The Word Made Plain

Announcer: 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 Bible to Acts Chapter 21, verses 7 through 9. Let's dive into the Word of God together.

Tony Clark: Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts Chapter 21 as we continue our verse-by-verse study of the Word of God. We're going to be looking at verses 7 through 9. As you know, either by Facebook Live or some kind of way, Wednesdays we're going still to make our way through 1 Samuel. We're going to go through that Word because if there is nothing that we need more at this time, it is the Word of God to help guide us, navigate through everything that's going on.

We need God's Word to do that in our lives. Father, thank You so much that You didn't leave us to figure it out on our own, but You've given us Your Word. Thank You for Your precious Word. Thank You for all that You have done for us and all that You're doing by giving us Your Word. So Lord, give us ears to hear it today. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Acts Chapter 21, looking at verses 7 through 9. The title of this message is Focus on the Family Part 2. In Part 1 of this study, we saw how the men from the city of Tyre in verse 6 brought their wives and children to go see and hear the great Apostle Paul. In other words, they didn't leave them at home playing video games and on social media.

We also saw how they knelt down on the beach and prayed as they would see the face of Paul no more. This was a huge testimony to the fishermen and the people of Tyre. So what happened next? Look at verses 7 through 9. It says, "And when we had finished our voyage from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, greeted the brethren, and stayed with them one day. On the next day, we who were Paul's companions departed and came to Caesarea and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. Now, this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied."

In these verses, we see that they finished their time in the city of Tyre in verse 7. They traveled 25 miles south to the city of Ptolemais, and Paul didn't waste any time there. He finds some disciples and greeted them and only stayed a day with them. They continued to sail along the coast and travel 40 miles south and came to the city of Caesarea. Caesarea was a beautiful beach city on the coast of northern Israel on the Mediterranean Sea.

According to verse 8, Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven men chosen in Acts Chapter 6 to serve tables, was living there. This is a beautiful example of what Jesus taught in Luke 16:10, which says, "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much." Philip was faithful in serving tables in Acts Chapter 6, 20 years earlier, and God made him an evangelist in Acts Chapter 8, verses 26 to 40, in which he shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the Ethiopian eunuch.

I just wonder, have you shared the Gospel with the Ethiopian eunuchs in your life? Because God has placed these types of people all around us. There are Ethiopian eunuchs, people who are wondering about the Bible, people who have questions about the Bible and that sort of thing. Have you shared the Gospel with them yet? This is what Philip did. I've seen this in my own life, being faithful in what is little and God gives you more.

I've seen it in my own life when God saw that I was faithful to the few people in my living room, He blessed us with more. Then we moved to my two-car garage. I thought we were doing something then. Then God continued to bless over the next 25-26 years. God blesses and He rewards faithfulness. It's not on the screen for you note-takers. 1 Corinthians 4:2 says it is required of stewards that one be found faithful.

The question is, are you faithful with the family He has given you? Faithful to have some type of time of prayer, some type of time of Bible reading with them. God will never give us more if we can't be faithful in what He has already given us. Even in the qualifications of a pastor in 1 Timothy 3, verses 4 and 5, it's not on the screen, it says that if a man can't rule his own house, how will he be able to take care of the house of God?

In other words, a pastor must be a pastor at home first before he ever tries to be a pastor at church. So here is Paul stopping at Caesarea to hang out with Philip and his family. Philip was very hospitable because the end of verse 8 said that they entered the house of Philip and stayed with him. You say, okay, so what's the big deal about that? They just went to a man's house and stayed with him for a few days.

What's the big deal about that? I'm going to tell you what the big deal about that is. Twenty years earlier, Philip had a really good friend by the name of Stephen. They both were part of the original seven deacons referred to in Acts 6, verse 8. Stephen was stoned to death because of his faith in Jesus. After this persecution against Christians broke out, it caused the believers to be scattered everywhere.

But who was the ringleader behind the stoning of Stephen? Who was the one who voted to get rid of all the Christians? Who was the one holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen? It was Paul. Paul was the real one behind the death of Stephen. Paul was the one who caused the persecution of the church which drove Philip from Jerusalem to the city of Caesarea where he is living now.

And now, it is a changed Paul knocking on Philip's door. And because they stayed many days with him shows us that Philip buried the past and put it behind him. Have you buried the past? Have you put it behind you? What a Paul did to you or to a close friend of yours. You say, yes, I put it behind me. You say that sitting here, but what if this week they come knocking on your door asking to stay a while with you like Paul did here?

That person or relative who wronged you 20 years ago, are they still not allowed in your home? Or maybe it wasn't 20 years ago. Maybe it was 20 days ago. Maybe it was 20 minutes ago. Either way, you have to put it behind you. You have to bury it like Philip did. There are people God is trying to bring into your life to be a blessing to you, but because of what someone has done to you, you have closed off people from getting close to you.

You have to put it behind you. God is speaking to some of you today. You got to get the shovel out and you have to bury it. Paul had to do this, and he tells the church in Philippi in Philippians 3, verse 13. He says, "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead." The Greek word for forgetting is a long Greek word that you won't be able to spell anyway. It means to overlook, it means to forget. It gives the idea of failing to take notice.

And this is what Philip is doing in these verses and what Paul had to do as well. Paul was saying, I am going to forget all of the terrible things people have done or thought about me in the past. I'm going to reach forward to those things which are ahead. In other words, Paul was saying, I will not allow what's behind to shackle or chain me to that past hurt. I'm not going to allow my past to hold me as a prisoner and keep me from reaching forward to that which God has for me.

Whether you believe it or not, there are many people who came in here with a ball and chain on their ankle. They're chained to the past hurt. They're chained to the past hurt people have done to them, to the past hurt of a relationship, to a past hurt someone did to them, and you came in dragging a ball and chain with a smile on your face as if you've got used to dragging it. And you have to bury the past. You got to bury that because it's keeping you from running the race God has for you.

Whatever that hurt is, Philip had to put it behind him to let Paul stay in his house. Paul had to put it behind him. Can you imagine the things folks were saying about Paul? Paul used to kill Christians. And we would say they're saying these things with justification. But Paul still said, I got to forget those things which are behind. This is why Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners. He said, I used to kill Christians and God showed me mercy.

Therefore, I'm going to be merciful toward all those who has something negative and evil to say about me. I got to bury that stuff. You will never be able to move forward to all that God has for you when you're still shackled to your past hurt. Whatever it is that someone has done to you, you'll never move forward. You'll be stuck. This is why I've seen many people, unfortunately, I've seen many young ladies who were molested and sexually abused growing up.

Whenever that started, whatever age that started, even though their age kept moving on with each birthday, they still acted in that way of the age that they were abused. I remember a girl that was 13 years old and she got abused, unfortunately got abused, and even though she was 18, she still was 13 mentally. Shackled to hurt, shackled to the past. It's a lot of unfortunate hurt that Jesus wants to set people free from. Life is just a big hurt, and we all will experience those things.

But if we want to move on, and many of you want to move on, I know you do, we got to allow Jesus to move us on. There's things we have to bury. We have to bury those things. And this is what Paul is saying that he had to do because it would keep us from reaching forward to those things God has for us. So here is Philip allowing Paul and his companions to stay in his house. In Acts 6, watch this progression, we see Philip as a devoted worker.

In Acts 8, we see him as a dynamic preacher in Samaria. And now we see him as a devoted father. Verse 9 says that he had four virgin daughters who prophesied. We don't see Philip's wife mentioned. Either she passed away or what was very common in this day, she left him when he converted to Christianity. This is very common around the world with more severe consequences. Those leaving Islam for Christianity are not only losing their families, but they also lose their lives.

So don't be shocked to see people break off relationships with you because of your new or your deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. As long as you're on the surface, you kind of casually come to church, kind of casually believe in God, they'll stay connected to you. You know why? Because you're still doing everything they're doing. But when the rubber meets the road, when you begin to get deeper in your walk with the Lord, when you begin to really begin to draw closer to the Lord and you begin to become like Jesus Christ, more and more like Him, then they're going to start breaking things off with you.

You've changed, you're different. I would hope so. I'm walking with Jesus now. I would hope I would look differently and act differently. I love it how verse 9 emphasizes the purity of his daughters. They were virgins. And this is huge because the city of Caesarea was a beach town and could care less about spiritual things. It was a wicked town. Yet in spite of all of this, Philip's daughters were singled out as being pure.

How we should be emphasizing this to our daughters and granddaughters, the importance and blessings of purity. The value of virginity, even among our boys too, with the myriad of porn sites available to them for free. All they have to do is type in just one word and then their eyes would have a smorgasbord of impurities. Philip was able to raise his daughters to be pure in a sinful culture by modeling purity in the home.

It's an old saying by John Maxwell, but it's so true. We teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are. And this is something that we must understand, showing us that we can do the same thing as well. We need to be known for our purity. But so often, when you have 68% of pastors hooked on pornography, can you imagine the numbers with those in the churches that they oversee? It's about 78% of men and I think it was about 28 to 30% of women hooked on pornography.

No wonder there's no revival in the church because there's no purity in the church. I just say, Lord help us. Satan has us right where he wants us, which is a lack of power. We just exist. He's okay with us just existing and make sure we stay on our four little walls and huddle and sing Kumbaya. He's okay with that. But as soon as we start getting serious about the Lord and going outside of these four walls, now he has problem.

We are told to be the salt of the earth and salt is no good if it stays in the salt shaker. For salt to be used, you got to shake it out the salt shaker. And sometimes God has to shake us through allowing persecution and things to shake us out of the salt shaker and be spread out around the world. This is what we're called to do. Philip was able to raise his daughters to be pure in a sinful culture. And they were known for their purity. Watch this.

What are you known for? What are your daughters known for? All you got to do is look on social media and their social media sources and you would see what they are known for. Philip had to teach his daughters. He had to in Proverbs 6 and verse 32 which says, "He who commits sexual immorality destroys his own soul." He had to teach this to his daughters. He had to teach them this. I'm amazed, and many parents and grandparents are amazed because I hear from my kids what's happening today in today's time and the different sites and things.

I'm old and I'm old school. So all I know is Facebook. I hear about Twitter, I don't have it. I hear about the Gram, see I'm getting there, the Gram, Instagram. I have an Instagram account, I don't know who set it up, but I have one and I think I've been there three times. But I'm hearing about all these sites. You can pay and have people pay you either a lump sum or a month. It's almost like a pay cam site, camcorder kind of thing. So it's crazy. Crazy stuff.

I'm hearing about this stuff and our society, our world is so impure. And the church is starting to reflect the world in every kind of way. No wonder the church is powerless. Philip had to teach them Proverbs 6:32, "He who commits sexual immorality destroys his own soul." Sexual intimacy between two married people is a beautiful blending together of one another's souls. And this is what Jesus meant in Matthew 19 and verse 5 when He said the two shall become one.

And children are the result of the blending together of one another. But when two people are not married, sexual intimacy has the opposite effect. Instead of blending of one, there's the destroying of two people. Two lives being torn apart. Let me give you an example of this. This is why the world, especially boys and young men in my day when I was growing up, we referred to sex as, "I got a piece of her."

Well, you sure did. Outside of marriage, a piece of one's soul is permanently removed with each sexual act. It's like an onion. If you keep peeling away layers, pretty soon there is nothing left. I believe that a lot of intimacy problems in marriages is because of this issue. People have been so destroyed by so many sexual relationships before marriage. Peeled away so much that now they are married, they have nothing left for their spouse.

This is just my humble opinion. But Proverbs 6, verse 32 seems to support what I'm saying. Souls are being destroyed with every sexual encounter. I'm hearing about young ladies boasting of having sex with over a hundred different boys. I can't imagine that. A kid was boasting and said, well you had over a hundred, I had about a thousand women. I mean, we're getting into Solomon's category, who had 700 wives, 300 concubines.

I'm just blown away at what I'm hearing today. Parents, we must teach our children what the Bible says about the dangers of sexual immorality. And the answer isn't in contraceptives, safe sex, or abortion. The real issue is that the soul is being destroyed and the damage is irreversible. Once you give away your virginity, you can never get it back. Never. Yes, God can forgive and forgive and forgive, but guess what? Your virginity is still gone.

It's just like, yes, you can have sex and get pregnant and God can forgive you, but you're still pregnant. It's irreversible. Let me illustrate this point. Let's take a piece of wood and you hammer ten nails into the wood. That is you and each nail represents ten sexual encounters you have had outside of marriage. God, He forgives you and removes the nails. The removing of the nails represents God forgiving you.

But guess what? The holes are still there. Even though the nails are gone, the holes are still there. And this is why a lot of women and young ladies feel empty afterwards, because of the holes left in their souls. The men and young men grow more and more numb and insensitive and begin to look at women just as a piece of meat to satisfy their sexual desires. And it's sad. It's almost like Amnon in the Old Testament when he raped his half-sister.

And afterwards, he said, now get out. He hated her afterwards and then shamed her by saying, now get out and told his friend to bolt the door behind her. And this is the insensitivity that we see with a lot of young men today. Then the woman or young girl's like, why haven't you called me? And he's ignoring her. He doesn't want anything to do with her because he already got what he wanted from her. And this is what we see today.

We're not teaching them that sex is bad. That's what we're not going to do. We're not teaching them that sex is bad. It's just bad outside of marriage, outside of what God intended it to be used which is marriage. That's where it's bad. I remember one girl, she was taught by her mother, you better not have sex before you're married. She pushed it so hard that when the girl got married, she wouldn't have sex because her mother made it like a bad thing.

That's not what we're trying to do. We're not going on that extreme. Sex is not bad, it's just bad outside of marriage. That's what we need to teach them. And there are many of us who can tell horrifying stories of the devastation and destruction of sexual immorality in the past outside of marriage. The destruction, the heartache, the tears that were shed, the unwanted pregnancies, and all kinds of stuff. Many of us can teach some horrifying stories. And so Philip is to be commended to be able to raise his daughters with a purity in a beach town like Caesarea.

Announcer: If The Word Made Plain has been a source of inspiration and encouragement to you, why not consider becoming a Word Made Plain giving partner to keep this listener-supported program on the air? As a giving partner, you join forces with Calvary Chapel Newport News' kingdom vision of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can make your tax-deductible gift online at calvarynn.org or send your gift of any amount to 15533 Warwick Boulevard, Newport News, Virginia, 23608, and receive a gift from Calvary Chapel Newport News as our thank you. In addition to your financial support, we ask that you pray for The Word Made Plain broadcast, that it touches hearts and generates change in the lives of people around the world. We pray you've been blessed by God's Word today and hope you'll tune in next time to hear The Word Made Plain.