Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful
that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either
by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray
for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,
I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,
they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will
do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a
non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't
hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the
types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would continue to fall with gentle power. Father,
you know that your Word touches us in some ways, touches some of our deepest fears. And so,
Father, you know that we as human beings often turn our eyes away from this or skip over it quickly.
But we ask, Father, that you sort of pin us with your Word and that your Word might enter deep within
and that you might help us, Father, to walk towards some of these fears and hear the beauty and the glory
and the wisdom of your Word. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
So,
if my wife was to be giving me a small present like this,
she wouldn't just wrap it like this.
One of the things which is really wonderful about her is she likes to make sure that there's lots of excitement in opening the presents.
She likes to, in a sense, increase the wow.
And so, she would take something like this and maybe put it in some smaller box wrapped with paper so that if you shook it,
you couldn't hear what it was.
And who knows, depending on her mood, she might even put that smaller box in a bigger box and surround that with all sorts of paper
and cover it up so that when you shake it, you can't hear what's inside of it.
So, you have to do a bit of a journey of opening things up until you get to the present, which is the whole point, or the main point of it.
The Bible text that we're looking at today is in some ways like that.
It's, on one level, very different in that there's not just, you know, wrapping paper or old newspapers that you throw away.
The stuff around the great present or the great treasure is all important, and we'll look at it quite briefly.
But in the midst of this story, there's a profound treasure, a great present that's given to us.
A verse, two verses that it'd be very worth your while to memorize.
And these two verses, if you're paying attention to my prayer, on one hand, they touch on something which makes Canadians very nervous and anxious,
and they want to avert their eyes from it.
But at the other hand, that thing which makes us most anxious and fearful actually is the solution to another fear that we have at a very deep level.
Or at least maybe not you now, but at some point in time, you might have that fear.
So, let's look. Actually, what we're going to do, if, Claire, could you just jump ahead to verse 9 and 10?
I'm not going to leave you in suspense.
Hence, we're going to go with the big thing of the verse, and I'll explain to you why it's a problem or an issue for some people.
Actually, for most people.
And then we'll go back and we'll look at the story, just so you see the context.
And then we'll come back and look again at these two verses.
So, and here's the two verses.
Paul's in Corinth.
I'll give you more of an introduction in a moment.
But here's what happens.
Verse 9.
And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision.
Now, if you're like me, my version of the Bible has red print every time Jesus speaks.
So, this next little bit's in red print.
Here's what Jesus says to Paul.
Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent.
For I am with you.
No one will attack you to harm you.
Here's the problem part.
For I have many in this city who are my people.
Now, why is that last bit a problem bit?
Well, the last bit there is a problem bit.
It's one of the texts which divides people who are more on the reform side of the playing field from those who are more Armenian.
And that's because in the original language, it's not just that God is saying something like,
I don't know what the wisdom is nowadays, but like, you know, 20 years ago, they'd say,
let's say we wanted to make ourselves known and we decided to do a direct mail campaign.
And smart people could say if you sent that out to 20,000 people, there's a certain percentage of people who will respond and come.
And God's not just saying something like that.
He's not just saying, by the way, I've seen the future and these people are going to come.
And the implication of the text in the original language is that they will come, that God is doing something.
He will do something by which it means that they will come to know him.
That's why he can already call them his people.
And that, of course, touches on our fears around, well, whether we have free will.
And there's a whole range of fears and questions that people have around this, but that's what the text is saying.
So let's look at the whole text in context, and then I'm going to circle back after we've seen it,
and we'll spend some time in this because, as I said, this is actually a profound treasure.
It touches on one fear, but as you hear how the Bible answers that fear,
it shows you something about the beauty of God and the beauty of the gospel.
And it also is a great comfort for those who struggle with a different fear.
So anyway, let's go to the beginning, see how it goes.
First one, chapter 18 of Acts. We're back in our sermon series next.
This is an eyewitness-based history of the early days of the Jesus movement.
These things are taking place around the year A.D. 49 to A.D. 51, roughly.
And Paul, it's what's known as Paul's second missionary journey,
and this is part of the story of how Christianity first leaps across this huge divide and enters Europe.
Europe is pagan, pagan, pagan, pagan, pagan, and this describes,
these last few chapters have described how the gospel enters Europe.
And Paul has just been in Athens. He's left Athens. He's by himself.
And he goes to the main city, probably the main city in all of what we now know of as Greece.
And here's how the story continues.
Verse 1.
After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth,
and Paul found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus,
recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla,
because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.
Claudius was the Roman emperor at the time.
And by the way, this is one of those texts, there's other things in it.
And this event of Claudius kicking all the Jewish people,
or most of the Jewish people out of Rome,
we actually know that's true from a pagan historian by the name of Suetonius,
who's a very important pagan historian,
who talks about Claudius doing this in the year 49.
It's one of the ways that we can date some of the book.
So this happens after this.
It's why maybe later on in 49, maybe early 50,
that what Paul is talking about has actually happened.
Anyway, we continue, verse 3.
Sorry, verse 2.
Because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome,
and Paul went to see them.
And because he was of the same trade,
he stayed with them and worked,
for they were tent makers by trade.
And tent makers not only made tents,
but we'd also now call them leather workers.
So he was both a leather worker and a person who could make,
you know, from animal hides, awnings and stuff,
to protect from the rain, but more particularly from the sun.
And verse 4.
And Paul reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath
and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
So that's how the text begins.
By the way, some of you know your Bible
and know that Priscilla and Aquila,
or Aquila and Priscilla,
that you've heard those names before.
This is where we meet them.
They're probably not Christians when Paul meets them.
He meets them and works with them because they're both Jewish.
But sometime during this,
we're not told about their conversion,
but they obviously become Christians.
And I think they show up like almost a dozen times
in the rest of the New Testament
because they become, in a minor way,
quite important people
in the early days of the church in Greece
and in what we now call Turkey.
They become, in fact, his traveling companions
and very, very great friends.
It's also really interesting, if you notice here,
I haven't talked about it very much,
but look at verse 4 again.
He said,
Paul reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath.
And I, you know, it's one of those things,
you could almost make it a whole sermon topic
if you're going and looking through the book of Acts.
How does the gospel
leap over these huge racial and language
and cultural and geographic divides?
And what you'll see is that it's never by force.
It's never by compulsion.
It's always by reason and persuasion.
Open-handed, public declaration of the truth
and giving reasons in the hope that it will persuade.
That's how the gospel moves forward.
So the next part, the next verse is very interesting.
It's one of the things that the book of Acts
has really helped me with.
It explains how you should talk to a Jewish person
or the types of things you should talk to a Jewish person about
if they find out that you're a Christian
and they want to talk a little bit about your religion,
our faith, so to speak, in there.
So let's see in verse 5.
Now just read this again.
Paul was occupied with the word,
testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
So what's happened is Paul didn't have any money.
He was working as a tent maker.
Silas and Timothy have arrived with some financial gifts
from the other churches,
so Paul now doesn't have to work as a tent maker.
He can give himself 24-7 to telling people about Jesus.
And the heart of it,
I was just talking to a Jewish man the other day,
and one of the things I like to talk to them about
is that we Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah,
the Messiah that your Tanakh, your Torah, promises,
and that not only is Jesus the Messiah,
but he fulfills the promise that God made to Abraham
in Genesis chapter 12, 1 to 3,
that God, through Abraham's seed, singular,
there will be a blessing to the whole earth.
And I say, you know, we're one of those non-Jewish people
who've been blessed by the Jewish Messiah.
Those are the types of things I try to talk to them about,
see if they're at least receptive.
Many times they're a bit surprised to discover
that most of the New Testament was written by Jewish people.
And they're even surprised often that I know that Jesus was Jewish,
actually.
There's been a lot of miscommunication throughout the years
with many people who are Jewish.
But notice here that it says he was occupied with the Word.
Just if you could put up the very first point, Claire,
that would be very helpful.
I don't want to spend a long time with it,
but just every time in the book of Acts, you see,
it's a very common thing for it to say that Paul or Peter
opens the Word or shares the Word or talks about the Word.
So what does that, the Word, mean?
Very simply, the Word is the good news
that Jesus Christ crucified.
Sorry, the Word is the good news
of Jesus Christ crucified in light of the Bible.
And it's also the Bible in light of Jesus Christ crucified.
That's what it means.
That's, in a sense, what I'm to do every Sunday.
I'm to open the Word with you.
This is hopefully what the Sunday school does,
what the women's group and the men's group and the small group.
You open the Word, and you look at the Word,
reading the Word, looking at it through the lens,
in light of the fact that Jesus Christ crucified is good news for us.
It's the means by which God has reconciled people to himself
and forgiven our sins.
And we're also to not only just look at the Bible in light of Jesus Christ,
but we're to look at Jesus Christ crucified in light of the Bible.
That's what the Word means.
So anytime you see that in the book of Acts,
that's what you should understand is what is happening.
Now, the story takes a bad turn.
And those of you who've been following along with the book of Acts
know that two types of things happen wherever Paul goes.
And one thing is that people become Christians.
The other thing is that people want to shut them up.
And that's exactly what happens here in Corinth.
Look how it goes on in verse 6.
And when they, that's the Jewish leaders,
opposed and reviled him,
and the language there is quite strong,
they didn't just say, you know, we want you to stop.
The reviling means that they slandered him.
They slandered him.
They would have said untruths about him
that they knew were untruths
to make him look as bad as it possibly could be.
They lied about him in ways that made him look exceptionally bad.
And so as a result of that, it continues,
he shook out his garments and said to them,
your blood be on your own heads.
I am innocent.
From now on, I will go to the Gentiles, to the pagans.
Doesn't mean he'll never talk to a Jewish person again,
but it means now that the focus on his ministry
is going to be to pagans.
Before it was Jewish people primarily, pagans second.
Now it's going to be primarily pagans and Jewish people second.
And so, verse 7,
he left there and went to the house of a man named Tidius Justice,
a worshiper of God.
His house was next door to the synagogue.
Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue,
believed in the Lord together with his entire household.
And many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul,
believed and were baptized.
For some of you, when you hear this text,
immediately you'll think of what happened to us
at the end of June in 2011.
If you're curious about the details,
you can talk to somebody like Andrew or whatever.
We came to the point we had to leave our building.
And when we left our building,
we basically went next door to our whole building
to continue with our worship services.
It's a very similar type of thing as what happened there.
Now we get back to our key verse,
which we're going to return to at the end.
And the Lord said to Paul one night, verse 9,
in a vision,
I mean, right now they're worshipping Aphrodite.
Right now they're worshipping Zeus.
But they don't know it,
but they will become Christians.
Even though right now they don't seem to show any interest,
they don't seem to show any,
they're not even on their radar.
They will become Christians.
And so one of the things which is interesting,
as I said, this is a text which
almost talks as if human beings don't have any free will.
Yet if you look at the text,
this text is embedded in things
that show that we do have free will
and we're responsible for the decisions we make.
People of their own free will
seem to decide to become Christians.
Paul, when he shakes off his robes
as sort of a sign of judgment upon them,
is implying that they could choose differently
and they've chosen to slander him
and oppose him and reject Christ.
And that they've done that of their own free will.
That's the implication.
And, I mean, you could ask yourself,
is this just because the text is inconsistent
or is there something else going on?
Well, we'll get back to that.
You'll notice that this idea of freedom and everything
continues on in the rest of the text.
Look at verse 11.
And Paul stayed a year and six months
teaching the word of God,
there's that phrase again, among them.
But when Galio was pro-council of Achaia,
the Jews made a united attack on Paul
and brought him before the tribunal.
Now, just actually pause here.
This is just one of those little nerdish things.
You know, one of the things,
if you look at the text
or look at a commentary
that helps you look at the text
in the original language,
and they don't cover it literally in English
because it wouldn't be helpful for us in English,
but every time, every little city, every community,
they have different statuses
and therefore there's different political officers.
And every time that Luke gets that right,
and he gets it right at a time
when he can only get it right
if he's based on eyewitness testimony
because back then they didn't have Google.
Like now you could Google and say,
what was the political structure of Athens?
And you could look it up.
What were the officials called?
You could look it up on Google.
Google, but, or if not that,
maybe the Encyclopedia Britannica,
for those of you who remember
what encyclopedias were.
But back then when Luke was writing this,
there wasn't Google,
there wasn't the Encyclopedia Britannica.
They'll only know that if the truth matters
and he was actually there and got it right
because he cares about the truth mattering.
And there's this other really interesting
historical thing about this phrase.
I'll read it again, verse 12.
But when Galio was pro-council of Achaia.
Now Luke would have no way of knowing
that because Galio is relatively well known
in the ancient world,
that there's actual historical evidence
of when he's there,
which is how you can date Paul's visit here.
And here's the other neat,
two other neat little things.
Stoics, Stoicism's very popular right now,
especially among men.
But in general, it's very, very popular.
Galio's brother was one of the famous
Stoic philosophers named Seneca.
And here's the other thing,
which is very interesting,
that both Galio and Paul,
for different reasons obviously,
would be both killed by Nero
within 12 months of each other
in about 11 years or 12 years after this.
Just one of those small little coincidences,
so to speak.
Luke wouldn't know any of this
when he's writing it.
He wouldn't know that Seneca
is still known as a Stoic philosopher.
But anyway, just one of those little asides
some of you might appreciate.
I'll read that verse again, verse 12.
But when Galio was pro-council of Achaia,
the Jewish leaders made a united attack on Paul
and brought Paul before the tribunal saying,
this man is persuading people
to worship God contrary to the law.
Now, by the way, in Roman time,
there was, in fact, laws about how you were allowed
to worship and who you were allowed to worship.
And the entire Roman Empire was pagan.
The one exception to that were Jewish people
who, of course, weren't pagans.
They believed there was only one God.
And there had been an exemption made for the Jewish people
by the Roman emperors, allowing them to worship
in their own, you know, from a pagan point of view,
illogical, stupid, foolish, unlearned way.
But they were allowed to do it.
And so they're accusing Paul of, in a sense,
inventing a new religion.
And because this is being decided at a very high level
in an official Roman colony by a pro-council,
a person whose dad was famous, his brother's famous,
how Galio rules on this could have a huge impact legally
on how Christians were viewed over the next,
over quite a few more years.
It's a very different situation than, in a sense,
the other things that Paul was doing.
It would be like getting a bit of a misdemeanor
where you call bylaw on it and you get fined
for, you know, making too much noise at night or something.
This is a very, very different type of charge,
which is probably why it's in the Bible.
To read verse 13 again,
this man is persuading people to worship God
contrary to the law.
So it doesn't mean contrary.
They don't mean it contrary to our law.
They mean contrary to Roman law.
But verse 14,
but when Paul was about to open his mouth
to defend himself,
Galio said to the Jewish leaders,
if it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime,
O Jews,
I would have reason to accept your complaint.
But since it is a matter of questions
about words and names and your own law,
see to it yourself,
I refuse to be a judge of those things.
And he drove them from the tribunal
and they all see Sosthenes,
the new ruler of the synagogue,
and beat him in front of the tribunal.
But Galio paid no attention to any of these things.
And then verse 18,
Paul stayed many days longer,
took his leave,
and begins his journey home.
And that's what the next few verses say.
So basically what,
this is very important to look.
It's probably why it's in there.
There's been a very high level legal decision made
that from that Roman official's point of view,
Christianity is a version of Judaism.
Therefore,
it's covered by the exemptions
that Jewish people have
allowing them to worship.
It's a very,
very big deal.
There's a couple of lawyers in the congregation.
You can ask them about precedence
and how that would work.
And they'll tell you
this becomes a very big thing.
Now,
there's the text.
It's a very interesting text.
It implies that
the Jewish people
are responsible for making this case.
Galio is freely responsible
for making his answer.
People accepting and receiving,
that's all on them.
Yet at the same time,
there seems to be this idea
that there's this
lack of free will
and God's sovereignty
that some people
are going to become Christians.
How does it all fit together?
Well,
let's look again at verse 9 and 10.
Do not be afraid,
but go on speaking.
Do not be silent,
for I am with you,
and no one will attack you to harm you,
for I have many in this city
who are my people.
Now,
I'm not going to explain the whole issue.
I'm just going to give you
a couple of hints or clues
about how to understand this text.
First one,
if you put a point to,
that would be helpful.
The first thing is to take a breath
and just pause for a moment.
All systems of thought,
every system of thought,
doesn't matter if you're a Buddhist,
if you're a Hindu,
if you're a Muslim,
it doesn't matter
if you're Richard Dawkins,
it doesn't matter
if you're the New Age person,
it doesn't matter
if you have some type of boutique,
curated type of putting together
a spiritual teaching,
it doesn't matter who you are,
all systems of thought
have to account
for the mystery
of unstoppable external force
and real internal freedom.
Everybody has to account for it.
The thing which is unique
about Christianity
is it's right in your face.
Texts like this
and other texts
which I've talked about
in other weeks,
it's right in your face.
You see it.
If you are interested,
go to the Dig and Delve website.
I've shared this before.
And go and look up
Os Guinness having a conversation
right on this stage
with an atheist philosopher
chosen by the Atheist Club of Ottawa,
the Atheist Organization of Ottawa.
And they had a conversation
about the meaning of life.
And one of the things
which is very unique in that
is he acknowledges
that from his point of view,
there is no meaning to life
and there is no freedom.
He acknowledges it.
You can tell it really bothered
the atheists in the room.
But he just said,
listen, if all you have
is matter and motion
and that's all you have,
you know, at the end of the day,
there's nothing special
about human beings
and it's just,
we're just the product
of external,
unstoppable external forces
and we might think
we have freedom,
but at the end of the day,
the freedom's an illusion.
And it doesn't matter
and so I could maybe change
and so only all systems of thought
have to talk about,
have to try to deal with this.
And so it, you know,
if somebody challenges you about it,
one of the things
you can vaguely say is,
okay, listen,
I'll try to give you
my explanation of it,
but you need to give me
an explanation about it too.
It's not just me.
And at the end of the day,
the Christian explanation
is by far the wisest,
not only the wisest,
but also the most beautiful.
If you could put up
the next slide,
that would be very helpful as well.
And part of the reason
that only the Christian answer
is both wise and beautiful
is that only the gospel reveals
that love is the ultimate
and basic reality.
Only the gospel reveals
that love is the ultimate
and basic reality.
But what do I mean by this?
You see,
all systems of thought
tend to either see
our current life
as either a tragedy,
something that happened
with the one
where the one
is no longer the one,
or,
and even then,
they tend to think
in terms of power,
but basically,
all systems of thought
primarily think
in terms of power,
some type of power.
And when you think
about the whole problem
of both power
and free will,
if you just think about it
in terms of power,
you're never going to be able
to solve the problem
because you either have
to minimize the external power
or to maximize your own
or whatever,
it's always going to be
a problem.
But you see,
here's what Christians say.
Christians obviously believe
that power matters,
but only Christianity
teaches the Trinity.
Only Christians can really
and truly say
that God is love.
Only Christians.
Before there was any matter,
before there was time,
before there was energy,
before there was
that singularity,
which we now call that
which existed
when the Big Bang happened,
before that happened,
the Father loved the Son
and the Son loved the Father
and the Father loved
the Holy Spirit
and the Holy Spirit
loved the Father.
And you could go on
with all of those relationships
and that what existed,
God existed before all things
and one of the fundamental
characteristics of the God
of the Bible
is that God is love.
And so before there's matter,
there's love.
That's why it's both
most ultimate
and it's most basic.
Love is that which is
most basic
and most ultimate.
Now there's a mystery
about love
if you think about it
for a second.
And I know this is going
to maybe touch on something
that can be a bit upsetting
to some people.
But when you fall in love
with someone,
there's two things
that happen.
And not just fall in love,
another thing would be,
and this is where I know
I'm touching on
some soft spots,
tender spots,
because there's many people
who would love to be able
to have a baby
and either through
not being able to marry
can't have a baby
or through infertility
can't have a baby.
So I know we're touching
on something here.
But if you're to ask
a mom,
you know,
the day after,
she's holding this brand new
little baby
in her arms
and she's just filled
with love for that baby
or somebody
who's just fallen in love
and they're just filled
in love with that other person.
There's two things
about love.
On one hand,
you feel most free
and most yourself
when you're in love.
On the other hand,
you feel most bound
when you're in love.
You are completely
and utterly bounded
with that baby.
You are bound in a way
that seems like
the most unbreakable iron law.
The same time,
you feel most free.
Isn't that neat about love?
So God,
who makes all things
including power and force
out of love,
has so made and woven
human beings
and human realities
that power is real
because he needs
to have power real
because he wants,
he's out of the fullness
of his love,
not because he has
any deficit
in who he loves,
but out of the fullness
of his love,
he creates beings
who can love each other
and can love him.
And if you're going
to love each other
and you're going
to love him,
you have to have
the dignity of causality
and you can't have
the dignity
of being able
to cause things
if there's not a world
of cause and effect.
And God has so woven
things together
that there is both
in fact true cause
and effect
and there is in fact
at the same time
true human freedom.
And it's a mystery
about how it is
that God has woven that
that at the same time
that we can say
that George,
God can say to George,
George,
you freely sinned.
You freely did that.
You can't pass that off
on me.
You can't pass that off
on your parents.
You can't pass that off
on genetics.
You did it of your own
free will.
And that's going to be
completely and utterly true.
But here's the other thing
about the text.
Remember I said
on one hand
it touches upon something
which we're afraid of
which is losing our freedom.
But it's also this text,
you know,
listen to it again
when it says
I have many in this city
who are my people.
I keep speaking
because there are many people
in this city
who are my people.
If you could put up
the fourth point
that would be very helpful.
The Lord sees you
woos you
and draws you to himself.
Now,
I go to the
Starbucks in Bell's Corners.
I don't normally
do any product placement
but I go to that place
just about every day
of the week
other than Sunday.
I go to do sermon prep
and sometimes
some other work
there in the morning.
So I'm a regular,
regular, regular, regular.
In fact,
I'm such a regular
that I pay for my coffee
with a registered card
and if you pay for your coffee
with a registered card
at Starbucks,
you get free refills.
And so I'll buy my tall,
black coffee with no room
and after I've been there
for 45 minutes
or an hour
or whatever,
I'll go to get my refill
and I always get
a Mint Majesty tea
grande size
with one Splenda.
And I'm such a regular
that sometimes
the baristas,
when they see me
in there,
they get my tea
prepped in advance
for me
with George
written on it.
I'm not making this up.
And they have
the Splenda in it
and the two tea bags
and it's Mint Majesty
and it's a grande.
And so when I get up,
there it is,
two little eyes
and a smile.
It says George
and I get my tea refill
very, very quickly.
But sometimes,
this happened to me
just the other day,
I'd been in there
for 45 minutes,
50 minutes.
I go up to get my tea refill
and the barista says to me,
oh,
you came here later
than normal?
Is it time for your coffee?
And I said,
oh,
it's so hard
to be an older man
and become unnoticed
and invisible.
I've been here
for 50 minutes
and I,
that's fine.
I can be invisible.
I'm in therapy.
I can be,
you know,
for it
because it's hard
to be invisible.
Now,
here's the thing.
And for some of you,
you're cute,
you're vivacious,
you're handsome,
you're good looking,
you've never been invisible
in your entire life.
But being invisible
is a problem
for many people.
There are people
who would say
that in their family
with multiple kids,
they always felt
like they were
the invisible child.
That when they were
in school,
they were the invisible kid.
That when it comes time
to parties or dating,
they're invisible.
People look right at them
but don't see them.
They're looking for somebody
more important,
more interesting,
that that's the story
of their lives.
For many people,
especially women,
one of the things
that they worry about
is that they get
to a certain age
and beyond,
they start to feel
as if they're invisible.
It's a human problem.
But you see,
if you think about this text,
what this text is saying
is the solution to it.
It might very well be
that your parents
treated you
like the invisible child.
It might very well be
that in elementary school
and high school
and university
and in your place of work
that you're invisible.
It might very well be
that you could be
in that Starbucks
for 50 minutes
or an hour
and they don't even know
you're there.
That could very well
be the case.
But God sees you.
He sees you long
before you even
look for Him.
and He loves you
and He woos you
and He'll bring you
to Himself.
You might have been
missed and invisible
with everybody
on the planet
but not with the triune God,
not with the Lord Jesus Christ.
So this text,
which on one hand
sounds very scary,
is in fact
opens up the whole
truth of the Trinity
in a whole different way
to understand
human freedom
and dignity
but also something
about the fact
that we're seen.
So now just,
I have to start
wrapping it up.
Just a couple of things
about this.
Let's look again
at verse 9 and 10.
Remember I said
it's a very good verse.
It's something
you should try to memorize.
There's five different things.
I'm going to summarize them
in two statements
but before that,
just listen to the,
here's the thing
which Jesus is saying
to you and me today.
Each one of us here,
do not be afraid.
And we know
that this is a text
addressed to you and me
because it's a regular feature
of the New Testament
time and time again.
Jesus constantly was saying
do not be afraid.
Do not be afraid.
He doesn't want you
to be afraid.
Don't be afraid.
Jesus is speaking
to you and me directly,
looking us in the eyes,
saying don't be afraid.
And this particular,
you know,
thing,
it, you know,
many of us know
that it may be
a little bit uncomfortable.
I've told people that,
you know,
in coffee shops
that I'm a pastor
and they were friendly
to me before
and as soon as they hear that
you can see a change
that comes over
their entire face
and the entire body posture
towards me.
They're not friendly
towards me anyway,
anymore when they find out
that I'm a pastor
and we all know
what that's like.
And so it makes us
not want to speak
to hide who we are.
But the text says
do not be afraid,
verse 9,
but go on speaking
and do not be silent,
right?
Go on speaking
and the other thing,
don't be silent.
And that's a message
for you and me.
And then it also says this,
why, why,
and by the way,
you see,
here's the thing
about the Bible.
The Bible's not being foolish
and saying,
okay,
don't feel what you're feeling.
The Bible knows it.
You know,
I could tell somebody
don't be sad.
Well,
me telling you not to be sad
doesn't stop you
from being sad.
I could tell you
don't be afraid
and you're still afraid.
Like,
that doesn't mean anything.
The importance of that text
isn't that real Christians
aren't afraid.
It is that God knows
you're afraid.
Jesus knows you're afraid.
Otherwise,
he wouldn't say to you,
don't be afraid.
And the point is,
and so therefore,
you know,
you're a terrible,
lousy human being
and a completely horrible
seventh-rate Christian,
not even second-rate.
No, no,
it's not what he's saying.
It means that there's
an invitation for me
to come to him
with the fact that I'm afraid.
And he's not telling me
to stop.
He's telling me to look
at two other things instead
in a comfort
that he knows me.
You see,
it says,
do not be afraid,
but go on speaking,
do not be silent.
And here's the thing,
the first thing to look at,
for I am with you.
I am with you.
It's a profound freedom.
Lord,
I'm afraid to share
the gospel with that person
or I'm afraid
for whatever it is.
I'm afraid to say something
that might offend.
I'm afraid.
Or, you know,
I'm just afraid
about all these things
that we're afraid of
and we can come to him
and say,
Lord,
I'm afraid.
And this is an invitation
for us not to stop
looking at our fear
as much as to look
at the fact
that he is with you.
Jesus is saying,
I am with you.
It's an invitation
for George to say,
you know,
Lord,
I'm afraid of doing this.
I'm afraid of that.
I'm afraid of this happening.
Help me to bring home
to my heart
that you're with me.
I'm not going to face it alone.
The next part's going to
have to be nuanced.
And it says,
and no one will attack you
and harm you.
Now,
why does this have to be nuanced?
Well,
it has to be nuanced.
All of the three things
that we've said before
and the next thing
are all things
that are in the New Testament.
I think they're general commands
all put beautifully together
here in this text.
But if you read
all of the New Testament,
you do know that,
in fact,
it's not the case
that you won't get
attacked and harmed.
There's already been
Christian martyrs.
Paul himself,
if you read 2 Timothy,
he confesses,
he says,
in effect,
I know I've been delivered
many times from prison,
but I've come to understand
that this time,
after I see my next trial,
I'll be killed.
This is the end for me.
So how we are
to understand this text
is to understand it
in light of Daniel chapter 3.
There's a very,
very beautiful
and powerful story
in Daniel chapter 3
that Shadrach,
Meshach,
and Abednego
are three Jewish men
in the employ
of the emperor
Nebuchadnezzar.
And Nebuchadnezzar decides
that all of his officials
are going to have
to worship the idol.
And so Shadrach,
Meshach,
and Abednego
are going to,
they make the sound
to start worshiping.
Everybody worships.
Three dudes are left
standing up,
Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego.
Everybody's mad at them.
The king threatens them.
He says,
you realize that
if you don't bow down
and worship,
I am going to kill you.
And Shadrach,
Meshach,
and Abednego
say this memorable phrase
to Nebuchadnezzar.
He looks at Nebuchadnezzar
and says,
we believe that our Lord,
our God,
can deliver us.
But if not.
We will not worship.
We will die.
And that's how we're
to understand this.
When we're attacked,
we can pray.
The Lord can deliver you.
It might be that he won't.
So in the back of our mind,
it's but if not.
And then this final thing
is I have many in the city
who are my people.
That's why it's worth our while
to tell our kids
about the gospel,
to tell their friends,
to tell our coworkers,
just to bear witness to Jesus
because God has people
in this city.
Unless you've come to the sense
that this is Ottawa
is Sodom and Gomorrah
and no Christian
should presume upon that,
that's a terrible thing
to presume,
there are people in this city,
despite the fact
that they seem disinterested
or maybe even hostile
to the gospel,
there are people in this city
who are going to become Christians.
That's why we should
speak the gospel.
That's why people
like our brother B over there
will go to closed nations
to tell people about Jesus
because, right brother,
there are people in that place
who God has called for himself.
And it doesn't depend
upon our skill.
It's a wonderful truth
of the gospel.
So just in closing,
two different things up here
to help put this together.
If you could put up number five.
I thought of making it longer,
but I thought I'd bring
the two aspects out
in two different sentences.
And if you want,
you can take a screenshot
or it can be online.
I send these words
to Josiah later.
the Lord can deliver you,
but if not,
do not be afraid,
for he is with you.
And there are many people,
there are many people,
I can't read my writing.
There are many people in this city
who will become Christians.
Whatever that is,
you can see it.
The Lord can deliver you,
but if not,
do not be afraid.
You lose your job,
you get a demotion,
or you don't get the promotion.
He didn't deliver you.
Don't be afraid.
He is with you.
There are many people in this city
who will become Christians.
You could go about number six,
that would be helpful.
The Lord can deliver you,
but if not,
go on speaking,
and do not be silent,
for he is with you.
And there are many people in this city
who will become Christians.
That's the message of this
very, very, very profound text.
Do not be afraid,
but go on speaking.
Do not be silent,
for I am with you,
and no one will attack you to harm you,
for I have many in this city
who are my people.
Let's stand.
Bow our heads in prayer.
Father,
you know that some of us
are struggling with invisibility,
with feeling unseen.
Some of us, Father,
may be worried
that we're entering into a time
of our lives
where we will be increasingly unseen.
That one that people sort of know
there might be a body there,
but they're really looking around
for somebody more interesting,
more important,
more fun,
more hip,
more cool,
whatever.
And so, Father,
we give you thanks and praise
for this profound truth
that you see us,
that you know us,
that you wooed us,
and that you brought us to yourself.
And we ask, Father,
that you help this
to be a truth
that comes home to our heart,
that Jesus is with us.
Father,
you know the things
we're afraid of.
Help us to be honest
and come to you
with our fears,
and we ask
that you help us
not to think about the fear,
but to,
although it's there,
but to focus on
you were with us
and that you will use us
and that these things
are true, Father.
And so we should take
steps of faith.
And,
Father,
we thank you for Jesus,
that he is Jesus Christ crucified,
that he is the means
by which our sins are forgiven
and we are made right with him.
He is the means,
the true revealing
of the depth of love
of the Trinity,
that Jesus,
out of love for us,
died for us
so that we can be made
right with you
and forgiven.
So, Father,
keep our eyes fixed
on Jesus Christ crucified,
that he is with us,
that he has saved us,
that he will never abandon us
or forsake us
or let us go.
And as these truths
become more real
to our hearts,
grant us courage
and boldness
to live for you.
And we ask these things
in the name of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior.
Amen.