CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
September 25, 2005
KEEP PRAYING FOR:
Our congregation Various friends, relatives and co-workers
David and James in the military Our students
Our nation, military and leaders Travelers because of the hurricane including
The Ollers, Anita, and Bryce & Heather
WITHOUT HINDRANCE
“He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ -- with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:31)!
Luke tells us that Jesus is headed for Jerusalem in chapter nine, and until He enters the city in 19, that is His focus, fulfilling the eternal plan of God. Many things happened on the journey, stories and miracles, teachings and illustrations, yet He kept His eyes on Jerusalem. Of course, we know what it meant. After a friendly welcome, the week would end in His suffering and death, followed by His resurrection. From there the journey continues, talking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus to Pentecost (Acts 2) and on into the world.
Luke continues the story of the journey of the good news in Acts. In the first twelve chapters, Jesus is proclaimed as the Messiah to the Jews. This journey too is difficult yet “without hindrance.” We might ask ourselves how that can be? The apostles were threatened to not teach in His name but chose to obey God rather than men. Then Stephen died, the first martyr, had the hands of the Jews with one Saul of Tarsus watching. The gospel continues to spread out to Jewish areas with Gentiles responding. Then the apostle James is arrested and killed by a Herod. In his pride, Herod dies a horrible death, and the gospel spreads. Death and persecution and the gospel goes unhindered?
From Acts 13 to 28, the journey enters the Gentile world. Into that world would go a man from Tarsus named Saul, now a Christian and apostle, proclaiming the gospel of grace without hindrance. Once again we can ask, how can Luke say this? Paul spoke first to the Jews and then the Gentiles. Out of jealousy, the Jews begin to persecute Paul. Once they even stoned him, throwing rocks at him, and I think causing the health problem he had with his eyes. He cast a spirit out of a girl in Philippi and found himself in prison with Silas. Riots started in Thessalonica and Ephesus because of his preaching. In Corinth, Paul is told by God not to be afraid but to continue to speak because He was with him (see Acts 18:9).
Somewhere along the way Paul desired to go to Rome. He even wrote a letter to the church in Rome letting them know that he was going to visit on his way to Spain. He then sets his focus on going to Rome (see Acts 19:21). The reason: in the presence of Caesar Jesus would be proclaimed as Lord, openly and unhindered. The journey would take some twists and turns. He returned to Jerusalem to report to the apostles what had happened in the Gentile world. To counter false rumors, he took an oath with others at the request of the apostles. Seen in the city with a Gentile, Paul was arrested by the authorities, rescued by the Romans, and put on trial. His life was threatened, he was transferred to Caesarea, imprisoned for two years after appealing to Caesar, and finally sent to Rome.
Both Jesus and Paul have a similar focus, though different conclusions. Jesus died for our sins. Paul was proclaiming that message to the Roman world. It is the journey to Rome at this point that becomes interesting. The “sea” is a powerful symbol in scripture. We see God speaking and the waters separating. We see the Red Sea parting with Israel crossing on dry ground and the Egyptian Army being wiped out. The Psalms celebrate Yahweh’s kingship over mighty waters. Jonah, after fleeing from God, found himself cast into a raging sea and swallowed by a great fish. In Daniel’s vision, a great monster comes out of the sea. And Jesus calmed the sea from the storm on Galilee. So here was Paul, set to go to Rome, on the sea. He has been told that because of his witness before the Jews, he would testify in Rome as well (Acts 23:11). When the storm struck, the sailors made every effort to save the boat. After two weeks of riding this storm, hope had disappeared. But Paul in a dream was told that he must appear before Caesar and all would be saved (Acts 27:24). The ship was wrecked but all are saved. Even as they build a fire and a snake bits Paul, he shakes it off and nothing happens, opening the door to the message of the good news. N. T. Wright says this: “And the point of it all is that God’s kingdom and Jesus’ Lordship must be announced before Caesar, openly and unhindered; and at this point it seems as though the cosmos itself has joined forces with the pagan world to prevent Paul getting there, to stop Caesar’s world from being challenged by the message of the crucified and risen Lord.”
Without hindrance? Who is Lord and King? Not the ocean. Not the snake. Is Caesar? Here comes Paul to challenge Rome. Rome the city of money (the economy), of Aphrodite, the god of sex, and of Mars, the god of war, all of which reigned unchecked and unchallenged in the city. And here comes a man who survived not just one ship wreck but three, who had one hundred and ninety five scars on his back from Jewish beatings, more scars from Roman beatings, and a physical problem from a stoning. There he stood in Rome, delivered, to proclaim “without hindrance” that God is King and Jesus is Lord, and Caesar isn’t. He was under house arrest but that didn’t prevent him from speaking. Paul would write that among the Praetorian Guard and members of Caesar’s own household were Christians. The message comes “without hindrance.”
We look at all of this and ask, “How can we say that it is without hindrance?” If we look at this from a purely human point of view, storms and beating are certainly hindrances, at least to our comfortable mind. But if God is King and Jesus is Lord, who or what can really hinder the good news? Rather it is through this suffering that the message is spread, even in the very heart of the world power of the time.
Today we might look at events and attitudes as a hindrance. But that is not the case if God is King and Jesus is Lord. When the Berlin Wall came down and communism collapsed in Russia, churches opened. Communism claimed to be lord and savior but was proved to be false. How many nations have thought this way that no longer exist? In our country, there are those who want to be lords. They are in powerful position in government or media or able to gain attention through lawsuits and judges rulings. They want their philosophy to be lord. They want power so that they can be lord. They want fame so that they can be lord. And they become lords, attempting to control people and rule over them, to have them bow down before them. Fredrick Nietzsche claimed that God is dead, that is, He is irrelevant, and that the will to power was the way to go. Nietzsche went insane following this and Hitler, who followed Nietzsche’s views, committed suicide. Read Esther and see Haman, who was furious that Mordecai would not bow down before him, and how Haman’s fury led to his own death.
God is King of His creation and Jesus is Lord of my life. Nothing else is. We might be hindered in the things we want to do, or uncomfortable in accomplishing the preaching of the message, but the message remains “without hindrance.” Keep this in mind when people ridicule Christianity, stereotype us as fundamentalists who want to destroy people like Islamic terrorists, or accuse us of strange ideas. The Christians of the Roman world were considered atheists because of their belief in one God. We might have difficulties but the gospel will be proclaimed “without hindrance” in Rome, Washington, London, Baghdad, or wherever it is presented because God is King and Jesus is Lord.
George B. Mearns
See last weeks bulletin for the reference to N. T. Wright.