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00:00 It must be one of the longer Bible readings that you've had here. So, I'll shorten the sermon uh to compensate for
00:05 it. Okay. Okay. So, let's uh let's come to God in prayer. Okay.
00:11 Dear heavenly father, we thank you so much for your word to us. Lord, we know that every part of your word is useful
00:17 for to teach us to rebuke us and correct us and train us in righteousness. And so now as we come to these chapters, uh we
00:24 pray that you will help us to know what it is that you are saying to us through it and to obey it. We pray all this in
00:30 Jesus name. Amen. Okay. Now, Malaysia,
00:40 oh, sorry, I haven't turned it on. Okay. Malaysia is a country where we are told
00:45 that uh we all live in peace and harmony together as different religions.
00:51 Or is it really? Because there are worrying signs when we
00:57 look around at us in our society that cracks are beginning to show that there may be intolerance and hostility towards
01:04 Christians. So for example, recent controversy in
01:09 our country over whether we should use the Arabic word for God in our Bibles,
01:14 in our Christian Bibles, and after that the uh the court uh uh judgment on that,
01:21 the uh attacks on churches. And think of the time a few months ago
01:28 when one of the churches in this place was uh raided uh without a permit for
01:34 claiming to con trying to convert Muslims.
01:39 And think also of uh recent just two weeks ago uh the Johor Education
01:44 Department said all teachers or all religious teachers in state schools have
01:50 to attend this seminar which is called strengthening the faith the dangers of liberalism and pluralism and the threat
01:56 of Christianization towards Muslims. What is the role of teachers that is funded by our text?
02:03 Of course there was a big uproar and they changed the title but the content remained the same. Now why am I raising
02:09 all these things? I want to suggest to you that persecution is an increasingly important
02:16 thing for us to take note of. Now we don't want to think about it. We prefer not to talk about it or think about it.
02:22 But you know what? Jesus spoke a lot about it and the Bible speaks a lot about it. And the last few chapters of
02:28 Acts from chapter 21 to 28, Luke spends eight chapters talking about how Paul
02:36 went through arrest, defended himself five times before people and eventually was sent to Rome in in house arrest.
02:44 Now, why does he spend eight chapters giving us so much detail, repeating speech after speech after speech after
02:49 speech when he could have finished the story in chapter 20 when the gospel had gone around uh the known world at that
02:56 time? Well, I think it's because he wants us to the one of the big themes here is
03:03 persecution for the sake of Christ and how we are to deal with it, how we are
03:08 to respond to it. Now this is a very somber topic but it is very relevant for
03:14 us and we want to learn in today's passage what the things are that we can
03:20 we can apply to ourselves. Now the Apostle Paul
03:26 lived in very volatile times perhaps a bit like today. And in in this chapter
03:31 in Acts 21, Paul had finally finished his missionary tour uh of uh Europe at
03:39 that time. And after spending several years traveling, he came back finally to
03:44 Jerusalem. And in those days, Jerusalem was a place boiling over with tensions,
03:50 you know, politically, socially. uh the Jews were becoming uh more and more resentful towards the Roman occupiers
03:57 because they were really harsh. They took too much tax and the Gentiles to them were were outsiders. They don't
04:03 deserve to be in a land. They are invaders. They unclean. They ungodly. They idol worshippers. And no respectful
04:11 Jew would associate at all with a Gentile. And religiously, the Jews said, "We are
04:18 the chosen ones. God chose us. God will rescue us from these hated Gentiles and
04:23 God will throw these gentile pigs into hell. That was the attitude. And the
04:28 extreme extremists, the radicals were becoming more and more angry and more and more violent in Paul's time. And
04:35 only 8 years after this incident is recorded in Acts, there was a rebellion in Jerusalem against the Romans. And
04:43 four years after that, the Romans destroyed the entire city of Jerusalem. So we can see what turbulent times this
04:50 was for Paul and he he knew all this. He knew how dangerous it would be to go
04:56 back into Jerusalem. You know he he and yet he went back to Jerusalem. Now when
05:02 he was traveling around all the countries before he went back to Jerusalem he had gained a really bad reputation with the Jews. If you look at
05:10 um uh uh the few chapters before he went to um Iconium he was thrown out by the
05:16 Jews. He went to Antioch. Uh I don't know if I can Okay, here is Iconium. Antioch is
05:23 somewhere here. Okay. And then in Thessalonica and in Berea there was
05:29 riots by the Jews against Paul. And they hated him. They despised him
05:37 because he said Jesus is the Messiah. And worse for them, he said the the
05:42 salvation can go to Gentiles as well, not just to the Jews. Even the Gentiles
05:47 can be saved by believing in Jesus. That's what they just couldn't take. And so Paul was their number one enemy
05:54 for the Jews. And now you can imagine Paul now goes into the hornet's nest, right into the
06:01 heart of Jerusalem to the temple. He purposely returns to Jerusalem. Why? Why
06:07 did he do that? because he knew it was God's will for him. My first point today that we can
06:14 learn from these passages is that persecution happens within God's will
06:19 and serves his purposes. See, from day one of his Christian life,
06:24 Paul was called to suffer for Christ. So, if you remember back to chapter nine, how did Paul become a Christian?
06:30 Well, God told him, God appeared to him on the road to Damascus. And then God told Ananas, he said, "This man is my
06:37 chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel, and I will
06:43 show him how much he must suffer for my name." Just before Paul got to Athens, the
06:51 Christians at Ephesus tried to stop him from going. This Ephesus was the last stop before he went to Jerusalem.
06:58 And they told him, you know, uh they told him, "Don't go. Don't go to Jerusalem." And Paul says,
07:04 compelled by the spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, but I only know that in
07:11 every city, the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.
07:17 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the
07:22 race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. The task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.
07:31 You see, God had made it clear to Paul. He would go to prison. He would go through hardships from now on. He didn't
07:37 know the details and he didn't really care. He says, "I have to complete the work that God has given to me."
07:44 Next chapter, just the beginning of chapter 21, uh, one of the prophets called Agabus came and told Paul that
07:51 when you go to Jerusalem, you'll be bound and handed over to the Romans.
07:57 And Paul's reply was well the people's reply was, "Please, Paul, don't go to
08:02 Jerusalem. Don't go to Jerusalem. You'll get killed." And Paul says, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I'm ready
08:08 not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." And the people say, "The Lord's
08:16 will be done." You see, it is indeed that the Lord's will often brings us into persecution.
08:25 It's God's way that sometimes the path of obeying God goes through hardship and
08:30 goes through persecution. And we may not fully understand why God would put us through it. But God has his purpose.
08:37 Now, in Paul's case, if he didn't go through the persecution in Jerusalem, he would never have gotten a chance to
08:44 stand before rulers and kings and the people of Israel to testify about Jesus.
08:50 And that's exactly what God had intended for him to do right from the day he became a Christian. See, God uses
08:57 persecution to make things happen according to his purpose.
09:03 And one of the early church fathers in the second century, that means only a 100 years or so after Jesus' time said
09:09 that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The blood of the
09:14 martyrs is the seed of the church. Now the church in China is a good
09:20 example of this. Okay. The Chinese government tries to clamp down very hard on Christianity and many Christians are
09:27 thrown into jail possessions, confiscated, sent to re-education camps, tortured and killed. But the more
09:35 they're persecuted, the more people want to become Christians. And you know when they interviewed uh
09:42 Chinese pastors about persecution in China and asked them you know is it good to have persecution? What do you think
09:48 about persecution in your country? This is what they said. Okay. Brother Wang he said this. If there is no persecution
09:54 Christians will become religionized. They will become Christians to have a good moral life and good families to get
10:01 the blessings for this life. The Chinese church will lose its drive to evangelize. Yes, they will want to give
10:06 money but not to go to reach the lost. They want to stay home and be prosperous.
10:13 That's what the insights of one Chinese pastor. And we have to think, compare ourselves to this picture. How much are
10:18 we like this? You know, next another Chinese pastor. Real Christians here
10:24 don't chase titles or degrees. They seek the laying down of their lives and pleasures. They seek to love the people
10:29 of God. Our Chinese pastors are giving their lives away.
10:35 Now God uses persecution for his purposes. Perhaps to strengthen the church, to purify the church. Now if
10:42 persecution is God's will, then what should we do when we go through persecution?
10:48 This is what Paul says. I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may
10:55 finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me.
11:01 So how many of us have this attitude? No, it's not easy, you know, to say this
11:06 because obviously the most precious thing to us is our lives, right? We only have one life. But Paul says, "My life
11:13 is not the most important thing to me." You know, my life exists only to serve
11:18 and obey God. And I don't mind using up my life in the service of Jesus Christ.
11:25 Now, if I serve Jesus and I lose my life in the process, that's okay for Paul.
11:31 See, that's very brave to say that and not easy. And that's the attitude we as Christians all should have to be willing
11:39 to spend our lives for Jesus. Now, one of my life group members
11:44 emailed me uh all of us actually a piece written by a Harvard Business School professor.
11:50 Now, I'm sure you all know that anyone who goes to Harvard Business School are the top tier. They're really the smartest ones around, okay? They're the
11:56 cream of the cream. This professor said, you know, my my classmates from 20 years ago, they graduated with me. They went
12:02 into very bright futures. And then when we come back for reunion 10 years, 20
12:08 years, 30 years down the track, what do I see? I see these people unhappy. I see
12:13 them divorced. I see them uh alienated from their children. What has happened?
12:19 They're so smart. How come they didn't run their life well? Well, he says it's because they never
12:25 thought deeply about the goal of their lives. You know, they have so much
12:30 talent, so much energy and time, but they never knew where to put it in. They never thought deeply about what am I
12:35 going to do with this life of mine. And so, it went into the next best thing,
12:41 the thing that seemed best at the time. And 30, 40 years later, they find out it
12:46 was all a hollow chase. All for nothing. See, I put all my life in this. I'm not
12:52 happy at the end. And uh and one of his students wrote this. He said, "When you make a ton of money, you want more of
12:58 it." Ironic thing, you start to forget what the drivers of happiness are and what things are really important. Now,
13:06 what is your goal? What is your goal in this life? No, it's so true what that student said. You know, the more money
13:12 that you make, the more you realize I have more money that I can make more money with it and I want to make more
13:18 money. So it's money gross money gross money and you spend all your waking hours making money
13:24 and many many of us in this country are sucked into this kind of thinking
13:30 but Jesus warns us that life is not about how much you have. Paul's goal in his life was to finish
13:38 the race and complete the task to do the job that Jesus gave him to do. That's all.
13:45 Now, you may say, "I don't know what God wants me to do." Paul had it easy. God spoke to him, right? Appeared in front of him and told him exactly what he
13:51 needed to do. What about me? I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Well, you do. You know, God wants you to
13:59 be faithful. God wants you to seek him first. God wants you to obey him in every area in your life. Are you doing
14:06 that? And God wants you, God has given each of us an important ministry.
14:12 And for some of us that may be bringing up our children to be to have godly values and ambitions. That is the task
14:19 God has set for you. And for some of us it may be to bear witness to Christ in your workplace with
14:27 that difficult colleague or to look after a sick family member with love and patience continuously.
14:34 That's hard. And many of us may have ministries in the church where we where we reach out to people around us to the
14:41 disadvantaged to the students and so on that may be your ministry. So whatever
14:46 it is finish the race and complete the task.
14:53 Now the next point that we see in today's passage is persecution is not a
14:59 rejection of Christians. It's a rejection of Christ.
15:04 You see how the Jews in Jerusalem they treat Paul. Okay. Paul was very careful. Okay. Before he got to Jerusalem or when
15:11 he arrived in Jerusalem, he was very careful to follow all the Jewish practices
15:16 after being away so long many years from Jerusalem, right? He would have been ritually unclean. Okay? So he had to
15:22 purify himself before going to the temple. And that's exactly what he did uh in just the verses before that. Okay?
15:28 He he took a bunch of people and together they went to the temple and they went and made a vow, paid some
15:34 money or whatever and cleansed themselves. And this was a 7-day process. And so at the end of the seven
15:41 days, he went into the temple ritually clean. And it says earlier on in the
15:47 chapter that this was actually a Jewish festival at the time when Paul went to Jerusalem. It was the festival of the
15:53 Pentecost. And there will be huge crowds from all over the region converging on Jerusalem. Okay. To to uh to celebrate
15:60 the festival. And when he finally went to the temple,
16:05 oh, he had the he had the misfortune, okay, of uh bumping into some Jews that
16:11 he had met before in the province of Asia. Okay, great. I have to meet these guys here of all places. Okay, so now
16:18 these guys, right, they really really hate Paul. Okay, I said just now. And when they saw him in the in the temple
16:24 in Jerusalem, haha, this is exactly the place to get him because he's not going to be able to run away here now. Okay?
16:29 So they make a huge scene. Hey guys, look, you know, I've caught this guy. He goes around ban mouthing Jews. He talks
16:35 against our holy temple. He talks against our sacred law. And you know, you know what? That's just like, you
16:42 know, for a person to go into the heart of, for example, Mecca during the Hajj and to say, "Hey, I caught somebody here
16:47 who is insulting the prophet." Okay, what was going to happen to that guy? it wouldn't last very long. Okay. Now, same
16:53 thing here in Paul's case. Okay. They accuse him even of bringing a gentile
16:60 into the temple. Now, that is definitely a no no for the Jews. Okay. In the
17:05 temple and they found this in the last 100 years or so. They found some of these slabs of stone around the Jerusalem temple and has survived until
17:11 now. These come from Paul's time and these are signs in Greek. They al they they also have signs in Latin saying no
17:18 foreigner may enter within the barrier which surrounds the temple and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so
17:23 will be personally responsible for his ensuing death. The Jews took it very seriously. Any gentile who steps into a
17:30 temple is going to die. And the Roman authorities they didn't let Jews kill people but indeed they made an exception
17:37 for this. Okay. They said okay if any foreigner even if he's a Roman citizen steps into your temple you are allowed
17:42 to kill him. That's how serious he was. So for you can imagine why the whole
17:47 crowd runs towards Paul now naps him and they're going to kill him and they they drag him out of the temple because you
17:54 can't kill somebody in the temple. It's holy. Okay. So they drag him outside and they shut the doors on him. And just
17:59 before they could stone him to death, the Roman army commander was told about this. He heard the commotion and he he
18:05 sent his troops in the nick of time to grab Paul before he was killed.
18:10 Now we look at these people and we wonder how can they be so fanatical. Huh? Why didn't they consider the
18:16 possibility that Paul is actually telling them the truth? You know, Jesus is actually the Messiah from God. Why do
18:21 they have to condemn him to death even without a trial or anything? Just stone him. See, they claim to be zealous for
18:28 God's law, but yet they are willing to murder without a fair trial. And they're
18:34 totally blind, totally blind to their own sin. They they they think that by killing Paul, I'm actually help I'm
18:39 actually doing God a favor. You know, I'm doing God a great service. And that's exactly what Jesus had predicted
18:45 to his disciples. See, in the Gospel of John, Jesus said this. They will put you out of the synagogue.
18:51 In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he's offering a service to God. And they would do such
18:58 things because they have not known the father or me. Now, notice what Jesus says here.
19:06 He says these people who kill Christians do it because they reject God the father
19:12 and Jesus his son. Now the Jews tried to kill Paul not because of Paul as such but because of
19:18 Jesus Christ that Paul proclaimed and and their actions were because they
19:24 closed their minds to God. God had revealed himself in Jesus but they just hardened their hearts and stiffened
19:30 their necks against God. And so they shut the doors literally in Paul's face and in God's face.
19:37 Now, it's interesting for us when we read through Acts to look at how many parallels there are between Paul's story
19:44 and Jesus' story that was recorded in the Gospels, especially in the Gospel of Luke. So, some of them are here. Okay.
19:52 Both Jesus and Paul were determined to go to Jerusalem despite knowing the danger. And both were rejected by their
19:59 own people who wanted them killed. Both were arrested without cause, imprisoned.
20:05 Both were unjustly accused and misrepresented by false witnesses. Both were subjected to a series of five
20:13 trials. Okay? Both were slapped on the face before the Sanhedrin. Both were the
20:18 target of secret Jewish plots. Both heard a frenzy mob screaming for their
20:24 deaths. Now, what's this trying to say? I think Luke is trying to tell us something here. What he's saying is that
20:30 the disciple will be like the master. The disciple will be like the master.
20:36 See, just as Jesus walked in the way of the cross, so too Christians who follow
20:42 him must take up their cross. This is what Jesus said. If the world
20:48 hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belong to the world, they
20:54 wouldn't hate you. They would love you as his own. But as it is, you do not belong to the world and I have chosen
21:01 you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you. No servant is greater than
21:07 his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And if they
21:13 obeyed my teaching, they will also obey yours. You see, persecution is not an exception for Christian. It is the rule.
21:21 All who follow Jesus will go through persecution. Of course, persecution can come in many types. So when I was in
21:27 Australia, okay, I was involved in a the student uh university student
21:32 fellowship, evangelical fellowship and the student union who runs the you know
21:37 the the student fellow uh groups and so on they made it really difficult for the Christian group to book rooms okay for
21:44 meetings okay so if you can't book a room then you can't have a meeting right so you must don't exist right so you see
21:50 this is kind of subtle persecution that happens even in places like Australia western countries is in the UK even
21:57 worse. Okay, if you wear a cross to work at British Airways or or whatever, you
22:03 can get sacked. No, wear a cross around your neck, you can get sacked for it. Or one of the nurses in the hospital
22:10 offered to pray for a patient. She got sacked. Okay. A 5-year-old girl was scolded by a teacher because she stated
22:16 her Christian faith to her friends as fact and she was scolded. and a counselor
22:23 uh was sacked. Why? Because he said, "I would feel uncomfortable if I have to give sex therapy to a homosexual
22:30 couple." And he got sacked too. You see, persecution comes in many guys in modern
22:38 day Jerusalem. Today, there are Jewish nuh nationalists who write who spray paint churches death to Christianity and
22:45 they spray paint profanities about Jesus. You see, you get this everywhere. Persecution could be discrimination.
22:52 It could be marginalization. It means isolated from the rest of society. It
22:57 could be hostility, unofficial, official. But those things I mentioned like in
23:03 Australia and UK, they're nothing compared to what's happening elsewhere around the world today. In Egypt, I'm
23:08 sure you may have heard the Christians there. You know, every time somebody starts a rumor, you know, the Christian
23:15 churches will get attacked, burned, bombed. Christians get attacked, they get killed, the government turns a blind
23:20 eye. And just last Sunday, we were celebrating Easter here. Church in
23:26 Nigeria got bombed. 50 Christians packed the church, killed. You see, that's the
23:32 kind of thing that happens in our world today. The world hates Christians because the world hates Christ.
23:39 Now, we can't run away and we can't hide and we can't renounce our faith because
23:44 of persecution. Jesus said, "If anyone is ashamed of me
23:50 and my words, the son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his
23:55 glory and in the glory of the father and the holy angels." You see, we cannot deny our Lord. Paul resolved, "No matter
24:03 what, I have to go to Jerusalem to obey God." He looked the hatred in the eye. He calmly faced it a few. He got almost
24:11 beaten to a pulp and if the commander hadn't come earlier, he would have been killed. He was saved just in time. But
24:18 God saved him again and again. God was with him every step of the way. And towards the end of this uh uh section in
24:25 chapter 23, the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Take courage. As you have
24:31 testified about me in Jerusalem, so must you also testify in Rome."
24:37 So when we are discriminated against for being a Christian, when we do not get the
24:43 promotion that we are sidelined because we are Christian, when we are ostracized, when we are ridiculed, when
24:49 we harassed, when we are restricted or worse for being a Christian, God says,
24:55 "Take courage. I'm with you. I've not abandoned you. I'm with you all the
24:60 way." Now the next lesson that we learn from today is that persecution should spur us
25:08 to defend the gospel above ourselves.
25:14 Now let's take a look at Paul's uh defense speech. Okay, Paul starts by saying, "Brothers and fathers, listen
25:20 now to my defense." Now he's just been almost killed. Okay, he's got bruises everywhere and he doesn't sound at all
25:26 angry, right? He's very respectful, very winsome. He says brothers and father. This is the polite way to address people
25:33 in in in for the Jews. Okay? And he spoke to them in Aramaic. That is he connected to them in their own language.
25:40 And they all were quiet when they heard this. And Paul says, "I'm like you guys.
25:45 I'm a Jew." See, he shows how much he has in common with them. I'm a Jew. I'm born in Tarsus. I was born outside of
25:52 Israel, but I was educated in this very city by the famous rabbi Galile Galiel.
25:58 Okay. I was just as fired up for God just like you are today. You know, just like you tried to kill me, I also went
26:03 and tried to in fact I did kill Christians. I I went around threw them in prison and killed them. You see, I was so fanatical. I even went outside of
26:10 Jerusalem to Damascus all the way there to arrest people and bring them back to here.
26:17 Then what happened? What happened to me? What's changed? How could a good Jew like me become a Christian?
26:24 The answer is Jesus Christ appeared to me himself. You see, not Jesus on earth, Jesus in
26:32 heaven appeared to me. You know, he told me that in my blind zeal, I was actually
26:38 not doing him a favor. I was persecuting him. You know, how could I not believe in
26:44 Jesus after seeing him, after hearing him with my own ears,
26:49 you know? And it wasn't just me who realized that Jesus is actually the chosen messiah, the righteous one.
26:55 Ananiah as another respected Jew came and spoke to me and he said that you
27:01 know this is the righteous one. God has give chosen you to know his will and to
27:06 see the righteous one and to hear words from his mouth. So
27:13 Jesus told him hang on the next part. Yeah. Okay. Uh
27:19 and Jesus told him, "Leave Jerusalem immediately because they will not accept your testimony about me." Now, that was
27:25 a few years ago. Okay. After he got the vision, he went back to Jerusalem and the the Jews already tried to kill him
27:30 then. And Jesus told him to leave because they will not listen. And then Jesus says, "Go. I will send you far
27:36 away to the Gentiles." And as soon as the people heard this, they were so mad they couldn't bear hearing anymore. It
27:42 was it was bad enough that Paul will call Jesus Lord because the word Lord
27:47 refers only to God. And when he says the Lord Jesus, he's giving Jesus the same
27:53 uh position as God. Okay? But now he says that God and will send the Gentiles
27:60 salvation just like the Jews. The Jews are no different to the Gentiles. And that's what they couldn't bear hearing.
28:06 And so they got out. They were shouting at the top of their voice to get rid of this Paul. Paul.
28:12 Now, what can we notice in Paul's speech? See, Paul is not just concerned about defending himself.
28:19 I mean, if I were Paul, I probably wouldn't mention the last line. Maybe I just forget it. Okay, it's not so important because I'm talking to Jews
28:25 anyway. Why do I need to talk about God will send me to the Gentiles and I know that they're just going to get furious. See, Paul is not just defending himself.
28:32 Paul is trying to convince the Jews about Jesus. He's trying to tell them, "This is my
28:38 testimony. I really saw it. This is really what happened. I mean not I mean a guy like me would be very difficult to
28:44 convert to Christianity but that's exactly what happened because this is what happened to me. Okay. And he's trying to tell us so that they also will
28:51 believe. His priority is to present the truth about Jesus as respectfully, as
28:57 clearly, as attractively as he can because that is the task that Jesus has
29:02 given him to do right from the very beginning. And he won't even cut out the unattractive bits to save his own life.
29:10 Now what we can learn about this is when we go through persecution our priority must be to make the most of
29:17 the situation to present the gospel in a favorable light and to bear witness to
29:23 the gospel. Now of course Paul is also giving his defense okay he's not telling them hey
29:28 just take me and kill me. No he's not okay he's he's giving a defense here. He's saying hey guys I'm as loyal as you
29:35 are as a Jew. I've never changed my religion, you know, because Christianity is the
29:40 rightful heir of Judaism. Christianity is really the continuation of Judaism. Because in believing Jesus, I'm being
29:47 faithful to the same God, the God of Israel is God and who sent Jesus and
29:52 Jesus who told me to do this. I didn't make it up myself. That's what Paul is actually saying here. Now, we don't see
29:58 Paul giving up without a fight and say, "Ah, I want to die for God, okay? So, just kill me." Right? Okay. He defends
30:05 himself very vigorously. Now, he still puts the gospel first, of course, but Paul actually uses all legitimate means
30:11 to defend himself. He says, "I'm a Roman citizen. You cannot flog me." Okay? I demand I I want to go to Caesar because
30:17 there's no fair trial here. Things like that. Okay? Now, what we learn from that is that we do accept persecution when it
30:24 comes. We must stand firm, but we do not seek persecution. We do not seek martyrdom. We do not glorify persecution
30:32 as Christians. Okay? in the in the second and third centuries. Okay, this was a very common thing for people to
30:39 glorify martyrdom. Okay, because in those times there were many many Christians killed by the Romans and and
30:47 there's a story told of this guy Oregon who was a who was a famous Christian
30:52 thinker later on in the third century. Okay. He found out that his father was arrested for being a Christian. And his
30:57 father was later put in prison and and put to death and he wanted to rush out and declare himself a Christian so that
31:03 he can also die a martyr. You see, I want to die a martyr. You see? And his mother hid all his clothes so he
31:09 couldn't run out onto the street. And his life was saved. And he became a famous theologian.
31:15 Now the point here is that when persecution comes, we mustn't be cowards
31:20 who deny our Lord. But we must not throw ourselves purposely into danger for no
31:26 reason. Okay? Paul did not do that. We should learn from Paul to defend
31:31 ourselves and yet at the same time to make the full use of every opportunity to speak about Jesus.
31:39 And lastly, persecution will not have the final victory.
31:46 You know, in chapter 23, Jesus told Paul, take courage. Just now I read to
31:52 you, as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify about me in Rome. Now, you know what?
31:58 Paul would have been so happy to hear that because that is a promise by Jesus that he's actually going to make it out
32:03 of Jerusalem to Rome. You see, he's not going to die in Jerusalem. Now, Paul was
32:10 saved by God from the Jews. Even though, you know, later on you can read in chapter uh 23 that some Jews make a pack
32:17 together. We're not going to eat or drink anything until we kill Paul. A group of 20 or 40 men make this pack,
32:23 make this vow. I don't know what happened to them in the end whether they ate or drank because they didn't manage to kill Paul. Okay. God saved Paul. God
32:30 protected Paul. Now, God does save us too from persecution.
32:36 But yet it is true also that God allows some Christians to be killed for their
32:42 faith. For example, a few weeks ago we looked at Steven, the first Christian
32:47 martyr in Acts chapter 7. And in Acts chapter 12, there is James the Apostle
32:52 who was killed. And according to tradition, it's not recorded in the Bible. Paul himself was
32:58 eventually killed too in Rome for his faith. So how is it true then that
33:03 persecution will not have the final victory? Well, this is what Jesus says. I tell
33:11 you my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom
33:19 you should fear. Fear him who after the killing of the body has power to throw
33:24 you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. See Jesus says that those who kill
33:30 our body only cannot really touch us. They cannot touch our soul. Our soul,
33:35 our life is safe and secure always in God's hands. And even if we are killed,
33:40 we will reign with Christ and be raised to life on the last day. But it's those
33:46 who persecute Christians who should fear. They must fear the one who not only kills but can put into hell. and
33:55 one day they will realize the horror that God has the power to cast into
34:01 hell. So Paul tries his best to bring the gospel out to the Jews. He tries again
34:07 and again and at the end of the book of Acts, okay, when all is said and done,
34:12 okay, Paul has still been talking to the Jews in Rome and they disagreed again with him, they began to leave. And what
34:18 did Paul say? He quoted Isaiah. He said this, "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth
34:24 to your forefathers when they said to when they they say to Isaiah, go to these people and say they you'll be ever
34:29 hearing but never understanding. You'll be ever seeing but never perceiving. For
34:34 this people's hearts, these Jews have become callous. They hardly hear with
34:40 their ears and they have closed their eyes and therefore they will not be able
34:45 to see or hear or understand and I will not turn and heal them." That is what
34:50 God says. See, because the Jews of Paul's day had
34:56 multiple multiple opportunities to hear the gospel, but they refused. God says they will never turn and be healed. And
35:03 in another passage, Paul writes this. Now, he went through severe persecution from the uh Jews in Thessalonica. When
35:11 he wrote the letter to the Thessalonians, he said, "These Jews who persecuted us, who killed the Lord Jesus
35:16 and the prophets and also drove us out, they displeased God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from
35:22 speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved." And in this way, they always heap up their sins to the limit.
35:29 And the wrath of God has come upon them at last. You see when this these people are actually heaping up their sins
35:36 before God and one day they will be punished persecution will not have the final victory.
35:43 So what then shall we do? Well let's put our confidence in God
35:49 because our life rest in him. He will not allow for persecution to have the
35:54 victory. He will surely rescue us from death either in this life or after
36:00 death. Now, we don't know what the church in Malaysia will face in the future. We
36:06 don't know. But whatever comes, God calls us to put Jesus as number one, to
36:13 be willing to spend your life for him. Follow in his footsteps because he
36:18 endured shame and suffering on the cross and trust him. Trust God to walk with us
36:26 in every situation and that he will finally save us. Let me close with these
36:31 words from the book of Hebrews. This letter was written to a church which
36:36 faced persecution. And he says, "Remember those earlier days after you received the light when you stood your
36:42 ground in suffering? Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult to persecution. At other times you stood
36:49 shoulderto-shoulder with those who were so treated. And you sympathized with those in prison. You joyfully accepted
36:55 the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do
37:03 not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded. God says you need to
37:10 persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you receive what he has promised. God says, "I'm coming soon. I
37:17 will not delay. But if you shrink back, I will not be pleased with him." So may
37:23 we be not those who shrink back and are destroyed but those who believe and are
37:29 saved. Let's pray.
37:36 Dear heavenly father, we know that we are weak and we are
37:42 fearful. Lord, we uh need your strength and your help. Lord, we pray that you'll help us
37:50 to take courage to take courage, Lord, to uh endure whatever hardship may come
37:56 our way in the future as Christians, as a church. We pray that you will give us the boldness to speak about Jesus in
38:04 this land. We pray that you give us the tact and the sensitivity and the love to
38:10 speak for you, Lord. We pray that you'll help us to uh be good witnesses for you
38:15 wherever we are, wherever you have placed us, whatever the ministry you have given to us. And we pray that
38:21 you'll help us to always stand firm in our faith for all of our lives, Lord. And we pray all this in Jesus name.
38:27 Amen.
