A year ago we had a message from Acts 13 which was entitled: “It’s all about God.”
Our title for this morning is a little more specific: “It’s all about Jesus.”
In verse one Paul used the word “apologia,” which was translated “defense” in our King James Bible.
Wednesday, I pointed out that he wasn’t making an apology, but rather a formal explanation.
Many, many people in the crowd below him, had heard his name and the rumors about his ministry.
Now, he had the opportunity to set the record straight and to explain why there had been such a radical change in his life.
Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, had been changed from a persecutor of Christians into a persecuted Christian.
And without apology, Paul said that the cause of this change had been his meeting with the crucified Jesus of Nazareth.
In fact, everything about him now revolved around Jesus.
It’s all about Jesus.
Prior to Christ, Paul had been just like the people he was addressing – “as ye all are this day.”
He was assuming that the people in the Temple that day were there because they wanted to be.
This was Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks – one of the great Jewish festivals.
And whatever differences there were between the Jewish sects these were put aside on occasions like this.
There were probably also some of the more individualistic Essenes as well,
And I’m sure that there were lots of people in between that theological triumvirate.
Not only is this a reference to a minute and exacting study of the every microscopic detail of Moses’ Law and oral tradition,
I was “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee.”
And this was the crux of the issue: Zeal toward God, without zeal toward Christ, is misspent wasted energy.
Nevertheless, this characterizes thousands, if not millions of people from India to Idaho.
Before a suicide bomber blows himself up along with a bus load of people in Jerusalem, he will often say that it’s his zeal for God which drove him to it.
When a cell of the IRA drive a car filled with explosives up to a police station in London, they often say that it is because of their zeal for God.
When the armies of the Pope slaughtered millions of Baptist men, women and children, they claimed that it was because of their zeal for God.
And all of those may be true statements.
The Lord Jesus made a very significant statement in John 16:
“These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.”
When those zealous Jews, both Sadducees and Pharisees, tried to kill Paul just outside the walls of the Temple, they believed that they were doing God a service.
But, the fact was they were doing God a great disservice.
And Jesus said that the reason or the cause of that disservice was that they did not know God or Christ.
They thought that they knew God and understood His will, but they were mistaken.
When we don’t know Christ we don’t know anything at all.
It’s all about Jesus.
And this is my point this morning:
It doesn’t matter what kind of religion you have, or if you believe in God and think that you serve Him,
If Jesus Christ is not the heart and soul of your soul and soul then you have nothing but ashes and husks.
It’s all about Jesus or it’s nothing at all.
I hope that no one thinks that I am being irreverent in often saying the name of Jesus without the title Lord.
Even though that is not my habit, I’m doing so because that is what Jesus Himself said in verse 8.
When Paul asked “Who art thou, Lord?”
The voice from Heaven answered, “I am Jesus of Nazareth.”
Bible Christianity is all about Jesus.
I understand that, and in some cases I might say the same thing.
There is nothing magical or meritorious about being a Baptist.
There are a lot of Baptists who are not Christians, and there are genuine Christians who are not Baptists.
But when I call myself a “Christian who is a sovereign-grace, Landmark Baptist,” I am able to narrow down what I mean by the term “Christian.”
But what did the early Christians call themselves?
They didn’t have, or use, the names “Baptist,” “Catholic” or “Methodist.”
The term “Christian” had been around a while, having originated probably in Antioch a few years earlier.
They too believed in a coming Christ; it was just that they didn’t believe that Jesus was that Christ.
I believe that they were all Baptistic churches, even though they didn’t have to use the word at the time.
“Son, I don’t want you talking to Joseph, he is one of those disciples of Jesus.”
If Paul had called the disciples of Jesus “the saints,” and the mob understood that he was not referring to them, things could have gotten ugly very quickly.
In his “apologia” Paul simply said, “Before my conversion, ‘I persecuted THIS WAY unto the death.’”
He was probably aware that the mob was so wound up, that a single word would set them off again.
He was probably trying to be very careful about what words he used.
This term appears to have been used as a name for a while in the early days of Christianity.
When Luke gave his account of Paul’s conversion he wrote:
And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any OF THIS WAY, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.”
But listen to these verses, all from the Book of Acts, as see if they don’t suggest that:
Speaking about Apollos,
And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”
Acts 24 14 & 22 – “But this I confess unto thee, that after THE WAY which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:”
“When Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of THAT WAY, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.”
Assuming that the early Christians did call themselves people of “the way,”
I think that the reason might be found in John 14.
That chapter begins with what must have become a famous conversation between Jesus and his disciple Thomas.
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Bible Christianity is a way of life which begins and ends in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul was zealously serving God, as he thought He was supposed to be served,
but then one day he met Jesus, and he began to live a completely different kind of life – a Christian life.
There were hundreds of things which he stopped doing, because they were against the will of Jesus.
And there were new things which replaced them, because they pleased the Lord Jesus.
Then there were also things which we done differently, having been sanctified by the presence of Jesus.
The people of Christianity, the people of “this way,” are people of Jesus.
And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.”
Paul was on his way to persecute, arrest and execute more of the people of Jesus’ way.
We know Christ Jesus to be the Second Person of the God-head with all the power and authority of deity.
He and the Father in that sense are One (John 10:30).
As the omnipotent Son of God, if Christ wanted to stop this persecutor from hurting any more of His people, he had a thousand different ways of bringing Saul to a sudden stop.
He could have been struck by lightning or hit with a bolder falling of a cliff.
If he had been riding, he might have been thrown from his horse and had his neck broken.
Christ Jesus chose to give the man a new heart, taking away his hate-filled heart and substituting it with just the opposite.
The Lord directed a laser beam from heaven which struck this man, and this man alone, out of all the people of the earth.
Perhaps you have seen this many times before, but indulge me to talk about something for just a few minutes.
Saul, the persecutor, thought nothing of Jesus of Nazareth.
He probably believed him to be a Galilean lunatic who only considered himself to be the Messiah.
Jewish history for the previous couple hundred years had been filled with people like that, and by Acts 22 there was another, this time from Egypt.
But this Jesus of Nazareth, had actually been more successful than most,
Churches had been started all over Israel and as far away as Syria.
Undoubtedly Saul considered them all to be fools and criminal heretics
Yes, there was some talk about Jesus’ resurrection,
but the High Priest had said that the guards at the tomb fell asleep,
and Jesus’ disciples had stolen the body and claimed that there had been an resurrection.
Paul believed the lie that those men had concocted.
Saul had not been going to Damascus to persecute Jesus;
He was going there to arrest the heretics there who said that Jesus was still alive.
But what was the Lord’s perspective of Saul’s activity?
Jesus said that the persecution was against Him personally.
“And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.”
It’s all about Christ.
This is one of the really precious verses of the Book of Acts.
It not only warms the soul of the child of God, it thrills the theologian as well.
It implies that the union between Christ and His people is so close that what is felt by them is felt by Him.
Perhaps this is difficult for us to grasp, but it shouldn’t be when we remember that Christ is God and that He experiences things that our imaginations can’t really understand.
Then theologically this statement blends into the most wonderful “smoothy” that the soul has ever tasted.
Romans 5 – “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died FOR US.”
Romans 8 – “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up FOR US ALL, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
I Corinthians 5 – “Christ our passover is sacrificed FOR US.”
II Corinthians 5 – “For he hath made him to be sin FOR US, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Galatians 3 – “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse FOR US: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”
Ephesians 5 – “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath LOVED US, and hath given himself FOR US an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”
I Thessalonians 5 – “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died FOR US, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”
Titus 2 – “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself FOR US, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
Hebrews 9 – “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption FOR US.”
I John 3 – “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life FOR US: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
It was a vicarious substitution; a replacement of a sinless sacrifice for a wicked sinner.
Christ Jesus didn’t die a general death.
He died with the specific purpose to save those Whom He intended to save and that is what those twelve scriptures that I just read declare.
He died as a vicarious substitute for those whom He was going to save.
Salvation is all about Jesus.
“The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.
For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.”
Notice once again the word “chosen.”
It’s a word which refers to a special ordination.
The Lord chose Paul out of all the people of the world.
The Lord chose someone who was going to be able to do a good job as an Apostle,
But he also chose a wicked man, who hated Christ and every person who bore the name of Jesus.
He was chosen for this commission before he was even a Christian.
In keeping with our theme, I want you to realize is that God chose and saved Paul FOR JESUS’ SAKE.
The Christian life is all about Jesus.
Paul was chosen to see the Just one, to hear his voice and to be a witness of His saving grace.
In other words THE PURPOSE of the Christian life is JESUS.
And the power to carry out the purpose of the Christian life, continues to be the Lord Jesus.
John 15 – “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
My wife Judy, has many gifts, talents and training that the Lord has never given to me.
One of them is her green-thumb; she can start plants and keep them growing, where I can’t.
But on the patio behind our house are a three pots into which she put a few branches, hoping that they would root and she could replant them somewhere.
They did not make it, and today they are a jumble of dead leaves and twigs.
They are an illustration of John 15.
The Christian life is all about Jesus.
That life begins with His substitutionary death in order that we who are sinners might have eternal life.
It is ordained and designed by the Lord Himself that we might bring glory to His Name.
And it is empowered by Him, just as much as it began in him.
Then, praise the Lord, it will end in him as well.
Paul succinctly summarizes it all in Colossians 3:
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
Then seek those things which are above; seek those things which belong to Christ.
If you have spiritual life at all, it is hid with Christ in God.
If you will appear with Him in glory it will be entirely by His grace.
Won’t you come and bow down before the Saviour this morning?