The first large set of Christian books that I ever bought was the 17 volume, “Expositions of the Holy Scriptures” by the English Baptist preacher Alexander MacLaren.
MacLaren pastored in Manchester at about the same time that C.H. Spurgeon was preaching in London.
And next to Spurgeon’s, his sermons were the most widely read in the world in that day.
From what I understand the 350+ messages in this series, from Genesis through Revelation, were preached sequentially on Sunday evenings.
They are Biblical, spiritual, insightful and wonderfully easy to grasp.
And they were a tremendous blessing to me in the early days of my ministry.
I confess to you that my outline this morning basically follows one of the messages by Pastor MacLaren.
In verse 15 we are introduced to a man named Mnason.
In fact we are introduced to him apparently at the same time as Paul was introduced to him.
And after this introduction, we never hear from him, or about him, again.
Whenever the Bible does this, it stimulates the imagination like few other things in God’s Word can do.
What a strange fate it is to be made immortal by a single line in the greatest book ever written.
Some day when this world as we know it is finished,
and they will be introduced once again to Mnason,
and immediately, every single one of them will recall this mysterious Bible reference.
How many Mnasons do you think that we’ll ever meet in a single eternity?
Here in Acts 21 this man is outlined in a hard-lead pencil, and we can barely see the contour of his features, but if we study them long enough we can begin to see some admirable qualities.
Mnason’s name and birthplace show us that he belonged to the same class as Paul.
He was an Hellenist, a Jew by descent, but born on Gentile soil and primarily speaking Greek.
He came from Cyprus, the same place as Paul’s former co-labourer, Barnabas.
That in itself makes us wonder if those two were not friends, even still on the day that Mnason met Paul.
We are told that this man was an “old disciple” which could mean a couple of different things.
There is the obvious – that he was now an elderly man – which is very possible.
But the Greek could also mean, and probably does mean that Mnason had been a disciple for a very long time.
It could have been that this man had met Christ in THE FLESH THIRTY years earlier and had been drawn to him by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Or it could have been that he was in Jerusalem on the first Pentecost in Acts 2, in the same way as he was going to Jerusalem on this Pentecost about 25 years later.
The way in which Luke introduces him to us suggests that people like Mnason were somewhat rare.
Time and persecution had for decades been taking their toll on those very early disciples, and whenever the younger saints met one of these older brethren, they treated them with great respect.
Was there any likelihood that this aged disciple had ever met Paul before?
But undoubtedly Mnason had heard of Paul, and they seemed to have respect for one another.
He had a home either in Jerusalem or in one of the villages just outside of the city, and he traveled back and forth between Cyprus and Jerusalem for the various Jewish feasts.
Probably some of the Hebrew saints in Caesarea had been invited to stay at his home before, and on this occasion Paul and his company were invited as well.
Putting all this together, I think that his shadowy character begins to become more substantial.
And if he had been a preacher, Mnason might have been able to deliver a pretty good sermon.
Let’s see if anyone is listening.
“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.”
and he had clung to him through years of ridicule and persecution.
Or he might have taken his text from Hebrews 10:19-23:
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised.)”
“Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
His own body and mind had changed from buoyant strength and youth to sober old age.
His complete outlook on life had changed, as it tends to do with people as they age.
Many of his old friends had already gone to be with the Lord, and he yearned to see them again.
A new generation was rising up around him, and with them came lots of additional changes.
But one thing remained as it had been when he was first converted – his Saviour.
Hebrews 13:8-9 – “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”
For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.”
There is no more wonderful sight or sound than that of an old man, who loves the Lord, and who can with patience and care share his love with a troubled young person.
Who can better know the important things of life, than someone who has lived through most of it?
No doubt when this man was young and first saved, he was as confused and misdirected as many others.
But he knew Whom he had believed, and
so Mnason clung to Christ even through periods when he couldn’t explain why.
And now after years of studying the Lord, studying the scriptures, studying his neighbors and studying his own heart, he did know why.
If Mnason had been preaching a sermon to the Christians of Caesarea, he might have said,
“Dear friends, whether you are at the beginning of your Christian lives
“Cast not away your confidence [in Christ], which has a great recompense of reward.”
Grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him, Whom to know – even imperfectly – is eternal life, and Whom to know better is life more abundantly.
Look at ths shadowy figure and listen to his far-off voice “exhorting us all that with purpose of heart we should cleave unto the Lord.”
If this man had been born-again on that first great Pentecost, there might have been periods in his life, when he considered himself just a little step above some of the later converts.
There were thousands who on Pentecost, gladly received his word, were baptized, and joined the church.
And then there were streams of new believers that followed.
I can just imagine that cliques and factions and families formed among all those believers.
And perhaps, as some of the “old disciples” began to pass away, that some of those cliques and factions became even closer knit.
Do you suppose that any were tempted to think that they had a better understanding of Christianity than some of the others?
And here comes this Saul of Tarsus – I mean – here comes Paul with all his new ideas.
Mnason might have said, “First, we didn’t trust him because he had earlier persecuted us.
He talks about having seen and heard the resurrected Christ, while we have not.
I have even heard that tells the Jews in Asia and Achaia that they don’t need to circumcise their sons, or to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the feasts.
Many of us aren’t even sure if Saul is a Christian, let alone if he should call himself an ‘Apostle of Christ.’
There are some of us in Jerusalem who are ready to tear this Paul apart, limb from limb.”
I can’t speak for everyone, but I have found that the older I get the more I dislike change.
Maybe it’s because the very nature of the aging process is all about change, and we don’t like it.
Who can say how much of that could be found in Mnason?
And isn’t it true that the man of really strong convictions is more apt to grip every trifle and little practice and every unimportant bit of his creed with a tenacity that makes everyone but those in complete agreement flee?
I get several religious and church papers mailed to me.
95% of them are unsolicited, and 95% of the 95% are quickly tossed into the trash.
Over and over and over again, they harp upon one pet doctrine or one practice,
and it appears to me that very often those pet peeves and practices are not at all important.
If we are a casualty of war in an unnecessary battle we’re just as dead.
This Mnason probably heard of the work of Paul, and he undoubtedly heard the arguments against him.
But he also had seen, first hand, the effects of Paul’s ministry in Cyprus.
He might have been able to recognize the change in the government when the Lord saved Sergius Paulus through the work of Paul and Barnabas.
That had clearly been the omnipotent grace of God at work.
How could he argue against that, when he had personally experienced some of its effects.
Mnason was willing to recognize change, when those changes were orchestrated by the Lord.
Are you?
And there was another change coming up in that man’s life, and he appeared to be ready for that one as well.
Like Paul, I’m sure that if the conversation had warranted it, Mnason would have said, “What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart, for I am ready to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
The Lord has been faithful to me for these thirty years.
In my Father’s house are many mansions, and the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare a place for me.
And besides that, the Lord has prepared my soul for its entrance into our Father’s house.
Change? What do I care about change, when it is the will of the Lord to make those changes?
A third point could be made in a sermon about Mnason, which he probably wouldn’t have made himself.
He had done no great thing like his country-man Barnabas.
He was apparently not a preacher or a teacher.
Or perhaps there was no great eloquence or genius to be found in him.
Isn’t that record enough?
It is his blessed fate to live forever in the world’s memory with only that one word – “disciple.”
The world may remember very little about us a year after we are gone.
No thought, no deed may be connected to our names, except in the very small circle of our family.
But what does that matter, if our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life?
I have read many fine statements carved on the headstones of Godly people, but what is better than the simple word “disciple”?
What Mnason could do he did.
It was not his calling to go into “all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” but it appears that he assisted those who did go.
He didn’t build a mud hut on a distant shore among the cannibals, but he made his Jerusalem home available to those who might have.
And “he that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward.”
He who welcomes and sustains the man of God, shows that he stands on the same spiritual level as that man of God.
There was an old law in Israel which still applies to Christianity today: “As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that abideth by the suff; they shall part alike.”
All deeds are the same which are done from the same motive and with the same devotion to Christ,
So this old disciple’s hospitality is strangely immortal, and the record of it reminds us that the smallest service done for Jesus is remembered and treasured by our Lord who can never forget.
Some men have spent their lives to win a single line in the world’s history books – written basically in sand.
And this little act of one obscure Christian, in sheltering a little company of road-weary travelers has become eternal information.
Are you yearning for great things in your life? Stop.
But let’s fill our little corners, doing our unnoticed work for the love of our Lord,
And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.”
“Ye must be born again.”
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God,”
“They that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
On what do you base that hope or that assurance?
Only through Christ Jesus is there deliverance from sin.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”