Early one morning years ago an American serviceman was making his way back to the barracks in London. He saw a little boy with his nose pressed to the window of a bakery, staring in silence. The serviceman’s heart went out to the little boy, probably an orphan. “Son, would you like some of those?”

“Oh, yeah, I would!”

The serviceman stepped inside and bought a dozen. He took the bag outside to the boy and said, “Here you are.”

As he turned to walk away, he felt a tug on his coat. He heard the child ask quietly, “Mister, are you God?”

When we give, we act as God does. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son …” (John 3:16). As God’s people, we should be givers, not only at the Christmas season, but as a way of life.

In his final address to the Ephesian elders, Paul reminds them one more time of his own example when he had been with them. His example of being free from greed and of working to provide for his own needs and even for the needs of his co-workers, demonstrated before them how they, too, should shepherd God’s flock. More than his own example, though, Paul told them to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Then Luke records the emotional farewell between Paul and these men who thought that they would never see his face again.

Jesus’ words here are not contained anywhere else in Scripture. Apparently they were part of the oral tradition handed down from those who had been with Jesus during His earthly ministry. As John (21:25) mentions, if everything that Jesus did was written down in detail, even the whole world couldn’t contain the books. We may wish sometimes that we had more of Jesus’ sayings, but what we are given are probably convicting enough for us to work on for a lifetime! That is certainly true of His words here. By our fallen nature, we all are takers, not givers. But by God’s sanctifying grace, He wants us all to grow to be givers. As we do, not only will others be blessed, but so will we!

But, why are givers more blessed than those who receive? I remember as a boy when my mother would quote this verse to me at Christmas time, thinking, “Well, then I’ll let someone else get blessed by giving to me!” I wanted to be on the receiving end! Our text explicitly reveals three reasons that givers are more blessed; a fourth reason is implicit in Jesus’ statement and taught explicitly in other Scriptures:

Givers are blessed because they are freed from greed, they are being conformed to Jesus, they have enduring relationships with others, and they will reap eternal rewards.

1. Givers are blessed because they are freed from the destructive sin of greed (20:33-35a).

Perhaps Paul is contrasting himself with the false teachers that he has just warned them about, wolves who come in to feed on the flock, rather than to feed the flock. Throughout the Bible, false teachers are denounced for being greedy and covetous (Isa. 56:11; Jer. 6:13; 8:10; Luke 16:14; 1 Tim. 6:5; Titus 1:11; 2 Pet. 2:3, 14, 15; Jude 16). But Paul’s example shows us that …

A. Elders are to set the example of being free from greed.

As Paul himself argued (1 Cor. 9:1-18; 1 Tim. 5:17-18), those who labor in the gospel are worthy of being supported by the gospel. But there is a huge difference between a man being supported by the gospel and a man who is in the ministry to get rich by taking advantage of others. One requirement for elders is that they be “free from the love of money” (1 Tim. 3:3). Both elders and deacons must not be “fond of sordid gain” (Titus 1:7; 1 Pet. 5:2; 1 Tim. 3:8). If a man is trying to fleece the flock, it erodes trust and undercuts the basis for any lasting spiritual ministry.

The prophet Micah (3:11) denounced Jerusalem’s leaders that pronounced judgment for a bribe, her priests that instructed for a price, and her prophets that divined for money. In the world, giving counsel for a hefty fee is standard practice. Unfortunately, the Christian world has imitated the secular world in this. But the Lord’s servants should offer counsel or other ministry freely, trusting God that if people are ministered unto, they will reciprocate by helping to meet the needs of the one who has ministered to them. There is nothing wrong with charging for a product, such as a book or CD, where there are obvious costs in production and marketing. But even there, the focus of many Christians seems to be on making huge profits, not on ministry to the Lord’s people.

Many years ago, I was shocked when I tried to line up a speaker for a men’s retreat at our church in California. I tried a nearby seminary and the secretary told me up front, “Dr. So-and-So’s fee is so much for a weekend retreat.” I could not find even one speaker who would come without agreeing on a fee, and most of them were high amounts! I finally settled on one of the cheaper speakers, but I was grieved by the monetary focus. Why not come and minister and trust God to provide? The biblical principle is that we should offer ministry freely, and those who are ministered to should meet the needs of the one who is ministering (Gal. 6:6). Elders must set the example by being free from greed.

B. Greed is a sin that destroys the greedy person.

The Bible ranks greed or covetousness alongside immorality and idolatry, warning that “because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 5:5-6; Col. 3:5-6; see also Mark 7:21-23; 1 Cor. 5:10). Paul said that those who desire to get rich get snared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction (1 Tim. 6:9).

A Nigerian folk tale illustrates the destructive nature of greed. Three friends were on a journey when they found a bag full of money. They were very happy with their good fortune. They were hungry, so they sent the youngest man into a nearby town to buy food. After he left, one of the men persuaded the other that they should kill the younger man when he returned so that they would only have to divide the treasure two ways.

Meanwhile, the youngest man had bought the food and started back when he got the idea, “If I could kill these two men, the money would all be mine.” So he returned to town, bought some poison, and put it in the food. “I will tell them that I have already eaten and am not hungry now. They will eat and die, and the money will all be mine,” he schemed.

He no sooner arrived back with the other men than they beat him to death. Then they sat down to eat their lunch, but before they could finish, they became ill and died from the poison. And so because of greed, all three men died without enjoying any of their newfound treasure.

Greed is always easy to recognize in others: They won’t share what they have with me! But it’s not so easy to spot it in ourselves. Charles Simeon, in a sermon on Luke 12:15 (Expository Outlines on the Whole Bible [Zondervan], 12:468-471), developed three criteria to judge whether we are under the influence of greed. He said that we should examine the manner in which we seek material things; the degree to which we enjoy them; and, the manner in which we mourn or are anxious when we lose them. Givers are blessed because they are freed from this sin that brings both temporal and eternal destruction.

C. The solution to overcoming greed is to work to provide for your own needs and to give to provide for the legitimate needs of others.

In Ephesians 4:28, Paul wrote, “He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need.” When he was in Ephesus, Paul had been an example both of hard work and generosity. He had made tents to meet his own needs, and from any surplus, he had helped support the men who worked with him in the gospel. Apparently he also had enough funds to help some in the church who were needy (20:35a).

Paul’s example affirms the dignity of work, including physical labor. Some are like Maynard G. Krebs in the old Dobie Gillis TV show. Every time the word “work” was spoken, Maynard would jump backwards and shriek as if he had been contaminated by the plague, “Work!” Some think that work is a part of the curse. But Adam had work to do before the curse, and we will have work to do throughout eternity. The curse is the thorns and thistles that interfere with productive labor, not the labor itself.

All Christian men, except those who are physically or mentally incapable, are responsible to work in order to provide for their families’ and their own needs. Women are primarily to be workers at home (Titus 2:5). Not to provide for one’s family is to deny the faith and be worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim. 5:8, a fairly strong warning!). Paul says that if a man will not work, the church should not feed him (2 Thess. 3:10). There is no mandate to meet the needs of moochers or of irresponsible people who squander their money and don’t have anything left to pay their basic bills. But we are to help those who are weak, that is, who are unable to work because of legitimate health needs or who need help because of unusual trials.

Giving to those in need is the drain plug for greed. If you think that greed is getting a foothold in your life, sit down and figure out what frivolous spending you can eliminate and give it to the Lord’s work. Think about what material possessions are clogging your spiritual arteries, and give them to our church missions yard sale. Giving is more a matter of mindset than of amount. Paul was never wealthy, but he demonstrated a lifestyle of giving. It’s a matter of disciplining yourself to resist impulse spending and to give off the top because it is your priority. Givers are blessed because they are freed from the destructive sin of greed.

2. Givers are blessed because they are being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus (20:35b).

As I said, we have no record of Jesus saying these exact words, although there is no reason to doubt that He did so. But we do have record to show that these words are in complete harmony both with His teaching and His example.

For example, Jesus warned, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). The context for that comment was that a young man in the crowd called out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me” (Luke 12:13). I would have thought that Jesus would have condemned this young man’s greedy brother. But rather, He confronts the greed of the complainer and goes on to tell the parable of the rich man who decided to build bigger barns to hold all of his wealth. But God said, “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” (12:20).

Jesus also said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19-21). You store up treasures in heaven by investing in God’s kingdom here below.

Jesus Himself is the embodiment of giving, in that He left the splendor and glory of heaven to come to this earth, not as a mighty king, but as the lowly baby of the stable in Bethlehem. He came to give Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. Thus Paul could write, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

I want to make it clear that no amount of giving or self-sacrifice will get you into heaven. Before you can give anything that pleases God, you must first receive God’s free gift of eternal life. You must come to God as a poor sinner, unable to pay the debt that you owe, and receive the forgiveness that He has provided freely for you, but at great cost to Himself. Jesus’ death is the only satisfaction for our sins before the holy God. He offers this unspeakable gift to everyone who will receive it. Receiving God’s salvation in Christ is the starting point for becoming a giver, because it is the starting point of being conformed in your character to the Lord Jesus. Thus if we are becoming givers, although we can never match what Jesus did or even think of paying Him back, we are being more conformed to His image, and we will be blessed.

3. Givers are blessed because they have deep and enduring relationships with others (20:36-38).

Paul had given himself and his material goods to see these men come to Christ and be built up in Christ. They knew that he loved them like no one else had ever loved them. And so when it came time for Paul to depart from them for what they thought would be the last time, they broke out in loud, uncontrollable sobs. They fell on his neck and repeatedly kissed him, as Middle Eastern men do to this day when greeting one another. The scene that Luke portrays here shows the deep mutual love between Paul and these men. If Paul had been stingy or greedy or had tried to rip them off, this scene would never have taken place.

Ask any person on his deathbed what means the most to him and he will not say, “All of the things that I have accumulated for myself! And my huge bank accounts really mean everything!” Invariably, he will say, “My family and friends that love me mean more than anything else to me right now.” And Christians will say, “My hope in the Lord Jesus and His promise of eternal life means everything.”

I once read that the late billionaire J. Paul Getty had pay phones installed in his mansion for his house guests to use, because he didn’t want to pay for their long distance calls! Needless to say, those guests were not there because of the warm feelings that they had for J. Paul Getty! Stingy, greedy people cut themselves off from close relationships with others. Think of how greed has often divided family members from one another because they think that they are not getting their fair share of the inheritance of a departed “loved one,” who was not very loved! Greed destroys close relationships, but givers know the joy of deep and enduring relationships with others.

Givers are invariably people of faith, because you have to trust in God to give away money that you easily could spend on yourself. People of faith are people of prayer, because it is through prayer that we receive from God’s bountiful supply. So it was fitting that Paul knelt down with these men and prayed with them before he got on board the ship. He probably prayed that God would keep them from false teachers, that each man would be a godly example to the flock, and that through them the church would be built up and expand all over Asia. And he probably prayed that God would meet their needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19). These men grieved at the thought of never seeing Paul again, because they knew that this generous man loved them, and they loved him.

So givers are blessed because they are freed from the destructive sin of greed; they are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ; and, they have deep and enduring relationships with others. But there is a fourth reason that givers are blessed. It is not explicit in our text, although it is implicit here and explicit elsewhere:

4. Givers are blessed because they will reap eternal rewards.

As I said, heaven is not the reward for being a giver. Heaven is God’s free gift, based on Christ’s giving Himself on the cross. But those who have received God’s gift of eternal life will reap rewards in heaven in proportion to their stewardship of money in this life. Unlike our investments in this uncertain world, that can be lost in a market crash, our investments in heaven are secure from every source of loss. That’s why Paul told Timothy:

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed (1 Tim. 6:17-19).

How can you put a price on an investment that yields eternal dividends? If you give to further the Lord’s work, you will someday be welcomed into eternal dwellings by many friends who are there because you gave (Luke 16:1-9).

Years ago, a lady was filling a box for missionaries in India. A child came to her door to give her a penny, all that the child had, to be used for the Lord. With this coin, the missionary bought a tract and put it into the box. Eventually, this gospel leaflet came into the hands of a Burmese chief, and God used it to bring him to salvation. The chief told the story of his conversion to his friends, and many of them believed in Christ and threw away their idols. They built a church there, sent out a missionary, and at least 1,500 natives were converted. All this, and probably more, resulted from a little girl’s gift of one penny for Jesus (“Our Daily Bread,” 12/70).

Conclusion

Almost everyone has heard of and loves O. Henry’s short story, “The Gift of the Magi.” He tells of a young couple who are very much in love, but very poor. One Christmas Eve, Della wanted to buy a present for her husband, Jim, but she did not have enough money. She wanted to buy him a platinum fob chain for his precious family heirloom pocket watch, the proudest possession he owned. In desperation, she decided to sell her own most proud possession, her long and beautiful hair. It brought in just enough, and she bought the watch fob. When she got home and looked in the mirror, she was shocked at her appearance. But she thought that it was worth it to get Jim this special present.

When Jim came home, he looked at Della and there was deep, silent shock in his eyes. “Jim, darling,” she cried, “don’t look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without buying you a present.” Then Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket. He handed it to Della to unwrap. Now it was her turn to be in shock, because inside she found a set of combs for her beautiful hair that she had long admired in a Broadway window. To buy them, Jim had sold his precious watch. Both of them had sacrificed the most precious possession out of love for the other.

Were they foolish? O. Henry concludes, “No, of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are the wisest. They are the Magi.”

His story illustrates the joy and blessing of giving. God has given His own Son so that you might be saved from His judgment. If you have received His gift, He will bless you even more as you become a giver out of love for Jesus.

Discussion Questions

1. Greed seems to be a sin that few American Christians recognize or confess. How can we be on guard against greed?
2. How can we distinguish one who is truly weak, and thus deserving of our gifts, and one who is not living responsibly?
3. Sometimes giving creates unhealthy dependence in the recipient. How can we avoid this problem?
4. In a world of needs, how can we determine where God wants us to give and how much to give?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2001, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Most of us are familiar with the term “armchair quarterback.” An armchair quarterback sits in his comfortable chair, favorite beverage in hand, munching potato chips and watching the quarterback on TV as a herd of 300-pound giants rushes furiously towards him. The quarterback desperately throws the ball down field, but instead of connecting with his receiver, it gets intercepted. The armchair quarterback shakes his head and laments, “He never should have thrown that pass. His other receiver was wide open. He should have thrown to him.”

It’s easy to sit in your comfortable chair and give advice to the guy who is down on the field facing 300-pound gorillas. But it’s an altogether different matter to be the guy down on the field, making split-second decisions under incredible pressure. It’s easy in that situation to make mistakes. So we need to be careful about judging someone who made a mistake in the midst of such pressure.

I don’t want to play armchair quarterback on the apostle Paul here today. It’s easy to second-guess what he did. And yet I believe that he made a serious mistake in the story before us. Luke recorded it for our instruction and encouragement. We can all be instructed if we learn how prone we all are to make mistakes when we’re under pressure, and thus to be on guard. We can be encouraged because if even the most godly of men, such as Paul, make mistakes, and yet God uses them mightily, perhaps there is hope for us all! God is not thwarted by our mistakes. Rather,

When a godly man errs, God will work it together for good according to His loving purpose.

We all err in our personal lives. Sometimes we err in discerning the will of God because, as we saw in our last study, it is at best an imperfect and tentative process. We err in our ministries, sometimes misjudging people or situations. We err in our marriages. All of us who are married can look back and think, “I wish that I had said this or done that in my marriage years ago. If I had, I wouldn’t be having my current problems.” We err in rearing our children. We have to raise them at a time when we have no experience raising children. By the time we have the experience, they’re out of the nest! Every parent can look back and lament, “If only I had done some things differently!” We’ve all made financial errors that we wish we could undo. We’ve made major decisions that turned out to be major mistakes. Our text offers three lessons for us who are seeking to follow the Lord, when we err:

1. Even the most godly of men err.

Paul and his delegation from the Gentile churches arrived at Jerusalem, bearing the gift for the poor that had been collected from the Gentile churches. The next day, they met with James and the elders from the Jerusalem church. This James was the Lord’s half-brother, author of the Epistle of James, who was obviously the main leader of the church. The apostles must have all been out on various missionary enterprises by this time. Luke himself was present at this meeting, and he mentions the warm welcome (21:17-18).

It is odd that Luke does not mention the presentation of the gift or the response of the Jerusalem leaders to the gift. Different theories have been proposed for why Luke omits what to Paul was so important. F. F. Bruce suggests that the Jews may have viewed Paul’s gift as undermining or competing with the temple tax. Thus Luke did not report it so that it would not be used against Paul when his case was referred to the emperor (Paul, Apostle of the Heart Set Free [Eerdmans], pp. 296-297). I’m inclined to agree with James Boice, that Luke may not have shared Paul’s enthusiasm toward this scheme (Acts [Zondervan], p. 358).

Paul proceeded to share with the Jerusalem church leaders what God had accomplished through his ministry among the Gentiles. Their response has always struck me as a bit odd. First, they glorify God; but in the next breath they tell Paul about the thousands of Jews who have believed and are zealots for the Law. These people have been told that Paul was teaching the Jews who lived among the Gentiles to forsake Moses and not to walk according to the Jewish customs. Then they propose their scheme, which obviously they had concocted beforehand. In my opinion, it is political posturing at best. To avoid a backlash from the Jewish faction of the church on account of the leaders’ welcoming Paul and his Gentile converts and accepting their gift, they propose that Paul join these four men in their Jewish vow and sacrifice. Then it will look to everyone as if Paul himself keeps the Law.

It seems obvious that James and the elders were not concerned over the fact that these believing Jews were still zealous for the Law of Moses. Not only that, but the leaders themselves probably would have been uncomfortable with Paul’s view that Jewish Christians are free from the ceremonial aspects of the Law (Bruce, Paul, p. 347). Their citation of the Jerusalem decrees (21:25) shows that they were still, after all of these years, hung up over the details of what believing Gentiles should and should not do on these matters. Their focus should have been on Christ as “the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). But rather than seeing Paul’s visit as an opportunity to teach the believing Jews these great truths and to clarify any misconceptions that they have about Paul’s teaching, they are nervous about what they might think. So they propose this political scheme that will “spin” Paul in a different light. And, Paul submits to it!

I find it surprising that many commentators defend Paul’s actions here. Maybe his aura is just too great to dare to suggest that he blew it. And, as I said, it is easy to play armchair quarterback by taking potshots at a man who was under a lot of pressure. We don’t want to do that. But even so, I believe that Paul made a major mistake here. But before I tell you why, let me, in all fairness, state the arguments of those who think that he was right. (I’m combining here the arguments of Stanley Toussaint in The Bible Knowledge Commentary [Victor Books], p. 416; and, John MacArthur, Jr., Acts 13-28 [Moody Press], p. 254).

First, Paul himself had taken a Nazirite vow (Acts 18:18). Thus why is it wrong for him to participate in this ceremony? Second, Paul’s participation did not compromise any biblical truth, but was a matter of Christian liberty. It fit in with his policy of becoming a Jew to the Jews, in order to win the Jews (1 Cor. 9:20). His offering animal sacrifices here did not deny the finished work of Christ, but were only memorials. Third, if Paul had made such a serious error, would not the Holy Spirit have made this clear in the text? Besides, Paul later states that he had not violated his own conscience (23:1; 24:16-18). Fourth, Paul’s motives were pure. He was trying to unify the Jewish and Gentile Christians and be a witness to the unbelieving Jews. Fifth, the negative results of his actions do not prove that he made a mistake. Such a pragmatic approach denies that Paul’s arrest had been prophesied before his arrival in Jerusalem (20:22-23; 21:4, 11).

In response, first, the text never hints at whether Paul had been right or wrong to take a Nazirite vow. It is, at the very least, a debatable matter that he was right to do so. Second, it is arguable that Paul’s actions compromised or, at the very least, clouded some crucial biblical truths. Why should believers in Jesus Christ, whose blood cleanses us from all sin, go through a ritual of purification involving animal sacrifice under the priestly system that put the Savior to death? As the author of Hebrews argues, Christ is the sum of everything that the Jewish sacrificial system pointed forward to. Why go back to the old system when the veil in this very temple had been torn? It is one thing for Paul to set aside his freedom in Christ and to adopt some neutral Jewish customs that might be a hindrance to the gospel. But to participate in a Jewish sacrifice for purification at the temple was at the least to cause confusion on what Paul elsewhere plainly taught, that the decrees of the Law were removed by being nailed to the cross (Col. 2:11-14).

The third argument was that there is no indication in the text that Paul erred or sinned, and that he later states that he had always maintained a clear conscience. But in light of Paul’s epistles, verse 20 should jar any sensitive reader of Scripture. Paul taught that the law is our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. Thus the purpose of the tutor is done away with (Gal. 3:24-26). He taught that Christ is the end or fulfillment of the Law for righteousness to all who believe (Rom. 10:4). He exhorts the Galatians, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” He goes on to tell them that “in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love” (Gal. 5:1, 6). How the sum of Paul’s teaching about not being under the Law can be harmonized with a favorable view of being zealous for the ceremonial Law, is beyond me!

Regarding Paul’s clear conscience, he does not mean that he had never sinned or made a mistake. Rather, he is defending his integrity, first before the Jewish Sanhedrin (Acts 23:1), and then before the Roman governor Felix (24:16). I would not agree with Donald Grey Barnhouse (Acts) that Paul deliberately sinned by going to Jerusalem and cooperating with this scheme. But I do contend that he made a major mistake, in spite of his sincere motives. To live with a clear conscience means that we confess our sins and acknowledge our mistakes, not that we live perfectly.

The fourth argument is that Paul’s motives were pure. Granted, but sincerity and pure motives do not protect us from making major mistakes. Regarding the final argument, that the negative results are no basis for determining right or wrong, I agree. Sometimes we act in obedience and suffer terribly. Sometimes we disobey God and life seems to go well for a while. But the prophecies about Paul’s imprisonment say nothing about whether the actions that led to that imprisonment were right or wrong. As James Boice argues (p. 364), the greatest proof that Paul was wrong was that God, who is sovereign over the details of our lives, intervened before Paul was able to offer the sacrifice in the temple and prevented him from doing it.

I see a parallel in the life of David, who was also a godly man who erred. On one occasion, after years of being hounded by Saul, David said, “I will perish one day by the hand of Saul” (1 Sam. 27:1). As a result of this thinking, which the text does not condemn, but which was clearly sinful unbelief in God’s promise to David to sit on the throne, David went over to the Philistines. This wrongful alliance involved him in deception and murder. It culminated in his going into battle with the Philistines against the army of God under Saul and David’s beloved friend, Jonathan! In His grace, God intervened and spared David from this terrible result. But clearly, David’s wrong thinking and subsequent wrong behavior had led him to the brink of what would have been a disastrous compromise, even though the text of Scripture never says that he had done wrongly. I think that while Paul was not sinning here, but rather making a serious mistake, if God had let him go through with offering the sacrifice, it would have compromised the gospel.

How should Paul have responded to this scheme? He should have said to James and the elders, “Brothers, we need to have a long discussion.” He should have found out exactly what they meant by their statement about being zealous for the Law. He should have used this as an opportunity to educate the Jerusalem leaders that in Christ we are not under the Law, but under grace. And, he should have warned them of the danger that they were in of falling into the racist views of the unbelieving Jews against the Gentiles. In their effort not to offend these Jews so as to reach them with the gospel, the leaders had allowed them to come into the church and yet hang onto their Jewish ceremonies and customs without showing them that Christ was the fulfillment of these things. They should have been in the process of educating these Jewish believers that in Christ, there is no Jew or Gentile (Gal. 3:28). They should have been pointing them toward taking the gospel to every tongue and tribe and nation, and that God is no respecter of a man’s race (Acts 10:34-35).

Why didn’t Paul confront these church leaders? Why did he quietly go along with their scheme? There were two primary reasons, and both of them are good motives. First, Paul ardently desired for there to be unity between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. He taught in Ephesians 2:14 that the dividing wall between them had been broken down in Christ. He was referring to a short wall in the temple that kept Gentiles out of the sacred place upon threat of death. Ironically, Paul was falsely accused of bringing a Gentile inside this wall, leading to the riot and his arrest (Acts 21:28). But Paul’s strong desire for unity in the church pushed him over the line in accepting this compromising scheme, rather than confronting the truth issues that were at stake.

The second reason Paul went along with this scheme was his deep burden for the conversion of the Jews (Rom. 9:1-3). But in his effort not to offend the Jews and to become a Jew to reach the Jews, I believe that he created confusion over the main issue of the gospel, namely, the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins.

It is never right to maintain peace and unity at the expense of compromising or confusing major truth. And it is never right to leave out the offensive aspects of the gospel for the sake of winning those who would be offended.

Let me give an example of each error. King Jehoshaphat was a godly leader of Judah who sincerely wanted to bring about an alliance with the separated northern kingdom. But to bring about this noble aim, he allied himself with the wicked northern king, Ahab. He married his son to Ahab and Jezebel’s daughter, Athaliah. She later usurped the throne and almost succeeded in slaughtering the Davidic line of kings. It was an example of unity at the expense of holiness, and it had disastrous consequences.

In our day, we are being urged to set aside our differences and to come together with Roman Catholics on the matters where we agree, to demonstrate “our unity in Christ.” But to do so will either result in compromising or seriously confusing major truth about the gospel. While unity is important, it must be based on the central truths of the gospel, or it is not true biblical unity.

Regarding the second error, of leaving out or tiptoeing around the offensive elements of the gospel in order to win people, it results in people coming into the church who are not truly saved. I think there are reasons to question whether these Jews who had believed and were zealous for the Law were truly converted. At best, they were very immature believers who desperately needed some straightforward teaching. If they had heard Paul preach as he does in Galatians, it would have separated the genuine believers from the false!

In our day, if in our attempt to reach Muslims, we tell them that we both worship the same God, and we are silent about the deity and lordship of Jesus Christ, we may succeed in getting them to “accept Christ.” But if they can accept Christ and yet hang onto many of their Islamic beliefs, they have not believed the gospel! Or if in witnessing to a Roman Catholic, we do not make plain the difference between works-righteousness and the righteousness that is imputed through faith in Christ alone, we have not presented the gospel clearly. Any decision that comes out of such unclear witness is suspect at best.

So the first and major lesson of our text is that even the most godly of men can err, and so we must be on guard against making serious mistakes, especially when we’re under pressure.

2. The errors we make always carry negative consequences.

This scheme did not produce the intended results, to say the least! As I already said, we cannot judge any actions by the results, but only by whether or not they line up with God’s revealed truth. But when we do err, even if we do so with sincere and good motives, there will be negative consequences, either immediately or later.

Paul’s error in going along with this scheme resulted in the Jewish leaders and church at large missing a vital lesson about law and grace. They missed a badly needed correction about their view of Gentiles. Rather than clearing up a problem, it only resulted in greater confusion and misunderstanding. Paul himself got beat up and almost killed. He spent almost the rest of his life in confinement because of this mistake. And seeing Paul in the temple going through these Jewish rituals did not soften the hearts of the Jewish unbelievers towards the gospel. So we should never just shrug off mistakes as if they do not matter. They do matter, and inevitably both we and others get hurt by our errors.

3. God is able to make our errors work together for good according to His loving purpose.

Even though Paul erred, God graciously spared his life and gave him the opportunity to preach to the mob that had just attacked him (22:1-21). As a result of his imprisonment, he was able to present the gospel to governors and rulers with whom he otherwise would have had no contact. He eventually got an all-expenses paid trip to Rome and was able to witness to many in Caesar’s household. He had time to write his prison epistles, which are in our New Testament. All of these positive results illustrate the abundant grace of our God, who works all things together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).

Conclusion

Everyone makes mistakes. Some examples: In 1899, the director of the U.S. Patent Office stated, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” About the same time, Lord Kelvin, the President of the Royal Society, said, “Heavier than air flying machines are impossible.” In 1905, President Grover Cleveland said, “Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.” In 1921, baseball great Tris Speaker said, “Babe Ruth made a big mistake when he gave up pitching.” In 1923, the Nobel Prize winner in Physics stated, “There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.”

D. L. Moody said, “If you don’t go to work for the Lord because you’re afraid of making mistakes, you will probably make the greatest mistake of your life—that of doing nothing.” He’s right! We should get out of the armchair and into the game!

The point of this message is not to play armchair quarterback on Paul, but to get us all to play armchair quarterback on ourselves! We all should constantly be examining our lives to identify our sins and mistakes, including the mistake of not serving the Lord. When the Lord graciously opens our eyes to errors that we have made, we should learn from them and, if possible, try to correct them and ask forgiveness of those whom we have wronged. We should submit humbly to the trials that may be in our lives as a consequence of our mistakes and sins.

But, we should not despair that we have somehow thwarted God’s plan for our lives. Without minimizing or excusing our mistakes, we should realize that in His grace, God works around and through our mistakes for His own glory. We should trust Him, move on in obedience to His will for our lives, and marvel that He can use bumbling sinners such as we are!

Discussion Questions

1. Do you agree that Paul erred by going along with this scheme? Why/why not?
2. What is the difference between a mistake and a sin? Where do motives fit in?
3. How can we discern which issues to compromise on and which issues require taking a stand even if it creates conflict? (Study the life of Jesus in this regard.)
4. Some professing Christians try to defend racism biblically. How would you refute them? How can our church practically show that God’s mercy transcends racial boundaries?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2002, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

If you have been a Christian for very long, you have blown it as a witness. I still remember an incident during my sophomore year of college (a long time ago!). I was taking a group discussion class. Each group was evaluated by our classmates. To get good evaluations, we would choose controversial subjects to arouse interest: sexual issues, drug use, etc. On every issue, I was the conservative member of the group.

There was a guy in our group named Ralph. On every issue, he took the libertarian side of things. He was in favor of free sex, homosexuality, experimenting with drugs, and every other issue that I was opposed to. One day after class, Ralph looked me in the eye and asked, “Hey, man, are you for real, or are you just putting us on in there?” Instantly I knew that this was an opportunity to tell Ralph about Christ, but I was tongue-tied. All I could do was mumble, “Yeah, I’m really that way.” I felt terrible, knowing that I had failed the Lord.

That failure led me first, to pray for Ralph over the years when he has come to mind, that God would save him in spite of my failure. Also, it led me to get some training in how to share my faith. But in spite of all of the training and the books that I’ve read on the subject over the years since then, I still find that witnessing is an up and down sort of thing. Sometimes I do okay, but sometimes I still don’t do so well.

Paul’s story here should encourage every Christian in the ups and downs of witnessing. Even though Paul probably could have handled things better than he did, the Lord graciously appeared to him when he was discouraged and said, “Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also” (23:11). The lesson is,

If we will speak out for Christ, even if we blow it, He will graciously encourage us and give us further opportunities to speak out for Him.

In Acts 22:1-22, Paul had taken the opportunity to preach to the Jewish mob that had tried to kill him. They listened until he told them how the Lord told him to leave Jerusalem, which would not accept his witness, and go to the Gentiles. At the mention of the word “Gentiles,” the crowd went wild, like a pack of wolves trying to get to their prey.

Since Paul had been preaching in Aramaic, which the Roman commander probably did not understand very well, he didn’t know what had set the mob off again, but he was determined to find out. He brought Paul into the barracks and was going to examine him by torture to get it out of him. Scourging was a brutal punishment of beating a man on his bare back with a leather-thonged whip that had pieces of metal or bone attached to it. It would leave a man severely crippled and could result in death. This was the treatment that Pilate inflicted on Jesus just prior to the crucifixion. As the soldiers stretched Paul out to tie him for the beating, he asked the centurion, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” (22:25). Paul was exercising his legal right to protect himself from persecution, and there is nothing wrong with doing that.

The centurion quickly informed the commander of the situation. Alarmed, the commander came to Paul and discovered that he was indeed a Roman citizen. In fact, Paul was born a citizen, whereas the commander had obtained his citizenship by paying a large sum of money. Since it could have cost him his position to scourge a Roman citizen without a trial, the commander quickly had Paul untied.

But since he was responsible to maintain peace in Jerusalem, the commander still wanted to find out what was going on between Paul and the Jews. So he called together the Jewish Sanhedrin and brought Paul in before them to get to the bottom of this conflict (so he thought). But it wasn’t long until the Council itself erupted in such an uproar among themselves in response to something that Paul had said, that the commander again had to rescue this troublesome man! This story teaches us three main lessons:

1. We all are responsible to speak out for Jesus Christ when He gives us opportunities.

If you have trusted in Christ as Savior, then you are His witness. You may not always be a good witness, but His name is identified with you, so that by your actions, attitudes, and words, you are a witness for Him. As He gives you opportunities, you should bear verbal witness. As 1 Peter 3:15-16 exhorts us, “But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.” In 22:1-22, Paul had given his defense (22:1) with a good conscience (23:1).

Paul’s experience teaches us three practical lessons:

• We should always be alert for opportunities to speak out for Christ.

Paul had just been mobbed and badly beaten, but when he got rescued, his first thought was to address the crowd and tell them about Jesus. When he stood before the Jewish Council, again he would attempt to tell them about his experience with Christ, although he didn’t get very far. When later he would have audiences with the Roman governors, he would tell them about Christ.

This didn’t just happen by chance, or because Paul was a natural preacher. In 1 Corinthians 9:22-23, he explains, “I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it.” It was a matter of deliberate purpose or aim. If we want to imitate Paul in obedience to our Lord, we need to make it our frequent prayer, “Lord, give me opportunities to speak out for You, and give me the words to say when the opportunities come.”

• We should know what to say in advance so that we can bear witness effectively.

As we saw last week, Paul basically shared his testimony: his life before conversion; his conversion; and his life afterwards. Even if you don’t have a dramatic story (as I do not), you can tell people what God has done for your soul and what He will do for them. Beyond that, you should be armed with the basic facts of the gospel and the accompanying Scriptures to present it clearly. Learn some simple illustrations that help to clarify. Learn how to respond to the common objections that people raise. Much of our fear of witnessing is that we don’t know what to say. Some basic training can offset that fear.

• Our lives should back up our words.

Paul begins his witness to the Jerusalem Council by saying, “Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day” (23:1). He will later tell Felix, “I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men” (24:16). He told the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4:4), “For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.”

Some have wondered how Paul could say such things in light of his record of persecuting the church and other sins. But to have a good conscience before God does not mean to have lived perfectly, but to live openly, confessing our sins and turning from them when God convicts us of them. Also, our conscience must be informed by God’s Word or it will be a faulty guide. Paul was acting in good conscience when he persecuted the church (1 Tim. 1:13), but he was terribly wrong because his conscience was informed more by his Jewish culture than by the Scriptures. If a person deliberately violates his conscience repeatedly, it will lead to a seared conscience (1 Tim. 4:2), insensitive to all wrongdoing. It is only the blood of Christ applied to our hearts that gives us a clean conscience (Heb. 10:22; 1 Pet. 3:21).

But the point is, if we speak out for Christ, we should not be aware of any wrong that we have committed, either against God or men, that we have not repented of and made right. Otherwise, our witness will be used against the Lord and the gospel, because unbelievers will shrug us off as hypocrites. If you are not seeking to maintain a clear conscience before God and men, please do not let anyone know that you believe in Jesus! And, you may want to examine yourself to see whether you truly do believe in Him!

2, Sometimes when we speak out for the Lord, we will blow it or things will not go as we had hoped.

If you haven’t blown it witnessing, you must not be witnessing! But you can’t let the fear of saying the wrong thing keep you from saying anything. You learn from your mistakes and you trust God to overrule and use your mistakes for His purpose.

Paul began his witness before the Council by looking intently at them, which probably involved both eye contact and trying to read their faces. Facial expressions and body language can tell you a lot about where people are at. I’ve had people in church sit with their arms folded, glaring at me with a grim expression on their faces. I don’t need a Ph.D. in communication to realize that they are not friendly toward my message! Then Paul made his opening statement about living with a good conscience before God. The Greek verb translated “lived my life” means to live as a citizen. In this context it has reference to Paul’s life as a Jew in the Jewish theocracy. He is denying the charge leveled against him of bringing a Gentile into the exclusively Jewish section of the temple.

We can’t be sure where Paul was heading from there. Perhaps he would have gone on to show them how even though he had been sincere in persecuting the Christians, he had been sincerely wrong. From there he could have appealed to them to acknowledge their errors, however sincerely they had made them. But Paul didn’t get a chance to go further, because Ananias, the high priest, ordered those standing beside Paul to strike him on the mouth.

Remember, Paul had just been badly beaten by the angry mob. His face was probably sore and bruised. The blow must have both shocked Paul and hurt terribly. Also, the high priest’s command was grossly unjust and revealed that he was not interested in justice, but only in getting Paul condemned. Ananias was a notoriously corrupt high priest. According to Josephus, he stole from the common priests and used violence and political power to further his goals. The Jewish nationalists hated him because of his pro-Roman leaning. During the Jewish revolt against Rome, some Jewish loyalists assassinated him.

As soon as he was hit, Paul shot back, “God is going to strike you, you white-washed wall! And do you sit to try me according to the Law, and in violation of the Law order me to be struck?” (23:3). When some bystanders expressed their shock that Paul would thus revile the high priest, Paul replied that he had not been aware that he was the high priest, and admitted his error by citing Exodus 22:28: “You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.” Scripture commands us to respect the office, if not the man.

The puzzling question is, why didn’t Paul know that Ananias was the high priest? Three answers have been proposed, none of which are completely satisfying. Some say that Paul’s eyesight was so bad that he could not see who had given the order for him to be struck. Verse one seems to contradict this, unless you take “looking intently” to mean that he squinted at them without being able to see them clearly. But even if he couldn’t see, wouldn’t Paul have known that the command came from the leader of the Council?

A second view is that Paul was being sarcastic, saying in effect, “He was acting so contrary to the character of a high priest that I didn’t recognize him.” The problem with this view is that his Scripture quotation seems to acknowledge his wrongdoing.

The third view is that Paul had been gone from Jerusalem so long that he didn’t know who the high priest was. But even if he didn’t know Ananias by sight, he should have known that the leader of the Council was the high priest. So we really don’t know why Paul didn’t recognize him, but we have to take his word for it that he did not. The lesson for us to apply is:

• When we blow it and realize our error, we should be quick to admit it and correct our mistake.

If we stonewall it, we’ll only reinforce people’s prejudice that Christians are phonies and hypocrites. If we confess our mistakes, people will get the message, Christians are not perfect, but they are willing to admit their mistakes and make things right. Perhaps they will learn that there is reality in walking with God.

When we lived in California, we had a collie that for some unknown reason went crazy with barking at our neighbor’s truck when he drove by. One morning, the neighbor reached his limit. When Christa, who was about 12, went outside to calm the dog, the neighbor yelled at her, using some foul language. I’d like to think that if he had yelled at me, I would have remained calm. But using foul language on my 12-year-old daughter pushed my “Defend-your-daughter” button, and I got really mad. I went outside and told him to keep his foul mouth shut and we exchanged some angry words.

This happened on a Sunday morning, just before I left for church! As I walked out to go to church, the neighbor and his daughter’s boyfriend, who lived with her there, drove by. They were glaring at me and looking menacing. I held up my hand to stop them. They screeched to a halt and jumped out of the truck with their fists clenched, ready for a fight. Again I held up my hand and said, “I’m sorry that I yelled at you a few minutes ago. I was wrong. Please forgive me.” Instantly, the neighbor melted and offered an apology for his own wrongs. After that, we always waved in a friendly manner to each other.

That neighbor probably knew that I am a pastor. If I had not asked forgiveness for my wrong response, it only would have reinforced his negative bias against Christians. I pray that the Lord used my confession to open the way for the gospel to come through to him through some other means. That’s a second lesson:

• When things do not go as we had hoped, we must trust God to use it anyway.

After his admission of wrong, Paul took another tack. Perceiving that some of the Council were ardent Pharisees and some were equally ardent Sadducees, Paul cried out, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!” (23:6). This led to a free-for-all among the Council. As Luke explains for his non-Jewish readers, the Sadducees deny the resurrection, angels, and spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. So the Pharisees immediately came to Paul’s defense, while the Sadducees attacked them and Paul. The commander, who probably wondered why everyone was in such an uproar, finally had to rescue Paul by force again.

Scholars debate whether Paul was right or wrong to use this tactic to divide the Council and deliver himself. Some accuse him of using deceit (claiming still to be a Pharisee) to save his own neck. If that was Paul’s scheme, then he was wrong. Others say that he knew that he would never get a fair trial before the Sanhedrin, and that they were too hostile to listen to the gospel. Thus he used this ploy to deliver himself from certain condemnation.

But it’s also possible that Paul’s intent was to use his background as a Pharisee to establish a common ground with the Pharisees who were present, and then to try to move from there to bear witness to Jesus’ resurrection and the gospel. If this was his intent, his strategy didn’t work out as he had hoped.

Whatever Paul’s intent, we’ve all had times when we tried a certain approach in witnessing, but it did not go as we had hoped. Perhaps the person reacted in an unexpected way and told us that he never wanted us to talk to him about religion again. At that point, all we can do is trust God to use our feeble attempt, and to remember that God doesn’t need perfect disciples to accomplish His sovereign plan. To say this is not to excuse our weaknesses, but rather to exalt God’s greatness and power.

Thus we all are responsible to speak out for Christ, but sometimes we will blow it or things will not go as we had hoped. Finally,

3. When we blow it as a witness, the Lord graciously encourages us and gives us further opportunities to speak out for Him.

That night as Paul lay awake in bed, he was discouraged. Things had not gone well in Jerusalem. The church had not received his gift in the spirit that he had hoped. Then they got him involved in the scheme to look like a Law-keeping Jew, which led to his arrest and getting beat up. His witness before the Sanhedrin had not gone well. And the future looked uncertain and bleak. He didn’t know if he ever would get to Rome, as he had hoped.

At that moment, the Lord Himself stood at Paul’s side and said, “Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also.” What words of encouragement and hope! I don’t have time to give adequate attention to these words now, but I want you to see the grace and encouragement that the Lord extends to His servants. This was the fourth time that the Lord had appeared to Paul (9:4-6 & 22:14; 22:17-18; 18:9-10). Just when Paul needed it, the Lord came and spoke these words of encouragement.

If such appearances of Christ were rare for Paul, they are extremely rare (if at all) for the rest of us. I have heard stories of persecuted prisoners who have seen a vision of the Lord, and I do not doubt such experiences. But the normal way the Lord encourages us when we feel that we’ve blown it is by bringing us to an encouraging verse of Scripture, or through an encouraging word or note from someone who may not even know that we needed it at that moment. Our gracious Lord is aware of our discouragement and He wants us to be encouraged by the promise of His presence and the assurance that He will use us again in the future.

Conclusion

Some time ago, I shared with you how I blew an opportunity to witness. It was on Thanksgiving Day, and I had just run in the Turkey Trot race at Buffalo Park. As I was catching my breath, a middle-aged man walked up and without introducing himself said, “When was the last time you had your prostate checked?” He went on to tell me that he was 53 years-old and had terminal cancer that had begun in his prostate. He was going around handing out pamphlets to every man there to get his prostate gland checked regularly. I was so startled by the encounter that I let him walk away to talk to others before I could say anything about the Lord. I stood there feeling that I had failed as a witness. I didn’t even get his name, so all I could do was pray that somehow he would hear the gospel before he died.

After I shared that story in a sermon, a woman in the church told me that she knew this man and that her husband had shared the gospel with him! I was encouraged with the faithfulness of the Lord and reminded of the fact that He will work out His sovereign purpose in spite of my failures and mistakes. I want all of you to be encouraged, even if you’ve blown it as a witness, to get back up to the plate and swing again. Our gracious Lord will use you in spite of your mistakes if you will speak out for Him!

Discussion Questions

1. What are some ways to turn a conversation toward spiritual things?
2. What are your main fears about witnessing? How can these be overcome?
3. Why is it important for Christians to acknowledge their sins and ask forgiveness, even before unbelievers?
4. When is it right to stand up for our rights, and when should we back off?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2002, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

I. Introduction to Matthew

a.       This is actually a fun message to start with because when we read a genealogy our expectations are low.  But God’s Word is inspired and there is always food for the hungry.

i.  Ron Blankley a former area director for Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) was walking through the student union of the U of Penn and saw a student reading the Bible.  He remembered Phillip’s approach to the Ethiopian so he walked over to the student, introduced himself, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”

ii.                        The student said, “No, as a matter of fact, I don’t.  I’m reading the genealogies of Matthew and Luke, and I don’t understand them because they seem so different.”

iii.                      Blankley explained it and as a result of that whole experience, the student came to saving faith in Christ.

iv.                      It’s like the down and out man who was without a home and without a job and found himself in a motel room.  He found a Gideon’s Bible, looked in the introduction and contents and saw the book of Job.  He thought to himself, “Well, I need a job, so he read Job, and ended up trusting Christ.”

v.                         The Word of God is inspired.  All of it.

b.      Author and date:

i.  When Jesus was born Israel had been under Roman control for about 60 years.

1.      Remember Nebuchadnezzar’s dream?

a.       The head of gold- Babylon

b.      The arms of silver- Medes and Persians

c.       The torso of bronze- Greece

d.      The legs of Iron- Rome.

ii.                        One of the black eyes of the Roman government was its heavy taxation.

iii.                      There were two main taxes:

1.      Toll tax= which was basically like income tax.

2.      Property Tax.

iv.                      The elite (senators and rich folks) could buy at a public auction, the right to collect the toll taxes in a given area, at a fixed rate for a five year period.

v.                         Whatever was collected beyond that fixed rate was profit.

vi.                      So if you held the rights to a specific area, you would then hire people to actually collect the money.  And you would usually hire people citizens of that country or regions to collect the money.

vii.                    And any money they collected, above and beyond their requirement, was profit for them.

viii.                  So there was a HUGE incentive to tax as much as possible, AND you had the backing of the Roman government and the Roman army.

ix.                      So naturally, if you are a Jew collecting money for Rome, at a rate that handsomely pads your wallet, you are not going to win the popularity contest at the local synagogue.

x.                         Usually tax collectors were not allowed in the synagogue.  Rabbis did not associate with them.

xi.                      In fact they were seen as traitors.  They were on the same level as prostitutes and Gentiles.

xii.                    That’s Matthew.  Or Levi as he is called else ware.  He is a tax collector and Jesus calls Him to be one of his 12 disciples.

xiii.                  Matthew’s gospel was written sometime before Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD.

c.       Why did we choose Matthew?

i.  One of the major themes of Matthew of the Kingdom of God, or “The Kingdom of Heaven” as Matthew calls it.

ii.                        We just finished Daniel, which makes a case for the coming kingdom of God, and Matthew picks this theme up.

iii.                      It’s almost like Daniel Part 2.

iv.                      In fact, Matthew is the most Jewish book in the New Testament.  He quotes the Old Testament more than any other gospel.  It is a continuation of the Old Testament.

d.      The Four Gospels all tell the same story in a different way:

i.  Mark is a bird’s-eye view.  It shows Jesus as the Suffering Servant.

ii.                        Luke is a Doctor and shows Jesus as being compassionate to the outsiders and outcasts.

iii.                      John is different.  92% of John is unique. Emphasizes that Jesus as the Son of God.

iv.                      Matthew is catered to the Jews.  He makes a case that Jesus is the Promised Messiah, the King.  He is the fulfillment of the OT.  Almost every paragraph in Matthew points to His Kingship.

v.                         So this is how Matthew starts off.  He starts off with a genealogy!

vi.                      Now at first this might sound like a great way to put people to sleep, but it’s actually fundamental.  Because if Jesus is NOT the fulfillment of God’s covenant to Abraham and David, then this isn’t the right person.

e.       The main point of this genealogy is this:

i.  Jesus Christ is the Promised Messiah.  The Promised King.

II.                      Matthew 1:1-18 (Four Highlights)

a.      #1- Jesus is the Promised King.

i.  The main point of these 17 verses is that the promised King is on the scene.

ii.                        So Matthew begins his book with a genealogy.

1.      Genealogy lit. mean “genesis” or beginning or origin.

2.      So this account is about the earthly origin of Jesus.

3.      The first two chapters will give us the earthly origin of Jesus.

iii.                      The importance of ancestry and origin.

1.      Let me ask a question, “How far can you trace your ancestry?”

a.       Most people can only go back grandma and grandpa or great grandma and great grandpa.

b.      Even if we are interested in genealogies, we still can’t go back more than three or four generations.

c.       But family history is important.

2.      This summer we had our grand finale Anderson Family reunion at our farm in MN.

a.       The oldest member of the family, uncle Tom gave a nice report and told the story of our ancestors immigrating, starting farms, settling down in Wisconsin, then MN.

b.      Very interesting.

c.       I grew up in a culture that was naturally interested in heritage.

i.  There were small towns that were predominantly Norwegian, or German, or Polish.  Almost all 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants.

ii.                        So there was cultural interest in last names and family trees.

3.      Moving in to college here in CO, and my roommates last name was Westerhoof.

a.       I asked if he was German, and he looked at be totally befuddled.

b.      He had no idea.

c.       I had another friend at college and she was Jewish.  Her name was Edith Zang, and she could tell you all about her heritage.

4.      If you understand where a person comes from, you understand more about the person.

5.      Family Trees are important, but they are REALLY important if you are royalty.

6.      So keep in mind that we are not the audience, first-century Jews are the audience, and they cared a great deal about their family history.

iv.                      Genealogies were really important to Jews. 

1.      The Jews are and were notorious for keeping accurate genealogies.

2.      The temple had an archive of ancestry that was meticulously documented.

3.      There were practical and legal purposes to these genealogies.

a.       For instance…

b.      It was legal proof of inheritance, of rights, kingship, etc.

c.       It was used to settle disputes over land, property, etc.

4.      So Matthew is basically making a legal case for Jesus.

5.      He is saying, “look at the records…go to the temple…read it yourself…this is public information…this is not a scam…reason with me…”

v.                         “of Jesus Christ”

1.      Jesus was the name given to Joseph by the angel.

2.      Jesus meant “He will save His people from their sins”

a.       Mat. 1:21

b.      Yeshua was a common name, but there is more to it.

c.       This name was synonymous with Joshua who led the people to the Promised Land.

d.      So this name indicates the type of person Jesus will be.  He will save His people, like Joshua did.

3.      “Christos”

a.       Meant messiah, or the “anointed one.”

b.      Israel’s prophets, priests, and kings were all anointed.

c.       Jesus is all of those.

vi.                      “The son of David”

1.      2 Sam. 7:12-16, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever…16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”

2.      This promises was NOT fulfilled on Solomon.

3.      The Jews hung on to this promise, this covenant!

vii.                    “The son of Abraham”

1.      Abraham was a moon worshiping pagan just like everyone else, when God called him out of UR, and made a covenant with him.

2.      God made a covenant with Abraham and told him that through Abraham’s line the entire world would be blessed.  So it makes sense that Matthew mentions this.  To NOT mention it would almost seem like a denial of the main theme of the Old Testament.

3.      These words are a summary of the Old Testament.

4.      What Matthew is saying is that if you don’t understand and appreciate the background of Jesus, you won’t understand and appreciate the person of Jesus.

5.      The long-awaited, promised Messiah, the restorer of God’s kingdom and the redeemer of his people, is Jesus himself. This is Matthew’s central message, his purpose for writing his book.

6.      The Old Testament culminates with Jesus!

a.       World History is marked by the coming of Jesus.

b.      The whole of the Old Testament is coming together at this point in time.

c.       The whole Old Testament points to Jesus!

7.      Both Abraham and David received covenantal promises from God.

8.      Matthew is implying that these covenants find their fulfillment in Jesus, the new King of Israel who will extend these blessings to all nations.

9.      So when Matthew starts off with Abraham and David, he is essentially saying that God has remained faithful even though they haven’t.

viii.                  Matthew’s first point is that Jesus is the theme of this book.  Jesus is the Promised King. Jesus is essential.

1.      You can take away Buddha and you still have Buddhism.

2.      But you can’t take away Jesus and have Christianity.

3.      He is essential!

4.      Jesus is essential to forgiveness of sins, essential to our reconciliation to God, essential to our Eternal Life.  Essential to Joy.

5.      This is why Matthew starts off his gospel by saying this book is about Jesus Christ.

6.      Abraham was a great Patriarch, David was a great King, but this book isn’t about them, this book is about Jesus.

b.      #2- There are three sections of 14 generations.

i.  Why three sections? (v. 17)

1.      The three sections:

a.       14 generations from Abe to David (1:2-6a).

b.      14 generations from David to the exile (1:6b-11).

c.       14 generations from the exile to Jesus (1:12-16).

ii.                        Why does he do this?

1.      For memorization.

a.       Believe it or not, it was not uncommon to memorize genealogies.

b.      It’s not a complete list, but it serves Matthew’s purpose.

2.      For Kingly significance.

a.       There was a Jewish practice of assigning significance to numbers.

i.  It was called “gematria.”

b.      Each Hebrew consonant had a number assigned to it. 

i.  DVD= 4+6+4

c.       So the name David would correspond to the number 14 in Hebrew.

d.      So by alluding to the number 14 three different times, the interested student would have no doubt been pointed to the fact that this Jesus is the Son of David, the Promised One.

e.       It’s also deliberate that David’s name is the 14th name listed.

f.        And David is referred to as the “King.”

g.      And, the title “Son of David” occurs more in Matthew than anywhere else.

h.      Clearly there is a special emphasis on the fact that Jesus is King.

iii.                      Summary:

1.      Jesus is the son of David.  If Jesus were to wear a jersey, His Jersey would have the number 14.

c.       #3- There is a difference between Luke’s genealogy and Matthew’s genealogy.

i.  Lots could be said about this, and I cannot answer all of the questions between the differences between the two genealogies, but let me propose this…

ii.                        Matthew’s genealogy highlights Jesus as the King by showing his legal descent from David to Joseph.  Joseph is the legal father, but not his natural father.

iii.                      Luke’s genealogy traces Jesus royal decent through his mother, Mary.  He traces it all the way back to David.

iv.                      Luke emphasizes the royal blood descent, and Matthew emphasizes the legal line.

v.                         In both cases, Jesus is doubly qualified to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament Covenants and Promises.

vi.                      One interesting fact:

1.      Notice in verse 16 Joseph is not the father, but is referred to as the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.

2.      The virgin birth of Jesus was significant for a number of reasons, but one of them is that Jesus would have been disqualified if He was born of Joseph, his earthly, legal father.

3.      One of the great grandfathers, Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) was a really wicked king and God said, “

a.       Jer. 22:30, Thus says the Lord: “…for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”

4.      That would have disqualified Jesus as being a possibility of the promised King if he were the natural biological son of Joseph who was a great, great….grandson of Jehoiachin.

vii.                    So Jesus is circumvented from being disqualified as the King.  He does not come from the same blood line.

viii.                  His human, biological right to the throne comes through Mary, not Joseph. (Luke 3)

ix.                      So Jesus is both protected from being disqualified, but he is also uniquely qualified to be the promised King.

1.      He is legally qualified through Joseph and he is regally qualified through Mary.

d.      #4- Jesus is a friend of sinners.

i.  Martin Luther summarized it well when he said, “Christ is the kind of person who is not ashamed of sinners—in fact, he even puts them in his family tree!”

ii.                        Why does Matthew highlight the skeletons in the royal closet?

1.      Because Jesus is a friend of sinners?

2.      You might be tempted to say, “If God knows the skeletons in my closet, he won’t want anything to do with me.”

3.      Matthew is deliberately making the point that that is not true!

iii.                      The significance of women in the genealogy:

1.      It’s worth noting that Matthew mentions five different women in this list (which was rare).

2.      Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba were all women of questionable behavior.

a.       Odd people to highlight in your family tree, for sure.

b.      Tamar was a woman who was wrongfully denied motherhood by her husband and after he died, then her brother-in-law.  They both refused to sleep with her, which was immoral and illegal.  She disguises herself as a prostitute and ends up sleeping with Judah, the son of Jacob…

i.  And this is Jesus’ family tree!

c.       Rahab was a professional prostitute in Jericho.  She’s a Gentile.

d.      Bathsheba, was complicit in one of the most notorious adulteries of all time, not resisting the advances of the king while her husband risked his very life on their behalf. Hmmm.

e.       Ruth is a godly woman, but she is a Moabite.

3.      Interestingly, these women mentioned represent different time-periods in Jewish history where a Gentile displayed great faith when the Jews didn’t.

a.       Tamar verses Judah’s disloyalty.

b.      Rahab verses a faithless generation of Jews.

c.       Ruth verses the period of the Judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

d.      Uriah’s (a Gentile Hittite) faithfulness even when David was unfaithful.

iv.                      So it’s probable that Matthew is doing a couple things here.

1.      He is showing us that the grace of God is wide.

a.       Jesus is a friend of sinners.

b.      His grace condescends to the lowest.

c.       His grace reaches to the Gentiles.

d.      He is suitable to be a King of Gentiles as well as a King of Jews.

2.      There is no pattern of righteousness in the line of Jesus.

a.       There are adulterers, prostitutes, warriors, heroes, and Gentiles.  Wicked kings and good kings.

v.                         So that’s the gospel of According to Matthew!  Jesus came for sinners!

1.      Pastor Matt Chandler writes about a time he and a couple of his friends invited a young woman named Kim to a gospel concert. Matt was hopeful that Kim would come to Christ that evening; however, what occurred was a "train wreck." In retrospect, Matt was grateful for the experience because it changed the way he saw how to proclaim holiness in light of the cross of Jesus. Chandler writes:

a.       The preacher took the stage, and disaster ensued …. He gave a lot of statistics about STDs. There was a lot of, "You don't want syphilis, do you?" …. His big illustration was to take out a single red rose. He smelled the rose dramatically … caressed its petals, and talked about how beautiful this rose was and how it had been fresh cut that day. [Then] he threw the rose out into the crowd, and he encouraged everyone to pass it around. As he neared the end of his message, he asked for the rose back …. [But by now] it was broken and drooping, and the petals were falling off. He held up this now-ugly rose for all to see, and his big finish was this: "Now who in the world would want this?" His word and his tone were merciless. His essential message, which was supposed to represent Jesus' message to a world of sinners, was this: "Hey, don't be a dirty rose."

b.      Matt didn't hear from Kim for a few weeks, until one day her mother called Matt to inform him that Kim had been in an accident. Matt immediately went to visit her.

c.       In the middle of our conversation, seemingly out of nowhere, she asked me, "Do you think I'm a dirty rose?" My heart sank inside of me, and I began to explain to her the whole weight of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Jesus wants the rose.

d.      It's Jesus' desire to save, redeem, and restore the dirty rose.

e.       He WANTS the ROSE!

vi.                      In Luke’s gospel there was a sign given to the shepherd’s…

1.      2:10, “And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’”

vii.                    The sign will be a “baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a feeding trough.”

1.      He enters the world with the lowliest in the lowliest of places:

a.       This was spoken to the shepherd’s.

b.      God has been incarnated into human flesh and He chooses to identify with the shepherd’s.

c.       Think about it, His first residence is a feeding trough rapped in rags.

2.      Jesus enters into the dirt!  He makes his family tree a group of questionable riff-raffs.

viii.                  The Incarnation of Jesus into this world is a message that Jesus is not afraid of sin.

1.      He enters our dirty hearts.

2.      He is drawn to your inadequacies, and weaknesses, and sins.

3.      He wraps himself up in swaddling cloths our wicked hearts and takes up residence there.

4.      He enters the dirty mangers of our hearts.

ix.                      It is a holy invasion!

1.      He doesn’t ask you to clean up first.

2.      He’s not put off by us and our sin, rather He enters into it!

3.      He’s isn’t put off by our dysfunctional families, He becomes part of it!

4.      He seeks us out.  He comes to us.

5.      He becomes part of our family, that we might become part of His!

x.                         Jesus is for all people and He came to rescue us!

1.      “He did not sit in heaven pitying us from a distance: He did not stand upon the shore and see the wreck, and behold poor drowning sinners struggling in vain to get to shore. He plunged into the waters Himself: He came off to the wreck and took part with us in our weakness and infirmity becoming a man to save our souls.  As man, He bore our sins and carried our transgressions; as man, He endured all that men can endure, and went through everything in man’s experience; as man He lived; as man He went to the cross; as man He died. As man He shed His blood, in order that He might save us, poor shipwrecked sinners, and establish a communication between earth and heaven! As man He became a curse for us, in order that He might bridge the gulf, and make a way by which you and I might draw near to God with boldness, and have access to God without fear.” J.C. Ryle ‘Old Paths’

xi.                      Someone might ask the question, “How exactly is Jesus a friend of sinners?  How is for all people?”

1.      There is a clear link between this first verse of Matthew and the last section of Matthew, the Great Commission.

2.      In the very last section of the very last chapter in Matthew Jesus tells his disciples to make disciples of “all nations.”

a.       “All Nations” is comprehensive of Gentiles and Jews. 

i.  This picks up on the first verse of the book 1:1 “Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

ii.                        God promised Abraham that the people would be blessed in his “seed.”  Jesus now fulfills this.

iii.                      This is how all nations will be blessed through the Abrahamic Covenant.

iv.                      The Bible is coming together in this passage.

III.                   Application (What are some take-aways from this?)

a.       What’s your Legacy?

i.  There are 42 names listed.  The list is not complete, but it’s full of all kinds.

ii.                        Some of these people we know very little about, and some of them we know nothing about.

iii.                      It brings up the question (even if it’s not the main point) of legacy and generations.

iv.                      It’s at least worth asking, “How will you be remembered?”  “What are you living for?

1.      John MacArthur’s father (Jack) died about five years ago and John pointed out, with great emotion… “Never a sexual scandal, never a financial scandal.  Just faithfulness and integrity to God’s Word and God’s people.”

2.      Don Carson wrote a biography on his father entitled, “Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor.”  In the final pages of the book Don says this about his father who was a pastor all his life.  He pastored small struggling churches of about 40-50 people in Canada.

a.       “When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcement on television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation.  In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside.  There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again…But on the other side all the trumpets sounded.  Dad won entrance to the only throne room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man—he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor—but because he was a forgiven man.  And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.’”

3.      It’s okay to be obscure by the way!  But what is your legacy?

v.                         Sarah Edwards (Married to Jonathon Edwards, the Great American Preacher and Theologian)  Sarah was quite a woman.

1.      Beginning on August 25, 1728, children came into the family—eleven in all—at about two-year intervals, this was the beginning of Sarah’s motherhood.

2.      In 1900, A. E. Winship made a study contrasting two families. One had hundreds of descendants who were a drain on society. The other, descendants of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, were outstanding for their contributions to society. He wrote of the Edwards clan:

a.       Whatever the family has done, it has done ably and nobly. . . . And much of the capacity and talent, intelligence and character of the more than 1400 of the Edwards family is due to Mrs. Edwards.

3.      By 1900 when Winship made his study, this marriage had produced:

a.       13 college presidents

b.      65 professors

c.       100 lawyers and a dean of a law school

d.      30 judges

e.       66 physicians and a dean of a medical school

f.        80 holders of public office, including:

i.  3 US senators

ii.                        mayors of 3 large cities

iii.                      governors of 3 states

iv.                      a vice president of the US

v.                         a controller of the US Treasury

4.      Members of the family wrote 135 books. . . . edited 18 journals and periodicals. They entered the ministry in platoons and sent one hundred missionaries overseas.  Winship goes on to list kinds of institutions, industries, and businesses that have been owned or directed by the Edwardses’ descendants.

5.      We might well ask with Elisabeth Dodds, “Has any other mother contributed more vitally to the leadership of a nation?”

vi.                      The book “Embracing Obscurity.” (written by “anonymous”)

1.      “The thought of being just another of the roughly one hundred billion people to have ever graced this planet offends us— whether we realize it or not.”

a.       Webster’s defines obscurity as, “relatively unknown: as . . . (b) not prominent or famous.”

b.      That pretty much sums it up doesn’t it?

2.      “Even those rare men and women who make a mark on our society— a passionate speaker, a star athlete, an active politician, a gifted musician, an empathetic humanitarian— they’re still “relatively unknown” in the grand scope of the world’s consciousness and especially in light of history.”

3.      Even when an overarching, global obscurity has been assigned to us, we still have a choice of whether to embrace personal obscurity— an obscurity of heart as much as position. And that is the message I believe God has for us, a message He modeled as well as taught.”

vii.                    It’s okay to be obscure.  In fact it’s good to embrace it.  Jesus did.  But what is your legacy?

1.      How will you spend your time and your life?  To what end?

b.      Let us worship the King!

i.  We will together spend the next year and a half beholding Jesus.  And I invite you to “Come and let us adore Him!  Come let us worship the King!”

ii.                        We are not a religion that primarily follows a code of ethics.

iii.                      We are not primarily a people committed to a specific philosophy.

iv.                      We are a people who follow, obey, worship, and enjoy a person.  The King Jesus Christ.

v.                         So let’s get back to basics.  Let’s get back to the simplicity of knowing, following, obeying, worshiping, and enjoying Jesus Christ.

vi.                      Become fascinated with Jesus!

vii.                    He is the fountain of everything good.

viii.                  He is the incarnation of every precious truth.

ix.                      Come and behold Him!

1.      May your capacity to appreciate and enjoy Christ only increase.

2.      May your fondness for Jesus Christ grow and increase.

3.      Let us enjoy and appreciate Jesus!

4.      “What makes one man more spiritual than another…appreciation for Christ.”  William Kelly

x.                         Lloyd-Jones and the “paying the bill” illustration.

1.      “Imagine that a friend of mine comes to see me and says, “Hey, I was at your house the other day, and a bill came due, and you weren’t there, so I paid it.”

2.      How should I respond?  The answer is that I have no idea how to respond until I know how big that bill was.  Was it just postage due?  Just a few cents.  Then I would say thank you.  But what if the IRS finally found you?  What it was ten years of back taxes?  What if it was an enormous debt?  Until I know how much he paid, I don’t know whether to shake his hand or fall down on the ground and kiss his feet.”

c.       Let’s re-commit ourselves to conforming ourselves to Jesus.

i.  He is the King!

ii.                        If He were to walk down this aisle right now would we all fall down and pay homage?

iii.                      If He were to stand before us this morning, we would all pledge our lives to Him?

iv.                      We are about to spend over the next year with Jesus.

v.                         We will listen to what He taught.

vi.                      We will learn what he did.

vii.                    We will be challenged and confronted by Jesus, loved and accepted by Jesus.

viii.                  At the beginning of this study Matthew wants us to know that this is the Son of David, the King!  The Lord!

ix.                      And people will respond to Him in different ways…(The four soils)

1.      Some will respond to this Gospel at first with excitement and anticipation, but then fizzle out.

2.      Some people will respond with excitement, but then be lulled away by drink, by money, and by pleasure.

3.      Some people will outright reject it.

4.      But a few will here this gospel of the kingdom, and respond, and bear fruit, and their lives will be totally different.

5.      He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

d.      You can be a part of Christ’s inheritance!

i.  The genealogy doesn’t end with Jesus…

1.      You can be a child of God.

2.      John 1:11-13, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

3.      Mat. 12:49-50, “And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

ii.                        No matter what your background is, no matter what your pedigree is, no matter what your last name is, you can be counted as one of God’s children.

IV.                    The Gospel.

a.       Come talk to us about the gospel.