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 ethiopian eunuch
and 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 and
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. Yet 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 Paul 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 in 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 knew it off by heart. And yet, we have these men. These men who have witnessed
the grace of God. We read about it in Psalm 32.
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 4 where he says, 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, doesn't
He? It seems as if our God is powerless
and weak, it seems as if His Church is this weak and pathetic
thing and 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? 2 Corinthians
13.4 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. Then he sends him on a ship that's
going to be wrecked on Malta, and he's there for more months. These 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, You've
sent away from all those churches and you can read the rest of
the New Testament and you see that those churches have 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 this 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? The picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ thou shalt become a plain, 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, of
all those promises, for who has despised the 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're 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 system. 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 in 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 charioth. No one hearing from him at all,
being fed by the ravens. We keep misunderstanding, don't
we, God's ways of doing in this world. And we want and we long
for great and glorious and big things to happen. that 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
Saviour, and he's a present God and a present Saviour. 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 stand before this world and give
us the most glorious declaration 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 going to 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 is nothing to do with
them whatsoever other than in judgment upon them. God's purpose will be fulfilled. Our God, our God reigns. As you go back over this chapter
and over this next few weeks, I want to spend our time looking
at that extraordinary testimony of the Lord, which is now repeated
three times. And so if the Holy Spirit has
chosen to repeat it three times, if our God said, Paul, to jail,
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'll 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. Be my witness in Jerusalem. Thou must also bear witness 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 better
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 going to 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 this 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 4, the Lord crosses the sea of Galilee. But
look what he says in Mark 4 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 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? Why could he rebuke him? He'd
made a promise to him, 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-born 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 to
the other side. When he went over to the other side, we went
over to 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, as will
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. It was done in Jerome. 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
will be shaken. It will 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, 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. They knew of the boats that are
on the bottom of Galilee and the people in them. Now they
feared exceedingly. There's something to fear more
than the things that you fear with the eyes of your flesh. 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.