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Sermons

"PAUL, VOICE OF THE FAITHFUL"
NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE TEXT:
ACTS 17:22-31

DAVE RING, PASTOR
LOS ALAMOS 1st UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 27, 2009

SCRIPTURE TEXT: 22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' 29Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone -- an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead"

MESSAGE: Paul. The apostle Paul. Saint Paul. Most certainly the greatest evangelist for Christ in the first century A. D. Very probably the most controversial figure in the early Church - as well as in the church today. Paul, the unstoppable disciple with the big mouth. Paul, the voice of the faithful.

I begin this message by admitting that preaching on Paul in a United Methodist Church in the 21st century A. D. is not the easiest task in the world. For the past several Sundays, as I've tried to highlight God's faithful people through the Bible, it's been pretty easy going. Most of us, even though we're Protestant, acknowledge the unparalleled contributions of "mother" Mary. And of course, Jesus is universally beloved, especially in the sanctuary of a Church. But Paul - he's not as appreciated as many others in the Bible. And right now, Paul's definitely out-of-fashion. He's an old time male chauvinist, about as politically incorrect today as you can imagine. No Pastor-Parish Relations Committee in United Methodism would give him serious consideration as potential pastor of their local church. Frankly, Paul isn't a warm-fuzzy, flexible, multi-tasking, smilingly likeable fellow.

And yet, after Jesus Himself, Paul is the second-most important figure in the New Testament. Without Paul, you and I wouldn't be sitting in this Church today. Without Paul, there likely would be no Church in existence today. It more probably would have withered away, an insignificant, forgotten Jewish sect, before the close of the first century.

Paul, as you probably know, was not one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus. The first time we meet Paul is at the very end of Acts chapter 7, as the first martyr for belief in Christ is being killed. At that time, he's still known by his old Jewish name, "Saul." As Stephen is stoned to death, Saul is present, according to the Bible, "giving approval to his death."

Two chapters later Saul, "breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples," is headed for Damascus, Syria, armed with arrest warrants for anyone he might find who dares to profess faith in Jesus. But suddenly, God directly intervenes in Saul's life. Acts 9:3 says, "As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, `Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' `Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked. `I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' He replied. 'Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.'"

Those times when God addresses a human being, even in the Bible, are truly few and far between. More often God employs an agent, a human messenger such as a prophet - or a divine messenger, an angel. That was the case even with the mother of His Son on earth, Mary. But in God's sight, apparently, Saul was so important to the plans God had for the spread of faith in Jesus that, this time, He dealt direct. Jesus Himself addressed Saul. And it miraculously changed him. He even received a new name: Paul.

From the Damascus road experience forward, Paul really was a changed man. He turned around completely - which, by the way, is the literal meaning of the word "repentance." Paul repented of his former attempts to wipe out the Christian faith - and became its greatest apostle.

But Paul wasn't changed into a totally different person. The same high energy level, the same single-minded determination which had been characteristic of the old Saul remained with Paul. His character was simply turned about - to the opposite direction. God aligned Paul with His plan - but Paul retained the same humanity he'd had before. All the positive characteristics, and all the negative, remained. When God calls a man or woman to His service, He doesn't remake them from scratch. Rather, God uses who they already are - to His glory. Such was the case with Paul.

Paul's special calling by Christ, according to Acts 9:15, was "to bear My Name to the Gentiles." That's why Paul is the specific reason you and I are included in the faith and fellowship of believers in Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself, while He was on this earth, was sent primarily to the "lost sheep of Israel." The Bible says so. Jesus' earthly ministry was deliberately limited to Jews.

The last time I checked, I wasn't a Jew. Nor were my parents. In my specific case, if you go trace my genealogy back far enough, there are Jews in my ancestry - that's where my middle name, Zimmerman, originates. It's German Jewish. But I don't think that's quite enough for me to be considered one of Abraham's biological offspring. No, I'm pretty much a Gentile. And so are most of you.

What I'm saying is that, until Paul's ministry, you and I weren't considered eligible to be won to faith in Christ. Peter and Andrew, James and John, Thaddeus and Thomas, and all the rest of the early disciples were zealous soul-winners for Jesus - among their fellow Jews. But not a single one of them was concerned for you and me - because that wasn't their mission. If Paul hadn't been called by Christ to take the gospel beyond that original ethnic group, the Jews, we wouldn't be sitting here today, in a Christian Church. And the great worldwide fellowship of believers in Christ, some two billion strong, likely wouldn't exist.

You've probably heard some of the exploits of Paul - the multiple missionary journeys, the scores of churches planted, the number of beatings endured, the several assassination attempts foiled, the hundreds of sermons preached, the long years of imprisonment, the thousands of Gentile souls won to Christ. Paul was a singularly effective evangelist for Christ. He literally spread the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. Paul took a small, faltering movement among a tiny, localized ethnic group, and planted the seeds of the largest worldwide religion ever to touch the world of humanity. Jesus was the founder, yes. But Paul - at Jesus' command - was the faithful voice of Jesus to the wider world.

In so doing, Paul was one single-minded individual. Then and now, you either love Paul, or you hate him. There's little possibility of being "in between" regarding Paul. And that's exactly the way Paul would have wanted it. He always admonished those who heard him to either accept Christ then and there - or suffer the consequences of sin, which is eternal death.

Frankly, I'm glad that God did not call me to be a Paul. I don't hanker to be thrown out of town after town while being warned, "Don't ever come back." Paul was truly an extremist for Christ. To use a modern term, he was 100% "sold out" for Jesus. But although I'm not like Paul, I can certainly admire Paul's dedication to his calling. And I can profusely thank him for being the unfaltering voice that was needed, in those tough early decades of spreading the faith, to break through countless cultural barriers - and allow Gentiles, like me, to know the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Paul - voice of the faithful. Were Paul here today, he'd want to loudly and clearly say one and only one thing: Believe in Jesus! And that, faithful people of God on the first Sunday after Christmas 2009, is the only proper way to end this message: Believe in Jesus. Put your faith in Him, and Him alone, now and for eternity. Amen.

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