The Word Made Plain

Guest (Female): Welcome to the Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 14, verses 21 through 22.

Tony Clark: All right, let’s dive into the word of God together. Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 14. We’re going to be looking at verses 21 and 22. Father, we are so grateful that you have brought us to the table of your word to feast upon it. Lord, I pray that we came here with an appetite for the word of God.

Lord, we pray that your spirit would teach us and reveal to us the truths of our own hearts through your word, that the word will act as a mirror to show us who we are in spirit and in truth. So God, we pray, teach us this morning in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Acts 14, looking at verses 21 and 22. The title of this message is "Deliver Us from Evil." Now, this is a common phrase that all of us who are believers have prayed to the Lord when we find ourselves surrounded by evil things or evil people. It is even in the disciples' prayer that we commonly call the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew chapter 6, verse 13, which says, "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil or the evil one." So what are some ways that God delivers us? This is the subject of these verses.

Now by way of background, the last time we were together, we saw how the unbelieving Jews from the cities of Antioch and Iconium came to Lystra and persuaded the multitudes to stone Paul. After dragging him out of the city in verse 19, supposing him to be dead, the believers gathered around him in verse 20, and he rose up and went back into the city. So the next day, Paul and Barnabas departed and came to the city of Derbe. The end of verse 20 says it was a 40-mile journey. What happened next? Look at verses 21 and 22.

"And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, 'We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.'" As Paul and Barnabas were wrapping up a year-long missionary journey that started in chapter 13, they doubled back on their return trip home, no doubt to follow up on the new believers in these particular cities to see how they were doing.

May I pause right here? Because I have to ask you this heart-searching question: How are you doing spiritually? Paul and Barnabas doubled back to see how these new believers were doing. How are you doing today? In your walk with the Lord, in your relationship with God, how are you doing? What would you say how you’re doing in your walk with God? Do you have a Paul and a Barnabas to check up on you to see how you’re doing spiritually?

I’m not saying a neighbor that hasn’t seen you cut the grass in a while and they come over, "Hey, you okay over here? Just checking on you." No, I’m not talking about that. Do you have a Paul and Barnabas that’s going to come to you to see how you’re doing spiritually, how you’re doing with your walk with God, to ask you some heart-penetrating questions about your relationship with God? Do you have those kind of people in your life?

Well, the areas of Lystra and Iconium and Antioch were cities that they wanted to go back to. And they wanted to go back for the purpose—and it tells us—strengthening the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith. The first thing they did was strengthen their faith. That implies that our faith needs to be strengthened. It implies that our faith can grow weak, and it needs to be strengthened. The Greek word for strengthening is *epistērizō*, and it means just what it says: to make a believer’s faith strong or stronger.

Luke uses this elsewhere in reference to strengthening believers. We see this in Acts 15 and verse 32. We see it again in verse 41 of chapter 15. We see it in chapter 18, verse 23. Now, the strengthening of our faith is done by the word of God. This is my heart’s desire: to take the word of God and strengthen your faith by feeding you the only food that can strengthen your faith, which is the word of God.

Teaching it to you from Genesis to Revelation, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and book by book. Even Acts 20 and verse 32 says, "So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified." The word of God strengthens and builds us up in our Christian faith.

So not only did they use the word of God to strengthen their faith, but they also exhorted them to continue in the faith. That implies that sometimes we want to quit. Sometimes we want to stop following God. Sometimes we just don’t want to continue to press into the presence of God, the things of God. So they exhorted them to continue in the faith.

Why? Because these new-found believers would find themselves in the heat of tribulations and trials and difficulties. Satan will whisper in their ears and say, "You know what? Before you committed your life to Christ, things were a lot smoother. Why don’t you get out of this thing? Kick this Christian thing to the curb and get back to life and living." Satan still whispers those types of things to people today.

So here they are, not only strengthening their faith but exhorting them to continue in the faith. The Greek word for exhorting is *parakaleō*, and it means to come alongside, to encourage, to exhort, to comfort. This is what Paul and Barnabas came back to do for these new believers. The first part of their exhorting was to encourage them to continue in the faith. Perseverance is a characteristic of true saving faith.

Why is it so important? Because they told these new believers—don’t miss this at the end of verse 22—"We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God." Paul and Barnabas taught these new believers the truth about Christianity. Because we enter the kingdom of God through tribulation. Paul said "we," he included himself, "must go through many tribulations."

He didn’t teach them the American Christianity of health and wealth prosperity gospel that says that it is not God’s will that we go through tough times or tribulations. This is not what Paul and Barnabas taught them. They said, "We must." The word "must" means of absolute necessity. We must through many tribulations, not just a few, enter the kingdom of God. Meaning that before it’s all said and done with us here on this earth, we’re going to go through some things.

Now, what are some of the tribulations we must go through? It is helpful for us to know when we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior that we have enlisted into the army of God, and we are now in wartime situations at all times. Many of you who served in the military or are serving understand wartime situations. I got out just before Desert Storm, Desert Shield hit, so I was doing peace times.

Many of you have been in the midst of wartime situations. But when you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, you enlist in God’s army, and you’re in wartime situations at all times. It’s not like, "Well, we’re in some peace time right now." No, at all times. Second Corinthians 2:11 says, "Lest Satan should take advantage of you, because we’re not ignorant of his devices." The word "devices" can be translated as we’re not ignorant of his schemes or his tricks.

In other words, if we are ignorant of his tricks, he can take advantage of us. So the first thing we must understand is what Ephesians 6:12 says. It says, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against a spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places." I mean, when I read this last service, I’ve of course read it a zillion times, but that just sounds pretty dark and wicked.

Just think about it. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against a spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places. That’s pretty dark. This is who we’re fighting against. We must understand that our battle is against unforeseen forces that use—don’t miss this—flesh and blood, or people, to accomplish their plan.

What is the plan? Which is to try to undo everything God is trying to do in this world. So your battle is not against your spouse. That’s flesh and blood. It’s not against your teenager, your coworker, your toddler—nothing a belt can’t fix, but that’s another sermon—or your neighbor. Your battle is against Satan and his highly organized spiritual army that is using your spouse, your neighbor, your boss, your toddler, or your friend to try to undo everything God is trying to do to strengthen you in your faith.

And if you’re ignorant of this truth, Satan will take advantage of you. He will take advantage of your ignorance. Even though Satan is trying to use these people to destroy you, God will use these same people and these same tribulations to build godly character in your life. He will use these same people that Satan is using to destroy you. God will build patience in you, kindness, love, long-suffering, gentleness, and other beautiful qualities that Galatians 5:22 and 23 talks about.

Why would God do that? Because Romans 8:28 says all things work together for good to them who love God and to them who are the called according to his purpose. See, God will take what Satan meant for evil and turn good out of it. So Paul and Barnabas taught them, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."

There’s something else I would like to draw to your attention, and that is in Second Timothy 3 and verse 11. Paul mentions the cities of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, and how much he suffered and was persecuted in those cities. In Antioch, he was ran out of the city. In Iconium, they barely escaped. In Lystra, he was stoned. But Second Timothy 3 and verse 11 goes on to say, "The Lord delivered him out of them all."

And in each case, the Lord delivered him in a different way. Watch this. In Antioch, he was kicked out. In Iconium, he heard about a plot to kill him and he left out of there. In Lystra, he was left for dead. I point all of this out because we have a tendency to think of deliverance only in one way, and that is out of our situation. Just like what Paul—God will deliver us out of all of our tribulations.

Second Corinthians 1:10 says, "who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us, in whom we trust that he will still deliver us." God has delivered us, he is delivering us from something now, and he will deliver us in the future. However, God will not be boxed in by our methods and our ways. Yes, God may deliver you by taking you out of a job. You might get fired.

Did you ever think about that could be deliverance? No, you haven’t thought of that. That’s a new thought for you. God may take you out of a bad situation, but have you ever thought that God may deliver you by taking you through? You may have to go through the fire. Oh, just ask Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. You say, "Who are they? They live down the street?" No, you know them by their Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

In Daniel chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar builds this statue of himself, 60 feet tall. Why would he do that? In the previous chapter, he had a dream that no one could interpret. And so Daniel came in and told him, "Hey, Nebuchadnezzar, God is the one who answers dreams. I got your dream." He said, "You’re the head of gold, and after you will come the Medes and the Persians, the chest and arms of silver. Then after that, this kingdom will come in," and he just began to describe this statue.

Nebuchadnezzar thought about it, "I’m the head of gold and my kingdom gonna be defeated? Let me fix this." He builds a statue of all gold, saying, "My kingdom never gonna end. And on top of that, when I strike up the music, all of y’all gonna bow down to this statue." Some of y’all still bowing down to music, aren’t you? When the music starts, you bow down to your rock idols, your musical idols.

Oh, I’ll leave that alone. Why do you think the hardest thing to fight with your teenagers is over music? Because there’s a demonic spirit behind it. They will be obedient to almost everything. But you mention music, oh, it’s a fight. It’s time for an MMA fight. If that was tried in my home, I was gonna win every time, I’m gonna let you know that. But that’s why there’s a fight, because there’s a demonic spirit behind the music industry that you know nothing about.

That’s why in your Christian walk, many of you can’t shake this thing called music, and you wonder why. Satan is behind it. Satan used to lead the host of heaven in worship. Do you think when he fell, he lost his musical abilities? No. Ezekiel 28 talks about it in verses 13 through 16. Says his voice was like a pipe organ, hands like tambourines. He was a musical genius until sin was found in him.

And when he fell, he still knows how to play music. And that’s one way he gets the worship that he wants: by getting people to bow down when it comes to music. Oh, I didn’t say that first service; somebody needs to hear that in here today. And so here it is, this statue. Nebuchadnezzar said, "Hey, guess what? When the music starts up, one, two, three, hit it!" and everybody went down.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—everybody's bowing down, and you can just see them standing up. And they said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop the music! Stop the music! What’s up with you guys?" In Daniel 3, verses 16 through 18, they said, "We’re not bowing down to your statue and violate our walk with God and violate the second commandment, which says, 'Don’t make graven images of things in heaven above, on the earth, and under the earth to bow down and worship it.' We worship the true and living God; we’re not worshipping your statue."

Nebuchadnezzar said, "Whoa, maybe you didn’t hear. Maybe I don’t know you had earphones on or something, and buds in your ear, and you couldn’t hear the music that we were playing. I’m gonna give you another chance. One, two, three, hit it!" They said, "Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, oh no, it ain’t going down like that." "Heat that oven, heat that furnace seven times hotter. Seven times hotter. I’ll show you."

Said, "Take Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, tie them up, hands and feet, and toss them into the fire." Boom! They went in there. I’m sure he probably thought, "Teach you! Anybody else think they want to stand up? Anyone else?" And all of a sudden he said, "Didn’t we throw three of them in there? How is it that we see four? And the fourth one is like the Son of God."

And all of a sudden, he looks in there, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walking around in there with Jesus. And I want you to notice something. They were walking around. First, they went in bound, hand and foot. Now they’re walking around with Jesus. I don’t know about you; as soon as those ropes started burning, I would have ran out. They were walking around because it was better to be in the fire with Jesus than out of the fire where it was more comfortable.

It wasn’t until Nebuchadnezzar called them out, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, get out of there!" and they just came out. And all of a sudden, it said that the fire didn’t touch them, and they didn’t smell like smoke. Some of you go through the fire, you come out smelling like smoke. Mad. You allowed the fire to burn you instead of bless you, and you came out bitter and not better.

And then when people come around you, they’re like, "What’s that smell? You’ve been in the fire, haven’t you?" See, this is amazing here. Sometimes we have to be delivered by going through the fire. Why? Because fiery trials, they will do three things. Number one, fiery trials help us see Jesus in a more intimate way. See, they were in the fire walking around with Jesus. That was better.

They saw Jesus in a more intimate, personal way by being in the fire with him. The Lord has promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," especially when you’re in the fire. We also see, number two, fiery trials will free us up from those things that are binding us up. Fiery trials have a way of setting us free. You remember they went in the fire bound, hand and foot with ropes.

And they came out set free from those ropes. Fiery trials have a way of freeing us from those things and people that are seeking to bind us up. Number three, fiery trials will cause the Nebuchadnezzars, the skeptics around us, to believe in our God. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire, Nebuchadnezzar was so blown away that he bowed down and accepted the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

There are Nebuchadnezzars all around us, skeptics, skeptics of Christianity, of the Bible, of our relationship with God. And you have all this advice for them when they’re going through tough times and difficulties. But they want to see what’s going to happen when you go through the fire. And then when you come out of the fire not even smelling like smoke, they too will bow down and accept your God.

Because they can see that your relationship is real. It goes beyond just talk. See, because we got a whole lot of great scriptures we’re quoting to people when they’re going through tough times. "Oh, just look to the Lord, oh, he will never leave you nor forsake." Okay, that’s fine; that’s great; you can quote that. But I want to see you quote that to yourself when you’re in the midst of the fire. Can you still quote those verses?

See, that’s what the Nebuchadnezzars are waiting for. They’re waiting on you to come out of the fire so they can look at you, so they can smell you and see if you smell like smoke. And they want to see: Did the fire burn you, or did it bless you? Are you going to come out better, or are you going to come out bitter? Talking about, "Well, if I was God, I wouldn’t put my children through that kind of stuff," implying that you’re better than God.

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