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The True and Reasonable Gospel - Pastor Tom Loghry
4d agoTap to summarizeThe True and Reasonable Gospel - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download Under trial, Paul accounts for his life and message, revealing the Gospel can stand before any authority..Listen on Spotify Listen/Download on iTunesWatch on YouTubeTranscript: I want to start our time in God's word this morning with a question. And it may seem like a strange question or, if you're able to understand it, sometimes I don't always phrase questions in the most clear way, but if you do understand it, a question perhaps with an obvious answer. But I will ask it and explain what I'm getting at. The question is this: Can the gospel message hold its own in all places? Can the gospel message hold its own in all places?In other words, can we expect the gospel message to hold up in all situations, or are there situations where we shouldn't bother serious people with its message? Now, of course, our instinct in this immediate moment might be, "Of course, we take the gospel to all people and places." But I suspect that we actually tend to live our lives in line with the expectations of our society.In polite society, we distinguish between the public sphere and the private sphere. When we think about presenting the gospel, we usually envision doing so in churches or in homes or across tables in coffee shops. We don't usually imagine venturing to articulate the gospel in the halls of government, in civic spaces, perhaps also in academic spaces. "That's religion," they say in response, as a sort of final sentence-- indoctrinating everyone in our society under the notion that religious truth cannot be taken seriously. The serious stuff is scientific papers, sociological studies, legislation, and other such sources of truth. Yes, those sources can contain truth, but they are not the final word. And while living in a diverse society like ours does compel us to think how we will live well together in trying to find common ground, I do think that generations of American Christians have too quickly complied with the notion that the gospel must be fenced off from serious, adult conversation. That the gospel might be a personal truth, but not a public truth that can stand in court.Today's passage reminds us that the gospel is without limits. It is not embarrassed in front of politicians. If you were with us last week, you'll recall that Paul has been imprisoned in Caesarea In Herod's palace, now occupied by the Roman authorities. He's been a prisoner there now for two years under Governor Felix, who knew Paul was innocent of any wrongdoing but was hoping to gain a bribe from him for his release. Two years, in which Paul lived out the words he would later write the Philippians from Rome. Last week, I incorrectly implied that he had already written to them. Those words in which he says, "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him." Paul's not just talk. He actually lives out his message. This is Paul's own story. But now a new governor has been appointed named Porcius Festus. And we pick up the narrative now in Acts 25.And just to kind of prepare you, we're gonna read a lot of scripture this morning. My commentary on the scripture is not gonna match the amount of scripture we read because it's a lot of narrative, it doesn't need to be all explained, and so you should pay close attention as we read the word, as you always should. Picking up in Acts 25. Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul. They requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. Festus answered, Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. Let some of your leaders come with me, and if the man has done anything wrong, they can press charges against him there.After spending eight or ten days with them, Festus went down to Caesarea. The next day he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him. When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him. They brought many serious charges against him, but they could not prove them. Then Paul made his defense. I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges? Paul answered, I am now standing before Caesar's court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar. After Festus had conferred with his counsel, he declared, You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go.So we have this new figure entering into the scene, this governor named Porcius Festus. He would've served around the year 59 or 60 AD, so that's kind of where we are in the timeline here. And Festus, apparently early on when he had become governor, went up to Jerusalem, and there, even two years later, the high priests, these religious leaders, were still gunning for Paul. They wanted to take him down. They wanted him to be killed. It wasn't enough that he was out of the way. He, they wanted him dead. And they weren't necessarily trusting that they would get the ruling they wanted from Festus, and so they had conspired that, well, maybe if we can just get Paul on his way here, we can kill him along the way.You'll recall this is how Paul ended up in Caesarea in the first place, because there was a plot to murder him, and at that time, Claudius Lysias sent him to Caesarea so that he might be safe, kept safe, because Paul is a Roman citizen. He is due a just trial. And so Festus tells them, "No, we're not doing that. But if you want to come to Caesarea, we can, I will consider your case," because he's a new governor. He's not aware of all of the, the details here. And so they return to Caesarea. I shared some pictures last week of what that probably looked like, the man-made port they had there, and then also that's Herod's palace down there. And so that's where Festus would've held court.Now, when the Jews arrive there, who are bringing these charges against Paul, they surround him and make all sorts of accusations. But once again, they're not able to prove anything against him. It's the same old story. And as a new governor, Festus is interested in trying to be on good terms with the Jewish people, and so he thinks, "Well, maybe I can send him back to them in Jerusalem." But Paul challenges on that because of his Roman citizenship. He reasons with him, you know, "Isn't this good enough? You're basically the governor. You, you're the representative of Caesar's court, and I haven't done anything wrong." Now, Paul is quite bold here. He, I mean, this, this man holds his life in his hands. He says, "If I've done anything wrong, kill me," basically. But he's so confident in his innocence, in the case that he's made, that he persists in saying, "No, I'm not going there." And instead what he does is he appeals to Caesar.Now, the appeal procedure here would've meant that Paul is literally going to be sent to Rome, in which he will appear before the emperor Nero, and that he would decide his fate. And so Festus agrees. He says, "Okay, you've appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go."But that's not where the story ends. Paul is going to have more to say to Festus and to also two other authorities which now enter the scene. Continuing on in verse 13, we read, "A few days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus. Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul's case with the king. He said, 'There is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner. When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked that he be condemned. I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges.When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in. When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. Instead, they had some point of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus whom Paul claimed was alive.I was at a loss how to investigate such matters, so I asked if he'd be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges. But when Paul made his appeal to be...
Transcribe →Awaiting True Justice - Pastor Tom Loghry
2w agoTap to summarizeAwaiting True Justice - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download Paul’s imprisonment and trial before Felix reveals the injustice of his adversaries, the true justice which God brings, and God’s continued work and purpose even while we wait..Listen on Spotify Listen/Download on iTunesWatch on YouTubeTranscript: I think there are few things in life that can get under your skin like being blamed for something you didn't do. Maybe in your life someone has blamed you for something going wrong that wasn't your fault. Maybe at work, said, "Oh, this went wrong because so-and-so did this." It wasn't your fault at all. A false accusation spouted by someone who has significant influence and perhaps more power than you. It's unnerving. It's infuriating. Especially when the person knows the truth, that'll make you real mad. When they're maligning your character when it's actually their character which comes up short. We want to set the record straight, not later, right now, but sometimes justice is slow to be realized. We find ourselves in a holding pattern, stuck in the in-between. When you think of yourself in that position, you can more easily put yourself in Paul's shoes, as he too suffers the harmful effects of a false accusation.If you were with us last week, you'll recall that Paul was transferred to, to Caesarea under the cover of night from Jerusalem, accompanied by four hundred and seventy Roman soldiers. His nephew had uncovered a plot to kill him, even while he was waiting for judgment under Claudius Lysias in the Roman fortress there in Jerusalem. A plot that was schemed by forty men who had taken vows not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. Because Paul was a Roman citizen, the Roman commander Claudius Lysias sent him to Caesarea for his case to be heard by the governor Felix. Lysias reported to Felix that he hadn't found Paul to be guilty of anything wrong, and that the dispute seemed to be a matter of difference within the Jewish religion. In keeping with Roman custom that a trial could only proceed if the accusers presented themselves with the charges that were being made against the defendant, Felix called upon Paul's accusers to make their way to Caesarea for this trial. So continuing on in Acts twenty-four, we pick up in verse one. It says, "Five days later the high priest Ananias went down to Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, and they brought their charges against Paul before the governor. When Paul was called in, Tertullus presented his case before Felix. 'We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation. Everywhere and in every way, Most Excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude. But in order not to weary you further, I would request that you be kind enough to hear us briefly.We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect and even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him, and we would have judged him in accordance with our law, but the Commander Lysias came and took him from us with much violence, ordering his accusers to come before you. By examining him yourself you will be able to learn the truth about all these charges we are bringing against him.' The other Jews joined in the accusation, asserting that these things were true."First, just to set the scene here in Caesarea. So we have Paul taken from Jerusalem up to Caesarea on the coast. You can see a little aerial shot of Caesarea, and you can see this little harbor here. In fact, it's an artificial harbor that was made because the coastline there doesn't give many places where you can safely bring a ship into port. You can see that's a picture of it today. A pretty beautiful scene as it, as it is.Now, back in that time, it would have looked something like this. A little bit different angle, but you can see that's where, what we were just looking at there. Very impressive, and you, you would have ships lined up all on the inside there. Now, Herod's palace, which was built by Herod the Great and is now occupied by Governor Felix, is down here. You can see it jutting out into the sea. We can get a bit of a closer look there. And you can see here this open space, and that's actually a pool, it's a freshwater pool. You can see the opulence of, of these quarters for Governor Felix and just the total situation that Paul is brought into here, if you go back here, you can see it, it's, Felix has all the privilege of power. He's right next to this racing course, he's got a theater here, he has the world by a string, it seems. And now Paul is here at his mercy. We, we can actually see what it looks like today. Nothing left of it, really. You can see the square of the pool there. And so when Paul is brought before Governor Felix, he would have appeared in this room here, number five. It would have been an audience room, which now is probably in the water about there. Amazing how things change, isn't it?So Paul is brought before Felix, and Paul's accusers are also before Felix. The high priest Ananias, who you remember had ordered that he be slapped across the face, and whom Paul had cursed as a, a whitewashed wall, he's there. Some of the elders are there. And they've also brought a lawyer with them. Now, you have all this power marshaled against just Paul. Doesn't seem like really much of a fair fight. You can also imagine that maybe Paul has some concern given the reputation that Felix has earned for himself. Felix is not actually a Roman, he is Greek, and he was formerly a slave. But his older brother became good friends with the Emperor Claudius, and when, was made his secretary of, of the treasury. And so by way of that connection, Felix himself was also freed and was raised to power. And he was serving as governor here in Judea from around fifty-two to sixty AD. Now he had a reputation for being very corrupt. In fact, he, he had a scheme to assassinate the high priest Jonathan, the former high priest Jonathan, and he succeeded in that. He had him assassinated. He just had a reputation of being a gangster. The Roman historian Tacitus says of him, "He exercised the power of a king in the spirit of a slave." So you kinda get the picture of the sort of guy that this was. He, he was not really a man of great character. And so it becomes all the more striking when this lawyer Tertullus begins it, to make his case before Felix because he, he just gives him all sorts of flattery that he doesn't really deserve, 'cause again, he's a gangster.He says, he says to him, We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you. Not really the case. He praises him for his reforms. Felix hasn't really done that much that is good. But we see the ways of the world at work here, of getting in good with people and getting your way by telling them what they want to hear. Now, the case that Tertullus brings against Paul is one built upon a case which would greatly concern a Roman governor. We see in verses five through eight, and just as a note here, I included some verses in here that are excluded in the NIV. It's just based on different textual manuscripts that are available to us. Some of the earlier manuscripts didn't include those verses, and so for that reason, for sake of accuracy, the NIV has excluded it, but I've included it in case they're included in your Bibles.The case that Tertullus brings against Paul here is based upon essentially causing disorder, which is a great concern to the Roman powers which are insistent upon maintaining order, maintaining peace. It paints a picture of Paul as a troublemaker, one who starts riots. He's the ringleader of this Nazarene sect, trying to make the Christians sound like this really, like, fringe group that's up to no good. And he says he desecrated the temple, which again would have been a big no-no because there is an interconnection between the civil and religious powers, and so desecrating the temple would create civil disorder. And, and so Tertullus says, "Just examine him yourself. You'll see this." And the other Jew, Jews, the high priest and these other elders in the, are in the back room saying, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, he definitely did these things. You'll see." And so Felix proceeds to begin his examination of Paul by giving Paul his opportunity to offer his testimony and his defense.So we continue on in verse ten. It says, "When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied, 'I know that for a number of years you have been judge over this nation, so I gladly make my defense. You can easily verify that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship. My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues, or anywhere else in the city. And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me.However, I admit that I worship the God of our a...
Transcribe →Our Duty and Courage in Christ - Pastor Tom Loghry
3w agoTap to summarizeOur Duty and Courage in Christ - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download Paul rebukes the high priest after being struck and declares he is on trial for the hope of the resurrection, prompting a dispute that forces the Roman commander to remove him. The Lord encourages Paul and promises he will testify in Rome. A plot to assassinate Paul is uncovered, leading Claudius Lysias to escort Paul by night with a large guard to Governor Felix, who finds no charge deserving death. .Listen on Spotify Listen/Download on iTunesWatch on Watch on YoTranscript: Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." At this, the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!"Dear Father, as we come before your word this morning, we pray that you would use it to encourage us, to encourage us by the testimony of your faithful care for us, that you would use it to encourage us to be brave, to carry out the duty that you have handed to us, that we would fear you above all things. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. You may be seated.Who do you fear? I can tell you there is one you should fear, but I don't know if he is the one you fear. Who do you fear? Maybe it's not a specific person, not any one specific face looming in your mind's imagination. Maybe it is bigger than that. You fear the crowd, facing social disapproval, or worse. You fear becoming the outcast, the butt of jokes, that person. The threat of a sort of death, losing your place, your belonging, your sense of identity.Popularity and praise, acceptance, we crave it. God created us to be social creatures. It is not good for man to be alone. We fear the isolation. We fear death, but we should fear God more.Standing for the truth has consequences. When Jesus hints to the disciple the mission that they're going to be taking up, he also tells them who they should fear, because tough times are going to confront them, things that would make anyone fearful. He says in Matthew ten, verses twenty-seven through twenty-eight, "What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight. What is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell."If we are more fearful of other human beings than we are of God, we will fold when it counts every single time. When the cards are down on the table, we must reckon whether we will listen to God or whether we will listen to man. Peter and John set before us their own example in Acts four. Maybe some of you will remember this from when we covered it previously.When the Sanhedrin told them to stop preaching the gospel, they said to them in Acts four, verse nineteen through twenty, "Which is right in God's eyes? To listen to you or to Him? You be the judges. As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."We encounter a similar situation here in Acts twenty-three as Paul himself stands before the Sanhedrin, a body of up to seventy-one elders of the people. The Roman commander wants answers as to why Paul is causing so much unrest and so he brings Paul to them. So picking up with the last verse of chapter twenty-two, verse thirty, we begin reading, "The commander wanted to find out exactly why, why Paul was being accused by the Jews. So the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them." And as was read before, "Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, 'My brothers, I've fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.' At this, the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, 'God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck.' Those who were standing near Paul said "How dare you insult God's high priest?" Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest. For it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'" Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead." When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the assembly was divided. The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things. There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. "We find nothing wrong with this man," they said. "What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"So Paul is on trial here. He's on trial before a body that cannot kill him necessarily, just as they couldn't have killed Jesus themselves, but their report is going to be very influential in, in determining what the commander might do with Paul. And so standing before them, Paul makes his defense, and his defense is simply this: "My brothers, I've fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience."What Paul is saying essentially is, "I'm standing before you in the position that you may judge me, but in fact, I know that before the, the one true judge, God, that I stand faultless. I'm, because I have done all that he called me to do." And we know what he was called to do, which caused some controversy, which is that he was sent to be an apostle to the Gentiles, to bring news to the world that salvation had come not only for the Jews, but for all people in Jesus Christ. Knowing that this is what God had called him to do, even as he faces a body, a group of men who he was raised to revere and respect, a body that he probably wished and desired would say, "Good job, Paul."Despite all that, he rests assured because he knows he's approved by God, even if these men might reject him. It brings to mind both the words of Jesus and Paul's words elsewhere. Jesus in Luke 17:10 says that when the Master returns, when He returns, we should be able to say this: "so you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty.'" And Paul in Galatians 1:9-10 says in verse 10, "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I was still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ." In 1 Thessalonians 2:3-4, in verse four he says, "We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts."You see, if you follow Jesus, there's a very strong chance that you're not going to please people, that sometimes you're going to make them upset, that they're gonna disapprove of you, that they're gonna say that you're doing something that is wrong. But we have a higher duty. We have a higher call. And we have no need to congratulate ourselves in doing that because it is our duty. It is what we are expected to do. We are not going above and beyond. Jesus Christ is Lord, he is due our complete loyalty and fidelity.And so with that in mind, Paul is able to stand before this body and say, "I have a clear conscience even as you disapprove of me."Now, this is a call that all of us should take into account for our own lives, that we should consider that as we've been called to be faithful unto God above all things, that we would not be swayed by the disapproval of others when we know that, when their way is going against the ways of God. Now, I've heard it said before, bi-vocational ministry is a, is a great thing and, and it can be a great thing for pastors that work both out in the marketplace and work in the church.Sometimes I've heard it said that one of the benefits of doing that is then you, you're not held captive by a congregation if they want you to do something that doesn't align with God's Word. And that's always bothered me a little bit, and it's bothered me because it should not matter. It should not matter. Even if a pastor fears that a church may decide, "We wanna get rid of you. You're done here. You're gonna lose your job. You're gonna lose the place that you live," it should not matter. And I can tell you that does not matter to me. It's not about the money, and Paul has said that multiple times in his ministry, that it's not about the money, it's not about the approval of, of others.Which again, we can imagine Paul desiring here. It's about God's appro...
Transcribe →The Unpopular Gospel - Pastor Tom Loghry
4w agoTap to summarizeThe Unpopular Gospel - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download After Paul is arrested in Jerusalem, he tries to offer a defense before the Jews that were gathered. They begin to protest all the more and the commander sends him to be flogged. Paul then reveals his Roman citizenship..Listen on Spotify Listen/Download on iTunesWatch on Watch on YouTubeTranscript: The truth is the truth, but it is not always popular. People love the truth when it backs them up, when it confirms their priors. They despise the truth when it cuts against them. The truth should be loved unconditionally, not only when it fits our narrative. Because we should always be seeking the better narrative, the truer narrative than those stories that we tell ourselves. God's narrative over those of our own making.More often, however, we fight back. From the end of Acts 21 into chapter 22, we hear Paul's own testimony of how he came to be an apostle of Christ. It's a story told not for its own sake, but because it reveals the truth. It reveals the truth of who Jesus is, and it reveals the truth of regarding God's redemptive purpose here in this world. We learn the true story in Paul's story. And as we'll see, there are fireworks in response. Already, as you'll recall, Paul had been dragged from the temple under the accusation that he had defiled the temple by bringing a Gentile, named Trophimus, into the temple. Now, Paul hadn't done that, but he was accused of doing that. Jews from Asia Minor knew Paul, and they wanted to bring trouble for him, and they started a riot. And they were trying to kill Paul until Roman troops intervened. And so we continue the story from that point in verse 37 of Acts 21.Now, as has always, already been read, Paul begins speaking to the commander. He says, "May I say something to you?" And Paul says this in Greek, and the commander is impressed. In fact, the commander is surprised because he had supposed that, in fact, Paul was a terrorist. He says in verse 38, "Aren't you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?" The time in which Paul is living is a very violent time. The Jewish historian Josephus corroborates, in fact, this detail of there being a false prophet who came from Egypt, was not a native Egyptian, but was a Jew who lived in Egypt, in order to try to lead a revolt against the Romans. Now, it failed, but they were trying to get the guy. And meanwhile, also, there is a group in the area known as the Sicarii, which is just kind of a plural term for the daggers, those who use daggers. They're a group of assassins. They went after the Roman authorities and any Jewish sympathizers, killing them in broad daylight. So the commander here thinks that the people are upset because they've found one of these terrorists, or perhaps even, in particular, this, this one fellow who has been causing trouble from, from Egypt.But the fact that Paul is so fluent in Greek suggests to him that Paul probably isn't this, this fellow. And Paul tells him as much. He says, "I, I'm," he says, "I'm, I'm basically not from there. I'm from, I'm a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, citizen of no ordinary city." Now, Tarsus was a very respectable city. It wasn't any sort of backwater town. It wasn't a seedy kind of place. And so what we find is that the commander's going to give Paul permission to speak here. Why? Because he's probably hoping that Paul will be able to clear this all up, cause the crowd to disperse because they'll realize that he's no troublemaker. He's just this guy from Tarsus, it's all a big mix-up.And so Paul makes his approach, and as we'll see, he, he addresses his countrymen in the Aramaic language. Now, this is the language that Jesus spoke. It's the language that was commonly spoken by the Jews at this time, even while the scriptures were originally written in Hebrew. Hebrew had fallen somewhat out of, out of common use. And so he's speaking to them in a language that's not familiar to the Roman authorities. They don't understand it. Now, I'm going to read through the speech as a whole so you have a feel for it. It just kind of feels a little artificial to break up a speech. I'm gonna read it as a whole, and then we'll talk about it some.So Paul says this. "After receiving the commander's permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic, 'Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.' When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said, 'I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. About noon, as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" I asked. "I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting," he replied. My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. "What shall I do, Lord?" I asked. "Get up," the Lord said, "and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do." My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood beside me and said, "Brother Saul, receive your sight." And at that very moment, I was able to see him. Then he said, "The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on his name."When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking to me. "Quick," he said, "leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me." "Lord," I replied, "these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him." Then the Lord said to me, "Go. I will send you far away to the Gentiles."'"So, and this is where the speech ends. Not according to Paul's plan, but it ends. In verses, in the first few verses here of Paul's speech, we see that he begins with kind of his bona fides in speaking to his countrymen. He says, "I'm a Jew like you. I'm from Tarsus, but I was raised in Jerusalem. I was raised in this very city." And more than that, he actually studied under a highly respected teacher, a well-known Pharisee named Gamaliel. He studied the law, and he was completely religiously zealous. And he tells them, "I, I was just as zealous as you are today." They're trying to kill him. They're upset because they think that he's defying the law, saying, "I was just like you." In fact, Paul was so zealous, he tells them, that he persecuted the followers of the, of the Way, which is just another way of referring to Christians. Christians are followers of the Way of Jesus Christ.He was so zealous for trying to defend what he believed to be the truth that he was trying to imprison the Christians, he was trying to kill the Christians. He wanted to go outside of Jerusalem. He wanted to go to Damascus, over in the area of Syria, to go get the Christians there and bring them back to Jerusalem just to punish them, to shut them up. And so he, he got letters to the associates in Damascus, "Go and do this very thing." So the people that he is speaking to, and the authorities in Jerusalem, they know Paul. They know his story. They can say, "Yeah, that's what actually happened. He was in tight with us."And so in doing this, what Paul is doing is he's, he's setting the stage here of his credibility as a witness. How is it that a man like that, whose great joy in life was to try to kill Christians, then becomes an apostle of Christ, becomes a Christian himself? Well, it takes a very profound intervention. That's what he relates to them. He says, "I was on my way to Damascus." He was on his way to Damascus when he was suddenly struck by this bright light which blinded him. He had this encounter with Christ. Jesus called out to him saying, "Saul, Saul, why do you per...
Transcribe →The Way of the Cross - Pastor Tom Loghry
May 10Tap to summarizeThe Way of the Cross - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download In Acts 21, Paul arrives in Jerusalem. Some of the Jews had been making false claims about his teaching, but in his attempt to prove them false a riot is started and he is arrested..Listen on Spotify Listen/Download on iTunesWatch on YouTubeTranscript: Our scripture reading comes from Acts 21:1-6. "After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit, they urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship and they returned home." Let us pray as we come before God's word. Father, as we hear the testimony of your word here in Acts 21, the record recorded by Luke of Paul and his perseverance, his faithfulness to the call that you placed upon his life, we pray, Father, that you would stir within us, by the work of the person of the Holy Spirit, a desire to walk in his way, to be ready to take on all costs that may appear before us. We ask, ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. You may be seated. Every one of us here, all of us here have gone through some difficult things. I'm sure you probably don't wanna think about those things, but if you take a moment, I'm sure a couple of them come back to mind. The most trying things, perhaps, that you've endured in your life. Now, some of them you saw coming. Others, however, you couldn't have imagined how difficult they would be. In fact, thinking back on certain occasions in your life, thinking about some of the most difficult things you've had to go through, you might confess that if you knew it was going to be so hard, you might have gone a different direction. And yet, standing here today, you might also say that you are glad that you went through the pain and hardship because of where it has brought you today. Now you can see the good that you wouldn't have seen so clearly at that time. Now you know the reality that made it all worth it, the trial you endured. All things being equal, you, you might have preferred that kind of suffering could have been avoided. As much as the good you know now goes hand in hand with the troubles you've overcome, you can now say that it is well, that it is good that your life took that course. That's what we might say about the things that we didn't see coming. But that other trouble, the kind we, we see coming from a mile away, we took that on basically knowing what we were in for. And unless we are sadomasochists, unless we just take some twisted pleasure in our own pain, there must be a good reason for us being prepared to endure. The runner, who desires the glory of running in the Boston Marathon, prepares months on end for that grueling trial; the wife who seeks to be a mother, even while she foresees the pain of the labor that will come; the pioneer who seeks a better land at the cost of all comfort. We shake our heads with pity for the one who suffers for no good reason. But we write headlines, we build statues, and we create holidays for the ones who suffered to gain a great, greater good. Now of course, we don't always know what is our greatest good. We can be ignorant of what we should suffer for, and comparatively, we too often suffer for very, very foolish things. We encounter just this kind of situation, evaluating the prospect of suffering, in Acts 21 as Paul makes his way to the city of Jerusalem. In verses one through six, the Apostle Paul weaves his way southward along the coast of Asia Minor. After his tearful departure from the Ephesian elders in Miletus, having told them that they should never expect to see him again, though he will later write a letter to them, the Epistle to the Ephesians. After leaving them, he lands in Tyre. You can see it circled on the map in a little red dot. Now, in verse four, it says that the disciples there, meaning simply the Christians there, apparently understood by the Holy Spirit that Paul was going to face some hardship in Jerusalem, and they urged him to not go any further, to not proceed with his travel plans. This sets the stage for our full awakening, our full realization of the suffering that Paul is foretold to endure in Jerusalem. Despite the pleas of his fellow disciples here, Paul presses on to Ptolemais and Caesarea. So we continue on in verse seven. Luke tells us, "We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day. Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, 'The Holy Spirit says, "In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles."'" One thing we notice as we see Paul arrive in Caesarea, and Caesarea, you should understand, is in Israel. You can see it there on the map, right there. Renamed, of course, after Caesar. It's an, it's impressive to see how there's disciples in these towns that Paul is going to. We can see the spread of the faith. And in Caesarea, Paul has some very interesting company. He's staying with Philip the Evangelist. Now, this is distinct from Philip the Apostle, one of the original 12. Philip the Evangelist is one of the seven original deacons called by the church, you'll recall in Acts six. And you'll remember perhaps that included in that number of seven was also Stephen. Now, imagine this time that Paul and Philip share together. Paul, this man formerly known as Saul, who held the coats of those who were stoning one of Philip's peers, Stephen. Men who, before Christ, would've been utter enemies, but now brought together so that Philip is hosting Paul in his own house. This is the power of the gospel to transform people, to see this sort of reversal and reconciliation. Now, Philip has four daughters. They're unmarried, they're virgins, most likely young, and they possess the gift of prophecy given by the Holy Spirit. And this just recalls to us the new age in which we've entered in, in the age of the church. We are living in the time of the end. We are living in the time in which that which the prophets foretold is being fulfilled. Joel 2:28-29, the Lord promised to his people, he said, "And afterwards I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see, will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days." So these young women, and we've talked to other, about other people who also possess the gift of prophecy, would've been able to foretell events which were to come. Now, there's debate in Christian circles today as to whether those gifts are continuing to be distributed into the present. But what we can say is that if one is a prophet, then that which they foretell actually comes to pass. You can't have a, a 500 record . I mean, you need, you need to have a perfect, you need to have a perfect record when you're giving prophecies. Now, we have these, these women here, and apparently they, it, it seems implied that they probably were telling Paul the same thing, that there's suffering coming for him. Because then after, we have the earlier warning before from those disciples that were in Tyre, and then kinda book-ended after these young women are mentioned, we have the appearance of a fellow we have heard of mentioned before named Agabus. Agabus earlier appeared in Acts 11:27-28 wherein he prophesied that a famine was going to strike the area, and they took up a collection for the saints in Jerusalem to be able to weather that famine. Now, Agabus comes and he gives a very explicit prophecy regarding what Paul is going to suffer in Jerusalem. He does it in a very visual sort of manner. Like, if, if words weren't enough, he actually acts out what's going to happen to Paul. And this is in following in the, in the tradition of, of the prophets, the Jewish prophets. We think about in 1 Samuel 15 when Samuel shows that Saul's torn robe is gonna represent that the kingdom is going to be torn away from him, or rather Samuel's robe's gonna be torn away from him. Saul tore his robe, represented the tearing away of the kingdom. We think about in Jeremiah 27 where the prophet Jeremiah was said that he was going to wear a yoke. In Isaia...
Transcribe →Be Faithful to Your Calling - Pastor Tom Loghry
May 1Tap to summarizeBe Faithful to Your Calling - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download In Acts 20:13-38, Paul begins his journey to Jerusalem. Knowing that he will not return to the area, he calls the Ephesian elders to meet him along the way and exhorts them to remain faithful to God..Listen on Spotify Listen/Download on iTunesWatch on YouTubeTranscript: We went on ahead to, to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made his arrangements because he was going there on foot. When he had met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. The next day we set sail from there and we arrived at Chios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus. Paul had decided to set, to sail past Ephesus and avoid spending the time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost. From Miletus, Paul went to Ephesus for the elders of the church.Let's pray. Dear Father, as we come before your word this morning, we pray that as we hear the words of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesian elders, that you would impress upon us the utter gravity of the ministry which you have given the church and the responsibility that you've placed into the care of elders, and the standard to which you've called your people to expect of those that would shepherd your flock in Christ.And Father, we just pray that you would inspire us by the Holy Spirit to seek to glorify you and honor you in these things. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. You may be seated.So, we are approaching the season of graduation, and one might say that among all the graduations that take place, none are probably more pivotal than a student's graduation from high school. And while not all students will go to college or move away from home to go to college, that will be the case for a number of students. That was the case for me when I graduated from high school. My, my first year of college I moved a couple hours away to the Berkshires, and then the year after that I moved down to Georgia to finish my Bible college studies. Now, at the time, I don't think I thought too much about how difficult it must have been for my parents to send me away after having raised me for the previous 18 years. Now that I'm a parent myself, I can say that I do not relish the day when my son, in one way or another, will move on from our home. I'm sure I'll be glad in some certain senses, but it'll be tough for me and Sara. On that occasion, any good set of parents likely wonders to themselves if they've done enough to prepare their son or daughter for the life ahead of them. Of, of course, parents do continue to give us wisdom even into adulthood, and so it's not an absolute end.But there are times in our lives in which we do come against an ultimate end. Sometimes death approaches us slowly and those preparing to enter their rest undergo a similar but more absolute experience of knowing that they won't be around anymore to be able to give the counsel that they may wish to their loved ones, the counsel that they may need. There can be a grace in a slow approach to death. I, I know many of us might hope for a death in which we suddenly pass away. But there's a real grace and gift in being able to spend time with our loved ones, to say what we need to say. I remember as Sarah's grandfather was approaching his end that he called us to his bedside, and he had something he wanted to say to us. He admonished us to persevere together in our marriage, to persevere together as husband and wife, to remain faithful to each other even through the hard times. He knew from experience that marriage isn't always easy. But his parting wisdom, born of love for us, was that we should stick together and press on, and I will gladly do so to the day I die.As we close out Chapter 20 here in the book of Acts, Paul is not about to die. But he is reckoning with his mortality and God's plan for him, which will take him away from those in whom he has invested so much love. And so we continue in verses 13 through 17.As Ernie has read for us this morning, we have a bit of the itinerary here of of Paul's journey. Some of these details to, you know, we're not so familiar with the Mediterranean, so sometimes it can be lost on us. But it's important to remember that, especially to Luke's original audience, these details would've been of great interest to them. And so, as you'll recall, Paul is departing from Troas after having something absolutely spectacular happen there. He had preached long into the night and a young man named Eutychus fell out of the window, and he raised him from the dead. But his ultimate end is he's striving to get to Jerusalem, and then from Jerusalem, he's intending to go to Rome. And so the course that he takes is they're going to Assos from Troas Now, the rest get on the boat. But Paul walks to asos. Now, we don't know why, it may have been that it was going to be faster for him to go on foot. Sometimes, while a ship would certainly save you the energy, it's not always the most, it's not the most fast way to get to some place. And then the, he joins them on the boat and they head to Mitylene. And they go from there and go from Chios. So they're just kind of working their way down the coast here. Again, they're ultimately trying to get to Jerusalem, but they bypass Ephesus.And the reason why is 'cause he didn't wanna spend too much time there 'cause he, he was hoping to reach Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost, which was a Jewish feast, and it was gonna be a great opportunity in which there was gonna be many Jews gathered there in the city of Jerusalem, and as a Jew himself, a significant day, significant, significant feast that Paul did not wish to miss. And so the reason why he skips Ephesus thinking that it might take a little bit too much time there is because, well, for one, he spent a couple years there, and so the people might wanna offer him a great deal of hospitality. And in that culture, especially at that time, hospitality was a big deal, and so we can imagine they wouldn't have just allowed him to stop in very briefly and move on. It also could have been the case that the ship that they were on didn't have that as their direct course, and so it just would've complicated the itinerary to have a special boat there and then get on another boat. It, it just could have taken a little bit too much time. And so he goes to Miletus, you can see the red dot there where Miletus is, and he sends for the elders in Ephesus, because he doesn't want to depart from them without being able to give them a parting word.Now this is a little snapshot of Miletus, rather large city, major port. Had a population about a hundred thousand. But again, his purpose there is just kind, kind of to just stay there for a moment in order that he can have this opportunity to meet with the elders from Ephesus. And so what follows is both a touching and a stirring farewell speech, and it's the only address that has been recorded thus far of Paul exclusively addressing Christians. And as we read it, it brings to mind both Paul's manner and speech that is found in his New Testament letters. So continuing on in verse 18, we read, when they arrived, the Ephesian elders, he said to them: you know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God and repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.So Paul begins his speech to them by recalling his sufferings. That he served, not in a manner of one who expected great acclaim, but one who was prepared to work with his own hands, and he's going to talk about this later on, and with great suffering in doing so, because of the opposition that he had faced from the Jewish population in Ephesus that was opposing his teaching that Christ Jesus was not only the Messiah for the Jews, but the Messiah for all people.And so he's laying out this, he's laying out this recollection of how he served among them in order to try to inspire them to follow in his footsteps, that they would adopt for themselves the same sort of humility and be prepared to serve and persevere in the face of suffering. Paul is not having to make a defense of his ministry, they know him well, but he is giving them an account here to basically say, my work is done. I've, I've done everything that I'm supposed to do here. Paul tells them that he didn't hesitate to preach anything that would be helpful to them. He held nothing back and he wasn't trying to hide anything, he preached publ...
Transcribe →Our God Has the Power - Pastor Tom Loghry
Apr 22Tap to summarizeOur God Has the Power - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download In Acts 20:1-12, Paul leaves the Ephesians and travels back to visit many of the churches that he started. At the end of his time in Troas, he gathers with the Christians there and performs a miracle by the power of God..Listen on Spotify Listen/Download on iTunesWatch on YouTubeTranscript: The reading is from Acts chapter 20 verses seven through 12. On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. Don't be alarmed, he said. He is alive! Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.Let us pray as we come before God's word. Dear Father, we pray that as we consider the testimony that you've given here in Acts 20, that you would use it to inspire our faith, our trust in you as our all powerful, awesome God. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. You may be seated.We enjoyed some beautiful weather this week, didn't we? Yeah. Everyone liked that. Good to go. Yeah. Yeah, I know, right? I'd like to have that back. Another, another couple months. I, I want you to imagine that on one of those sunny days, you took an opportunity to go to a restaurant that offered some outside dining. The sun is shining, a light breeze is blowing, and the waiter asks if you want to sit inside or out, and you eagerly say outside among the tables. And there's some of these tables that have umbrellas and some that don't, do not. And you decide that you'd like to sit at a table that doesn't have an umbrella 'cause you just wanna soak up that sun. Now, I want you to imagine that after you've put in your order that the waiter comes out with your food and sets your plate before you, and that just as you're about to begin eating that delicious meal that's been prepared, a seagull flies overhead and poops in your meal. Your dinner is ruined. Who can make it right now?It wasn't the fault of the waiter that the bird pooped in your meal, you chose the seat without the umbrella. And yet we can feel some sympathy for ourselves here. It's not entirely your fault, you couldn't have foreseen that this would happen. I mean, that's like some extreme misfortune right there. You paid for the meal that you have but it's been ruined. In one sense, it's not really the responsibility of the restaurant owner. He could expect that you would have to just order a new meal.But of course that's not what we hope the owner would do. We are at the mercy of the owner. We, you can't prepare a new meal for yourself, nor can your waiter, but the owner, and let's suppose he's also the chef, can make you a new meal. He can make things right even when he's not beholden to do so. Even when the general rule, as far as it goes when you're going to a restaurant, is that you pay for every meal that you receive. He can make things right when you cannot, and so he prepares you a new dish because he has the power to do so.Today's passage that we're looking at in acts gives us a fairly simple account that's easy to understand on its face, but I want us to take, I wanna take us deeper to contemplate the significance of the power that's revealed and to reckon whether or not we actually believe the power of God to perform the miraculous. So we turn to Acts 20, and we're first going to begin in verses one through six. Luke tells us, when the uproar had ended, in Ephesus, as you'll recall, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. But we sailed from Philipi after the festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.So Paul is leaving Ephesus. He spent a little over two years there, and he's returning back to the churches that he previously established, so we can see the course that he's gonna take here. You have Ephesus here on the east coast of modern day Turkey. He's gonna go up and he's gonna go around and then he's gonna bounce back around and we're gonna ultimately end up in Troas there, you see that marked in red. And the reason why he goes over land on the way back is because he's again facing some persecution from some of the Jews that are living in Greece, who don't like the message that he's preaching.Now, important to recall that, if, if you haven't been following with us, that Paul himself is a Jew. He's, he's as Jewish as they come. The reason why the Jews in Greece are opposing him is because he's saying that God is not only the God of the Jews, but he's in fact the God of all people and is inviting all people to himself in Jesus Christ without the stipulations of the Jewish law. He's preaching a message that we are saved by grace, not by our, not by our works. He's, he's faced opposition all the, all the way along. And here again, he faces some, some opposition. Now what what's really interesting is that his team that he has with him is drawn from all these areas, is from, from this general area here. And so you, you, you have a really great snapshot of the church in his own team as they're going back around ministering to these areas. Now as he's going, he's bringing words of encouragement to them, and it's a great reminder to us of the relationship that Paul has with the churches, and it's a great example to us of how we should think about our relationship with one another as we seek to grow in the faith together. It's not as though Paul just gives them a message, Hey, believe in Jesus, and then takes off and says, I'm never seeing you again, and we're not gonna worry about how you're gonna grow, you, you believed in the message and that's it. No, he's interested in them growing up into the fullness of Christ.Dietrich Bonhoeffer has written a book, he was a German pastor who lived in the era of World War II and was ultimately executed by the Nazis. He wrote a little book called Life Together, which really contemplates the significance of the community of the church. And he says this, he says, Christians need other Christians who speak God's word to them. They need them again and again when they become uncertain and disheartened because, living by their own resources, they cannot help themselves without cheating themselves out of the truth. They need other Christians as bearers and proclaimers of the divine word of salvation. They need them solely for the sake of Jesus Christ. The Christ in one's own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of another Christian. The heart in one's heart is uncertain, the Word is sure. At the same time, this also clarifies that the goal of all Christian community is to encounter one another as bringers of this message of salvation.And so as we think about what Paul is doing, he's, he's, he is creating kind of this gospel reaction again and again. That again and again the people are hearing the word of grace, the word of Christ. Apart from that, when we try to live the faith on our own, we can begin to kind of wither on the vine. We need the reminders of the truth that we each give to each other as we gather together as the body of Christ.So Paul is traveling through here in the area of Macedonia and Greece, and he spends the Festival of Unleavened Bread in Philippi. Now this is, if you're not familiar with the feast, this is a feast that corresponds with the celebration of, of Passover, and so you have to imagine that they're also celebrating the resurrection of of Christ. That would mark, that would be a marker of that occasion. It also kind of places us in this time of year generally too. So it's interesting, we're reading this passage in, around the same ballpark as when a lot of these things are going on. And so after spending that, the festival in Philippi, he then goes on to Troas and Luke gives us an account of Paul's time there, which has already been read, but which I'll read again here in verses seven through 12. On the first day of the week, we came together to break...
Transcribe →Jesus is Worth the Cost - Pastor Tom Loghry
Apr 13Tap to summarizeJesus is Worth the Cost - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download In Acts 19:22-41, the Ephesians are concerned by the threat that Paul’s message is to their local god Artemis. We must make the same choice today between the gods of this world and the one true God..Listen on Spotify Listen/Download on iTunesWatch on YouTubeTranscript: Today's reading is from Acts 19, 23 through 27. About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said, you know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.Let us pray. Dear Father, as we come before your word this morning, we pray that you would turn our hearts. Turn our hearts father, so that we would be completely devoted to you and to no one else. That we would worship you, oh God, and no other false gods we pray. In the Christ's name we pray, amen. You may be seated.I've gotten to the stage in my life where it's not unusual for me now to say, when I was a kid. I was walking out of Dino's the other day and I pointed out to James that there used to be a video store in the same plaza. I remember going there as a child or, or to Blockbuster or to Diamond Video in my hometown of Pasco and renting a videotape to watch with my family. But as you know, over time things changed. Netflix first emerged as a service to mail you DVDs that you could watch, so you didn't need to go to the video store anymore. And then of course they began offering movies that could be streamed online, giving you instant access to any movie that you might wanna watch. And in the midst of all of that, there was also those RedBox vending machines that popped up offering the same video store selection in a much, much smaller space. And so one by one, the video stores closed; even RedBox is no longer. The convenience of streaming movies has become so popular that it progressively threatens even the big screen experience of going to the cinema. Most of you probably know that CinemaWorld in Lincoln recently closed, and other movie theaters are hanging on just by a thread. This is the nature of the market. New services arrive, and they bankrupt the old ones because of their superior quality.In other industries, there's a lot of concern about that kind of thing right now when it comes to artificial intelligence. And I'm not gonna get sidetracked on that, but you can see we all kind of live under those sorts of tensions. And, and my purpose here is that I want you, I wanna put you in the shoes of a pagan idol maker, which might be a little bit difficult for you to do. 'cause you're like, what's that like? Well, as we see here in this passage, it's, it's like being someone who's experiencing a sudden competitor coming into your market. I want to put you in the shoes of a man who knew his business well, who knew his clientele, and who knew a competitor when he saw one. I want to help you enter that world so that you can begin to more fully reckon and imagine the real implications of the Christian faith. We often think of Christianity as something rather benign, pretty socially tame. I want to challenge you this morning to consider if that might only be because we have tamed it. That perhaps we might only be comfortable in our society because we've ripped out its teeth and removed its bite in our own lives.First, we look at verses 23 through 27 here in Acts 19. The Apostle Paul has been spending the past two years in Ephesus, teaching the people there about the gospel. You'll recall he had a, a place in the hall of Tyrannus so that he was almost kind of functioning like a philosopher, as a teacher. And we learned that he has a great impact and influence not only in Ephesus, but throughout all that province of Asia, because it's a hub for that whole province. And so people are coming in, hearing his teaching, and they're going out from there. If you're not familiar where Ephesus is, it's in modern day Turkey. You can see that little red dot there kind of on the west coast. And so because it was a port city, it was very, very influential and as I shared last time, I had the opportunity to visit there, and the ruins are incredible. You can tell that it was a once great city, but one that is no longer.Now, part of what made the city of Ephesus so striking in the world of the Roman Empire at that time was the temple that was constructed to the Goddess Artemis. Now. I, I have to assure you, I did not plan this talking about Artemis after we just had this big space mission. But you should know there, there's reasons why they named this space mission Artemis. You'll recall the earlier missions were named Apollo. Well, Artemis was the twin of Apollo. They're brother and sister. And Artemis was known, among other things, as being the goddess of the moon. So it kind of makes sense, you're doing a moon mission. And so, she wasn't only known as a goddess of the moon though. She was also known as goddess of the hunt, also childbearing. They kind of put a lot of things under her, which is why we actually see her appearing in quite a different form in Ephesus than we do in other places.So on the left, you'll see that's kind of more of a Roman depiction of her, otherwise known as Diana. This is what the Ephesians would've been familiar with. You know, it's very, very different depiction there, and it's because what you have is this intersection between the east and the west. And so she's actually kind of a conglomeration of a lot of goddesses under this head of Artemis. Now, the temple that was constructed in her honor was actually one of the Seven Wonders of the World, it's known as the Artemesium. There's a couple of great videos you can find on YouTube about this. This one comes on this channel Told in Stone. You can see how, how huge it is. Her temple had 127 columns that were 60 feet in height, and this temple had been around for a hundred years, had been reconstructed a couple of times, but at this point, this is what it would've roughly looked like. And you can see the statue in there is just, is huge. And just to kind of put it in perspective, how big this place was, we were talking about Athens recently, and this is a video by Manuel Bravo, and you'll recall we talked about the Parthenon in Athens. Well, you see the Parthenon there, that's the temple of Artemis. Big difference in terms of size. And so it was a huge attraction. Not only you can imagine just the architecture itself, but particularly the Goddess Artemis and the promise that was offered to those who would worship her, who would bring sacrifice to her.Now, just to kind of help you kind of appreciate the role that this temple had in relation to the city of Ephesus, you have to recognize that the relationship between the religious cult and the city is much different than the relationship between, like in America you have church and state and those are kept separate. Well, the Temple of Artemis was a state project. It was built by the city of Ephesus, and it was a main thing, main part of their whole civic life together. So that every couple, every few weeks in the city, they would actually have a, basically a two mile parade around the city. So you can see, actually I put the star there. That's where the Temple of Artemis is. That's kind of where the main hub of Ephesus is, and you see this path. So they do a whole parade around this whole area just to celebrate her honor. So kind of putting all those pieces together, you can see why, just on that, on those facts alone, why the temple would be influential and then, oh, there's also this, the temple was a bank. That seems weird, right? They would store all their money in these temples. Why would they do that? Well, because it was a sacred place, and so surely no one would try to rob money from a temple, lest you receive the wrath of the goddess. And so it was also the financial hub, not only of Ephesus, but I mean it was a major, major financial hub in Asia and for the Mediterranean.So we're beginning to see why this place was such a big deal, why Artemis was, was such a big deal. And you can imagine how commerce really began to kind of revolve around the worship of Artemis, and that's what we find here in the case of a man named Demetrius. He, along with other artisans, are engaged in a trade of making cultic items for the worship of Artemis....
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The Real Story - Pastor Tom Loghry
Apr 9Tap to summarizeThe Real Story - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download On Easter Sunday, we remember the resurrection of Jesus. Thomas doubted the truth of Christ’s resurrection; we must learn from his example and trust in the account that we have been given..Listen on Spotify Listen/Download on iTunesWatch on YouTubeTranscript: I am planning to go to the movies in May. I'm planning to go see the Mandalorian and Grogu with my son. This is the way! We enjoyed watching the Star Wars television series, and I'm expecting that we will enjoy the movie. It is great action, great storytelling, great drama. Two heroes doing their small part to keep the Star Wars universe from the clutches of the Empire. It's a great story, but of course it's all fiction; none of it's real. And while I expect going to the movie will be a good time, I am not expecting that the story I will hear will hold any great consequence for my life. It's just a story.Would we say the same about Jesus? One of the things that I love about Easter is that it brings this question to the surface. It can be very easy for us to treat the narrative that we find in the Bible as a mere story, perhaps with some moral teaching, some moral inspiration, some spiritual advice. Subconsciously, we can create two universes. We have the universe of the Bible and then we have the universe in which we actually live. We have the spiritual sphere, and then we have the sphere of real, actual living.We can get away with that division if what we find in the pages of scripture is a mere story, perhaps powerfully told, but a mere fiction nonetheless. However, this is not aligned with what the Bible claims itself, and it doesn't accord with the historical record of the people who followed in the footsteps of Christ and his disciples. The emergence and survival of the Christian faith is inexplicable as a mere story. From the beginning, it was contended to be a testimony of historical fact worth dying for.Either Jesus actually rose from the dead, or he did not. Either what Jesus claimed about himself is true or it's just a pack of lies, the ravings of a deluded man. Either the disciples are witnesses, or they're liars, or possibly dupes. Either Jesus means everything; he means a world of difference, or he means absolutely nothing, and to follow him would be a fool's errand. We would have no doubt that it would be a fool's errand in that case, given that he himself ended up on a cross. Where else should we expect to end up, in one way or another? The way of Jesus leads to a cross. What hope can there be in that path? Unless there is, in fact, a resurrection.What is the truth, and what does it mean for us? I want you to grapple with that this Easter, to come to a point of decision, of belief, in light of the reality that has been revealed. And to do that, I wanna take us to the disciple who is infamous for his doubt, the disciple Thomas. And so we go to John chapter 20, verse 24 through 29, and if you look in that chapter, you'll know that Jesus, after having been crucified and buried, is, is then to be resurrected from the dead and that he's seen alive by some of his disciples. In this chapter, we are first told of how Mary Magdalene came face to face with the risen Jesus. Looking at verses 19 and 20, we see how Jesus came to the disciples as they were hurry, huddled together in a locked room, obviously fearing that they might be crucified just like Jesus had been. But one of them was not there. Now Judas had already killed himself at this point, so we're not talking about him. One of them was not there and was missing. Thomas was not in the room.And as we see in verses 24 through 25, when he does rejoin them and when he hears from them that they have seen the Lord, he does not believe, he does not believe his fellow disciples with whom he's spent the past several years. He can't believe again. We can imagine his, his feeling of, of disappointment and disillusionment, having seen the one that he believed to be the Messiah be crucified on a cross, the very opposite of a victorious savior. He was downcast with disappointed hope. Earlier in his time with Jesus, we can actually have some indication, we catch some indication of Thomas's anticipation that things might not end well. We see in John 11:16 when Jesus is preparing to go to Bethany, to go to Lazarus, his friend who had died. He's anticipating that because of those conspiring against Jesus, that Jesus is gonna end up being killed and so he says, let us also go, that we may die with him. Then in John 14 when Jesus is telling his disciples that he's going to be leaving them, but that they should know the way, Thomas says to him in response, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?And so now it seems that Jesus has gone. Now, he hasn't actually gone gone, as we know he's yet to ascend, but it seems like he's gone. And Thomas says, I don't know the way, everything seems lost, and this just seems like it's just been a path of madness. What has this been all about in the end? And so, despite the good reasons that he does have to believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead, the fact that his fellow disciples are testifying to the fact, and surely he would trust them, and the fact that he's actually heard Jesus make allusion to the fact that he's going to be raised from the dead, he refuses to believe. He refuses to believe unless he can see the holes in Christ pierced hand, unless he can touch his wounds.And so nothing happens for a week. We often forget that the resurrection appearances of Jesus are not just a one day affair. He comes and goes among his disciples multiple weeks, 40 days before he ascends to heaven. Now, notably, Thomas is still with the other disciples apparently. Perhaps he couldn't believe, but he didn't know where else to go. I have to imagine that the confidence of the others held some magnetic force over him as God would have it, because, in fact, Christ intended to meet his demand. So we see in verses 26 through 29, I'm gonna read these verses again, says, a week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him, my Lord, and my God! Then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.This time when Jesus shows up, Thomas is in the room. Now as before, the room in which they're gathered is locked, and yet Jesus comes into their midst. And we don't know how, there is no explanation given, but we do know this, that Jesus is not just a mere spirit. He is not a ghost, because he can be touched. In fact, we see elsewhere that he eats with the disciples, and we know that, in fact, Christ presently continues to have the human body with which he was raised and that we, as we are raised in like manner, are going to have a body just like his. In Philippians three verses 20 through 21, the Apostle Paul tells us, but our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.So Jesus is actually there. He's actually present in the room with them. It's not a mere vision. And the first thing he says to them is, peace be with you. And this greeting is more profound than just a nice saying, even though that would've been a common thing to say, peace has much more import given the fact that he has conquered death. We recall what Jesus says in John 16:33 to his disciples. He says, I have told you these things, and he was telling them that they're going to endure great suffering. I've told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.And it is in this moment that this has become clear, that Christ truly has overcome the world. Because if he's conquered death, who could possibly match his power? And so in the midst of them all, he turns his attention to Thomas, and we imagine him looking Thomas square in the eye. He, he heard, he heard the challenge that Thomas made, he says, put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Now this invitation and the details of it, of Christ's pierced hands and side, brings to mind how Christ fulfilled those prophecies concerning himself, concerning the Messiah. Because it was foretold hundreds of years before that the Messiah would suffer in just this way.Christ fulfills Psalm 22 verses 15 through 18, where, where it says, My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you la...
Transcribe →The Greater Power of Christ - Pastor Tom Loghry
Apr 2Tap to summarizeThe Greater Power of Christ - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download In Acts 19:8-22, Paul settles in Ephesus, teaching first in the synagogue and then teaching daily in the Lecture Hall. He remains for two years, with God performing extraordinary miracles through him, bringing many people to the Way..Listen on Spotify Listen/Download on iTunesWatch on YouTubeTranscript: Acts chapter 19, verses eight through 22. Paul entered the synagogue, synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples, he took the disciples with him and had discussions daily at the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia, Asia heard the word of the Lord. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.Let us pray. Dear Father, we pray that your spirit would impress upon us the true power of Jesus Christ, that Father you would lead us to trust in you more than in any other thing that the world might tempt us to put our trust in. We just pray that you would open up our hearts and open up our eyes to see our true hope, our true security in Him.We ask this in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated.At least once in his life, I think that every boy and every man has wondered to himself, what if I had a tank in the Middle Ages? What if I had modern weaponry to face down the army of Alexander the Great. It's an interesting thing to think about how infamous military powers might be possibly defeated by a vastly smaller number who possess modern technology. No matter the prowess, no matter the courage, no matter the numbers, we have to believe that a tank will beat a spear. Equipped with that kind of technology, you would be untouchable. You would have the upper hand.It can be an interesting thought experiment. It makes an imagination go wild, especially for those of us who, who perhaps don't feel like we've ever had the upper hand in life. More so than ever, in the 21st century, we can feel like small creatures overwhelmed by a giant machine. And just as much as ever, we can often feel like the powers of evil are so much more numerous and greater than ourselves.But what if I told you that you are in a tank? What if I told you that you're in an F 35? Maybe even behind the controls of such modern marvels, one would still have a sense of intimidation before an army of 30,000, but it would be they who are holding the spears who should be in fear. Of course, I'm speaking analogously. We have something much better than a machine of war: the Church of Jesus Christ stands as a bulwark in the face of all opposition, not by the strength of her members, but because of the power of her king and the strength of the Spirit who equips her.Today's passage reminds us of this: we're, we're going to find Paul in a great metropolis of the Roman Empire, in the city of Ephesus, a city gripped by idolatry and obsessed with the promise of sorcery and magical power. But however great and magnificent it may appear, it becomes exposed as nothing in comparison to the power of Jesus Christ. So we first look at verses eight through 12.As I've already mentioned, Paul is in the city of Ephesus, and if you're trying to imagine where Ephesus is, you can locate it in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, along the coast and are facing off towards Achaia. It was a, a very influential city, I mentioned last week. It was kind of a top five city of the Roman Empire, population of around 250,000 people, very pagan. But they did have a synagogue as we read here in these verses.I've, I actually had the opportunity to go to Ephesus. This is a picture, one of the pictures I took. You can see it doesn't really look like a port city. That's because silt has actually built up, and so it's very much kind of inland now. But that road that you see in the middle there, that's a road that Paul would've walked on. It was very incredible to be able to walk in a place where the Apostle Paul himself walked. And that's a picture of me in front of the Library of Celsius, which you see in the, off in the distance here, the goofy guy there in the striped shirt.It was a magnificent city, that, it was very built up and it did include, they had enough Jews there so that they had a synagogue. And Paul spent his time there trying to persuade the Jews about the kingdom of God, which is another way of talking about how Jesus is Messiah. And it's important to remember the kind of, the, the exchangeability between those terms, because when Jesus comes, he's coming not just to bring personal salvation to people, yes, he's coming to do that, but he's coming to bring a kingdom. A new kingdom that one day will be revealed in full on earth. So Paul spoke boldly there for three months arguing them, but they became obstinate and began even publicly maligning the way, so basically talking smack about Christianity with the other citizens in Ephesus.And so Paul left them. And it says that he went to the lecture hall of Tyrannus. Now in the Greek, that term hall is schole. Now you might think to yourself, that sounds familiar. That sounds a lot like school. And that's basically what it was, it was a school. Paul spent two years there lecturing to the people of that city along with his disciples every day, and some manuscripts actually include a detail that suggests that Paul spoke there between the hours of 11 and four. Now, the manuscript evidence isn't strong enough to include that in standard versions of the Bible, but there's actually good reason to think that Paul probably did teach during that time, because early in the day, they would have very formal classes, but during the middle of the day it was actually kind of a siesta for the people. The people would stop working for a while. Some of us are probably thinking, wow, that sounds nice, 11 to four. They had a little bit of time, and the hall was open and so Paul could make use of it. Whether he had to rent it or whoever was in charge of the hall was kind of benefactor and allowed him to use it. So he basically ran school there every single day, and he basically assumed this position of kind of being a teacher, a philosopher, almost like a, a professor.Now, he was doing this even while he was working himself. We learn in the next chapter, in Acts 20:34, he says, you yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. So we can imagine that Paul is probably working early in the day, and then he was going and doing teaching the rest of the day, and then maybe he did some more work at the end of the day. He was a very, very, very busy man, and he did this for two years. Now the result of his work is that the Jews and Greeks throughout Asia heard about the word of the Lord. Now again, Ephesus is a very strategic location because it's from there, from this major city, you can imagine Paul teaching people and then them going out and spreading the word to other places, so that the gospel goes further than wherever Paul goes, which is important.That's actually the goal of Christian discipleship. It shouldn't be just be fixed all on one person doing all the things. The idea is you make disciples who then go forth and make more disciples, and this is what Paul is, is doing. This is how the word is spreading throughout that whole area, which is astounding, 'cause you'll recall how when he began his second missionary journey in Acts 16, it says, Paul and his companions traveled throughout the regions of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. So earlier God has said, no, you're not going to go into Asia, I'm directing your course to Macedonia. But God, God's no wasn't a permanent no. God knew what he had in store. Certain things had to take place, and maybe it was even a development in Paul's own, own life and abilities and, to bring it, and just other outside circumstances we can't even imagine so that at the right time and place, in Ephesus, Paul could return and then the gospel truly would spread throughout Asia.So he's teaching in this lecture hall, hall, and you can imagine him, you know, very much kind of being respected like a philosopher, and yet he's more than that too. His impact in the city goes beyond just mere, an intellectual presentation, because along with his teaching comes extraordinary miracles. That's what it says in verse 11, extraordinary, God works extraordinary miracles through Paul. So that it says that even handkerchiefs and aprons that touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnes...
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