Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Paul is there in a jail cell waiting for whatever they're going to do to him. This is looking pretty bleak for Paul.

Today's Word Announcer: Pastor Brett Meador with an assuring word from the one who brings hope.

Brett Meador: Now we're going to see it's quite a drama. These guys that want to kill Paul, they're not going to be successful and it's only because the Lord's going to intervene. And the Lord gives him this word. The Lord shows up and stands right next to Paul and says, "Be of good cheer, Paul." I love when he says something like that, "Be of good cheer." He really has the power to back it up.

Today's Word Announcer: As the apostle Paul sat in a Jerusalem jail waiting to see how the plot against him would unfold, he's visited by the Lord who tells him to be of good cheer. But Pastor Brett Meador notes this isn't the first time Jesus offered these words of encouragement. As we look at the reasons we too find hope in today's world despite what trials or trouble may come our way.

Brett Meador: I heard an allegory, parable sort of story where the devil decided to have a garage sale. And the devil put out some of his favorite tools, put prices on them and was going to sell them. And people came in to see the devil's tools. But there were a lot of treacherous implements like he had the tool of hatred and envy, jealousy and deceit, the tool of lust and lying and pride and so on, all these tools.

But setting apart from the rest of the tools was a tool on the side and it was a well-worn tool and it was the most expensive of all the tools. But nobody really knew what it was, so one of the customers looking said, "Hey, what's this tool?" and Satan said, "Oh, that tool is discouragement." And they asked, "Why do you have it priced so high?" And he said, "Because it's more useful than all the other tools. I can pry open and get inside a man's heart with that tool. Even when I cannot get near him with the other tools, it's badly worn because I use it on almost everyone since so few people know that it belongs to me."

The devil's price for the tool of discouragement was high because it's still being used. It's still his favorite tool I think in a lot of people and he's using it on God's people. Do you ever find yourself discouraged? And if you're discouraged, do you ever think, "Oh, that's the devil"? See, there's a weird thing with discouragement where we think, "I'm just discouraged because things aren't going well for me and nobody likes me, everybody hates me," and we just get discouraged and we sort of put it on ourselves. But I believe that is one of the tools of Satan that he likes to discourage.

And this is something we see in the whole Bible. In the Old Testament, there's actual stories where it says that the children of Israel were discouraged along the way. And often when you see people discouraged in the stories of the Old Testament, it leads them to sinfulness. Did Paul the apostle ever find himself discouraged? It's funny because when I think of Paul, and I've read about Paul all my life, but he's kind of one of the last guys in the Bible I think of as Mr. Discouragement because he's the guy who is like, "Let's go!"

Remember what happened? We saw Agabus, the guy who gave a word of prophecy and he tied himself up with Paul's belt and he said, "The owner of this belt is going to be tied up like this in Jerusalem." And all of them said, "No!" and they started weeping, "Oh, Paul, don't go to Jerusalem." And remember what Paul said? Paul said, "I'm going to go to Jerusalem and I don't even care if they tie me up. Even if I die, I'm willing to go to Jerusalem." Paul was more of a Tigger than an Eeyore. He was just like, "Let's go, let's go. I don't care what's going to happen. I don't count my life dear to myself." And even when he was left for dead outside of a city after being stoned with rocks, he gets up and walks back into the city and starts preaching.

But was Paul prone to discouragement like the rest of us? I think the answer is yes. We have a bit of a hint of that here in our text. In Acts chapter 23, we start in verse 11 and I want to show you this is really something. Acts 23:11, it says, "And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under a curse or maybe better translated an oath, saying that they would neither eat food or drink until they had killed Paul. And they were more than 40 which had made this conspiracy.

What happens here? Well, if you remember we left Paul where he left Caesarea and went into Jerusalem and for like 10 seconds he met some friendly people who said, "Oh, Paul, welcome home. We're glad to have you back and Gentiles are being saved. Wonderful!" That was for about 10 seconds, but then the other Jews in Jerusalem found out Paul was in town. There was a riot. The city of Jerusalem went nuts because Paul was back and they're like, "This guy is forsaking the law and he's letting these Gentiles in," and they freaked out. They wanted to kill him. The whole city went in a riot.

Well, the Romans who are supposed to keep the peace and the Roman leaders will be in trouble if they don't keep the peace, so the Roman soldiers came and said, "What's going on here?" and they saw that Paul was sort of at the center of everything and so they took Paul into custody and there were people beating him and everything. He was in real trouble. But the Romans took him and chained him up and were hauling him off to be flogged with a scourge, like Jesus's whipping. That was the plan.

But Paul had this funny little ace up his sleeve. He was a Roman citizen, which was very odd. A little Jewish guy that was a Roman citizen, that was unusual. But Paul, as they're dragging him off and they tied him up already and they're dragging him off to be whipped, he said, "I am a Roman, I am a Roman." And the Roman people, they freak out. Why did the Romans freak out? Because here's the deal, the Roman law was very clear at that time. If you were a Roman official and you bound and especially if you flogged a Roman citizen without a fair trial, you could be put to death immediately. They would take you outside of the city and say, "This one tied up a Roman citizen," and kill them right on the spot.

So that's why the Romans freak out when Paul says, "Don't you guys know I'm a Roman citizen?" and they're all like, "Ah!" and they took Paul and they brought him to the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the priests, and they said, "You deal with this guy, he's not our problem." The Romans handled Paul like a hot potato and said, "We don't want anything to do with this." So Paul then goes into the jail of the Sanhedrin, maybe the same place they incarcerated Jesus when Caiaphas put Jesus on trial.

But Paul is there in Jerusalem and that's where he is, we find him in our text here. That evening, the night after, he's there in a jail cell waiting for whatever they're going to do to him. And so we find out the Lord gives him this word, the Lord shows up and stands right next to Paul. I love that language of this verse. The Lord stood next to Paul and said, "Be of good cheer, Paul." Now, meanwhile more than 40 Jews said, "We will not eat or drink until Paul is dead." This is looking pretty bleak for Paul. Now, we're going to see it's quite a drama. These guys that want to kill Paul, they're going to go hungry and thirsty because they're not going to be successful and it's only because the Lord's going to intervene and the Lord has more for Paul to do. It's not Paul's time to die. And this is the word the Lord gives and says, "Paul, be of good cheer."

One of the phrases I truly love in the Bible is "be of good cheer." Jesus uses this phrase over and over again. I wonder if Jesus had a reputation of "He's the guy always saying be of good cheer." I love that Jesus, when he says something like that, "be of good cheer," he really has the power to back it up. I want to show you some stuff. You see, United States of America, we should be the happiest cheerful people on the planet. We've got our houses and our cars and our wealth, we've got all the stuff that we need to be successful as a nation. But as it turns out, we are some of the most miserable depressed suicidal medicated people on the planet. In all the civilized world, the United States leads in depression, anxiety and in suicide and other things. What are we doing wrong?

It's interesting how psychology today, which has really been the authority on the human psyche and the human soul, same word in the Greek, soul, psyche, the inner part of your mind and heart and emotions, psychology has claimed to be the authority on that and we've taken the Bible and said, "Well, the Bible's cute, but it's not really helping people." So over the years a guy like me can walk up to a person who's struggling and I could say, "Be of good cheer, Jesus said this," and the response I get today by many people is, "You can't just tell somebody to cheer up, it's more complicated than that. There's serotonin level problems and there's also a history we need to go in and find out about their past. There's more to it, you can't just be that simple, trust God and pray and read your Bible, that's so elementary."

And that's been sort of laughed at and mocked now for about as long as we've been miserable as people in America. I'm just going to say whatever we're doing right now, it's not working. It's not working. We are the worst in the world when it comes to the soul, psychology, suicide and what have you. Meanwhile, Jesus tells these people in the stories of the Bible "be of good cheer" and the world says that's too simple. Can I show you why Jesus has the authority to say this? And I want to show you five places where Jesus said be of good cheer and he backs it up with power and reason of why you can be of good cheer.

The first one that we're going to go to is in Matthew's Gospel. Matthew chapter 9, "Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven," which speaks of pardon. In Matthew chapter 9 we have a story where Jesus first uses this beautiful phrase, "be of good cheer." Matthew chapter 9, starting in verse 2, it says, "And behold, they brought to Jesus a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men."

The first time Jesus says be of good cheer, I love this, it's when Jesus sees this poor sick guy and he says be of good cheer. The religious leaders flip out when Jesus says your sins are forgiven thee. Now, why did they flip out? Because they believed that only God has the power to forgive sin. Is that correct? Yes, it is correct. The only thing, they missed the memo. Jesus is God. Jesus is God standing right before them and he says your sins are forgiven. He yes, has the power to forgive sins. They say blasphemy, only God has the power to do that, and they were just wrong about that.

But why did Jesus say be of good cheer? Because you're going to walk again? Nope. Why did he say be of good cheer? Because you have four friends that are faithful and carried you to Jesus? Nope. Why did Jesus say, "Dude, I want you to be of good cheer. Here's why: your sins are forgiven thee"? That's why Jesus says you can be of good cheer. Can I just say if you're a Christian, if you've accepted Christ and repented of your sins, you can be of good cheer today. It's not just me saying, "Hey dude, cheer up." It's actually you saying, "I can be of good cheer because guess what, if I'm a Christian, if I've confessed my sins before God, my sins are forgiven." If you have no other reason in this world to be happy today, that is a huge one.

You say, "Well, why is that?" Two reasons. One, because your conscience that drives you crazy knowing you're a sinner and you've failed and you've made mistakes, that's lifted up. And then secondly, and more importantly, if you're a person who's forgiven of your sins, you're going to heaven. This life on earth is but a vapor, it's just this short little blip on the screen, but for the rest of eternity you get to go to heaven and be with our Lord and Savior and live in glory. So when Jesus says be of good cheer, he's got huge massive real powerful reason for you and me and for this guy to be of good cheer.

Now some of you struggle with this because you think, "Well, good for you, Brett, but you don't know how bad my sin is. And after I accepted Jesus and confessed my faith and repented of my sin, I sinned again and again and again. So it's a little more dubious for me. I don't know if I can be of good cheer because I still wrestle with sin." Can I just say join the club? We're all that way. Even Paul the apostle said as an old-time saved Christian, "I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things I do want to do. I find no good thing within me." But Paul is the one who said that we can know that our sins are forgiven.

Listen Christians, past, present, future, Jesus died for all your sins and he died once for all sin. Have you guys ever heard preachers preach this sermon? "Every time you sin, you're putting Jesus right back up there on the cross. You gotta stop sinning because every time you do that, you're putting Jesus right back up on the cross." Now, that sounds really impressive and you're like, "Oh man, I'm such a loser, every time I do that it's like I'm putting Jesus..." Can I just say that's not right teaching.

Right teaching is Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10. It says that we are sanctified, that means set apart, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. What's all? All your sins for all people who accept and believe in Jesus. One time for all. 1 Peter 3:18, "For Christ hath also once suffered for sin." The reason that's important, there's a million reasons I can say why that's so important, but one is the sins that you've committed, Jesus died for those. The sins you're committing right now, "Brett, I'm in church." Oh believe me, you're sinning. Whatever your sins are right now, he died for those sins. And the sins you're going to do on your way home from church. And the sins you're going to do ten weeks from now. Christ died once for all.

See, when you accept Jesus Christ, you're acknowledging your sinful condition. You're a sinner before God, but God says I will deal with your sin and I will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The Bible is clear on this. So you say, "But what if my sins are worse than other people's?" Some of you are people that are pretty amazing like the worst sins you do is you have a bad attitude sometimes or maybe tell a white lie. Now, Paul would say should we continue sinning and let grace abound? He says God forbid. That's not a license to keep sinning, obviously. But when you fail, when you stumble in sin and you're repentant, man, the Lord died once for all.

How big of a sin, what sins does he forgive? I'm reminded of what Jesus said. And by the way, this verse, everybody focuses on the last part of this verse and I understand why, it's important. But it's the first part. Oh, it makes me want to leap for joy. "Wherefore I say unto you," Jesus said, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." Will you just pause right there for a second? Is that good news? All manner of sin. No matter how bad, you might be the worst person in this room. You might even be the worst person in the world. But if you repent of your sin and believe in Jesus Christ and accept him, your sin will be forgiven.

I'm not saying that sin doesn't bring natural consequences with it. If you murdered your neighbor last week, you probably are going to do life in prison, maybe even the death penalty depending on where you live. And that's part of the repercussion of sin. That's why it's bad, it messes you up and hurts you and it's not good. But can God forgive you? All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. Now, the second part of this says, "But the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men."

So there's one unpardonable sin and that is the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. Well, what is that? What's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Let me give you a quick nutshell on that. In Jesus's time what happened is the religious leaders were saying, "You're of the devil. We don't believe in you and what you're doing, you're doing these miracles by the devil's power." And Jesus said that's what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is. See, the Holy Spirit was working through Christ in a powerful way, it was obvious, and yet there were people that rejected Jesus and said he was from the devil.

The unpardonable sin today is similar. We're not with Jesus and we're not accusing him of being of the devil, it doesn't happen that way. The unpardonable sin today is the state of continued unbelief where the Holy Spirit currently in John 16:8 tells us the Holy Spirit currently convicts us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. In other words, the Holy Spirit is convicting all of humanity, saved or unsaved, you're a sinner and you need a Savior. But to resist that conviction, that is to blaspheme, to speak against the Holy Spirit's conviction and willfully remain unrepentant is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

So in really simple terms, if you say, "I reject Jesus, I don't believe in Jesus saving me, I don't believe I'm that bad of a person, I'm a good person and I don't need Jesus," you are in a condition of committing the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Now, there's still a chance for you to be saved if you repent and change. But if you die in that continued state of resistance, then you're committing the one sin that's unpardonable and that is to reject Jesus Christ.

Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." That's just the math. Everyone's headed that way, everybody's on the slippery slope of sin right into the fires of hell. But if you repent and you confess, Romans 10:9 and 10, "If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the Lord Jesus, that God raised him up from the dead," it says, "you will be saved." He'll pluck you off the slippery slope and he'll save you. That's what a Christian is by the way. It's not somebody who goes to church, pays money, signs up for a membership to this or that or carries a Bible with a fake smile. That's not what a Christian is. A Christian is a person who says I am a sinner and I repent before God and I accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, that he is the only way.

So when you have forgiveness of sin, we get to go to heaven and you don't any longer need to carry that guilty condemnation. I'm reminded of Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Sometimes some of you are unable to sort of move on and realize, "Man, I'm forgiven." And we have a memory. You remember your sins, even though God says, "I have the power to not only forgive your sins, but I can forget your sins."

Hebrews 10:17, the Lord says, "And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." It's one of my favorite attributes of God that no human has. Humans can't forget stuff. Have you ever noticed how you forget stuff you want to remember and the things you want to forget, you can't forget them? That's just human frailty. God has this thing in his ability to say, "I'm going to take your sins and guess what, delete, forgiven and forgotten." Maybe even more fun is Psalm 103 verse 12 where it says the Lord says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."

Have you ever thought about this? It's kind of interesting. I'm really glad he didn't say, "Is there a difference between east and west and north and south?" Sure is. If the Lord said, "As far as the north is from the south," I'll tell you why that's a problem because if you and I walk right now north and we go north and we just keep walking north, eventually you'll get to the North Pole. And once you reach the North Pole, what happens? You start going south. So there's a certain parameter to north and south. But if you and I say let's walk east and so we walk east and we just keep walking, how far do you go east before you start going west? Never. Infinity. You just keep going east and you're just going to keep going east. That's why the Bible says as far as the east is from the west, that's how I'm going to remove your sins from you. The idea is infinity the Lord removes your sins from you. Don't you love that?

God says I'm going to infinitely forgive. So I want to tell you, you might be, and I'm sorry for you if you're broken, depressed, have no money, if you're homeless, jobless, sick, dying, if you're going through hard things, but can I remind you? If you're a Christian, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven and you have the hope of heaven. If there's no other hope you have right now today, I'm going to tell you that's just one of the most glorious things. If you know this truth, you can be of good cheer, you can have joy because Christ died for your sins, you have the hope of heaven.

Today's Word Announcer: Pastor Brett Meador drawing from the Lord's reassurance words to the imprisoned Paul.