Stages to Conquer
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
The Christian life. Like the Giro d'Italia or the Tour de France, the Christian journey has many stages, moments in which the Lord shapes our hearts through challenges and difficulties.
At first, the initial stages are relatively simple to reach and overcome, but the more kilometers traveled, the more difficult the stages that follow will be to conquer.
The Christian life is like a Stage Tour or a song with different verses all to be sung and lived: some are simple and joyful, others are really difficult to sing.
This is the case of the Christian musician and poet Frances B. Havergal, author of the hymn "Take My Life and Let it Be", who died at only 40 years of life.
In this very famous hymn there are 6 verses through which this believer invites the Lord to use everything of her life: her hands, her feet, her voice, her heart, her will,... there is also a verse in which she tells the Lord to take her gold and silver.
Several years after her death, that verse that seemed to have been put there to fill a space has been found to have been fully sung and lived by Frances.
In fact, the Christian musician had sent a note to a friend of hers before she died in which she said that the Lord had made her understand that she had to give her gold and silver to the Work of God.
Frances obeyed the Lord and collected all her jewels in a chest which she donated to a Missionary House.
There are simple verses to sing and easy stages to overcome, but we must not forget that the further we go, the more difficult it will get.
Paul's spiritual progress. Through Paul's testimony this evening we will see how every believer is called to go through at least 3 stages to reach that spiritual stability that we all identify as spiritual maturity.
Let us consider Paul's 3 stages:
Simple stages (Acts 9:19-22);
Difficult stages (Acts 9:23-25);
Impossible stages (Acts 9:26-30).
N. 1 - Simple Stages
N. 1 - Simple Stages
and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
Natural Talents. In these verses we see Paul arguing and reasoning with the Jews of Damascus with great success in the debates concerning Jesus Christ (Acts 9:22).
In reality we can define this season a "simple stage" for the apostle, because Paul tackles it with his natural abilities:
Paul had a great intellect;
Paul had an extensive knowledge of the Scriptures;
Paul had been a student of one of the greatest Rabbis of the Torah: Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).
We must therefore conclude that Paul was able to conquer this stage thanks to his natural talents which, under the impulse of the new birth and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, amplified their effect.
Simple stages. In this stage everything is downhill: there is no opposition, there are no obstacles, everything runs smoothly like oil.
Even in the life of the believer there are simple stages: where we do not find great opposition and the difficulties are easily overcome thanks to those natural talents and abilities given to us by our Creator.
While thanking the Lord for the natural resources He has bestowed on us, like Paul we do not want to stop at simple stages.
Moses. There was a man that one day decided to raise the bar in his maturity and experience with God.
Until then his natural talents had given him some success as a pastor, but the day came when he decided to move, to go to the next level: There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:2-4 - NIV).
Let's not settle for simple stages! If we cling to simple verses, our life will never mature: Let's go deeper.
N. 2 - Difficult Stages
N. 2 - Difficult Stages
After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.
The game gets tough! Here Paul begins to face the first real opposition from the enemies of the Gospel.
Unable to stop this emerging missionary, the Jews of Damascus decided to kill him.
Ironically Saul, who had set out to persecute Christians in Damascus, now finds himself fleeing Damascus for the sake of the "good news".
Surely this was a difficult moment for Paul.
His life was in such danger that he had to flee by night: but the disciples of Jesus took him by night and lowered him down the wall in a basket (Acts 9:25).
Forced to flee. Like Paul there is a time where the children of God have to go through the "basket", lowered at night as if we are like criminals.
There will be seasons where the believer will go through where he will not be allowed to express himself freely.
Like Paul perhaps we are persecuted by the enemies of the Gospel.
It is in these times in which we see our freedom compromised and are unjustly forced to flee and retire, that we will mature.
They don't let go. However, how encouraging it is to note that, in this difficult stage for Paul, there are disciples who have the strength to lower him down.
They do not let go: Paul will arrive safely in Jerusalem.
He will be able to complete this difficult stage.
God be praised for all those whom the Lord, in the difficult stages of our Christian journey, provides us to help and free us.
God be praised for those who help us get off the walls as happened to Paul, but God be praised also for all those who help us get out of the cisterns as happened to the prophet Jeremiah: So Ebed-Melek took the men with him and went to a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from there and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. 12 Ebed-Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so, 13 and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard (Jeremiah 38:11-13 - NIV).
N. 3 - Impossible Stages
N. 3 - Impossible Stages
When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
Losing at home. Usually when there is a football match, the team playing at home is more favored than the opposing team because it has the public in its favour.
This is unfortunately not the case with our brother Paul.
When he arrives in Jerusalem, instead of finding encouragement, enthusiasm, appreciation, esteem, respect and welcome, this young missionary was greeted with mistrust and suspicion: When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple (Acts 9:26 - NIV).
I think this is the saddest verse in the whole book of Acts!
To Paul it seemed an impossible stage to overcome.
In fact, in the previous two, the difficulties that Saul had faced always came from the enemies of the Gospel.
Now however, the opposition, suspicion and hostility come from the "disciples", from the church, from the children of God.
This is a truly impossible stage to overcome on our own strength.
There is God also in Jerusalem. Many believers, in the course of their spiritual growth, have seen this stage humanly impossible to overcome and have become discouraged.
Perhaps you too, like Paul, have seen suspicion and rejection in the eyes of your brothers and sisters.
You have felt misunderstood and betrayed and, at the same time, you are thinking to leave the Church of Jesus.
So I want to ask you a question: is our Lord God only in Damascus or even in Jerusalem?
For if the Lord provided someone like Ananias in Damascus, the Lord will certainly provide someone for Paul also in Jerusalem: But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord (Acts 9:27-28 - NIV).
Courage! We'll make it brothers and sisters!
The Lord will encourage us! He will support us!
He will send us someone to help us overcome the impossible stage that the Christian path holds for us.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Saul became Paul. With all our heart we want to say: Lord make us grow!
We want to mature, we want to have the authority to sing every verse of our lives for your glory!
