Where Did All The Fools Go?

Transcript

What a joy to be with you. Would you open your Bibles to Acts chapter 14? Acts chapter 14. As you’re doing that, let me say it has been a privilege to be here in Portland, to be with your pastor, Thomas, spend some sweet time together, thinking and learning. I have really enjoyed being under his teaching as I was on Friday evening. You get to be under that kind of caliber of teaching weekly, Pastor Josh and other faithful elders here. I just want to say how thankful I am for the opportunity to be with you this morning. I do bring greetings from your brothers and sisters of Grace Church in Miami, Florida, where it is 85 degrees this morning.

So I have contextualized by putting on a long-sleeve shirt this morning to be here in Portland. And I have to say, I am reminded, when I look to my right here, I’m a little nervous. Not about the Lord’s Supper, praise God for that. But I’m reminded of another church I had the privilege to preach at and was a servant and staff in California. They had a baptismal in the floor elevated behind, on Sunday nights there’d be baptisms. And there was about like a five foot range from the pulpit to the baptismal, which was again in the floor. And I’m a bit of a wandering preacher. And I literally would pray before I went to preach, Lord, please do not let me fall into the baptismal. Because I could just imagine myself sort of going back and then being like, oh, well, I feel even more

like the Lord’s Supper is dependent upon me behaving myself, being still. So I’m just going to do my best to be still here with you. What a joy, what a joy to worship with you. You can be at different places and yet feel such a kinship with seemingly strangers in face and name, but we are together in Christ. And so in some sense, it’s like going to a family reunion where you meet relatives you have, but you just never had a chance to meet in person. And so I feel that with you. I love you, I am thankful for you. And I’m now excited to be together with you in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 14.

Paul’s Unlikely Return

If you would follow along as I read, starting in verse one through verse 19, which admittedly is just the context for our text this morning, verses 20 to 23. Acts 14, starting in verse one.

Now at Iconium, they, referring to Paul and others with him, entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against their brothers, against the brothers. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and to stone them,

— Acts 14

(ESV)

they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia and to the surrounding country. And there they continued to preach the gospel. Verse eight. Now at Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking and Paul looking intently at him, seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet. And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices saying in Lyconian, the gods have come down to us and the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus whose temple was at the entrance to the city brought oxen and garlands to the gates

and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. But, verse 19, Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and having persuaded the crowds,

they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. We’ll stop there for our purposes. This morning, friends, perhaps you’re not familiar with the book of Acts, you might be new to Christianity, even here this morning investigating Christianity, let me just help set the scene for you. You have Paul, who himself was a former persecutor of the church, he himself responsible for dragging people out, imprisoning them and having them murdered, having them killed, is now himself on the receiving end of that. But understand the backstory here. He is going town by town preaching about Jesus. The first two towns he’s at here is referenced in the beginning of Acts 14, the people are sort of stirred up by the Jews and they learn of the plot that they’re about to be persecuted unto death and so they leave and they go to another town.

But this town receives them differently and this town actually thinks they’re actually gods in human form. They’re amazed. But what’s shocking about the second town is how fickle they are. They go from wanting to worship them to wanting to kill them, simply on the turn of public persuasion as the Jews from the previous towns come to that town and say, you don’t know who these men are and get a crowd to turn on them, to kill them. They go from wanting to crown them to wanting to kill them and here’s the deal, in verse 19, they thought they actually did. They thought they actually killed them.

Now, all that to get to the context of our passage this morning. Look back now, if you would, Acts 14, verse 20 to 23.

But when the disciples gathered about him, he, referring to Paul, rose up and entered the city. And on the next day, he went on

— Acts 14

(ESV)

with Barnabas to Derbe.

And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.

When they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Paul goes back. Let that sink in, friends. Paul goes back. That’s exactly what’s being said here in the text. He does not say, I’m out, this is too hard. Fine, you’re ungrateful, you’re unthankful. You’re easily manipulated. He does not say, well, this doesn’t look like it’s working. He goes back into town and seeks to tell the people about Christ, and here’s the thing. God blesses it, and people are saved, and those who are saved are matured. The eyes of the blind are opened. The ears of the deaf are opened. The spiritually dead are raised alive in Christ. I mean, look at what happens in verse 21. Many disciples are made. Verse 22, many disciples are matured, and in verse 23, many churches are formed.

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Our Present Context

Disciples made, disciples matured, and churches are formed. Now, why do I say all this? Well, let’s step into our present context in which we live in here in this world. Globally, nationally, personally. Today marks one year, one week, and three days since what happened, as many of you know firsthand, personally, what’s happened with the Russia and Ukraine.

War. As we sit here in the comfort of this room, China continues to posture themselves against Taiwan with incursions, with military jets into the island’s airspace, and missiles fired into the sea around it, testing the resolve of other nations of what they’ll do against it. Iran continues to disregard sanctions against them, seeking to build nuclear weapons with the stated purpose of attacking Israel with them. If just one of these things was to carry itself, I’d have global repercussions. We don’t have to look that far away, though. We could just keep it nationally. The US inflation rate rose to 6.8% over the last year to its highest point since 1982.

The political divide and hostility in our country continues to grow with more intensity, dividing homes, businesses, and even cities, as you understand firsthand. On a personal note, consider that prior to COVID, only one in 10 adults would have reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. Since then, as many as four to five adults out of 10 would be reporting symptoms of anxiety and depression. Now, because of what’s happened in the aftermath, 36% of Americans have trouble sleeping, 32% have trouble eating, 12% have increased their overall alcohol consumption. They continue to numb themselves. And here’s the question. If we are to love our neighbors and be in this space, in this place, what does it mean to love them? What does it mean to care for them? What should we be doing? I mean, should the mission of our churches be changing? Should Trinity learn to pivot?

Are you not keeping up with the times by what you continue to do here week after week? Are you tone deaf and insensitive? Christians in general are being told by other Christians in the world to not appear to be tone deaf, insensitive. You should double down your efforts, increase your budgets and do everything you can to do meaningful things like improving job skills, digging wells, setting up medical centers, establishing great schools, working for better crop yields, working to reduce, if not remove illiteracy. All of these can be understandably loving expressions, illustrating your love for neighbor. But friends, if you’re not careful, these can become substitutes for what we’re actually called to do. But the question is, what do Paul and Barnabas do?

I mean, one method of ministry has led to the persecution to the point where they thought they were killed. Change up our tactics, change up our message, maybe we can better connect. As one pastor, Kevin Young, writes, quote, the church’s mission is more specific than common people doing uncommon deeds, end quote.

Friends, do you realize that the people of God have always been peculiar at best, weird and wacko at worst? I mean, to people who actually believe in the scandalous reality of worshiping a dead Jewish rabbi, from the dietary laws and the expectations of circumcision to its infant males in the Old Testament era, to its shared love of possessions with each other and its belief in a resurrected person of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Son of God, people have for thousands of years thought, thousands of years thought, you are out of your mind.

And Paul’s biography just seems to illustrate this. The man appears to have mental illness. Why would you do that, Paul? Why would you do that? Somebody talked some sense into him. Well, this morning, the Word of God is calling us to renew our vows to the same exact mission.

The Unchanging Mission

The proclamation of the gospel, the good news of a crucified and resurrected Savior who will return to judge the world according to his righteousness, Acts 17. I mean, look back at Acts 14, if you will. Let’s just, again, see it, just slow the tape down. We want to be a people who preach the gospel in order to see, verse 21, new converts, right?

Had made many disciples. We also want to preach the gospel in order to see, verse 22, mature Christians. That’s what it says in verse 22, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith. And we want to preach the gospel in order to see, in verse 23, established churches. Look what it says in verse 23. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Nothing has changed.

Nothing has changed. This is the call of every local church, the call of every pastor serving in every church in every context. Do you understand how alike you are with your brothers and sisters in Nigeria, in Laos? At the church that we’re at in Grace Church, it’s a church plant in Miami. My wife and I met and married in Miami in the 90s. After me living there for six years and getting married to my wife, we then moved to Los Angeles where we were for 10 years and then Indianapolis for 10 years and then made this crazy decision to step down from a perfectly good job as a pastor

and go plant a church in Miami where one out of these three churches does not last past its four-year anniversary. And people were like, okay, so what are you gonna do to be sustainable? How are you gonna sort of like make it? I was like, we’re gonna be boringly biblical. We’re just going to copy and paste the Bible. I intend to plagiarize every week. Paul said, Peter said, I might cite the source, I might not. You might have to go, that sounds familiar. I feel like I’ve heard that before. Friends, there’s such a normalcy here to what we see in the text and should be true in our churches. Do we care about human suffering? Yes. Do we love people? Absolutely. But can we find ways personally as Christians to care for those in the community? 100%. But as churches, we have been entrusted with the gospel.

The gospel is a message that only the church as the pillar and buttress of truth has been entrusted with. And if not us, then who? Every other organization can do those other things that we otherwise could be distracted by better and probably has more money to do it. But we, friends, have been entrusted with the resurrected reality of a crucified, buried, and resurrected Savior. Yes, we care about human suffering, but we care so much more about eternal suffering.

Think about 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 20 and 21. We are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Friends, this will make you a fool for Christ. The title of the sermon today is Where Did All the Fools Go?

Where Did All the Fools Go?

Think with me biographically, historically about sort of the predecessors, sort of your family tree spiritually speaking. Acts chapter five, verse 40 and 41 says, when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and then let them go. And then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

Acts 17, verse 18, some said, what does this babbler wish to say? Making fun of Paul as if he had no clue about public speaking. Acts 17, verse 32, now when they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked him. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 10, for the sake of Christ and I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for when I am weak then I am strong.

Earlier in 1 Corinthians chapter four, verse 10, he says, we are fools for Christ’s sake. So friends, I posed you the question, where did all the fools go? Here you are. Here you are. Like, well, that’s quite kind. The visiting preacher calls the whole church fools. Amen. Friends, you are a fool for Christ if you have understood that there’s nothing you can do to reconcile your condition with the holy God.

There’s no sense of denying that he exists will somehow make that right. Like a five-year-old playing hide and seek and believes that they just cover their eyes and somehow their parent cannot find them. Which is so often what people today want to do to just sort of deny that there’s even a deity. Like, you can cover your eyes all you want but it doesn’t change the reality, he exists. All of creation speaks of his existence. Or to say, okay, I grant that he exists but I’d like to change him in my image and make him more in my likeness. Like, well, you can try that all you want but he is not. He is transcendent and glorious and magnificent and holy and as your creator, he has authority and prerogative over you. It’s like, well, I will acknowledge there’s been some shortcomings. There’s been more of a brokenness.

I’m more of a victim than I am actually a participant in my problem. Friends, you can recast the story but it’s still not true. Saying it so doesn’t make it so. To have rebelled against God and you’re conscious being convicted by that reality but then choosing maybe to kind of offer as a peace offering, sort of a trading, a bartering with God, if you will, a sort of good works. Not as bad as that guy, that girl, that friend and that relative. But for God to say, no, that will not be acceptable. I cannot compromise what you’re wanting. You want justice, I offer justice but justice can only be found in my son who I have sent. He, friends, is the crucified, buried, resurrected son of God. As a substitute, all those who believe in him alone, through faith alone because of God’s grace alone

are forgiven. And friends, if you have made that decision, you are a fool for Christ. If you have not made that decision, hear me, hopefully politely, you are a fool for this world. But unlike Christ who offers you forgiveness, who extends to you love, and by the adoption of his father,

a fellow heir with Christ, this world will leave you, use you and abuse you and abandon you. Ask you to get on a treadmill of all of your attempts at finding glory and satisfaction and then say, thank you, we’re done with you. And you have nothing. You’ll be a fool for this world.

Paul knew that. He understood that. Do you realize, for those of you who are in Christ, how foolish you appear? You’ve chosen to follow a savior who wins by dying. You will not impress the world. You will increasingly be seen as outdated and disconnected. You’ll be labeled a communicator of hate speech who teaches others to do the same. You’ll give your money away to support work both here and in Portland and around the world to people that you have never met and you will never meet. This side of heaven. Some of you have chosen between family and Jesus. Not the family you could be with all the time. When my wife and I returned back to Miami, she has two brothers, very tight family, very close, grew up with them, and a wonderful Christian family. Neither one of her brothers know Christ. One of her brothers lives actively

in the gay community in Miami. Probably a third of my neighbors are gay. I love them. They’re over to my house for dinner all the time. But this one brother has disavowed himself of any relationship with our family because once his sister moved back into town, he was so mad that she would not compromise on a biblical view of sexuality, he said, I refuse to be at any family event she is ever going to be at. I will never talk to my nephews. I will never talk to my brother-in-law. I will never talk to my sister. And all other family in Miami, my wife is like part of like the Miami mafia. There’s a huge family. Like before the founding of the city, 1800s, like OG Miamians. He said, any event she’s invited to, I refuse to come. So let’s split the family. They have to make a decision.

Do we invite her or do we invite him? Disavowed and disowned by family. Why are we experiencing this? Because we believe a man who we’ve never met in person was and still is the son of God. And the reason you believe ultimately is because Jesus came back to life, also known as resurrection. Even though in your entire lifetime, you have never met somebody physically resurrected. You realize how insane you appear to be?

Then you gather with a bunch of people who seemingly don’t have a lot in common with you. And aren’t even related to you. To do what? To sing songs together, read the Bible together, repent of sin together, praise God together, learn the word together, take the Lord’s Supper together, seek to be a witness to this community. You are weird at best and a dangerous religious zealot at worst.

It’s not as if you’re ignorant. Paul knew this. If you look at his testimony, he speaks of this in Philippians and Galatians. He speaks about what it was like to be an enemy of God. And now he’s given himself. He’s like, if I wanted to be liked by men, I was already liked by men. Even by my own age and my own standards. You’re not tone deaf. You see suffering. You too have suffered. You’ve tasted the bitterness of sin. You have seen and experienced a tragedy of sexual abuse, some of you. You have seen families ripped apart, perhaps even one you grew up in. You know what divorce does to marriages and children. You embarrassingly know what it’s like to be ensnared in your anger, your self-righteousness, your greed, your pride, your gossip and more. You know the shame of abortion. You were once incarcerated for your crimes against people.

The Cost of Following Christ

Perhaps you know what it’s like in your past to have been mocked other Christians for their faith in Christ. And now you claim that very faith. But then like Lazarus, Jesus called you forward. He said, rise. And now you are a fool. It’s my practice every year around the Christmas break to read a collection of biographies of one person in church history. I typically like to read people who are former missionaries to just kind of make fun of my Christianity. You know, sometimes you can think like, well, I’m really suffering for the Lord. You’re like, are you all familiar with what it’s like to suffer? So this past year, I read a bunch of biographies in Adoniram Judson.

That was convicting. One of the things that captivated me, if you’re not familiar with Adoniram Judson, is that he was the first Christian missionary that the churches in the United States sent to another country in order to evangelize the lost. The year is 1810. He is about to leave,

first to go to India, then to Burma. On the eve of his departure, he starts dating a young woman by the name of Anne Haseltine. Anne Haseltine, he was convinced he wanted to marry her and she wanted to go with him to the mission field. So Judson writes to Anne’s father to get her approval, excuse me, to get his approval for marrying her. I want you to listen to the letter that Adoniram writes this father in order to have permission to marry his daughter and take her overseas with him.

He says the following. I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring. To see her no more in this world. Whether you can consent to her departure and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life. Whether you can consent her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this? For the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you. For the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God. Can you consent to all this and hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory where she will be a mother, a world of glory with the crown of righteousness,

brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her savior from heathens saved through her means from eternal woe and despair. They’re all fools for Christ. Adoniram’s a fool, Anne’s a fool, the father’s a fool, the mother’s gotta be a fool because they’re saying we’ll never see our daughter again, we’ll never meet our grandchildren, we’ll never have a family holiday together. In fact, the only news we might get about how they’re doing is that she’s died, either by disease or by death. And we’re saying we’ll give all of that up for Christ that in giving her up, others might come to know Christ. Friends, that is convicting. I have three sons. I love my sons. 22-year-old, a 20, and two 20-year-olds. They’re not twins—the youngest is adopted from Ethiopia. I’ll solve the riddle right now.

My 22-year-old is dating a girl from California. That’s just a way to kind of pace things out. West coast, east coast. This relationship could be quite serious. My wife is imagining this woman who’s visited us many times could be our daughter-in-law. She’s getting caught up in the possibilities, and then

Out of nowhere, I was like, listen, I would like to marry your daughter and you’ll never see her again. Would you give her up for Christ? Friends, this is next level. We sometimes can say we’ll give ourselves up but not our children, not our grandchildren. We want them safe and secure.

God is not calling us all to go to some foreign country. He’s calling us to live in our cities like Portland in a place where we are going to be repeatedly and regularly known as strange at best and weird and a fool at worst. Listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter 2. They’re persecuted, he says, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people and now you are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy. Friends, my hope is to not simply be captivated by the story of Paul, who goes back

or to be challenged by the example of Adeniram and his girlfriend Anne and the father-in-law to be and the mother-in-law to be. My question is for you and for me, what does it look like in Portland and in Miami for us to have that same kind of commitment? Christ is worth it. To see disciples be made, verse 21. To see disciples be matured, verse 22. To see churches be established, planted and established, verse 23.

This is where we say we desire to see Christ be glorified in us. This is not simply a story of a man who was born into a rich family, this is not simply a biography of Christians from a few thousand years ago, this is a biography of yours that you’re living and writing right now.

And the reality of that, one of the things I delight in hearing here at Trinity Church is hearing the sound of children, a gift that God has given many. Whether it be your children by biological birth or by adoption or other people’s children and you’re like an aunt or uncle, do you realize the reality of how you’re framing not A’s and B’s in English and French and Latin for all you well-educated people, but how you’re framing a worldview to teach these children to even see something as profound as the sun differently. It shines upon them every morning and the music that enters their ears and the colors that they use with crayons to create objects with, the buildings in which they walk in and enter and the people they interact with, how to see the world differently and how that will shape their entire worldview

of what really matters to mom and dad, to grandmother and grandfather, to aunts and uncles, to cousins and to neighbors of what it means for you to be a church together as long as the Lord allows until his return for you to be a people together, a chosen race, a royal priesthood where this is your testimony, where with biblical integrity and personal courage and community, you live for Christ in this city. And here’s the thing, what was crazy in the text will be crazy here. If God so chooses it, others will come to faith in Christ through your witness.

Living as Fools for Christ

As radical as this, you would think this would be counterintuitive. Like, well, that will actually discourage people from becoming a Christian. Well, you would have thought that in Acts 5, right, Ananias and Sapphira, right? Like, well, that’s not gonna help a church out if like people die from like lying into Holy Spirit. The church grew. A church grew, taking the word of God as it’s intended, a word from God and obeying it because of all the authority it has over us and triumphantly living in light of it. Friends, what a joy to live differently with clarity and confidence that we’re living as our King has called us to. He has spoken and we gladly follow him, our risen Savior.

Listen to what Paul says in Colossians 1. Verse 24. He says, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body. That is the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations that now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone, teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ for this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

May that be true here at Trinity as God uses you to bring glory to Christ. Let’s pray. Gracious Father, we address you as such because indeed it is your sovereign grace that we are where we are, believing what we are believing, living the way we are living. Lord, we thank you that your love for us your adoption of us is not dependent upon how courageous we are. Oh, how often we have been like Peter when given the opportunity to identify with Christ. We have said time and time again, no, I am not with him.

God, we thank you that our failures does not define us. We thank you even for the love you showed to Peter is the same love you show towards us. We thank you even for Peter’s writings later under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who knew what it was like to suffer and counted it a joy. Father, I pray for whichever brother or sister is here struggling, perhaps to be bold with their friends or their family, selectively massaging conversations and convictions in order to be more liked by others. God, I pray that this morning your spirit would work in their hearts to release them from that bond to the fear of man and enjoy living for you. God, I thank you for the many examples I trust you’ve given to the saints here of other courageous men and women who live convictionally and compassionately with their neighbors

and friends and family, who have not compromised. God, I pray that their influence, that their discipleship would ripple into the lives of other younger believers here. A new way of viewing the world because of your teachings, Lord. And Father, we pray that you would use Trinity to bring the gospel to many, that in many in hearing would actually believe that perhaps some of even these people’s greatest critics and enemies would become friends and brothers and sisters, joining alongside them, offering all praise and glory to you. Lord, this we pray for their good and your glory, amen.