The Cause of Christ Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Cause of Christ Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 25:1-19.

Jesus is the only one that can deliver you from the slavery of sin. Jesus is the only one who can wash your sins away and take them and cast them as far as the East is from the West to be remembered no more. It’s only Jesus that gives you a new beginning in him. Hello. This is Hope Worth Having radio program with your host, pastor Mike Sanders.

And today, we are looking forward to sharing our hope in Christ with you. We pray that as we study the scriptures together, that we will be encouraged and our faith will be strengthened. Today, we’re gonna continue our study in the cause of Christ in Acts 25. So let’s grab our bible and maybe a cup of coffee, and let’s begin to study together. But when I think about prayer, I think about that great leader, Nehemiah.

Remember, Nehemiah was not like a priest. He was not a pastor. He was not any kind of a religious leader in the Old Testament. He was just a guy who was responsible to make sure that nobody poisoned the king. He was the the cupbearer.

He was the head of the secret service, if you will, and he had the responsibility, but then God put a calling on his life and God touched his heart and moved him to respond to a need that existed in Jerusalem as the walls had been torn down, and God called Nehemiah to rebuild the walls to go in there. In the midst of all the disaster, in the midst of all the tragedy, to walk into Jerusalem and rebuild the walls, and more than that church, but to rebuild the city and to rebuild the spirit of the people of god and to go in there and lead them to be a people of victory. Jerusalem was a significant and is a significant city because it is referred to in the Bible as the city of God. The city of God. In Nehemiah chapter six, the great leader Nehemiah is dealing with hostility.

I mean, you’d think that with such a noble mission that the people would rally behind Nehemiah and get all excited and say, let’s get the job done. And the majority of them did, but there was those within and those without who did not want the walls to be rebuilt. And what is it that Nehemiah did? Well, Nehemiah chapter six verse nine says, for they all were trying to make us afraid. Now that’s what the devil does.

That’s what the world does. That’s what the enemies of God do is they try to intimidate, they try to cause fear in your heart, they try to get you to walk back from the will of God, and to not embrace the plan of God, and they want you to be afraid of the call of God on your life. But notice what Nehemiah says, their hands make us afraid saying their hands will be weakened in the work and it will not be done. You can’t do it. You can’t do it.

And here’s Nehemiah’s response to them. Now therefore, oh God, strengthen my hand. I just love that. What is his response to hostility? It’s prayer.

What is his response to the naysayers? What is his response to the haters? What is his response to those who don’t want to make a difference and they don’t want to see the will of God advance? It is prayer. And church, we have a mission.

We have an assignment. We have a plan that we’re to fulfill for God. And whatever the dynamics and all the crazy that’s going on this world, our response is prayer. And we want God to strengthen our hands that we might advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Can God’s people say amen?

Here’s another one. You’re not gonna like it. I like to prep you. I like to get you ready, okay, so you can digest. It’s kinda like you’re feeding your little kid green beans or broccoli.

I know some of you people like broccoli. I don’t know what’s the matter with you, but, I mean, you’re out there. These people like it, but here it is, patience. One time, a lady in the church came to me and she said, pastor, should I pray for patience? I just looked at her.

I was trying to figure out how to answer this one because it’s a little complicated. We’re called to be patient. But if you pray for patience, God might just put you in the position that you need to demonstrate patience. Are you with me? But here’s what the Bible says, first Thessalonians five fourteen, we exhort you brethren, Warn them that are unruly.

Comfort the feeble minded. Support the weak. And here’s the kicker, be patient toward all men. We gotta be patient not only with each other, church. I don’t know if you’ve checked out lately, but nobody’s perfect.

As a matter of fact, if you are perfect, would you stand now and make yourself known to all? The truth is there is nobody perfect. How about that one? We got flaws, we got issues, we got problems, we got weaknesses, we got blind spots. The only way it’s gonna work within the family, and the only way it’s gonna work within the church, and the only way it’s gonna work within our responsibilities and our calling is that we’re gonna have to be patient towards all.

Now I know some of you are good fixers, and you’ve been fixing people all your life. The problem is that as you’ve been fixing people, they haven’t stayed fixed. And that’s really frustrating to you, isn’t it? You spend your life fixing people, they don’t stay fixed, and you’re all frustrated about it. But there’s only one person that can fix people, and that’s Jesus Christ.

And sometimes, we have to be patient, and we have to give them to God, and we have to give circumstances to God, and we have to give situations to God, and we just have to say, Lord, help me to be patient with all. I know you don’t want to say that, but the truth is that as believers, we’re all gonna be in situations that we just are gonna have to be patient. That the answer is not right there in front of us, but we just have to be patient because patience should characterize every Christian. That should be a part of who we are and that we are grateful that God is still at work. And how about this one?

You remember that song we used to sing, He’s still working on me. Amen? You know, Jesus said, take care of that old plank in your own eye. You’re out there spec finding and you’re looking for the speck in everybody’s eye, but you got a big old log hanging out of your own eye. You might wanna deal with it first.

Amen? Deal with it first. And so that’s what we’re called to do is to be patient. So in this hostile world, let’s not only be patient with each other as believers, but let’s be patient with a world that has gone lawless, a world that is becoming more hostile towards the gospel. Let’s be patient because I’m telling you that it’s all a part of the great plan of what God is doing.

Now many many years ago, I pastored in Indiana, And a gentleman came up to me, and this was back in the day, and I know it’s hard to believe, but if especially for our young people that there was a time where credit cards never existed. And people don’t know that. And we used to have these things called phones, and they hung on the wall. How many of you had a wall hanging phone? Okay?

I like to talk about these things. And I know it ages me and dates me and all that stuff, but it’s funny. But anyways, here’s the thing, is this man came up to me and he said, pastor Mike, you need to tell the people not to use the credit cards. And I said, why? He said, because it’s all a part of the plan of bringing the mark of the beast in the world.

And I said, if it’s part of the plan, let’s get our credit cards out so we can get there quicker, and god will call us out of here, and let’s start racking up the debt. Oh, I’m just teasing. But be patient. Be patient, church. We’re on a timetable.

We’re in a plan, and God is always fulfilling His purpose. So we learned, first of all, that we have to be prepared for hostility. But the second thing we learned from the apostle blindness Because these religious leaders wanted the apostle Paul murdered and killed, they could not convict Paul on legitimate charges, so they trumped him up and they just made up these lies about him. And it was so embedded in their mind and their hearts that they were determined that even in the switch of politics and the politicians and one politician ends and another one comes on the scene, they immediately wanted to be in the presence of the new governor so that they could bring up maybe helping the poor? No.

Maybe finding a way to have more peace in the community? No. Their number one topic, we got to get rid of Paul. He’s in prison. We want him dead.

That’s what they brought up to the governor. That’s what they brought up, and it reminds us of just how blind sinners are. Second Corinthians four four tells us that it is the god of this world, meaning Satan himself, who has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Without a savior, we are blinded. And we are not only blinded by our own sin, but we are blinded of the sins of others.

And the reason that I share this with you, church, is that I know your spirit grieves, and I know you’re troubled in your heart, but friends, I’m just gonna be honest with you. Because we are sinful in our nature and because sinners are blinded by their sin and they’re walking in darkness, it’s no wonder they haven’t already burned up this whole country. That we should not be shocked that sinners sin. And when we spend all our time trying to curse the darkness rather than take the light to the darkness, we are failing to understand that sinners sin. You can condemn their sin.

You can beat them over the head with their sin, and you can continue to identify their sin, but I’m gonna tell you that they cannot get out of their sin unless they believe in the lord Jesus Christ. For Jesus is the only one that can deliver you from the slavery of sin. Jesus is the only one that can lift the blindness off the eyes. Jesus is the only one who can wash your sins away and take them and cast them as far as the East is from the West to be remembered no more. It’s only Jesus that gives you a new start.

It’s only Jesus that gives you a new beginning in him. That’s our task. That’s our task. The Bible says in Ephesians four eighteen that unbelievers have their understanding darkened. They’re alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts.

In his book, True Spirituality, if you haven’t read it, it’s an older book, but you should read it. It’s an easy read. But in his book, True Spirituality, Francis Schaeffer said the fall alienated man not only from God, but also from himself and from other people. My point is simply is don’t be shocked. It’s sinner’s sin, church.

And we see how these people are treating the apostle and we get infuriated at the injustice that he sits in a prison for two years, and it’s not the nice prisons that we have today, but he sits in this prison for two years. He should not be there. All he is doing is telling others about Christ. All he is doing is effectively planting churches. All he is doing is making a difference for the cause of Jesus Christ, but there he sits.

It is because of the blindness of people who are lost in their sin. The third thing I want you to learn this morning is that we need to be confident in the sovereignty of God. Let me just walk you through chapter 25 a little bit just to show you some of God’s hand at work behind the scenes. I already kind of mentioned one of them in verse one. We see you remember last week when we studied chapter 24, and we learned about Felix and what a wicked man he was, and how he was a man who was very much able to be easily bribed by others.

And you could take time to do your own research on that again if you want. That’s great. But the Bible says in verse 27 of chapter 24 that he left Paul. We know through Josephus, the historian, that Felix would eventually be in the midst of a revolt and a riot and that would lead to his death. He was eventually replaced by a man named Festus.

God has a way of working those who would attack God’s servants. He has a way of balancing the scales. Even though the apostle was two years in prison, he’s still living. He’s not done yet. God’s still gonna use him.

But what is the legacy of Festus? The legacy of crime and bribery, hate and vengeance, incompetency as a governor. That’s his legacy. And God judges him. God judges him.

We’re reminded in the gospel of Luke chapter one verse 52 that he has brought down the mighty, referring to God, from their thrones, and he exalted those of humble state. The second way we see the sovereignty of God is that He has used this new governor. He has used the new governor to protect Paul from his enemies. You could take time lead later, but as we mentioned earlier, they wanted him and they wanted to bring judgment upon him. Verse five says, therefore, he said, let those who have authority among you go down with me and accuse this man to see if there’s any fault in him.

Festus didn’t buy into the religious passion and the zeal that they had to get rid of this man named Paul. And God was using this new governor to protect Paul because God is the one who truly governs the nations. He’s the one who governs the rulers. The psalmist said, for the kingdom is the Lord, and he rules over the nation. And I know sometimes many of you are troubled by the direction of our country or even some of the problems of our politicians, and you’re startled by that.

Well, first of all, listen. It’s been going on for a long time. It’s just that the curtain’s been opened, the rug’s been lifted. So I don’t want you to get too startled, but I want you to remember this, God is sovereign over all nations. God’s in charge.

God’s in control. I don’t wake up worried. I don’t wake up frazzled because God’s in control. And my confidence and trust is completely in him. I want you to understand another truth about this sovereignty of God working.

You think about Felix, you think about Festus, and you think about, eventually, when we get to chapter 26, King Agrippa, how that none of them would have heard the gospel if the apostle had not been arrested. And in our trials, we sometimes ask the question, why? And I don’t always have those answers and I cannot in any way explain everything. And if we spend all our life trying to understand the whys of life, we’re very much like the dog who is chasing his tail. It’d only lead to our emotional and spiritual downward spiral.

And the response is really not so much, why? But we are asking what, God, are you teaching me? How can I make it through this, Lord? These are the things that we ought to bring to God and let him work effectively, but I think about what the apostle is enduring and what he went through. But because he was arrested, people at high levels in the Roman government heard about Jesus Christ.

I don’t know who was all around. I know these kings and I know these governors never meet alone. I don’t know if the cabinet was there, I don’t know if guards were there. I don’t know if the secret service was there, but I just know this through history that the Roman Empire became known as a Christian Empire. And it is most likely the seeds that the apostle planted into the hearts of those who were in these high ranking responsibilities.

And the gospel, it flourished among the people, but it also flourished in the courtrooms, and it flourished in the king’s room, and it flourished in the political rooms, it flourished throughout all of Rome, and it became known as a Christian empire. And so God works in mysterious ways. We as believers must trust God’s sovereignty, which simply means that he’s in charge. He’s in control. I don’t like it.

I don’t want it. I don’t wanna deal with this. But friends, we must remember that god is always at work, and there may have been doubts in Paul’s heart. And he said that there were times in second Corinthians that he despaired even life. He didn’t wanna go on living.

He kept resting in the sovereignty of God. Each of us are called to faithfully serve Jesus and to keep trusting him to work even when we cannot see what he is doing. And as the great Charles Spurgeon said, if you cannot see his hand, trust his heart. And there are times that I cannot see the hand of god, but I can trust his heart for me because if God is for me, who can be against me? The final thing that I want you to learn this morning out of this chapter is that we are called to be knowledgeable in our citizenship.

We are called to be knowledgeable in our citizenship. Look at verse 11 of chapter 25, For if I am an offender, this is the apostle responding to the governor. He said that if I am an offender or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying. But if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me of, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.

As a Roman citizen, the apostle knew that the religious leaders nor the governors had the power or the authority to kill anyone without the approval of Rome. And so he wanted to be brought before Caesar. He used his rights as a citizen to leverage the gospel of Jesus Christ. Festus tried to persuade the apostle to just admit you’re guilty and this would all be over. Just admit it.

Just say it. And the apostle said, no. I’m not guilty. And he said, if I was guilty, I’m not afraid to die for what I did was wrong. But he says, I appeal to Caesar.

You do not have the right to deliver me in the hands to these religious leaders who have lost it and are vindictive towards me because I am preaching the gospel. No. You have to let me give my due process. Where did due process come from? The Bible.

And you have to give me my due process and I get a chance to appeal to Caesar. And so the apostle understood his citizenship. He understood and was knowledgeable of the rights that were given to him as a Roman citizen. Let’s understand this this morning real quickly, church, that the government is ordained of God. It is ordained for good.

The Bible says in Romans thirteen four that referring to those in government that he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. God set up government for a purpose, and it certainly mainly was that good would be accomplished, evil would be punished, and would be dealt with in society. And government is established to prevent anarchy, and it is here to punish those who do wrong. And so what is our response?

Well, church, as Christians, we should always be honorable citizens. There should be no people that are better citizens and law abiding citizens than God’s people. Whatever country you’re in, we should do our best to abide by the government. But also, we understand that we are taught in Acts chapter four, we’re taught by the life of Daniel that we obey God rather than men. And that there are times that when the government tries to oppress the cause of Christ and tries to hinder the work of God and tries to stop what God is doing, that we have a right to use our citizenship to appeal to the highest courts and the highest decision makers so that we might continue to prosper the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, this is important. It’s good that we would talk about this a little bit. We see that Paul makes use of his citizens’ rights to appeal to Caesar, but it’s something we must keep in mind. It’s good that we can talk about it now because we’re not in the dynamics of all the energy that was going on a few years ago with COVID-nineteen, right? And some have struggled.

You know that our church, we were down for six weeks only because we were concerned, the elders and I, about the health of people. But once we began to understand things a little bit better and that it was mainly affecting those who were of an older age group, we wanting to be obedient to the commands of the word of God that said you should not forsake the assembling of yourselves, we did whatever we could to reopen the doors. In which we did, and yet there were some who were mad and they were upset, and they said you’re violating the laws, which we were not. Thinking that somehow we’re just reactionary and emotional, and we just kind of just woke up one day and made a decision, that’s exactly what we did not do. But rather, doing our research and making sure that all the lawyers understood and gave us great advice, all the insurance people gave us great advice, and all the CPAs gave us great advice.

Whenever I have to make a big decision, the elders and I always seek three people. Number one, what do the lawyers say? What do the insurance people say? And what does the CPA say? And that is just because we want to abide by the law.

We want to do the right thing, and we want to mitigate any liabilities on this campus and among God’s people. We want to do our best. But no matter what anyone says to us, we will always obey God rather than men. Amen. Go ahead.

Some of you are half hearted about that clap. I understand. Don’t worry, I hear you, because some people left our church because we reopened. Some people are still mad at Pastor Mike because we reopened. The church, the governor, even though I know many of you do not like him and hate his guts and all that, he’s gone, let it go, move on, move forward in your life.

But listen, he gave exemptions in the state of Pennsylvania to churches. He gave exemptions, I had teachers upset at me because we reopened the school. Friends, we got to move forward. We got to move forward. Why?

Because we wanted to leverage our rights as citizens that were given to us so that the gospel of Jesus Christ could go forward. Church, listen to me. You shut down this ministry and you just need to understand you’re shutting down the gospel. You’re shutting down the opportunities for us to witness to people, to gather together and encourage God’s people. You’re shutting down the many opportunities we have to reach people for Christ.

And if I could, I could share with you many, many stories of people coming to Christ through the ministries of this church. But we are not ashamed that we reopened and we are not ashamed that the gospel went forward and we’re not ashamed for those who came to Christ and we’re not ashamed for those who’ve been encouraged and we’re not ashamed for those who were reached out to and those who were lifted up and those who were given wisdom and those who were strengthened in their faith and would not retreat because we reopened and said, let’s get back at it, church. Let’s stay on track. Let me say something to you. You’re not gonna like it, but I need to prepare you because I’m getting ready to call you to a decision.

Listen to me, church. Hear me. Hear my heart to you. If you want to play church and you want to be a pretender, you’re at the wrong church. If you wanna be a fully devoted, surrendered follower of Christ, you’re at the right church.

This is a place where we are all in for God. We are all in for the cause of Jesus. As we’ve been studying the cause of Christ, we’ve been learning about how to be prepared for hostility because we know that it’s out there. Jesus said if the world hates you, know it hated me before it hated you. So we have these challenges.

Should that cause us to retreat from our task and our assignment? No. We should be ever more committed to the cause of Jesus Christ, doing everything we can to make sure that the gospel goes forward and we continue to tell others about Jesus Christ. Have you checked us out on our YouTube channel? If you’ll go to YouTube, type in hope worth having, and you can even get this message and different messages that we preach throughout our time together, and we just encourage you to take advantage of them.

We’ve been designing new playlists where you advantage of them. We’ve been designing new playlists where you have different studies in the books of the Bible. And so you can actually pull up the book of Acts, and there’s a playlist telling you all the sermons and teachings in the book of Acts. So take advantage of those opportunities to help you to grow in your faith and to be rooted in your walk with Jesus Christ. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.