Open your Bibles to Acts 20, the book of Acts. We are taking a turn, how many of you know that we've been in John 15 for the last month or so? And what we've been talking about is, what does it mean to abide in Jesus and make Jesus our home? What does it mean for us to abide in Him and then obey Him and see fruitfulness in our lives?
And how many of you know that involves pruning? And we always love pruning, you know, but then He starts pruning you and you're like, man, what do I have to offer? I was so fruitful and I was making an impact. And I had influence and I was seeing all of these fruits of the Spirit in my life.
And now I'm hitting the end of myself. I feel like everything got removed and now I can't even do anything for God. And it feels like, what do I have to offer? I can't perform, I can't achieve.
I can't earn your love. And the Lord's like, perfect. Now you're getting into the gospel. Now you're starting to earn, now you're starting to understand that you can't earn my love.
And when you're a little twig off of the vine, that's where you're supposed to be so that it can show you, wow, that type of love, unconditional love, is actually what was meant to be birthed through me and spread everywhere. Where I have this revelation, I can't earn his love and I get to receive it. And now other people can't earn my love because I just give it freely, right? So that's what we've been talking about as we've been talking about abiding.
And what I wanna do is I wanna lead us through a journey of following the storyline of the Apostle Paul as he was abiding in Jesus, and then obeying his leadership by the Holy Spirit. And then all of the fruitfulness and the pruning that resulted, okay? And this is kind of a little preview for next week because we have a guest speaker next week, Brother Eric is coming to bring the word from run ministries, so we're so excited for Eric coming. How many of you know that for six months, we've been laboring in prayer for believers in the Middle East, and now we get to have him minister and share stories and a message, and so we're excited to have him and be hosting him.
So get ready for next week, it's gonna be good. But one of the messages that he carries from the nations as he's watched the body of Christ flourish and some of the most hardest and darkest places in the earth explode with the gospel in a really good way. It all comes down to young believers listening and obeying. That's all they're doing.
They read the Bible, they take it seriously, they listen to the words of Jesus, they follow the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit shows them anything, and then they just obey. And then the kingdom advances forcefully in all the unreached people groups that have never heard the gospel. That's basically their strategy. Every day people listening to God and then obeying him.
And I keep on trying to get him to unlock the strategy, and like the how did you, how are you seeing this happen? And he keeps on making it about listening to God and obeying God. I wish he wouldn't. I wish that wasn't the strategy.
I wish it was some type of program, because I'm an American, right? I wish it was some type of organizational structure. And to do this system that really refines things. And then he made it about obeying God.
I was like, oh man, really? So you're saying that most Americans just aren't obeying? He's like, maybe, shoot. Okay?
So we're gonna look at the Apostle Paul. And I want you to listen through the lens of Paul had decided in his heart, I am the Lord, and I'm not my own. I am a servant of the Lord, and I'm going to obey him. I want you to look at Acts 20 here.
Apostle Paul is in Ephesians, in Ephesus, Ephesians is a people group. So he's in that city. Well, before we start reading, why don't you look up at me? I'll just give you a little bit of context.
The Apostle Paul is this leader. He was a Pharisee, and he was this religious leader in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus. So Paul remembers Jesus' ministry and how he disagreed with it. He was rolling with the Pharisees when Jesus was in the temple.
And when Jesus started throwing tables, Paul might have been there in the temple. Okay? So Jesus dies, rises from the dead, ascends into heaven. A little bit later, what happens is persecution starts breaking out, and Paul is one of those religious leaders in Jerusalem that starts persecuting followers of Jesus.
So he starts beating them, he starts bringing them into prison, he starts persecuting them, he's literally, there's a man named Stephen that proclaims the gospel of Jesus who gets stoned to death and Paul's an accomplice for that murder that's happening. And the Apostle Paul is on his way to Damascus, which is a city that's adjacent to Jerusalem. He's on his way to do more of that, more persecuting. Jesus knocks him off his horse, shining like the sun.
And this guy, his name was Saul. And then Jesus gives him a new name and a new identity. And so he goes from Saul to Paul. But he had scales on his eyes.
I don't know if you have ever seen scales on somebody's eyes, but that's gnarly, okay? But he can't see for a couple days. Then Jesus tells one of his servants, hey, I want you to go heal him. And so Saul gets healed and he turns into Paul, gets baptized and then he has this assignment.
And this assignment that God gives him is I want you to reach Gentiles with my good news. And you gotta pause and think about, he's a Pharisee that loves the Jews. And he's very well versed in the law. Why is he getting the assignment to go to the Gentiles?
Because Peter would have been better suited to reach the Gentiles, don't you think? Fisherman Peter, who's kinda just crass and like, flippin', you know? Peter would have been the better guy for the job to reach the Gentiles. But you're choosing the one that has all of the knowledge of the Torah that could speak directly to the Jews.
And you're going, no, I want you to go to the Gentiles. And I want you to catch that. That oftentimes the Lord might call you to something that you don't feel qualified to do. Or you feel like I'd be better suited in that.
And the Lord's like, but I'm gonna take your weakness. And I'm gonna show off my strength. And it's not gonna be in your strength. It's gonna be by my spirit that I'm gonna do this thing.
And so some of us feel like we're, you know, around pagan square home, you gotta just pause and go, hey, maybe the Lord wants to show off his strength. You feel under qualified, the Lord's like, wow, get ready. Okay? So anyways, the Apostle Paul's been obedient.
And he's been ministering in these cities in Asia Minor. Some of them are Colossae and Colossae and Ephesus and Philippae and these towns that we, you know, we have Colossians, the book of Colossians written to believers in that town and Ephesians, who's Paul writes that letter to Ephesus, the church of the city of Ephesus. So anyways, he's been in Asia Minor, ministering, and he's been in Ephesus for three years. And so the context of this is he's been there for three years doing life.
Like Uncle Paul is just been rolling with this crew in Ephesus and he's loved, he's like, love, he's been fathering them. And so there's affection in their hearts for Paul. And he's been like, my time has come. And the Holy Spirit's like, I'm gripped with something.
I have to leave. So we're gonna pick up here in verse 18, halfway through verse 18, Acts 20. So what we're gonna do is follow the storyline. So we're gonna take a story, we're gonna just go through, what is this?
Acts 20, all the way to Acts 28. And so we're gonna breeze through the next eight chapters. And I don't know if you're like me, but for the book of Acts, we're gonna get into it. But how many of you have started on the book of Acts and you're like Acts 9, 10, and then you're like, man, and you just get tired, you know?
And then like, you don't even remember Acts 20 through Acts 28. Well, now you're gonna remember it. Like I think that it's, this is pure cinema. Well, we're gonna read, deserves a movie and you'll see why, okay?
Acts 20, all right, verse 18. And when they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day I set foot in Asia. Serving the Lord, so he's talking to all of his friends, like his people. I've been serving the Lord with humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me throughout the plots of the Jews and how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house.
He's kind of like reminiscing with him. Testifying both to the Jews and the Greeks and for pincents towards God and a faith in our Lord Jesus. And now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit. In other words, like I'm bound by the Spirit.
I'm allowing the Holy Spirit to compel me and grip me with something. Are you hearing that? This is, he's listening to God and he's allowing Holy Spirit to put something deep within him where it's a conviction. I am bound by this thing.
I have to go. And he says, not knowing what will happen to me there, verse 23, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me that in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. That is not American at all. But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course in the ministry that I receive from Jesus.
To testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. So he's going, this is goodbye. You're not going to see me again.
And I want you to look at their response in verse 36, X, 20 in verse 36. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him.
And being sorrowful, most of all, because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again. And then they accompanied him to see him off, as he was going to board the ship. There is great affection that this community has. And my question for you is, when's the last time that there was actually weeping, because a brother or sister was going to move away?
When is the last time that you were close enough with someone that you're running with, that you're doing life with, that you're doing community with, that there's actually an emotional reaction to them leaving? Are you close enough? Do you do community deep enough? That there's actually, it pains you when somebody says, I have to go.
And I want to call us to that type of togetherness as the people of God. Paul is going to board this ship. But I want to draw our attention to that. He's like, decided in his heart.
I'm bound by the Spirit. I listen and I obey. That's the theme. I'm abiding.
I'm going to obey. And there's always fruit. John 15, now we're starting slow, but I promise it's going to get good. For any of you that are like, I ate dinner at five.
And I'm feeling it now. I promise it's going to get good, OK? All right. Paul shows up in Jerusalem.
Actually, before he shows up in Jerusalem, he's on his way to Jerusalem. He's like floating to Jerusalem. And then he stays entire. In Acts 21, if you look in verse 3, it says, he landed entire.
For there, the ship was unloaded. It's cargo. So he hopped on ship. There's cargo got unloaded.
And he was one of the cargo that got unloaded. And verse 4, having sought out the disciples there, he stayed there for seven days. So he's there for a week. It's just a pit stop entire.
And look at what, at the end of verse 4, they say, through the Spirit, all of his friends from Tyre that love God, we're telling him, don't go to Jerusalem, buddy. Don't go to Jerusalem. They're feeling from the Holy Spirit. There's bad things coming in Jerusalem.
When our days there were ended, we departed, went on a journey. And I love this picture that it says in verse 5, with wives and children accompanying us, we went outside to the city, and then we knelt down on the beach, and we prayed, and we said farewell to one another. Can you just picture that? Like, this is real life.
He was visiting for seven days. And literally all of the families, the kids, and the moms, and the dads, and the singles, and the whole community, followed him out to the beach. And they're kneeling on the beach praying, sending Paul off. Probably never to see him again, because he's going to get bound in Jerusalem.
This is real life, OK? All right. Now he comes to Caesarea. Get ready for Caesarea, OK?
He's hanging out at Brother's house. Brother has four daughters that are prophecies that hear the Lord, they prophesy in the community. And then there's a prophet that comes, his name is Agabus. I don't think any of you have the name Agabus, but it's a solid name.
And Agabus comes in and takes Paul's belt. And I don't know how he got Paul's belt. I don't know how that happened. Did he just kind of like, but he takes Paul's belt, and he ties himself up.
I'm like, how does he do this in the living room, where he's like, and did he have somebody else tie him up? But he ties up his hands and his feet as a prophetic picture of what's going to happen to Paul when he goes to Jerusalem. So the whole community is like, Paul, don't go. Paul, don't go to Jerusalem.
And I want you to look at verse 13, Acts 21, verse 13. In verse 12, they're saying, don't go to Jerusalem. Verse 13, he answers them and says, what are you doing? Weeping and breaking my heart.
I am ready, not only to be in prison, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, let the will of the Lord be done. This is what we want, but I guess it's gonna be the way that Jesus led, not my will, but the will of the Lord. How many of you know that the Apostle Paul is making a decision, I'm gonna obey the Lord, even when it cost me something.
Even when I don't know the implications of the decision, and it's against self-protection, I'm going to obey. That's beautiful, that's part of abiding. Are you seeing that? Paul arrives in Jerusalem.
He shows up in Jerusalem and maybe you're kind of like, what's the big deal? Why does Paul care so much about going to Jerusalem? That's the question that I'm asking. So Paul, I know that the Lord has told you to go, but you have insight into why.
And what Paul is thinking about is unity between the Gentile church and the Jewish church. Cause there's some division there. And he knows that in Jerusalem, they're struggling with a famine. Everybody say, I like food.
They don't have food in Jerusalem, okay? And so the Apostle Paul is taking offerings from Ephesus and all of the Asia Minor communities, he's going, I'm going to take offerings so that we can give money to the Jewish church so that it can score like brownie points. Are you seeing that to bring unity because he cares about what God cares about, unity in the church, okay? So he shows up to Jerusalem with gifts.
And then all of his Jewish brothers and sisters are kind of like, are you still with us, man? Like, are you still a Jew? Like, I know we follow Jesus, but do you still practice? Like, are you a practicing follower of Judaism?
And he says, yeah, I'll prove it. And so he goes through the seven day purification process with four brothers and he's towards the end of this purification process in the temple. And then one of his friends from Ephesus, those really an enemy, notice his Paul in the temple. And this Jewish friend that's really like frenemy, you know?
I've never used that phrase, but it's frenemy. Is that what they use? Is that what people say? Friend, but an enemy is in the temple and notice his Paul.
It's like, I know what Paul's up to. He probably invited a Gentile that's not allowed in the temple, into the temple because he's up to no good and he's friends with Gentiles. And so this guy from Ephesus starts getting a mob together to kill Paul. My goodness, you're just like praying at church and then all of a sudden there's like 50 guys that are coming and rolling through with rocks and they're like, get down, but you know, like, can you imagine?
So he's on the ropes and then soldiers come from the Roman Empire and they like rescue him pretty much. So then he goes into a trial and basically for the next couple of chapters, the Apostle Paul is on trial over and over and over again. It's kind of like our court system where it's like, will it ever end, right? And so he's having all these opportunities to testify.
So at the end of chapter 21, this is what's so great about Paul is every time he has a chance to defend himself, all he's doing is repping Jesus. He's like, this is what Jesus did. This is what Jesus did to me and this is what's true about Jesus, right? And so he's testifying.
Then what happens is in Acts, let's see here, let's go to Acts 23. He's sharing the gospel. Now you've got a Roman general called a Tribune that is overseeing some soldiers. They're kind of keeping the peace, right, in Jerusalem.
And they're letting them go at it, you know, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and Paul. And Paul knows how to, he's shrewd as a serpent, you know? So he's like, I know what's the red button that's gonna get everybody upset and it's going to make everybody think not about me, you know? So he presses the red button of the resurrection of the dead, which is fighting words for the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
So look at what happens in verse eight of Acts 23. For the Sadducees say there's no resurrection nor angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees, they acknowledge them all. Then a great clamor arose, because this is after Paul kind of set his peace. And some of the scribes of the Pharisees party stood up and they contended sharply.
We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him and when the dissension became violent, the tribune, so like the leader of the Roman guard, afraid of what, that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, come in at the soldiers, go down, take him away, rescue him and bring him to the barracks. And then I want you to look at verse 11. The following night, Paul is in the barracks, he's sleeping and then the Lord, I don't know if he's sleeping, I just doesn't say that he's sleeping.
Following night the Lord, Jesus stands by him. I mean, my goodness, the resurrected Jesus standing next to you and says, take courage. You don't want God to say that to you. Don't, that's no bueno.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't say take courage to me, because you know what's coming. If he's saying take courage, you know that that's bad news ahead, right? He says, take courage, get ready.
You did a great job testifying about me in Jerusalem. Now you're done. I want you to go to Rome. And the possible Paul is like, bonus, that's what I want.
Because he already said in his letter to the people of Rome, in Romans, he said multiple times, like, I want to come to you first and then I want to go to Spain. And so Paul kind of had this in his heart anyways. So he's like, yes, Lord, I'm done in Jerusalem and I get to go. But it looks like pruning from here on out, okay?
And so because, remember, Jesus says, take courage. Look at verse 12, this is so wild to me. When it was day, so the next morning, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath, neither to eat or drink till they had killed him. There are more than 40 men who decided they weren't going to eat or drink until they killed Paul.
And then they went to their local church pastor and they said, we have strictly bound ourselves with an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. And the pastor said, okay. Verse 15, now therefore, you along with the council of elders and the church board give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you as though you were going to have part two of the trial. And then we're gonna kill him on the road before he gets to part two of our trial.
Wow. Verse 16, Paul has a sister who has, and his sister has a son, which makes this kid his nephew. And Paul's nephew, I'd use reasoning for that. You think that.
I guess he was a nephew. So Paul's nephew. Paul's nephew. Paul's nephew hears about the plot.
And Paul's nephew goes and finds Paul and tells him what's gonna happen. And Paul's like, don't talk to me. Go to the tribune. Go to the leader of the Roman guard that can do something about it.
And so his nephew goes and talks to this Roman general or commander or whatever. I don't know the military structure. Anyways, the leader of some of the troops, okay? And lets him know.
And the leader of the Roman troops in Jerusalem goes, uh-oh, well, I gotta protect you, Paul, because yesterday I found out in your whole trial thing that you're a Roman citizen. And that means that I'm required to protect you. So look at what happens to Paul in Acts 23, verse 23. You guys there with me?
So this is the leader of this Roman guard in Jerusalem. And he calls two of the centurions, which are leaders of 100 soldiers. And he says this, he says, get ready 200 soldiers with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen. Go as far as Caesarea at 9 p.m.
And provide mounts for Paul so that he can ride there and go to Felix the governor. Can you just pause and note that they're organizing like 400 plus soldiers that same day to escort Paul out of the city? Wow, that's, I just think that's so interesting. I don't know.
Like he's got 70 spear, was it 200 spearmen? What is a spearmen? I bet they have spears. Okay, using reasoning on that one too, okay?
All right, so they take a 32 hour trip and then they're in Caesarea and Felix is the governor of Caesarea and now they're gonna do another trial about five days later. So Pharisees from Jerusalem take another trip and they go to Caesarea and they follow him because they are, they're gonna have justice, right? And so Paul is on trial, he testifies. And then the governor of Felix goes, hey, how many of you know that sometimes things get political and that it has nothing to do with Paul?
And governor of Felix is just kind of using Paul as a pawn. He's using him and kind of holding out on things. That's what's happening in this story. And so Paul is camped out in Caesarea for two years.
He's waiting for two years. Do you remember that Jesus was like, hey, you're going to Rome? Sometimes when God says something to us and calls us to do something, we think that it's gonna be a couple days, a couple weeks. Two years later, he's still in prison in Caesarea.
And he's getting these opportunities like governor of Felix and quiet is like, hey, what do you think? You know, and he comes in and shares the good news of Jesus in some of these verses in verse 24 and 25. And then he, so he's like got the governor's ear as a prisoner, which is kind of wild, don't you think? And then he starts talking about the judgment of Jesus.
And governor of Felix is like, ah, I'm not gonna call it Paul anymore, right? And so he's just waiting. And then there's a leadership change. And there's a new governor in Caesarea named Governor Festus.
So are we all tracking? So it's like he ethicists, Jerusalem, now Caesarea. And there's governors and there's a leadership change. There's a new governor.
And governor Festus shows up. And that's in verse, in Acts 25. And now Festus as a new governor is trying again, Paul is kind of a pawn. And he's going, you know what I'm gonna do?
Is I'm gonna give Paul, they want Paul, they want Paul dead. So I'm gonna have Paul go to trial in Jerusalem so they get what they want. So I get brownie points with the Jews because I wanna keep peace as a Roman governor. And so as a leader, he's going, this is a good strategy.
And he's telling Paul this. And then Paul says, I appeal to Caesar. What that means is as a Roman citizen, if you appeal to Caesar, you get a free pass to go to Rome so that you go to trial in Rome rather than that local jurisdiction. Can you imagine Paul for two years being in prison?
He's like, I know exactly what I'm gonna do. When they bring me out of this place, I know what I'm gonna say. I'm gonna appeal to Caesar so I can get to Rome. Didn't take that much brains.
That was like rational that he did that, okay? He used some reason, that's right. But before he gets sent over to Rome, the governor needs some entertainment. And so there's a special guest, King Agrippa and Queen Bernice are showing up to Caesarea.
And so the governor Festus, he goes, hey, I got some special guests. Let's have Paul go on trial. Let's gather all of the elites of the city and we're just gonna see what Paul has to say. It's kinda entertainment, see what King and Queen think, right?
And so I wanna just plop right in here. Listen, it's a movie. This is totally like, you could picture it. It's a movie.
Look at verse 22. So this is after, well, okay, this is kinda setting up the scene. There's 23 of Acts 25, say amen if you're there with me. So on the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pump.
So that means, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. So everybody that's important is there for the party. And at the command of Festus, Paul is brought in and he gives some context of Paul and then Paul preaches the gospel, shares his testimony. He shares it with boldness, he shares it with courage.
And then I want you to look at Acts 26, verse 23. This is the final verse of his preach as he's testifying. And he says that the Christ would suffer. And by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people, the Jews, and also to the Gentiles.
And I can just picture Festus, the governor, the governor's going, I got a kind of safe face because Paul just preached good. And I kind of got to separate myself from Paul in this moment, because I brought this whole crew, but I didn't think he was gonna preach that good, right? And so he's gonna separate himself from Paul in this moment and kind of safe face with King Agrippa and Queen Bernice. So watch what he does.
Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you're out of your mind. You're great learning is driving you out of your mind. And then Paul says, I am not out of my mind most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words for the King knows about these things. So then he's talking to Festus, but he's addressing the King Agrippa.
He says, the King knows about these things that I just talked about. And to him, I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped from his notice. For this has not been done in a corner.
And then he addresses the King, and he looks him right in the eyes. And he says, King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe. Wow.
And then King Agrippa says to Paul, I mean, can you imagine all of the eyes of all of the important people, all the people that are under their leadership are on him? And what does he say? He says, in a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian? Paul said, whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but also everyone in this hall who hears me would be such as I am, I am, except the chains.
Oh my gosh. Paul, let's go. And then they have a little pow-wow, Agrippa and Festus, and they're like, man, we should let him go, but now we can't. And we have to send him to Rome because he appealed to Caesar.
So now finally, Paul is gonna board the ship. He's gonna go to Rome. It's finally gonna be good. It's been two and a half years since he's heard, take courage, you're going to Rome, you're done in Jerusalem.
This is good. So he boards the ship. There's a couple of stops on the way. And then all of a sudden the Northeastern comes.
That storm, that's gonna give you trouble. So they're on a ship and Paul told them, we can't leave right now. Like he's a prisoner and they're not gonna take his word for it, but he gave all the leadership of the ship a warning like we shouldn't go. And now they have been in 14 days.
Everybody say 14. 14 days of being in the Mediterranean with a tumult of a storm that they haven't seen the stars in the sky. And it's been that intense and they haven't eaten in 14 days. Can you imagine day and night waves crashing you for 14 days?
Oh my gosh. Look at Acts 27, verse 19. And on the third day they threw the ships, tackle overboard with their own hands. Verse 20, when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.
They'd been without food for a long time. And Paul stood up among them and said, men, you should have listened to me. And not said sail from Crete and incurred this injury in laws. Verse 22, yet now I urge you to take heart.
For there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. Now in verse 37, we see that there's 276 people on the ship. It's not like a small fishing boat from the gospels. We're talking about like a ship.
Like this is, think of like, Pirates of the Caribbean ship, okay? Don't think that, but that's as close as I can come up with something comparable, okay? 276 people on the ship. And he said, do not be a, oh, verse 23.
For this very night, there stood before me an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I worship. In other words, Jesus, the messenger. Sometimes he'll be called an angel because angel means messenger. So he's saying, I encounter Jesus.
And he said to me, don't be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar and behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you. So take heart, man, for I have faith in God that I'll be, it will be exactly as I've been told. But here's the caveat.
We have to run aground on some type of island. So the prisoner on the ship is telling the captain, if you want to survive, we have to crash our ship. That's what he's saying. And okay, so the 14th night comes, verse 27.
They start dropping down, seeing how deep the waters are. And then the next day, verse 33, that whole section, the apostle Paul is leading the ship and says, hey, everybody has to eat some food. I know we haven't eaten in 14 days, it's time to eat food because we're gonna ship wreck and you need strength to survive. So the whole ship, all 276 people start eating for the first time in 14 days.
They regain strength and they see an island. And so they start approaching the island, but then they're headed towards the island, but then they run into a coral reef. And the coral reef completely destroys the bottom of their boat and their ship is sinking and all 276 have to jump overboard. But the commander, remember that Paul's a prisoner, so that there's a tribune that's overseeing him, making sure that he gets there to roam safely.
And so he's under this commander, right? And then all of the Roman soldiers are like, should we kill all the prisoners? So that they don't get away. But this tribune goes, but I want Paul to survive.
So he lets all of the prisoners go free and get to the island. And so they all swim to the island of Malta. So now they get out of the water, it's cold, it's winter. They're crawling up onto shore and then there's natives on the island of Malta.
And they're like, oh no, what is gonna happen? And there's a language barrier and there's dread that comes upon them and then they realize, these guys are really kind. And so all of these natives start building fires for them so that they can be warm, this is amazing. And finally, the Apostle Paul can kind of let down, can you imagine for 14 days running on adrenaline?
You finally come up onto the island, it's ground, right? And you're starting to let down and it's like, it's fire, I'm freezing. And the Apostle Paul grabs like a piece of wood to kind of help the throw into the fire. And all of a sudden, you wouldn't even believe it.
You wouldn't even believe what happens. All of a sudden, he's just being a kind cop taking a log, put it in the fire. And there we go, a viper comes and gets his hand. He's got a viper hanging off his hand, he's shaking his hand because there's a viper attached to his hand.
And Jesus is up in heaven like, I told you, take courage. I told you, take courage brother, right? My goodness. And all of the natives on the island are like, giving commentary because they know why this viper got him because they know like he's in prison clothes.
You gotta remember this, like he's a prisoner. And so they're going, they're putting two and two together. It's like, this guy must have been a murderer. He's survived out of the shipwreck, but he had this come into him.
We all knew that God was gonna kill him because he was a murderer. And so that's what that viper was because all of the natives of Malta, they know. When you get hit with a viper, you're gonna blow up like a blueberry or you're gonna just drop dead, like they knew. So they're going, this guy was a murderer for sure because that was wild.
And then in Mark 16 happens, like you'll get struck by servants and you won't die. You won't get poisoned. And so he doesn't have any residual impact. And so they go from, he's a murderer into, he's a God.
Just a flip flop real quick. Like literally God showed up to our island. And so he has special access to like the leadership of the island. He's hanging out with the chief of the whole island.
And then he notices the chief's dad, who is the former chief, right? And then the former chief, the patriarch of the whole island, everybody knows this guy. He's sick, like nasty sick, fever and problems. Okay, bad problems.
If you research him with the problem, he had a bad problem. Okay, bad problem. He was sick. I'll tell you that right now.
He was sick. It was a bad sickness, okay? He's laid up. He's in trouble, okay?
And the Apostle Paul comes in and heals the guy that is the patriarch chief of the whole island. I see somebody who's searching on Google. Those are some bad symptoms, okay? So anyways, he's the guy gets healed.
And then all of the people of the island, they start bringing their sick to Paul. People start getting, he heals everybody. And he's there until they can find another ship that leaves the island. Can we just pause?
How did we get here? We got here when the Apostle Paul is an Ephesus and he's going, I've been listening to the Lord and the Holy Spirit has come the held me and gripped me. I must go to Jerusalem. I must obey him.
I listen to my Lord, because I'm surrendered to him and I obey him. All along the way, he's listening and obeying. He's just being faithful with what's in front of him, but he might gonna, he's getting pruned. Is that true?
But look at the fruitfulness of this. Now they go on to Rome. Okay, here we go. We're going to Rome.
And he finally arrives to Rome. And now he's under house arrest, which means 24 seven, he's chained to another man for two years. Can you imagine having chains on and being chained to men for two years? They are on eight hour shifts.
Every eight hours, there's another guy. But these aren't just any soldiers, Roman soldiers. There's a barracks, a proctorium is what they call it, which is where all of the Roman empires top tier marine green burets used to live. We're talking about the most powerful army, just listen to this, this is crazy.
The most powerful army on the entire planet at the time. And then the highest ranking green burette marine guys. And they're like the heroes of war. And those are the guys that are actually assigned to be chained to Paul for eight hour shifts.
Stop. There is almost 2,208 hour shifts that were lived chained to the Apostle Paul over that time. There's about 10,000 elite soldiers that live in that quarter. And I want you to understand that the Apostle Paul, and what he's putting his hand to, there's visitors that are coming, the Roman Empire gave him like free reign.
Visitors can come and you just get to have Jewish believers and Gentile believers come and visit you. He wrote Galatians, Ephesians and Philippians. No, no, no, not Galatians. He wrote Philippians, Ephesians and Colossians and Philemon under house arrest chained to these soldiers.
That's some of the, listen, some of our favorite letters in the whole Bible were written when he was under house arrest with some Roman soldier chained to him. I want, let's turn to Philippians. Remember this all started when Paul just decided, I'm gonna listen and obey Jesus. I'm just gonna live surrendered.
Look at Philippians one, 13, actually verse 12. I want you to know brothers. So he's writing to the Philippians and he says, I want you to know brothers because they know what his situation is, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. That's for sure true.
Verse 13. So that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Jesus. And most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear. You do some research, you begin to learn that there's actually archeological evidence that there's many Roman soldiers that surrendered to Jesus.
And that there was a movement of faith and surrendered to Jesus that led for thousands of years, even resulting in the 300s when you've got Constantine and that whole thing that I wish hadn't happened. But it happened and it was because right there, the Apostle Paul gets a one way ticket to Rome and his way gets paid by the Roman Empire to actually obey Jesus. How many of you know how much it would have caused for Paul to get to Rome, but the Roman Empire paid it for him? Because he was a prisoner.
Now he's in Rome and 10, 10,000 soldiers know the name of Jesus and have heard the gospel spread into their ranks as the Apostle Paul's just in his room. I love that. Can you imagine being chained to the Apostle Paul for eight hours? Whoa.
Okay, let's turn a page. I want you to look at Philippians 4. Verse 21, this is his final greeting. He just throws this in here.
I love Paul. He throws it in there. Every saint in Christ Jesus for me, the brothers who are with me, they greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household, the emperor of the Roman Empire, Caesar himself, has members of his household that are close enough to Paul.
And Paul has told them enough stories about their brothers and sisters in Philippi. And he's been bragging about the brothers and sisters in Philippi so much that all of Caesar's household and those people that have been visiting Paul in house arrest, I mean, we're talking about, who from Caesar's household is this? But they know Paul so well, and they're such friends that he's been bragging about his brothers and sisters in Philippi. And Paul goes, I'm compelled to obey.
I just wanna be one that's faithfully listening and obeying. And I know that this feels kind of like otherworldly, you know? And I know that it feels like, wow, this is a long time ago, and this is before the era of the Industrial Revolution and before the internet was introduced before we got social media and before we had these glowing things that fasten, I dusted the same way that fires used to when humans sat by fires, you know? But now we got something else glowing and that's why we're mesmerizing, we go into like, right?
So we've been doing as humans for years, but we did it with fires and stars and now we do it with phones, right? I know that this was all happened before what we're living in, but that doesn't provide an excuse for us to be those that don't abide and obey. And we think that we're so small and we're so disqualified that our yes, our small yes, isn't going to have a large impact. But I want you to know that if you are faithful to abide in him, to listen and obey and just little ways and you're faithful with the small things, you read the Bible and then you say, I think I'm gonna obey the Bible.
I think I'm actually gonna be crazy enough to obey what he said. I'm telling you, Rome can get tipped upside down. Saint Paul can get tipped upside down. Literally we are the only city in America that's named after a saint and it happens to be Saint Paul.
And I want it to inspire us, that there's actually our city has his name. One that has gone before us and showed us the way, just like Jesus showed us the way to say, hey, you can listen and obey and it can shift the destiny because I want to stand up on the pew again and just say, listen, your story isn't about you. How many of you know that Paul's yes was not really about him? It was about Governor Felix and Governor Fessus and King Agrippa as he's getting haunted by Paul's words and it's Queen Bernice and then it's the chief on Malta and then all of the families that heard the gospel that would never heard the gospel and then it's all the soldiers that sat chained to him for two years, for eight hour sessions and then it's Caesar's household and then it's all of the soldiers that grew up when their dad was telling them stories about a guy named Paul that they were chained to and then they surrendered to Jesus and then hundreds of years later it's because of him listening and obeying that there's salvation breaking out in a city that is vile and wicked, but there was one man that sat in a room and he shared the gospel but it wasn't even starting there.
It started long before that, four years earlier. As he said, goodbye to his friends and family with love and tears in his heart and he said, I always obey him. That's what we're called to. It's called, what I just explained is called greatness and we are all designed to be great.
Let's all stand. Greatness doesn't just start with fireworks. Greatness doesn't start and happen by accident. Greatness happens with one decision at a time and spiritual greatness happens when we just surrender and raise the white flag and go, it's always yes for me.
Whenever the Lord says something, it's always a yes. Seeing brothers and sisters in the room where it was a yes and they left things. They left their brothers and sisters and wanted to obey the Lord and it was a yes in their hearts. And there's, I want to call us to the small little yeses.
There's going to be big yeses, big count the cost moments, big things that we're going to have to sacrifice just to obey Jesus, but I want us to bring before the Lord just a little yes in our hearts to go. I'm deciding my heart whenever you say something or ask me if ask something of me, my response is yes. Lord, here we are. We actually want that as hungry ones that love you and we want our yes to be devotion, that we are your servants, but also we want our yes to have love all wrapped and laced within it.
Maybe just in your own words, you can just whisper with the Lord and let him know that you have a surrendered heart and you just want to communicate my answer is yes, whatever it is. Even before he says anything to you or gives you inside or reminds you of a verse, you can just let him know the posture of your heart. It's going to be like Paul, I want to be like Jesus, where Jesus says, not my will, not what I want, but what you want, my answer is yes, surrendered heart. You can just say in your own words, whisper with him, my answer is yes.
I want us to just ask Holy Spirit, is there anything that you want me to do? Anything that you want me to do, you can just ask him, don't have me ask that question, you ask him the question, look at him and ask him that question. So anything you want me to do, Lord. And when he says that, he gives that to you.
You want to see if it lines up with scripture and you kind of test it? You can respond if it does, you can respond with yes. Lord, I thank you for these surrendered hearts. Lord, we thank you for all of the hearts that have put the stake in the ground, that they're raising the white flag of surrender and they're saying that you're Lord and that they're not.
So Lord, I thank you for a special grace to abide in you, to obey you, and Lord, I thank you that you take care of the fruit. We love you, Jesus. Lord, I thank you that you are strengthening your people. You're strengthening them with grace to walk out their righteousness, that Jesus purchased.
Lord, I just declare a strengthening of the Holy Spirit over them, that they can take courage to walk in obedience before you. Lord, I thank you that you're gonna help them in Jesus name and everybody's said amen.