesus Himself. If you take the exit you don’t lose your salvation — you just find your hopes crashed. And all the while you’ve turned aside to the right hand or to the left you’ve been kept from being a part of the most important work in the universe for the most important person in the universe.

A Mother’s Faith — A Mother’s Hero

Matthew 15:21-28

²¹And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

It’s less than a year before the crucifixion of Jesus. They leave the borders of Israel and go up into Tyre and Sidon (Lebanon of today) — a region populated with non-Jewish people (gentiles).

A COUPLE OF THINGS FOR US TO NOTE HERE

FIRST — Jesus is God who came into human flesh. Jesus is God on mission in a fallen world. He came into culture — specifically the culture of 1^st century Israel. The orthodox Jews believed that the non-Jewish world was generally outside of the reach of God’s love. But the God of Israel has come into human flesh and we see Him leaving the borders of Israel — crossing over borders — to express His redeeming love to someone considered to be outside of the sphere of God’s love.

HERE’S THE PICTURE — God wants us to think outside of the boundaries and borders of our world — our worldview — and our comfort! God wants to send you and me; place you and me; in places that we never thought of so that we might reach people who need Jesus — people we might even think are beyond the reach of God’s love.

Aren’t you glad that Jesus crosses over borders? Aren’t you glad that Jesus isn’t limited to just one kind of person or one group of people? I wouldn’t be here today if Jesus limited His saving grace only to the moral church-goer!

Jesus is STILL into crossing borders. Christians are those who follow Jesus in this world, on His mission! Let’s follow Him there to see what borders of personal comfort he might want us to cross; what

social/economic borders He might want us to cross; what cultural borders he might want us to cross. In the geographical world you need passports and sometimes visas to cross borders into other countries. In a manner of speaking people are checking your passports — to see if you have the right to step into their world; their culture. As we look at the life of Jesus we see that He stepped into any and every part of culture. He built friendships with lost men and women. He ate food with them. He loved on fallen man. He spoke truth to fallen man. He served fallen man. Then He sacrificially laid down His life for their redemption. Your passport, your visa, into culture is a life that looks like Jesus. Build friendships with lost men and women. Eat food with them. Love on them. They are living in a world where people love things and use people to get them.

You earn the right to speak into their lives when they see that you love people and use things to express it! Speak the truth to them. Serve them. And though we could never be the redeeming sacrifice for their sins — we can live sacrificially, and love sacrificially so they can come to know the One gave Himself to redeem them. Lastly, let’s follow Jesus to see what geographical borders He would have us cross.

NOW WE COME TO THE MOTHER

²²And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”

Mark’s account gives us an important bit of information.

Mark 7:24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.

From other accounts we know that Jesus could be hidden.

John 8:59 ⁵⁹So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

BUT - On this day He would not hide Himself. Why? There was a mom in agony and in need; a mom who was exercising genuine faith in Jesus. To such hearts Jesus will not and can not be hidden!                                                             

DON’T MISS THIS (especially moms who can identify with this mom who is desperate in the face of her child’s condition). Jesus will “hide” Himself from Intellectual Pride and Opposition. But He will never hide himself from a broken — needy — believing heart!

Mark 7:25 tells us WHY she came to Jesus. He says that she had heard of him.

HERE’S THE LESSON — TELL people about Jesus. Though they might not respond on first hearing of Him, WHEN they are BROKEN and NEEDY — they will KNOW where to run because with your words and your life you have been pointing them to Jesus!

This mom was desperate. Now she’s heard that He’s crossed the border — and the fact that Jesus would cross the border into her gentile world made her think, “Surely He must be gracious to come into Gentile territory.” As you cross borders into people’s worlds and live as recipients of grace — that desperate mom (or dad or child or co-worker or classmate) will think “Surely He must be gracious because He crossed the border and stepped into the life of this person who now has crossed the border into my life.”

²²And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”

Matthew — who is writing to a Jewish audience — gives us an interesting detail. This gentile woman said,“Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David. This gentile woman recognized that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel! I believe that Matthew records this as a deliberate jab at the religious establishment of Israel! Matthew was a Levite. He was burned out on the hypocrisy of the religious system; so burned out that he opted out of his privilege of entering the priesthood of Israel and chose the despised profession of tax collector in Israel.

Matthew makes it a point to record this event to point out how spiritually blind the leaders of organized religion in Israel were.

In essence he is saying — You know, you guys are supposed to be the spiritually elite in Israel — but here is this Gentile woman and she knows something about Jesus that you DON’T know — and you REFUSE to know. This woman is not only a Gentile — but she’s living in the area of Syria, no less (the long time nemesis of Israel); yet she recognizes what you and the most religious people in Israel haven’t — that Jesus is the Messiah.

Paul Trip and I were having a conversation about places like Brooklyn and Philadelphia and he said that unbelievers are very distrustful of organized religion. They are looking for something genuine and personal — and though they won’t acknowledge organized religion they recognize Jesus when the most churched person can’t. I’ve seen that to be true time and again.

²²And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”

WE MUST BEAR IN MIND the moral/spiritual climate that Jesus walked into — and this woman lived in. The Syro-Phoenicians were involved in idolatry. Idolatry that was not only demonic — but almost always involved gross sexually immorality. The Satanic forces behind this mom’s idolatry no doubt placed her young daughter in the position of being actually possessed with a demon.

DON’T MISS THIS MOMS — God often uses GREAT NEED to drive us to Jesus. In speaking of her daughter she uses the term - ‘my little daughter.’ I still think of my married 32 year old daughter as “my little girl”.  There is such TENDERNESS here — such PATHOS. This mom is begging Jesus. The original language tells us she was incessantly begging Jesus — which makes the response of Jesus STRIKING!

A BIT OF A PRE-QUEL here –

His 1st response was no response! Here’s the Living Word of God, not answering a word! His 2nd Response still was not directed to her. It was directed to His Disciples! It isn’t until His 3rd response that He finally speaks to her — but it sounds demeaning!

²³But he did not answer her a word.

FIRST — His Silence is not a refusal. Jesus ALWAYS had a definite reason and purpose behind every action and every word — or lack thereof!

SECOND — One of the greatest CHALLENGES that our faith must overcome is the SILENCE of God. When we are in trouble and in need, and it seems as though heaven is shut up to us and things are only getting worse, it is that SILENCE of God that is one of the most DIFFICULT CHALLENGES to overcome. Moms — you come to Jesus for your child, your husband, your neighbor — and you don’t hear anything from the Lord. Maybe you can relate to the psalmist when he said –

(Psa 6:3 NLT)  I am sick at heart. How long, O LORD, until you restore me?

(Psa 89:46 NLT)  O LORD, how long will this go on? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your anger burn like fire?

Satan loves to use God’s silence as an opportunity to condemn us.

Satan tries to convince us that God SHOULDN’T listen to us — that we don’t DESERVE to even ask of God, let alone receive an answer.

This is HUGE — This mom didn’t come because she was QUALIFIED (because she was of Jewish pedigree and thus privileged to the covenant promises of God). She didn’t come to Jesus on the basis of her merit. She didn’t come and say - “Lord, give me what I deserve.” She came seeking MERCY.

THIRD — It’s important that we notice what she noticed. She noticed that Jesus did NOT say “No”. He had only said that she was outside of the covenant privileges of Israel. It is interesting that this woman saw hope in the silence of Jesus.She had more faith in the silence of Jesus than we often have in the promises of Jesus.

We have awesome promises concerning prayer. Yet we often stumble at these promises of God while this woman persisted in the face of the silence of Jesus, and every other thing that challenged her faith in Christ. Moms – If your faith is being challenged today,

Remember that Jesus wants to bring you to the same place he brought this mom — the place of faith and worship — the place of experiencing His infinite mercy and compassion and power.

²³But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us (keeps yelling about it).” ²⁴He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ²⁵But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”

HER response to His NO response — She comes and WORSHIPS Jesus! The religious leaders of Israel REJECTED Jesus as Messiah. The scribes and the Pharisees came to condemn and criticize. But this gentile mom — in the face of the silence of Jesus — WORSHIPS Jesus!!

In response to her worship Jesus RESPONDS -

²⁶And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

This seems really harsh! It would seem that Jesus is calling this mom and her daughter “dogs.” The answers to our Bible difficulties are quite often resolved by looking at the original language and/or by way insights into the historical and cultural background.

The apparent harshness of Jesus is explained away when understood in the light of the historical/cultural context and linguistic clarity. The Jews didn’t (and still don’t) have curse words like we do (they borrow curse words from us). In the day of Jesus there was the prevailing view that gentiles were beyond the reach of God’s love and that gentiles only served the purpose of fueling the fires of hell. So in that day (and in some Jewish circles today) they would use the term gentile as an insult.

1 Samuel 17:26 For who is this uncircumcised Philistine

If they wanted to really insult you they would call you a dog.

2 Samuel 16:9 Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.”

If they really, really, wanted to insult you they would call you a gentile dog. THAT insulting word dog meant the large scavenger dog in the streets. They didn’t keep them as pets. So there’s some cultural history.

But the language Jesus used is important. The word that Jesus uses here is a different word. It is the word that means “little puppies.”

It was a reference to the puppies that lived in the house.

Because they didn’t have napkins in that day, when the family was done eating they would wipe their hands on the leftover bread.

And they would throw that bread on the floor for the house pet.  But they would never think of giving that last little crust to the puppies if there wasn’t enough food for the children in the house to eat.

Jesus isn’t thinking of the woman (and Gentiles) as scavenger dogs - He’s thinking of them as puppies! Jesus is basically saying –

“I want to feed the house of Israel — You’ll get yours but  Let the children (of Israel) first be filled

And she was good with that! NOTICE the FINAL RESPONSE of this woman following the statement that Jesus has just made!

²⁷She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

I WONDER what she was seeing in His face and in His eyes?

These are things that aren’t recorded here.As indifferent as Jesus appears to be — there must have no doubt been a look in the eyes of Jesus that said something else – because she didn’t go away. She HAD to have seen something in His eyes as He was dealing with her that CAUSED her to RESPOND with boldness and confidence and hope — “Alright I’ll take the crumbs.” “Lord, just the leftovers will do for me.” “I’ll just take what falls on the floor.” 

FIRST — I believe that every Authentic Christian has, with the eye of faith, seen that look. The Bible tells us HOW it is that we came to TRUST our hearts and lives to Jesus

2 Corinthians 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

For most of us there was no VISIBLE view of the FACE of Jesus when the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shined in our hearts — but I believe that in a very real way, in a very real spiritual way, every follower of Jesus has seen that same look in the FACE of Jesus Christ that this desperate mom saw.

SECOND — Moms, when you are desperate for your children, and you are puzzled by the silence of Jesus; puzzled by an answer the Lord has given to you — dive into the Word and look into the face of Jesus. See the perfect love and mercy of Jesus in the Gospels. Look at Jesus moved with compassion in the Gospels — and remember that Jesus has not changed! He is the same yesterday today and forever.

AND THE RESPONSE OF JESUS to her response

²⁸Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith!

Jesus is amazed at her faith! What made the faith of this mom so great? She persisted in asking and trusting when everything seemed against her — Race, Gender, the Disciples; even the response of Jesus seemed to be against her. Yet ALL of these things made her persist in asking!

By the way, there is only ONE other time and ONE other person in the Gospels where Jesus notes the greatness of faith — It was the faith exercised by another non-Jewish person — a Roman centurion. 

INTERESTING – Both were Gentiles. And both miracles were done at a distance. What an awesome picture of the saving power of the Gospel coming to those who appeared the farthest from being saved.

I bet He smiled when He looked at her and said —

²⁸…. Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Mark 7:30 KJV And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

I think she got more than the crumbs, don’t you?

Mark 7:25tells us that when she came to Jesus she fell at His feet! 

QUOTE: “The Demon drove her to Jesus, so she parked at His feet!”

She believed Him and went. She walks off the pages of Scripture to find the demon gone and her daughter sleeping and at rest. How long since she had seen that? We will see this mom in heaven.

CLOSING

1.) This mom is a great EXAMPLE of what it looks like to COME to Jesus. Somewhere, sometime, by someone, this desperate mom HEARD about Jesus. We know from Matthew that the news of Jesus had blazed out from Galilee all the way to Syria and Lebanon. This desperate mom saw someone whose life had been radically touched and transformed by Jesus. Maybe another desperate mom was among those who were coming to Jesus and literally throwing at the feet of Jesus those who were sick and possessed with demons. This desperate mom heard that person tell them about the mercy, compassion, truth and love of Jesus.

REMEMBER – Jesus crossed borders to MEET this mom in her desperation! When she comes to Jesus she doesn’t question Him. She makes NO demands — nothing that even resembles “But I deserve.” There is no option — no plan “B” for her desperation!

She just keeps PRESSING in — just KEEPS asking!

QUOTE: Spurgeon – “When the door is shut in her face, she knocks at it, and when Christ calls her “Dog”, she only picks up what Christ has said, as a good dog will pick up his master’s stick, and bring it right to his feet.”

Her plea struck, not a chord, but the chord in the heart of Jesus.

She simply came as a sinner needing help! “Lord, Help Me!”

This was her “9-1-1”!

2.) The importance of coming to Jesus for our kids.

Mom (and dad) are we as desperate as this mom to bring our kids to Christ? We need to be. I give my kids all kinds of things. But there isn’t anything greater that I can give them than to be found coming to Jesus for them.  

If you have a teenager you may have often wondered “What in the world has gotten in to them?” “What in the world are they thinking?”

“What has possessed them?” Perhaps they have become defiant and rebellious towards your authority. Perhaps you feel that YOU are at YOUR wit’s end. This woman was in that state. She had no doubt gone to the various pagan religious practitioners to deal with the problem, but her daughter was none the better. She KNEW that Jesus was the ONLY hope for her daughter. She had such an intense love for her daughter that she would NOT be turned away, that she would NOT take “No” for an answer. Though Jesus was silent when she cried out, she wasn’t discouraged; She didn’t stop.

Jesus IS the same, yesterday, today and forever!Do like this mom.

Go to Jesus for them! He’s the same, having mercy on us everyday.

DON’T MISS THIS MOMS — Jesus was drawing her into an intimate relationship with Himself — a relationship based upon faith.

Jesus was incredibly deliberate and intentional — He was drawing her out into an expression of faith that resulted in her worshipping Him.

Her faith in Jesus not only opened the door for her daughter’s healing — it opened the door for the work of the Lord in that whole area! (Matthew 15:29-30). THAT is the way it is in our own lives also.

MOMS — The faith Jesus works into your lives is a witness to your children (they see that the Christian life is all about Jesus — all about trusting Jesus.)

2 Timothy 1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

MOMS (and dads) — THAT is how we LIVE on mission, in culture.

Not by being preachy or self-righteous — but by humbly living by faith in Jesus. And as you LIVE that way you get traveling papers into the lives of those in your world. And when you cross borders into people’s worlds they see that JESUS IS THE REAL HERO in your life.

YOU SEE — the REAL HERO in all of this is not the mom. THE HERO is Jesus. He is the one who crossed the border to meet her.

He is the one who drew her into faith. He is the one who in an act of infinite compassion exercised His divine power and saved this mom’s daughter.

A word of warning — Even as men and women who have been redeemed from our Kingdoms of One — it is still easy for us to want to replace our King with “things.” We can even replace Jesus with “Christian Principles” that we find in the Bible.

DON’T MISS THIS — The ONLY hope that any “Biblical Principle” can offer us rests on, and is found in, a person — that person is Jesus!  We must never forget that the Bible is not the spiritual version of the Physicians Desk Reference — it is not an encyclopedia for “Christian Self-Help.” The Bible is the story of God’s plan to rescue helpless, fallen, humanity. It’s the story of how God rescues men and women from their Kingdom of One and places them into His Kingdom where Jesus rules and Hope is real — hope is alive!

Jesus came from heaven because what was wrong with us could not be fixed any other way. HE IS THE ONLY ANSWER. HE IS THE ONLY HERO. If our lives and our message offer anything less than that it is less than good news. The way we live and the message we proclaim should point the world around us to Jesus who is the Redeemer — who is Hope.

2 CHRONICLES 33:3-25

¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ²And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

Last week we looked at the opening verses of 2 Chronicles 33 where we were introduced to a man named Manasseh — the son of king Hezekiah. Apart from king David, Hezekiah was the most godly king in the history of Israel. Hezekiah ruled in Judah for 29 years. Manasseh will prove to be the most wicked king that the southern kingdom of Judah would ever see. And to make things even worse, this most wicked king would sit on the throne longer than any other king of Judah — 55 years!

A Big take away from last week was the fact that Manasseh would be the vehicle by which God would reveal the idolatry that was residing deep in the hearts of the citizens of Judah. Without a doubt Manasseh rebelled against God — but his wickedness and idolatry provided the spiritual and moral environment that brought out the idolatry and wickedness that was resident in the hearts of the people of Judah. Have you ever seen or heard of someone drink, or under the influence of some substance say some really nasty things? Most people say, “That was just the alcohol speaking.” No! The Bible tells us that our actions and words flow from our heart. The alcohol just unlocked the gates. It depressed the higher functions of the brain. When you’re sober you have the capacity to filter what is really in your heart. When you’re drunk you say the stuff that you’ve been thinking all along — do things you’ve been wanting to do all along. Manasseh’s godlessness and idolatry provided the green light for most of the population of Judah to openly live for idols. So it was during his rule that we discover how far the hearts of Judah had drifted from God.

The large part of our study last dealt with the name, Manasseh.  The name Manasseh means “forgetting” — and it took on a horrible and deadly meaning during his rule in Judah. During his rule the people had forgotten what they should remember! They had forgotten the redeeming love and power of the God of Israel. But they didn’t forget it like amnesia — or post head trauma. We learned that this Hebrew carries the sense of laying something aside.

Another big take away for us was that we don’t simply “forget” about God, like we forget a computer password or where we put our car keys. After we trust Him to save us we set Him aside, and neglect Him by making Him an addendum to our lives. We set Jesus aside for some good thing He has blessed us with — and over time that good thing becomes a god (little “g”) thing! And there He is forgotten!

The amazing thing in all of it is that we forget — we lay aside — we neglect God — who NEVER forgets us, NEVER neglects us, NEVER sets us aside. And when we have pushed Him out of our lives we find Him standing at the door of our hearts knocking, desiring us to open our lives to Him, allow Him to be at the very center of our being, and there enjoy intimate fellowship with Him.

We closed by saying that as we walk through the reign of Manasseh, and see the idolatry that was in the hearts of the people come into the open — we should look at what happens to a nation that forgets God, neglects God; sets God aside and ultimately turns away from God.  We can make that an overlay and put it on our present history here as a nation.

We pick up in Verse 3

³For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

Remember — this man’s dad was passionate to see the God of Israel worshipped. He made it his priority as king to restore the House of the Lord for worship, restore the vessels used for worship, rededicate those serving in the House of the Lord offering worship to the Lord. And beyond promoting the true and legitimate worship of God he led the way in tearing down idols.

FIRST — Repentance, reform, and revival are not permanent standing conditions. These things can change in the lifetime of an individual. How many of you with us tonight know someone whose life was once blazing for Jesus — but now they have forgotten, neglected and laid Jesus aside? Maybe some of you with us tonight ARE that person! Repentance, reform, and revival are not trans-generational. They don’t automatically carry over to the next generation! What is accomplished at one time can be opposed and turned back at another time.

REMEMBER — Satan is relentless in his opposition to the worship of the True and Living God. He makes war against the worship of God in the hearts and minds of the individual, and against every successive generation. Though the worship of God flourishes in a generation, he will not give up the fight against the next generation. MONDAY NIGHTS @ METRO are so crucial to every individual as a place where the worship of God is promoted and the Word of God is proclaimed so that each of us might grow in grace and in the knowledge of our great redeemer and savior! MONDAY NIGHTS @ METRO are crucial for the next generation — those of you between the ages of 18-30; 18-40. This isn’t about hip or cool or fun. By the grace of God they have been and still are going to be be real, raw, vertical and above all — all about Jesus. Again — look at your peers. How many are living complacent, compromised and spiritually apathetic lives — they are merely consumers in a church culture? I’m not saying that as judge and jury. I’m not talking about fashion or tattoos or piercing. I’m just asking the question. How many of them build their Christian life on hip, cool and fun?  

SECOND — Hezekiah has passed from the scene — but I believe this speaks very powerfully to the pain and heartbreak of those parents who have a child, or children, who are determined to tear down everything that their parents have built, and to build everything that their parents have torn down.  If we have given ourselves to the cause of Christ, if we have lived our lives for His Story and His glory it is utterly heartbreaking to see a generation follows us, who we love, who we raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord to say, I want nothing to do with this Jesus that my parents lived for, gave their lives to. Not only will I not build my life on Jesus — I will tear down anything that looks like that and build my own Kingdom of One.

³ …..he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

Asherah — Essentially pornographic images carved on poles in the worship of the pagan goddess Astarte. In 1 Kings 16 we are told that Ahab, who did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him, made an Asherah. Today the pornography isn’t carved — it’s just pumped into our houses via satellite, cable and the internet.

worshiped all the host of heaven and served them  — Manasseh was worshipping the creature more than the creator.

True worship is living for and to the glory of God, the Creator. We were created to worship God and to enjoy and steward creation to the glory of God and for the glory of God. At its core — idolatry is the inversion and perversion of true worship — it is putting something created in the place of God the creator. Idolatry is when a created thing is glorified; when a created thing becomes the source of our identity and our joy, the object of our affection.

HERE’S THE DEAL — When you chose to not worship the True and Living God you will worship someone or something else.

QUOTE: Timothy Keller — Since we were made to worship, we cannot eliminate God without creating God-substitutes.

Outside of God, the Creator — what’s left to worship? Only things created!

Romans 1:25 they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

worshiped all the host of heaven — Two more thoughts on this.

1. Ahab was the wickedest king in the history of the Northern kingdom. He was so wicked that he imported a form of idolatry that not even Ahab practiced. Manasseh was trendy in his idolatry! He was on the cutting edge of wicked and idolatry!

QUOTE: Spurgeon — “But this Manasseh sought out for himself unusual and outlandish sins. Bad as Ahab was, he had not worshipped the host of heaven. That was an Assyrian worship, and this man must needs import from Assyria and Babylonia worship that was quite new.”

QUOTE: Payne — Manasseh’s worship of the “host of heaven” going as far back as the time of Moses (Deuteronomy 4:19; Acts 7:42), but such practices were a particular sin of Assyro-Babylonians, with their addiction to astrology.”

We don’t want to forget this when we finally see Judah taken away into captivity. To cure them of their idolatry God allowed them to spend 70 years in Idol Central — Babylon.

2. Worship implies that we submit to, and recognize the rule, the influence and authority of that which we worship. Worship implies making the object of your worship the object of your trust. Manasseh did not want to submit to, recognize the rule of, the influence and authority of the True and Living God. Instead he chose to be ruled by the Zodiac. He chose to order his life — not by the rule, the influence and authority of God, and the Word of God. He chose to be governed by the stars — looked to Astrology as his guide and authority.

At the core of worship is that which governs your Life! Who or what governs your life? THE LIE of Genesis 3 and Romans 1 is that God is not worthy of your trust and adoration. If you believe that lie you worship someone or something created. We’ve said this before — It’s an absolute truth that idols absolutely lie. Without fail idols always fail. Created things can never deliver what God the Creator alone can deliver. God has gone out of His way to reveal Himself as the One who alone is worthy of our worship — worthy of serving — worthy of trusting. The Creator God who possesses all wisdom and all power has the heart of a shepherd — a loving shepherd who laid down His life to save the sheep!

⁴And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.” ⁵And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord…..⁷And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever,

AGAIN — Remember Satan’s great battle against the worship of God the Creator. He is not only relentless in waging his war against the worship of God — but he is bold in his battle plans. He wanted to rob God of worship and establish the worship of created things in the one place dedicated for the worship of the true and living God.

The Temple Mount was the ultimate piece of real estate on the planet for him to take! God had set His Name on that city and that place. It was reserved for the worship of the One, True and Living God. There was to be but one altar in the temple court — and it was dedicated to the worship of the One True and Living God. Manasseh set up altars dedicated to various gods and reduced the Creator God to being just another “god” among many gods.

THAT is the lie of ONE-ism. Peter Jones — coined the terms ONE-ism and TWO-ism. ONE-ism says that God is creation and creation is God. ONE-ism is THE lie that Paul speaks of in Romans 1. There is no God — there’s just everything. There is no distinction between creator and creation. There is no God outside of creation who says, “That is wrong.” ONE-ism is what drives post-modernism. There is no truth and error. There is no darkness and light. There is no truth and lies. It is all about perspective and ideology and culture. Not only is there no one outside of creation to define right and wrong — There is no one outside of creation to save you! Salvation can only be found within creation — only within you. 

TWO-ism says that there is one God who created — and that He is separate from His creation. God is eternal — creation has a beginning. God is INDEPENDENT — Creation is DEPENDENT upon God. There are TWO – not one. THAT God has a NAME — Jesus?

God the Creator entered into HISTORY because He KNOWS we have exchanged THE truth for THE lie. Yet He loved us and He came to DIE in OUR place. That’s why we are passionate about worshipping Him. That’s why we are passionate about the Word of God, because it’s all about Him. That’s why we are passionate about you knowing Him!

A couple of other thoughts on Manasseh setting up these idols in the house of the Lord.

^1. Satan is still radically bold in his war against the worship of the True and Living God. He still tries to set up altars for the worship of idols within the house of the Lord — known in the New Testament as the church. He boldly works to set up within the local church altars to the idol of ministry where what one does becomes more important than Jesus; where what one does is not for Jesus but for pride and position. He boldly works to set up within the local church altars to the idol of self-gratification and consumerism where church becomes all about what I want and what I get.

^2. Satan is still radically bold in his war against the worship of the True and Living God by trying to set up altars for the worship of idols within the hearts of redeemed men and women — whose very bodies now are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

⁶ And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom,

Molech was the god of fertility and sensual pleasure. He was worshipped in every kind of sexual practice. The children conceived in the worship of this idol were sacrificed to Molech.

Lives are still being sacrificed on the altar of sexual pleasure. If you’re under 18 years old, about half of your generation never made it out of the womb.  At one point since Roe v Wade there were over 34 million abortions performed over a 20 year period of time. What a horrifying holocaust!

and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with wizards.

Omens — to hiss, to whisper….. specially used of the whispering of soothsayers…..  to whisper…. to practise enchantment, to use sorcery, i.q. Arab. قَنَحَّشَ. Lev. 19:26; Deu. 18:10; 2 Ki. 17:17; 21:6. Some understand this to mean divination by serpents;^[1]

Sorcery — [kashaph /kaw·shaf/] Six occurrences; AV translates as “sorcerers” three times, “witch” twice, and “witchcraft” once. 1 (Piel) to practice witchcraft or sorcery, use witchcraft. 1a sorcerer, sorceress (participle).^[2]

Let’s turn to the New Testament real fast —

Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. ⁸For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

When Paul warns against sorcery in Galatians 5:20 he uses (by inspiration of the Holy Spirit) the word pharmakeia. It means medication (“pharmacy”), that is, (by extension) magic (literal or figurative):—sorcery, witchcraft (Strongs Hebrew and Greek Dictionary).  The Holy Spirit inspired the very words of Scripture. He was very intentional because throughout history cultures have used drugs in their pagan religious rituals. The Bible is not naïve concerning spiritual realms of darkness and principalities and power in high places. Drugs open the human mind to that very real spiritual realm —that looks to destroy you.

There are those who defend the use of drugs by saying “It’s natural”! First of all, what isn’t? Are you going to get something from another dimension that is “un natural?” Lead is natural so feel free to shoot each other.  Uranium is natural so feel free to blow each other up. Of course, it’s natural — but ever since Genesis 3 sin is natural. 

He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁷And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, ⁸and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses.” ⁹Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

THAT IS A BLACK BACKGROUND. But it’s against the black background of man’s sin that we can actually understand what grace means!

¹⁰The Lord spoke to Manasseh

THAT is so radical. Manasseh did not deserve anything from God but judgment! This is an absolutely staggering demonstration of the grace God to a man who did everything in his power to reduce the living God to the status of any man made idol — served and worshipped created things and sacrificed his sons by fire to an idol — and yet God SPOKE to Manasseh! There were prophets in Jerusalem.  God spoke to Manasseh.  Isaiah and Nahum were prophesying during this time.

It tells us in 2 Kings 21:16 that Manasseh shed a lot of innocent blood in Jerusalem.  The Talmud (The most significant collection of the Jewish oral tradition interpreting the Torah) tells us that Manasseh had Isaiah sawed in half.  That’s what Isaiah got for remaining faithful to the Lord and for trying to encourage Manasseh. 

¹⁰The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they

Manasseh and the people

paid no attention. ¹¹Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.

The Assyrians were still in power. Babylon is still a providence of Assyria at this time.  The Babylonians would come to power in the not too distant future.  The Assyrians were famous for taking a big hook and putting it through the nose of their captives and tying a line to it. When somebody has a hook through your nose, they have no trouble leading you wherever they want to take you. They led him to Babylon, the origin of idols! You want idols, you got them. 

What follows is so utterly beyond our ability to understand — but it IS within the scope of experience in our hearts and lives! Look what the Holy Spirit writes about this man whose wickedness exceeded the wickedness of any before him! 

¹²And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

That would be the God that Hezekiah worshipped but he tried to de-god.

¹³He prayed to him,

How long is he there in that dungeon before he says I give? I don’t know.  When you’re being stubborn and rebellious and God puts a hook in your nose — how long does He have to wrestle with us before we say I give? How long do you and I have to be in the dungeon before we surrender?  God’s wrestling with us and He says, Do you give? And we say Uh-uh. He says, Do you give now?  And we say, Uh-uh.  It is mind blowing how stubborn we can be, but the longsuffering of God outlasts our greatest stubbornness because His longsuffering has no beginning an no ending. The patience of God is inextricably bound up in His eternal nature! He does because of what He is!

We don’t know long it was — but in that moment he wasn’t calling on Molech. He wasn’t calling on Baal. In his brokenness he humbled himself and cried out to the Lord.  THAT is what God wants to tell us here in 2 Chronices 33!

and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

QUESTION — In the worst of your days, in the your worst of your rebellion, and you seek to comeback to the Lord, how do you perceive the Lord? Looking at the life of Manasseh we would think that God would say — You think that after you built altars to idols in my house, and after you led the nation I trusted to your care into every form of idolatry and immorality, then slaughtered your children and shed the blood of countless righteous people in Jerusalem that you can waltz right back into my presence and ask for forgiveness?

That is exactly everything Manasseh had done. But Manasseh was broken.  He was humbled — genuinely humbled — the Holy Spirit said he was greatly humbled! He sought the Lord and he asked forgiveness.  Some of us here tonight have been wronged by somebody like this. Even the thought that God would possibly hear them and forgive them makes you mad at God. If you lived in Jerusalem and Manasseh had shed the innocent blood of someone you loved, and then years later you see Manasseh waltzing back into Jerusalem saying, The Lord forgave me — you would say, What a hypocrite. He had his Come to Jesus moment in a Babylonian prison cell and we’re all supposed to forget everything he did and actually believe he’s a man of God!

It is hard to comprehend the reach of God’s grace. That’s a problem for us. We intellectually know that grace means (God’s unmerited favor — God doing for us that which we don’t deserve or could never earn); but we somehow think that some people are more deserving of grace than others! There are men and women who, in our minds, are beyond the reach of grace — off the radar of His grace, if you would! That’s the way the first Christians looked at Saul of Tarsus — who would, by the grace of God, become Paul the apostle, the greatest advocate and defender of the Gospel, author of a huge portion of the New Testament, and would die for his faith in Christ.

HERE’S THE POINT — Before we give up on someone (husband, wife, child, co-worker, neighbor) — we have to remember that we were ALL Manassehs!

Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Colossians 1:19-22For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. ²¹And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²²he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

THAT is the WILLINGNESS of God to save sinners!

I wonder what you think when you’re in Babylon in some dungeon.  I wonder if in that dungeon he remembered the words of his dad’s old friend who said —

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Isaiah 43:25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

God doesn’t say that he’ll forget our sins.  He can’t forget because He is omniscient! He can’t learn because He doesn’t learn — He simply knows everything. He can’t forget.  But he can choose to not remember them in a judicial sense — choose to never bring those charges against us!

HOW AMAZING is God’s grace? SO amazing that he not only hears forgives Manasseh — but check this out: In Matthew’s genealogy God traces the line of the Messiah through Manasseh’s sinful veins.  Grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. Without the slightest bit of cliché, by the grace of God Manasseh finished well. 

I wonder if he thought he’d ever see Jerusalem again.  I wonder what it was like for him to come walking back in to the city of Jerusalem as an old man — with this big funky nose that was swollen and disfigured by that Assyrian hook had been shoved through it. I wonder what it was for him to walk back in the gates, for him to look around, and for his heart to be broken remembering all the places that he had shed the blood of innocent righteous people — where he had built altars to pagan gods. I wonder what it was like for him when he smelled the fires from the Hinnom Valley where he had burned his sons alive as sacrifices to Molech.

Maybe this evening you’re a Manasseh.  Maybe you’ve destroyed the lives of your children. Maybe you’ve ruined those that are around you — and you’ve lived with guilt for years. You sneak in and out of church and you think — Surely God could never forgive me!

But you know what was going to happen? Here’s what God did for the original Manasseh — God allowed this broken and forgiven man to sit in the cool afternoons with a young baby boy named Josiah — and instill into him the truths of God’s grace and mercy. That grandson would be the greatest reformer that Judah would ever see. We serve the living God who is a restorer and a redeemer and a reconciler.

That’s the God that we serve.  If he isn’t like that, there isn’t any sense for any of us to be here tonight because none of us deserve to be on His radar except the one that is labeled JUDGEMENT! Not only is He the God of the second chance, He’s the God of the third chance and the fourth chance and the fifth chance and the sixth chance…

There isn’t anybody here tonight who has sinned more than Manasseh.  There isn’t anybody here tonight that’s shed more blood than Manasseh.  There isn’t anybody here tonight that murdered more people than Manasseh.  There isn’t anybody here tonight that perverted more people than Manasseh.  There isn’t anybody here tonight with a more guilty conscience or with a greater mountain of sin they’re accountable for than Manasseh. 

CLOSE BY READING FROM PSALM 130

Psalm 130 

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!

²      O Lord, hear my voice!

      Let your ears be attentive

      to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

³      If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,

      O Lord, who could stand?

⁴      But with you there is forgiveness,

      that you may be feared.

⁵      I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

      and in his word I hope;

⁶      my soul waits for the Lord

      more than watchmen for the morning,

      more than watchmen for the morning.

⁷      O Israel, hope in the Lord!

      For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

      and with him is plentiful redemption.

⁸      And he will redeem Israel

      from all his iniquities.

A DIVINE APPOINTMENT

Acts 8:27-40

Last week we took a look at a man named Philip. His life was a tremendous study in the contrast between the Kingdom of One and Thy Kingdom Come. The Kingdom of One exists wherever and whenever men and women do not want to be a part of the Kingdom of God — where God is worshipped as Creator and ruler over all of His creation. The Kingdom of One exists whenever and wherever,  men and women decide to organize their life without their Creator God and against their Creator God.

That which the Bible refers to as “the world” is in reality the collection of Kingdoms of One. In contrast to the world there is that which the Bible calls “the Church” — the ekklēsia. The Church is actually the “collection” of redeemed, reconciled rebels — those men and women who repented of establishing their Kingdom of One over and against the Kingdom of God and the Will of God. Those “redeemed, reconciled rebels” become the very expression of the Kingdom of God, the expression of the rule and authority of God the Creator and Redeemer in the face of the world that is organizing itself without and against God.

The King commissioned His collection of reconciled rebels to be His ambassadors.

John 20:21 As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

He sent them into culture, on mission, to proclaim God’s offer of reconciliation and how that reconciliation is possible because of what Jesus did by way of His death and resurrection. In Acts 1 Jesus promised to give His ambassadors the power for the mission and He gave them the pattern for their mission: Jerusalem, all of Judea and Samaria — and then to the uttermost parts of the world.

Acts 8 began with a young man named Saul leading an organized, relentless, violent opposition against the Gospel and the collection of God’s  “redeemed, reconciled rebels.” Saul was obsessed with wiping off the face of the earth every “Reconciled Rebel” — wiping out every last expression of the Kingdom of God.

But this violent assault on the Kingdom of God actually caused the Kingdom of God to come and His will to be done in a place that no one really wanted to go to (Samaria), and in a people no one really wanted to talk to (Samaritans).

Today we are going to see how Acts 8 ends with that same theme — His Kingdom advancing — His Will Being Done. At the start of the chapter we saw His Kingdom advancing and His Will Being Done by way of violent persecution that scattered tens of thousands of Christians — resulting in tens of thousands from their Kingdoms of One. THIS TIME we see how relentless and passionate God is to redeem just one man from his Kingdom of One! THIS TIME He is going to ask just one man to walk away from a place of incredible blessing where he is being used by God to reach thousands in order to tell just one man about Jesus.

Acts 8:26-29 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place.

We said that in that single moment, in this divinely inspired record of Authentic Christianity, we see that the Christian life not only begins with the choice — “Kingdom of One; or Thy Kingdom Come;” we see that it is lived out in moment by moment choices of “Kingdom of One or Thy Kingdom Come” Am I willing to let God touch my life, my desires? Am I willing to walk away from personal blessing and success so that His Kingdom will come and His will be done?

PHILIP WAS WILLING! As we saw last week he was willing because he understood that there was not one moment in his life where the love he received from Jesus was a love he deserved! Jesus was more wonderful to Philip than any success Philip had in serving Jesus; any personal satisfaction Philip derived from being used by Jesus in Samaria. Listen to these words from an old poem written in the 1800’s by a lady named Ora Rowan

What has stripped the seeming beauty

From the idols of the earth?

Not a sense of right or duty

But the sight of peerless worth.

Not the crushing of those idols


With its bitter pain and smart,


But the beaming of His beauty,


The unveiling of His heart.

Philip had no idea WHY God would want to send him toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza…. a desert place. But that had no sway in his decision to obey. Philip wanted to worship Jesus by way of joyful obedience. THAT is Thy Kingdom Come. Thy Will Be Done.

THIS IS HUGE — We have the luxury of a Divine Retrospective.

²⁷And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”

When Philip was given those marching orders he had never read the end of Acts 8. He had no idea that he was one of two men destined for a divine appointment in the desert. God is so amazing! There was one man in a chariot searching for answers — the other (Philip) had the answers. One man had only days earlier been a humble deacon in the church at Jerusalem — the other was important figure in the government of Ethiopia. One of these men had a desire to know God —The other had a desire to obey God and make God known to others.

It was in the eternal — redemptive plans and purposes of God that these two men meet. God was going to bring them together on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza.

God has His divine appointments. We have the privilege of being a part of them as we find in the face of Jesus every reason to turn our backs on idols to serve Jesus — every reason to say Thy Kingdom Come. They Will Be Done! By way of his obedience Philip would have a part in this Divine Appointment — play a part in this one man from Ethiopia coming to saving faith in Jesus.

By the way — There are those with us this morning who as of this moment don’t know Jesus. It is no coincidence that you are here. You’re here by way of Divine Appointment.  This Divine Appointment had its beginning with another Divine Appointment in which some “Reconciled Rebel” stepped into your life and at some point invited you here this morning.  He’s has brought you here that you might have the opportunity to know Him.

DON’T FORGET — Philip didn’t know WHY God had sent him to this desert place — but Philip is there because his heart is in tune with the heart of His King. His heart was beating as one with the heart of Jesus who could walk away from the multitudes in Capernaum in order to go to villages that were so small that they didn’t have walls around them. His heart was beating as one with the heart of Jesus who was willing to exhaust Himself to speak with one woman who was probably the loneliest woman in Israel.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t tell us the name of the man Philip is sent to meet. He does tell us that he was an Ethiopian.

This man had it all. He had everything that “the world” (which is the collection of Kingdoms of One) tells you will satisfy the deepest longings of your heart. He had power — he had position — and yet he still hadn’t found what he was looking for. Something was missing.

QUOTE: Augustine — “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

I believe that he knew he had to look somewhere else for life. He sensed that his great need was a spiritual in nature — and that it could only be answered in God. Though not a Jew he had been to Jerusalem to worship. Since he was a eunuch, he could not become a full Jewish proselyte (Deut. 23:1). He was permitted to become a “God fearer” or “a proselyte of the gate.” He was so concerned about his spiritual life that he would travel over 200 miles to Jerusalem to worship God — Yet he was returning as empty as he had been when he got there. You see — all that was left in Jerusalem was dead religion. There was no point in the system of worship and sacrifices being offered on the Temple Mount. You see — every sacrifice, the priest offering the sacrifices, every furnishing and vessel used in worship, and the Temple itself were all pointing towards Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of that. When Jesus died He said, IT IS FINISHED. And at that very moment the veil in the Holy of holies was torn from top to bottom. Jesus had said that HE is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no one can come to the Father but by Him. His sacrificial death on the cross was God’s way of reconciling sinners to Himself. All that was left for that sincere Ethiopian man to see in Jerusalem was dead religion.

This Ethiopian is very much like many people today who are religious. They read the Scriptures — they are familiar with the truth — but they are still living in their Kingdom of One. They are lost! They need someone to show them the way. 

I wonder if you have looked at religion and come up empty. There’s a reason for that. Jesus did not come to fix religion — He came to destroy religion and replace it with Himself.

THIS IS SO HUGE! DON’T MISS THIS — Gospel is God work. It is ALL of God. It begins with God and it’s carried out by God. ^1. God sees the seeking heart. In fact the heart is seeking after God because God has been at work in that heart prompting and provoking a hunger and thirst for God. ^2. God saw the seeking heart. Philip didn’t! But God undertakes Gospel work out of the resources of His Kingdom Resources. While he was at work in the heart of the Ethiopian stirring a hunger for God and a need to know God, He was also at work in Philip to will and to do of His good pleasure so that Philip would want to walk away from a great revival to desert place! Christian — did you know that your time, talents and treasures are His Kingdom economy for His Kingdom to come and His Will to be done?

²⁹And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”  

AGAIN — Philip had NO IDEA as to WHY he was being sent. But he obeyed and went in the direction the Lord had sent him. It was there that Philip received his next instruction from the Lord. Here’s the point: God can give step-by-step instructions. But He doesn’t always do that; nor does He have to do that. It is as we obey the Lord that we He leads us.

Genesis 24:27 KJV  I, being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.

²⁹And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”  

Oh to be so in tune with the Lord that we might be as SENSITIVE to His voice as Philip — hear Him as CLEARLY as Philip. Five times in the Gospels Jesus said, 

He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 11:15; Mark 4:9; Mark 4:23; Luke 8:8; Luke 14:35).

At the end of the 1^st Century AD Jesus wrote letters to seven churches in Asia Minor. He closed each of them with the words —

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

It is possible to have perfect auditory capabilities but not have the ability to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying! FIRST — There must be a willingness to hear from the Lord —

Ezekiel 3:27But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who will hear, let him hear; and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

The best way to be SENSITIVE to His voice and hear Him CLEARLY is to become familiar with His voice in the pages of Scripture. As you read the Word of God you are hearing the Holy Spirit speak because every Word of the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit (Bible Bus!). Then there is that daily responding to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us from the Scriptures (Bible Bus!). The same one who speaks to you from the Scriptures will speak to you in your every day life.

Isaiah 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

Every time we hear Him speak to our hearts and respond we develop a greater sensitivity to His voice. It is so important to OBEY when the Holy Spirit speaks.

Psalm 95:7b-8a Today, if you hear his voice, ⁸ do not harden your hearts

To hear and not obey promotes deafness to His voice.

Check this out — To hear and not obey is the opposite of worship! Notice the context of that passage from Psalm 95

Psalm 95:6-8a Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! ⁷ For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, ⁸ do not harden your hearts

³⁰So Philip ran to him

Again — notice His obedience. He ran to him.

³⁰So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet

What a “coincidence!” This man from Ethiopia is reading Isaiah 53 which speaks of the redeeming work of the cross 700 years before Christ. God not only knows NEED — He knows TIME!

and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³²Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:  “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. ³³ In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” ³⁴And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”

This passage is all about Jesus! This man —who was filled with discontentment, was also filled with a desire to understand truth. He needed and desired someone to explain it to him! So God moved Philip — this one “reconciled rebel” from the place of preaching to thousands so that Philip could preach to ONE! He gets Philip there at EXACT MOMENT the man is reading about Jesus!

Some of you might be wondering why God isn’t sending folks from Metro to the ends of the earth with the Gospel. Let me ask you this — Are you listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit asking you to speak to the man or woman at the end of your street.

Check this out —

³⁵Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

Philip had been taught the Word. He was devoted to the study of the Word. The apostles had been preaching by explaining Christ in the pages of the Old Testament.

HERE’S THE POINT — There a lot of people who have read the Bible, or are reading the Bible, and they sincerely want to know what it is saying. They’ve heard something about Jesus and they want to know if it’s true. Paul wrote to Timothy

2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15 KJV Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

³⁶And as they were going along the road they came to some water,

Who knows how long they rode together — but before long they came to water.

and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”  ³⁸And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

How radical is that. God not only had it planned for Philip to meet this man from Ethiopia — and meet him just as he was at a specific place in the book of Isaiah that spoke of the cross of Jesus — but God had them on a road in the Gaza strip that would provide them with water at the very point this man believed the Good News.

Right there, in a quiet pool beside the lonely road to Gaza — this man’s entire entourage looked on — and the first recorded gentile convert was baptized. Not long after Paul the apostle (who was at the moment still living in his Kingdom of One — hating and wanting to wipe out all of the “reconciled rebels) would write

Colossians 3:10-11 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. ¹¹Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

³⁹And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more,

Philip and this man were separated — separated by the Holy Spirit. It was not His will that they be partners in the Gospel or spend a prolonged period of time together. They probably never meet again this side of glory. Yet one thing is for sure — both would never be the same after their divine appointment in the desert — because the Kingdom of God had advanced — the Will of God had been done.

and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

REMEMBER — the great rejoicing that was in the entire region of Samaria? This Gospel has done the same thing in this ONE man!

And he went on his way filled with the joy of being reconciled to God. The Gospel is now on its way to Ethiopia — and to the very courts of royalty in Ethiopia.

CLOSE

⁴⁰But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Somehow, someway, the Holy Spirit transports Philip to Azotus. From Azotus he makes his way north along the coast towards the Mediterranean sea port of Caesarea — God the Holy Spirit living in him — God the Holy Spirit enabling him to know His Word and empowering him to proclaim the Gospel to all the towns along the way.

We discover towards the end of the book of Acts that Philip settled in Caeserea. We don’t hear of him for 20 years until Paul visits his house (Acts 21:8). There we’re told that Philip raised four daughters who became prophetesses. No doubt they grew up watching their dad be so sensitive to the voice of the Lord and so obedient to the voice of the Lord.

God cares for the individual. God didn’t send Philip to this one man from Ethiopia because he was an important figure in the court of Candace the queen.  God will get the Gospel to whatever man or woman is longing to be rescued from their hopeless, broken, dark and doomed Kingdom of One. By man’s standards you might be a “somebody.” By man’s standards you might be a “nobody” By God’s standards we are ALL sinners needing a Savior!

FOR THE UNBELIEVER — God cares for you! He got you here this morning! I’m humbled that I can have the privilege of telling you this morning about God’s offer of reconciliation and how that reconciliation is possible because of what Jesus did by way of His death and resurrection

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

FOR THE BELIEVER — I am praying that every single believer here would so desire to be a part of His Kingdom advancing and His Will Being Done. I’m praying that each of us would be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit and obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Remember, the theme has been Thy Kingdom Come. Thy Will Be Done. While God was at work extending the sphere of His rule and authority in the life of Philip; perfecting Philip’s faith and trust in the King of the Kingdom and conforming Philip more and more to the King of the Kingdom, He was also at work in the heart of an Ethiopian official. In the advancing of His Kingdom, and the accomplishing of His will, God directed Philip to the right person at the right time.

You and I may never have an angel show up and tell us to go to a certain place for a Divine Appointment. But we can know and experience the Holy Spirit speaking to us — and as we obey find ourselves involved in a Divine Appointment. Like when your wife says, “Honey, can you please go to the store and _ _ _ _ .” You might be ready to give a number of valid reasons for why you can’t go. But the Holy Spirit says, “It’s not about you. Serve her, bless her, love her.” You choose to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit and in the process of obeying the Holy Spirit you walk right into the life of someone that the Holy Spirit has been drawing to Jesus.  

THAT s how “reconciled rebels” become the expression of the Kingdom of God in a world that refuses His rule and throws off His will. THAT is how “redeemed, reconciled rebels” step into the incredible, awesome, privileged role of ambassadors — pleading on with men and women to be reconciled to God.

The angel could have told this Ethiopian official how to be saved, but God has not given that commission to angels. He has given it to His collection of “redeemed, reconciled rebels” also known as the church! From Acts 2 forward we never see angels proclaiming the Gospel. It isn’t until the Great Tribulation (Revelation 14) that we find God commissioning an angel to fly above the earth proclaiming the everlasting Gospel.  I believe that’s God’s economy during the age of the Church because angels have never personally experienced God’s grace — and because of that they can never be witnesses of what it means to be redeemed.

WE are God’s plan for reaching the world. There is no “Plan B.”

It’s OUR business to share the Gospel with others, and to do it without fear or apology.

QUOTE: D.L. Moody once asked a man about his soul, and the man replied, “It’s none of your business!” “Oh, yes, it is my business!” Moody said; and the man immediately exclaimed, “Then you must be D.L. Moody!”^[1]

Metro — Today, there are more people to reach, there’s more truth to teach, there are more things to do for the glory of God and the good of his church — right in front of us. I am fully convinced that this collection of “reconciled rebels” will find the Lord directing us to the ends of the earth — but I believe we will be directed there as we are sensitive to and obedient to the Holy Spirit concerning the end of our streets. That’s how He led Philip. That’s how He will lead us into our Divine Appointments!

2 CHRONICLES 33:1-2

¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ²And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

As we pick up in 2 Chronicle 33 we are introduced to a man named Manasseh. He is the son of king Hezekiah who, after David, is the most godly king in the history of Israel. Hezekiah ruled in Judah for 29 years. Manasseh however was the polar opposite! He will prove to be the most wicked king that the southern kingdom of Judah would ever see — and this most wicked king would sit on the throne longer than any other king of Judah — 55 years!

Manasseh would ascend to the throne at the age of 12.  That’s a frightening thought in and of itself. If you have a 12 or 13 year old at home, just try to imagine giving them the steering wheel of a nation; the key to all the vaults; all the power — all the money — every video game in America!

DON’T MISS THIS METRO — Manasseh will be the vehicle by which God would reveal the idolatry that was residing in the hearts of the citizens of Judah. God didn’t judge the entire southern kingdom just because of Manasseh’s wickedness. Without a doubt Manasseh rebelled against God — but his wickedness and idolatry provided the spiritual and moral environment that brought out the idolatry and wickedness that was resident in the hearts of the people of Judah. It was during his rule that we discover how far the hearts of Judah had drifted from God.

Manasseh was named after the first son born to Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 41). Joseph is one of the most epic and stellar characters in all of Scripture. He was so hated by his brothers that they threw him into a pit and were going to leave him to die there. But then a caravan of Midianites came along and they thought to themselves — we can get rid of him and make a profit at the same time — so they sold him to the Midianites as a slave. They brought Joseph to Egypt where they sold him on the open market. He became a slave in the house of Potiphar. Virtually every day Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph. And when he scorned her most brazen attempt to get Joseph to have sex with her she accused Joseph of rape. He was thrown into prison. He was finally released from prison when he interpreted a dream that Pharaoh had. He became the 2^nd most powerful man in all of Egypt. He married — and named his first born son Manasseh — which means “to forget.” He named him that in a very positive sense — He said, I’m forgetting all the bitterness of the years that are behind me.  This is a new beginning, God’s giving me a son and it’s a time for forgetting.

In the New Testament the apostle Paul wrote

Philippians 3:13-14 ….But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Those of you that have been study through the Book of Acts with us on Sundays know the things that Paul had to forget — his violent obsession with wiping from the face of the earth every single follower of Jesus. How he mauled and mangles believers — dragging men and women from their homes, beating them, throwing them into prison, murdering them!  Paul wasn’t attempting to hide his wicked deeds from Jesus — pretend like they didn’t happen. Jesus had paid the penalty for ALL of those things. Paul knew that he couldn’t run the Christian race looking back at his sins that had been paid for in full.

There are tons of things that our adversary the devil wants to dredge up from our past and hurl in our face so that he might torment us with condemnation — and by that condemnation cause us to doubt the love of God — keep us afraid of drawing near to the Lord. By the way — Condemnation is a tool of the devil to keep you AWAY from the cross / away from Jesus. Conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit to drive you TO the cross for forgiveness / to Jesus!

You know — the problem with you and me is that we remember what we want to forget — and we forget what we want to remember.  If you don’t believe me — how many times have you gone to log on to some website or some application and when you press return your screen wiggles like it’s shaking its head saying,  “Wrong Password Stupid!”

So there is a good and proper “forgetting” in the Christian life. The forgetting of hardships as they are overshadowed by God’s grace and mercy. There is the grace of God that is so amazing, so boundless, that we are totally caught up in and with our great redeemer, Jesus! Our old life in the Kingdom of One is behind us and all we want is His Kingdom and His Will Be Done.

But the name Manasseh — “forgetting” takes on a horrible and deadly meaning during his rule in Judah. The people had forgotten what they should remember! They had forgotten the redeeming love and power of the God of Israel that had been so wonderfully proclaimed to them in that nation-changing celebration of Passover at the very beginning of Hezekiah’s reign. When they remembered how their ancestors were redeemed from death and bondage of Israel by way of the slaughtered, spotless, lamb, their hearts were transformed — they went and tore down all of their idols.

But they didn’t forget it like amnesia — or post head trauma.

Check this out — This Hebrew word doesn’t just mean, “to forget.”  It carries the sense of laying something aside. Think about it. As Christians, we don’t simply “forget” about God. Once you’re saved, once you’re a believer, how do you forget about God? How do you not remember the record of all that God did to save you in the sending of His Son?

We set Him God. We don’t “forget” Him. Like we forget a computer password or where we put our car keys. After we trust Him to save us we set Him aside by making Him an addendum to our lives — our lives are no longer all about Jesus — they are about Jesus AND (Jesus AND my girlfriend, Jesus AND my job, Jesus AND ministry, and I know this will disturb some of you, Jesus AND my family!) We set Jesus aside for a good thing that over time becomes a god (little “g”) thing! And there He is forgotten!

QUOTE: Spurgeon — They merely fell into a little matter of neglect.  That is all.  They forgot something — God. Neglect destroys men. 

Jesus said this very thing happened in the church in Ephesus at the close of the 1^st century AD.

Revelation 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

THINK ABOUT THIS —We forget — we lay aside — we neglect God who NEVER forgets us, NEVER neglects us — NEVER sets us aside.

God NEVER forgets us

Psalm 139:17-18 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them! ¹⁸ If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

Isaiah 49:16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

QUOTE: Spurgeon — What are these wounds in thy hands, these sacred stigmata, these ensigns of suffering?  The graver’s tool was the nail, backed by the hammer.  He must be fastened to the cross, that his people might be truly graven on the palms of his hands.  There is much consolation here.  We know that what a man has won with great pain he will keep with great tenacity.  Child of God, you cost Christ too much for him to forget you.

God NEVER neglects us —

Psalm 121:4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

Hebrews 13:5-6 “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” ⁶So we can confidently say,“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

God NEVER sets us aside —

John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

John 17:12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost

We can forget, neglect, and lay aside God who NEVER forgets, neglects or lays us aside because we think we are incapable of such a thing!

QUOTE: Spurgeon — Sin bribes the judgment, intoxicates the will, and perverts the memory.

The Bible is so awesome because by it the Holy Spirit reminds us of how very weak we are — so weak that even after coming to know about the mighty redeeming love of God — so weak that even after coming to see Him as THE SINLESS, SPOTLESS LAMB, slaughtered for our redemption, we can forget Him, neglect Him, lay Him aside. 

QUOTE: J.I. Packer — The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. The harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away.

HERE’S THE DEAL — When people and circumstances in this broken world cause pain in our lives — we are not forgetting the Lord — we’re not setting Him aside. We are looking to Him and leaning into Him — and the more we hurt, the weaker we feel — the more we look and the harder we lean.It’s when things are going well that we can become enamored by the blessings of God in our life — and preoccupied with the blessings of God — and we begin to make our life about Jesus AND the blessings He has given to us. He is glad to let us experience people, and circumstances that will cause us to REMEMBER the Him — and RUN to the very place we laid Him aside!

Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

Can you remember when Christ first came into your life? When that aching part of your heart was healed, the VOID was filled? Do you remember your 1^st prayers being answered? That God was interested in everything you had to say. And you were so amazed that the Creator of the Universe would have time for someone as insignificant as you? Do you Remember when you “Discovered” the Bible — this book that is God’s Revelation to you — the very Word of God to you? When certain passages would JUMP OUT at you that were so personal!  Do you remember Discovering Church, and going because you loved it! You could FEEL the presence of the Lord, and loved to watch people to come to Christ! Do you Remember always “Looking” for opportunities to Witness, to bring “Jesus” into the conversation — How sharing your faith simply was an “overflow” of your life with the Lord? Jesus says — return there — go back where you knew Him before set Him aside!

As we are coming to the last four chapters of 2 Chronicles there is something I want us to think about. Though the prophetic nature of the Bible is widely ignored, downplayed, and even denied in some Christian circles, there are those who understand that the God who speaks has spoken in the Scriptures in a prophetic way. While man looks at stories as having a beginning, a middle, and an ending; God’s Story has a Beginning, a Middle and a Beginning. The Bible begins with the words, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The Bible ends with a new heaven and a new earth. The Middle of God’s Story deals with the fall of man, and God announcing in advance a promise and a plan to redeem fallen man and this fallen planet back to Himself. The Middle is the record of God being active in human history moving towards the fulfillment of that promise — up to His coming in human flesh to be the sacrifice for our sins and pay the price to redeem us back to Himself. After He died in our place for our sins, and then three days later rose from the grave conquering our great enemies of sin and death, Jesus returned to heaven. Throughout the Bible God not only spoke of His coming to save us — He spoke of a 2^nd Coming, in which He would come in great power and glory to establish His rule on this earth — and ultimately usher in a New Heaven and a New Earth. The God who speaks has made it clear in the Scriptures that there’s a use-by date on this planet.

In light of that — there are a lot of Christians who wonder about where our country fits in to the prophetic picture of Scripture. I’ve said this numerous times, and I will say it again tonight — Prophecy doesn’t revolve around Washington DC. It doesn’t revolve around London or Paris or Moscow or Beijing. It revolves around Israel and Jerusalem. 

So here’s what we can and should do as we walk through the reign of Manasseh and in that see the idolatry that was in the hearts of the people come into the open — We can look at the way Judah disintegrates.  We can look at what happens to a nation that forgets God, neglects God; sets God aside and ultimately turns away from God.  We can make that an overlay and put it on our present history here as a nation.

Think about this — The first institution of higher education in the Colonies was Harvard College, founded in 1636. It was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard. The 1636 rules of Harvard included the following declaration:

Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17.3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of Him (Prov. 2,3). Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein.

The third college established in America was Yale, founded in 1701. Listen to this statement made in its founding.  

“Every student shall consider the main end of his study to wit to know God in Jesus Christ and answerably to lead a Godly, sober life.”

Listen to these regulations set forth for the student of Yale.

“All scholars shall live religious, godly, and blameless lives according to the rules of God’s Word, diligently reading the Holy Scriptures, the fountain of light and truth; and constantly attend upon all the duties of religion, both in public and secret”

Joe Focht quoted a study which said that by reliable calculation, 52% of the 17^th century graduates of Harvard became ministers.

Today Harvard, and other Ivy League schools are handing out to new students a plastic bag with condoms and instructions how to preform safe heterosexual and homosexual sex. 

In 1683, the Rhode Island Charter began with these words: 

We submit our persons, lives and estates unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given us in His holy word. 

Those absolute laws became the basis of our Declaration of Independence.

In 1787 they were meeting at Independence Hall in Philadelphia trying to write the Constitution of the United States. Benjamin Franklin (who was by no means an evangelical Christian), then 81, stood up to and spoke these words to those who had been struggling for weeks to compose the our Constitution —

In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayers in this room for divine protection.  Our prayers, sir, were heard and they were graciously answered.  All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintending providence in our favor.  Have we now forgotten this powerful friend or do we imagine we no longer need his assistance?  I have lived sir, a long time.  And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of man.  And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aide.  We have been assured, sirs, in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.  I firmly believe this.  I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning. 

John Quincy Adams (6^th President of the United States) said that The first and almost the only book deserving universal attention is the Bible. 

Abraham Lincoln (16^th President of the United States) said of the Bible —

All the good from the savior of the world is communicated through this book, but for the book, we could not know right from wrong.  All the things desirable to man are contained in it. 

Andrew Jackson (7^th President of the United States) said — Go to the scriptures.  The joyful promises it contains will be balsam to all of your troubles. On his death bed, President Jackson pointed to the Bible on the table by his bed and said to his companion — That book sir, is the rock on which our republic rests. 

Woodrow Wilson (28^th President of the United States) said that The Bible is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and the spiritual nature and need of men.  It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation. 

Calvin Coolidge (30^th President of the United States) said this — and I think it’s so important. 

The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically and universally used in our country. 

In 1830, which is not all that long ago, the government of France sent a representative, Alexis de Tocqueville, to study the society, the beliefs and the prisons of the United States of America to find out why there was so little crime and so few prisons. The result of his several years of study was published in 1840 in his famous book the Democracy of the United States.

I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields and her boundless forests.  But it was not there.  I sought for her greatness in her rich mines, in her vast world commerce, in her public school system and in her institutions of higher learning and it was not there.  I looked for her greatness in her democratic congress and her matchless constitution and it was not there.  Not until I went into the churches of America and her heard pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because America is good and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. 

Sounds like a different time doesn’t it? 

172 years later America has publicly abandoned the Bible as the moral anchor of our society and education. After decades of teaching our children that there is no God, that the Bible is not the Word of God, that human life is the product of random, meaningless, evolutionary events — came from nothing, their lives mean nothing, they return to nothing — how can we be shocked by middle schoolers engaging in oral sex, doing drugs and committing suicide?

LISTEN — We can’t blame this on the failure of the institution! Those universities have failed because somewhere along the line the individuals that led those universities and attended those universities forgot, neglected and set God aside. Our government has failed because the population and its elected officials have forgotten, neglected and laid God aside.

When individuals are blessed, churches are blessed, nations are blessed — they FORGET God, NEGLECT God and SET ASIDE God.

My problems are because I forget God; I neglect and set aside the one who rescued me from my claustrophobic Kingdom of One. My problems are because in someway — and to some degree — I lay aside the One Lamb who was slaughtered to save me — who set up my Kingdom of One and set up my will over and against His Will. My problems are because in someway — and to some degree — I lay aside Jesus, who was wounded for all of the transgressions I committed in my rebellion against His Kingdom and His Will. My problems are because in someway and to some degree I lay aside the One who was crushed for all of the iniquities of my rebellion against His Kingdom and His Will. My problems are because in some way and to some degree I allow the Kingdom of One to make a comeback. The church’s problems are because it forgets God. America’s problems are because it’s forgotten God.  BY THE WAY — We can remember God, look to God, lean on God this Wednesday Morning @ 6:00am!

HERE’S THE GREAT NEWS — We’re here tonight! We’re hear tonight because God wants us to remember Him; to pay attention to Him. Think of Jesus in the book of Revelation. He was so neglected by the Christians in Laodicea that He tells them that He’s been left outside of the church. But what does He say to them?

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

They forgot Him! They neglected Him — set Him aside — pushed Him out the door! He’s saying — Uh Hello… I’m out here! They apparently didn’t even know they’d done that to Him! What does Jesus do? He knocks at the door. He asks them to let Him back into His rightful place!

Here I am, on my way to 61 years old — I’ve been a Christian for over 38 years — and Jesus has SO been doing that in my own life. I’m so glad that when I’ve neglected Him that He knocks at the door of my heart!

Tonight — Jesus wants to ignite a fire in my heart — a fire that would burn on into the hearts of other people — changing the face of my family, this church, this city — and even to the uttermost parts of the world!

THY KINGDOM COME vs THE KINGDOM OF ONE

Acts 8:26-40

Acts 8 began with a mega persecution that scattered the church into all of Judea and Samaria, resulting in thousands believing the good news of the Kingdom of God — becoming citizens of the Kingdom of God. The chapter ends with a lonely traveler on a deserted road — a man of wealth, religion and influence from Ethiopia — hearing the Gospel and becoming a citizen in the Kingdom of God.

Follow me here — We pray (literally or thematically), “Your kingdom come. Your will be done” (Luke 11:2).

In Genesis 3 man decided that he did not want to be a part of the Kingdom of God — where God is worshipped as Creator and ruler over all of His creation. Man decided to establish a Kingdom of One — where he would organize his life without His Creator God and against his Creator God. The end of that has been death and darkness — both personally and globally.

From that point in Genesis 3 forward we have the account of God’s passionate and relentless desire to re-establish His kingdom in the hearts of men and women — and ultimately usher in a new heaven and earth. The Gospel is the record of all that God did in the sending of His Son to save us — the record of how He made a way for the rebel to be reconciled to His Creator.

THIS IS HUGE — For the Kingdom of God to come means that the Kingdom of One must end! Salvation happens when a man or woman repents of de-godding God and setting up their little claustrophobic Kingdom of One — and receives the forgiveness of sin through faith in Jesus and His death on the cross in their place; and His bodily resurrection from the grave.

That which the Bible refers to as “the world” is the collection of Kingdoms of One. That which the Bible calls “the Church” is collection of those reconciled rebels. The reconciled rebel, individually, and the reconciled rebels, collectively, become the expression of the Kingdom of God, the expression of the rule and authority of God the Creator and Redeemer in the face of the world that is organizing itself without and against God.

The King commissioned the collection of reconciled rebels to be His ambassadors.

John 20:21 As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

As His ambassadors they are to proclaim God’s offer of reconciliation and how that reconciliation is possible because of what Jesus did by way of His death and resurrection

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In Acts 1 Jesus promised to give His ambassadors the power for the mission and He gave them the pattern for their mission: Jerusalem, all of Judea and Samaria — and then to the uttermost parts of the world.

Luke tells us that with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all (Acts 4:33 ) in Jerusalem. Tens of thousands were added to the collection of reconciled rebels.

Acts 8 begins with a young man named Saul leading an organized, relentless, violent opposition against the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and the citizens of the Kingdom of God. Saul was obsessed with wiping off the face of the earth every citizen of the Kingdom of God — wiping out every last expression of the Kingdom of God.

But this violent assault on the Kingdom of God actually caused the Kingdom of God to come and His will to be done in a place that no one really wanted to go to (Samaria), and in a people no one really wanted to talk to (Samaritans).

We look at the end of Acts 7 — the murder of Stephen, and the opening of Acts 8 — and the mega persecution, and we are amazed at the ways of God and the wisdom of God! We are stunned by the relentless passion of God to reconcile rebels; and how His Kingdom continues to advance — even by way of suffering and persecution.

We don’t run to the front of the line to sign up to be dragged from our homes, beaten, imprisoned and murdered for having repented of our Kingdom of One; for loving Jesus as our Redeemer, and worshipping Jesus as our King. But we do see, and we do humbly acknowledge, the fact that God can and does use suffering and loss to advance His Story for His Glory! And though we might say it with reservation — we do say, “Your Kingdom Come. Your Will Be Done — For Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, now and forever! Amen!

Acts 8 began with that theme. The Kingdom of God was advancing; the will of God was being done. The collection of reconciled rebels in Jerusalem was now expressing the rule of God in all of Judea and Samaria.  Acts 8 ends with that same theme — Thy will be done!  We see His Kingdom advancing — only this time it’s not to an entire region. This time we see how relentless and passionate God is to redeem just one man from his Kingdom of One! His means is still the same — a reconciled rebel sent on mission to accomplish His will. Only THIS TIME — He isn’t scattering tens of thousands by way of suffering and loss. This time He is going to ask just one man to walk away from a place of incredible blessing where he is being used by God to reach thousands in order to tell just one man about Jesus.

Acts 8:26-29 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”

THIS IS HUGE — In this single moment in this divinely inspired record of Authentic Christianity we see that the Christian life not only begins with the choice — “Kingdom of One; or Thy Kingdom Come;” we see that it is lived out in moment by moment choices of “Kingdom of One or Thy Kingdom Come” Am I willing to let God touch my life, my desires? Am I willing to walk away from personal blessing and success so that His Kingdom will come and His will be done? A young man named Philip was!

We were introduced to Philip when he was appointed by the church at Jerusalem to be a deacon. Philip’s calling, gifting and ordination was an expression of the Kingdom of God and the will of God. Philip had no Kingdom of One ambition or agenda. All Philip wanted was to see the name of Jesus made great in the saving of souls and the making of disciples. He was glad to serve His redeemer by serving the marginalized and the needy — and in serving them make it possible for the leaders of the church in Jerusalem to preserve the primary mission of the church — the teaching and preaching of the Word of God.

I believe there are two core causes for this attitude. ^1. Philip had a living relationship with Jesus. The risen Savior and King imparts His life to to each reconciled rebel. Even as a branch is truly in the vine and the life of the vine is truly in the branch — Philip was in Jesus and the life of Jesus was truly in Philip. That is exactly how Jesus was continuing His work in the world. ^2. Philip was numbered with those who were devoted to the Apostles doctrine. The apostles were devoted to teaching them all that Jesus had taught them. Philip would have heard that Jesus said that the greatest in His Kingdom was the servant of all. Philip would have heard how Jesus — the King of the Kingdom — said that He was among them as one who serves. Philip was worshipping His Redeemer King by obeying His Word.  

But after Stephen — his fellow deacon — was murdered for his faith in Christ a mega persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem and the believers were scattered (Acts 8:1). Philip the deacon was among them. Philip goes down to Samaria and begins to preach. There was a tremendous work of God in the hearts of the Samaritans.

Acts 8:5-6; 8; 12 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. ⁶And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did…. ⁸So there was much joy in that city…. ¹²But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

THIS IS SO RADICAL! Wasn’t Philip just a deacon? What’s he doing preaching in Samaria? This is so important — Philip was not on a hunt for a church where he could finally do “his thing” — where he could finally get to shine. That is Kingdom of One behavior. That is totally dissonant with Thy Kingdom Come. Sadly — there is much being said by recognized leaders in modern church culture about the Kingdom of God that is actually the rooted in the way life is conducted in the Kingdom of One

QUOTE: “20 Points on Leading Millennials” —

2. Provide them projects, not a career. Career is just not the same anymore. They desire options. Just like free agents.

First — Ministry is not a career — it’s a calling. Second — The words, “Never the less, not My will, but Your will be done” doesn’t fit with “options.” Third — free agency is the epitome of the Kingdom of One where self-concern and self-advancement trump the need of the team. Free agency is in the end profitable for two self-serving parties. It is the way 2 narcissists co-exist. A team or corporation will swallow the huge free agency salary and the attitude of the free agent if the free agent is going to enhance their bottom line and chance for success. The free agent is only going to go to the team/corporation that he thinks will most comply with his personal wants and personal preferences. Actually, that explains the consumer mentality of so many men and women in the church today — “millennial” or not.

We have no idea what Philip was doing before he was appointed and ordained to serve tables. But we do know that Philip was not in Samaria because it was the next logical step in his ministry career path. He had no ambition to become the next great evangelist; to preach to multitudes like Peter in Acts 2 and Acts 3. He had no ambition to have a signs and wonders ministry that eclipsed Peter and the other apostles

Acts 5:12; 15-16 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles….. ¹⁵so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. ¹⁶The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Yet this man — who was willing to love, worship and serve His redeemer by serving tables (= Thy Kingdom Come) was suddenly used by God in the saving of a city!

TWO THINGS TO CONSIDER —

1.) We live in a broken world where men and women sit at the center of their own personal broken universe. From that position they devise their own personal values system — decide what broken things in their broken world they will derive value from (situations, locations, possessions, relationships) — and then devise some life-strategy to attain those things and relationships.

By contrast to that world view the Bible declares that the Christian does not have to search for meaning and purpose in such places because from the moment they believed with their heart on the Lord Jesus they became a part of the most important work in the universe: Redemption.

Philip was not in Samaria preaching the Gospel because he was on a self-driven, self-devised, trajectory for ministry advancement and personal gratification. He was there because Jesus was at work advancing the Gospel along the very lines He set forth in Acts 1. Philip was simply ready to tell anyone, anywhere, about all that God had done in the sending of Jesus to save us.

Philip the deacon was simply in love with His Savior. He didn’t find his identity or his fulfillment in a situation, a location, or a possession. He didn’t find his identity or his fulfillment in human recognition (being chosen as one of the seven deacons in Jerusalem). He didn’t find his identity or his fulfillment in a position (being a deacon) or in a task. His identity was wrapped up in Jesus. His identity was wrapped up in being loved by Jesus and accepted by the Father because of the cross of Jesus. In Jesus Philip found a love and a life that no human recognition; no personal accomplishment could ever deliver. Philip understood that there was not one moment in his life where the love he received from Jesus was a love he deserved!

QUOTE: U2 — I found grace, it’s all that I found And I can breathe, breathe now! 

That’s why it was Philip’s joy to obey Jesus. There was no motive in obeying other than to love and worship Jesus — THAT is Thy Kingdom Come. Thy Will Be Done.

THIS IS HUGE — Obedience is not a fear-filled means of trying to gain favor with God. Obedience is an act of personal worship — an act of thankful worship. He served tables because he loved Jesus. He served tables because he loved Jesus and wanted to see the Gospel of Jesus proclaimed and the name of Jesus made great in the saving of souls!

2.) Understanding that all of Philip’s service was born out of love and worship of Jesus (Thy Kingdom Come) — we also see Jesus honoring Philip’s faithfulness in little things and giving to Philip greater responsibility.

Luke 16:10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much

Being a deacon may seem like a menial thing compared to preaching at a city-wide evangelistic campaign. There is a great lesson there for us all  

Zechariah 4:10   for who has despised the day of small things?

Again — look at the DISSONANCE between what is called Gospel Living by the leading voices in church culture, and what Jesus taught and Authentic Christians lived.

QUOTE: 20 Points on Leading Millennials —

10. Give them opportunities early with major responsibility. They don’t want to wait their turn. Want to make a difference now. And will find an outlet for influence and responsibility somewhere else if you don’t give it to them. Empower them early and often.

What a shameful attempt to validate the existence of the Kingdom of One within the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of One wants nothing to do with small things — it wants to immediately to step into the highest position. The Kingdom of One wants to rule — not serve.

QUOTE: J.C. Ryle — “The world’s idea of greatness is to rule, but Christian greatness consists in serving.”

Philip was like the faithful servant in the parable to whom Jesus says,

Matthew 25:21  ²¹His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Philip is no longer known as Philip the deacon — but Philip the evangelist because he was living for Jesus — seeking first the Kingdom of God rather than the Kingdom of One. He didn’t show up in Samaria grumbling because he “lost his ministry” in Jerusalem or “lost his home” in Jerusalem. He didn’t show up in Samaria grumbling because his new address was in Samaria and his new neighbors were Samaritans. He didn’t show up in Samaria grumbling because he was looking elsewhere for an outlet for influence.

The King, Jesus, sent Philip the deacon to the exact place (Samaria) at the exact moment (when persecution broke out in Jerusalem) where he would become Philip the evangelist.

In Acts 6-7 man knew Philip as “Philip the deacon.” Then in Acts 8 they saw him as Philip the evangelist. For man it was like watching film (remember that medium) develope. But Jesus saw Philip as an evangelist before he ever was a deacon — before he was even a believer — before the world was even created. Philip was the workmanship of Jesus

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

QUOTE: The grace of God always meets you where you are and takes you where you need to be.

So here is Philip — content to be a deacon; and suddenly an evangelist ministering in a tremendous work of God. But then a strange thing happens. 

²⁶Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place.

From man’s viewpoint it would be reasonable for Philip to question the wisdom of such a move. I mean, how much better could things be going?

This reminds me of a moment in the life of Jesus. He was ministering in Capernaum. People were coming from everywhere to get to Jesus. They were pulling the roof off of Peter’s house to get broken lives to Jesus. After an insane day of ministry Jesus goes to bed. But He got up in the dark hours of the morning and found a desolate place to be alone with His Father in prayer. When it was light out Peter and the guys searched for Him and when they found Him they said

Mark 1:37-38 “Everyone is looking for you.” ³⁸And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”

EVERYONE was looking for Jesus. EVERYONE wanted Jesus to stay. But Jesus said — I’ve just come forth from talking to My Father and He is sending Me to the little un-walled towns and villages. That’s what My Father wants — That’s what I’m going to do.

What made perfect sense to everyone had nothing to do with what the Father wanted Jesus to be doing.

What Jesus was doing in Capernaum is exactly what Jesus was continuing to do through Philip in Samaria. The Father wanted Jesus to leave that massive work in Capernaum to go to little villages — so small and insignificant that there were no walls around them.

When God is working through us we can get pretty dug in and settled in. This is it! This is the time. This is the place. I’m being used in ways I could never have imagined. THIS IS IT! 

When God is working through us it seems inconceivable that God has something else for us other than THIS — something BETTER for us other than THIS! (Me and Val moving to Grass Valley. Could God have something better than CCCM — traveling the world with a band and teams of kids telling people about Jesus. Being paid to be taught the Word by pastor Chuck.)

When God is working through us we can also get sideways. We can slip into finding our identity in the way that God is using us and how people appreciate us for the way God is using us. Because of that we hold onto our “Samaria Moment” with a death grip!

Then suddenly God says — “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place.

THIS IS HUGE — Philip had a thousand reasons to question this call. But the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to record Philip’s response

Acts 8:27 And he rose and went.

Philip was not immune from any of the ways you and I can get sideways in the midst of God’s blessings. Philip was not immune from getting settled in — wanting to put his roots down in a place where God was working and God was using him in radical ways.

But he did what each of us can do in such moments — he chose to lay down any selfish desires for staying in Samaria — and he chose to obey because he remembered how God had rescued Him from his Kingdom of One. He chose to lay down any selfish desires for staying in Samaria — and he chose to obey because for him obedience was an act of personal worship — an act of thankful worship. He chose Thy Kingdom Come over the Kingdom of One. In the Kingdom of One you desperately try to control everything.  

QUOTE: Paul Tripp — If you’re God’s child you don’t have to have control because your Savior rules over all things for your sake and his glory.

Today you are I are called to abandon the purposes of our little, claustrophobic, Kingdom of One and give ourselves to the will of the King who loved us and died to redeem us from the kingdom of self.

Today you are I are called to lay down our selfish, self-serving desires for the perfect plan of Jesus. And as we look at Philip we see the living proof that in the grace of God we have everything provided for us to do it.

The man and woman sitting at the center of their broken universe would say that success — which is what they would call Philip’s ministry in Samaria — is the thing they put their hope in to deliver life and the thing from which they can derive their identity and find contentment. Acting as self-sovereigns in their Kingdom of One they plan and they seek to control their lives — calibrate the trajectory of their lives — so they will hit the target of “success.” And when they get there they discover that their plan wasn’t a good plan. They discover that the temporal thing they were hoping in is a delivery system doomed to fail because it is a part of a broken world filled with broken people; making it incapable of delivering anything that is unfailing, perfect and eternal. The insanity of the Kingdom of One is that the only place where the unfailing, the perfect and the eternal is found is in the Kingdom of God — it is only found in His will being done.

²⁷And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”

By way of Philip’s obedience this one man from Ethiopia would come to saving faith in Jesus. We will look at that encounter next Sunday.

CLOSE WITH THIS

God would send Philip away from the revival in Samaria to speak to this one man — not because He needed Philip — but because each step along the way, beginning in Jerusalem, God was conforming Philip to the image of Jesus. Like Jesus — Philip was called to leave the excitement of a massive revival and go speak to one lost soul searching for answers. Philip was in tune with the heart of Jesus who spoke about leaving the 99 to find the one lost sheep. Jesus was not just interested in the multitudes that flocked to Him. He exhausted himself to have a conversation with the lowliest, loneliest woman in Israel at a well in Samaria.

God would send Philip away from the revival in Samaria to speak to this one man — not because He needed Philip — but because each step along the way, beginning in Jerusalem, God was perfecting Philip’s faith. He was teaching Philip that he didn’t need to be in control of people and situations — instead he needed to rest in God’s presence and perfect control. We’ve talked about this a lot on Monday nights as we’ve been studying through 2 Chronicles. Faith is more than nodding in agreement to a biblically consistent theology. Real faith is the surrender of your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ — living as though He really is all that He claims to be; living as though really does all that He says He will do. Faith means that when everything looks like it’s out of control you live as though your great redeeming God really does rule over all things for your sake and his glory.

God would send Philip away from the revival in Samaria to speak to this one man — not because He needed Philip — but because He wanted to establish more and more His Kingdom in Philip’s heart and life so that Philip might, more than ever, be the EXPRESSION of the rule of God in a world that is totally outside of that rule.

Did you know that God will command you to go places and do things that seem unreasonable, irrational, and contrary to what you want and what you desire in order to rescue you from the one thing you cannot escape — YOU.

REALITY — There are times and circumstances — even on this side of the cross — when I just don’t want God to be sovereign. There are times and circumstances when I want to be sovereign! How about you? There are times and circumstances when the old Kingdom of One wants to make a come back! How about you? That’s why God will command me to go places and do things that seem unreasonable, irrational, and contrary to what I want and what I desire. You see He wants to pull down my kingdom and build a much better kingdom — His kingdom — in my heart.

And because He is so wise and so powerful, He accomplishes all of His good purposes in your life while accomplishing His gracious, redeeming purposes in the saving of souls!

OBEDIENCE really is an act of personal, thankful Worship.

Did you know that eternity — and your place in it — all comes down to worship.

Revelation 22:1-6 Then the angelshowed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ³No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. ⁴They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. ⁶And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true.

FOR THE UNBELIEVER — Are you worshipping God? Or have you inserted yourself into the center of your world — taken the place that is reserved for God alone? Are you looking to and living for something created for your hope, your identity and your meaning in life — or are you looking to the Creator, Redeemer God? Today repent of your Kingdom of One and RUN to the Creator, Redeemer God and say — Your Kingdom Come. Your Will Be Done.

FOR THE BELIEVER — Our obedience ought not be born out of fear. The life we couldn’t live, he lived for us. The death we should’ve died, he died for us. The new life we need he gives to us. Because our redemption rests on Christ’s obedience on our behalf — We can breathe! We can joyfully and thankfully obey. We can joyfully say “No” to the Kingdom of One. It can be our joy to say “Your Kingdom Come.”

2 CHRONICLES 32:20-33

REVIEW — Chapter 32 opens with Sennacherib king of Assyria invading Judah. This takes place on the heals of tremendous revival in Judah and amongst the remnant of the northern tribes.

In the face of this invasion Hezekiah shows up huge as a man of faith and a man of action. Hezekiah did not sit back and do nothing. He did all that he could. He commissioned men to dig a tunnel to transport water from the Spring Gihon, outside of the walls of the city, to the Pool of Siloam that was inside of the walls at the south-east end of the city — a distance of almost 6 football fields through solid rock. THAT was extraordinary action! He fortified the city (repaired walls and built an outer wall) — extraordinary action. He commissioned men to make weapons — extraordinary action. He appointed captains and set them in their station — extraordinary action. BUT he did not place his trust in his action! Hezekiah knew that ultimately success was dependent upon the Lord. There were some awesome takeaways for us as we looked at this man of faith and action!

^1. In the big picture — faith and action are not mutually exclusive.

^2. Hezekiah did not measure their chances for success against the brutal armies of Assyria against Judah’s human resources or his considerable efforts and actions. His confidence was in the Lord. He measured the circumstance against God. The takeaway for us — We need to measure our circumstances against God. This has been a REPEATED theme through out the Bible in different moments of history, involving different individuals, in very different circumstances. As the perfect teacher, God repeats it because He knows it’s going to be on the test!

Romans 8:31 ³¹What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

^3. He understood that there was a spiritual dimension in God’s provision and protection. He essentially quotes Elisha (2 Kings 6:16-18) for there are more with us than with him. From that we learned that we are not alone in the walk and warfare of the Christian life. The Bible says that God dispatches POWERFUL spiritual beings called angels to care for us as we seek to live for Jesus and live on mission for Him in this fallen world.

^4. He understood the Immanuel nature of God — but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” God has not only commissioned these angelic beings to be our escorts on the way to heaven — God Himself is WITH US! Life is always going to have its Sennacheribs andits Assyrian armies bearing down on us.

QUOTE: Paul Tripp — If you’re God’s child there is hope for you, not because of your wisdom and strength, but because Emmanuel is always with you.

^5. Big takeaway regarding leadership — ⁸ And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. KJV = And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. Hezekiah exercised his leadership by essentially telling them what God had said in His Word.

As we closed our time together last week we saw that as soon as those who were afraid and weak had been built up by the encouraging words of this godly leader — the enemy came along and tried to undermine their faith in all they had heard about God.

It was a frontal assault on God. The objective was to frighten and terrify. The goal was the taking the city. The means to was to shout in the language of the people.

¹⁶And his servants said still more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷And he wrote letters to cast contempt on the Lord, the God of Israel and to speak against him, saying, “Like the gods of the nations of the lands who have not delivered their people from my hands, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand.” ¹⁸And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city. ¹⁹And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands.

²⁰Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven.

1 Kings 19 gives us a the details of where, how and what Isaiah and Hezekiah prayed Hezekiah about these letters —

1 Kings 19:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord.

This is awesome! Hezekiah goes with Isaiah up to the house of the Lord (the temple) and literally lays the letter out before the Lord. He essentially says — “This is for you. It was delivered to the wrong address — they sent it to my house — but it’s for You.  Just letting you know what Sennacherib thinks about you and how he’s going to whoop you. I thought you might want to know Lord. 

Then this what they prayed —

1 Kings 19:15 -19And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: “O Lord the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁷Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands ¹⁸and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. ¹⁹So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, THAT all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”

Bottom line — Lord, it’s Your reputation that’s at stake. They want to kill us — but they want to kill us to prove that You are no different than the idols we just tore down. Metro — life is never just about us. When someone attacks us it is never a matter of defending our reputation for our own sake. Our lives are all about God’s reputation! Our lives are all about the Gospel.

Philippians 1:20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored (KJV = magnified) in my body, whether by life or by death.

Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

Romans 14:7-8 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. ⁸If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.

Philippians 1:27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,

²¹And the Lord sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria.

Not an army of angels. Just ONE. One nameless angel from among the ranks of loyal angels — to dispatch an entire army!

Again — 2 Kings give us some great detail. First we are told that as they set this before the Lord, and set his reputation before their safety the Lord gave a prophetic word to Isaiah.

2 Kings 19:32-34 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. ³³By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. ³⁴For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

By the way — the Lord loves to speak to us when we seek Him in prayer. Pray with your Bible open — pray with your heart open to receive! He loves to speak when we gather with other believers to pour our hearts out before in prayer. While one prays the Lord can give a word of prophecy or a word of wisdom, or a word of exhortation to direct prayer and confirm prayer!

Then 2 Kings gives us the details of the victory.

2 Kings 19:35  And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

God had been listening to the threats of Sennacherib as he time and again referred to his hand — 

¹³Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to deliver their lands out of my hand?…. ¹⁵Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this fashion, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand!

Time and again Sennacherib set his and in opposition to the hand of God — exalted his hand above the hand of God. God says — Let Me see now — there’s 185,000 of them out there…. That’s a one-angel job.  Doesn’t even tell us who the angel is. It could have been Stanley the angel that got the call! One angel.  185,000 vicious, brutal Assyrian soldiers.

Think about this — Do you remember what Jesus said to Peter when Peter drew his to defend Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene?

Matthew 26:53Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

One Roman legion was made up of 6,000. Do the math — 12 legions of angels = 72,000 angels. If ONE angel killed 185,000 Syrians in one night — multiply that by 72,000 (= 12 legions) and you would have 13 billion, 320 million guys dead in one night.  I thought you might be interested in that. So in answer to the prayers of Isaiah and Hezekiah the Lord sent an angel. 

A few things come to mind here. ^1. God has commissioned angels — like this one — to be our escorts on the way to heaven. This is one angel.  How many angels do we have caring for us?  I don’t know; but the Bible tells us they’re around. In fact it says

Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

^2. As we think about how awesome angels are — the Gospel declares that you and I are destined to be higher than the angels — sons and daughters of the most high God. ^3. THERE IS A BIGGER PICTURE for us to see in this victory. As this one angle wipes out 185,000 Assyrians in one night the stage is set for Babylon to arise as a geopolitical force — and it will be Babylon, and its king Nebuchadnezzar, that will be the Lord’s instrument to judge the Southern Kingdom of Judah that will fall back into full blown idolatry.

²¹And the Lord sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword.

It sound like it happened as soon as Sennacherib got back.  We know that the Assyrians were defeated outside of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. The Assyrian records tell us that his sons murdered him in 681 B.C.  So this is 20 years later. I personally believe that this was 20 years of God’s grace. It was grace that Sennacherib had 20 years to think of how the God of Israel was not like any little “g” gods — think about how he had blasphemed the One, True and Living God and to repent of his idolatry and his pride. Sennacherib never repented! In fact, he died an idol worshipper. 2 Kings tell us that he was murdered while he was worshipping an idol called Nisroch.

2 Corinthians 6:1-2 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. ²For he says,“In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

²²So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side. ²³And many brought gifts to the Lord to Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from that time onward.

What would that look like in our culture? He would be on the cover of Time magazine — maybe Time Magazine “Person” of the Year! He would be the lead story on all the major news channels.

As we move forward to the close of the chapter we find that even a godly man like Hezekiah is not exempt from pride. That is why the Bible says

1 Corinthians 10:12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. ¹³No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

²⁴In those days

The those days refer back to the time of the Assyrian invasion of Judah (2 Kings 20:6). The events of this chapter are also recorded in Isaiah 38.

Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death,

We’re not told how Hezekiah became sick. It may have been through something obvious to everyone around Hezekiah, or it may have been through something known only to God. Regardless of how Hezekiah became sick — or what the sickness was — it was certainly permitted by the LORD. It’s interesting to note from the record of 2 Kings that God used a medicinal treatment in healing Hezekiah. God can, and often does, bring about healing through medical treatments. By the way — I believe that barring some specific direction from God — medical treatment should never be rejected in the name of faith.

and he prayed to the Lord, and he answered him and gave him a sign.

2 Kings 20:8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?”

This sign that was to assure Hezekiah of his healing was that the shadow of the sundial would move backward — giving more time in the day — just as God was going to give Hezekiah more time to live (2 Kings 20:8-11).

God granted Hezekiah an additional fifteen years. Hezekiah died c. 686 B.C. That means that his healing can be dated from about the time of the siege of Jerusalem — Hezekiah’s rescue from death was a beautiful picture of how Jerusalem would miraculously be rescued from what appeared to be sure destruction.

²⁵But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem. ²⁶But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.

This is radical — Hezekiah stands as a powerful proof of how the best of God’s men are ultimately just men — Sinners needing a gracious redeemer and a might Savior.

Hezekiah did not receive this miracle with the gratitude that he should have. The great news is that he was broken by the grace and goodness of the Lord — and he did humble himself — and did repent of the pride of his heart— and was saved a greater judgment.

DON’T MISS THIS — The Kingdom of God is so upside down from this world. The person who is lifted up in pride is the person who is brought low — Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is the lowly person that is lifted up — Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up. God Himself delights to dwell with the humble and broken hearted person!

Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Jesus said that brokenness and humility before God is the starting point for life in the Kingdom

Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs (and theirs alone) is the Kingdom of God.

²⁷And Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made for himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of costly vessels; ²⁸storehouses also for the yield of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and sheepfolds. ²⁹He likewise provided cities for himself, and flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him very great possessions. ³⁰This same Hezekiah closed the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works. ³¹And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.

The king of Babylon is very interested in the fact that the back of the Assyrian army had been broken.

QUOTE: G. Campbell Morgan — “The real reason of the visit was political; Babylon desired to throw off the yoke of Assyria. What nation was more likely to help them than the one at the hands of which Assyria had been so completely defeated? Babylon sought alliance with Judah against Assyria.”

He sends a delegation to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land.  We are not sure whether this is a reference to the 185,000 Assyrians being slaughtered, or the shadow of the sundial going backwards 10 degrees, or Hezekiah’s healing.  Whatever this wonder was — people knew about it and that news reached Babylon. That was no small distance. The distance from Jerusalem to Babylon was 500 miles in a straight line. But that journey actually took 900 miles because they would travel northwest along the Euphrates River and then south to Babylon.

2 Kings 20 tells us this — ¹³And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

CLOSE

The Holy Spirit makes a point of saying that the Lord left Hezekiah to himself concerning the envoys to show Hezekiah what was in his heart. This whole scene had to be incredibly flattering for King Hezekiah. By man’s reckoning Judah was a nobody on the geopolitical landscape — a tiny nation with tiny power. Babylon was a rising star; a superpower in the making. Notoriety on that stage and recognition from the king of Babylon no doubt left Hezekiah with a sense of self importance.

QUOTE: Spurgeon — This great prosperity was a great temptation, far more difficult to endure than Rabshakeh’s letter, and all the ills which invasion brought upon the land.”

The scary thing about this is that Hezekiah wasn’t acting like the proud athlete pounding his chest after a dunk or a home run or a big tackle. He isn’t like the musician drinking in the standing ovation. The unbelieving person with tons of “natural talent” feels they have the right to be proud. In their hearts and minds there is nothing divine or miraculous in what they do — in their mind they deserve all the notoriety and recognition.

The scary thing in all of this is that Hezekiah knew that all the news — all of his notoriety — was owing to God.  But knowing that, somehow, somewhere in his heart — he began to think that he had some merit in all of this! After all — wasn’t he connected with everything God had done? Wasn’t he in the center of the great revival in Judah? Wasn’t he the one who took such extraordinary action to fortify Jerusalem. Wasn’t he the one who encouraging the people to trust in God? Wasn’t he the man who went in with the mighty prophet Isaiah and prayed — leading to the supernatural route of the Assyrians? Wasn’t he the man God healed — and even made the sun go backwards as a sign that he would be healed?

This passage is like a bucket of ice cold water dumped on me! I was sitting in my office today genuinely stunned — in my heart shivering because this is the man who was passionate about God being worshipped. This is the man whose priority was Gods Kingdom above his own. This is the man who longed to see men serve God. This is the man who longed to see people transformed by the reality of sinless lamb slaughtered for their redemption. This is the man who led the people in tearing down idols. This is the man who encouraged a nation to look to God in time of trouble. This is the man who pleaded with God when the Assyrians surrounded Jerusalem! This is the man who God granted 15 extra years of life to. And when the Holy Spirit left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart there was something in his heart that loved the praises of man. By the way — God knew what was in Hezekiah’s heart. God left Hezekiah to himself so that by way of this Babylonian envoy Hezekiah could know what was in his own heart!

This is scary because it is easy for those who believe God, believe His Word, serve God, and have seen God work in and through their life to fall into spiritual pride. There is something in us — that left unchecked — left out of the light of Scripture — not brought before the cross of Jesus — that wants to take credit for things that God has done. How many men and ministries have fallen in the same pit of spiritual pride? God blesses a man. God uses a man. God does things that the man could never — and would never — dare to take credit for. But then Babylon sends an envoy. Babylon says, “We’re impressed!” Suddenly that man is something in they eyes of those the world considers to be someone! There is something deep inside even the godly man, and godly woman, that wants to be recognized; and once recognized, will do anything to please and impress man! Like Hezekiah, that greatly graced man can’t wait to give Babylon the grand tour of his domain — so that Babylon might be impressed with him — not God!

There are a lot of men and women who face failure and weakness in great faith and great humility — But then they fail in the face of success and strength. Think about this — Hezekiah never said that all of these things he showcased were owing to God. He simply showed them the blessings of God and by his silence took credit for it all — credit that belonged to God.

What a massive opportunity this otherwise godly man missed out on — the opportunity to speak to the Babylonian envoys about the greatness of God and the LORD’s blessing on Judah. Though he showed the treasures of his own house — he never show them the Lord’s house!

QUOTE: Knapp — “Why did he not show these learned heathen God’s house? ‘Every whit’ of which showeth ‘His glory’ (Psalm 29:9, margin). There he could have explained to them the meaning of the brazen altar, and the sacrifices offered thereon; and who can tell what the results might not have been in the souls of these idolaters?”

That would be like the unbelieving world hearing about what God is doing at a local church and when the “envoy” shows up to the church that church’s Hezekiah shows them the brilliant IT infrastructure and the use of Media and all the moving pieces without ever telling them that all of it is from God and for God’s story and for His glory. Without ever showcasing Jesus as the real hero!

³²Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ³³And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper part of the tombs of the sons of David, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah was the good son of a rotten father. Manasseh is the most rotten son of the best father, since David.  Manasseh will be the most wicked king that Judah would ever see — and his reign will last 55 years.

Read ahead — if you dare!