I don't know if you have had
similar thoughts to me as we've journeyed through the book of
Acts. It has been the book of the testimony of the risen Lord
Jesus Christ. I love that verse. In 26 verse
16, there is a purpose. He's delivered him. He's appeared
unto him for this purpose. So there was a glorious purpose. in the Lord saving Paul. But
if you've been like me and you sort of wonder, there's been
so many remarkable things in the book of Acts. There's a great
testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ going back to heaven, the angel
speaking to men, the extraordinary events of the day of Pentecost
and the growth of that church from that small band of 120 to
10,000 plus and the spread of the gospel out and the glorious
salvation of the likes of the eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch
in Cornelius and these things and then the amazing spread of
the gospel out and it's gone. triumphantly throughout so much
of the world. And yet, and yet in this book,
this one book that gives us a glorious testimony of the history of the
early church, the last eight chapters, 30%, almost 30% of
the book of Acts is about travels. Paul in prison, Paul at sea,
Paul on a shipwreck, It's about his travels, his imprisonments. It's about the hatred and deceit
and blindness of religious men. And these chapters are full of
the self-serving activities, the manipulations of politicians. Very evidently, Felix had no
right leaving Paul in jail for all of that time. There were
no charges that were laid against him that were any witnesses.
The Jews had one purpose in mind, and that was just the malicious
death of Paul. Three times they appear in court
with the accusation, this man needs to be put to death, and
they turn up in court without bringing a witness. They had
no purpose in establishing the truth. They just had a hatred
in their heart for him. and the self-serving politicians
manipulated him. There is in these chapters a
seeming absence of friends and support. No doubt down there
in Caesarea he had the support of Philip and his daughters and
Cornelius and those that were left and remained in that fellowship
that began so amazingly when Peter preached the gospel down
there in Caesarea. But we don't hear of them, we
don't read of them. We have poor witnessing faithfully, and
yet we don't see any positive results. We don't hear of one
person converted in all of these chapters. We don't hear of one
church established in all of these chapters. We have in all
of these chapters one man, one man alone, seemingly alone against
all the forces of the greatest superpower that world had ever
known. And the nation, the nation, the
Jewish nation which had the most remarkable revelation of God,
the wonder of the privilege of the Jews, They could trace their
lineage back to Adam. They could trace their special
place in God's purposes and sovereignty in this world back to Abraham.
They could trace the wonders of their journey and God rescuing
them out of Egypt. They had seen and they had the
testimony of the scriptures. They had this Old Testament scriptures
and they had it and they knew it off by heart. And yet, We have these men, these men
who had witnessed the grace of God. We read about it in Psalm
32. David was a man accused of God,
wasn't he? He was worthy of death according
to the law, and yet God declares him to be a man who has no sin.
The glory and wonder of salvation by grace. that sinners, real
sinners, can find in the Lord Jesus Christ complete and utter
forgiveness of all of their sins. This nation had seen the promises
fulfilled. They'd seen the promises made
and fulfilled. And there Paul is left for nearly
38% of this book alone. No one stands beside him to defend
him. He's one man alone, and he dies
as one man alone. And I love quoting that verse
in 2 Timothy chapter four. He said, they all deserted me.
He was there on his own. And he says, but God stood by
my side. God stood by my side. He's one man alone with his God. And a man alone with his God
is immortal until God takes him from here. He's invincible until
God takes him home. He's secure. Paul says in Philippians,
he's learnt to be content in all circumstances. He says, I
can do all things in Philippians 4.13 through Christ, which strengthens
me. It is As in these events here and
in the world around us, it is so hard so often to see the hand
of God in sovereignty ruling all things. But he does, isn't
he? It seems as if our God is powerless
and weak. It seems as if his church is
this weak and pathetic thing in the witness falls on deaf
ears and we wonder The accusers, as I said to David, they can
accuse us and say, well, where is your God? Where is he? You say he's on the throne and
he's ruling all things. Where is he? Second Corinthians
13 four says, he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth
by the power of God, for we also are weak in him, but we shall
live with him by the power of God toward you. Two years of imprisonment prior
to this chapter we just read. Two years before he claimed his
right to appear before Caesar. Two years waiting for that promise
that he'd had in chapter 23. The Lord stood by him and said,
be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of me in
Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness of me also at Rome. And then he leaves him in jail
for two years. And then he sends him on a ship
that's going to be wrecked on Malta, and he's there for more
months. This great apostles, apostles
of the Gentiles, imprisoned in Israel. And the only Gentiles
that were around were those, his captors. He was away from
his Gentile ministry. He was sent away from his friends.
He was sent away from all those churches. And you can read the
rest of the New Testament. You see that those churches had
nothing but troubles. And how wonderful it would have
been for Paul to go there and to deal with those Corinthians
just one more time. Or to go back to those Galatians
and preach again about the false teachers and remind them of the
glory and the wonder of the Lord Jesus Christ, why does God do
it? Why does God operate in these ways? Well, there are many answers,
isn't there? There is a purpose. There is a purpose. And there is a promise. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
will build my church. I will build my church. And the
gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will build my church.
I'll gather all of my elect people out of this world. I'll gather
them into assemblies where I meet with them and minister to their
needs. I'll be with them. I'll be with them. I'll be with them in ways that
they do not know. I love Joshua. Joshua's commission,
the Lord said to him in Joshua chapter one, he says, as I was with Moses, I will be with
thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. It's echoed again in Hebrews
13, isn't it? I will never, never, ever leave
you, nor forsake you. God has a great purpose and the
great purpose is his glory in this world and the great purpose
is that glory will be revealed through his church and yet his
great purpose is fulfilled in a church that seems weak and
frail and fragile. One of the things that we'll
learn is the great promise of our God is that when his church
is built and the capstone is put on this church, and men might despise the day
of small things, when the capstone in Zechariah says, who art thou,
O great mountain, before Zerubbabel, my king? picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ shall become a plane and he shall bring forth the
headstone thereof with shoutings crying grace, grace unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house. His hands shall also finish it,
and thou shalt know the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you."
And then he goes on to say, with all of those promises, for who
has despised a day of small things? Who thinks that the church of
God is a small thing in this world. Who thinks it's insignificant?
You can grab Paul, can't you? A riotous mob can grab Paul and
you can chuck him in jail and then you can manipulate. You
can manipulate politicians and Jews together can manipulate
things such that he's stuck away in jail for two years. And you
wonder, how's the purpose of God being fulfilled? The purpose
of God is fulfilled when all the shoutings and all the glory
go to him. And God is with his people. We
keep, through the eyes of flesh, thinking that God makes most
works in the big things that we see. And the reality is, brothers
and sisters, we are weak and frail, and very, very few big
things, if anything, are ever going to come of us. You see,
our God is with us. He's with us when no one sees
and no one in this world can see any great and glorious fruit
coming from it. See, he was as much with Joseph
in Egypt when he was in prison as he was when he was on the
throne of Egypt and ruling all of Egypt under Pharaoh, wasn't
he? He was with him just the same.
He was with him when his brothers threw him into that cistern.
He was with him when they plotted murder against him. You see,
he was with Daniel. When Daniel was sitting at his
desk as a governor of a pagan empire, He was as much with him
then as he was when he was in the lion's den. He was as much with him then.
He was as much with Elijah when he stood on Mount Carmel and
had those hundreds of prophets of Baal put to death and that
glorious testimony God was with him as much there as he was in
the previous three and a half years. There he was beside the
brook chariot. No one hearing from him at all,
being fed by the ravens. We keep misunderstanding, don't
we, God's ways of dealing in this world. And we want and we
long for great and glorious and big things to happen. But God works always in every
event. And he works it in ways that
are going to baffle believers and cause this world to doubt,
to doubt his absolute sovereignty in all things and his glorious
purpose in his church. You see, he says, I've saved
you, Paul, for this purpose. Was his purpose fulfilled? Was
anything unfulfilled in all the purposes and promises of God?
You see, our brothers and sisters, in faith, we see God and we want
to have fellowship with him in the little things of life. And
if we fellowship with him and then we are found faithful in
the little things of this life, then all the big things will
take care of themselves. We can't change the big things
that are happening in this world. And that's one of the great declarations
that I want to look at a little bit later on, is the fact that
Paul declared, didn't he? And he declared in such a way
that everyone knew that Jesus was alive. Jesus is alive. The Lord Jesus Christ is alive. He is a living God, a living
Savior, and he's a present God and a present Savior. So he was
as much with Peter on the day of Pentecost when he gave that
remarkable sermon as he was when he was a failing apostle. He's
with us, isn't he? And so in our weakness and our
frailty, he causes us to see that he's there and he's given
us eight chapters in this glorious history and nothing momentous
happens. Nothing momentous happens. Three
sham court cases. Three glorious testimonies. All this is given that Paul might
once again have an opportunity to stand before these people,
to stand before these Jews and to stand before this world and
give us the most glorious decoration of a living God. A living God
who comes to his people not because they have anything good in them.
See, what had Paul done that could have possibly pleased God?
He saw the Lord Jesus Christ as an enemy. He was enraged. It says he was mad against them.
It meant that he was like a madman. He was enraged against them.
He killed the children of God. See, Paul was allowed by our
God to be an exemplar as a trophy of grace. So God saves people
not because of any good he sees in them. God saves them because
of the good he sees in his son. He saves them because of the
work of his son. And in exactly the same way he
builds his church, he's not gonna build his church because men
are powerful and strong and do wonderful things in this world.
There are lots of churches that are doing big and powerful things
and gathering lots and lots of people to themselves. And God
has nothing to do with them whatsoever other than in judgment upon them. God's purpose will be fulfilled. Our God reigns. that he might be brought before
these accusers. So we'll hear this amazing testimony one more
time. Then I want to look at it one
more time. And so we will spend, Lord willing, the next few weeks
looking at all of this. But it is a glorious picture
of the sovereignty of God over the wicked, scheming plots and
plans of men. I love what the Lord said. He says, be of good cheer, as
thou have testified for me in Jerusalem. You've been my witness
in Jerusalem. Thou must also bear witness,
so must thou bear witness also at Rome. When God makes a promise, when
God speaks in his word, You can write it down brothers and sisters.
You can write it down. Truth and done. True and done. Every single word
of promise. Our God says to Paul, you're
going to bear witness in Rome. And Paul would have thought,
wouldn't it be lovely, I can be taken over there in this gold-plated
ship and I can be treated in luxury and I'll be carried up
there by the arms of all these people and I'll have all these
trophies of my grace. You're going to spend the next
two years in jail. You're going to have scheming politicians
put you in jail unjustly. you're gonna have a shipwreck.
You're gonna get to Rome and you're gonna find that the Jews
in Rome have as hard hearts against the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ as these ones that have been persecuting you and wanting
your death for the last two years. Before I finish, let's turn to
Mark chapter four. I love the promises of God. I love the sureness of them. I love the fact that the promises
of God are bigger, are so much bigger than the trials and the
things that we focus our eyes on, like Peter, that cause us
to sink beneath the waves in unbelief. We have a world that
the Lord has disturbed in big ways, and we haven't seen the
end of it, and we have no idea what the ramifications of it
are. All we know is that it's changing so rapidly, and the
circumstances are changing for us, for our brothers and sisters
around the world. And you don't know the future
any more than I do. But I know the promises of God.
And that's what I'm clinging to. In Mark chapter four, the
Lord crosses the Sea of Galilee, but look what he says in Mark
four verse 35. And the same day, even when evening
was come, he saith unto them, let us pass over unto the other
side. He'd made a word of promise,
hadn't he? He said, let us pass over under the other side. When he'd made a promise, it's
a done deal. But look what happens next. And
when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was
in the ship. And there also was with him other
little ships. And there arose a great storm
of wind and the waves beat on into the ship so that it was
now full. And he was in the hinder part
of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him and say unto
him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose
and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there
was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are
you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? See, why could he rebuke them? He'd made a promise to them,
didn't he? He said, let's go over the other side. He who made
the wind and the waves, he who made the coronavirus and all
the other pestilent things will come in this world, he who has
the power to say, peace, be still, says, let's go over the other
side. You're going over the other side. all of my children, all
of my blood-bought children, all those the Father has given
me. He doesn't say, let you go over
the other side, let us go over the other side. And that's the
glory of our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? He's
gone over the other side, brothers and sisters. He's been through
death and he's been through hell and he's gone to the other side
and he's gone to heaven in glory and he says, let us go over the
other side. When he went over the other side,
we went over the other side. And we might long in this world
for him to say, peace, be still, and let's restore us the comforts
that we had in this world. And let's restore to us the wealth
and the riches and all the other things we had in this world,
all of them. All of them that he takes away
from us, brothers and sisters, will be good. be good for His
glory, it'll be good for His people. In the kingdom of God,
less is more. in the kingdom of God. Our God
says, let's pass over the other side. That's the promise he made
to Paul, didn't he? You're going to bear witness
in Jerusalem. In Rome, it was done before the
foundation of the world. All that's happening now, all
that's happening in time, is all of my promises that were
made in eternity. The promises that the Father
and the Holy Spirit and the Son made, all of those promises are
being fulfilled right now. Things are not out of control,
brothers and sisters. Things are not out of control.
This world is being shaken because the Lord Jesus Christ said it'll
be shaken. It'll be shaken in this particular way and for this
particular time and for this particular purpose. And the children
of God will say, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. See why? Look at verse 40 in Mark 4. He said unto them, Why are you
so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared
exceedingly. Now they had real fear. These
were fishermen. They were experienced fishermen. They were frightened
of those waves. They knew of the boats that are
on the bottom of Galilee and the people in them. Now they
feared exceedingly. There's someone to fear more
than the things that you fear with the eyes of your flesh. What manner of man is this? What manner of man is this? Might
that manner of man reveal himself to us yet again? And may he be
the one that rebukes our faith. And may he be the one that gives
us the faith to see him as he is. May the Lord bless his words
to our hearts. Why don't we have a break for
a few minutes. Thank you.