Provoked to Teach

[00:00:03] In the name of Jesus, Amen. [00:00:09] Well, Daniel, What a day. [00:00:12] There you are. [00:00:14] Where's Daniel? [00:00:16] Okay, he can hear me. [00:00:19] What a day. [00:00:21] Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, which corresponds to Noah and the ark and eight people being saved from death and destruction. This is what meaning is attached to baptism. We are saved from death and destruction, from sin and its consequences. [00:00:49] We're united to Jesus and given his life. [00:00:55] So we're going to spend just a little time here in the epistle reading, because it's just perfect that we've got baptism in the readings, but we'll also be dealing with the reading from Acts and Paul on the areopagus. [00:01:12] So baptism, which corresponds to Noah and his family being saved on the ark now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities and powers having been subjected to him. [00:01:41] This last part is kind of the completion of this paragraph, which started with Christ suffering for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. And this is our pattern. Peter is saying. [00:02:02] He's saying that we should suffer gladly because, well, look at Christ. [00:02:07] Here's the pattern. [00:02:10] Christ died and was made alive. And then he completes it by saying he's gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God. Peter's telling Christians that they suffer for doing good. [00:02:26] They shouldn't worry about that suffering. They shouldn't take that suffering, that data that their senses are receiving, the pain, the scorn, the humiliation, whatever kind of suffering they're experiencing. [00:02:43] They shouldn't make that sense. Perception primary. [00:02:50] They should instead remember Christ, who suffered and was raised and is seated at the right hand of God with everything beneath him. [00:03:04] What he's saying is, you're united to Christ. [00:03:09] So even as you receive suffering or you're pummeled by whatever's coming at you, imagine yourself there with Christ, at the right hand of God, because that's where you are united to Christ, Daniel. That's yours with us today and all your life. [00:03:31] Kind of like Paul saying in Romans 6, so consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. [00:03:39] Consider yourselves, imagine yourselves. [00:03:45] So here's another one from the Book of Acts, from our reading, the first reading this morning. [00:03:53] In him we live and move and have our being. [00:03:58] This is another one that you've got to consider. [00:04:01] You've got to imagine and remember. In him we live and move and have our being. [00:04:09] It sounds a little bit like a metaphysical claim, like a claim about how things are. Like a scientific kind of claim, like, no, we don't just exist apart from God. In him we live and move and have our being. [00:04:25] You can kind of see it that way. [00:04:30] But I would contend that this is something to remember and believe by faith and something that can be a great comfort in daily experience. [00:04:44] In him we live and move and have our being. [00:04:48] We're united to Jesus Christ, who has risen from the dead, who has endured all suffering, endured the loss of all things, including his life, and is now far away from all those things that would hurt him. In fact, they're all beneath him. That's where you are beyond all your enemies and all that would harm you, safe in Jesus. Remember that. [00:05:22] Let's jump to the beginning of the reading in Acts and we'll connect to what we were just doing. So Paul. [00:05:31] Paul was waiting for them at Athens. His spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. [00:05:41] His spirit was provoked within him. Has your spirit ever been provoked within you? [00:05:50] See some chuckles, you know, what kind of provocation are you thinking of? Right. [00:05:57] My mind jumps to, like, anger. Was Paul just angry? He's like, come on, why do we have these idols here? [00:06:08] I've been provoked to anger by my surroundings before today's Mother's Day. Mothers, have you ever been provoked? [00:06:20] It's a struggle and a struggle worth engaging in. Right? What a beautiful calling to be a mother and to raise children. We'll just get cover. Fathers too. [00:06:32] Fathers as well, right? [00:06:34] And then just, well, anybody. Have you ever been provoked by things around you thinking about this? [00:06:43] I don't think that Paul was provoked by the idols. [00:06:49] Provoked means to be like, you know, suddenly aroused to anger or to feel something important. [00:07:02] I was kind of looking in the Greek dictionary, you know, I don't think he was provoked by the idols. [00:07:11] His spirit was provoked within him. [00:07:16] Provoked by what? [00:07:19] What prompted Paul to be concerned for the faith of the people around him? [00:07:27] Not some idol. [00:07:29] Idol didn't produce that thought in Paul, that compassion for the people that drove him to spend time with them and talk with them about Jesus and the resurrection, to walk around and think, what could I use to talk to them? How could I make a connection with them that would help them to see Jesus? [00:07:55] It wasn't the idols that produced that in him. [00:07:58] It was Jesus Christ. [00:08:01] Paul was united to Jesus Christ. [00:08:06] He had the mind of Christ. [00:08:08] Christ living in him, he living in Christ. [00:08:14] What Paul said about God, in him we live and move and have our being. [00:08:19] That wasn't just a metaphysical claim about how things are materially. [00:08:28] Paul was living and moving and having his being in Jesus. [00:08:34] He was looking to Jesus and receiving from Jesus the right perspective on things. [00:08:42] He was praying constantly, like he says we should. [00:08:47] So imagine him there. [00:08:48] He's there, and he's just waiting in Athens. And he looks around and he sees all these idols. [00:08:56] And he's inspired by the Holy Spirit with a right thought, compassion for the people who didn't know about Jesus, to whom has been given all power and authority in heaven and on earth, and who is ruling and reigning at the right hand of the Father and who will come as judge one day. [00:09:18] That's what provoked Paul his spirit. [00:09:24] That's what drove him to action for the sake of his neighbor. [00:09:35] See, I think. [00:09:37] I think when we're provoked by our surroundings, when we're provoked to anger, whether it's by an uncareful word from a friend that kind of hurts our honor or makes us feel criticized, or whether it's some of those things that we have a responsibility to kind of keep under control that are producing chaos, whether human or otherwise. [00:10:18] When we're provoked by those things, I think it's because we are living and moving and having our being in those things. [00:10:30] See, Paul's point is, remember our life is not in some material thing that was created by the imagination of a human being. [00:10:45] Gold or what materials does he say here? [00:10:54] Gold, silver or stone. An image formed by the art and imagination of man. [00:11:00] The car that won't work or the keys that got lost, or whatever it might be. [00:11:09] Right being then God's offspring. We ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone or an image formed by the art imagination of man. [00:11:23] The times of ignorance got overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. There is coming a day when the one who rules and reigns over all things will come back. [00:11:36] And Paul wants the people in Athens and you and me to live and move and have our being in him, to be inspired by Him. [00:11:49] He gives to all mankind life and breath, which is spirit, gives to all mankind life and spirit and everything. [00:11:59] And he made us all notice. He puts all created things securely under Jesus authority. [00:12:10] He he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place. [00:12:29] What created things do you live and in what created things do you live and Move and have your being daily. Is it finances? Is it relationships? Is it your honor? [00:12:47] For the Stoics, it was their honor that was the ultimate goal, was to be stoic and unaffected by things and to be honorable. And an honorable death was. [00:13:01] That was the afterlife. It was like you live on because you died an honorable death. That was the ultimate right. [00:13:11] Paul says, no. [00:13:13] Jesus Christ rose from the dead. [00:13:17] Our hope is in Him. So, mothers, I guess this is the Mother's Day encouragement, The wonderful task that you've been given governing your children. [00:13:36] Your life is not in your children. [00:13:38] Your life is in Christ. And he's given you these wonderful blessings to care for. [00:13:45] And so in stressful or chaotic or difficult moments, look to Christ and ascend with Him. Remember that your life is hidden in him who has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven for all of us, in whatever kind of suffering God has given us to endure for Christ's sake, as you suffer, remember that your life is not in the things around you, the circumstances, but in God. You live and move and have your being. And you've been united to Jesus Christ, who has gone beyond all suffering, who has come through death, risen from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of God. As you humble yourself with Christ and make yourself nothing and take the form of a servant for those around you, remember that God has exalted you in Jesus Christ to the highest place by his grace, so that nothing can rise up and pull you down. [00:14:52] Your life is safe in Jesus Christ, in His name, Amen.