Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace 12.03.25
Transcript
- 0:03This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
- 0:08Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
- 0:12County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
- 0:16continues teaching through God's Word.
- 0:37I enjoy, I'm sure you do do, telling people what you were
- 0:40like before you were a Christian, because aren't you
- 0:43glad that you're not the same way anymore?
- 0:47The good news is that your life's been changed and it's
- 0:50still being changed. We can look back and say, man,
- 0:55I, I was a scoundrel. I was this, I was that, and all
- 0:59those things are true. But God chooses to forgive us
- 1:03and to give us a new life and to remember our sin no more.
- 1:06And there's nothing like that, is there?
- 1:09It would be a pretty boring story if I said Once Upon a time
- 1:13I woke up, ate breakfast, did my chores, went to work, came home
- 1:16and went to bed. The end.
- 1:19Every good story needs some kind of Arc to it.
- 1:22It needs some kind of tension and resolution.
- 1:25Today in Pastor Clark's message, he encourages you to tell others
- 1:29this story of how Christ completely changed your life.
- 1:33No matter what that story is, I know it has a beautiful arc to
- 1:38it that once you were dead in sin and now have been made alive
- 1:42in Christ. Now here's Pastor Clark in the
- 1:45book of Acts Chapter 21 with today's edition of Living Waters
- 1:49of Grace. We are in the book of the Acts
- 1:52today. If you turn in your Bibles to
- 1:54Acts chapter 21, I want to read the last few verses of the 21st
- 2:00chapter to get us up to speed on what we're going to talk about
- 2:03in chapter 22. So let's pray Father, we just
- 2:07thank you Lord again for the scriptures that guide us, that
- 2:11show us Lord, your will, that direct us Lord and everyday
- 2:15life. God, you speak to us through
- 2:18your word and we're so grateful that your Holy Spirit is with us
- 2:21today and you are the teacher Holy Spirit and our hearts are
- 2:25open to hear what it is you want us to understand how it relates
- 2:29not any to history and and the relevance of everything written
- 2:33in the scriptures, but also how it can apply to our lives today.
- 2:38So God be glorified and blessed Lord your people.
- 2:41And we ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.
- 2:45So in verse 37 it says, then as Paul was about to be LED into
- 2:50the barracks, he said to the commander, May I speak to you?
- 2:53And he replied, Can you speak Greek?
- 2:56Are you not the Egyptian whom some time ago stirred up a
- 3:00rebellion and LED the 4000 assassins out into the
- 3:03wilderness? But Paul said, I am a Jew from
- 3:06Tarsus and Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city, and I implore you,
- 3:12permit me to speak to the people.
- 3:15So when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the
- 3:18stairs and motioned with his hand to the people.
- 3:21And when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the
- 3:24Hebrew language, saying there was a big riot in Jerusalem
- 3:29because of Paul and his influence with the Gentile
- 3:33Christians. The Jewish people were very
- 3:35uptight that Paul was spending time with Gentiles.
- 3:40The Jewish people didn't like Gentiles.
- 3:43There was a lot of prejudice. They didn't think they were
- 3:46worthy of knowing the Messiah, let alone being brought into the
- 3:50the church. And so Paul suffered a lot of
- 3:53struggles because of his position and his call by Jesus
- 3:57Christ to be the apostle to the Gentiles.
- 3:59And yet he he did love the Jews. And so in order to communicate
- 4:03to the Jewish people, he spoke to them in their own dialect.
- 4:08Now, Greek was the primary language that people spoke, but
- 4:12he was going to speak to the Jewish people because their
- 4:15heart language was Hebrew. And I found out like down
- 4:18through the years when I was trained to be a missionary,
- 4:20Cindy and I many years ago, that when you went into an area that
- 4:24had a national language, whether it was French or German or
- 4:29Indian or whatever, every people group would have their own
- 4:32special dialect. You know, like in Pittsburgh,
- 4:36it's Yens, right? If you're from Pittsburgh, you
- 4:38know Yens, how Yens doing today? You say that somewhere else.
- 4:41No one knows what you mean. But if you say that, they say,
- 4:44oh, he's from Pittsburgh. He knows like what I think and
- 4:47what I like and all that kind of stuff.
- 4:49So to speak to the Jewish people in the Hebrew language was a
- 4:53great way to get to their heart. So as we study in chapter 22
- 4:57today, we're going to learn a little bit about again, Paul's
- 5:02position and how he led his life many times, obviously under the
- 5:09Lord's authority, but there was times when he led himself like
- 5:12we do too. Paul was warned several times by
- 5:16the Holy Spirit not to go to Jerusalem.
- 5:19And I don't know about you, but sometimes the Lord tells you and
- 5:22I not to do certain things and His will when we see it in the
- 5:26Word. But do you ever not listen to
- 5:28the Lord? I mean, we all have those times
- 5:31where we think we know better. We're going to do what we think
- 5:34is right. And so the Lord allows us, gives
- 5:37us that liberty to, to make decisions.
- 5:39And I remember growing up as a young man and I'd get in jams
- 5:43once in a while and my parents would always say, well, you
- 5:46brought this on yourself. You can't blame it on anybody
- 5:50else. You brought this on yourself by
- 5:52the decisions you've made, and we all can make a decision
- 5:56sometimes that aren't that great.
- 5:57So we're going to see a little bit about the jam that Paul was
- 6:00in because he was warned not to go here.
- 6:02Nonetheless, he went here anyway.
- 6:06Now, as he's speaking to these people, they're they're pretty
- 6:11uptight. It's a mob situation here and
- 6:14starts out in verse one, brethren, Paul speaking, the
- 6:19specific police force at the time was called the Antonio
- 6:24Fortress and so on the Temple Mount, there was an elevated
- 6:27area where there was a lot of soldiers, especially at the time
- 6:30of Pentecost, because things could get out of control quite
- 6:33easily and people would start to ride and do all kind of things.
- 6:36So they had to have a multitude of soldiers there to keep people
- 6:40in line. And so this is the folks that
- 6:43came to Pauls rescue when the people wanted to basically kill
- 6:48Paul. And so they gave him an
- 6:50opportunity to seize up on the steps there with these soldiers
- 6:54to speak to the crowd. Now this was Pauls dream, to
- 6:58speak to his own people about the Lord Jesus Christ the
- 7:02Messiah, to tell them what he had done for Paul.
- 7:06And so he says, Brothers and fathers, hear my defense before
- 7:10you now. Now the defense he has is from
- 7:13the Greek word apologia, meaning apologetics.
- 7:16That's where we get our word to serve the Lord and always be
- 7:20willing to, as it says in Jude 3 verse 3, only 1 chapter in Jude
- 7:25verse 3, content earnestly for the faith that was once
- 7:29delivered to the Saints. So every time you and I are in a
- 7:32position where people want to argue or disagree or not listen
- 7:36to what it is we have to say about our relationship with
- 7:39Jesus, we're like Paul. We're going to give a defense of
- 7:43the faith that is really important for people to know
- 7:47about. And so Paul is in the process
- 7:50here of beginning to give this defense.
- 7:53And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew
- 7:56language, they kept all the more silence.
- 7:58So as I said, they were hearing Paul speak in their own heart
- 8:02language, and they were tuned in.
- 8:04Then he said, I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but
- 8:11brought up in the city at the feet of Gemaliel.
- 8:15Gamelio was the famous rabbi who taught people about the Old
- 8:20Testament and the history of the nation of Israel.
- 8:23Highly respected teacher, Paul was trained by Gamelio, and he
- 8:27taught according to the strictness of our Father's law
- 8:31and was zealous toward God as you are today.
- 8:33So Paul's complimenting them even though they don't know
- 8:36Jesus yet and they are having a difficult time with Paul's
- 8:40position with the Gentiles, their understanding that Paul
- 8:45was once like them and and he's trying to become all things to
- 8:49all people. He's trying to find a bridge
- 8:51where he can talk to them and they'll be open minded to listen
- 8:54to what he has to say as opposed to trying to alienate them.
- 8:57And that's something we can learn from whenever we're
- 8:59talking to people about the Lord.
- 9:02Got to find places of commonality, especially in
- 9:05regard to the way you used to live before you came to know
- 9:08Jesus, because everybody that doesn't know Jesus is living
- 9:12usually in ways that are contrary to the will of God and
- 9:15the Scriptures. They don't know any better
- 9:17because they're lost. And so you have to have a place
- 9:19of meeting them and just not pounding them with the gospel.
- 9:23You have to find a way into their hearts.
- 9:25And this is what Paul's attempting to do here.
- 9:28And he's telling them that he was taught by someone who
- 9:32believed the very same things that they believed.
- 9:35And, and honored the Jewish tradition, the Old Testament
- 9:38law. And there was this rumor going
- 9:41around that Paul didn't respect the Old Testament law or Moses
- 9:44or their traditions. That was never true.
- 9:47Paul was a Jew and he still allowed himself to be a
- 9:51participant in some of their traditions.
- 9:54There anything Paul was upset about in regard to how the Jews
- 9:58understood the truth of God was that they didn't believe that
- 10:02Jesus was a Messiah #1 and #2 the Jews, and to this point
- 10:07would be believing to the point that they have to do something
- 10:11themselves in order to receive forgiveness from Elohim, the God
- 10:16of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They have to do works.
- 10:19They have to follow kosher rule, they have to follow all the
- 10:23laws. They think their justification
- 10:25comes by the works of the law. And we know in the New Covenant
- 10:30that the Lord knew it would be impossible for any of us to
- 10:33become justified or forgiven based upon something we would do
- 10:37or some rules we would follow, like the 10 commandments.
- 10:40We honor the 10 commandments, but we break the 10
- 10:44commandments. Every one of us have broken the
- 10:4610 commandments. We still break them at times.
- 10:49We've broken all 10 and you might say, well, I've never
- 10:53murdered anybody with the Bible says if you hate someone, you've
- 10:56already murdered them in your heart.
- 10:59That's pretty radical, isn't it? He says that's not commit
- 11:03adultery. But if you've ever looked upon a
- 11:06woman with less men, I'm sure everyone of you have had that
- 11:10problem. I know I have.
- 11:11And you got to ask the Lord to help you right all the time and
- 11:14keep your eyes looking in the right direction, right.
- 11:17He says if you look at a woman with less in your heart, heart,
- 11:20what have you done? You've committed adultery from
- 11:22God's perspective. Now you might be self-righteous
- 11:25and say, well I never did it all the way.
- 11:27Well, God looks at the heart and the heart is desperately wicked
- 11:33and it needs redeemed. No matter what you think about
- 11:36your own heart. God sees our heart as being
- 11:38impure, and that's why he had to send a Savior to die and forgive
- 11:42us and pay the price for our sin on the cross by shedding His
- 11:46blood. We're all forgiven if we've come
- 11:49to Christ and trusted in what He's done for us and received
- 11:53that forgiveness of his blood, cleansing us from all of our sin
- 11:57and all of our unrighteousness. And He's justified us because of
- 12:01what Christ has done, not by anything we could do.
- 12:04So this is the whole message of what Paul wants to communicate
- 12:07to them. So he tells them, I was zealous
- 12:10toward God just as you are today.
- 12:12So he's complimenting them for their zeal in regard to what
- 12:16they believe the truth is, and then he begins to tell them a
- 12:19little bit more about his life in verse 4I persecuted this way
- 12:24to the death. In other words, the way is the
- 12:28capital WAY is the a gospel of Jesus Christ and everybody
- 12:32identified with Christianity as the way and it's right here the
- 12:36way WAY Jesus said I am the way I am the truth.
- 12:39I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
- 12:42by me. And so Paul hated people that
- 12:45proclaimed the way he binded them and delivered them into
- 12:49prisons, both men and women, as also the high priest bears me
- 12:53witness on all the counsels of the elders from whom I also
- 12:58received letters to the brethren and went to Damascus to bring in
- 13:01change, even those who were there to Jerusalem to be
- 13:06punished. So Paul was a bad dude.
- 13:09He hated Christians and he was involved in in persecuting them.
- 13:14And so he's telling them what he was like his life before Christ.
- 13:18And I enjoy, I'm sure you do do, telling people what you were
- 13:22like before you were a Christian, because aren't you
- 13:25glad that you're not the same way anymore?
- 13:29The good news is that your life's been changed and it's
- 13:32still being changed. We can look back and say, man,
- 13:36I, I was a scoundrel. I was this, I was that.
- 13:39And all those things are true, but God chooses to forgive us
- 13:44and to give us a new life and to remember our sin no more.
- 13:47And there's nothing like that, is there?
- 13:49And that's good news. That's what you want to tell
- 13:51people that are all hung up in their sin and bondage and
- 13:55depressed and discouraged and overwhelmed and drinking and
- 13:58drugging, trying to kill the pain or whatever, because
- 14:01they're hopeless. They don't think there's an
- 14:02answer. And sin has a way of damaging
- 14:06life and it ruins people's lives.
- 14:08And so Paul's whole focus here is to tell them, this is the way
- 14:11I was. But let me tell you what God
- 14:12did. So it happened in verse 6 as I
- 14:16journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon.
- 14:19Paul was just living his life like he always did every day.
- 14:23Little did he know that God was going to intervene and change
- 14:27the very course of his life for the rest of his life.
- 14:30Suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me and I
- 14:33fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul,
- 14:38why are you persecuting me? So right away they're able to
- 14:44think as they're hearing this, that Paul did what we're doing
- 14:49right now to Paul, you wonder how they they process that.
- 14:53How are they thinking about that?
- 14:55And he's beginning to tell them the story of how he had become a
- 14:59Christian. And this is a witness.
- 15:03And you can learn about witnessing your faith by this
- 15:06reading this chapter. How did Paul talk about what
- 15:09happened to him? You and I can do the very same
- 15:12thing, and I'm sure many of you have.
- 15:14When you have an opportunity to have a conversation with someone
- 15:16about your faith, you tell them how you came to know Jesus
- 15:20Christ. And this is exactly what he's
- 15:23doing. He's being a witness and telling
- 15:25the story of what the Lord had done for him.
- 15:28And so he hears this voice, Who are you, Lord?
- 15:32He says to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are
- 15:36persecuting. Now, you got to keep in mind
- 15:39that the Jewish people did not believe that Jesus was the
- 15:42Messiah. They think it's a cult.
- 15:44They think it's a setup. What was taught was that Jesus
- 15:48really didn't raise again from the dead.
- 15:50They stole the body and they took him.
- 15:52And so to this day, it's commonly believed, as it tells
- 15:55us in the gospel by the Jewish people for the most part, that
- 15:58Jesus was just a good guy, good teacher, but that was it.
- 16:02The idea of him being raised from the dead is is not true.
- 16:05That's what they believe. And so those who were with me
- 16:09indeed saw the light. So he had witnesses around him
- 16:12when this was occurring, and they were afraid.
- 16:15They saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of him who
- 16:18spoke to me. So in other words, they knew
- 16:20there was some kind of noise, but they couldn't articulate
- 16:22what the noise meant. Only Paul understood what was
- 16:26being said because God was speaking directly to Paul.
- 16:29So I said, what shall I do, Lord?
- 16:32And that was the big question. What should I do now that I know
- 16:36that your Messiah I know that you got me and that I'm in need
- 16:42of a savior and that that you're the truth and the one that I've
- 16:46been persecuting and the one I've been hating and the people
- 16:49that followed him that I've been persecuting, I know messed up in
- 16:53my life. I need help.
- 16:54What do what do I do? What a beautiful simple
- 16:57question. I said, what shall I do Lord?
- 17:00And the Lord said to me, arise and go into Damascus and there
- 17:04you will be told all things which are appointed for you to
- 17:08do. The Lord, when he works in our
- 17:11lives, He never shows us way down the road like what life's
- 17:17going to look like in the future.
- 17:20None of us know the journey. We're just told to follow the
- 17:25Lord and the trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and not
- 17:30to lean into our own understanding and all our ways.
- 17:33Acknowledge Him and He will direct our paths and the problem
- 17:37we all have. I know I have at times is that I
- 17:41don't let him many times direct my path.
- 17:43I think I need to direct it or I think I know what's best.
- 17:48And whenever we choose to follow our own will or our own
- 17:52direction, it never really works out best because God has a
- 17:57perfect will and a perfect plan. And so it tells us in Hebrews
- 18:02that the just shall live by faith, and you can't please God
- 18:08unless you walk by faith. Those who come to God, it tells
- 18:13us in Hebrews, must first believe that he is and that he's
- 18:16a rewarder, those who diligently seek him.
- 18:19And so God expects from me a diligence in my heart to learn
- 18:25how to follow him in a deeper way every day of my life.
- 18:30And so he's asking God what he's supposed to do.
- 18:33And the Lord this tells him, you just do this first thing and
- 18:38then you'll find out what's going to be appointed for you to
- 18:40do. And since I could not see for
- 18:43the glory in verse 11 of that night being led by the hand of
- 18:45those who were with me, I came into Damascus.
- 18:50And so he's in this place right now that he can't see anything,
- 18:56but he's really seeing everything for the first time
- 18:58because Christ is shown him who he is.
- 19:02He's become a follower of the Messiah, which is miraculous.
- 19:07The least likely person to become a Christian would be Saul
- 19:12of Tarsus. And there might be people in
- 19:15your life, your family, your world, that you think is
- 19:18impossible to ever become a believer.
- 19:21Don't think that way because God is able to do anything, and when
- 19:27He chooses to come after someone and work in their life, no one's
- 19:32going to stop that. No one can prevent it.
- 19:35It's just a beautiful thing of God's sovereign hand and how he
- 19:38moves, how he works, So he's told.
- 19:41He comes in verse 12 to a certain Ananias, A devout man
- 19:45according to the law. This man that Paul was the first
- 19:49encounter was a Jew. He followed the law.
- 19:55He had a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there.
- 19:58So in other words, Paul didn't find some cult leader to work
- 20:01with in his new encounter with the Messiah.
- 20:05He was with a credible believer and a credible witness who was
- 20:09respected by the community of the Jews.
- 20:14He came to me and he stood and said to me, Brother Saul,
- 20:18receive your sight. And at that same hour I looked
- 20:22up at him. So.
- 20:25Paul had no ability to physically see because of the
- 20:28light that had shown on him. He needed a healing.
- 20:30So the Lord sends him to this man called Ananias, and Ananias
- 20:36is able to minister to him and let Paul receive his sight
- 20:41again. Then he said, the God of our
- 20:44fathers has chosen you, that you should know his will and see the
- 20:49just one and hear the voice of his mouth.
- 20:53So God chose Paul just like he's chosen you and me.
- 20:57You know what God has done for us.
- 20:59Sometimes I think we don't quite understand it.
- 21:02It's it's, it's so profound and it happens and we need to
- 21:06reflect on what this actually means.
- 21:09It says in Ephesians chapter one, verse 3, blessed be the God
- 21:13and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with
- 21:16every spiritual blessing and the heavenly places in Christ, just
- 21:21as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
- 21:24We've been chosen just like Paul was chosen.
- 21:30It's awesome. It wasn't by some coincidence or
- 21:34some good luck that we know Jesus and we can follow Him and
- 21:40love Him and serve him. He specifically chose you and me
- 21:47and before we could ever do anything good or bad, says he
- 21:51chose us before we were even born.
- 21:55Chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be
- 21:59holy and without blame before Him.
- 22:01And love having predestined us to adoption, we became part of
- 22:06his family as sons by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the
- 22:10good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His
- 22:14grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved this
- 22:18privilege of being chosen by God.
- 22:22And so Paul's chosen by God and he hears the voice of God's
- 22:29mouth, and it says in verse 15, For you will be his witness to
- 22:34all men of what you've seen and heard.
- 22:37And that's the privilege that Paul has to be a witness to the
- 22:43gospel of Jesus Christ. Like you and I have been given
- 22:46this privilege to be a witness. Now, Paul took this seriously,
- 22:50didn't he? He was a legal counselor, a
- 22:55Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, a very important
- 22:58individual in the society at the time.
- 23:01And after this experience happened, his prestige and his
- 23:05notoriety and all the great things that people thought about
- 23:08him as a Jew no longer mattered. Matter of fact, he said, I
- 23:12consider all these things of the past loss for the Excellency of
- 23:17the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus.
- 23:19He was willing to be perceived as a loser and a heretic and
- 23:26anarchist and all these terms of slander that people put on him
- 23:30that he might please Jesus Christ.
- 23:34And so this eating of God is spoken through the mouth of
- 23:38Ananias by the Holy Spirit. As to what Paul's future is
- 23:43going to begin to look like, he says verse 16 And now why are
- 23:47you waiting and rise and be baptized and wash away your
- 23:51sins, calling on the name of the Lord?
- 23:57Thanks for joining us on today's edition of Living Waters of
- 24:00Grace, a ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
- 24:04Today, Pastor Clark is teaching about the book of Acts.
- 24:07And as we learn more about Acts, it becomes clear that the early
- 24:10church didn't miss a single opportunity to share the gospel.
- 24:15In nearly every chapter, you see apostles like Peter and Paul
- 24:18stepping into conversations, crowds, and crises with
- 24:22boldness, ready to proclaim the name of Jesus.
- 24:26Their example challenges us to consider how we might step into
- 24:30gospel moments in our own lives. What doors might God open this
- 24:35week for you to speak truth, offer hope, or live out your
- 24:38faith in a way that points others to Him?
- 24:41The story of Acts reminds us we are part of the same mission.
- 24:44Today, let's live with eyes open and hearts ready to respond.
- 24:49We hope you are challenged by today's message.
- 24:52If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to see you in
- 24:55person this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
- 25:00Unit 6B. For more information, visit
- 25:04calvarychapelonline.com. You can also join our e-mail
- 25:08list, give online, or submit a prayer request right from the
- 25:11site. If you can't make it in person,
- 25:14be sure to tune in on the Calvary Chapel Westmoreland
- 25:17YouTube channel. Subscribe so you never miss new
- 25:21teachings. If you were in the Greensburg
- 25:23area, you can listen to Grace FM on the new 91.7 frequency.
- 25:29Pray about helping financially support the new station that
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- 25:35Send financial gifts to Grace FMPO Box 716, Greensburg, PA
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- 25:45you joined us today to be inspired by God's Word.
- 25:49Please tune in again for more Living Waters of Grace.