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