1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,880 It's good to see you guys. If you've got a book or if 2 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:03,880 you've got a Bible in front of you, go ahead and get that open 3 00:00:03,880 --> 00:00:07,520 to the book of Titus. If you don't know where that's 4 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:10,960 at, it's like the last fourth of of your Bible. 5 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:12,600 If you don't have a Bible, that's OK. 6 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:14,160 There should be one in front of you. 7 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:16,840 If there's not, it's OK. We'll have all of the words on 8 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:22,040 the screen for you this morning. I've got a lot to say about a 9 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:23,760 little amount of text this morning. 10 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:25,480 So I'm just going to, I'm a, I'm a jump into it. 11 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:29,520 One of my one of my buddies a while ago, I think I've said 12 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:33,080 this before. He, he told me like, dude, when 13 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:36,040 you preach God's word, you have two different types of sermons. 14 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:39,040 You have your locker room sermons that are like rah, rah, 15 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:41,600 rah, rah rah. And then you've got your 16 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:45,080 classroom sermons that are a little bit more luxury or as he 17 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:49,880 said, even more lovingly, you have your dorky sermons and your 18 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:53,160 fun sermons. And today is not a fun one. 19 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:55,640 Well, it might. It's fun for me, but it's just 20 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:57,760 going to be more on the dorky and nerdy side. 21 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:00,080 It's going to feel a little bit more like a lecture. 22 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:03,600 In fact, the way it's going to feel from as we dig into this 23 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:07,200 first verse of this little book is it's actually going to feel 24 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:11,160 like a biography of the author of the book of Titus. 25 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:15,000 We're going to do a deep dive or as deep as we can over the 26 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,200 course of 40 minutes into the life. 27 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:21,640 And thinking of Paul, it's, I feel a little bit like we're 28 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:25,640 chasing him around documentary style with a camera. 29 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,480 And I'm just going to give you my goal right up front. 30 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:32,720 My goal in all of this isn't to fill your brain with, Oh my 31 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:35,800 gosh, I know more about Paul than I ever did. 32 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:38,720 I think that'd be wonderful. That's just not my ultimate 33 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:41,520 goal. My ultimate goal in preaching A 34 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:45,240 sermon that revolves around the life of the author of Titus. 35 00:01:45,320 --> 00:01:53,880 Paul, my ultimate goal is to deepen your trust in what Paul 36 00:01:53,920 --> 00:02:01,520 writes, and more than that, to deepen your trust in the gospel 37 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:08,600 of Jesus that Paul preaches. If we could get there, that'd be 38 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:09,199 awesome. Amen. 39 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:13,240 Heavenly Father, bless the preaching of your Word this 40 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:15,400 morning. I heard that you would just just 41 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:17,400 make it. I just want this to come to 42 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:23,280 life, Lord, I, I want all of the words on the page to to just not 43 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:28,120 be ink anymore, but to become 3D and to jump out and to come to 44 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:30,400 life and to grab us and to pull us in. 45 00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:35,040 And I think so often, Lord, so often when I read your word, all 46 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:40,520 I see is ink on a page and and that's that's not reality. 47 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:47,720 If we could see the the topography of your word 48 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:52,880 underneath every single word of your Scripture, it would go 49 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:56,560 deep, deep, deep, deep down with an entire universe of things to 50 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:58,600 explore underneath that singular word. 51 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:04,520 And so, Lord, as we just unpack who Paul is and the way you use 52 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:07,440 them and the way that you raise them, and what Paul thinks he's 53 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:11,320 accomplishing in this letter to Titus, I think we will be 54 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:18,600 struck, struck dumb by the glory of God and how trustworthy His 55 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:21,840 word is for us as an authoritative guide. 56 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:25,280 And so, Lord, would you do that? Would you, Would you take us? 57 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:29,960 Would you take us deeper this morning, deeper in our faith, 58 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:33,720 deeper in our trust, deeper in our relationship with you? 59 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:38,000 It's in the precious name of Jesus that all God's people 60 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,360 prayed. Amen. 61 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:49,440 If you're able, go ahead and stand the letter of Paul to 62 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,200 Titus. And here is where we're going to 63 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:56,480 stay fixated and focused on this entire morning. 64 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:04,960 Verse one, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus 65 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:09,000 Christ. All 3540 minutes of the sermon 66 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:11,280 is going to be right there on those words. 67 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:15,280 However, let me read the rest of the introduction to you for the 68 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:17,640 sake of the faith of God's elect. 69 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:21,320 That'll be next week. Today is by Paul. 70 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:25,480 Next week is for the elect. For the sake of the faith of 71 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:28,480 God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with 72 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:32,960 godliness in hope of eternal life, which God who never lies 73 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:36,520 promised before the ages began and at the proper time 74 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:41,440 manifested in His Word through the preaching with which I have 75 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:44,880 been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. 76 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:51,120 And then week 3 is going to be to Titus by Paul for the elect 77 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:58,200 to Titus, my true child and a common faith, grace and peace 78 00:04:58,280 --> 00:05:02,800 from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Savior. 79 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:12,560 Let's have fun. You can have a seat by Paul 80 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:17,960 Every usually when when my mom and dad are here, I try to pick 81 00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:21,640 a story that embarrasses my dad. If you were here last time, you 82 00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:23,600 know that was an epic fail on my behalf. 83 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:27,960 I brought up a a story that I thought would embarrass my dad, 84 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:30,920 but instead what ended up happening is he in the middle of 85 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:33,520 it, stood up, took a bow and all of you applauded him. 86 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:38,400 So if we could please refrain from that this morning, that 87 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:39,960 would be great. But I think I got one that he's 88 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,880 got no comeback with. Actually, every every summer, 89 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:46,080 one of my favorite things is I go trout fishing with my dad and 90 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:49,640 one of his best buddies of like 30 or 4, you know, 3 or 4 91 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:52,920 decades of friendship and then his buddy brings his kids and we 92 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:55,480 just have a blast. And my favorite part every time, 93 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:57,920 every time it's actually not catching the fish, though I 94 00:05:57,920 --> 00:05:59,840 catch a lot of them. It's not catching the fish. 95 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,800 My, my favorite part every time we do that trip are the late 96 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:09,440 nights when when the cigar smoke begins to roll and the fire is 97 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:11,400 lit and it goes deep into the night. 98 00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:14,000 Because one of my favorite things to always ask is, Oh my 99 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:19,840 goodness, I'm sitting in the presence of like 3 or 4 decades 100 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:23,240 of unbroken friendship. Like all of the riches in there 101 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:25,880 is fantastic. And So what I like to ask 102 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:29,360 usually is, hey Haberman, Hey Pop, What are some of your 103 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:31,680 favorite stories of your friendship? 104 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:34,400 And they always have a lot and they're always great. 105 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:38,160 My favorite 1, though, that's come up every year is, is the 106 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:41,840 story of the ice house. It's a story about ice fishing. 107 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,360 There was a day, I think 20-30 years ago, right? 108 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:47,080 20-30 years ago, they went ice fishing. 109 00:06:47,840 --> 00:06:50,520 And so Haberman, my dad's buddy and him, they're, they're 110 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:53,480 dragging their ice house out onto the ice looking for the 111 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:55,560 spot where they want to drill the hole to go fishing. 112 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,880 My dad is hauling the portable ice house with them and they 113 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:01,800 finally find the spot. They're ready to kind of drill 114 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:04,560 it in and it's a windy day, which is important for the sake 115 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:08,040 of our story. And so my dad jumps into the ice 116 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:12,080 house to keep it from blowing away in the wind while my dad's 117 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:14,280 friend is supposed to anchor it down. 118 00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:17,880 Think think like ice screws to anchor it down, but think like 119 00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:22,320 tent pegs but for for ice. And so my dad jumps in. 120 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:25,720 My buddy is kind of, you know, on pack full on fold the 121 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,640 portable ice house up. And then suddenly there is a 122 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:36,840 gigantic roosh of a wind blows through and it's a massive wind 123 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:42,520 and it fills the entire ice house, right. 124 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:45,240 And in a way that you can, you can feel the bottom start to 125 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:49,000 lift. And so my dad is he's in the ice 126 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:51,040 house. The wind comes along, whoosh 127 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:55,480 fills up the ice house. Suddenly my dad's eyes go wide, 128 00:07:56,840 --> 00:07:57,480 right. He looks at it. 129 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:01,080 He looks at his buddy who's holding on to the ice house. 130 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:08,080 And suddenly, a smile spreads across his face, and a light 131 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:12,800 bulb goes off above his head. My dad sees this, and he says, 132 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:18,920 Haberman, don't you dare let go. What do you think his friend 133 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:20,960 did? I'll give. 134 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:22,000 Yeah. I'll give you a hint. 135 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:25,040 I'll give you a hint. To be a friend of Steve Dyke for 136 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:29,200 any amount of time is to be a victim of countless pranks, and 137 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:32,559 so his friend had suffered countless pranks at the hands of 138 00:08:32,799 --> 00:08:35,120 hands of my dad. That means that he's experienced 139 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:38,799 a 11:00 in the middle of card games getting taken down with a 140 00:08:38,799 --> 00:08:41,080 double leg takedown in a living room type of thing. 141 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:43,679 I think one time they told the story that my dad brought a 142 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:47,400 goldfish with him to school and snuck it into his friends water 143 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:51,320 bottle while he wasn't watching. I too have suffered many pranks 144 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:54,240 at the hands of my dad. An ordinary moment in the summer 145 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:56,960 waking up included pots and pans above my head. 146 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:00,560 Donk donk donk donk donk. Sometimes just ice cold water 147 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:04,000 being thrown on me. So if you have been the victim 148 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,520 of countless pranks like that, what do you think my dad's buddy 149 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:09,680 did? The wind comes rushing through, 150 00:09:09,680 --> 00:09:13,840 it fills up the ice house. My dad's eyes go wide. 151 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:17,440 My buddy smiles, holding on to the ice house. 152 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:21,120 My dad says don't you dare let go. 153 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:23,280 What do you think he did, Joseph? 154 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:27,360 He let go. And I wish you could see the joy 155 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:31,040 and the Glee every year with which my dad's buddy tells that 156 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:34,000 story. Watching my dad trapped in an 157 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:40,160 ice house get blown across the entire pond while trying to claw 158 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:44,400 his way out of it unsuccessfully until eventually it slowed down. 159 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:47,000 Or they, I don't even know. Maybe they just, maybe they hit 160 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:48,440 the edge of the pond and it broke. 161 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:57,120 But it it poses a question, which is why wouldn't you want 162 00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:02,720 to spend your life being blown around in whatever direction the 163 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:08,160 winds of the world are blowing? And suppose you didn't want to 164 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:12,240 be blown by the winds of culture every time there's a new gust. 165 00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:22,760 What would even be a dependable, trustworthy anchor to keep you 166 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:26,240 in place? If you've got a Bible, look down 167 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:29,560 at verse one right now. We're going to circle three 168 00:10:29,560 --> 00:10:32,560 things in our text this morning. The first thing is maybe you 169 00:10:32,560 --> 00:10:33,960 just want to do it in your imagination. 170 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:35,280 Maybe you really have a pen with you. 171 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:40,120 The first thing I want you to circle is simply the word Paul. 172 00:10:42,800 --> 00:10:46,800 Paul, who is this guy? Paul, who is this guy who is 173 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:49,000 writing this letter? I remember having a conversation 174 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:51,280 with a young guy during my first year of pastoral ministry. 175 00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:53,800 We were preaching through the book of Philippians, which Paul 176 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:56,960 also authored, and we had a fun conversation together. 177 00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:00,440 But his question, I think, is a valid question, which was gold, 178 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:02,880 bro. I keep hearing you call this the 179 00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:05,000 word of God. You're telling us that it's been 180 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,440 written by God and authored by God. 181 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:10,720 But look at Philippians. That's not the claim of the 182 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:13,240 text. The text says clearly cult. 183 00:11:13,560 --> 00:11:15,560 It says that it's written by Paul. 184 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:20,800 It's not written by God. It's written by Paul. 185 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:24,000 Which puts you in an interesting predicament if you're reading 186 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,040 it, if you want to do X in your life. 187 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:29,920 But Paul, a 1st century Jew who lived about 2000 years ago, says 188 00:11:29,920 --> 00:11:32,800 don't do X. Why would you give any weight or 189 00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:36,440 authority to what he said if it's just Paul's word? 190 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:40,840 And why should you submit to Paul's writing as though it 191 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:43,360 might be the word of God? Who wrote? 192 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:52,360 Who wrote the book of Titus? Was it Paul or was it God? 193 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:56,120 Obviously, we're going to take the long road to answering that 194 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:58,000 question. Was it Paul? 195 00:11:58,160 --> 00:11:59,800 The answer to that question is yes. 196 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:02,320 Paul was actually born with the name Saul. 197 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:04,520 The book of Acts, a New Testament book, tells us that 198 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:07,320 Saul was actually born the son of a tent maker, which is 199 00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:08,960 interesting on several different accounts. 200 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:12,080 What this tells us, being born the son of a tent maker, is that 201 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:15,560 most modern Christians tend to view Paul as a brainiac, 202 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:18,920 armchair philosopher. He is the doctor of doctrine. 203 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:21,960 He's the defender of the faith. He's a brainiac. 204 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:25,040 But what this tells us is that Paul actually probably grew up 205 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:29,160 closer to what a hardened 19 century man would call a man's 206 00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:31,600 man. Saul spent his childhood days 207 00:12:31,720 --> 00:12:35,000 with his dad, following his dad around, making and selling tents 208 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:38,200 in the hot, unforgiving, scorching Middle Eastern sun. 209 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:41,760 You got to realize this, Saul. He knew what it felt like to 210 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:45,800 have sweat drip down his nose because the manual labor was so 211 00:12:45,800 --> 00:12:48,200 challenging. Saul knew the feeling of laying 212 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:52,360 in bed sore and thanking God for a well deserved rest. 213 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:55,440 But here's where it gets more interesting. 214 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:58,880 What? What kind of people in the 215 00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:04,120 ancient world buy tents? Well, the type of people who buy 216 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:06,360 tents in the ancient world are visitors. 217 00:13:07,560 --> 00:13:10,560 People passing through, people on the move. 218 00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:13,440 What kind of people were visitors in the ancient world? 219 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:18,240 Usually non Jews. So even though young Saul grew 220 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:21,040 up a faithful Torah observant Jew, he did. 221 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:23,640 Saul grew up going to synagogue every week. 222 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:26,320 He memorized his Torah. He had the first five books of 223 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:28,320 the Old Testament memorized by heart. 224 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:32,240 He prayed multiple times a day. But because Saul was with his 225 00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:36,440 father in the public square selling tents to visitors, what 226 00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:41,120 Saul probably grew up seeing was his father dialoguing with a lot 227 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:44,440 of non Jews about different worldwide religions. 228 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:49,680 But it seems to suggest to me that Saul grew up with God 229 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:54,520 already at work and young Saul's life shaping and transforming 230 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:58,080 Saul as he watched his father argue with visitors about who 231 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:02,200 the true God of the world was. Without even knowing it, Saul 232 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:06,360 was probably becoming fluent. He was probably becoming fluent 233 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:08,640 on other religions. He was probably becoming fluent 234 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:11,200 on other philosophies. He was probably becoming fluent 235 00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:14,440 on theology. And he was probably already 236 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:19,000 slowly becoming the type of young man who could spot and 237 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:23,320 recognize false teaching from true teaching and nourish people 238 00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:29,720 with deep biblical doctrine. God's hand was already at work 239 00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:32,320 and shaping the trajectory of Saul's life. 240 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:38,920 But then, of course, young Saul had had a major challenge in 241 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:43,080 front of him, and it is a challenge that every young boy 242 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:45,920 has in front of him. What was that challenge for 243 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:50,160 Saul? Well, suddenly Saul's voice 244 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:54,840 started deepening. His shoulders got a little bit 245 00:14:54,840 --> 00:15:00,360 broader and young man, young soul, is that a beard I see 246 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:02,680 coming out of your face? The challenge that Saul would 247 00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:06,240 have faced like every other young boy is all of a sudden God 248 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:10,400 began pumping excessive amounts of testosterone into young Saul. 249 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:12,320 Homie hit puberty. It happens. 250 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:16,480 And when this happens, a healthy society will always thank God 251 00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:19,720 for the excessive testosterone and then seek to put that to 252 00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:22,840 good use in order to build a healthy and protective society. 253 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:24,760 That's what a healthy society will do. 254 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:29,440 And unhealthy society, however, will make one of two errors. 255 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:33,440 They will either demonize a boy's masculinity or they will 256 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:37,280 try to radicalize it. The era of modern society, of 257 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:40,880 course, is to demonize it. An unhealthy society who 258 00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:43,600 demonizes masculinity. What they end up doing is they 259 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:45,360 will end up treating the young boy as what? 260 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:49,120 PhD Warren Pharrell. He wrote a fantastic book on 261 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:53,240 this called The Boy Crisis and he says that the main error of 262 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:57,840 the modern world is that they treat boys as deficient females 263 00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:02,240 and they demonize their ambitions and energies. 264 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:07,280 That's modern societies error. That is not the error that 265 00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:09,760 ancient Israel would have made with young Saul. 266 00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:12,440 What's the other error? The other error is to take that 267 00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:15,680 and to radicalize it. And this is what happened for 268 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:18,920 young Saul. His surrounding society saw the 269 00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:22,200 testosterone problem as an opportunity to seek to 270 00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:27,160 radicalize young Saul into a violent, extremist version of 271 00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:29,360 religion. And that is the direction that 272 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:32,560 young Saul went. I don't use those words with 273 00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:35,560 hyperbole. Young Saul grew up to be a 274 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:41,680 radical, violent Jewish zealot. So the word zealot here is just 275 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:44,840 not a generic term for zeal. It's a technical term. 276 00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:48,160 What a Jewish zealot was in the ancient world is something 277 00:16:48,160 --> 00:16:49,440 specific. And there are wonderful things 278 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:51,320 about Jewish zealots from 2000 years ago. 279 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:53,600 Namely their passion for God is admirable. 280 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:56,760 However, and this is where the terms radicalized and extremists 281 00:16:56,760 --> 00:17:03,040 come into play, Jewish zealots opted to use physical violence 282 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:06,680 in order to try to keep is real pure. 283 00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:08,760 You want to know why they would have done this? 284 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:11,720 Here's this is the story they would have had playing in their 285 00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:14,160 head a long time ago. And you can read about this in 286 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:16,160 the Old Testament. The glory of God was with the 287 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:19,520 people of God. And after idolatry, the glory of 288 00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:24,680 God sadly departs from Israel's temple and they're left alone 289 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:26,400 without the glory of God in their presence. 290 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:29,280 And of course, things go from bad to worse eventually. 291 00:17:29,360 --> 00:17:32,480 Hundreds of years go by and they find themselves at the turn of 292 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:36,400 the century in subjugation to the evil empire of Rome. 293 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:40,240 And so the Jewish people, and you can't overstate how 294 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,640 important this story was to their imaginations, the Jewish 295 00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:48,000 people were waiting eagerly around the time of Jesus for the 296 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:53,200 glory of God to come back to return to them and set them free 297 00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:57,920 from Rome. And young Saul, as a Jewish 298 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:01,640 zealot, believed there was a very, very, very, very, very 299 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:05,640 specific reason why the glory of God was not coming back to 300 00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:08,720 Israel. It was because of the idolatry 301 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:13,960 of Israel. And so young Saul believed that 302 00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:20,920 it was his God-given mission to purify Israel by putting to 303 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:25,720 death the idolaters so that Israel become pure enough for 304 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:27,840 the glory of God to return to Israel. 305 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:32,560 Are you guys with me? Good. 306 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:35,080 Because here's where it becomes very important. 307 00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:38,200 Think about the way that young Saul would have thought about 308 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:40,800 that. And now what do you think, 309 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:44,440 Frontier Church? What do you think went through 310 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:50,640 young Saul's mind when he first heard of this small faction of 311 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:56,840 Jews who were worshipping, of all things, a human being? 312 00:18:58,400 --> 00:18:59,360 What do you think you would have thought? 313 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:03,360 Idolatry. They got to go. 314 00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:10,520 Not just a human being. They, this small sect of Jewish 315 00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:13,920 people, were worshipping a human being who was publicly crucified 316 00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:20,320 as a criminal by Rome. Rome, Rome already is the evil 317 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:21,800 empire. They don't have a moral 318 00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:25,080 backbone. And even the bad guys, even the 319 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:29,080 people without any morals thought that this Jesus guy was 320 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:31,600 a criminal. So of course young Saul would 321 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:34,640 have thought I need to go put these people to death. 322 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:38,440 Jewish people worshipping a human criminal. 323 00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:41,240 Absurd. And so the book of Acts tells us 324 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:46,080 that he set off maybe by foot, maybe by donkey, I think by 325 00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:48,480 horse, because it was a long road to Damascus. 326 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:53,480 And so Saul set off, I think on horse to put to death those very 327 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:56,640 first Christians in order to purify the people of God. 328 00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:03,880 And yet look at your Bible verse one in Titus. 329 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:08,320 He calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ. 330 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:10,040 That's the second thing I want you guys to circle. 331 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:14,920 If you got a pen, if you got a pencil, circle an apostle of 332 00:20:15,120 --> 00:20:18,000 Jesus Christ. How the heck did that happen? 333 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:23,600 There's Saul. He's going off to murder people 334 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:27,000 who are worshiping Jesus. And here in Titus, he's calling 335 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,040 himself an apostle of Jesus Christ. 336 00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:31,680 Well, a funny thing happened on the way to Damascus. 337 00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:33,680 He was on his way to put to death these disorderly 338 00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:36,600 Christians, disrupting Israel. And then something strange 339 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:37,920 happened. You can read about this in Acts 340 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:41,880 Chapter 9. Suddenly, young Saul gets kicked 341 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:45,320 off of his horse. Literally, he's on the road, 342 00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:50,720 going to Damascus. Suddenly there's bright light 343 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:56,160 all around him, blinding light all around him. 344 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:01,160 Saul crunches onto the ground as the horse box. 345 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:05,480 He curls into a ball to prevent himself from being stepped on. 346 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:09,920 And suddenly, in the midst of all of the blinding light. 347 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:16,600 So here's a voice. And what does the voice say? 348 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:24,600 In the book of Acts, there's a voice saying his name, Saul. 349 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:28,120 Saul, why are you persecuting me? 350 00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:34,080 And Saul looks up into the blinding light. 351 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:40,240 And what he sees looking back at him will forever change the 352 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,960 trajectory of of his life. On his way to go put to death 353 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:47,560 those who worship Jesus Christ, young Saul suddenly finds 354 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,520 himself looking at the face of Jesus Christ. 355 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:56,320 He would have known what Jesus's face looks like. 356 00:21:56,320 --> 00:21:59,760 He would have known the timber of Jesus voice. 357 00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:04,000 He would have known how many or if there were even wrinkles on 358 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:07,320 the forehead of the resurrected and enthroned Jesus's face. 359 00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:13,320 He encounters Jesus. And certainly, certainly Saul is 360 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:18,400 expecting death, right? He's expecting to be smitten in 361 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:21,480 that moment. He's curled up in a ball, it's 362 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:24,600 over. He's persecuting Jesus. 363 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,920 He's he's not looking for Jesus. He's throwing a middle finger to 364 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:30,200 Jesus. He's toast. 365 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:36,520 And rather than wrath, rather than putting to death, Saul 366 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:40,160 receives the last thing on earth he ever would have imagined. 367 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:47,080 Jesus Christ saves him, forgives him, transforms him, and gives 368 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:51,200 him a new heart. It's extraordinary. 369 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:55,120 And then Jesus commissions him to apostleship for the sake of 370 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:58,160 Jesus for the rest of his life. And this is where we're going to 371 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:00,880 get a little bit technical. You circled the phrase in 372 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:03,640 apostle of Jesus Christ. Can I hear that word? 373 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:07,520 Everybody say apostle. Now the word apostle here, it's 374 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,000 a technical term. It doesn't just when you read 375 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,560 through it, you just kind of you just think, oh, generically, oh, 376 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:15,080 that's a term for leadership and certainly it is. 377 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:16,960 But it's not just generically a leader. 378 00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:20,560 And this is significant to the discussion of what Paul thought 379 00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:23,120 he was doing when he was writing the letter of Titus. 380 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,800 Was it written by Paul or was it written by God? 381 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:28,240 What? What does Paul think? 382 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:30,960 Would Paul be surprised to discover that we found his 383 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:33,760 private letter inside us, made a bunch of copies of it, and still 384 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:36,480 obeyed it like it was from the voice of God 2000 years later? 385 00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:37,760 What did Paul think he was doing? 386 00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:43,200 Well, this title helps us see what Paul thought he was doing. 387 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:49,520 The term Apostolos or Apostle literally means 1 cent with 388 00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:54,880 authority and so to call himself an apostle of Jesus Christ. 389 00:23:55,240 --> 00:24:00,080 What he is telegraphing to you is that he has been sent with 390 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:04,720 the authority of Jesus Christ. So this is not a self given 391 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:09,040 label to be recognized as an apostle in the ancient world, 4 392 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,840 strict qualifications need to be met. 393 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,320 Somebody out there could not call themselves, hey, I'm an 394 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:17,720 apostle and get away with it. There were four very strict 395 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:21,360 qualifications for a person to call themselves an apostle #1. 396 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:26,320 An apostle needed to see with their very own eyes the risen 397 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:29,760 Christ. Paul did that on the road to 398 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:35,640 Damascus #2 an apostle had to be personally commissioned by Jesus 399 00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,400 Christ. Paul was shortly after the road 400 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:42,360 to Damascus, commissioned by Jesus #3 the person had to 401 00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:46,240 perform public signs and wonders that vindicated his authority. 402 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:48,600 This happens all over the book of Acts. 403 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:50,840 Paul, like Paul, is doing miracles all over. 404 00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:53,160 But there's a moment where somebody doesn't even touch 405 00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:55,480 Paul. They just touch the shadow of 406 00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:58,880 Paul and they're healed. That's vindicating his 407 00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,640 apostleship. And #4 and this is where it gets 408 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:06,160 really interesting. An apostle must be recognized by 409 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,520 the other apostles as such. So watch this. 410 00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:12,200 There's many, many places that we can go to prove this. 411 00:25:12,360 --> 00:25:15,400 This is so helpful though. Like did the disciples who 412 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:17,480 walked with Jesus think that Paul was legit? 413 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:21,240 Here's the my favorite is second Peter. 414 00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:23,200 So this is Peter. This is the dude who walked with 415 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,520 Jesus. Peter says in second Peter 416 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:31,480 chapter 3 quote, count the patience of our Lord as 417 00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:35,920 salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you 418 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,840 according to the wisdom given to him as he does in all of his 419 00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,920 letters which he speaks in them of these matters. 420 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:44,000 So he's talking about Paul's letter. 421 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,800 He's talking about the letter that you're reading and what's 422 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:49,400 what's Peter say about the letter? 423 00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:52,840 He says this is great. He says there are some things in 424 00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:54,960 them that are hard to understand, which I love. 425 00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:58,080 It's just great to think of another apostle who's super 426 00:25:58,080 --> 00:25:59,600 smart being like, yeah, sometimes I don't even 427 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:01,080 understand what Paul's talking about, Right? 428 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:04,160 But listen to this. He says there are some things in 429 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:06,280 them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant 430 00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,480 and unstable twist to their own destruction, which is what they 431 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:11,760 do with the other Scriptures, too. 432 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:15,880 Did you catch that? The other Scriptures. 433 00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:21,760 So what Peter's doing is he's calling Paul's letter Scripture, 434 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:26,440 putting it on par with what else he would have called scripture, 435 00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:29,240 which would have been the Old Testament, which he refers to as 436 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:31,560 the other scriptures. And this is really significant 437 00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:33,840 because this blows up the argument that reading Paul's 438 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:36,200 letters as the word of God, well, that's just a later 439 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:37,800 development in Christian history. 440 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:40,360 No, it's not. Even in the time of the other 441 00:26:40,360 --> 00:26:43,920 apostles who walked with Jesus, they were already doing what? 442 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:47,680 Circulating Paul's letters, reading them out loud in their 443 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,960 churches and referring to them as Scriptures. 444 00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:54,000 So he's an apostle of Jesus Christ. 445 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:58,120 And of course this begs the question, why does Paul feel the 446 00:26:58,120 --> 00:27:02,920 need to introduce himself to Titus as an apostle of Christ? 447 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:05,480 That's not how letters usually get written. 448 00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:07,320 If this was just a private letter, he'd be like hey what's 449 00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:11,080 up Titus? Isn't the world crazy right now? 450 00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:15,840 Lol that's not he. That's not how Paul rolls. 451 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:20,200 He drops 2 significant titles at the very beginning. 452 00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:22,640 Why would he introduce himself as an apostle of Christ? 453 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:24,880 And of course, we're getting ahead of ourselves here. 454 00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:28,560 Because at this point in the story, Paul's name is still 455 00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,760 what? Saul. 456 00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:34,720 Saul. Young Saul has been saved and 457 00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:36,600 commissioned by the resurrected Jesus. 458 00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:40,960 But believe it or not, early on, young Saul struggles for 459 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:46,400 acceptance and legitimacy for the first couple years among the 460 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,520 early Christians because he was notorious as a Jewish zealot who 461 00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:52,600 put to death other Christians. You can imagine people walked on 462 00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:55,960 egg shells around Saul for quite a while, even after he claimed 463 00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:57,840 to be a Christian. So he's been transformed by the 464 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,040 resurrected Jesus. He's got this zeal that's been 465 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:02,640 transformed. He used to have zeal that 466 00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:05,040 compelled him to kill those in Christ, but that gets 467 00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:07,800 transformed into a zeal that compels him to care for those in 468 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,080 Christ. But in the early days, the 469 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:13,440 Christians don't yet trust them. They walk on egg shells around 470 00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:16,760 them, and it leaves young Saul with a little bit of insecurity 471 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:18,520 and something less than a backbone. 472 00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:22,000 And don't get me wrong, what Saul does after his 473 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,800 transformation is pretty gutsy. You can read about it in the 474 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:27,240 book of Acts. He immediately starts to go to 475 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,920 the Jewish synagogues and proclaim Jesus as Lord, 476 00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:35,560 preaching the gospel of Jesus. But the book of Acts tells us 477 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:38,560 how his initial sermons were received. 478 00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:41,240 This is Acts Chapter 9 verse 26 quote. 479 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:49,280 They were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was 480 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:54,280 a disciple. So the early years of Saul, 481 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:56,400 people were like, I don't know if this guy is legit. 482 00:28:57,160 --> 00:28:59,680 I don't know if he's the, I don't know if he's authentic or 483 00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:02,560 if he's just trying to weasel his way in to destroy us from 484 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:06,280 the inside out. Paul struggled for acceptance in 485 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:11,440 those early days of being a Christian until another early 486 00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:14,480 church leader, his name is Barnabas, advocates for young 487 00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:18,200 Saul and takes him underneath his wing on a missionary 488 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,080 journey. And it's on this journey in the 489 00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:25,880 book of Acts that we really see young Saul receive his backbone. 490 00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:32,640 And I would even argue the specificity of this calling in 491 00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:36,040 the early stages of this journey, Saul kind of operates 492 00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:39,760 as a second in command to Barnabas, following him around, 493 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,000 treating Barnabas as the leader, kind of like the assistant. 494 00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:46,440 But then everything changes. And this is actually, this is 495 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:50,960 interesting because this is actually the this is the exact 496 00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:55,200 moment where we see the name change for young Saul. 497 00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:59,040 It happens in Acts chapter 13. It's this incredible scene that 498 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:01,920 almost reads like a standoff scene from a western movie. 499 00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:05,360 Young Saul is on a missionary journey and suddenly they bump 500 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,560 into an evil magician. I'm not making this up. 501 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:09,240 You can read this in Acts chapter 13. 502 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:13,080 They bump into an evil magician whose name is Bar Jesus. 503 00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:15,560 Or if you're nerdy with the language, Bar Jesus. 504 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,040 I'm just going to go with Bar Jesus because I'm from Iowa. 505 00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:23,600 So he bumps in to bar Jesus this this evil magician and this evil 506 00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:27,240 magician is trying to oppose Saul and trying to keep this 507 00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,080 Roman governor from believing in Jesus as the son of God. 508 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:31,680 The Roman governor actually started it all. 509 00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:34,720 He summoned Saul and Barnabas because hey, these guys are 510 00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:36,000 traveling or my neck of the woods. 511 00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:37,680 I want to hear what their message is. 512 00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,800 If they're claiming that Jesus is the Lord, let's let's hear 513 00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:43,400 it. And so this is a big moment and 514 00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:47,200 we don't know what the motive is, but the magician bar Jesus, 515 00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:51,560 all it says in Acts is quote, he he opposes them. 516 00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:57,280 He's standing in the gap between Saul and the gospel moving 517 00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:59,480 forward. He's standing in the gap between 518 00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,880 Saul preaching the gospel and this this Roman governor 519 00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:06,480 believing in the gospel, opposing Saul, undermining them, 520 00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:09,240 probably with false teaching. Again, it's like this Western 521 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,640 scene from a showdown. You can you can see the 522 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:13,760 tumbleweed going down the dirt Rd. 523 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:17,480 This standoff between an evil magician and young Saul. 524 00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:21,600 You can hear the iconic whistle from the Western films in the 525 00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:24,720 background music. It's bar Jesus the magician 526 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:29,720 versus young Saul the apostle. Is the magician going to strike 527 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:31,760 Saul blind? Is there going to be a spell 528 00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:34,320 cast on him that will bind him? The demons? 529 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:38,040 Is this the end of the road for the gospel in the Roman world? 530 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:42,160 It's this extraordinary standoff and I love the way that one 531 00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:43,840 theologian describes this moment. 532 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:46,880 Who's going to win, Saul or the magician? 533 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:49,600 NT Wright, a theologian, says, quote. 534 00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:55,800 It is this point, this moment, where we sense something new 535 00:31:55,800 --> 00:32:00,640 happening, something merging within the personal standing and 536 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:03,440 self-awareness of the young Saul himself. 537 00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:06,680 Up until this point, Saul has been the junior partner of 538 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:10,040 Barnabas. But now he steps forward in this 539 00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:14,680 moment filled with a new kind of energy, the kind of surge that 540 00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:16,880 early Christians attributed to the Holy Spirit. 541 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:23,200 And he denounces bar Jesus in fierce and uncompromising terms. 542 00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:27,720 He calls him a son of the devil and a deceitful villain who is 543 00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:31,160 taking God's plan and twisting it out of shape. 544 00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:35,840 It's this epic moment where young Saul steps up and calls 545 00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:38,800 him out on his false doctrine and false teaching and preaches 546 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:42,960 the gospel instead. And it's one thing to utter and 547 00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:46,120 hurl truthful accusations against an opponent. 548 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:48,560 That's easy enough. Most people can do that. 549 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,760 What makes this moment spectacular, what makes it 550 00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:57,000 surprising, is the effect of Saul's teaching in this moment. 551 00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:03,200 What, what accompanies Saul's denouncements? 552 00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:07,120 The power that the impact, the authority that comes through it 553 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,800 is staggering. With poetic irony, this 554 00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:16,360 magician, powerful magician who uses spellbinding is himself 555 00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,440 spellbound by the teachings of Saul. 556 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:22,960 Here's the way Acts describes the moment quote Paul says. 557 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:27,200 And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will 558 00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:30,120 be blind and unable to see the sun for a time. 559 00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:36,200 And immediately mist and darkness wolf fell upon him, and 560 00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:39,120 the magician went about seeking people to lead him by the hand 561 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:42,920 because he was blind and the Roman governor believed. 562 00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:48,600 It's just an amazing moment, this coming of age moment. 563 00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:52,280 And here's the significant observation. 564 00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:56,800 This is the exact moment where the book of Acts stops referring 565 00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:02,240 to him as Saul and begins to casually refer to him with his 566 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,720 new name, Paul. Why? 567 00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,360 Why this moment? Well, clearly it's some type of 568 00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:14,159 coming of age moment for Paul. It's almost like I saw I, I saw 569 00:34:14,159 --> 00:34:16,440 this interview with Robin Williams a long time ago. 570 00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:19,360 And they asked them, did you always know that you wanted to 571 00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:22,199 be a comedian? And I just loved Robin Williams 572 00:34:22,199 --> 00:34:24,400 answer. He said, you know, I, I grew up 573 00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:26,440 with a mom who is constantly depressed. 574 00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,560 There was always this fog of sorrow and sadness upon her. 575 00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:33,920 And then one day I did something silly or said something silly, 576 00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:40,960 and I saw her laugh. And it was like, for a moment, 577 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:44,639 the fog lifted. And when I saw that happen, I 578 00:34:44,639 --> 00:34:49,040 thought to myself, there's something to do with my life. 579 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:55,440 That must be why I exist. And he became Robin Williams, 580 00:34:56,199 --> 00:34:58,320 right? It's almost like Paul is having 581 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:02,520 that type of moment right here against barred Jesus. 582 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:06,160 This is the moment where he discovers, oh, this is what God 583 00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:09,640 has uniquely called me to do in this world, to fight against 584 00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:14,440 false doctrine, to fight against false teaching with the truth. 585 00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:17,680 And this is important because you will see this side of Paul 586 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:21,160 show up as you read through the letter of Titus. 587 00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:25,400 Is is Paul gentle? Yes, very gentle. 588 00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:29,200 Is is Paul caring? Yes, very caring, very 589 00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:31,360 comforting. But Paul also has other 590 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:33,640 dimensions to him. Paul's got no bandwidth for 591 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:36,680 false teaching that pops up in the church and draws people away 592 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,440 from Jesus. False doctrine is a hard pass 593 00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:41,960 for Paul. And when that pops up in the 594 00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:45,880 letter of Titus, Paul is not going to wear Kitty gloves 595 00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:48,760 dealing with false doctrine and false teaching. 596 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:52,520 Why? Because he's seen the impact it 597 00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:55,480 has in the world through bar Jesus, and he knows that he 598 00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:58,040 uniquely has the power to overcome it. 599 00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:04,040 And this observation brings us to the third and final thing 600 00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:07,240 that I want you to circle. In our text, we've circled 601 00:36:07,240 --> 00:36:11,080 apostle of Jesus Christ. We've talked about Paul. 602 00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:17,840 I want you to circle that phrase a servant of God. 603 00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:21,240 That's the third and final thing to circle in your text Servant 604 00:36:21,240 --> 00:36:24,360 of God. Again, a technical phrase in the 605 00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:26,840 Old Testament, not a generic phrase. 606 00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:32,040 The phrase, the title servant of God is only given to the 607 00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:37,560 prophets, King David and one other person, Moses. 608 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:45,640 In fact, when Paul defeats bar Jesus the magician, does that 609 00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:50,120 remind you of any other moment in the history of God's people? 610 00:36:50,720 --> 00:36:55,920 It's it's strikingly similar to one other moment with a leader 611 00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,640 of God's people. It's the moments in the book of 612 00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:05,560 Exodus where Moses defeats Pharaoh's magicians in order to 613 00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:08,480 prove his authority of it as a servant of God. 614 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:13,960 So I wonder if you see what Paul's doing by describing 615 00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:17,920 himself as a servant of God. He's using the very credentials 616 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:20,840 that would have been attributed to Moses. 617 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:23,800 This is, this is telegraphing something to you. 618 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:26,160 This is important. Referring to himself as a 619 00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:31,360 servant of God means that he's aware that he's not just writing 620 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,120 a personal letter to his homeboy, Titus. 621 00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:38,640 He wants you to know something. He's an apostle of Jesus. 622 00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:41,800 He's a servant of God. By casting himself with the same 623 00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:49,240 credentials as Moses, Paul is signaling that like Moses, Paul 624 00:37:49,240 --> 00:37:57,200 is delivering tablets of stone with the very words of God 625 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:03,120 written on them to operate as the authority for the people of 626 00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:06,200 God. So put these two titles 627 00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:10,760 together, you have Paul. He thinks he's a servant of God, 628 00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:13,200 an apostle of Jesus. And here's the point. 629 00:38:13,200 --> 00:38:15,200 And this is where I've been leading this entire time. 630 00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:19,520 What Paul wants you to know is that what he's about to write in 631 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:21,800 this letter is not merely his ideas. 632 00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:26,920 It's not merely his thoughts. He's writing to Titus, but not 633 00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:31,440 merely to Titus. What Paul thinks he's doing self 634 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:35,960 consciously with self-awareness is Paul is writing to you what 635 00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:41,000 he believes to be the word of God with the authority of Jesus 636 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:44,040 Christ. So that brings us to the huge 637 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:46,560 question. What did Paul think he was 638 00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:49,480 doing? Did Paul write Titus or did God 639 00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:51,520 write Titus? What do you think the answer to 640 00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:55,280 that question is? Yes, Yes. 641 00:38:56,360 --> 00:38:59,280 And that's why we're going to spend the next 17 weeks with 642 00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:02,800 snorkeling gear on at the very bottom of the letter because 643 00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:05,280 that's where the riches are. And so I just want to ask you a 644 00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:09,240 question as we, as we look at this short letter and as we 645 00:39:09,240 --> 00:39:11,920 think about preaching it and rooting our lives to it, here's 646 00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:15,120 a simple question for you. Why should you anchor your life 647 00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:19,480 down on the book of Titus? Why? 648 00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:25,960 Why not just anytime there's a new ideological trend that your 649 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:29,440 friends write about on social media, Why not just blow 650 00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:31,600 whatever direction the wind blows? 651 00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:35,760 I love the story that I use at the beginning of the sermon, 652 00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:38,360 right? I love that moment of imagining 653 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:41,720 my dad on the inside of the ice house and it filling up with 654 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,640 with wind, his eyes widening, my dad's friend smiling, my dad 655 00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:51,880 saying don't you dare let go. And then and in the ice house, 656 00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:54,040 traveling across the entire pond. 657 00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:56,000 I like that story because it's funny. 658 00:39:56,120 --> 00:39:57,200 And I would have done the same thing. 659 00:39:57,200 --> 00:39:59,520 I wouldn't let go. I wouldn't let you travel across 660 00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:01,480 the entire pond first. Sure, and loved it. 661 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:04,560 I also like that story because it's the human condition. 662 00:40:06,240 --> 00:40:11,800 It's what it means to be human. If you are not anchored down on 663 00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:15,120 something, if you're not anchored down on truth, you will 664 00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:18,040 blow whatever direction the winds of the world blow. 665 00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:22,840 It's all an ice house can do. That's all you're capable of 666 00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:27,400 doing is blowing in whatever direction the wind blows, right? 667 00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:29,520 This is the way people are on Anchored. 668 00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:33,800 All we do is go with the flow on anchored, whatever popular 669 00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:37,560 thought is we end up thinking on anchored, whatever the current 670 00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:41,680 norms are or what we conform to on anchored, we will go whatever 671 00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:44,000 direction the algorithm blows us, whatever direction peer 672 00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:47,080 pressure nudges us, and we'll find ourselves across the pond 673 00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:50,360 from where we wanted to be in life, An empty hollow ice house 674 00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:53,080 shadow entered on the shore on anchored. 675 00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:56,280 And my encouragement this morning is that the book of 676 00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:59,600 Titus in the Scriptures as a whole, but for our purposes over 677 00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:05,000 the next 18 weeks, the book of Titus is a trustworthy anchor. 678 00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:12,280 You can trust it to keep you put, to keep you in place, to 679 00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:16,120 keep you where you want to be as the authoritative word of God. 680 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:20,480 Knowing this my whole goal in preaching a 40 minute sermon on 681 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:21,800 Paul, it's not to make you smarter. 682 00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:25,440 It's to give you more confidence that when you read Paul's letter 683 00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:29,440 to Titus, you are hearing the voice of God. 684 00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:36,240 You want to hear God read Titus or any of the other 65 books of 685 00:41:36,240 --> 00:41:38,320 the Bible. But maybe for the next 17 weeks 686 00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:41,600 read Titus. It's, it's legit. 687 00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:45,360 You can trust it. It's, it's authentic. 688 00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:49,080 You know why not? This is just me talking right 689 00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:53,120 now. One of one of the things that I 690 00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:57,040 think is the best test for the authenticity of someone's word. 691 00:41:57,040 --> 00:41:59,960 I wonder if you're the same way for the authenticity of 692 00:41:59,960 --> 00:42:06,640 someone's message or their word is are they willing to believe 693 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:12,280 for it, right? Like are you willing to lose for 694 00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:15,320 the sake of your message and for the sake of your beliefs? 695 00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:21,040 Because if you are, I think there's authenticity to it or 696 00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:23,400 there's trustworthiness to it, right? 697 00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:26,080 Would you lose for it? It's easy to say something that 698 00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:27,760 you know is going to gain you applause, right? 699 00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:32,280 I guess why it's so hard in our modern world to actually know 700 00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:35,360 what a person believes in, because the average person, they 701 00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:38,320 cannot distinguish in their thinking the difference between 702 00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:41,440 what they believe and what they think will gain them likes and 703 00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:43,520 followers. It feels the same in most 704 00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:46,000 people's minds. And so the average person is 705 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:49,200 just an empty ice house blowing in the wind, a puppet parroting 706 00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:50,640 the dominant narratives of the world. 707 00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:53,520 And I understand why people want to belong. 708 00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:56,080 I'm the same way, right? People want friends. 709 00:42:56,080 --> 00:42:58,560 They, they want to belong. And so the most natural thing in 710 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:02,120 the world for a human being to do is to just listen to what 711 00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:04,760 people around them are saying. And you're like, OK, this is 712 00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:08,480 what people here think. I'm going to parrot that back in 713 00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:11,120 my own language so that I gain acceptance. 714 00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:16,720 And it's easy to do that, to say things or to believe things that 715 00:43:16,720 --> 00:43:22,000 will get you a foot up in life. It's a lot harder to preach a 716 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,600 message and believe a message that will cause you to lose in 717 00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:27,920 life. And what do we see with Paul? 718 00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:33,840 Paul, he loses everything for the gospel of Jesus. 719 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:37,120 Everything. The dude had Roman citizenship 720 00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:40,720 in the ancient world. That was like a fast track VIP 721 00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:43,840 to a rich life. There were not many Jewish 722 00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:45,320 people who had Roman citizenship. 723 00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:49,040 He gave all of that up to become an apostle for Jesus, all of it. 724 00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:53,040 Rome hated Paul for that, right? Paul just ran around with his 725 00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:56,200 big mouth talking about how Jesus was Lord and it made him 726 00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:58,520 an enemy to the state because they're like, whoa, whoa, 727 00:43:58,520 --> 00:44:00,240 Caesar's Lord. Are you? 728 00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:02,920 Are you saying Caesar's not Lord? 729 00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:05,760 But Jesus says, and Paul was like, yes, I am then. 730 00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:08,000 So Rome rejected him. You know what? 731 00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:10,400 He didn't fare that well with his own people either. 732 00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:13,600 The Jewish people rejected him too, because he went around 733 00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:18,160 worshipping and following a man which they thought was idolatry. 734 00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:21,800 And so Paul got chewed up and spit out, even by his own 735 00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:24,360 people. He lost everything for the sake 736 00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:27,880 of Jesus, right? And so I look at his, I look at 737 00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:29,240 his letter, I'm like, I'm willing. 738 00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:32,840 I'm willing to read what you have to write because you lost 739 00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:35,560 everything for Jesus. You went from the top to the 740 00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:38,880 bottom in the ancient world. Like sometimes, sometimes I 741 00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:46,720 imagine, sometimes I imagine, like, what would it, what would 742 00:44:46,720 --> 00:44:51,320 it have been like for Paul's friends to greet Paul when he 743 00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:55,320 got back from Damascus? Everything about that stuff, 744 00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:00,560 like how how awkward would that conversation have been? 745 00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:04,800 Like they sent him out to go kill Christians, and he comes 746 00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:07,880 back a Christian. That had to be the most awkward 747 00:45:07,880 --> 00:45:11,520 conversation in the world. Like, imagine seeing Paul riding 748 00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:13,800 back into town. He took a little longer than 749 00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:17,760 expected and his buddies go out to greet him and they're like, 750 00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:22,440 Oh yeah, hey, Paul, we, we get rid of those pesky Christian, 751 00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:24,040 you know what I'm saying? We get rid of those pesky 752 00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:27,320 Christians who worship Jesus as Lord. 753 00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:30,200 Are there is there less scum in the world out there or what? 754 00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:37,360 Bro? What did, did he just say Jesus 755 00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:42,400 is Lord? He's he's messing with us, 756 00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:46,080 right, Paul? You're messing with us, right? 757 00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:50,040 Paul? You worship like it would have 758 00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:51,640 been the most awkward conversation ever. 759 00:45:52,640 --> 00:46:01,440 He gave up everything to be the man who wrote this for you, gave 760 00:46:01,440 --> 00:46:04,920 it up to preach the gospel. And it's so important sometimes 761 00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:07,680 to remember the historical legitimacy in the historical 762 00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:13,720 basis for Paul's apostleship because, because sometimes the 763 00:46:13,720 --> 00:46:17,240 gospel of Jesus sounds too good to be true, right? 764 00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:20,400 I was thinking about this just last night. 765 00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:24,280 I was, I was like, man, it almost sounds too crazy to 766 00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:29,040 believe that Jesus Christ was crucified for me. 767 00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:33,840 So that by faith alone, I can't even earn it. 768 00:46:34,040 --> 00:46:35,600 I don't have to do anything to earn it. 769 00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:40,000 I don't have to be a good boy. I don't I can't buy it with good 770 00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:43,280 behavior. I can't impress Jesus with 771 00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:45,680 fronting. But by faith alone, Jesus 772 00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:50,200 forgives all of my sins and gives me all of his 773 00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:51,560 righteousness. That's the deal. 774 00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:55,280 You're taking my sins. I'm going to get your 775 00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:57,480 righteousness. It sounds too good to be true. 776 00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:02,280 Just by faith and grace alone. It sounds crazy, like a crazy 777 00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:07,040 person dreamed it up. Like, and maybe you, you don't 778 00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:09,400 hear the gospel freshly because you've heard it since you were a 779 00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:12,080 kid. But like, it's so crazy to 780 00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:17,880 believe that God loves me on the basis of what Jesus did and not 781 00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:22,440 on anything I didn't or did do. It cuts against the grain of 782 00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:25,560 human thinking. Like, picture yourself last 783 00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:30,280 night at 3:00 AM. You're in bed, you're doing 784 00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:35,160 nothing, contributing nothing to the world, right? 785 00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:39,200 You're mate, you're snoring, your muscles are completely at 786 00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:41,680 ease. There's nothing impressive about 787 00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:42,920 you. You're not doing anything, 788 00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:45,800 you're not even in church, you're not reading your Bible, 789 00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:49,000 you're not being nice to people. You're just in bed in the middle 790 00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:55,920 of the night snoring. If the gospel is true, then in 791 00:47:55,920 --> 00:48:01,800 that moment, God doesn't love you anymore or any less than 792 00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:03,720 your best moment in your entire life. 793 00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:10,160 That's crazy. Like, no human imagination could 794 00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:13,600 invent that. It's almost too good to be true. 795 00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:17,960 Like on an average day, guys, I probably think a dozen. 796 00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:20,520 I wish I were more like X or Y Thoughts. 797 00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:22,840 Are you the same way? Like on a daily basis? 798 00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:24,720 Right. By by the time lunch has come 799 00:48:24,720 --> 00:48:26,640 around, I've thought, man, I wish I was more patient. 800 00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:29,040 Or, gosh, I wish I would have said something differently 801 00:48:29,040 --> 00:48:31,880 there. Or man, I wish I was more X or 802 00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:34,400 more Y. That's on a daily basis. 803 00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:37,040 OK. If you took all of your wildest 804 00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:39,600 dreams about the woman that you wish you were, the man that you 805 00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:42,800 wish you were, all of your wildest dreams over the course 806 00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:46,760 of not a day, but your entire lifetime, I would have a list of 807 00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,640 wishes about myself. That's so long that I could 808 00:48:49,640 --> 00:48:53,120 probably lasso it, wrap it around the world like 10 times 809 00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:58,240 in some crazy alternative universe where all of those 810 00:48:58,240 --> 00:49:04,440 wishes come true and I become the exact man I wish I was. 811 00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:07,840 In all of those millions of wishes I've thought over the 812 00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:11,560 course of my lifetime, if I actually in some crazy world 813 00:49:11,760 --> 00:49:15,440 became exactly that man, all my wildest dreams about what 814 00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:20,360 Kolecki could become true. If the gospel is true, God would 815 00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:25,040 not love that man anymore or any less than he loves this man. 816 00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:31,200 That's insane. It's insane. 817 00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:36,880 So my gut is like that's it just sounds too good to be true. 818 00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:40,600 And when you study the legitimacy and the historical 819 00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:43,520 basis for the apostleship of Paul, you're confronted with a 820 00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:45,560 different fact. And the fact is this. 821 00:49:45,720 --> 00:49:52,240 The fact is the apostle Paul saw the resurrected Jesus's face and 822 00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:56,960 heard the resurrected Jesus's voice and was confirmed by the 823 00:49:56,960 --> 00:50:03,800 people who walked with Jesus. And I need 4 different alarms on 824 00:50:03,800 --> 00:50:09,640 a Saturday morning to wake up. Whose opinion on Jesus is better 825 00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:14,640 to trust? So in those moments, I have to 826 00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:18,360 remember the legitimacy and the historical basis of the Apostle 827 00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:22,280 Paul who preaches this crazy gospel that Jesus loves you 828 00:50:22,280 --> 00:50:26,400 apart from any good work, but by grace through faith alone in 829 00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:28,920 Jesus. When it comes to your ideas 830 00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:35,000 about what you think God is like, in Paul's ideas of what 831 00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:38,720 God is like, I pray that you trust these ones. 832 00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:42,720 I pray that you give these ones their proper authority. 833 00:50:43,920 --> 00:50:50,400 And as you do, you will anchor your life down in a very windy 834 00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:54,240 world. And my prayer for you is that 835 00:50:55,360 --> 00:51:00,200 don't you dare let go. It'll keep you anchored. 836 00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:04,080 Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of the Apostle Paul.